delicious

Fall Into The Season – White Chocolate Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Ahhh Fall. The crisp air, the changing foliage, the emerging of sweaters and boots from the back of the closet, the warm apple cider, and the integration of pumpkin spice into every consumable good possible. At least that’s how my autumns were growing up in New England. In New Orleans, fall comes on a little differently. The weather stays hot and humid, the trees stay lush and green, people continue to wear shorts and crop tops, all drinks are chilled to cool you down, but at least pumpkin spice is still everywhere you look! That’s what I love about food trends, they are the great equalizer of all the very different regions of the country!

Yes, fall is here, and no matter what that may look like for you, I’m betting money that you have seen at least one pumpkin flavored item marketed at your face. So, who am I to buck a trend? That’s why today I have for you all my DELICIOUS White chocolate pumpkin oatmeal cookies!

I am particularly proud of these cookies because this is my first recipe that I have developed completely on my own. I did not follow someone else’s recipe nor did I tweak a previously written recipe. I took the knowledge that I’ve accumulated thus far in baking and I designed my very own cookie! The best part? They were a total success! Everyone really seemed to enjoy them and I must humbly say, they were very delicious. Well how could they not be? They were a beautiful combination of white chocolate and pumpkin in an oatmeal cookie base.

The only notes I have on the recipe is that the dough is a little bit oily because of the pumpkin, so make sure that when you’re forming them to put on the pan you construct them extra carefully into balls. Otherwise they melt out a little bit before they hit the oven and bake oddly. This happened to about 5 of my cookies before I figured out that I needed to take more care in shaping them. Also, take the time to let them cool and firm up a little bit. I was too anxious to wait and ate 3 straight out of the oven, but the ones I had the next day were much better. So try your best to be patient!!

White Chocolate Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

The Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
pinch of salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup white chocolate chips

The Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a mixing bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt and set aside
3. In a separate bowl cream together the butter and the 2 sugars
4. Add the egg, vanilla, and pumpkin to the egg mixture and mix thoroughly
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet until they are all incorporated
5. Mix in the oatmeal and white chocolate chips
6. On a greased cookie sheet form balls of dough and bake for 14 minutes
7. This recipe should yield 3 dozen cookies
8. ENJOY!

Sweet Potato Sunday!

Growing up I was always that kid that absolutely REFUSED to eat my vegetables. I remember sitting at the kitchen table for hours while my mom forced me to have at least one bite of spinach. My parents tried everything! They covered the veggies with sauce or cheese, they tried to spruce them up to make them more interesting to me, but I was a very stubborn child. I was set in my ways and refused to learn to like vegetables. It’s ironic that now as an adult (or a larger child, as I often consider myself) I absolutely LOVE veggies! I try and have a vegetable component in almost every meal, and one of my favorites is the sweet potato!

Sweet potatoes are actually one of my absolute favorite foods of all time. They are second in line behind my ever beloved oatmeal. They include many essential vitamins, including B6, C, D, and A! You basically cover all the important alphabetical vitamins in one serving of this fun vegetable! That’s another thing – they’re a vegetable that tastes like a dessert! What a serious win win.

I buy tons of sweet potatoes every time I go to the store because they can store for a long time. Whenever I don’t feel like cooking a big meal I simply wash a sweet potato, poke a few holes in if with a fork and microwave it for 8 minutes – rotating once at the 4 minute mark. Then I can just cut it open straight from the microwave and load it up with whatever delicious fillings I want! (Chickpeas, cheese, yogurt, honey, cinnamon sugar, nutella, or simply salt/pepper and butter!) However, when I have more time I like to get a little fancier with my sweet potatoes and make myself some sweet oven baked fries! The recipe is easy and the outcome is SO DELICIOUS OH MY GOSH! You’ll just have to try it yourself to believe me! (And this is also a great way to get some vital nutrients into picky kids!)

SWEET SWEET POTATO FRIES

The Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato (or 2 small ones)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon

The Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Place sweet potato in microwave for 1-2 minutes so that it’s softer and easier to cut
3. Cut sweet potato into long fry-like strips and place into a bowl (I keep the skins on because I love them, but you can peel your potato if desired)
4. Add the rest of the ingredients of top of the cut potatoes and mix with your hands until each slice is fully covered and the ingredients have all mixed together
5. Spread out the strips onto a sprayed baking sheet
6. Place in oven for 30 minutes
7. Let cool for 5 minutes and then enjoy!

More fun with Oreos – Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookie Bars

Do you have a favorite type of Oreo? Personally I like the ones that come out around Halloween time with the orange frosting. They don’t taste any different from the regular ones I don’t think, but for some reason the orange makes it easier to consume an entire package of them… I also like the double stuffed ones because there is nothing wrong with putting more of that mysterious frosting stuff in my mouth. I’m not really into the golden ones, or the uh oh oreos. I know there’s a myriad of other flavors such as mint, peanut butter, birthday cake, and cookie dough!? but I’ve never actually tried those ones. Let me know if any of them are worthwhile in the comments!

For these cookie bars I used double stuffed oreos. Like I’ve said countless times, you can never go wrong with double stuffed! From this endeavor I learned a few things about my new kitchen Including the fact that I have a pretty weak oven. These had to cook for nearly 40 minutes when the recipe I based them on only had them in for 25!

Also, because I don’t have an electric mixer I creamed the butter and sugar myself (cue your impressed faces at my powerful muscles) Either way they came out AMAZING and my sorority sisters devoured them at our chapter meeting!

CHOCOLATE CHIP OREO COOKIE BARS

The Ingredients:

BARS-
2 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup salted butter
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
12 crushed oreos
1 cup chocolate chips

TOPPING-
2 crushed oreos
1/4 cup chocolate chips

The Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. Soften the butter in the microwave then add to the brown sugar in a large bowl. Cream them together
3. Mix in eggs and vanilla
4. In a separate bowl mix together 1 cup of flour with the baking powder and salt
5. Pour the dry into the wet and mix together
6. Add in the rest of the flour
7. Fold in the oreos and chocolate chips
8. After baking for 15 minutes add the toppings and continue baking for another 10 to 20 minutes (depending on how useful your oven is)
9. ENJOY!

All for myself – Single Serve Microwave Oatmeal Cookie

Hello again everybody! Let me tell you something, I have been busy busy busy since I returned to school. I forgot how easily my life can become so hectic! Between the hours of classes, homework, extracurriculars, work, and attempts at socializing I have found that baking has really been placed on the back burner.

pictured: me prioritizing my social life #SINS

A secondary challenge is that I am surrounded by a bunch of sorority girls who have too much self control and won’t eat my baked goods quickly enough! I ended up eating about 1/2 of the Oreo bars I made and struggled to find other people willing to eat them. People are way too body conscious here and it’s kind of bumming me out. I’m far less motivated to bake when I know that nobody will eat my creations! However, after I got home from work and dinner last night I decided enough was enough! If nobody wanted to eat batches and batches of amazing cookies than I would simply focus on myself. Thus, my single serving oatmeal cookie was produced!

This cookie takes about five minutes total to assemble and bake. You can’t really tell from the pictures but after cooling for about three minutes, the cookie just popped right out of the bowl and I could hold it like a real cookie!! It was so cute and awesome. Actually, just baking it was really cute. I’m used to using cups and cups of flour and sugar for my large scale baking endeavors but this simply required small teaspoons of ingredients! It was adorable and really fun. The end result was surprisingly good. The cookie was a little but chewy, but it still reminded me very much of an Oatmeal cookie. Given that it was cooked in the microwave I was fairly impressed with the outcome. I ended up making two of them for myself (darn my oatmeal cookie addiction!) but they were the perfect night snack and a good way to practice portion control (if you’re into that kind of thing). Another thing I thought of after the fact is that these would be SO much better if some chocolate chips were thrown in them! Next time! (AKA every night ever)

ONE SERVING MICROWAVE OATMEAL COOKIE

The Ingredients:

1/4 cup oats
1 egg white
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp baking powder
Cinnamon (as desired)
Chocolate Chips (technically optional but let’s be realistic… they’re never optional)

The Method:

1. Combine all of the ingredients in one (microwave safe) bowl and mix together well until a consistent dough forms
2. Scrape the dough from the sides of the bowl and form into a flat cookie shape on the bottom
3. Microwave on high for 45 seconds
4. Allow to cool for a few minutes
5. Pop the cookie out of the bowl and enjoy!

First week back in the Big Easy – Oreo Marshmallow Bars

Hello friends! Sorry that it has been almost a whole week since I have posted on here but I had to take a several day hiatus from any baking activity in order to move in to my apartment down here in New Orleans. Things have been a little hectic and I lacked the means to bake anything for the first few days down here.

I have since settled in though and I finally found the time to focus on mind on having some fun in the kitchen! I really enjoyed this first baking adventure in my new apartment for several reasons:
1. I didn’t’ have to use the oven, which is nice when the temperature outside never drops below 90 degrees
2. I had to be a little creative when deciding what to make because the ingredients I have available to me were limited to the small convenience store we have on campus

I was walking around the aforementioned convenience store trying to think of what I could make when my eyes landed on the marshmallows, “RICE KRISPY TREATS!” was my first thought and I grabbed the bag of mallows and some butter. Then I went to go get some Rice Krispy cereal and realized that they didn’t have any. I woefully stared at my other cereal options deciding which ones would be a good replacement for RK when my eyes landed on the Oreos next to the cereal on the shelf. I’m a big fan of Oreos. They’re crunchy, sweet, chocolatey, and vegan (who knew?). I picked up a box for myself and as I was standing there with the marshmallows and Oreos in my hand I knew at once that I was going to try a little experiment and combine the two for the ultimate treat. Thus, this magical indulgence was born!

I call them Oreo marshmallow bars because that’s what they are! I can’t think of a name more perfect for them. They’re incredibly easy to make and they take almost no time at all. You get to crush Oreos in a bag too, so they’re a great stress reliever for if you really feel like punching something. I mean, if you’re gonna punch something it might as well be a big bag of Oreos that you get to shove your mouth with later!

A few things to note from my experiment: After they set (and after I ate 3 straight from the pan… woops) I found that they were extremely difficult to remove smoothly from the pan, so maybe I would spray the pan before I put the mixture in. Also, depending on your crunch preference level you could mash the Oreos up a little bit more than I did. Or not, I liked em my way to be perfectly honest.

OREO MARSHMALLOW BARS

The Ingredients:
1 package of Double Stuffed Oreos (it’s like 30 Oreos I think)
1 bag of mini marshmallows (somewhere around 6 cups to be more accurate)
1/2 stick of butter

The Method:
1. Place all of the Oreos in a bag and smash with a rolling pin or other heavy object until they are smushed to tiny bits
2. In a large pot heat the butter and marshmallows and stir until the two have melted together and have reached a smooth consistency
3. Remove the marshmallows from heat and add the crushed oreos
4. Mix and mix and mix!
5. Pour into an 8×8 baking dish and let sit in the fridge for ~15 minutes
6. Cut into 12 sections and enjoy!

One final hurrah – Chocolate Sugar Cookies

I’m pretty much an expert on saying goodbye. At least three times a year I bid adieu to my home, my family, my boyfriend, and of course, my cat. Now it is once again time for me to pack up and head down to school in New Orleans. Once again, I must say goodbye. Missing my loved ones is not something I have an easy time with, and now I have added one more beloved item to my long list of things I will miss irrevocably. My mother’s beautiful Kitchenaid electric mixer! They all but had to drag me kicking and screaming away from that magical machine. Baking will never be simple again without it in my kitchen.

However, before I left it all behind in New Hampshire I made sure to get in one last chance to use it. I decided that whatever my last baked good in my mom’s kitchen was going to be needed to be my best yet. This way, no matter what disasters await me in my ill-equipped and dangerously tiny kitchen at school, I would have one final delicious memory.

For this special treat I decided to put a fun spin on an old classic. Plain sugar cookies are some of the most wonderful tasting morsels that we can experience on this earth, add chocolate to them? Well, forget about it! People were swooning for these cookies (myself included) and it will not be the final time that I make them. I made mine pretty big, because I was not settling for any bite sized cookies. You could probably get more cookies out of this recipe by rolling smaller balls of dough and shortening the baking time by a minute or so. I recommend making them jumbo though, you’re gonna want to eat a lot at once anyways! Besides the fact that these cookies simply tasted amazing, they also had that chewy and soft texture that just makes cookies perfect. Seriously, I can’t brag about myself enough with these cookies. You’ll just have to try them for yourself and see what I’m talking about!

CHOCOLATE SUGAR COOKIES:

The Ingredients:
2 cups + 2 tbsp flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
2 ½ sticks unsalted butter
2 cups sugar, plus 1/2 cup
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

The Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together
3. Using a standing mixer (#BAE), cream the butter and 2 cups sugar together
4. Add the eggs and vanilla to butter and sugar
5. Add the flour mixture in slowly until it is all combined
6. Roll dough into balls and roll balls in sugar
7. Bake for ~12 minutes
8. Enjoy!

We all scream for ice cream! – Multi-layered Ice Cream Cake

This weekend is my good friend’s birthday! Since I’ve been so inclined to bake lately I asked him, “If you could have any kind of cake in the entire world for your birthday what would it be?” Much to my surprise, without a thought, he responded, “ICE CREAM CAKE!” This man is turning 34. Regardless, I was excited by the unexpected challenge so I began doing some research on ice cream cakes.

It seemed relatively simple, just layers of ice cream and cake! Pretty much exactly what I expected. I, however, was having a particularly busy week and the amount of work seemed like it would very time consuming. A project for the weekend perhaps. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a weekend since the party was planned with only a few days notice. Instead, a neighbor of mine told me about a really simple way to assemble a delicious ice cream cake in no time at all and thus, this method was conceived!

Making this ice cream cake for him and enjoying it with the company of my friends reminded me that there is no age limit on the pure, unadulterated enjoyment that ice cream cake can give. Who says adults can’t act like kids from time to time? I’m certainly not mature and responsible most of the time anyways! The night was a blast, we all dressed up and went out to a local Nepalese restaurant for dinner. Then we drove to my house for cake, a bonfire, and swimming! I love happy summer nights like that – what a treat.

SUPER SIMPLE AND QUICK ICE CREAM CAKE

The Ingredients:
18 generic grocery store ice cream sandwiches
cool whip
food coloring (optional)
sprinkles (NOT optional)

The Method:
1. If desired, dye the cool whip the color you want the outside of your cake. The cool whip is the “frosting”
2. Begin by laying down six of the ice cream sandwiches side by side in a large baking dish
3. Cover the 6 sandwiches in a layer of cool whip
4. Lay down six more sandwiches on top of the cool whip layer in the opposite direction (see pictures)
5. Cover those sandwiches with another layer of cool whip
6. Continue this process with one more layer of sandwiches
7. Frost the entire outside of the cake with cool whip
8. Top with sprinkles
9. Freeze for at least a few hours, overnight if possible
10. Allow the cake to thaw for 15 minutes before serving
11. Enjoy!

The ultimate cookie – Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

All throughout my childhood I HATED mint chocolate chip ice cream. I’m not sure why, perhaps it was the sickening green color or the bite of the mint flavoring – but I was simply not a fan. I always preferred the big chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough or the sweetness of strawberry cheesecake. However, as I grew up my tastes shifted and in my late teens I discovered a new found love for all things mint chocolate!

That’s why, when I stumbled upon this recipe idea I knew I simply had to try it! Mint chocolate chip cookies! What a treat! And I must say in all honesty that out of everything I have made so far, these cookies are one hundred percent my favorite. The recipe called for a lot of butter and less sugar than I was expecting. The result was an extremely creamy texture that makes you want to go back for seconds, thirds, and maybe even sevenths or eighths!

I probably accidentally used too much green food coloring and so my cookies came out EXTREMELY green – but that in no way effected the delicious sweet mint flavor (and it gave me a good idea for a St. Patricks day treat!)

I made 33 cookies with the recipe (probably would have made 36 if I could have stopped myself from eating the dough!) Less than 5 hours later there are only 10 left! My dad literally licked the bowl of dough clean.

I would say this was another enormous success.

MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

The ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
green food coloring

The method:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.
3. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs, food color and peppermint extract; mix well.
5. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed.
6. Stir in chocolate chips.
7. Drop by heaping tablespoons about 1 inch apart onto ungreased baking sheets.
8. Bake 10 minutes

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: