Tag Archives: vanilla

Frosted Heath Bar Blondies

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Rob bought some mini heath bars and asked me to bake something with them,  so I opted for blondies with vanilla frosting.  There are crushed heath bars in the blondies and in the frosting.  Really, these use one of my many chocolate chip cookies recipes, but instead of chips, I put in heath bars. 

Remember to scoop your flour from your flour bag into your measuring cup so you get the right amount.  And, preheat your oven before baking.

  • Blondies ingredients
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup crushed heath bars

Directions – preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9×13 pan with parchment paper and spray with baking spray.  Set aside.  In a bowl, cream butter, sugar and brown sugar.  Blend in eggs and vanilla.  Stir in dry ingredients.   Fold in heath bars.  Evenly spread into prepared pan.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool completely

  • Frosting ingredients
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tbs milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • Crushed heath bars

Directions – in a bowl, cream butter and powdered sugar.  Add milk and vanilla.  Frost bars.  Sprinkle with crushed heath bars. 

Store in covered container.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Smores cookies

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My latest treat for work was a request from my hubby, Rob, who saw these smores cookies in a store.  A graham cracker like cookie, topped with melted chocolate and a toasted marshmallow.

So that is what I made today.  I have to be honest, putting a toasted marshmallow on top was no easy on some of these and I have no idea why!

A little messy with the marshmallow on top

Remember to scoop your flour from your flour bag into your measuring cup so you get the right amount. And, I recommend chilling these individual doughs a few hours or overnight.  I might make these a little bigger next time and make them a little flatter too.

  • Ingredients list
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup crisco (or butter flavor crisco)
  • 1 1/3 cups brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbs cornstarch
  • 1 1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • Milk chocolate
  • Large marshmallows

Directions – in a bowl, cream butter, crisco, and brown sugar.  Blend in eggs and vanilla.  Fold in dry ingredients and graham cracker crumbs. 

Scoop out 2 tbs of dough, roll into a ball and slightly flatten.  Chill a few hours or overnight.   Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or nonstick baking liners.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Stagger cookies on sheet, like below.

Bake 10 to 11 minutes, no longer.  They will be a little gushy on top.  It is ok.  Let them cool a bit and pop them in the fridge to firm them up. 

While their cookies are baking, melt your chocolate.  I melted some milk chocolate chips for most of them.  I ran out of that and called an audible and melted some Reese’s eggs for the final 6.

To toast marshmallows – preheat oven to 450 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  I sprayed a little pam on the parchment paper.  Bake these 5 to 7 minutes or until the marshmallows are as toasted as you want.

Take a cookie and lay it on a flat surface.

Top with melted chocolate.

I sprayed my hands with pam and place a marshmallow on top.  Sometimes I did a fine job.

Other times, I did not.

Store in covered container. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I wish you a day filled with happiness, joy and love and remember to be kind

Golden oreo stuffed Funfetti cookies

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I thought I would mix things up after baking a LOT of chocolate treats lately.  Today, I present funfetti cookies stuffed with golden oreos (although I did sneak some double stuff chocolate oreos in a few).

Remember to scoop your flour from your flour bag into your measuring cup so you get the right amount.  Also, i chilled them individual stuffed doughs overnight to try and keep them from spreading.

Ingredients list

12 tbs butter, softened

2/3 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp almond extract

2 1/4 cups flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup 🌈  sprinkles

Directions – in a bowl, cream butter, sugar, brown sugar.  Blend in egg, yolk, and extracts.  Fold in dry ingredients.  Mix in sprinkles.  Scoop out 1/4 cup dough.

Divide dough  in half and flatten each half. 

Place oreo on top of one half. 

Place other flattened half on top. 

Seal edges. 

Chill doughs a few hours.   Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a cookie sheet with nonstick baking liners or parchment paper.  Stagger cookies on sheet.  Bake 10 to 12 minutes, no longer.  Cool completely.  Store in covered container

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

I wish you a wonderful day filled with peace, joy and love.

Celebrating Josh’s MVP.  Treat #2 – cookie dough brownies

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The second treat of my hat trick of treats for Josh’s MVP are a favorite of many  cookie dough brownies.   They looks remarkably like the caramel oreo crust treat in pix, but are much different! 🙂

I used a brownie mix for these, but you can use any homemade recipe if you want.  These are also easy to make and super sweet!

  • Ingredients
  • 1 pan of brownies (9×9 or 8×8 recipe) prepared and cooled completely
  • 4 tbs  butter, almost completely melted
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 tbs milk
  • 1/3 cup flour

Directions – in a bowl, combine butter, sugar and brown sugar.  Add milk and vanilla.  Fold in flour.  Mix well and press evenly over brownies.  Top with melted hershey kisses or chocolate chips.  I recommend cutting these before the melted chocolate completely sets,  because it is easier, trust me.  Store in covered container .

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Go Bills!

M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies

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What better way to spend part of a Monday than baking large chocolate chip cookies?  Very few that I can think of.

I tossed in some mini m&ms too.  You can add different flavors of chips or nuts if you want too.  I used my quarter cup cookie scoop and chilled the individual doughs over night to keep them puffy. Remember to scoop your flour from your flour bag into your measuring cup so you get the right amount.  Do not pour into your measuring cup.  Packed in flour could lead to a dry cookie. 

  • 8 tbs butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup crisco
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1  cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tbs water
  • 3 1/2 cups flour (scooped from your flour bag into your measuring cup)
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 cup mini m&ms

Directions – in a bowl, cream butter, crisco, sugar and brown sugar.   Add eggs, vanilla and water.  Blend in dry ingredients.   Fold in chips and m&ms.  Scoop out 1/4 cups dough.  Chill a few hours or overnight.  When ready to bake, preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line a cookie sheet with nonstick baking liners or parchment paper.  Stagger cookies on prepared sheets.  Bake 12 to 14 minutes, no longer. 

This is what I mean by staggering cookies

Cool completely.   Store in covered container. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Remember to be kind!  Wishing you a day of peace, love and joy

Football friday #7 (and happy birthday Eric)

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Today’s Friday football treats is a request from my coworker, Eric, who’s celebrating a birthday today.   They are a version of Little Debbie brownies, which I  loved as a child.  These even have rainbow chips on top (shout out to Price Rite for having them)

I made these amid a crazy game three of the ALCS between the Yankees and Guardians.  What a nutty last few innings – the Judge and Stanton home runs.  The Noel and Fry home runs.  Rob and I are Yankees fans (but he is more invested than me).  He was quite mad afterwards and broke into hot brownies (which I warned him against).  He mangled them, as you can see below.

Remember to scoop your flour and baking cocoa from your containers into measuring cups so you get the right amount.  Also, preheat your oven for 20 minutes so it cycles to the right temp.  If you don’t have milk chocolate chips, you can use all semisweet for the ganache.

  • Brownies ingredients list
  • 2 1/2 sticks of butter, melted
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar, packed into measuring cup
  • 1 3/4 cups unsweetened baking cocoa
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 yolks
  • 2 tbs corn syrup
  • 1 1/3 cups flour
  • 2 tbs cornstarch
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Directions – preheat oven to 350 degre3s.  Line a 9×13 cake pan with parchment paper and spray with baking spray.  In a bowl, mix butter, sugar, brown sugar, and baking cocoa.  Add eggs, one at a time,  yolks, corn syrup and vanilla.  Blend in dry ingredients.  Mixture will be very thick.  Evenly spread into pan.  Bake 30 to 40 minutes (until toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs).  Cool completely.

  • Ganache ingredients
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions – in one microwave safe bowl, heat chips for 1 minutes.  In another microwave safe bowl, heat cream for one minute.  Combine cream and chips.  Stir smooth.  Let sit 5 minutes.  Spread on cooled brownies and sprinkle with rainbow chips or m&ms

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Wishing you a day filled with joy, peace and love.  Also remember to be kind!

A classic cookie for a classic NFL rivalry (Go Bills)

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Week 2 of the NFL season kicks off tomorrow with my beloved Bills taking on the Dolphins.   The rivalry has so many great memories and moments- from us finally beating the Dolphins in 1980 (ending the 0 for the 1970s) to  Jim Kelly’s late touchdown run in Miami in 1989 to Josh and the current Bills matchups against the Dolphins.  Such a classic rivalry deserves a classic cookie, so I went with one of the chocolate chip cookies in my collection.  These use part browned butter and cold butter cut into small cubes, as well as a tsp of active yeast.  I recommend chilling or freezing individual doughs for a few hours to keep from spreading.

  • Ingredients list
  • 1/2 cup butter, browned
  • 1/4 cup butter, cold and cut into small cubes
  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp active dry yeast
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

To brown butter, place in a pan and heat over low to medium heat until you see brown specs in bottom.  This may take 10 minutes or so.  Let cool 10 minutes.

Directions – in a bowl, combine flour, baking soda and yeast.  Cut in butter.  In a separate bowl, combine browned butter, sugar and brown sugar.  Mix in egg and vanilla.  Add flour mixture.  Stir in chips.  Scoop out 1/4 cups of dough and form tall mounds.  Chill or freeze for a few hours.  Preheat oven to 375.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Stagger cookies on sheet.  Bake 11 to 13 min, no longer.  Cool.  Pop in fridge for a few hours to firm up, if they are a little gushy.  Store in covered container. 

Go Bills!

Half Moon/Black and White Cookies

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These cookies are magical.  A soft cake-like vanilla cookies with one half frosted with vanilla buttercream, the other frosted with a chocolate fudge frosting.  I actually made these smaller than a traditional half moon/bw cookie and they are still pretty big

Remember to scoop your flour from your flour bag into your measuring cup so you get the right amount.  Also preheat your oven before baking.

  • Ingredients list
  • 1/4 cup shortening
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 1 tbs baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 cup milk

Directions – preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a bowl, cream shortening and sugar.  Add egg and vanilla.  Blend in dry ingredients and milk.  Line a cookie sheet with nonstick baking liners.  Scoop out 2 tbs dough and place on sheet.  Leave some space bc these spread.  Bake 9 to 11 minutes.  Cool completely.

  • Buttercream frosting ingredients
  • 4 tbs butter, softened
  • 2 tbs shortening
  • 1 3/4  cups powdered sugar
  • 2 to 3 tbs milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla

In a bowl, cream butter and shortening, add powdered sugar.  Stir in milk and vanilla.

  • Fudge frosting
  • 1/4 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/2  tbs butter
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/2 tbs corn syrup
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2  tbs very hot water

In a microwave safe bowl,  chips and butter in 30 sec increments.   Blend in remaining ingredients. You can add more powdered sugar or hot water to get the consistency you want.

To frost, turn the cookies flat side up, like below

frost one half with vanilla, the other with chocolate.  Chill to set frosting.  Store in covered container.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Chocolate filled blondies

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I wanted to jazz up some blondies/chocolate chip cookie bars, so I decided to put some milk chocolate chips in the middle for a chocolate layer.

These are very easy to make.  I think I would bake them closer to 20 minutes next time.  I baked these for 22.

  • Ingredients list
  • 1 cup butter, melted
  • 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup mini chocolate chips
  • 1 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions – preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9×13 pan with tin foil and spray with baking spray.  In a bowl, combine butter, brown sugar and sugar.  Blend in eggs and vanilla.  Stir in flour and salt.  Fold in mini chips.  Spread half of batter in prepared pan.  Evenly spread milk chocolate chips on top.  With remaining dough, grab handfuls and lightly flatten.  Press on top of milk chocolate chips.  Bake 20 minutes.  Will seem a little gushy.  Cool completely.

Funfetti cookie sandwiches

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I haven’t made funfetti cookies in quite a while, so I felt I was due to bake up a batch.  I baked them when it was a little humid, so they came out a little flatter than I preferred, so I made each one into a cookie sandwich.  I think next time, I may add a little more flour, perhaps 1/4 cup more.

I recommend scooping the flour from your flour bag into your measuring cup so you get the right amount.  Also chill the individual mounds of dough for a few hours.  Preheat your ovent to 350 degrees for 20 minutes before baking so it cycles to the right temp.

  • Funfetti cookie ingredients
  • 1 cup of butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 tsp almond extract (or you can omit this if you don’t have it)
  • 3 to 3 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 tbs cornstarch
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup sprinkles

Directions – in a bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs and extracts.  Blend in dry ingredients.   Fold in sprinkles.   Scoop out 2 tbs dough and form tall mounds.  Chill a few hours. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Stagger cookies on sheet – alternating a row of 2, then a row of one.  These spread so leave some room.  Bake 10 to 11 minutes.  they will be a little gushy.  Cool completely.  you can also pop them in the fridge to firm them up a bit.

  • Filling ingredients
  • 1/2 cup butter soft
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tbs milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Directions- in a bowl cream butter and powdered sugar.  Add milk and vanilla. 

Assembly – cut each cookie in half.  Spread some filling between 2 halves.  Store in fridge for a few hours. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!