Cookie Dough Brownies

Um…hello!  Cookie Dough AND Brownies!!!  Does it get much better than that?  I. Think.  Not.

I recently came across another cooking/baking blog called Five Year Plan who is hosting a monthly baking challenge.  I decided to join in on the challenges because, well…I love to eat bake!  This month’s challenge was something chocolate.  Um…yeah…this was a simple one for me!  Enter Cookie Dough Brownies.  (FYI – October’s challenge is “Halloween” check out Rach’s blog if you wanna join in!)

I can’t remember where I got this recipe exactly, but I think I came across it somewhere online.  But once I made these, I was hooked.  Totally hooked.  I mean seriously.  Hooked.  I have always been a cookie-dough eater.  Straight from the bowl when making homemade chocolate chip cookies.  Straight from the package when making break-apart chocolate chip cookies.  Cookie Dough Blizzards.  You name it, I’ve probably had it.  So when I found this recipe I think I actually yelped in excitement.  And let me tell you…when I tasted them…I think I screamed in delight!

So, here’s what you need for these ridiculously easy brownies.

1 box brownie mix, plus ingredients to make ‘em.  (or your favorite scratch recipe)

1-1/2 sticks butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar

4-1/2 tbsp milk

1-1/2 cups flour

1-1/2 cups mini chocolate chips.
Just prepare your brownies according to the package in a 9×13 pan.  Let cool completely.

 

Next, combine the butter, sugars, milk and flour until well combined.  Then stir in the mini chocolate chips.

 

Spread the cookie dough on the cooled brownies.

 

Then chill the brownies until the cookie dough is firm.  Cut into bars.

Printable Recipe:  Cookie Dough Brownies

Amazing Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Bars

I think it takes longer to SAY the name of these little gems than it does to make them.  Seriously.  I’ve tried to come up with a name that’s shorter, but I’ve had no luck.  Chocolate Chip Bars doesn’t hint to the creamy filling stuff, Cream Cheese Bars doesn’t hint to the fab-o chocolate chip cookie layers.  I got nothin’.  Any suggestions?   I’m babbling.  Let’s get on with the cookin’, huh?

Okay, all you need to whip up these tasty little babies is 16 oz cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, 2-1/2 tsp. vanilla, 2 eggs, and 2 pkgs of refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough.  That’s it people.  Simplicity is delicious.

To start, you just press one package of cookie dough into a 9×13 pan. 

Then, in a bowl, combine the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and eggs…

Stir well to combine and then pour over the cookie dough base…

Then, crumble the other package of cookie dough over the top. 

Oh yeah babe!  Now just pop this in a 350 degree oven for about 30-35 minutes.  You can eat them right away, but they’re best if you let them chill for a couple hours first…the filling firms up and is super creamy.

Peanut Butter Hollywood Squares

Remember those awesome peanut butter bar cookies they served in the school cafeteria?   You know the ones…the bars that are so peanut buttery it makes your teeth hurt just to think about them?  The ones that were so good, you wished you could ask for seconds? Yeah…that’s them.  And today, I’m going to show you how delightully easy they are to make.  I got this recipe from Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen website.  The first thing my husband said when he tasted them was “These are JUST LIKE the ones we had in school!”  And after seeing the ingredients, you’ll see why it was something they made in the school cafeteria…it’s all things that they could get in ‘commodity bulk’. 

I’m not going to tell you we ate half the batch in the first 5 minutes.  But we did.  And I wonder why I keep gaining weight?!?!

So, here’s the super simple recipe for these amazing bars.

In a bowl, combine the following:

2 cups peanut butter

2-1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup butter, melted
(See what I mean?  Commodity type items!)

Stir until well combined.  Then press into a 8″ square pan, lined with foil.  Why line with foil?  Two reasons.  One – it’s easier to remove the bars from the pan later.  Two (and the most important to me!) – it makes cleanup SO much easier…no pan to wash!

Prepare the chocolate topping.  Combine about 6 ounces of chocolate chips with 2-3 tbsp peanut butter in a microwave safe dish.  Melt slowly in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, until smooth.

Spread over bars and chill until set.

Cut into squares and have flashbacks of the school cafeteria and that awesome hairdo you sported back then!

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow to for another COOKBOOK WINNING WEDNESDAY!!!

Chocolat Chunk Chewies – use up those egg whites!

Yes, I’m much later getting this posted than I planned.  With fall baseball season starting, and BOTH my kiddos playing, it’s been super crazy around here lately just trying to get homework, dinner  and practice in each night.  And I’m back to working my regular schedule now that the kids are in school, so I don’t have as much free time during the day as I did over the summer.  I’m adjusting back to the busy school-time schedule, so please bear with me!

So, after making (or at least reading the recipe for) that make-you-slap-yo-mamma yummy Key Lime Pie, you’re probably wondering what on earth you’re going to do with all those egg whites.  I did too.  Of course, you could make an angel food cake, or an egg white omelet (or just add a couple egg whites to whole eggs for omelets or even scrambled eggs), but those things just weren’t trippin’ my trigger that day.  I dug through lots of my cookbooks, in search of a recipe that used a ton of egg whites only.  When I came across one for “Chocolate Chunk Chewies” I knew I’d have to try those…I mean…HELLO!!!  Chocolate!!!

For this recipe, you’ll need:

4-1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp espresso or instant coffee powder (you can leave it out, but it really adds a nice dimension of flavor)

2 cups cocoa powder

6 egg whites

4 tsp vanilla

1-1/2 cups chocolate chunks

 

Start by placing the egg whites and vanilla in mixer bowl…

Then add in the powdered sugar, salt, espresso powder and cocoa…

Mix at low speed for about 2 minutes. 

The batter will seem a little dry at first, but will become shiny and smooth as it mixes…

Refrigerate the batter for a couple of hours, or overnight.

Stir in the chocolate chunks and resist the urge to dive in with a spoon and a glass of milk right now!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and spray cookie sheets well with nonstick spray.  Drop dough by spoonfuls (I actually use a cookie/ice cream scooper) onto the pans…

Bake for 12 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool on pans for about 5 minutes.

Remove to wire racks to cool completely.  Now pour yourself a big ol’ glass of cold milk and stuff your face until you can’t button your pants and you can’t breathe treat yourself to a couple of these cookies.

I’m making a couple of yummalicious desserts for a family dinner on Sunday, so I’ll be sharing more sweet sensations soon!  (That’s almost a tongue twister!)

Have a blessed day!

Cracker Toffee…with only FOUR ingredients! 4!

The recipe I’m sharing with you today is a good one.  Simple.  Easy.  Quick.  And only has 4 ingredients!  And, I’m ashamed to say, I could easily throw down the entire batch in one sitting.  Seriously.  They are THAT good.  I’ve heard these called several different things…Toffee Bars, Pine Bark, etc.  But I choose to call them “Cracker Toffee” because it gives a hint to the unusual ingredient in these little gems.

It doesn’t get much simpler than this recipe, folks.   Preaheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Firstyou line a jelly roll pan (11×15x1-inch pan) with foil and spray with cooking spray.  Then, just lay crackers out on the pan, fitting in as many as possible.  My six year old loves to do this part.  You can use any kind of plain cracker really (saltines, club, ritz, etc), but I always have saltines in the pantry, so that’s what I typically use.  It will take about one and a half sleeves of saltines to fill up the pan…

Now, in small sauce pan, melt 2 sticks of butter.  Or, if your husband does the shopping and came home with the one-pound BLOCKS of butter instead of sticks, you’ll need two honkin’ chunks of butter that weigh about 4 oz. each, totalling, of course, 8 oz.

Add 1 cup packed brown sugar to the pan…

Bring the mixture to a boil, and boil for two or three minutes, stirring constantly.  Then, pour the mixture over the crackers, spreading it with a spatula to make sure that all crackers are covered…

Bake for 6 minutes.  The toffee mixture willbe nice and bubbly.  Sprinkle about one cup of chocolate chips (or you can use Hershey Bars instead) on top and let them sit for just a minute.  Once they start to soften, spread over the crackers with a spatula…

Then, trasfer each cracker to waxed paper to cool completely. 

OR, if you’re lazy, as I sometimes am, or just in a hurry for them to set up, you can leave them on the pan, pop them in the fridge until set and just break it into chunks instead of having neat little individual squares.  Either, way, they taste awesome!  Remember when I said I could devour a whole pan of these in one sitting?  I wasn’t kidding.  I don’t think I have ever actually done that, but that’s only because my kids and husband insist on gettting a couple too.  Otherwise, back off – they’re all mine, dude. 

My ‘famous’ Kentucky Derby Pie

This is one of my most ‘famous’ pies.  Everyone loves this pie…especially my husband.  And when I had my business…this was a big seller too.  I even sold these pies to the hospital for them to serve in the cafeteria!  I thought I’d share the recipe with my blogging friends.  If you like chocolate and pecans…you’ll love this pie!

First off, let’s make the crust.  Of course, you can use a premade crust, but once you’ve tasted a homemade crust, you’ll never want to go back!  And this is a super easy crust.  It is a Shaker recipe – for those who are local, you’ll know who I’m talking about!   

For the crust, you’ll need:

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

7 tbsp butter, cold

2 tbsp cold water

 

First, place flour and salt in large bowl.  Then you need to grate your butter.  I use a microplane type grater, but a basic box grater will work too.  Freezing the butter for an hour or so before grating helps a bit too.

Some people cut their butter in with a pastry cutter and that’s perfectly fine…but I’m just too lazy and don’t like doing it that way.  Once your butter is all grated, just stir it into the flour.  SO much easier than cutting it in with a pastry cutter, in my opinion!

Now, just add the water and stir with a fork until the flour is moistened.  Mix with your hands into a ball that cleans the bowl.  (You may need to add a bit more water of flour, if your dough is too dry or wet)  Don’t overwork it though, that will make it tough.  Just get it to come together.

Now, just roll it out into a circle large enough to fit into your pie pan.  Place it in your pan.  Crimp the edges to make them pretty.  You can either use a fork to make indentions, or make a fluted edge with your fingers.  It’s kind of hard to show you here because you need both hands to do it, and of course I had to have the camera in one hand.  But, to do the fluted edge, you’re going to take two fingers of your left hand and place them on the edge like this (I’ve already done the whole crust here, but hopefully you’ll get the idea!):

Then, place one finger on your right hand between those two and pull it inward a bit.  This forms the fluted edge.  Do this all the way around the crust.  For this pie, we don’t need to prebake it, but if you do need a prebaked crust, just prick the crust with a fork several times and bake at 350 until lightly golden brown.

Now, let’s make the filling.  You’ll need the following:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 stick butter, melted

2 eggs

1 cup chopped pecans

1-1/2 cups chocolate chips*

1 tsp vanilla

 

First, put the flour and sugar in a medium sized bowl.  Then pour in the melted butter.

Sitr together and add in the eggs.

Stir those in then add the vanilla.  Add the pecans and chocolate chips.

Stir that all together and then pour into the pie shell.

Now bake at 350 for about 40-45 minutes, or until a nice golden brown.  It’ll look like this…

I wish I could show you what it looks like on the inside, but I couldn’t cut this pie because I was giving it to our sweet neighbor as a thank you for all the vegetables she’s given us from her garden. 

*Note on the chocolate chips:  You can use any type of chocolate chips you like…bittersweet, semisweet, milk, it doesn’t matter.  But what I like to do, and what I think makes my pie a little different than most, is to combine milk and semisweet chips to make up the 1-1/2 cups.  I do about half of each, but just use what you have, it’ll be good no matter what kind of chocolate chips you use.

I really hope you try this pie…I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t like it!