Today’ s treat is a recipe from our friends at Betty Crocker.  Everyone loves smores and this is an easy way to get that fix without the campfire.  You could probably substitute a different cookie mix, like peanut butter, chocolate chip cookie or chocolate cookie, instead of the sugar cookie mix,  if you want. 

To crush the gram crackers, you can use a food processor or rolling pin.  I left mine in the sleeve and smashed them with my rolling pin.  I enjoyed that immensely. 🙂

Ingredients  – 1 sugar cookie mix, 3/4 cup butter (softened), 1 sleeve of graham crackers (crushed finely), 1 egg, mini milk chocolate bars 

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray standard size muffin cups with baking spray.  Combine sugar cookie mix, egg, butter and graham ctacker crumbs.   Scoop 2 tbs into each muffin ton, pressing down slightly. Bake 10-12 minutes, until lightly golden brown.  Remove from oven and immediately top each cup with a bar (or two) of chocolate.  Let sit 10 minutes and spread chocolate over top.  Cool completely.

Frosting – 1/4 cup butter (softened), 3/4 cup marshmallow fluff, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla.  

Mix well and spoon onto top of chocolate layer.  Store in covered container.  

Today’s recipe is a request from my 4 year old nephew, Jackson.  He asked for oreos or carmel  and I opted for oreos.

Ingredients – 1 cup of butter (softened), 1 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 cups flour (scooped from flour container into measuring cup), 3/4 cup baking cocoa, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, brown food color (optional)

Directions – Cream butter and sugar.  Add egg and vanilla.  Stir in food coloring, if using).  Blend in dry ingredients.  Cover and chill dough 30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 350.  On lightly floured surface, roll dough out 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick.  Use a small round cookie cutter, cup,  or glass and cut. Place baking liners or parchment paper on cookie sheets.  Place 12 to 15 cookies on each sheet.  Bake 9 to 12 minutes (or longer if you want more crisp, oreo-like cookies.  Let cool.

Filling ingredients – 3 3/4 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 cup shortening, 1 tbs sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 2-3 tbs water  

Directions – blend well.  Add more water if you prefer, 1 tsp at a time.  

Spread filling between two cookies.  Store in covered container.

Today’s recipe is a request from our friend Frank.  The recipe is by Nestle with one tweak, and  I nicknamed them “the Franks.”  This is pretty much a chocolate chip cookie dough with 3 kinds of chips.  I usually use, white, semisweet chocolate and milk chocolate.  Feel free to substitute other kinds if you want.   I also used 3/4 cup shortening, instead of  another 3/4 cup of butter.  But if crisco freaks you out, then by all means go with just 1 1/2 cups butter.   It is important to chill the dough to make a puffier cookie.  I am a big fan of puffy cookies!   Oh and this makes a lot of cookies, so you may want to cut the recipe in half!

Ingredients – 3/4  cups butter, 3/4 cups shortening, 1 1/4 cups sugar, 1 1/4 brown sugar, 2 eggs,  1 tbs vanilla, 4 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 cup milk chocolate chips, 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, 1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions – cream butter,shortening,  sugar and brown sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla. Fold in dry ingredients.  Blend in chips.   I actually has to mix them in by hand because there is so much dough!   Roll 1/4 cup dough into mounds.    (I make mounds because I want puffy cookies)  Chill at least 1 hour.  Preheat oven to 350.  Place non-stick baking liners on top of cookie sheets.  I stagger 8 cookies per sheet.   Bake 10 to 14 minutes until light golden patches appear on top.  (I usually take my cookies out a little early, as they continue to cook on the cookie sheet as they cool. And I love my cookies on the gushie side)  let cool and store in covered container.

Carrot cake is my favorite kind of cake, probably because of the frosting.  Over the last few years, I have found some great homemade carrot cake recipes.  The only problem is grating  the carrots.  It is a ton of work and takes a lot of time.  So I came across this recipe that uses baby food carrots.  It makes a dense, moist cake.  I also add mini chocolate chips (a tip from my mother in law) to make the cake even better.   And the cream cheese frosting is perfect!

Ingredients – 4 eggs, 1 1/2 cups oil, 2 cups sugar, 2 cups flour, 1 tsp connamon, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 12 oz baby food carrots, 1 cup mini chocolate chips.

(You can also add some a can of drained pineapple, 1 cup of walnuts, and/or 1 cup of coconut, when you mix in the mini chipa)

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix eggs, sugar, oil and flour.  Add cinnamon, salt, baking sof a and baby food carrots.  Fold in chips. Pour batter into a pan that has been sprayed with baking spray.  For a bundt pan, bake 40 to 50 minutes.  Two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans, bake 20 to 30 minutes.  For a 9×13 rectangular pan, bake 20 to 30 minutes.  Your cake is done when a toothpick inserted comes put basically with just a few crumbs.  Let cool completely.

Frosting – 8 oz cream cheese (softened), 1 3/4 cups butter (softened) 4 to 5 cups powdered sugar, 2 tsp vanilla, milk or heavy cream.

Cream butter and cream cheese for 5 minutes.  Slowly mix in powdered sugar. Add  cream or milk (1 to 2 tba at a time) to thin out frosting as much as you would like.  Stir in vanilla.  

This makes a decent amount of frosting.  I used all of it.  But, if you don’t want a lot of frosting, you can save some and use it for whoopie pies or some other treat. (Don’t worry of your don’t like a lot of frosting, we can still be friends)

This guy looooooves frosting!

my latest baking video is on youtube!  if you can watch a minute or two, I would appreciate it!  it will help me grow my blog.  if you watch the entire 3:27, a special guest appears at the very end! 🙂

This post is the result of a request from one of my best and dearest friends, and one of my Geneseo people – Christine.  She was looking for an Easter dessert and had something lemon in mind.  I went to work and Bam!  I found these.  They are thick and fudgy,  like traditional brownies, except not a drop of chocolate.  

Ingredients – 12 tbs butter, 12 oz bag of white chocolate chips, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 4 eggs, 1/2 cup lemon juice (bottled), 1/2 tsp salt, 3 1/2 cups flour, yellow food color (optional)

Glaze – 4 cup powdered sugar, 1/3 to 1/2 cup lemon juice.  

Directions – preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a microwave safe bowl, melt butter and white chips for a minute or so, until you can stir mixture smooth.  Mix in sugar.  Add eggs, 1/2 cup lemon juice and salt.  Stir in flour. Add a few drops of yellow food color, if you want.  Spread a 9×13 baking pan with baking spread.  Spread batter evenly in pan.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes.

While brownies are baking, make the glaze, combining powdered sugar and 1/3 to 1/2 cup lemon juice.

Within a minute or two of taking brownies out of the oven, gently poke the top with a fork or bottom of a wooden spoon.  Immediately top with glaze.  Let cool completely.  Store in covered container.  You can serve these at room temperature or chilled, if you want.

Someone is patiently waiting for a piece of treat!  

This is one of the most decadent treats I have ever made and is the subject of my latest baking video too.  Dark chocolate cake with a cookie dough filling and topped with chocolate ganache.  It turned out be be a decent amount of work, but I think the people at work will appreciate it!  Looking back, I think incould have just brought in the cookie dough and spoons , and that would have been a big hit too.  Of course, I need to work on making the finished product look better, but it will still taste great!

Cake ingredients – 12 tbs butter (softened to room temperature), 2 cups sugar, 3 eggs, 2 tsp vanilla, 2 cups flour, 3/4 cup dark baking cocoa, 1 1/2 tsp baking soda, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp salt, 1 1/2 cups milk, 1/2 cup chocolate chips, melted

Preheat oven to 350.  In a microwave safe bowl, heat milk and vanilla 2 minutes.  Add melted chips and stir smooth.  In another bowl, combine butter and sugar. Add eggs.  Slowly mix in dry ingredients and milk mixture.  Spray 3 cake pans with baking spray.  Divide batter among each (I used about 2 cups batter in each).  Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.  Cool completely.

Cookie dough filling ingredients – 1 cup heavy cream (whipped until soft peaks form, just takes about 2 minutes), 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp vanilla,  1 1/2 cups flour, 1 cup mini chocolate chips, 3 tbs milk or heavy cream

Directions – melt butter.  Immediately add brown sugar and sigar.  Mix in vanilla and flour.  Stir in milk or cream.  Add whipped heavy cream.  Fold in chips.

Ganache ingredients – 1 1/3  cupschocolate chips, 4 tbs heavy cream, 2 tbs butter, 2 tbs corn syrup, 1 tsp vanilla

Directions – melt chips, cream, butter and corn syrup.  Remove from heat.  Add vanilla.  Cool to room temperature.

Place one layer of cake face (top side  down)  on cake platter, spread with 1/2 of cookie dough filling, place second cake layer over that (top side down), spread rest of cookie dough filling over that. Place  final cake layer (top side down) on top.  Spread ganache on top.

Your cake is layered like this – 1 cake layer on bottom.  1/2 cookie dough filling.  2nd cake layer.  rest of cookie dough filling.   3rd cake layer.  Chocolate ganache spread on top