March Baking Gals

It's that time again!  This months care package included S'mores granola bars, chewy chocolate chip cookie bars and Oatmeal Spice cookies from my kitchen.  We also included some Chex mix, Planter's trail mix, Black Licorice and a couple of boxes of instant drink packets.  We also included two issues of Snowboarder magazine - hopefully this will be something that they enjoy!

We hope that these care packages let them know how much we appreciate the sacrifices and support that they give our country!

Chocolate Chip Roll out Cookies

As I mentioned before one of my new years goals is to practice my royal icing skills and decorating cookies.  I am constantly inspired by a couple of blogs that I follow: Bake at 350; i am baker and The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle just to name a few!  Take a look at their blogs and tell me you are not inspired to pull out your piping tips and give it a try!   

The one problem I always have is with the sugar cookie dough - I find that it is hard to roll out even after refrigerating.  I am also a chocolate girl and while the hubby gobbles up the vanilla based sugar cookies I am always sneaking in the cupboard looking for the lonely piece of chocolate that I must have left back there!  When I saw these chocoalte chip roll out cookies on The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle I knew I had to try them out!!!  Once again Baking GALS gave me the perfect opportunity to try out this new recipe and not have dozen of cookies tempting me.

This dough was really easy to pull together and roll out really well.  No sticking!  I did put the dough back in the fridge when I wasn't using it to keep it cool.  I didn't have any problem with the cookies spreading out while they baked, I am not sure if this is because I kept the dough really cold.  The cookie wasn't too sweet which is good since royal icing is so incredibly sweet, so the combination was perfect.  

I can't recommend these cookies enough!!!  I can't wait to have an excuse to try these out again!

Chocolate Chip Roll out Cookies

Recipe from The Sweet Adventures of SugarBelle

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 large egg yolk

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips

Cream together butter and sugars until light in color and fluffy.  Add in egg yolk and vanilla, beat well.  Slowly incorporate flour and salt mix until incorporated.  Mix in chocolate chips.  Place dough in medium bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.  

Roll dough out onto parchment paper covered with flour and cut out shapes.  Place cookies on parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Refrigerate cookies for 15 minutes before baking.  Bake for 10 minutes.   Remove from oven and cool completely.  

Once completely cooled frost with your favorite icing!  

ENJOY!

Shared on Sweet as Sugar Cookies

M&M Cookies

These cookies were another recipe that I decided to make for February's Baking GALS.  I thought that pairing these with Valentine's edition M&Ms would make a fun and festive cookie.  The cookie dough was a had a wonderful vanilla taste and with M&Ms both mixed into the batter and pressed on the top you get an M&M in every bite.  


M&M Cookies
Recipe from Beantown Baker

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups M&M's

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together sugars and shortening until fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix thoroughly.  Add dry ingredients and blend well.  Mix in 3/4 cup M&M's.  Chill dough 10 minutes.

Scoop onto parchment sheet covered cookie sheet.  Pat down and embellish with M&M's.  Bake 10 minutes.  Cool on rack.

ENJOY!

Chocolate Scotcheroos

I have had this recipe in a special folder on my computer brilliantly called "Recipes to Try", super creative. :)  It seems like this folder keeps growing and growing so when the Baking GALS teams opened up for February I knew where I needed to look for some recipe inspiration.  

I loved Rice Krispie treats as a kid but now when I have one I am always disappointed.  The flavors are just a little too sweet and surprisingly bland for my tastes.  So when I saw this recipe I knew that I had to try it out.  A mixture of peanut butter, chocolate and butterscotch, what could go wrong!    The process was very easy and the resulting treats were delicious!  

I decided to make these in a jellyroll pan so that they were thinner than the normal Rice Krispie treats, I think it makes me feel better about eating them if they are this size!  Thankfully I mailed these over or I think I would have eaten them all!  These were a wonderful inspiration and I think a Nutella Rice Krispie treat is in my very near future!

Chocolate Scotcheroos
Recipe from Kellogg's

1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
6 cups Rice Krispies
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips

Place corn syrup and sugar in saucepan.  Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until sugar dissolves and mixture begins to boil.  Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter.  Mix well.  Add Rice Krispies and stir until well coated.  Press mixture into jelly roll pan, covered in foil and greased.

Melt chocolate chips and butterscotch chips in a double boiler.  Spread evenly over cereal mixture and let stand until firm.  Cut into small squares and ENJOY!

Wordless Wednesday - Baking GALS

Muddy Buddies & Giveaway Winner!

I am so glad that I get to share the wonderful prize pack with.......

Mami2jcn picked by random.org.  She said "I love to make cake with Betty Crocker mixes."

Congrats!

I thought that I would share this fun and easy recipe, I'm sure many of you have already made this but previous to this weekend I had only had Muddy Buddies once before - someone brought them into the office for a Halloween Potluck.  I remember liking them but I don't remember them being so addictive!  This month the team that I signed up for with Operation Baking Gals requested Muddy Buddies, thank goodness I shipped almost the entire batch out because these things are GOOD!  Six simple ingredients and these are a yummy treat for the whole family!

Muddy Buddies
Recipe from Betty Crocker

9 cups of Chex - I used Corn Chex
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 powdered sugar

Melt chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter in a microwave safe bowl for 1 minute.  Stir and microwave for 30 additional seconds until smooth.  Stir in vanilla.  Pour over cereal and toss to coat.  Place half of the mixture into a large ziploc bag - add half of the powdered sugar and toss to coat.  Lay cereal out on cookie sheet covered with waxed paper.  Repeat with remaining cereal.   Let cereal cool and store in airtight container.

Enjoy!

Operation Baking Gals April Shipment

It's that time again!  We shipped off our April package this weekend.  This month I made a couple of new recipes, Muddy Buddies and Orange Cranberry Shortbread.  I also included my favorite Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies.  We also included a bunch of store bought treats, sunflower seeds, gum, fun size Starburst, Oreo cakesters, Cashews.

I hope they enjoy everything!  If you are interested in becoming involved visit Baking Gals!

March Shipment - Operation Baking GALS

The beginning of the month has flown by - I can't believe that I'm barely making the shipping cut-off for this round of Baking GALS!  I forgot to take a picture of the contents of the box but did get one of the outside before my husband took it to the post office.

I included a batch of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies and Chocolate chip cookies - both favorites in our house!  We also bought a couple of different candies, fruit leather and animal cookies because I knew I didn't have time to bake a ton this month.    I hope they enjoyand realize that they are apppreciated for all that they do for our country!

Operation Baking Gals February Shipment

This year my husband and I decided that we would try and do one philanthropic act a month. We both feel that we are very luck to have the life that we have and that we need to try and give to others. After some searching to find something that I could dedicate my time to regularly - my job has erratic hours and I often have to work nights and weekends, I found Baking Gals. This is an organization that bakes and ships homemade goodies to military that are in active duty. Many of these men and women have been away from home for months and this organization hopes to show them that there we are there for support and that we thank them for their service to our country. What a perfect match for me! I love to bake - but my husband and I can't eat all that I make, we wouldn't be able to get out of our chairs! :)

This was my first month and I signed up for a team that had me tearing up while reading the description. Mind you I cry all them time - those Pedigree commercials really tug my heart strings! ASPCA forget it - the channel must be changed unless you want me to have a full breakdown! As luck might have it, this team was a wonderful man and his dog who are part of the Special Ops team in Afghanistan, it was a perfect opportunity to add in my peanut butter dog treats!

In addition to the doggies treats we added Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies (recipe below), pumpkin cookies, snickerdoodles, jelly beans, black licorice, trail mix and magazines. This was a wonderful experience and I felt so wonderful when I sent off my care package! Hopefully everything will get there intact!

I tried this new recipe from Smitten Kitchen, with a few changes below. They were WONDERFUL! They were wonderful little bites of goodness, flecked with cinnamon and mini chocolate chips. I strongly recommend making a batch RIGHT now!!!

Thick, Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

24 - 30 smaller cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream together butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. Add in cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and flour. Stir in oats and chocolate chips.

Chill the dough for 1 hour. Bake for 10 minutes on parchment lined cookie sheets. Let them sit for five minutes before transferring to a cookie rack to cool.