30 Jun
No-Bake Chocolate, Peanut Butter & Oatmeal Cookies
Posted by Michelle as Cookies | 79 Comments
Perfect for those moments when you are desperately craving something sweet and chocolatey, but don’t have a lot of time (or patience) to make a full-blown batch of cookies. I must really live under a rock sometimes (I know, I said this when I made the coconut macaroons, but I swear it’s true!) because although I had heard of no-bake cookies from my time spent surfing food blogs, I had never had them before! Well, now I might be in trouble. These mounds of sugary, peanut buttery, chocolate goodness are incredibly addicting. They take only minutes to make and if you’re really desperate and don’t want to wait for them to set, you can eat the mixture straight from the bowl – no raw eggs to worry about! These mark my third installment of cookies that you all voted for me to make in the poll I held following the cookbook giveaway. Thanks to everyone for helping to broaden my cookie horizons!
29 Jun
Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls
Posted by Michelle as Pastries | 43 Comments
If you have a big soft spot in your heart for ooey gooey breakfast pastries, then you will no doubt fall in love with these at first bite. And if you don’t have that big soft spot, take one bite of these and I guarantee you will be a convert. Cream cheese is rolled into the pastry dough (much like laminated dough) and creates a soft and flaky dough. That, combined with the incredible filling, makes for the most flavorful cinnamon rolls that I have ever tasted. While these require you to set aside some time and involve multiple steps, they are not difficult and without a doubt absolutely worth it. If you have overnight guests and they wake up to these fresh from the oven, you will score some serious points and may have to start turning house guests away. Everyone will want to stay over!
26 Jun
Almond Macarons Filled with Nutella
Posted by Michelle as Cookies | 14 Comments
So to recap, last week I made the fabulous Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons, as they raked in the most votes in my readers’ choice poll where I asked which cookie you all would like to see me make. I’m so glad I made them – they tasted fabulous, looked great, and everyone who tried one was blown away. Even better, I loved the comments from those of you who ran off to try them after seeing them here. Thanks so much for coming back and letting me know that you tried them! The only pickle with the poll seemed to be a matter of spelling: macaroon vs. macaron. As a result, I promised to make Macarons this week, and here they are!
There are so many colorful variations of this wonderful cookie and its fillings, but for my first try out of the gate I decided to go the simple route with a basic almond macaron recipe and, thanks to the suggestion of Stephanie, filling the cookie sandwiches with Nutella.
25 Jun
Cookies & Cream Oreo Look-Alike Cake
Posted by Michelle as Layer Cakes | 32 Comments
My grandpap’s favorite cookies, by a long shot, are Oreos. As far back as I can remember, any time we visited my grandparents, there would be a glass fishbowl-style cookie jar full of Oreo cookies sitting on the kitchen counter. We were always offered one (or a few, if my grandma and mom weren’t looking) and it didn’t take us long to realize that they were his favorite snack. This past Father’s Day we celebrated my grandpap’s 83rd birthday with a cookout. My mom asked if I could make a cake for the occasion and I immediately figured I would incorporate Oreos into the dessert. The result is a two-layer chocolate cake filled with a cream cheese/whipped cream mixture that has chopped Oreos folded in, and topped with a chocolate ganache. I skipped a traditional full icing in order to make the cake actually look like an Oreo cookie.
19 Jun
Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons
Posted by Michelle as Cookies | 42 Comments
The votes are in! Thanks to everyone who took part in my poll, as well as in the giveaway. It was a lot of fun to see which cookie everyone wanted to see me bake and blog about here, and it was a nail biter. No Bake cookies almost pulled off the victory, but the winner, by a hair, was the Macaroon. I was excited about all the cookies since I hadn’t made any of them before, but I was especially excited about the macaroon because I had never even eaten one before. How crazy is that? I must have lived under a rock for many, many years. First the Chinese food, and now this.
I’m sure that I’ll be making up for lost time because these coconut macaroons are ridiculously good and insanely addicting. I tested them both plain and then dipped in the chocolate. (I wouldn’t be a good food blogger if I didn’t do thorough taste-testings, right?) I honestly could go either way, they are truly fabulous. I thought they were fantastic plain, straight from the oven, and of course I love chocolate, so I thought they were great dipped in chocolate as well. You really can’t go wrong here. In fact, I’m thinking of adding these to my holiday baking list.
18 Jun
Italian Supreme Calzones
Posted by Michelle as Pizza, Flatbreads and Crackers | 15 Comments
When I visit my Chief Culinary Consultant we often grab a “take and bake” pizza from Safeway that is absolutely delicious. It’s a supreme pizza that includes Italian sausage, pepperoni, peppers, onions, and black olives. There may be even more on there that I can’t remember, but it’s by far the best pre-made pizza I have ever had (which is surprising because I usually don’t like olives at all, but I enjoy the whole of this pizza). I remembered that I had pizza dough in the freezer from awhile back, but I wasn’t feeling an actual pizza (shocking, I know); I wanted something different. It then occurred to me that I still hadn’t made calzones, so that solved my dilemma, calzones it was!
For the longest time I wondered about the difference between calzones and stromboli, and finally I learned the answer: while calzones are pockets of pizza dough filled with meat, cheese and vegetables, stromboli are made with Italian bread dough and can contain the same types of ingredients but are rolled into an oblong loaf and sliced to serve (much like a pepperoni bread).
17 Jun
Seven-Layer Bars
Posted by Michelle as Brownies and Bar Cookies | 30 Comments
Seven-Layer Bars, also known as Magic Bars, have a graham cracker-crumb base and are topped with a combination of nuts, chocolate chips, and coconut, and held together by sweetened condensed milk. In other words: Sweet. Rich. Delicious. Grab a tall glass of milk and get your oven ready!
My mom had an evening meeting and was asked to bring dessert, so she asked if I’d like to make something for her. I never turn down an opportunity to bake, so I immediately said yes and thought about what I could make that would be a crowd-pleaser. When I have free reign over a dish, I often turn to My 100 list to see what I still have left to cross off and if any of the remaining items would work well. And so when I ran down my list, I thought that Seven-Layer Bars would be a great dessert to share with others.
16 Jun
Chocolate Espresso Semifreddo
Posted by Michelle as Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts | 36 Comments
Do you like those slushy, cold drinks that Starbucks sells? I believe Mocha Frappuccino is the name? Those, along with the hot chocolate, are the only drinks I enjoy from Starbucks. I know, I know, I’m in the minority. In any case, this dessert tastes like one of those drinks, spread over an Oreo cookie crust and popped into the freezer. In other words, absolutely freaking delicious. Now I had heard of semifreddo before and have even watched Giada DeLaurentiis make a couple, but I wasn’t sure what exactly classified a particular frozen dessert as a semifreddo, so I did some Googling. According to Wikipedia:
Semifreddo (Italian for “half cold”) is a class of semi-frozen desserts,
typically ice cream cakes, semi-frozen custards, and certain fruit tarts.
It also refers to an ice cream sandwich, in which the bread
is a lightly toasted croissant. It has the texture of frozen mousse.
This definitely qualifies as a semi-frozen custard and certainly has the texture of a frozen mousse.
15 Jun
Old-Fashioned Spice Cake
Posted by Michelle as Cakes | 11 Comments
This spice cake is a recipe that my great Aunt has been making for as long as I can remember. It’s her “signature dish”. Well, one of a few. She also makes a killer Jello that has baby food in it (secret ingredient!) and a mean broccoli casserole. But as far as desserts go, this one is all her. This past weekend was her birthday and since she hasn’t made this in awhile, I thought it would be a nice treat to bake this for her to enjoy. She was so excited when I showed up with this, it was a true pleasure to see her face light up.
Ironically, the original name of this recipe is “Poor Man’s Cookies”. Well, as you can see, this is not a cookie! I always wondered about the name and the recipe’s origin, and then when going through a ton of my grandma’s old recipes, I found a yellowed newspaper clipping of a recipe for Poor Man’s Cookies, which was nearly identical to my aunt’s, save for a few quantity changes. There wasn’t an explanation in the clipping about the origin of the recipe, so I am taking this for what it is – a beloved old-fashioned recipe.
11 Jun
Your Top 10 Favorite Cookies and Readers’ Choice: Pick a Cookie!
Posted by Michelle as Cookies | 29 Comments
Thanks to everyone who took part in my very first giveaway and congratulations to Sherri, the proud new owner of Field Guide to Cookies!
Wow, you all were amazing, rattling off your favorite cookies. You made me hungry. I’m still hungry for cookies, so I thought we’d have a fun little poll. (You’ll have to indulge me here since my “real day job” as a marketing analyst is rearing its ugly head with Excel lists and percentages!) Although I got a sense from the comments that chocolate chip cookies are by far the favorite, I thought I would do a little calculating and see what the Top 10 were. Here are YOUR favorite cookies!
#1: Chocolate Chip Cookies.
The classic favorite. Most everyone has a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, but in the case that you don’t or if you’re just looking for something new to make, check out the Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies. They’re absolutely incredible and my favorite.
Continue reading to see the rest of the Top 10 and vote for what I bake and blog next!
