Another of my Valentine’s Day treats to bring into work.  These are brown butter cookies with red m&m’s and chocolate chips.  I am a huge fan of all the holiday m&m’s, and i love to bake with them.  (The only downside of these cookies is that I burned my hand taking them out of the oven. ) Make these a day before you plan to bake them, so they can chill overnight in the fridge. 

1 cup of butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup brown sugar,  1 egg,   yolk,  3 tsp vanilla,  2 1/2 to 3 cups flour,  2 tsp cornstarch,  1 tsp baking soda,  1/2 tsp salt,  3 tbs cream or milk, 1 cup red m&m’s, 1 cup chocolate chips.(or you can use white chips or milk chocolate chips).

Brown butter over medium heat (takes about 10 minutes.  You will see little specs of brown in the butter.  Let the butter sit at room temperature for an hour.   Add sugar and brown sugar and mix well.  Stir in egg, yolk and vanilla.  Blend in dry ingredients.  Add cream.  Fold in m&m’s and chips.  Roll it 1/4 cup balls.  Chill overnight.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place dought pieces on silpat lined cookie sheet.   Bake 10 to 12 minutes.  Let cool on sheet for 10 minutes.   Store in covered container.

Well, we made it through the storm.  Shoveled five times, including one round by Rob to clear a path for Charlie on the deck and backyard.  This pooch (who turns 13 Monday) has been out 15 times today and it is 20 degrees.  For him, the colder, the better.  But we limit him to 10 min each time.  Don’t want those paws to freeze!

Now onto the recipe..

My plan is to make a couple of Valentine’s Day treats, so here is my first one.  It is sooooooo easy.  Just a couple of ingredients for the brownie cookies and I cheated and used canned vanilla frosting  (I was in a hurry) and put in a few drops of red food color to make it pink. 

2 brownie mixes (I used Ghiraradelli),  2 eggs,  2/3 cup oil, 4 tbs water.  Mix together.  You can add some chocolate chips if you want.  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Use an ice cream or cookie scoop to make your cookies, rolling them into mounds     I use the silicone baking sheet on top of my cookie sheets.  It makes things easier with cleanup and I don’t have to worry about spraying the cookie sheets or having anything stick. I arrange them to eight on a sheet.  I bake them for about 11 minutes.  They might seem a little gooey.  I take them out because they continue to cook on the sheet after baking.  Yoi can cook them.longer of you prefer.  Let them cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer them to a table for the sandwich  making.  After they cool completely, i put a couple of tablespoons of frosting between 2 cookies and voila! 

Big night at our house.  Sabres-Rangers.  I am a BUF fan, hubby is a NYR fan.  “Handsome hank” is in net, so it’s all good.  There is also a Springsteen concert from 2001 on and he just performed Land of hope and Dreams.  That song is just incredible,  like a metaphor for life.  It just speaks to me, like so many of his songs do.  Another great thing about Bruce is he says what he thinks.  It doesn’t sit well with some people, but he doesn’t care.  I find it funny “we” complain that celebrities don’t publicly stand for anything.. yet when they say what they believe and “we” don’t like it, “we” say “stick to music, sports, etc”.  Interesting..

Anyways, here is the recipe.  Remember to use a spoon to scoop the flour into your measuring cup to get the right amount.   You can use whatever kind of chips you want, and whatever flavor poptarts.  Toast the poptarts lightly, cool and cut into pieces.  To make buttermilk, combine 1 1/2 cups milk and 1 1/2 tbs lemon juice or white cider vinegar and set aside for 5 minutes

Cookie cups – 1 cup butter (melted), 2 cups sugar, 2 eggs, 2 /3 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (melted), 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, 1 tsp vanilla,  4 cups flour, 4 poptarts, 1 cup chocolate chips, 1 cup white chips.

Combine butter and sugar.  Add chocolate.  Mix in eggs and vanilla.  Stir in dry ingredients.  Fold in poptart and chips.  Chill dough overnight.  When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 and spray muffin cups with Pam.  Scoop 2 tbs dough into each cup and lightly press down.  Bake 350 degrees 10 to 12 minutes.  (Makes sure top is not too doughy).  Let cool.

Hot cocoa frosting – 1/3 cup heavy cream, 2 pkts hot cocoa, 1 stick butter (melted), 3 cups powdered sugar

Heat and stir cream and cocoa over medium heat for about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.  In separate bowl, combine butter and powdered sugar.  Mix in chocolate mixture.  You may need to add more cream or powdered sugar, depending on the consistency you want.

Vanilla frosting – 1/4 cup butter (melted), 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, cream or milk.

Combine.  Add cream 1 tbs at a time to get the desired consistency

For some reason today, we did not have the television on at all, and it was actually pretty nice.  Lately it seems there is so much screaming on tv, radio, social media.  People say mean, hateful, despicable things to people they don’t even know.  Disagreements are fine.  I understand we all don’t think of feel the same way and don’t expect us all to agree all the time.  But too often,  it spirals into these terrible spewing of venom.  It’s too much sometimes… so,  today I enjoyed the quiet time with my hubby, and our almost 13 year old dog, Charlie.

Charlie loves to lay on the floor, and tap on it with his paw, demanding to be petted.  He know how to communicate his different needs.  🙂

Now to the cookies…they are half chocolate chip and half brownie chip.. Blending two things together perfectly (another cookie reference for Seinfeld)  I prefer puffy cookies,  so I used crisco for the chocolate chip side.  I know some people don’t like crisco.  You could sub in butter, but the cookies may come out flatter.   

Chocolate chip cookie

1/2 cup shortening,  3/4 cup brown sugar,  3/4 cup sugar,  2 tsp vanilla,  2 eggs,         2 1/4 cups flour,  1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup chocolate chips

Cream shortening, sugar and brown sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Stir in dry ingredients.  Fold in chips.

Brownie cookies

1 brownie mix,   1/2 cup flour,  1/4 cup oil,  4 tbs water,  1 egg, 1 cup choc chips

Using a  mixer, blend together  brownie mix, flour, oil, water and eggs.  Stir in chips.

Take one scoop of the chocolate chip cookie dough and one scoop of the brownie cookie dough and stick them together.  Chill then for at least an hour or two.  

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Bake 10 to 12 minutes.  Chocolate chip cookie side will be lightly golden.  Remove from oven.  Let cookies sit on cookie sheet for 10 minutes before removing.  Store in covered container.

My co-worker, Kalonna, asked for instructions on how to make these.  You can see below a link to my baking video on my youtube channel.  I also shared it on facebook, Google plus, twitter path and tumblr.

You can use any cookie cutter to make these.  I chose footballs, even though it has been a loooooong time since my beloved Buffalo Bills played this time of year!

2 cups peanut butter, 1 cup butter,          2/3 cup brown sugar, 3 cups powdered sugar, chocolate chips, 1 tbs oil, cisco or butter.

In microwave proof bowl, combine peanut butter, butter and brown sugar.  Microwave 90 seconds to 2 minutes.  Mixture will be warm and a bit bubbly.  Stir smooth.  Add powdered sugar.  Mix well.  Let sit at room temp at least 15 minutes.  Using a cookie scoop, ice cream scoop or spoon, scoop out 2 tbs of dough.  Roll into a smooth ball and press into football cookie cutters.  Place on sheet or plate.  Chill and least 30 minutes.  In microwave proof bowl, melt for 45 seconds – 1 bag of chocolate chips and 1 tbs oil, crisco or butter.  Stir.  You may need to microwave in additional 20 second increments until it can be stirred smooth.  Cover peanut butter footballs.  Sprinkle with crushed oreos, candy etc to decorate.  Let set.  Store at room temp or in fridge.

My first baking video on my youtube channel!

I thought I would make something with oreos today – both the golden and Mega stuff kind.  (Partly because a certain someone in our house – not me – opened each bag this week and ate one of each.  So I felt compelled to use the remaining ones in a treat)

These are so easy.  I need tips on making them look more presentable, but I am.fairly certain the dudes I work with will not care early Sunday morning 🙂

1 package of golden oreos, 8 oz cream cheese (softened)

1 pkg mega stuff oreos, 4 oz cream cheese (softened)

2 bags of chocolate chips (any kind)

Finely grind golden oreos in food processor.

Add 8 oz cream cheese and mix well.

Finely grind mega stuff oreos.

Add 4 oz cream cheese and mix well.

Form into balls. Freeze 30 minutes.

Melt chocolate in 45 second increments until you can stir it smooth. I used semisweet chips, white chips and milk chocolate chips.

Dip truffles in. Place on parchment paper and keep refrigerated 30 minutes until you are ready to serve.  Store in fridge.

I see this recipe quite a bit on the internet, and it is one of Oprah’s favorite things, so it must be pretty good. 🙂  anyways, it uses 60 percent bittersweet chocolate chips, so it makes  delicious dark chocolate brownies.    Of course, I frosted them bc that is who I am!

1 1/4 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 2 tbs cocoa, 11 oz 60 percent bittersweet chocolate (just less than two cups), 1 cup butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 5 eggs, 2 tsp vanilla

Melt butter and chocolate.   Add sugar and brown sugar.  Beat in 3 eggs.  Beat in remaining two eggs.   Add vanilla.  Do not overmix.  Stir in dry ingredients.   Greased 9×13″ pan.  Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Insert a toothpick to test for doneness.  You want it with some crumbs.   Dry brownies are not acceptable.

Instead of bringing in chocolate chip cookies to work tomorrow, I decided to “cheescape factory” them.. as in taking it to another decadent level bc sometimes “just” a chocolate chip cookie is not enough. From the top down, these have an oreo filling with melted chocolate on top, a Reese’s peanut butter filling with melted chocolate, and chocolate frosting.   You are welcome Sunday ESPN Radio coworkers!  

The cookies

• 1 cup butter (softened) ,  1 cup brown sugar,   1 egg,  3/4 cup powdered sugar, 2 tbs water , 1/2 tsp vanilla, 2 2/3 cups flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 to 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips.

Cream butter, brown sugar and powdered sugar.  Add egg l, water and vanilla.  Mix in dry ingredients.   Fold in chips.  Chill for an hour.  Roll into 1/4 cup size mounds of dough and chill for a few more hours or overnight (the chilling is important for puffy cookies). Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Bake for 2 minutes.  Without opening oven door, drop temperature to 350 and cook for another 9 to 10 minutes.  The tops will just start to be a light golden.   LeT them cool on the sheet for 5 or 10 minutes.  Then let cool completely before frosting.

Oreo filling frosting

• 1/2 cup shortening, 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/6 cup water, crushed oreos.

Combine.  Beat on high speed 2 minutes.  Fold in crushed oreos 

Reese’s frosting

• 1/2 cup peanut butter,  2 tbs butter,  1/8 cup brown sugar, 1/2 plus 1/8 cup powdered sugar.

Melt peanut butter, butter and brown sugar.  Add powdered sugar.  If it seems too thick, add a littlw milk or water to thin it out.

Chocolate frosting

• 1/4 cup butter (melted) 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/4 cup chocolate chips (melted), milk

Mix butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and melted chocolate.  Add enough milk to thin it out.

The melting chocolate is pretty easy,  put a cup of chocolate chips (or white or milk chocolate) into a microwave proof  bowl.  Add 1 tbs vegetable oil (or whatever oil you have).  Microwave it in 45 second increments until you can stir it smooth.

These are from Betty Crocker.  They have a sugar cookie/graham cracker crust with a layer of fudge and toasted marshmallows on top.  

Crust – 1 pkg sugar cookie mix, 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs, 1 stick of butter (melted).  

Combine and press in ungreased 8×8 pan.  Bake 350  in a preheated oven for 18 to 23 minutes.  Let cool.

Fudge layer – 2 cups of chocolate chips, 14 oz condensed milk.

Microwave in 45 second intervals until you can stir it smooth.  Place on top of crust.  Chill 1 hour.

Sprinkle with mini marshmallows.

Broil on high for one minute.

Let stand 1 hour.  Cut with a knife that has been run under hot water and wiped off.  That makes it easier to cut.  (You will have to do the water thing a few times)