Chocolate Toffe Cinnamon Chip Cookies

I stopped in a grocery store that I don't usually shop at the other day just to pick up a few things. As I was making my way down the aisle I saw a bag of cinnamon chips out of the corner of my eye. My husband looked at me like I was crazy as I immediately grabbed 2 bags with a huge smile on my face and tried to (calmly) explain to him how I've tried looking in our regular grocery store for cinnamon chips so many times but never found them.

I had a hard time deciding what I want to make with them (luckily I bought 2 bags and now I know where to buy more) but ultimately decided on some chocolate toffee cinnamon chip cookies when I saw the bag of heath pieces in my pantry. I was a little worried that I might be throwing too many flavors into one cookie, but once I tasted the cookie I realized I had nothing to be worried about! All the flavors married together amazingly!

These are really good. They have a perfect chew with a crispy exterior. The cinnamon and toffee makes them a perfect fall cookie. I decided to use mini chocolate chips because I didn't want the chocolate to overwhelm the cinnamon and toffee. I ended up using about 1/3 cup of cinnamon chips because I was worried about it tasting too cinnamon-y. You could definitely taste the cinnamon but it wasn't overpowering. If you really like cinnamon then add more, but I liked them just they way they were!

I will definitely be making these again, but in the mean time I'll be looking for other recipes to use my remaining bag of cinnamon chips. (Hint, hint... suggestions welcome!)

Recipe - Makes 20 - 30 cookies
Adapted from AllRecipes
Ingredients:

• 2 cups bread flour (regular will work fine too)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 Tablespoons milk
  
• 1 cup toffee bits
  
• 1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
  
• 1/2 cup cinnamon chips
  

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, egg yolk, and milk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.
   
4. Stir in the chocolate chips, toffee chips, and cinnamon chips by hand using a wooden spoon. (At this point I like to chill the dough for at least 1 hour. If you don't they will still taste amazing but they may spread a little)
   
5. Drop cookie dough by rounded spoonfull onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 2-3 inches apart.
6. Bake for 15 in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

The Great Cookie Spreading Experiment

I know I'm long overdue for a post, but this one is a good one! I call this the great cookie spreading experiment. (I feel like Alton Brown!) You see, a few months ago I posted about how I found the PERFECT base for my chocolate chip cookie recipe. I was happy as a girl could be. But then... a few people tried the recipe themselves and reported that their cookies spread a little when they were baked. This confused me since mine hardly spread at all the first time I baked them (maybe it was the weather?).

The recipe that I used called for milk to be added into the cookie dough. I figured that reducing the liquid would reduce the spreading, and so the cookie spreading experiment was born.

(1/4 c, 2 T, no milk)

The original recipe called for 1/4 cup of milk. I made the recipe as written orginally, with 2 tablespoons of milk, and with no milk. The results?

From left to right: no milk, 2 tablespons., 1/4 cup

As you can see, there was a definite difference in the spreading. Sure enough the 1/4 cup of milk DID spread a lot. Even though they all tasted amazing, I had a clear favorite. My favorite was the middle cookie with 2 tablespoons of milk. The reduction from 1/4 of liquid helped with the spreading but having some liquid in there kept it moist and chewy. The ones with no milk were also really good. The bread flour and the extra egg yolk kept them chewy. They held their shape really well, so if you're looking for a cookie that definitely will not spread, skip the milk all together!

So here it is... my OFFICIAL favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe

Recipe - Makes 20 - 30 cookies
Adapted from AllRecipes
Ingredients:

• 2 cups bread flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 Tablespoons milk
  
• 1.5 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup mini m&m's (optional)
  

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, egg yolk, and milk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.
   
4. Stir in the chocolate chips and m&m's by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
5. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

The Best Oatmeal Cookies Ever

These are definitely the best oatmeal raisin cookies I have ever eaten. I'm usually not a fan of oatmeal raisin. Actually, let me clairfy, I'm usually not a fan of raisin. I like the oatmeal and cinnamon part! These cookies promised that even raisin haters will love them!

The recipe utilizes a method of soaking the raisins for a couple of hours before they go into the cookie. This produces a plump and moist raisin inside the cookie. And even though the recipe promised that you'd love the cookies, even if you hate raisins, I STILL debated skipping them. Lucky for me, I was baking these for a friend who actually does like raisins so I was forced to keep them in, and I'm so glad I did! These cookies are soft and chewy and even better on day 2.

I will definitely be making these again (and again and again). In this batch I decided to mix in some white chocolate and dried cranberries. The recipe is really adaptable so feel free to add in whatever you'd like!

Recipe: From Journey to Crunchville
Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, room temp
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 1 TBSP (yes tablespoon) vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp cinammon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 3 cups oatmeal (quick cooking or old fashioned, not instant)
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions

1. The key is to soak the raisins. This makes all the difference in the world. Beat eggs and vanilla together and then add the raisins, stir. Soak for an hour or two. I just walked by a few times and stirred it while I waited.

2. Preheat to 350 F. Cream butter and sugars with mixer. In a seperate bowl combine flour, salt, baking soda, cinammon, ginger & nutmeg. Stir the dry ingredients until well blended. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and mix well. Now add in the egg & raisin mixture (I used my hands). Then add oatmeal and chocolate chips/nuts and combine well. Form into balls on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for 2-5 minutes or until firm enough to transfer to wire rack.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars with Streusel Topping

The day has finally come. The day when I have to blog about a dessert that I made that was sub-par. Unfortunately, as delicious as its name sounds, this dessert fell flat for me.

I had a bunch of apples that I wanted to use so I was looking for a good apple recipe. After reading numerous apple crisp, cobbler, and pie recipes I settled on this Caramel Apple Cheesecake Square recipe. The name just drew me in!

The cheesecake layer was good and the apple layer was good (though it probably could've been doubled... the apples sort of got lost), but the crust and the topping left a lot to be desired. The crust was soggy and didn't hold up to the layers very well. If you have a good crust recipe definitely use that instead. I would maybe use this recipe from the lemon bars I made this summer. And the topping just seemed a little too floury for me. I'm really surprised that it didn't turn out better because it had a lot of positive reviews. Oh well... at least I got a few pretty pictures!



Recipe: From FoodNetwork.com
Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons, divided
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Streusell topping, recipe follows
• 1/2 cup caramel topping

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until mixture is crumbly. Press evenly into a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking pan lined with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned.
3. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with 1/2 cup sugar in an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. Then add eggs, 1 at a time, and vanilla. Stir to combine. Pour over warm crust.
4. In a small bowl, stir together chopped apples, remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Spoon evenly over cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle evenly with Streusel topping. Bake 30 minutes, or until filling is set. Drizzle with caramel topping.

Streusel Topping

• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients.

The Best Carrot Cake

Every time I bake a cake I gain more and more respect for people who can frost and decorate their cakes to be picture perfect. I always have this grand idea in my head that the frosting will come out smooth and seamless, but it never does. So what's a girl to do? Cover the cake with pecans and sprinkles of course!

I don't have too much to say about this cake, except YUM. I thought it had the perfect amount of spice. It was perfectly moist. And the cream cheese icing... to die for! It is the perfect carrot cake and I will look no further for a carrot cake recipe!

I got the recipe off of allrecipes because it had good reviews (and a lot of them!), but I changed a lot after reading some of the reviews. I subbed some oil for applesauce, added some crushed pineapple, and changed the spices around a bit. When I went to add the nutmeg (one of the last steps), I realized I was out. I did, however, have Pumpkin Pie Spice which contains nutmeg so I figured "what the hell?". No regrets!

The recipe called for a 9x13 inch cake but I used three 6" rounds and got a nice tall, small cake. Either way I'm sure it will taste amazing!


Recipe: Adapted from AllRecipes
Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cups vegetable or canola oil
• 1/2 cup applesauce
  
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
  
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 8 oz crushed pineapple (drained)
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or nutmeg)
  
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

• 8 oz cream cheese (softened)
• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 3.5 cups confections sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, applesauce, oil, sugars and 3 teaspoons vanilla. Stir in drained pineapple. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
4. To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and extracts. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cake.

Chewy Chocolate Chip M&M Cookies

A few weeks ago I raved about how I found the perfect base recipe for chocolate chip cookies. This week I decided to experiment a little. The recipe is really similar to Alton Brown's "Chewy". One of the main differences is that Alton Brown uses bread flour. Since I had a bag of bread flour laying around (from the last time I made the chewy), I decided to try my cookie recipe again, but this time using bread flour.

These cookies were a huge hit. Everyone that had them said they tasted like they were from a fancy bakery. I added in some mini m&m's to make them a little more colorful and festive, but those are optional.

These cookies were great on day one, but they seemed to get better and better on the second day. One of main differences between bread flour and AP flour is that bread flour contains more gulten. This gives rise to a chewier cookie. And a chewier cookie is always a plus in my book. :)

Recipe - Makes 20 - 30 cookies
Adapted from AllRecipes
Ingredients:

• 2 cups bread flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup milk
  
• 1.5 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup mini m&m's (optional)
  

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, egg yolk, and milk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.
   
4. Stir in the chocolate chips and m&m's by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
5. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Perfect Party Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

No food blog is complete without a basic go-to cupcake recipe. This recipe comes from Dorie Greenspan's "Perfect Party Cake". As its name implies, it makes the perfect cake. I've tried other so called "perfect" cake recipes and they just don't compare. This cake has the perfect level of moisture and a perfect texture. (Have I used the word "perfect" enough yet?)It's very light and airy, but it can still hold up to a heavy dosing of buttercream on top.

The cake also uses lemon zest and lemon extract. I thought it would be really lemony but it wasn't at all. It just added a brightness to the taste.

I chose to throw my favorite buttercream on top. It's the Magnolia Buttercream recipe and in my opinion it's the only buttercream recipe you need. It is so simple to make. It comes out perfect every time and, unlike other buttercreams, there is no cooking or shortening involved.


Cupcake Recipe: Adapted from "Baking: From my Home to Yours" - By Dorie Greenspan
Makes about 20 cupcakes
Ingredients

• 2 ¼ cups cake flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk with the lemon)
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

Directions

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

2. Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
   

3. Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter, and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs, beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, give the batter a good 2-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and will aerated.
   

4. Fill each cupcake 3/4 full. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, or until the cupcakes are well risen and springy to the touch- a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool.
   

Buttercream Recipe: Adapted From Magnolia Bakery
Ingreidents:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  

• 3 to 4 cups confectioners’ sugar

• 1/4 cup milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 2 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.