Amazeballs trials

Trying out some new flavors for my amazeballs:

Birthday Cake (cookie dough with sprinkles, dipped in icing)



Peanut Butter Cookie (cookie dough with reese's pieces, dipped in peanut butter)



Chocolate chip cookie dough (cookie dough with chocolate chips, dipped in chocolate)



Which one is YOUR fav?

Amazeballs Take Two

Here is a second batch of Amazeballs I made for my husband's holiday work party.  The stick says "pwtv" which stands for Power Women TV, the company he's working with right now.  They tasted great, now I need to perfect the look.. particularly the top.  I'll be making these again soon.

Happy Chanukah

This post is a big one for me because it marks my first official year of writing this blog!  The first cookies I ever posted were Chanukah swirl cookies that I baked when going to my parents house to celebrate last year.  This year, my family came to my tiny apartment to celebrate the occasion.  I always forget how small my place is until there are 9 adults, 2 kids, and a dog running around.  It was definitely crowded, but I think the space (or lack there of) made the occasion more intimate and fun!  Anyway, it was no big shock that I'd be baking cookies.  After all, one of the reasons I got into baking is because of the "cookie contests" that my family has held over previous Chanukahs.  The rest of my family stopped competing a few years back, but I just kept on going... 

I don't have a story about the baking of these cookies, as everything went pretty smoothly.  Because of the intricacy of each cookie, they did take a number of hours (and over 3 nights) to make.  I made the icing with confectioner's sugar, lemon juice, and egg whites this time around, and a lot of my taste testers gave it rave reviews.  I think I'm finally getting this icing thing down!  Anyway, here are some pictures:

Amazeballs

I went to Florida for Thanksgiving this year, but I still found time to sneak in a little baking... ok technically I guess I can't call it baking because I didn't use my oven for this recipe, I used my freezer.  I made "Amazeballs" (named by my husband after he fell in love with them), for a Pre-Thanksgiving work Pot Luck.  They were chocolate chip cookie dough truffles with Reese's Pieces.

Now, based on the name and sound of this naughty-little-snack, you'd think that this was a quick and easy and successful experience right?  Wrong.

Brown sugar, you are the bane of my existence.

After posting some of my previous recipe experiences, some of you reached out to me with ways to soften brown sugar that had turned hard.  They were all great ideas, but most of them require at least a few hours of waiting in order for the brown sugar to soften.  When I decide to bake something, it is usually last minute, and I usually can't wait to get started.  So one fast idea stuck out in my head:  Put the brown sugar in the microwave.  Bingo.  One short step and my problem would be solved.

Fifteen seconds in the microwave.  I noticed just the tiniest difference, but I could tell it was working.  Fifteen more seconds.  A little more.  Thirty seconds in the microwave...  It was changing ever so slowly.  Being the impatient cook that I am, I came up with the brilliant idea to stick it in for five minutes while I ran down to Duane Reade to pick up a last minute ingredient.

You guessed it, when I came back up, the brown sugar had exploded.  Wait, it gets better.  I had put the brown sugar in a plastic bowl.  Why did I do that do you ask?  I'd call it a blonde moment, but since I'm no longer blonde I can't even use that excuse.  Anyway, this is what the microwave looked like:

Sad right?  That pile on the bottom was not just the brown sugar.  Nope, it was the bowl too.

After the brown sugar debacle, it was smooth sailing.  An easy mixing of ingredients and a fun fondue project.  And guess what, my husband said it was the best thing I ever 'baked' for him and I didn't even touch the oven.  It'll be our little secret.

Here is the recipe, I HIGHLY recommend it:

http://www.bakerella.com/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-truffles/

Thank you Bakerella !

Hurricane Sandy Cookies

I hope that everyone stays safe during these next few hours and days as we wait for the hurricane to pass.  This natural disaster will be truly historic, and something that we talk about for a long time to come.  Little did we know that when Good Sandy decided to reinvent herself for Danny Zuko that Bad Sandy would cause this much damage!  Ok that's my only corny joke....

As horrible as this storm is, there are some small perks and silver linings.... like having a little vacation from work and some time to spend with friends.  I took advantage of my time off by having a little 'hurricane party' with some of my favs at my apartment!

Ok, really there were 7 friends (and 3 dogs) at this event.  We all enjoyed a 'family' potluck dinner so I contributed with my now staple dessert: sugar cookies.  I chose umbrellas for obvious reasons.  I used an umbrella cookie cutter from my 'cookie cutters throughout the year' pack.  This one was meant for April, but it seemed much more fitting to use it for this!.  It took some maneuvering to transfer the cut out dough to the cookie sheet (mainly the handles), but with addition of some flour to the dough, they held together a lot easier.

I wanted to give the cookies a fall flavor, so I added a touch of cinnamon and a splash of apple cider to my standard cookie recipe.  I added a little cinnamon to the icing as well.  It didn't affect the consistency of either recipe, and the taste was not overpowering at all, just a hint of fall.  They were quite good.

Skull Cookies

I've been reluctant to write a post because over the summer I baked these beautiful watermelon cookies and I cannot find the pictures for them.  That's what I get for waiting to write a post on them.  Well just know they came out adorable and delicious.  If I find the pictures I'll complete that post.

Moving on I guess...

Happy October!!  I needed some serious baking inspiration after those hectic summer months.  When a couple of my friends and I decided to have a dinner party, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.  It was quite the serious dinner party: a salad to start, followed by penne alla vodka served on our fancy plates, paired with a Cabernet Sauvignon, followed by some loose tea and.. my freshly baked dessert.  What was the dessert you ask?  Fancy Skull Sugar Cookies of course!

Why Skulls you ask?  My reason was two-fold.  First of all, it was the beginning of October and that means Halloween season... which I love.  Enough said.

Second, my guests at the dinner party just started their own jewelry line, Guilty Jean.  Their concept is a mix between feminine beauty, rugged masculinity, spirituality, and goth inspired punk.    [ Shameless plug : Go to their website and check them out!  http://www.guiltyjean.com/ ]  Anyway,
the majority of the pieces they feature include skulls so I wanted to make something to show my support.

I tried a new low fat recipe for the sugar cookies and needless to say, I'm not going to copy and paste that recipe to this blog.  They tasted like chalk.  I just need to stick to the original recipe... full of butter, fat, and yummy goodness.

The good news is, the cookies looked awesome.  I used Color Writer Markers to make the faces.  It was ridiculously easy to do.  

Puffed-Up Chocolate Chip Cookies

Now that it's September and it's officially "back to school" season, it's time for me to resume my quest.  This summer was very tough to find time for baking... plus the fact that I was putting on bathing suits didn't help my motivation.  I did manage to make a few fun things, and I did find an amazing low calorie recipe for chocolate chip cookies.  It's from myrecipes.com.    It's actually called "puffed-up chocolate chip cookies" because it has somewhat of a cake-like airy quality to it.  So if you like that kind of cookie, you are in luck because these turned out amazing.

Puffed-Up Chocolate Chip Cookies
For 3 dozen cookies:

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Cooking spray

Preparation
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.  Spoon applesauce into a fine sleeve into a bowl; let stand 15 minutes.  Discard liquid.  Scrape drained applesauce into a large bowl.  Add sugar and butter; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).  Beat in vanilla and egg.  Add flour mixture; beat at low speed until well-blended.  Fold in chips.  Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray.  Bake at 375 for 10 minutes or until almost set.  Cool on pan 2 to 3 minutes or until firm.  Remove cookies from pan; cool on wire racks.

For those of you who are interested, here is the nutrition information per cookie:
Calories: 78
Fat: 2.9 g
Carbs: 12.8 g
Fiber: .2 g
Cholesterol: 10 mg
Protein: .8 g
Sodium: 87 mg

Not bad ay?