Have you ever met anyone who doesn’t love a chocolate chip cookie?
If you have, you can inform them that they are missing a soul. I’m sorry, I know taste is subjective. But I mean, come on. It’s a chocolate chip cookie!
When you’re feeling lazy, make bars instead. These chocolate chip bars are also full of chopped pecans and topped off with chocolate drizzle. The flair on top is optional, but I love me some drizzle.
When it comes to baking, I have a rule: always up the ante.
If you’re not familiar with poker terminology, let me rephrase that. It’s never decadent enough. We can always do more to make our baked goods push glorious boundaries. Brownies are particularly conducive to letting the crazy out. They’re like the best chocolate canvas ever.
These fudgy guys are a lot of fun. The bottom layer is chocolate graham crackers, followed by brownie batter with chocolate chips inside. So there’s the “triple” in the title. And then the whole kit n’ kaboodle is topped off with jumbo marshmallow slices. Aww yeah.
Some kids get neglected. That’s a tragedy I don’t want to talk about. But something I can handle discussing? Candy bars that get neglected.
When I was a kid, my dad would pick us up after school and on simpler days, we’d go straight home. But sometimes there were errands to run, so we had to go out and about. While I hated errands, it usually meant I got to pick out an after school candy bar. For years, that candy bar was Baby Ruth. Those chocolate-covered peanut and caramel bars have a great deal of nostalgia for me.
Which kind of got me to thinking. I rarely bake with Baby Ruth bars, and that’s a crying shame. So today, I’ve remedied that neglect. They’re getting their very own brookie!
This has been on my baking bucket list for a while.
It’s fun to cook with cola. Did you know that cola makes a fantastic marinade for a hunk of beef? And it also makes a great cake ingredient. It just took me a while to get to trying the whole thing out, since we don’t keep soda in our house. More on that in a moment.
Instead of using straight-up cola for this cake, I used black cherry soda. Dr. Brown’s, to be specific. If you’ve never tried Dr. Brown’s black cherry soda, you are definitely missing out. Their cream soda is pretty amazing, too. But that’s neither here nor there. This cake, though? This cake is amazing. And the icing on top ain’t half bad, either!
Sometimes time can be the best healer.
A year ago, I tried making the famous Sacher torte for my mother’s birthday. It’s a dense chocolate cake with apricot filling that hails from Vienna. I did tons of research and worked much harder than usual to get the cake just right.
Epic fail, everyone. The glaze was clumpy and the cake was just way too dry. It was so not worth all that time and effort. Luckily, time passed and I decided I wanted to try again, but this time I did it on my terms. That means the cake became a brownie and the glaze was a much simpler version of the process that did me in a year ago.
My house is quiet and dark. For several sweet hours a day, my kids are in camp while I get a chance to remember what life was like B.C. (before children) and inhale the sweet nectar of freedom.
Here’s the ultimate perk of being a teacher. For two unpaid months (yep, I inserted that word on purpose), I get a taste of what it’s like to be a stay at home mom. It’s great for these two months. I would not be able to do it year-round and maintain my sanity. Especially if there was no camp.
Every now and then, you run across something unusual in a torn out recipe at the bottom of a drawer that seems so nutty it might actually work.
This recipe is one of those finds. Four ingredients, guys. Four. In other words, any novice or reluctant or lazy baker can tackle this one!
If you have a can of sweetened condensed milk, a box of graham cracker crumbs, some baking powder and chocolate chips, pay attention. This recipe might be for you! But only if you like those ingredients. Me? I happen to love them.
I have no idea what to call this pie. Other than life-changing, that is.
The idea of making a pie crust used to terrify me. I knew that it involved a food processor, which I owned, but couldn’t put together. Seriously. The directions were so confusing. But then, I found a way around it for an easy crust you can make in a bowl. More details on that later.
By the way, I know how to use my food processor now. But whatever. What makes this pie so amazing is peanut butter caramel. Salted peanut butter caramel. Yes, that exists. And it’s easy to make!
These. Bars. Are. Epic.
There are certain desserts I can’t stay away from. Snowball cookies (a.k.a. Russian Tea Cakes) are in that category. If they’re on a plate, I’m eating every last one. There’s no doubt about it. And when I’m presented with toffee bars, the same dang thing happens.
Add caramelized smoked almonds, and guess what? It’s known in my brain as, “Give these away now now now before I eat every last one.”
Sometimes when I’m busy brainstorming recipes to post three times a week or stuck in a baker’s block rut, I don’t take the time to fully appreciate what drew me to create this blog. Luckily, I had a reminder the other day.
Cookies are out, people. Cookies with a gigantic pile o’ frosting and a chocolate shell? In. So in.
I never knew about Hi-Hat cookies until I started reading food blogs. And Julianne is the master, so I learned from her!
This is my first attempt, so bear with me. For a while now, I’ve been trying to come up with a chocolate-covered strawberry concept in a cookie. Originally, my plan was to do something simpler. But then, how could I resist a hi-hat?
