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I saw this recipe on Heather Eats Almond Butter and I knew immediately I had to make it! The recipe looked fast and easy. Two things I love in a recipe! The peanut butter cups turned out amazing! I personally think that they taste better than Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, but that is just me. The dark chocolate totally makes the recipe. If you love peanut butter and chocolate, then get in the kitchen now!
Ever since I bought dried cherries, I have had the strong urge to bake with them again. The chocolate-cherry scones were so good and I had a cherry craving, so I decided to make some cookies with them. OMG is all I have to say. These cookies were possibly the best cookies I have ever made! My husband told me he thinks these are his favorite I have ever made. (I think he just says that so I keep making him more) 
The cookies were chewy on the inside and just a little firm on the outside. They were the right amount of chocolate and the right mix of cherries. If you want a great cookie that will wow a crowd, check these out!
Oh wow! Doesn’t that picture just make your mouth water?!?!
Recipe adapted from Cooking Light
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
1 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl and beat with a mixer on high speed until well blended. Add vanilla and egg and beat well. Mix mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture. Beat until combined. Add cherries and chocolate chips.
Drop by tablespoons 2 inches apart on baking sheets coated with cooking spray or parchment paper. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes or until set. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes on pans.
I have been missing for the last couple of days because we had a family emergency. The past few days have been very tiring and I just didn’t have the desire to write. Family is so important and that was all that was on my mind. We got home last night and totally vegged out on the couch. I think we needed some serious down time.
This morning I wanted to make some serious comfort food. Sometimes you just want something that makes you feel a little more at ease. I know it is probably not the healthiest but I just didn’t care this morning. So I decided that we needed some homemade chocolate chip cookies. What is better than that? Plus my husband loves cookies so I figured he would help me enjoy them too!
I got busy on my cookie dough this afternoon. Check out the delicious looking dough. I could not resist a little sample.
The cookies turned out super good. They are soft and chewy. I do not like hard cookies. Plus the house smells like homemade cookies. I love that smell. I think the cookies served the comfort purpose I was seeking.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup softened butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 12 oz. package of semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine the flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. Combine brown sugar, sugar, butter and vanilla and beat until creamy. Add eggs and beat. Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop mixture by rounded spoonfuls onto a non-greased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.
For my husband’s birthday I wanted to make him a cake from scratch. No mix this time. I wanted to try something a little more challenging. So I told him he could pick any type of cake he wanted. His guidelines: chocolate and raspberry. Sounded easy enough and I found this wonderful recipe from one of my favorite blogs, Sugar Plum, that sounded delicious.
As I said before, I have never made a cake from scratch. I’ve always relied on cake mixes. What a mistake that was! For all those years, I’ve been missing out on the fun of making a cake. The cake was so easy to make and it turned out perfect. Plus I know what I put in it, instead of random ingredients and preservatives that are thrown in the store bought mixes.
We celebrated my husband’s birthday last Saturday, complete with candles and some singing! The cake was so good, super chocolaty and very rich! But it was so worth it!
This year we had a Super Bowl Party at our house and I decided it would be fun to make some cookies to match the football theme. I tried a different sugar cookie recipe that I loved! The cookies were soft and moist and did not get too crunchy. The cookies were a big success and everyone commented on how cute they turned out! I am so glad I finally tried decorating cookies with royal icing. They look so cute and taste great!
Have you ever had a very long week and all you really want to do is bake away your worries? Well I had one of those weeks and I desperately needed some one-on-one kitchen time! For some reason the idea of spending a few hours baking, instantly makes me feel better.
I decided to make peanut butter cookies because peanut butter is an instant comfort food in my mind. My new mixer did an amazing job mixing the cookie dough; it was smooth and creamy and delicious. I also decided to throw in some chocolate, just to make sure that I made the perfect comfort food. The cookies turned out great and were gone very fast.
Check out the great recipe from Joy the Baker.
I found these awesome chocolate chips with peanut butter swirled in them at the store and found them pretty hard to resist. I am a peanut butter addict and with a little chocolate, well then I’m a severe addict! The cookies were easy and fast and turned out delicious.
After all my cookie baking for the holidays, I am done. I really don’t want to make anymore cookies for a long time. It’s completely out of my system…for now. I’m sure my husband won’t mind too much, except when he told me that he didn’t get very many cookies this year because they were all given away as gifts! Maybe I’ll have to make one more batch just for him! I hope everyone enjoys their holidays!
Here is the recipe for the cookies!
For a long time, I have wanted to try decorating cookies with Royal Icing. The cookies turn out looking so nice and I never really like the way cookies looked with butter cream icing. So this year, I decided it was time to give it a try. With a little bit of research (thanks to all the wonder blogs out there that give step by step directions), I was able to create my own cookies with success.
The first step was to make the sugar cookies. I decided to try Dorie Greenspan’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookie recipe. I refrigerated my dough for two days before I had the chance to make them and the dough was fine. I went with cookie shapes that seemed easy to decorate in my mind. So I ended up with candy canes, Christmas trees and stars. Next it was on to the fun stuff, decorating!
The first thing you need to make sure of is that your sugar cookies are completely cool when you start decorating. Then plan and prep how you are going to decorate your cookies (i.e. colors, designs, etc.). Since this was my first time decorating with royal icing, I went with only a few colors and a minimalist approach.
After had everything ready to go, I made the royal icing. Then I mixed in the coloring for the different colors I wanted. After each color was mixed, I placed a damp paper towel over each bowl so that the frosting would not dry out. Then it was on to the outline. I seriously did not think outlining would take so much time! (FYI: Make sure you give yourself plenty of time for this project!) Here are my outlined cookies waiting to dry.
After the outline was dry (I waited about an hour), it was time to flood the cookie. At this step, I enlisted the help of my husband. It made the process go by much faster with his help! When the cookies are flooded then you should let them dry at least overnight.
After letting the cookies dry completely, then you are ready to decorate! I made another batch of royal icing for the decorating and bought some sprinkles and candies for the top of the cookies. I think my husband (aka “Master Decorator”) had a little too much fun decorating!
After many hours, the cookies were done! All in all, I have to say that decorating with royal icing is a little more hard work, but in the end your cookies turn out ten times better than using butter cream frosting. I can’t wait till next time! Check out the finished product and let me know what you think!
Last year was the first time I ever made Gingerbread Men Cookies and I am so glad I did. The cookies have a perfect blend of flavors and the icing adds just a touch of sweetness. It is fun to decorate them with family because everyone can be as creative as they want. I look forward to the day when I can make these cookies with our kids! But for now, my husband likes to be the master decorator. Check out the picture below to see his decorating skills. (Can you tell which one looks like Dwight Schrute from the Office???)
Recipe can be found at McCormick.
For Christmas this year, we decided (well I decided for my husband) to make cookies for Christmas gifts this year. For the next couple of days, I will be sharing some of my favorite holiday cookies with you. I hope you enjoy!
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