chocolate chips | Just About Baked

Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies

Welcome back to Passover Week on Just About Baked! Here today is yet another one of my favorites. I’ve never gone a week without eating chocolate chip cookies, and I don’t see why Passover should be any exception. Thus, this cookie!

A few years back, Martha Stewart put out a few gorgeous dessert cookbooks. One was just for cupcakes, another for pie, and then she also did a whole book devoted to cookies. I bought the whole series, of course. I mean, her stuff is amazing and makes me feel like a grubby little kid who can’t figure out how to make something as fabulous. But when I do make a Martha recipe successfully, I feel proud and happy with life. Go figure.

Twix Magic Bars

Take a deep breath, because you’re in for a shock. Are you ready? Here goes.

I did not try a Twix bar until I was in my late twenties. No joke. Not even a bite. And though there’s usually a reason for travesties like that, I have no real reason to offer. My parents never bought them, I always wanted other candy, and it just never occurred to me to actually eat a Twix bar.

So you can imagine my grief at all the wasted years when I finally tried one. It was such a surprise. Not to shame Rolos, but why hadn’t I tried this caramel (and cookie-infused) candy? Why? Why?!

Ice Cream Shop Blondies

March 28, 2014
Mir
Bars n' Brownies
0 Comments

Back when I was a suffering grad school student, I had one saving grace. Right at the edge of my campus there was an independent ice cream store adorably named Cone E. Island. I got into the habit of stopping there before my grueling night classes and getting something creamy and sugary.

Their signature treat wasn’t ice cream, though. It was a giant blondie called a Fantasy Bar. While it came in many flavors, the original was the best. I could always count on that bar to deliver with its giant chunks of caramel, chocolate and white chocolate.

Cookies and Cream Bark

About a year ago, I embarked upon a kindness project. It’s not much, but I decided to bake something for each co-worker’s birthday. You see, every time someone did me a random act of kindness, I’d just feel so grateful. And kind of guilty, too, because I wasn’t doing enough back. So the birthday baking is my way of showing appreciation for the people I work with, but it’s also my way of making them feel special.

Anyway, this past week, I messed up. An intern’s birthday somehow slipped through my fingers. I promised to make it up to him and he told me that the easiest way to make him happy was to incorporate Oreos into whatever I was baking.

I’ve noticed something about Oreos: they have the same fanatic fan base that my beloved peanut butter cups do. And like any loyal fan, Oreo devotees accept no generic substitutes. It has to be Oreo or bust. I understand completely. I accept no peanut butter cup that’s not a Reese’s.

M & M Birthday Cake Magic Bars

I just realized something quite shocking. My blog’s been around for all of two weeks and I haven’t posted anything with sprinkles yet! Must fix this problem immediately.

Sprinkles are really magic. I realized a few months back that if I put sprinkles on anything, my kids will eat it. While I’m tempted to test that theory on broccoli, that’s sort of gross. But my son, who pretends to hate chocolate, decided to eat these bars just because of the sprinkles.

See? Magic.

Which is appropriate, considering these are magic bars. The traditional magic bar has a graham cracker crust and then layers of goodness, like chocolate chips and nuts, ending off with a layer of condensed milk. While I don’t always like to mess with success, I’ve found that magic bars can be created in any flavor, anytime, which is why you will probably see a lot of them on this site.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Fudge

Despite my unending sugar addiction, I can resist a whole lot of cookies. Snickerdoodles? Mildly interested shrug. Anything with mint? Keep trying. Peanut butter cookies? Now you’ve got my attention. And…chocolate chip cookies? Forget about it. I’ll eat the whole batch before anyone can blink.

Somehow, incorporating chocolate chip cookie into a baked good is a process fraught with nothing but sheer joy. Chocolate chip cookie cakes, for example, are a heavenly birthday treat. Chocolate chip cookie pie is just…well, let’s just say that if you haven’t tried it, you need to.

Recently, I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies because…oh, come on. Who really needs to ask why? But anyway, I was on my third cookie when inspiration struck.

Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Trifle

Have you noticed that I like to put brownie in almost everything? Sorry, kids, but an addiction is an addiction. And I don’t want to get help.

Many years ago when I was a sparkly newlywed, someone went off the registry and got us a trifle dish. At first, I was confused. What on earth was this vase-bowl hybrid thingy? But years of experience and some research cleared up my fog. And I learned that trifles are actually quite nice.

More traditional trifles have whipped cream and berries inside of them, but if you’re getting to know me, then you realize that I can’t go without chocolate. Preferably with peanut butter.

Girl Scout Cookie Mini-Cheesecakes

March 9, 2014
Mir
Bars n' Brownies, Cupcakes and Cheesecakes
3 Comments

‘Tis the season. You know, that in-between time when spring isn’t here yet and we are so incredibly sick of winter and we need something to get us through?

Enter the Girl Scouts. I don’t know much about the organization, having never taken the pledge myself. But I do know this: any outfit that sells boxes of cookie magic while I’m busy scraping ice off the windshield is the best.

Most people are all about Thin Mints, and a slightly smaller contingent salivates for Samoas. But an even tinier group of us proclaim our undying devotion to the most underrated of all Girl Scout cookies: Tagalongs, a.k.a. Peanut Butter Patties.

Though I favor Tagalongs above all, I am an equal-opportunity dessert enthusiast. Why discriminate against the other flavors? So I decided to make these mini-cheesecakes based on the three most chocolaty Girl Scout cookie flavors.

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Cookie Bars

Since this is my inaugural post, I’m going to start this relationship the way I want to continue it: honestly.

And to be downright truthful, I have to admit that when it comes to dessert, I have absolutely the highest threshold imaginable for sugar tolerance. When everyone else is saying things like, “Wow, that’s so rich. I can’t eat more than one bite,” I’m halfway through my second helping, feeling like I just don’t get it.

When is anything ever too decadent? Perhaps that explains my tendency to put a lot of EVERYTHING into my baking.