Faux Skor Bars

When I was a kid... one of my most favorite places was the gas station. I know, I know... that sounds really weird, but its very true. The gas station was like this smorgasboard of sugar. Rows and rows of candy bars and soda... and anytime the whole family was in the car for more than an hour or so and my dad was driving... we'd stop at the gas station and get a drink and a candy bar. Which was a real treat in my family.

You see... my mom... she was kind of into health food when I was growing up. I mean, we ate roman meal wheat bread when it was the ONLY wheat bread available at the store. I can even remember the first time I ever had white bread... it was at a friends house and I was probably 8 years old and I thought it was the most disgusting thing, because it stuck to the roof of my mouth. I couldn't believe that people preferred that to the wheat bread I was used to. So, you can imagine... if we weren't eating white bread all the way back in 1982 or so... then, high fructrose corn syrup was a pretty big no-no in our house. If we wanted something sweet to eat... my mom would whip up a batch of Grandma Cookies.

So, it was a big deal to get a soda and a candy bar. Even if my dad had to go to the gas station on a saturday to fill up gas tanks for the lawn mower or tractor... my brothers or I always wanted to go so that we could pick out our sodas and candy bars... but, if we didnt go, my dad would just bring a bag of snickers and cokes home for us anyway.

One of the candy bars that I got quite often was a Skor bar. Yum. Chocolate covered toffee. I used to eat all the chocolate off the bar first and then savor the toffee on it's own. It seems like now a days... there aren't as many candy bars out there to choose from... and whenever I'm in line at Target or Harris Teeter.. I'm lucky if they've got candy bars in that aisle at all.. let alone a skor bar or a whatchamacallit, etc...

I've had this recipe printed out for awhile, but never had any saltines. I picked up a box of whole wheat saltines just to try this recipe out... and as soon as i had a bite of this... I was instantly taken back to my childhood... they taste exactly like a skor bar! Particularly since I used milk chocolate chips in my recipe. Who knew that you could make skor bars out of wheat saltine crackers???

Anyway... these are delicious and so simple to make!

Saltine Candy/Toffee

Andes Mints Chocolate Chip Cookies

St. Patrick's Day has been my favorite holiday for YEARS. We're talking wayyy back to like 6th grade or something. Before I even dreamt of the wonders of green beer. As the years have gone on, my love for St. Patrick's Day has turned into an obsession with all things Irish (and green). It's pretty bizarre, actually. I mean, there really isn't any good reason for me to be so obsessed with Ireland (besides the fact that it's a beautiful, friendly country that reminds me a lot of my home state of Tennessee). My ancestors were likely scottish, maybe some were irish, but even that doesn't matter, because my family has lived in TN since the 1780s. I love Irish writers, Irish beer, (if I'm going to have whiskey, I prefer Tennessee Whiskey.. aka... bourbon to irish whiskey), Irish and Celtic music. All of it. I freaking love it.

So, I get pretty excited when March rolls around. I'm having a small family get together at my place tonight to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, so there will be a Irish-themed Post on Monday. But, last night, I was craving some cookies. Not necessarily Chocolate Chip cookies, and not peanut butter or oatmeal cookies, either. So, I perused Recipezaar and found this recipe. I had some andes mints that I needed to use up, so I decided to give it a whirl.

Now, I'm starting to get comfortable in adjusting recipes a little bit. Which is very exciting. And after reading some of the reviews of this recipe, I made my own adjustments! And they turned out fabulous! Actually, This is the perfect chocolate chip cookie consistency. I plan on trying it again without the Andes Mints to make soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies. If they turn out like these, they will indeed be my favorite chocolate chip cookies, I think. I'll let you know how that recipe turns out.

Anyway, you can use the original link up there, or follow my adjusted recipe below.

And, after I put the first round in the oven, I couldn't help but throw some food color in the second round. When will I ever learn that green cookies just don't look appetizing? Oh well. At least they look cute in my shamrock server!

Andes Mint Cookies

Adapated from KC_Cooker's recipe on Recipezaar.

I made a half batch and got 14 cookies. This recipe is for a whole batch.

1 cup plus 2 tbsp of unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsps vanilla

2 large eggs

1 10 oz package of andes baking chips (I used crushed up andes mints)

1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 cups of flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Blend butter, sugars, baking soda and powder, vanilla and eggs until ingredients are mixed.

Add mints and chocolate chips and mix.

Add flour and continue to mix until well blended.

Cover and chill in fridge for 45-60 minutes.

Use a cookie scoop or a tbsp to measure out dough and form a ball of the dough in your hands and then slightly flatten it and place it on non-stick baking sheet.

Bake for approximately 7-9 minutes.

Cool on pan and then transfer to baking rack.

S'mores Bars

So, I’ve been eyeing this recipe for awhile now. I saw it a long time ago on Anna's Blog and I printed the recipe awaiting the perfect time to whip these up.

Unfortunately, it took about 6 months for the perfect time to roll around. I made them Thursday night to take to the Bachelorette Weekend honoring my friend Leigh. Who doesn’t love s’mores?

A funny story about this recipe from this weekend... Everyone who knows me… knows about my blogs. But, most of the girls that were at the bachelorette weekend, I either didn’t know at all, or just barely knew. So, on Saturday night, when I passed my camera over to a couple of the girls so they could review the pics from the weekend, I didn’t even think about the 40+ pictures of the s’mores bars that I had taken Friday morning that were still on my camera. That is until I noticed them surfing through the pics and then looking at each other funny, giggling and whispering to each other.

Crap, I thought. Now, they are going to think I have some weird food fetish or something. So, I tried to yell over the loud music at the bar… “I HAVE A BAKING BLOG, THOSE PICTURES ARE FOR MY BLOG, I’M NOT INTO FOOD PORNOGRAPHY.” Which, I think probably made me sound even weirder.

Whatever. They were excellent and the perfect pot luck crowd pleaser. They will definitely be made again.

Here’s the recipe . I doubled it to make a 9x13 inch pan.

I do have one suggestion. Line your baking dish with parchment paper or quick release foil, so that you can remove the bars by the parchment paper or foil and then cut them into squares. Also, I refrigerated the bars overnight before I cut them.

So much easier than building a campfire.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

416 people can't be wrong. Right? 416 rave reviews of a cookie recipe can only mean one thing: EXCELLENT COOKIE. When I saw these cookies on Anna's site Cookie Madness and I read the reviews of them on allrecipes.com I couldnt help but want to make them immediately. I actually went out that night and bought reese pieces so that I could make these cookies.

I took the suggestions of the reviewers on allrecipes.com and used half shortening/half butter and I also used half light brown sugar and half dark brown sugar.

The cookies turned out good. But, they weren't like WOW these cookies are amazing (which was how most of the reviews were written). I felt like these cookies fell kind of flat. It's like, they weren't chocolatey enough and they certainly weren't peanut buttery enough.

Recipe

m&m Cookies

You're smiling right now, aren't you? How can you not look at a plate full of m&m cookies and not smile? I mean, I think it's literally impossible, unless you're a serial killer type or one of those weird people that don't like sweets or something. Instead of those posters with kittens playing with a ball of string or unicorns flying through the air, people should have posters of m&m cookies on their walls. The world would be a happier place.

Ahhh... nostalgia. I hadn't had homemade m&m cookies in 20 years probably. Why? I guess because I very rarely have a huge ass bag of m&ms just lying around. Luckily, a few weeks ago, I bought a bag of m&ms with the intention of making some m&m cookies. I searched around for a recipe for awhile. You would think that you'd just substitute m&ms in place of chocolate chips in a chocolate chip cookie recipe, right? Well, maybe, but I seemed to remember the cookie part of an m&m cookie tasting a little different than the cookie part of a chocolate chip cookie. And I'm a stickler for the cookie part, folks.

So, I found this recipe and decided to swap the butter for butter flavored shortening. Next time, I think I'll use half butter, half shortening. These cookies turned out just how I remembered, chewy and a little crispy and buttery and sweet. These cookies could quite possibly be the happiest cookies around.

Whopper Cookies

Whoppers are that candy bar that I only eat at halloween. I would never buy a package of whoppers, but at halloween I always loved eating the little funsize packages. The truth is, I love malt. Like, I really love it. Malted milk, malted milkshakes, etc... It's all great for me. The thing about the whopper that keeps me from buying a whole package is... it's a little too hard for me and sometimes you get that super stale one that makes you feel like you are eating an acorn. Yeah, there's that.

So, since I love malt... i've had this recipe printed out for awhile now. It's originally from Dorie Greenspan and I've seen it made on a couple of my favorite blogs (cookie madness and foodbeam) And I've had whoppers since halloween... but I hadn't been able to find the malted milk powder at my grocery store. I knew that Harris Teeter would have it, but the last time I went to harris teeter, I had a flustering encounter and totally forgot to pick up the malt powder. So, I made a special trip the other week, because I was craving chocolate-y, malt-y goodness.

Turns out... these cookies aren't that great. They could be more chocolate-y and more malt-y.

I was really disappointed with this recipe.. especially after all the build up. But, oh well... there are plenty more recipes to be made!

Rolo Cookies

So, are you sick of Halloween candy yet???

Jeez… I sure am. Uggh. Why did I buy 11 pounds worth of Halloween candy?? What was I possibly thinking I’d do with all of it??

Well… here’s a recipe that I found that used up my rolos. They’re pretty good. Although, to be fair, when I made them, I wasn’t exactly in the mood for another chocolate cookie, so that probably affected my opinion of them.. If you’ve got leftover rolos, I recommend these cookies, but honestly.. I wouldn’t rush right out to buy a package of them for these cookies.

Reese Pieces & M&M Chocolate Cookies

I never really thought that I liked chocolate cookies that much. I've never really considered myself much of a chocolate fiend. But, ever since I started baking regularly... I find myself craving chocolate more and more. And I'm beginning to think that this isn't a good thing.

So, yesterday I knew that I wanted to make another recipe where I could use up my halloween candy that I bought on clearance and I found this recipe on Cookie Madness for Peanut Butter Chip Chocolate Cookies. It sounded like a perfect way to use up some of my Reese Pieces! I substituted Reese Pieces and M&Ms for the peanut butter chips and these cookies are excellent! They have a really interesting texture. It's like a grainy, thick, moist texture that is perfect for the chocolate flavor. Yum. I couldn't keep from eating them.

Now, I've just got to find some recipes to use up Almond Joys, Snickers, and Kit Kats... hmmmm.....

Oh, and I made these cookies while wearing my new apron that my mom made for me. Cute, huh? It only took her like 4 months, too. Amazing. She should apply for Project Runway.

These cookies are good. Make them.

Chocolate Stuffed Peanut Butter Brownies

Halloween. What a great holiday. You get to dress up and people give you candy. I mean, what genius thought that up??? Brilliant! But, when you become an adult and no one you know throws a costume party, the best part of halloween is... getting candy for 50% & 75% off. I stocked up this year, with the intention of using the candy in some recipes!

The first recipe I came up with is for something I printed awhile back. It's for Chocolate Stuffed Peanut Butter Brownies. They are basically peanut butter cookies made in bar form with bits of reese peanut butter cups and chocolate chips (I used cut up hershey bars).

Let me take a moment to talk about peanut butter. I like peanut butter, but I'm not crazy over it, unless it has chocolate with it. The mixture of chocolate and peanut butter is awesome, but I'm not one to just eat peanut butter cookies. I mean I'll eat them, but I won't choose them over chocolate cookies. So, these brownies were an interesting pick for me. They are super rich and pretty gooey, but yummy! I think if I make them again, I might add more chocolate to the recipe, but overall. A delicious take on brownies and a great way to use up Reese Peanut Butter Cups and hersey bars!

Ugghh.... sometimes I hate blogger, like when it won't accept new paragraphs. Uggh..