Blondies

Just when you thought I was done with the ooey, gooey bar recipes…

I’ve had this recipe for awhile… Cookie Baker Lynn's blog is one of my favorite blogs to check out. I have bookmarked a bunch of her tasty looking recipes, but this is the first that I’ve gotten around to making. The first and not the last, I might add.

Blondies… I realize that the toffee bar recipe I made last week is named a blondie. But, it’s technically not. No, it’s not really cakey or brownie-like (well, maybe it was supposed to be, I just didn’t cook it enough). This is what a real blondie is. Rich, buttery flavor with the sturdy-ness of a brownie. (I mean, isn’t a blondie just a brownie without chocolate?).

These blondies are absolutely delicious! I honestly don’t feel the need to ever try another blondie recipe again.

Again, I underbaked these… I’m beginning to think it has to do with my oddly sized 7x9 inch glass dish that I’ve been using. But, honestly.. that’s fine with me… I can always use some gooeyness with my blondies.

Make these blondies if you are in the need of a comforting sugar fix and want something other than chocolate. You won’t be disappointed.

(Recipe linked above).

Beacon Hill Cookies

I like to think of myself as fairly creative. Which is one of the reasons I started this blog. I wanted an outlet to bake and take cool pictures and have cool posts like all the other food/baking blogs that I read. I was inspired and I thought... yeah, i can do that.

The problem is. I can't. I mean, yes, I physically can. But, my pictures suck. I've tried everything. I've tried the lightbox, I've tried the no flash, I've tried the natural light, nothing seems to work. And it's not just the lighting, it's the presentation as well. I know it's a work in progress, but sometimes I get discouraged by the lengthy amount of time that it takes to make any progress. Uggh. Sometimes I wonder if I need a new camera, but i like my camera and it takes good pictures. Except of baked goods.

Alright, well anyway, enough whining. I was just basically wanting to apologize to the few of you who actually read my blog. I'm sorry my pictures suck. But I appreciate you sticking with me. At some point, maybe it will just click and the pictures will magically become amazing!

Until then...

I am obsessed with Meringues. Like, literally obsessed. How can a cookie without flour or egg yolks be so incredibly chewy and tasty? I have no idea, but I love it! And not only are they delicious, they are so easy to make, too!

My mom brought me the book, 500 Cookies this weekend as a hostess gift. It's a cool book with a lot of pictures. I love cookbooks with pictures. Immediately, one cookie stuck out to me as I flipped through it. The Beacon Hill Cookie. It looked chocolatey and homey and bumpy. It looked awesome.

So, last night I decided to see what the ingredients were and see if I had them. Turns out, it's a meringue cookie! Which meant that I had to bake them right there on the spot. They came with a variation to put white chocolate chips in them, which I happened to have, so I did that.

Yum. Have I mentioned I'm in love with meringues? Okay, overkill... I know. I made a half a batch and came out with about 10 cookies.

Beacon Hill Cookies
from 500 Cookies by Phillippa Vanstone and Susannah Blake


5 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used semi-sweet)
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 superfine sugar
3/4 cup chopped pecans (I used walnuts)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the chocolate, set aside to cool. Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Add one third of the sugar, beat for a further minute, then add one third more of the sugar. Beat until the whites are stiff, and fold in the remaining sugar.

Fold in the nuts, chocolate, vanilla, and white chocolate chips into the mixture.

Drop level teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto parchment lined baking sheets 1 1/2 inch apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are cracked and firm to the touch. Life the parchment sheets onto wire racks and allow cookies to cool.

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Yield: 2 1/2 dozen.

White Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Sandwiches

White Chocolate and Peanut Butter aren't two flavors I'd ever think of putting together. I happen to love white chocolate and I love peanut butter, but sometimes love for two separate things doesn't translate to love for combining them into one thing. Take for example... Chocolate and Blueberries. I love chocolate. I love blueberries. Chocolate covered blueberries?? Yuck. That sounds disgusting.

My aunt Loretta brought a mess load of these little suckers to our family christmas dinner. I think it was her, it was either her or her daughter Susan, either way... it came from their family. I picked one up and bit into it, expecting it to be a white chocolate covered oreo.

Much to my delight, it wasn't. It was actually two crackers with peanut butter on the inside. Brilliant! I ate wayyy too many of these at Christmas, but decided to give them a whirl at home.

Super easy. I actually only made 3 last night. I melted just one square of the White Almond Bark and it was enough to cover 3 really well (with just a little left over). A nice mini snack. Delicious.

White Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Sandwiches

White Almond Bark

Peanut Butter

Ritz Crackers

Assemble Peanut Butter Sandwiches with the crackers. Microwave the almond bark as directed on package. Dip and coat the sandwiches with the white chocolate. Lay out on a piece of parchment paper or wax paper to dry.

Guest Blogger: Steph's Key Lime Cookies

First of all, I must admit that I am a virgin blogger... this will be the first blog I've ever written my entire life. Intimidating? Yes, a little... but I will not be discouraged. I accept the challenge wholeheartedly!

Here is my recipe from what Amy has referred to as our Baking Date, or what I like to call "The Big Bake".

I love key lime. And when I say "love", I mean LOVE it. I love key limes all by themselves (they're so cute!), key lime soda, key lime truffles (thank you, Godiva), and of course, key lime pie. So, when I was browsing for my Big Bake recipe, I saw a recipe for key lime cookies and couldn't resist. There are a lot of key lime cookie recipes out there, actually, but don't be fooled. I chose this one from Cookie Madness because it specifically said they were "chewy" which is an absolute MUST in my cookie book. These may be a little tart for some folks, so watch out!

The recipe was very straightforward and easy. Because Amy and I are such baking fiends, we decided to double the recipe (of course, there is no such thing as too many key lime cookies!) After baking about half the dough, we added some green food coloring just for giggles. No, they didn't taste more limey that way, but it was still fun.

The recipe below is the DOUBLED recipe, which makes about 6 dozen cookies.

1 cup butter — softened

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup key lime juice

1 tablespoon lime zest (which I didn't use, because my hand started cramping)

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Cream butter, sugar, egg, egg yolk in a large bowl — blend in flour,baking powder, salt, lime juice and lime zest.

Fold in white chocolate chips.

Roll dough into walnut sized balls. Actually I used a spoon because the dough was pretty wet, and there was no way I could roll them without making a big mess.

Place on ungreased sheet. These spread out quite a bit, so give them plenty of room.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes.

--Stephanie, Guest Blogger.

White Chocolate Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

When the people speak... I listen. And this time the people requested something with oatmeal. And so I scoured countless cookbooks for the perfect oatmeal cookie recipe.This is what I found.

Okay, so it actually came out about like this...
My mom: "Why no oatmeal cookies? I love oatmeal in cookies."
Me: "Oh yeah, I like oatmeal in cookies, too."
Then I went on recipezaar, found the recipe in like 2 seconds and whipped them up.

My alterations:I made them even MORE healthier by splitting the cup of flour into 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup all purpose flour. They came out delicious! But watch them, because I only had to cook them for about 5-6 minutes (smallish cookie scoop). Also make sure you flatten them out before you bake them, because they do not spread. I used white chocolate squares instead of chips. Next time, I might try the chips.

They are very homey tasting, and I think that's because of the cinnamon flavor in them. Usually, I'm not a big fan of fruit with chocolate, but this combination of cranberry with white chocolate is absolutely perfect! But I'm sure you could substitute any dried fruit.

They are delicious though! I'm going to use this same basic recipe but do some experimenting try to make some good energy bars.

White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut

Generally, I spend about 2 hours of my day at work reading recipes online. It's sad. But, it's fun. I have a thick stack of recipes that I have printed out that I want to try. But, I am most drawn to recipes that have pictures to accompany them, which is why I make so many recipes from my favorite food blogs. So, today is yet another recipe from Cookie Madness.

It is a recipe for a white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookie. And the recipe called for Baileys. Now, everyone who knows me, knows that I love all things irish (obsessively, really), so one would naturally assume that I would have two things in my liquor cabinet... 1. Jameson and 2. Baileys. Well, one out of two isnt bad, right? Next time I'll try to find a recipe for cookies that have Jameson in them.

Here is the recipe. They are called Masterpiece White Chocolate Chip Cookies. And instead of the baileys, I used a caramel liquor. I think they would be much better with the Baileys and I will definitely try them again when I pick up another bottle of Baileys... (note to self: must save some Baileys from irish car bombs and use it for cookies). You can taste the hint of the liquor and the cookies are chewy and firm (just the way I like them) and very tasty. Since I chilled the dough before baking, the cookies came out pretty thick and hearty. I had some white chocolate chips (ghiradelli, in fact) leftover from something else, but I think next time I'll use white chunks instead of chips.

Excellent cookies.

I use a medium size cookie scoop and got an enormous batch of cookies...