i stuck about 20 of these muffins in a freezer bag on friday night so i could bring them to work this week. i let them defrost for a couple of hours this morning (~10 seconds in the microwave works too) and they’re still moist and great. this would probably also be a great use for more savory muffins (with cheese and cooked sausage or bacon crumbles) to freeze in small batches and grab for breakfast on the go.
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I should start out by saying that I am not a brownie person. I prefer to make things from scratch, and brownie recipes are always either too much work or taste like they came out of a box. Even really good brownies just don’t taste that great to me though, so I never make them for myself. Sadly, my coworkers are all chocolate fiends, so I get a lot of requests for brownies and spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to spruce them up so I’ll not get too bored.
My favorite coworker had a birthday a few weeks ago, and I told her I’d bake whatever she wanted. I had a couple of exciting new recipes set aside in case she couldn’t choose something, but she immediately said she wanted non-spruced up brownies. No peanut butter or minty candies stirred in, just straight up fudgey blocks of chocolate. Luckily, I had just stumbled across a new recipe that sounded okay, so I gave them a shot.
For real, these were the densest, richest, most forgiving brownies I have ever eaten. They burned a little while baking, but you couldn’t even tell. The only change I made was to add a tablespoon or two of confectioners sugar to the frosting, because I thought it would pair better if it was a little sweeter. The best part was that they came together in a few hours, and that includes the time you had to let everything cool in between steps.
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no-fuss mini muffins.
i am very bad at feelings but pretty good at baking, so i’ve been known to use cookies, cakes, and muffins to express my love. these are mini muffins of love, thrown together when i only had a couple of hours to spare and no budget, but wanted to let my friend know she’s one of my best bros.
the best part about these muffins (aside from their adorable size) is how versatile they are. i used the same base for all three muffins, but switched the extras i was mixing in to make three very different treats. the only things i bought before starting were an orange, an apple, milk, and eggs- everything else i had floating around the pantry already. (adapted from this recipe.)
dry ingredients (stir together in a small/medium bowl)
1 cup flour
6 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp saltwet ingredients (whisk together in a small bowl/measuring cup)
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
4 Tbsp vegetable or canola oilextras (mix as noted)
for chocolate chip:
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips mixed with dry ingredients
2 tsp vanilla extract mixed with wet ingredientsfor cranberry orange:
3/4 cup dried cranberries (roughly chopped) mixed with dry ingredients
rind of one small orange (grated into wet ingredients)
2 tsp vanilla extract (mixed with wet ingredients)for caramel apple:
about one cup (one medium apple, peeled and roughly diced) mixed with dry ingredients
1/4 tsp cinnamon mixed with dry ingredients
sprinkle of nutmeg mixed with dry ingredients
4 tsp caramel extract mixed with wet ingredients-stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just combined.
-prepare your mini muffin pan however you see fit. (probably spray it with nonstick cooking stuff, although i have a nonstick pan and they came out alright without any spray.)
-spoon or scoop batter into muffin cups, filling nearly to the top. (my mini scoop was the perfect size, and i think it’s about a tablespoon?)
-bake at 375* for 10-12 minutes.
-let cool in pan for a few minutes before removing muffins to a cooling rack.
-nom :D
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birthday cookies!
i’ve been looking for an easy cookie recipe that i can bake for people on their birthdays for a while now. i needed them to be
- easy to make (under two hours from start to finish, preferably leaving me with less than 60 cookies)
- full of ingredients i usually have on hand (i often forget people’s birthdays until the last second)
- able to withstand being mailed (so nothing delicate)
- but still special!
the mint chocolate cookies were a big hit, but that recipe makes a TON of cookies and i definitely don’t keep my pantry stocked with andes candies. my favorite cookies (orange chocolate chip) are definitely special, but nobody else i know will eat them. oatmeal chocolate chip will mail well, but they didn’t feel fun enough.
after a couple of test runs though, i was able to tweak my standard chocolate chip cookie batter to be something a little more festive, and tonight i think i’ve perfected them. the cookies are soft in the middle but have a nice crunch to the edges. the peanut butter is barely there, but it really makes the chocolate pop. and the sprinkles- my favorite part- add just the right touch of fun.
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbs. creamy peanut butter
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 bag (12 oz.) milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles
01. cream together butter and sugars with an electric mixer.
02. add eggs and vanilla. once it’s mixed, drop in about a tablespoon of peanut butter and mix well.
03. in a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
04. slowly add dry mixture to wet mixture, beating on low speed.
05. stir in chocolate chips and sprinkles by hand.
06. spoon onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. (or better yet, use a mini ice cream scoop! i get 15 cookies on each 10x15 cookie tray.)
07. bake in 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.08. let them cool on the tray for 2 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
09. nomnomnomnomnom <:Dmakes about 55 cookies.
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or as my brother calls them: snick snicks!
one of my coworkers requested snickerdoodles for her birthday, so i decided to try my hand at what i had wrongly convinced myself was a complicated cookie. since my mom was out of town for the night, i used a friend’s recipe instead. everyone loved the cookies, but they were denser than my mom’s (it’s possible i undercooked them) and something about them tasted off to me. i am notoriously judgmental of my own baking, but i decided to try again with my mom’s recipe anyway.
this is an adapted version of my mom’s recipe, with a few changes from things i liked about kait’s. i also bought fresh eggs and cinnamon in case they had been the problem in the first cookies. i’m not sure which change did the trick, but these tasted much more like mom’s- light, crispy, and just begging for a cup of tea to go with them. they also survived being mailed all over the country, since i had to do SOMETHING with the second batch ;)
snickerdoodlesfor cookies:
1 1/2 cups (3/4 lb, 3 sticks) butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
for topping:
2 tbsp cinnamon
3 tbsp sugar
01. preheat oven to 375 degrees.
02. in a large bowl or an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until creamy. beat in eggs and vanilla.
03. in another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and cinnamon; gradually add to butter mixture, blending thoroughly.
04. in a small bowl, combine cinnamon and sugar for topping. roll dough into 1 inch balls (if you have a small ice cream scoop, use that), then roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture to coat. place about 2 inches apart on baking sheets.
05. bake in 375 degree oven for about 11 minutes or until lightly browned. let cool on baking sheets for about a minute, then transfer to racks and let cool completely. makes about 55 cookies.
tips: this dough is thick (and delicious!) so keep an eye on your mixer while you’re adding the flour. also, in between batches, stick your dough in the fridge and your extra pan in the freezer. it’ll help the cookies not get melty before you can get them in the oven. and finally, my mom said to grease the cookie sheets but i didn’t and had no problems. if your sheets aren’t non-stick or just suck, i would probably use parchment paper instead of greasing. but i hate greasing pans, so what do i know? -
chocolate butterscotch cookies.
i bought butterscotch chips a few months ago and never got around to using them, so i decided to find a recipe for them this weekend using only things i already had in the pantry. i settled on this recipe for chocolate chocolate chip cookies, and just substituted the butterscotch chips for the chocolate ones.
the cookies are very chocolatey, and have a nice crust with a soft center. the butterscotch chips add an unexpected flavor that’s making me wish i still had some milk from the last time i made cookies!
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i was too busy last week to bake something for my office christmas party, so i promised my coworkers something extra special this week. PLUS my christmas present from my parents got here (a bright yellow kitchen aid stand mixer! you know you’re a grown-up when you consider appliances as toys at christmas) and i needed to test it out. and of course, these hot cocoa cookies have been making the rounds, and i can’t resist chocolate and marshmallows.
i
nommedtested one fresh from the oven, and let me tell you- these cookies are rich. they’re more like a brownie than a cookie, and the gooey center and melty marshmallow really bring the whole thing together. if i ever make them again, i’ll probably use at least some milk chocolate in them, because i prefer my sweets to be sweet, but with a cold glass of milk they were nearly perfect. and of course, i’m positive these will be a big hit in the office tomorrow. -
butterbeer whoopie pies.
when my friend let me know she would be hosting another wizard rock show, i immediately started planning what i would bake. i will use the flimsiest excuse to bake ridiculous desserts (i even invented a holiday), so actual events are very exciting for me. i had been toying with the idea of butterbeer cake pops, but then whoopie pies starting showing up everywhere and they looked like more fun. sadly, the internet was lacking a butterbeer whoopie pie recipe, so i cobbled together a couple of recipes after several taste tests at potterland.
i live so close to hogsmeade that i knew i couldn’t make these unless they tasted like actual butterbeer, and the second batch was perfect. the cakes were full of butterscotch flavor, and the frosting added just the right hint of marshmallow. -
butterbeer whoopie pies.
these were a test run since i had to cobble together so many different recipes to get what i wanted, so after i make them for real next week (for the wizard rock show my friend is hosting) i’ll be able to post the recipe! until then, you’ll just have to take my word for it on how delicious they are.
