Victory Monday brownies (because I needed something to put the extra ganache on)

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Go Bills!

Bonus victory Monday treat for my Buffalo Bills. I had extra ganache left over from the sugar cookie cups, so I quickly whipped up some brownies to remedy use up the rest. (I have many brownie recipes, though not as many as for chocolate chip cookies) And why not extra chocolate this Christmas week? You absolutely do not have to put anything on top of these, but the powdered sugar is recommended, by Rob!

  • Ingredients
  • 10 tbs butter, melted
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tbs vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 yolk
  • 1 tbs corn syrup (or honey)
  • 1 tbs cornstarch
  • 3/4 cup baking cocoa
  • 2/3 cup flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
Brownies!

Directions -preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8×8 pan with tinfoil and spray with baking spray. Combine butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add eggs,yolk,and vanilla. Blend in dry ingredients. Fold in chips. Bake for 20 minutes (a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs). Immediately sprinkle powdered sugar on top. Cool completely. Top with melted chocolate or frosting. Store in covered container.

Chocolate chocolate chocolate!

Cookie cups victory cookies

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AFC East champs!

Today’s victory Monday treat celebrates the Bills first AFC East title since 1995 (back then, I was in my first year as a production assistant at ESPN, yowsa). Watching the Bills this season reminds me of why I love sports – for 3 hours I can forget about everything else and just enjoy/stress/lose-my-mind- about a football game. And in a year that has been so awful for so many, it is a welcome distraction. Here’s to a long playoff run!

The cookie cups are simple. All you need are 2 sugar cookie mixes, 1 stick of butter and 2 eggs. I got a mega sugar cookie mix package from bjs to use. You could also use your own sugar cookie recipe.

Go Bills!
  • Ingredients
  • 2 sugar cookie mixes (1 lb, 1.5 oz each)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 stick of butter, softened

Directions – preheat oven to 350 for 20 minutes. Spray a muffin tin (regular size) with baking spray. Combine sugar cooke mixes, butter and eggs until,well combined. Scoop,out 2 tbs of dough and roll into balls and place in muffin tins. Bake 12 minutes. Immediately – Spray the bottom of a wooden spoon or ice cream scoop with Pam and make an indentation in the center of each cookie cup. Cool completely

  • Ganache ingredients
  • 2 cups chocolate chips
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • Directions – miscrowave together in 30 second increments until,you can stir,smooth. Spoon into cookie cups. Store in,covered container.
☺

Friday football week 15 treats – Peanut butter cookies stuffed with brownie truffles and topped with melted chocolate

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Peanut butter cookies stuffed with brownie truffles and topped with melted chocolate

I decided to up my cookie game for this football Friday before Christmas. (Go Bills!) Instead of a traditional peanut blossom (a peanut butter cookie topped with a Hershey kiss), I stuffed a peanut butter cookie with a brownie truffle and topped it with melted chocolate. For the brownie truffles, I smooshed up some brownies I made the other night and mixed in about a half cup of chocolate frosting. You could also use candy or Oreos, or you don’t have to stuff the cookies at all. These use Crisco and it keeps them nice and puffy. Remember to scoop your flour into your measuring cup, and to preheat your oven to 375 degrees for 20 minutes before baking.

Yum!
  • Brownie truffles ingredients
  • 1 pan of brownies, prepared and baked, as directed, cooled completely
  • 2 tbs butter melted
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 4 tbs baking cocoa
  • Milk
  • Directions – combine butter, powdered sugar and baking cocoa. Add enough milk to make the frosting. Combine the frosting with brownies. Scoop out 1 tbs and form into balls. Set aside.
  • Peanut butter cookie ingredients
  • 1 cup Crisco
  • 1 1/2 cups peanut butter
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tbs vanilla
  • 4 tbs milk
  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 tsp baking soda

Directions – preheat oven to 375 degrees. cream Crisco, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add eggs, milk, and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients. Scoop out 1/4 cup of cookie dough. Divode in half. Slightly flatten bottom half and top with a brownie truffle. Top with other cookie dough and seal around truffle. On a cookie sheet lined with non stick baking liners, stagger cookies. Bake 11 – 13 minutes. Cool completely. Top with melted milk chocolate. Store in covered container.

Go Bills!

Island of misfit cutout cookies

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Santa!

You may wonder about the title of this treat.  It is a wonderful, tasty, sugar cutout cookie dough.  The misfit part is well, on me.  My baking skills are solid, my decorating skills are subpar, to put it mildly.. So outside of decorating a pumpkin cutout for Halloween, or a christmas tree, it is difficult for people determine what the cutout actually is.  One year, my friend, Mikey C, asked it I made a bicycle.  At Christmas.  Yes, because Santa rides a bicycle around the world on December 24th.  After that, I make cutout cookie sandwiches. Cookies, filled with buttercream frosting, instead of actually frosting them. That way you can actually see that it is Santa! This recipe brings back wonderful memories of when I was young and baking with my mom at Christmastime. And my dad loved eating this dough!! I will really miss baking with her this year. We usually make at least 150 cookies the day before Christmas. but we need to be safe. Maybe we zoom!

Good cookie, not good decorating!

Recipe notes – These are made with Crisco. I would not sub butter for the Crisco in this recipe. Remember to spoon your flour into your measuring cup to get the right amount, and preheat your oven to 350 degrees for 20 minutes to make sure your oven is heated evenly.

  • Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 cups Crisco
  • 1 1/3 cups sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tbs vanilla
  • 4 cups flour
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt

Directions – preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheer with baking liners. cream Crisco and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Blend in flour, salt and baking powder. Chill a few hours. Remove about 30 minutes before baking, so dough is easier to roll out. Sprinkle flour on a surface, roll out to the desired thickness. Cut out cookies. Place on prepared sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. I take them out after 8 min, because that way, they stay nice and soft. Cool completely.

Buttercream filling – combine 2 tbs melted butter and 2 cups powdered sugar. Add milk or cream, 1 tbs at a time, until you get the desired consistency. Color as desired. Spread between two cookies. Store in covered container.

Christmas cookie sandwiches!

Football Friday # 14 – cake mix whoopie pies!

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Cake mix whoopie pies!

Cake mix whoopie pies are my week 14 “Go Bills” treat. (Tough game this week, Sunday night vs the Steelers). These treats are simple to make. You can use any flavor cake mix and frosting. I used white cake mix with a vanilla frosting colored green (for Christmas). And this recipe gave me an excuse to use my whoopie pie pan (one of my many baking items I have that are used for just one thing, like my churro maker, mini cake pop maker, twinkie pan, etc).

☺

Remember to preheat your oven to 350 degrees for 20 minutes before baking to make sure your oven is at the right temperature for baking.

Yum!!
  • Ingredients
  • 1 cake mix
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1/2 cup oil
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup flour

Directions – preheat oven to 350 for 20 minutes before baking. Spray a whoopie pie pan with baking spray, or line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or nonstick baking liners. Combine the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Scoop 2 tbs batter into the whoopie pie pan or on the nonstick baking liners. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool completely.

  • Frosting ingredients
  • 2 tbs butter, melted
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup marshmallow fluff
  • Heavy cream or milk

Directions – combine ingredients and blend well. Spread between two whoopie pies. Store in covered container.

Go Bills!

Chocolate chocolate chip cake with chocolate frosting

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Go Bills!

Today is national comfort food day… But honestly, hasn’t every day kinda been like that since mid March? Nothing like a pandemic to make you crave all sorts of comfort food, as opposed to steamed broccoli. ☺ So today, I present a chocolate chocolate chip cake with chocolate frosting. It’s also my Buffalo Bills game day treat for the 49ers game on Monday Night Football.

Are you ready for some football? Yes, but I wish it was on at 6 pm and not 8 pm!

Couple of notes – this recipe uses buttermilk and cake flour. If you don’t have those, you can make them. For the buttermilk, add 1 tbs of white vinegar or lemon juice to 2 1/4 cups milk and let set for at least 5 minutes. For the cake flour, combine 2 1/2 all purpose flour with 2 tbs and 1 tsp Cornstarch and sift together. You can also use different kinds of chips or add nuts if you want. Remember to preheat your oven to 350 before baking to make sure the temperature is just right.

  • Ingredients
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 tsp chocolate extract (or vanilla)
  • 2 1/2 cups cake flour
  • 1 cup baking cocoa
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 1/4 cups buttermilk
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions – preheat oven to 350 for 20 minutes. Spray a bundt pan with baking spray. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and extract. Fold in dry ingredients. Mix in buttermilk. Stir in chips. Pour into pan and spread evenly. Bake 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into cake comes out with just a few crumbs. Cool completely.

  • Frosting ingredients
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 cup baking cocoa
  • 1 tsp chocolate extract (or vanilla)
  • 3 to 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1-3 tbs heavy cream or milk
  • 1 tbs cornstarch

Directions – Melt butter with water. Remove from heat. Add cocoa, powdered sugar and heavy cream.you may need to add more powdered sugar or cream, depending on the consistency you want. I also added some cornstarch to thicken it up a bit. Frost cake and store in covered container

Here’s to another good game by Josh Allen!

Cream cheese sugar cookies stuffed with carrot cake truffles

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Cream cheese sugar cookies stuffed with carrot cake truffles!

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE to make stuffed cookies, using Oreos, candy, brownies, etc. I made a carrot cake and instead of bringing the leftovers into work, I turned them into carrot cake truffles, covered in melted white chocolate, and stuffed in cream cheese sugar cookies. I felt some sort of sugar cookie was the right way to go. These are my Thursday football treats! Yes, I know I usually make Friday football treats, but I have a zoom call with college friends tomorrow, so this week they are TFT (Thursday football treats)

Thursday football treats!
  • Ingredients
  • 1 carrot cake, baked, cooled and frosted (you can even use a cake mix and canned frosting)
  • 12 oz white chocolate chips
  • 1/2 stick butter, softened
  • 8 oz cream cheese, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tbs vanilla
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions for truffles – smush the frosted carrot cake in a bowl and scoop out 2 tbs and roll into a ball. Freeze 1 hour. In a microwave safe bowl, microwave chips in 30 second intervals until you can stir smooth. Dip truffles in, place on wax paper or parchment paper and chill at least 1 hour.

Cookie directions – cream butter, cream cheese and sugar. Add egg and vanilla. Fold in dry ongredients. Scoop out 2 tbs tbs of dough. Flatten. Place a truffle on top. Tops with another 2 tbs of flattened dough.

Seal truffle.

Store in fridge at least a few hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Scatter on a cookie sheet lined with nonstick baking liners. Bake 12 to 15 minutes (bottoms will be light golden). Sprinkle with powdered sugar while warm. Store in covered container.

Go Bills!

The Baked Brownie – topped with milk chocolate ganache

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#GoBills

This is treat #2 for Bills victory Monday. A stressful game, but I had to behave for a half hour and not use bad words because we were have our internet changed and the tech was in our house during the first half. I made up for that lack of swearing on the second half. A lot of stress and frustration. But they won, and that is all that counts. This treat is the Baked Brownie.. I think I found it reading something online regarding Oprah a long time ago. I used dark chocolate chips, but you can use semisweet if you want. I added some chocolate chips to the batter and topped them with milk chocolate ganache!

  • Ingredients
  • 1 cup butter
  • Just under 2 cups dark chocolate chips
  • 1 1 /2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 5 eggs
  • 1 tsp chocolate extract
  • 1 1/4 cups flour
  • 2 tbs baking cocoa
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions – preheat oven to 350 for 20 minutes. Line an 8-8 pan with tin foil and spray with baking spray. In a microwave safe bowl, melt butter with just under 2 cups dark chocolate chips in 30 second intervals until you can stir smooth. Add sugar. Mix in eggs, one at a time, and extract. Fold in flour, baking cocoa ans salt. Add 1 cups chips. Spread into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few crumbs. Sprinkle hot brownies with powdered sugar. Cool completely. In a microwave safe bowl, microwave 1/3 cup heavy cream for one minute. Add 1 cup milk chocolate chips. Stir until completely blended. Let sit at least 20 minutes and then frost brownies. Store in covered container.

Do brownies need frosting? Why yes!