M&M and Oreo Chunk Cookies

So one Saturday I'm sitting around, getting some stuff done and I notice both Oreo's and M&M's in my panty (I use the word "pantry" loosely here. We have a few shelves we store food on). Well, I certainly can't have those both just lying around or the sweets monster will have them in her belly before too long (thats me!).

I'm sure I could have just thrown them into a chocolate chip cookie recipe, but scouring the internet for recipes is waaaay more fun!

I found this recipe on Cookie Madness and the only thing I did differently was omit the chocolate chips. I promise you there's enough candy going on in these guys. They are delicious! Very sweet, but kind of salty too, I think from the Oreos. Very simple. Very good.

M&M and Oreo Chunk Cookies
From Cookie Madness

6 oz unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup M&M candies
6-8 Oreos, broken into thirds or fourths (do not crush)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and both sugars. Beat in vanilla and egg. Add soda, salt, baking powder and cream of tartar and beat well to ensure the baking powder is well-distributed. Add the flour and stir until it’s absorbed. Stir in the M&M’s and cookies. I chilled the dough for about an hour here, but only because my kitchen at the time must have been about 100 degrees!

Using a heaping tablespoon, drop the cookies about 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

So a few summers ago, Spice and I decided to embark on a little journey called Lost. It took us almost the entire summer to catch up on all the seasons so we would be ready for the next one. Unaware of the world around us, Spice sat on one couch, I on the other, and we went through 4  seasons of Lost.

Stop judging us. We have since expanded our horizons to include TrueBlood and also have a continuous stream of Harry Potter coming from our television.

Last Sunday, our Lost journey came full circle and ended just as it had begun. Spice and I. On the couches. Enjoying our time.

Of course, we needed gourmet snacks. Spice made stuffed artichokes and halibut with a mango salsa (that one of us will have to post soon), and I made vanilla bean ice cream to make root beer floats with.

Root beer floats remind me of summers, on vacation with my family. My cousins and I would eat root beer floats until our belly's hurt and then would beg our parents to get more root beer or vanilla ice cream for us when we ran low.



The root beer float brought me right back there. To my mom telling me to eat some real food, and me stubbornly shoving more root beer and ice cream into my mouth. A pang of nostalgia, if you will.

The Vanilla Bean Ice Cream is non-other than David Lebovitz's recipe. It is so rich and full of vanilla flavor. Perfect to make root beer all frothy and sweet. Of course, I could't even get a picture once I poured root beer in my glass. My mouth was too full. =D

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
From The Perfect Scoop or DavidLebovitz.com

1 cup (250ml) whole milk
A pinch of salt
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
1 vanilla bean
2 cups (500ml) heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Heat the milk, sugar and salt in a saucepan. Split the vanilla bean in half and scrape the seeds into the mixture. Throw in the vanilla bean. When warm, cover, remove from the heat and let it sit for one hour.

Set up an ice bath and set a strainer over the top bowl. Pour in the cream to the bowl.

Stir together the egg yolks in a separate bowl. Rewarm the milk and gradually pour it into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Scrape the yolks and milk back into the saucepan.

Stir over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a spatula until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula. Strain the custard into the heavy cream. Stir over the ice until cool, then add the vanilla extract (homemade if ya got it!). Refrigerate until cold throughout.

Remove the vanilla bean and freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Snickerdoodle Blondies with Cinnamon Penuche Frosting

These are one of my favorite cookie bars. I've made them before and they were gobbled up before you could say "Bob's your uncle" (name that movie)!

Bananie asked me to make something for her to take to class and all I got from her about what she wanted was:

"Something snickerdoodle-like. With cinnamon and sugar. And some kind of frosting. Snickerdoodle frosting. And easy to carry."

Hmm.

After I got that out of her, I immediately thought of the Snickerdoodle bars and figured I could add some cinnamon to a frosting recipe and just make it a Snickerdoodle party.

These were every bit as good as I remembered them! The bars have such a unique texture, and are literally like an actual snickerdoodle cookie. The penuche frosting was great as well, but EXTREMELY sweet. It hardened over the bars, causing it to flake off as you ate it, where it proceeded to melt in your mouth. Yum.  I've posted the Snickerdoodle bar recipe before here and below you will find the Cinnamon Penuche Frosting.



Cinnamon Penuche Frosting
From Cupcake Project

1/2 C butter

1 C brown sugar, packed

1/4 C milk

1 T ground cinnamon

1 1/2 C sifted confectioners' sugar

In a saucepan, melt 1/2 C butter. Add the brown sugar. Bring to a boil and lower heat to medium low and continue to boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the milk and cinnamon and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

Cool to lukewarm.

Gradually add sifted confectioners' sugar. Beat until thick enough to spread. If too thick, add a little hot water. Let cool completely before frosting bars.

Spring Sugar Cookies

Boy, our apartment has become sugar cookie capital of the world. Every time Spice and I want to send cookies to someone or make them for a special event, we almost always break out the iced sugar cookies.

Although it's a bit time consuming (which I just find fun), these cookies always get us praise. Not only do they look beautiful, but they really are delicious. So many decorated sugar cookies out there skimp on the cookie so that the decorating stands out. Lame!

These are the best of both worlds!

These were cute cookies. I think the colors were a little glaring, but to each their own!

One of the cookies had a little mishap coming out of the oven. Waste not! I just made him a little more special =)



The cookie and icing recipe we use. Have fun!

Chocolate Rolled Cookies

One of the only things I dislike about baking is wasting ingredients. Whether that means you waste ingredients on something that was less than mediocre, you use egg whites and have no use for the yolks, your fruit goes bad before you can bake it into something (this happened to me yesterday and gave me a sad), or you make too much frosting than you need.

Well, these chocolate dudes don't use egg whites, have no fruit in them and tasted delicious so by process of elimination you can guess that I had an excess of frosting on my hands! Ding ding ding! You win!

I had almost 2 cups of chocolate frosting left over from my Butterfly Cupcakes and just couldn't bring myself to chuck it. And what better to go with chocolate frosting than chocolate cookies? Ok, chocolate frosting is delicious on vanilla as well, but I wanted to try Meaghan's Chocolate Rolled Cookies in her book Cookie Sensations (By the way, I LOVE this book). And what a perfect way to get rid of some chocolate frosting!

These cookies were great! Soft on the inside, but hold up VERY well to decorating and have a perfect chocolate taste! I rolled them out and used a small, circular cookie cutter. I piped this chocolate frosting on them and sprinkled some white non-pareils on the top. A few of the others I made "sandwiches" with and rolled the edges in the non-pareils.

Chocolate Rolled Cookies
From The Decorated Cookie

1 cup (2 sticks) slightly softened, unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and blend. Mix together the dry ingredients and gradually add to the wet. Cover and refrigerate 1 to 2 hours. When chilled, roll out on a floured surface, cut out shapes, and bake on a parchment paper-lined baking tray in a preheated 375 degree oven. Bake 8 to 10 minutes for small cookies, 10 to 12 minutes for larger cookies, or until edges are crisp. TIP: In lieu of flour, which may show up on the surface, you can roll cookies between two pieces of wax paper.