2012 Holiday Treats and Sweets Roundup

Tomorrow is Christmas. I honestly can’t believe how fast this day came. I had so many ideas of goodies to share with you, but I couldn’t bake fast enough. I still have a few recipes to share with you for any leftover eggnog you may have lying around in the fridge and some cute cookies you can bring for a New Years party. I also have a stack of papers with other recipes I need to bake and share before I go back to school in January, hopefully these things will get done. I like sharing recipes with y’all.

So because I’m a little scatter-brained at the moment, I'm giving you a few recipes I think would be perfect for Christmas treats. If you haven't decided what will go on your Christmas dessert table, hopefully you'll find a little nibble you like here. 

First up are these Whole Wheat Donuts. These are so soft and way too easy to make. One batch of six donuts will take you less than 30 minutes from start to finish. With a little sprinkling of powdered sugar, these will be the perfect start to your Christmas morning.

These Chocolate Chip Scones are a little more sophisticated. The chocolate chips are perfectly sweet in comparison to the soft and tender bread. The only thing that makes these scones even more amazing is the peanut butter glaze that goes on top. If I could, I would eat a bowl of that glaze with a spoon, it’s really that good.

There’s a cookie Santa will not be expecting. These are Chocolate-Studded Cookie Bars and they are amazing! The recipe calls for dark brown sugar, which makes these irresistibly dark, gooey, and chewy. Make sure to pair this with an extra tall glass of milk.

This Cinnamon Roll Rice Krispie Treat is seriously the easiest thing you will ever make. These are soft, chewy, and perfect for those you want a little crunchy sweet treat. Oh, and you better not leave that cream cheese frosting off either.

I personally think pumpkin shouldn’t be used after November 30^th, but some people can’t get enough of pumpkin, so I present you the BEST pumpkin bread/cake you will have in your life. I made this back in October for the Cake Slice Bakers and I loved it so much I made another three batches within the same month. I’m sure your family will be eternally grateful if this cake is on the dessert table after a good Christmas dinner.

Here is a little more traditional Christmas dessert. This is the Shoo-Fly Cake; it doesn’t sound like a Christmas dessert, but the molasses and spices added remind me of gingerbread cake. It’s soft, delectable, and the aroma of this cake in the oven will make your house smell like the holidays.

These Bakery Style m&m Cookies have quickly become my favorite. The dark brown sugar lends a dark and chewy cookie. The milk chocolate is a perfect match and because m&m comes out with so many different holiday colors, these cookies can quickly go from a fall-themed cookie to a Christmas cookie perfect for Santa to munch on after leaving presents underneath the tree.

When I saw the Molasses Cookies with Ginger Cream CheeseFilling on The Pastry Affair, I knew I had to make them. I’m so glad I made these this year because they have become my favorite Christmas treat. The cookies are perfectly soft and tender and the ginger cream cheese filling is so delicious you’ll want to eat it out of the bowl.

I hope you guys enjoyed this little roundup. Have a very merry Christmas!

2nd Blogiversary Celebrated with some Fantastic Treats

I’m honestly at a loss for words. I can’t believe I’m trying to type this post at this very minute because my brain is seriously mush. I physically feel weak and it’s not a good feeling. This my friend is what college calculus does to people.

I like math, I do. That is I like math when it clicks. I’m more of a pattern person. When I discover a pattern, I roll along with it. However, I probably wouldn’t be having so much trouble if my teacher taught what was going to be in the homework. My professor is a good teacher, he just doesn’t teach what will be on the homework. So I’m left stting here rubbing my temples and just feeling like mush.

I don’t want to feel like mush. You know why? Well yeah feeling like mush isn’t all that fun, but today should be celebrated. On September 5, 2010 this blog was born. Yes, today is my little blog’s 2^nd birthday. It’s amazing how the time flies.

Sadly I do not have a new scrumptiously yummy treat to share with you today because life has gotten in the way. I have baked (some) but nothing blog-worthy. I was going to throw my hands in the air and post about some ok-ish cookies, but I know Cookie Jar Treats deserves better, so I will wait. So I’m giving you all who read this blog and IOU and a few of my favorite treats from the past year. Enjoy.

Truffle Brownies

Chocolate Chip Scones

Chocolate-Studded Cookie Bars

Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies

Festive Fruity Rice Krispies

Gooey Lemon Brownies

Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

Chocolate Chip Scones w/ Peanut Butter Glaze

Whole Wheat Baked Donuts

Cinnamon Glazed Pumpkin Scone

Softest Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

So yes, these are some of my favorite recipes from the past year. You'll notice there are some pumpkin recipes to get your fall baking on. I'd also like to ask y'all to help me out. You see I have no idea what to bake since I've just been sitting here doing college work and when I'm not doing that I'm just favoriting and pinning things (interest account: rblooney if you're interested). I'm getting so caught up that I'm having trouble deciding what to bake. I want you guys to be interesting in the things I bake, so I'm asking for your input. Chose one of the five from below (or if you don't see something you like, add your own)

1. Homemade Oreos

2. Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

3. Peanut Butter Granola

4. Pancakes (I've got a slew of pancake recipes I'm dying to try)

5. Whoopie Pie (feel free to suggest flavors)

Valintine's Day Sweet Treats

So today I really wanted to do a post about marshmallows; strawberry marshmallows to be exact. I was actually really excited and got up early to make them so I could take pictures when the lighting was at its best. Sadly, my marshmallows didn’t turn out so nice. I don’t even think I can call them marshmallows. After the bubbling sugar was poured into the gelatin, things were doing great, then tragedy struck and my marshmallow batter cream thing-whatever-turned into a giant wad of pink, chewed-up bubble gum. Seriously, it looked and felt like the world’s most ginormous piece of bubble gum. I have yet to tackle the problem of scrapping and chiseling the mess out of my mixing bowl…I’m scared.

So instead of terrifying you with pictures of giant gum ready to engulf you and your loved ones, I crawled through some old (not really so old) posts to give you some ideas on what to give your sweetie and a sweet treat this Valentine’s Day.

Warning: Heavy use of sugar-coated pet names and ooey-gooey love descriptions. <3

Strawberry Cookies

First up: Strawberry Cookies. These are from last year. I didn’t have time to make them again this year, but I remember them being awesome, and a little salty…but that’s because I ran out of salt and thought a good substitute would be salt from the grinder, bad idea. Don’t use that kind of salt unless you want a giant chunk of saltyness. But do make these. The recipe calls for strawberry milk powder, which gives it a subtly sweet strawberry flavor and its color.

Dark and Dense Brownies

Valentine’s Day is all about chocolate, am I right? These dense and fudgy brownies are perfect for Valentine’s Day. They are easy to whip up, take no time to bake, and come with that perfect papery-thin chocolate crust on top. Pair it with some ice cream and hot fudge sauce and you and your honeybun can share a nice little dessert after a romantic meal.

Chocolate Almond Cake

Not in the mood for brownies after dinner? What about this decadent, nearly flourless, chocolate almond cake. It has that uniquely sweet and aromatic smell of almond and it’s as dense as you can get. Plus it’s topped with the creamiest ganache I have ever had the pleasure of eating. Slice it up and serve with some slivered almonds.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here’s another cookie recipe for you, but instead of it being flavored with strawberry, these soft treats get their chocolatey flavor three different ways. Bittersweet chocolate and butter are melted together, while unsweetened cocoa powder gets added with the dry ingredients, then semisweet chocolate chips are added to the dark cookie batter at the last minute. These did not last long in my house, and I bet your love muffin will love you even more if you make them these as an afternoon treat.

Whole Wheat Baked Doughnuts

So dessert not your thing? Maybe you’re going out for dinner, and dessert is included, but you still want to show your sugar pie some homemade lovin’ from the oven. How about breakfast in bed? These aren’t chocolate, and they aren’t fried, but I’m sure your sweetheart will appreciate you even more when you present them with these doughnuts first thing in the morning.

Thanks for reading this and I hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day. And don’t be discouraged if you don’t have someone to snuggle up to on this pink and frilly day. It just means you get all these chocolatey (and one strawberry) treats to yourself :)

Happy Birthday Blog

I can’t believe it has already been a year since I started this blog. To be honest, I couldn’t remember the date (I’ve never been great at remembering dates) and I had to go back and look it up. I knew it was in the beginning of September, but I didn’t know it was so soon. Does time fly by, or what?

I first started this blog after reading several food blogs and just fell in love with the concept. I didn’t know how hard it was going to be to keep it updated and (hopefully) fun to read. Another confession: I wanted all of the recipes to be a success, and I think I would put just about anything up here in order to have something to blog about. Now, I have actually gotten more into baking and I’m trying new things, and I’m always looking for new blogs to read and follow. It’s kind of funny how many blogs I have favorited so I have the opportunity to look at some of the things they bake or create.

So, for my bloggiversary, I have not created anything spectacular. Actually, I have not created anything at all. Instead, I am going to spotlight ten of the top recipes I made from the preceding year, so I hope you enjoy this little stroll down memory lane.

First up on the list is the Grape Jelly Roly-Poly Pastry. This was my first jelly roll type thing (technical term) that I have ever made. It comes from a cookbook geared toward baking with kids. The cookbook is filled will really cute and delicious looking baked goods. It was hard to pick which one I would bake first, and this happened to be the winner. It was sweet and buttery, perfect for an afternoon snack.

What goes great with grape jelly? Peanut butter of course! These are the softest peanut butter cookies I have ever eaten. Even after a few days, the cookie is still soft and the peanut butter flavor gets even more peanut-buttery!

These Honey Muffins are great as a snack or a bread roll during dinner. For the past two years I have made them for Thanksgiving, and there are never any left. They have a lightly sweet flavor, but they are dang addictive.

Next on the list is this lovely little Flourless Chocolate Cake. Don’t worry when the cake starts to cave in; all flourless chocolate cakes do that. Despite it’s little falling flaw, this cake was very tasty and changed my mind about these sorts of cakes. The key is to use good quality chocolate.

*sings* For the fifth recipe, that Becca shared with me, a choco-late chip coo-kie! Haha, I couldn’t resist, sorry (not really). These little gems were very tasty. I found myself eating three at a time. If you are into the softer chocolate chip cookies, these might be just right for you.

You might be more familiar with this recipe. It’s from a a post that I did not too long ago. It’s the Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookie Bark. Let me tell you, this stuff did not last long in my household. However, the little pieces that did get left over, I think were the tastier bits because the flavors commingled with each other, balancing each other out.

These lusciously moist cupcakes were made not only by me, but by many a member of the Cake Slice Bakers. The cake was phenomenal, and I could not get enough of that streusel that topped the cake. Instead of Heath Bars, I used the crispy Twix bar.

In honor of the final installment of the last Harry Potter movie ever, I dedicated the entire month of July to recipes inspired by the wildly popular books. These little bread/cake biscuits are inspired by Hagrid’s rock cakes that are supposed to be as solid as a rock. Thankfully, these Rock Cakes turned out so tender and soft, not to mention addictive.

These Peppermint Biscotti were inspired after a trip to Starbucks one evening. Most people dip these twice baked cookies in tea or coffee, but since I like neither, I dunked mine in some hot chocolate. After a few dips, my hot chocolate started to taste like peppermint hot chocolate, so there is no need to go to Starbucks again after making these babies.

Last, but not least, I give you Maple Muffins. I have made these on several occasions, and they are always gone within several hours. I actually have to hide or label them saying they are mine, and “Do NOT Eat!”