S'moreful September: S'mores Cookies

Day Two of the S'moreful September brings an easier recipe than yesterday.  I wanted to get the hard one out of the way so you'd think everything else was essentially bliss.

Okay, it's all bliss, but some bliss just comes a little easier, yes?  Of course.

So, today is cookies.  You could probably use your own chocolate chip cookie base and make some tweaks, but here's the recipe I followed...

Ingredients:
1 1/2 C all purpose flour
1 C graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking soda
1 dash of salt (optional)
1 dash of cinnamon
1 C butter, softened
3/4 C sugar
3/4 C brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 C mini marshmallows
2 C mini chocolate chips
2 Hershey bars, chopped

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
3. In a larger bowl, beat together butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla until creamy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Slowly beat in the flour mixture until smooth.
6. Stir in the mini chocolate chips.
7. Drop rounded tablespoons of batter onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
8. Bake for 8 minutes, push in 4 marshmallows and a couple chocolate pieces into each cooke, then return to oven for an additional 3-4 minutes, or until fully cooked.
9. Cool on wire rack.

*makes about 3 dozen amazing cookies*

Of Pinterest (and other time fillers...)

 So, the 8 gagillion people on Pinterest have already seen this.

But I wanted to try it out.

Ingredients:
Favorite cookie dough (PB Chocolate Chip)
Favorite candy bar (Reese's PB Cup)
Favorite brownie mix (Ghiradelli Triple Chocolate)

Directions:

1. Pre-heat over according to brownie mix

2. Line/grease muffin pans

3. Push in your favorite cookie dough (halfway)

4. Place your favorite candy bar in the middle

5. Top with brownie mix

5. Bake according to brownie box directions.

It took awhile for these brownies to set, so we left it longer than the box directed, but they were amazing just the same!

Taste of Sweetness Saturday: Easiest Cookies EVER!!

Okay, so I know I did a chocolate chip cookie post before...  And not that long ago, either!  However, I was doing a little research for work, and was looking at corporate recipes.  It happens...

So, I was super excited to find a recipe that involved only two (or more) ingredients.  I know that pre-made cookie dough can have that odd chemically taste, but check this out, I swear, it's awesome!!

First, you take your premade cookie dough.  Any brand or flavor will do, although the corporate site told me that Nestles Tollhouse cookies were the best.  Maybe so, but generic is cheaper.  C'est la vie!

My dough came in 12 chunks.  Divide them in half, and roll them into balls.

Then, lightly press the dough balls giggles lightly into min muffin cups.

Then bake to the minimum that your dough tells you to cook.  It took mine about 12 minutes.

As soon as I took them out of the oven, I used the tip of my teaspon to lightly press the middles back down.  They have puffed up a bit during baking, and I wanted a nice little cup.

As the cookies start to cool (only about a minute) they will naturally fall back down, I just wanted to make sure they still made a divot.

Then, use some flavor of chips.  I used peanut butter, but there are tons of chips out there - butterscotch, dark chocolate, mint, white chocolate, pb/chocolate mixed, white/milk chocolate swirls...  just use your imagination.  Fill up each cookie with as many chips as you'd like.  I ended up using half of my bag of chips on 24 cookies.  Just like when you make PB Blossoms, it's helpful to do this while the cookie is hot.  This way the chips start to melt together, while the top ones still retain their shape if left untouched.

Also, I'm super excited to try this recipe during the holidays.  Yum!!

Just grab your milk and enjoy!!

A Taste of Sweetness Saturday

You know how, in the Fall, you just want to bake and bake and bake to your hearts content?

I LOVE THAT!

Well, I was reading through a Fall magazine and saw an ad for McCormick's vanilla.  I'm not going to say I use their vanilla, but I definitely used their recipe!!  I was super impressed with this one because it really brought out that melt-in-your-mouth buttery/vanilla richness that accentuates the Ghirardelli's semi-sweet chocolate chips and a HUGE glass of ice cold milk.  AMAZING!!

Okay, enough capital letters and exclamation points.  Here's an incredible recipe for highly addicting chocolate chip cookies that you're going to be sad to run out of when you're done...

Vanilla Rich Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

3 ¼ C flour

1 t baking soda

¾ t salt

1 1/3 C butter, softened

1 ¼ C granulated sugar

1 C firmly baked light brown sugar

2 eggs

4 t vanilla

12 oz. (1 pkg) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 C coarsely chopped walnuts

Sorry for the blurriness!

Preheat oven to 375*.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt.  Beat butter and both sugars in large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla, and mix well.  Gradually beat in flour mixture on low until well mixed.  Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Drop rounded tables spoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake 8-10 minutes until the edges are lightly browned.

Cool on baking sheets for a minute, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 5 dozen.

* * * * *

Okay, so you know that I didn't add the walnuts, but I'm sure if you're a nutty person you'd love these even more.  Also, as you can see, I'm not good on "equal" rounded tablespoonfuls of dough.  Didn't matter.  I honest-to-goodness made exactly 5 dozen cookies.  I shared some, but these were hard to share, even with my darling husband.  He gave them the thumbs up, too, though, so when that fall weather makes you nostalgic and you want to bake, these are an easy crowd pleaser!!