Author: Amy

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars

oatmealccbarsSometimes I wonder who invented bar-style cookies. A woman without a lot of time of her hands, perhaps? Bars are a great options for picnics and potlucks, offering all of the deliciousness of cookies with much less baking time. Convenient and tasty…always a good combination.

These oatmeal chocolate chip bars came from Buns in My Oven, another baking blog that I found while looking for fun, easy-to-bake bar recipes. I really like oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and these bars are very similar, though I think the next time I make them I’ll add a dash of cinnamon to the dough to kick up the flavor a bit.

I highly suggest warming these up and serving them with vanilla ice cream, or perhaps spreading on some peanut butter, if you’re looking for serving suggestions. You could also just eat them standing up at your sink in the middle of the night. Who am I to judge?

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/4 cups butter, melted
  • 2 cups milk chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 baking pan with nonstick spray.

Combine oats, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, vanilla, eggs, and melted butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat until combined. Dough will be very thick, so you’ll want to scrape down the sides a few times to make sure you get all of your dry ingredients incorporated.

Stir in chocolate chips, then pour dough into prepared pan, spreading it out as best you can.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs. Bars will look slightly underdone, but that’s what you want – be careful not to over-bake.

Allow to cool for 1 hour, then cut into squares.

 

Loaded Peanut Butter Cookies

loaded pb cookiesTexture can make or break your baked goods, and for me, great texture is about balance. You don’t want a cookie that is too soft or too crisp, and striking that balance takes patience, attention to detail, and a bit of intuition.

I always (seriously, always) under-bake peanut butter cookies by a minute or two, pulling them from the oven when they still look puffy in the middle. Once you remove cookies from the oven, they keep baking for a few minutes while they cool on the baking sheets. So if you under-bake them by just a minute or two, they’ll reach the perfect level of done-ness while they’re cooling on your baking sheets, and they won’t end up too crispy.

These cookies have a great texture, being both soft and chewy and studded with crunchy Reese’s Pieces. I found this original recipe on Six Sisters’ Stuff, where they are billed as triple peanut butter cookies and use peanut butter chips instead of chocolate. I thought that might be a bit too peanut buttery, so I opted for chocolate chips with great results.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups peanut butter
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 cup Reese’s Pieces
  • 1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper. Note: this makes a very, very large batch of cookies; mine made almost 5 dozen.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until well-combined and fluffy, scraping the sides of your bowl often.

Add eggs and vanilla, beating well to combine. Add baking soda, then 1 cup of flour, beating to combine. Add remaining flour 1 cup at a time, mixing between each addition, to form a soft dough that pulls away from the sides of your mixer.

Add Reese’s Pieces and chocolate chips; I used my hands to mix them into the dough.

Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and place about 1 1/2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets; they do not spread that much when baking, but you don’t want them too close together.

Bake for 10 minutes, until cookies are still puffy in the middle but brown on the bottom (just use your spatula to gently lift one cookie up to check the bottom). Remove from oven and cool on baking sheets for about 3 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Sunflower Cupcakes

sunflower cupcakesSummer is in full swing, and our neighborhood blooms with all manner of beautiful plants. Around the corner from our house, one neighbor’s landscaping includes enormous sunflowers, easily more than six feet tall, among other stunning plants that I wish we had in our yard.

Sunflowers come in many shapes and sizes, and there are probably as many recipes for sunflower cupcakes as well. You’ll find plenty of options on Pinterest, using Oreo cookies as the centers, or chocolate sprinkles; I saw one recipe that used chocolate-covered espresso beans, which seems both cool and kind of pricey. I decided to go with an all-frosting flower to get some piping practice.

Buttercream frosting works very well for these, but you could use cream cheese frosting if you like. I chose a chocolate cupcake and basic vanilla buttercream, for pretty (and tasty) results.

Ingredients

Preparation

Bake cupcakes and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Prepare vanilla almond buttercream; place 1 cup frosting in a small bowl and tint using brown gel food coloring. Tint the remaining frosting yellow; I used Wilton golden yellow.

Fit a piping bag with a small star tip; I used the Wilton 16 tip. Pipe stars in a circle in the center of each cupcake.

Fit another piping bag with a leaf tip; I used the Wilton 352 tip. Holding the bag so that the points of the tip are vertical to the cupcake rather than flat against it, pipe petals around the outside of the flower center, covering the cupcake completely.

If you like, you can make one outer row and one inner row of petals for more texture; I did this on a few cupcakes, but in the interest of time (and heat – it’s almost 90 in Pittsburgh today) I piped one single row on all of the others.

You’ll have plenty of frosting left over, so you can be generous with your piping. I had about 1/4 cup of brown and at least 1/2 cup of yellow, which I’ll reserve for another use.

 

Cream Cheese Shortbread

creamcheeseshortbreadMy mission to find that delicious, albeit nameless, bakery cookie from my childhood continues with today’s cream cheese shortbread. And while this recipe yields a delicious treat, it does not, unfortunately, produce that delicious nameless bakery cookie from my childhood.

Someday, when I finally find the right recipe, I think I’m going to call it the white whale. For now, though, experiments continue. Fortunately, the experiments are quite tasty.

I found this recipe on Pinterest, from another food blog called Mama Likes to Cook. The end result is a great twist on a classic shortbread, and the addition of the cream cheese yields a lighter texture than you’d expect.  Although I’ve left these plain, you could definitely dress them up with a chocolate drizzle, tint them for holidays, or turn them into sandwiches with some chocolate or vanilla filling.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, at room temperature
  • 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups flour

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment or foil.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and cream cheese on medium speed until well-combined, about 2 minutes. Add sugar and cream until light and fluffy, for another 2-3 minutes.

Scrape down the sides of your bowl well, then add vanilla extract and beat to combine.

Add flour, about 1/2 cup at a time, mixing until very well combined.

On a lightly floured surface, turn out dough and knead just slightly; you will have a very soft, flexible dough.

Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness and cut with desired cutters; I used a square cutter with fluted edges. Scraps are very easy to re-roll; just add a dash of flour to keep your dough stable.

Place on prepared cookie sheets about 1 inch apart and bake for 8-10 minutes, until edges are firm. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

Buttermilk Chocolate Cupcakes

IMG_4941Happy World Chocolate Day! Let’s celebrate with some buttermilk chocolate cupcakes and cocoa frosting. If you want to add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side, that would be a great idea too.

Can you imagine a world without chocolate? I can, but I certainly don’t want to. This delicious creation is a culinary wonder, pairing easily with a range of flavors both sweet and savory. When you think about it, I bet you have at least one favorite treat that involves chocolate in some way, even if it’s a basic chocolate chip cookie or a tender chocolate cake.

These cupcakes remind me a bit of devil’s food, and the original recipe came from Taste of Home, one of my new favorite sites. I cut that recipe in half to make a dozen and chose to pair them with my favorite cocoa frosting, which uses simple ingredients you’re likely to have in your pantry. You could definitely go with the one in the original recipe, or use a vanilla frosting instead – but given that it’s World Chocolate Day, we’re going to go all-out chocolate.

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup buttermilk
  • 1/4 cup water

For the frosting

  • 4 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted
  • 1 3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • rainbow sprinkles, if desired

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 12-well cupcake tin with paper liners.

In a small bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a glass measuring cup, combine buttermilk and water; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat until well-combined, then add vanilla extract and beat until well-combined, scraping the sides of the bowl a few times.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk/water mixture alternatively in two batches, beating well after each.

Using a 2-inch cookie scoop, scoop dough into prepared cupcake wells, filling about 2/3 full.

Bake for 18-2o minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool in the pan for a few minutes (the original recipe suggests 10 minutes, but I cooled mine for about half that time), then remove to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting: in a small bowl, combine melted butter and cocoa powder, whisking until smooth. Place mixture in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; beat on low speed for 1 minute, then on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Add 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon milk and beat until very well-combined, scraping the sides of the bowl well a few times. Add remaining powdered sugar and 1 more tablespoon milk and beat for about 1 minute; add vanilla and beat 1 minute more, then add final tablespoon of milk and beat for 2 minutes, until lighter in color and fluffy.

Fit a piping bag with a large star tip; pipe frosting onto cupcakes. Top with sprinkles if desired; store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Patriotic Whoopie Pies

patriotic whoopiesHappy Independence Day, Americans! Let’s celebrate with some star-spangled sweets. These patriotic whoopie pies take a classic red velvet recipe and add a bit of a twist, using both red and blue food coloring for red, white, and blue treats.

The Brown Eyed Baker (another Pittsburgh-based, self-taught baker and blogger) has a great recipe for red velvet whoopie pies, which I used as the base for these treats. Instead of adding the food coloring with the vanilla during mixing, I made the batter first without any food coloring, then divided it and tinted half red and half blue. I also chose a marshmallow creme-based filling, instead of the original recipe’s cream cheese filling so I didn’t need to refrigerate them.

Ingredients

For the red and blue velvet whoopie pies

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 3 teaspoons red liquid food coloring
  • 3 teaspoons blue liquid food coloring

For the fluffy white filling

  • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 7-ounce jar marshmallow creme
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 3/4 cups powdered sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter, shortening, brown sugar, and white sugar until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl a few times.

Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. Add vanilla extract and beat until combined.

Add the flour and buttermilk alternatively in two batches, beating until just combined after each.

Divide batter into two bowls; you’ll have about 3 1/2 cups of batter in each. Add red food coloring to the first bowl and mix until well-combined; add blue food coloring to the second bowl and mix until very well-combined.

Using a two-inch cookie scoop, drop scoops of batter at least 2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets; you’ll have 6 cookies per sheet.

Bake for 10-11 minutes, until tops spring back just slightly when touched. Remove from oven and cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely before filling.

To make the filling, place butter in a mixing bowl fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 1-2 minutes. Add marshmallow creme and vanilla and beat until very well-combined.

Add powdered sugar about 1 cup at a time, beating well between each addition and scraping the sides of your bowl frequently. You want a firm but spreadable consistency so that your filling doesn’t ooze out the sides.

Flip cookies over and match up one blue and one red per whoopie pie. Using a 1-inch cookie scoop, drop generous scoops of filling onto each blue cookie. Using a small offset spatula, spread filling slightly, then place a red cookie on top.

Wrap each whoopie pie in plastic wrap for easy serving and storage. Since they are so large, it’s nice to be able to eat half of one and save the other half for later.

 

Watermelon Cupcakes

watermeloncupcakesI possess fairly highly evolved baking skills, whipping up tangy lemon curds, creating airy cupcakes, producing flaky pie crusts, and turning out tender cookies without batting an eye. But decorating? Let’s just say it’s not exactly my strong suit.

These watermelon cupcakes are fairly simple to bake, requiring only a basic white cupcake recipe, some red food coloring, and miniature chocolate chips. Frosting and decorating them, however, is another matter entirely. While piping on red, green, and white frosting and dotting each cupcake with miniature chocolate chips might seem simple, it’s definitely easier said than done…at least for me, anyway. Perfect circles are hard to come by, and those cute miniature chips that look like watermelon seeds can be a bit unruly.

I began with blobs of red frosting in the middle, then outlined those with green and finished off with the white of the rind, but if I ever make these again, I think i’ll go green, white, red instead. I might also use different frosting tips; I used all plain, round tips of varying sizes this time, but I might suggest a star tip for the green part of the rind, then plain round for the white and a large plain tip for the red.

However you frost them, I hope you enjoy them!

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

  • 1 recipe white cake
  • Red gel food coloring
  • 1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

For the frosting & decoration

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two cupcake tins with paper liners; this recipe yields 18 cupcakes.

In a small bowl, combine flour and baking powder; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together sugar, shortening, and salt until fluffy.

Add egg and vanilla; beat until combined.

Add flour mixture and milk in alternating batches, starting and ending with the flour and beating until just combined.

Mix in red food coloring to your desired shade, then stir in chocolate chips.

Using a two-inch cookie scoop, drop batter into prepared cupcake tins.

Bake for 18-2o minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and immediately remove cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Prepare the frosting and divide into three portions; reserve a small portion for the white, a slightly larger portion for the green, and the largest portion for the red. Tint to your desired shades.

Fit piping bags with your desired tips; I used two large, plain, round tips for the red and green and a smaller plain, round tip for the white. Pipe frosting on to create the flesh and rind of the watermelon, then top with miniature chocolate chips for seeds.

Watermelon Cookies

watermelon cookiesMy baking board on Pinterest has 870 pins. The expression “down the rabbit hole” doesn’t even begin to come close, especially when I scroll through it and can see the progression of recipes from one starting point (like “summer cookie ideas”) to an entirely different place altogether. My board looks a bit like this:

Summer cookie ideas…summer sugar cookies…watermelon cookies…watermelon cake…watermelon cupcakes…Fourth of July desserts…red, white, and blue trifle…trifles…lemon raspberry trifle…lemon raspberry cake…raspberry donuts…and so on, and so on, for 870 pins.

These adorable watermelon cookies appeared in my Pinterest feed a few days ago, and I just had to try them. The original recipe can be found at Taste of Home, and I tweaked it just slightly to add more almond extract into my dough and to chill the dough for less time. The end result is a cheerful, summery treat with a very subtle almond flavor; next time, I might add more almond extract to kick the flavor up a bit.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • Red and green gel food coloring
  • Miniature semisweet chocolate chips, if desired

Preparation

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and almond extract and beat until well-combined, scraping the sides of your bowl frequently.

Add flour in three batches, mixing well after each until a soft dough forms.

Scoop out 1 cup of dough and set aside; tint remaining dough red. Roll into a 3 1/2 inch long log. Note: I rolled my dough into a much longer log and didn’t have quite enough green dough to cover it, so be sure you keep your red log on the smaller side.

Take 1/3 of your reserved dough and tint it green.

Wrap each portion of dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours.

Roll plain dough into an 8 1/2 by 3 1/2 inch rectangle. Wrap around the red log, pressing gently to adhere; I also rolled my log a few times to get the plain dough to stick better.

Roll green dough into a 10 by 3 1/2 inch rectangle, then wrap around your red/plain log, pressing gently to adhere. Again, I also rolled my log a few times to get the green dough to stick better.

Chill for about 1 hour; you can also chill overnight if you prefer.

Slice your log into 1/4 inch slices, turning slightly as you go for even circles. Per the original recipe, you can leave your circle intact for baking; I cut mine in half before I baked them.

Gently press miniature chocolate chips into each cookie for seeds; if you prefer, you can leave your slices seedless, but I think the chocolate chips add a nice whimsical touch.

Bake for 9-11 minutes; remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheets for 1-2 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Rainbow Cake

rainbowI bake for many reasons. To create, and to experiment. To comfort, and to cheer. To celebrate, for sure; birthdays and holidays and important rites of passage.

Today, I celebrate the Supreme Court’s decision to make same-sex marriage a nationwide right. I celebrate dear friends, whose commitment inspire me. I celebrate equality, while also recognizing that we still have a long way to go in our country, to guarantee not only legal rights but tolerance and acceptance in the hearts and minds of all citizens.

This is, perhaps, my favorite cake I’ve ever baked. It takes quite some time and requires a great deal of patience, but like all good things, it is well worth it.

Ingredients

Rainbow Cake (also known as Marriage Equality Cake or Pride Cake)

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet gel food coloring

Vanilla Almond Buttercream

  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
  • dash of salt
  • 5 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon almond extract

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray two 6-inch round cake pans with baking spray; line each with a parchment circle and spray the parchment. Note: if you’re fortunate enough to have 6 pans, you don’t have to worry about doing this in three stages, like I did. If you only have 2 pans, you’ll need to follow the instructions below on baking, cleaning your pans, and re-lining them for each batch.

In a large bowl, combine flour and baking powder; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together sugar, shortening, and salt until fluffy.

Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined.

Add flour mixture and milk in alternating batches, starting and ending with the flour and beating until just combined.

Set out 6 bowls; using your dry measuring cups, scoop 3/4 cup of batter into each bowl to divide batter evenly. Tint each portion a different rainbow color.

Pour red batter into one pan and orange into another; bake for 10-11 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and immediately flip cakes onto a cooling rack. Wash pans and repeat the spraying, lining, filling, and baking process with your yellow and green layers, then again for your blue and violet layers.

Cool cakes completely before frosting.

To make the frosting, place butter in a mixing bowl and beat with the paddle attachment for 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl, add the salt, and beat for another minute.

Add powdered sugar all at once, then cover your mixer with a towel and beat on low speed until powdered sugar is completely incorporated into the butter. Scrape the sides of the bowl and add vanilla and almond extracts; beat for another 2-3 minutes, until very fluffy.

If desired, reserve a small portion of the frosting to tint red; I piped a heart on the top of my cake, but you could cover it with sprinkles or leave it plain or frost it in whatever way you like.

To assemble, level out your layers if necessary; I trimmed mine just slightly to even them out. Begin with the violet layer; place it on your cake plate and cover the top with a thin layer of the buttercream. Repeat with the blue, green, yellow, orange, and red layers; frost the top, then the sides.

Store at room temperature.

Below are a few photos of the process; be ready to use lots of bowls and do several rounds of dishes!

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Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

raspberrylemonadeccRaspberry and lemon are a great flavor pair, and as always I wonder who first decided to put them together, and why some flavors goes so well together, but would be disastrous with others. For example, raspberry goes well with both lemon and chocolate…but you’d never put lemon and chocolate together, would you? Blegh.

In any case, this cupcake is a delicious, sweet creation with just the right amount of tartness. You can use basic ingredients that you’re likely to have in your pantry and fridge, except maybe for the lemon extract. Trust me, lemon extract is absolutely worth it; you cannot achieve the same level of lemon-ness with juice and zest alone. However, I wouldn’t leave lemon zest out, as the extract alone doesn’t have the same brightness of flavor as zest.

Ingredients

Lemonade Cupcakes

  • 1 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup plus 6 tablespoons sugar
  • 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3/4 teaspoon lemon extract
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup plus 6 tablespoons milk (about 7 ounces)

Raspberry Lemon Buttercream

  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 3 tablespoons seedless raspberry jam
  • 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375. Line cupcake tins with paper liners; this recipe makes 15 cupcakes.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon extract until light and fluffy.

Add egg and lemon zest and beat until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl a few times.

Add flour mixture and milk alternatively, beginning and ending with the flour, beating until combined. Scrap the sides and bottom of your mixing bowl well to make sure everything is fully incorporated.

Using a cookie scoop, fill cupcake tins about half-full.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and immediately remove from cupcake tins; cool completely on the wire rack before frosting.

To make the frosting, place butter and 2 tablespoons raspberry jam in a mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed for about two minutes, then on high speed for another two minutes, until mixture is fluffy.

Add 1 cup powdered sugar, mixing on low, then medium speed, until combined. Add remaining powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add additional tablespoon raspberry jam and lemon juice, beating on medium speed until well combined.

Frost cupcakes using a small offset spatula; store in an airtight container at room temperature.