Milky Way Cookies

     Hello!  Today's recipe for Milky Way Cookies comes from the blog I Heart Nap Time (here).  These cookies are crazy good!  A soft, chewy, chocolately, caramel-y cookie - yum!  I knew the cookies were going to be amazing when I couldn't stop sampling the batter...  
     I had difficulty finding the mini Milky Ways that Jamielyn recommends and ended up using a bag of the "Fun Size".  I wanted to keep the candy bar pieces bite size and keep the caramel from oozing out during the baking process so I cut each bar into 8 pieces.  Worked like a charm! 
     A word of caution: make sure you have plenty of milk on hand when consuming.

Milky Way Cookies

• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 35 mini Milky Ways, coarsely chopped

1.  Preheat oven to 350 and line cookie sheet with parchment paper.  In large bowl cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs and vanilla until well combined

2.  In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt.  Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients along with the chopped Milky Ways.

3.  Drop dough by tablespoonful onto cookie sheet; bake for 9-11 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.  Cool for 2 minutes before moving to wire rack.  Enjoy!

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

     Shut. The. Front. Door.  Strawberry and chocolate in a cookie?! This incredibly delicious and super easy recipe comes from Sally's Baking Addiction (here).  I'll admit that the only reason I wanted to try this recipe was because the cookies were pink.  Yes, pink.  I'm a girl, what can I say?
     Besides being pink, the cookie is puffy, soft and has just the slightest hint of strawberry flavoring.  The semi-sweet chocolate adds a nice touch... They practically melt in your mouth and I feel comfortable saying that there will be very few left overs, if any, when you serve them.  Even the boys will want to eat the pink cookie! 
     Wouldn't these be perfect for Valentine's Day?! 

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 box strawberry cake mix (like Duncan Hines)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 350 and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.  In medium sized bowl combine the cake mix and baking powder.  Set aside.

2.  In a separate bowl combine eggs, oil and vanilla extract.  Slowly stir in cake mixture and blend until a thick dough forms.  Add chocolate chips.

3. Drop dough by tablespoonful onto baking sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Cool for 3-5 minutes before moving to wire rack.  Enjoy!  

Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cookies

     
     Hello!  The title of this post says it all - these are incredibly ooey gooey cookies!  The original recipe came from Lil' Luna's blog (here) via Pintrest (where else?).  While they do take a bit of time to assemble they are definitely worth it!  The cookie is soft with just a bit of tang from the cream cheese and the center is sooo gooey from the Rolo candy.  

Make sure Rolo is completely covered by dough

     To create the cookie balls and keep them uniform in size I used a Pampered Chef scoop (I love that thing!).  When inserting the Rolo into the dough I found that the dough was getting a bit sticky after several minutes and refrigerated the dough when it wasn't in use. 

     The original recipe says to bake cookies for 10-12 minutes but I found 12-14 minutes was a better fit for my oven.  And when cooling I made sure to have a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil underneath the wire rack to catch any of the caramel drips (there were a few).
     While I'll eat cookies at any time, I recommend eating these the day of baking... I served them at a Stampin' Up! workshop the day after baking and found them to be a bit chewier than the previous day, but they were still delicious!

Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cookies

• 1 box chocolate cake mix
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 egg
• powdered sugar
• Rolos chocolate candies

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Cream together butter, vanilla and egg until light and fluffy.

2. Mix in cake mix.

3. Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

4.  Insert Rolo into a ball of cookie dough, making sure the candy is completely covered by dough.  Roll cookie dough ball in powdered sugar and place on cookie sheet. Refrigerate dough for 10 minutes if it becomes sticky.

5.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Cool for 5 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to wire rack.  Enjoy!

Double Chocolate Mint Cookies

     Hello!  According to the McCormick ad I got this recipe from, these cookies are "the best thing to happen to chocolate chunk cookies since milk".  And they're right - these are absolutely delicious!  The cookies are soft and chewy with just a hint of mint flavoring.  Easy to make and even easier to eat... in fact, it's hard to eat just 1!  I made these for the first time on a day when we were having our tub regrouted and offered some to Joe, the regrouter.  I told him him this was a new recipe and that if he liked them he was welcome to help himself to as many as he'd like.  During the day I noticed he came back several times for samples, guess he liked them!

Double Chocolate Mint Cookies

• 2 cups flour
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp peppermint extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup coarsly chopped walnuts

1.  Preheat oven to 350. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium blow; set aside.  In stand mixer, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and extract; mix well.  Gradually add flour mixture on low speed until well mixed.  Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

2.  Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart on baking sheet.

3.  Bake for 8-10 minutes or just until cookies are set.  Cool on baking sheet 2 minute then move to wire racks to cool completely.  Store cookies in airtight container.

Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies

Hello! Those who know me may find it hard to believe that I'm not a huge fan of oatmeal cookies. But since I'm such a wonderful, loving wife I decided to whip up a batch of my famous Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies for my husband, per his request. When I found the recipe last year I of course had to sample one (or two or three) just to make sure they were suitable for consumption. Hands down these are probably the best tasting oatmeal cookies I've ever had, even better than the Shaw's Supermarket oatmeal cookies (and those are pretty good). Sadly, I realized that "vanishing" is a bit misleading; I found that it refers to the amount of time they'll be left in the cookie jar, not your vanishing waistline! While I can't take credit for the recipe I will certainly pass it along!

 

Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup plus 6 tbsp butter, soften

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 salt

3 cups quick cooking oats

1 cup chocolate chips or raisins

1. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars until creamy
2. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well
3. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well
4. Add oats and chocolate chips or raisins; mix well
5. Drop by tablespoonful onto greased cookie sheet
6. Bake 8-10 minutes (I prefer 10) at 350, makes approx. 3 dozen

Here's How I Spent My Weekend!

     On Saturday I got together with the Stamp Club ladies from Portsmouth and stamped, stamped, stamped - for 4 hours!!   But this wasn't a workshop in the traditional sense.  It was a shoebox swap with a purpose: we made cards for Susanna's husband to distribute to troops while he's stationed in Afghanistan.  Each member came up with one card, supplied all the materials needed to make the card and then demonstrated how to put it together.  And I must admit that it felt sooo nice to sit back and let others do all the work!  In the end, we had about 60 cards with various sentiments to send to the brave men and woman who are currently serving in Afghanistan.

     It was also Jane's birthday!  We celebrated with a delicious breakfast and, of course, cake!

     On Sunday I was up at 6am and spent the entire morning baking cookies, I finally finished at 11:30.  I made Vanishing Oatmeal Chocolate Chip for the cookie swap at school on Monday and gingerbread men for my Kindergarten kids to enjoy on Monday (we're going to read the story and then graph which body part we eat first!).  In total I ended up baking 94 cookies, 52 of which were the gingerbread men that still need to be decorated...

     I'm supposed to start making gift tags and wrap presents pretty soon but I think I may just veg out on the couch for a bit... I'm tired!