C is for COOKIE! | Just About Baked

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Black and White Cookie Chips Fudge

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.

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Strawberry Cookie Chips Icebox Cheesecake

June 17, 2015
Mir
C is for COOKIE!, Cupcakes and Cheesecakes
30 Comments

It just hit me: July 4th is a few short weeks away. How did this happen?

Well, that’s a dumb question. It’s not like I didn’t work hard for July 4th to become a reality. Months of commuting to work in the dark, sometimes in the ice, often in the rain. Months of teaching teenagers the difference between “it’s” and “its.” Months of wrapping myself up in a blanket at my desk when the heat in my classroom, once again, failed to deliver.

I mean, it dang well better be July 4th. And it better be icebox cheesecake weather. Because no-bake is definitely the way to go right now! Especially when this holiday-themed, easy dessert is filled with delicious Hannah Max cookie chips!

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Chips Mini-Cheesecakes

June 10, 2015
Mir
C is for COOKIE!, Cupcakes and Cheesecakes
37 Comments

That name is quite a mouthful, no?

So are the cheesecakes. In a really good way! Because in addition to being li’l bites of heaven, they’re not too heavy on the sugar. And they’re also completely full of Hannah Max chocolate chip cookie chips, i.e., my favorite flavor.

I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t love a chocolate chip cookie. When you put them into crispy cookie chips, they’re that much more addictive. Add cheesecake and I’m not really surprised that people’s eyes lit up at work when they saw me bring these in.

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Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Hi-Hats

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?

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Sea Salt Peanut Butter Cookie Chips Ice Cream

May 31, 2015
Mir
C is for COOKIE!, We Scream for Ice Cream!
32 Comments

If you’ve been following Just About Baked for any length of time, you know that I love the food. All the food. And the food products. My life is one happy trip to the grocery store to find new things.

A couple of years back, I was in the bakery section of my local Safeway (not an unusual place to find me) when I spotted Hannah Max Cookie Chips on the shelf. They had several flavors, and I picked up the chocolate chip, not knowing what to expect.

What I got was a crispy cookie that tasted absolutely homemade. And they were so good that Kenny (these were the days prior to his gluten-free lifestyle) ate the entire bag. And when I bought more, I was wise enough to hide them.

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Mega Peanut Butter Cup Cookie

Big cookies are better than regular-sized cookies. But mega cookies are the BEST.

I can’t think of anything more tempting than a giant cookie. They always look so good in bakeries, like the antidote to a gloomy day or a sleepless night. Or both.

Back in high school, I had a bit of a dirty secret. You see, my parents never packed me lunch. I guess they trusted me to do it myself, just like they trusted me to change the sheets on my bed or do homework instead of watching reruns of Family Matters. Sorry, but I still think Urkel is kind of hilarious.

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Cherry Blossom Cookies

Have you ever visited D.C. in the springtime?

If you have, you know all about the cherry blossoms. The trees are beyond gorgeous, with little delicate pink blossoms sprinkled all over the tidal basin. It’s so lovely. It’s also mega-crowded. The tourists come from everywhere to see the blossoms, and it’s almost impossible to walk. People just shuffle along, elbow to elbow, taking awkward selfies.

Still, cherry blossoms in D.C. mean spring, warm breezes, and fun cookie flavors. How could I not try to put all that cherry blossom aura into a cookie? So I did.

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Oatmeal Raisinette Cookies

The other day, my school was on lockdown.

Yep, that scary thing that happens when a dangerous criminal is on the loose and everyone locks doors, closes blinds, covers door windows with a black sheet of construction paper, and waits in the dark for the all-clear signal.

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Chocolate Chip Mandel Bread (Passover Edition!)

I love how different cultures wind up making such similar foods.

For instance, almost every culture I know has a potato, meat or cheese-filled pastry of some kind. We call them different names, but they’re all delicious. And while Italians call a particular kind of cookie “biscotti,” people of Jewish descent call a very similar cookie “mandel bread.”

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Double Chocolate Chip Bars

Nosebleeds can really interfere with your dignity.

I was teaching yesterday when all of my students started giving me this funny look. It took me a second longer to realize that blood was freely gushing out of my nose (I’m a very enthusiastic bleeder). Like the cool teacher I am, I grabbed the tissues and kept on talking about Nick and Gatsby and Daisy. But honestly, with literal blood on my hands, I don’t think I recovered very well. There went that class. I’ll do better next time.