Almond Joy cookies

   Two recipes in one week? Bonus! This time I took the Perfect Cookie Base recipe from Cookies and Cups and mixed in my favorite candy, Almond Joy. Almost any chocolate should work for this recipe, but if the candy you are using is bigger than the average chocolate chunk, it should be cut up or crumbled before being folded into the batter. Anyways, these cookies turned out really amazingly, and my family just couldn't stop eating them!

Peanut Butter Butterscotch Cookies

   It is almost the end of the school year, which means last minute college stuff and finals to take at school. It just so happened, one of my AP tests landed on the day I was supposed to bake in my culinary class sooo my "make-up lab" just ended up being this weeks recipe! This one is a recipe my teacher has had for many years, so there is not really an original recipe here on the internet. I will admit, I was a little skeptical about this recipe at first, because I did not think that Peanut Butter and Butterscotch would go well together. But today I was proved wrong!

Gummy Bear Thumbprint Cookies

   Valentines day is coming up! And how better to celebrate than the making of cute little cookies to share with friends and family? And the perfect part? They are sweet and fruity, unlike the subtle tangy-ness of my nerds cupcakes I made last week. The actual heart shape idea came from a Beautiful Mess, and the recipe itself came from The Baking Robot. The only (visible) difference between the two recipes is that a Beautiful Mess made half of the original recipe and created hearts instead of the original thumbprint shapes in the dough.

Nerds Cupcakes

   So do you guys know about those SUUPER huge nerds boxes? Well, my dad got one down in Vegas thinking it would be full of just the candy....and bummed that it was all individual boxes. So these nerds have ending up in the candies bowl but nobody has eaten them! And what a better way to eat nerds than in a cupcake? 

   

    

Ice Cream Sundae Cookies

   Sooo.... my friends all know how much I love ice cream. I mean, I can eat it with breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday and be fine (as long as i get to change flavors every now and then). Well, ice cream and marshmallows (Mhmmm marshmallows).

   So when I come across this cookie recipe on Cookies and Cups that is the essence of ice cream in a cookie, of course I had to try it out! and ohmygoodness they are amazing! I would have used M&Ms if I had them, but I didn't so I used chocolate chip cookies instead. It just makes it so it has more of a chocolate chip taste to it, until you get a bite into the crisp waffle cone and get reminded that this is an ice cream cookie recipe!

Scraps Cookies

   Alright, so these cookies definitely have many names. The can be called Garbage Cookies or Everything but the kitchen sink, as well as a 'nicer' and 'cleaner' name, Scrap Cookies. They get their name from there ingredients, which really can be anything. I mean, this is the cookie where you can put in any leftover ingredients from previous baking jobs, and it will still taste fabulous! There is definitely no set recipe for this past the actual dough preparation, so go ahead and be creative!


   I originally received this recipe through a client of mine. Over the summer I catered for the first leg of her daughters Bat Mitzpha, and she provided the recipes. I also prepared lemon bars, carmelita bars, and my favorite, M&M cookies. All were fabulous, and the job ended well! Now these recipes sit in my notebook, waiting to again be picked up and shared to the goodness of the world. Hang on people, you will see them soon!

These are the ingredients I blended into my batter. As you can see, I have: pretzels, oats, coconut, craisins, assorted nuts, and chocolate chips. You can also add in Rice Krispies cereal for a bit of crunch, or a specific nut if you only like certain kinds. And each of these ingredients are easily removable as well, especially since not everyone always like whats in a certain cookie. It's also easy to mix in any other items you can find laying around the kitchen, waiting to be used, so be creative! Oooh you can even make a Candy Scraps cookie with little candy pieces  I might have to try that for Halloween, so be on the lookout for a recipe!

Then, after you combine the ingredients with the dough, drop them onto an un-greased baking sheet. You can roll them into balls if you like, these are one of the cookies that actually holds their shape while baking. Either way, these cookies will come out fluffy and full of flavor once out of the oven. Mmmmm, they are best right out of the oven, when everything is still gooey and falling apart! Yum!

RECIPE:

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup Shortening (or Margarine)

1 cup Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

2 cups Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

2 cups Oatmeal

1 cup Coconut, shredded

1/4 cup Assorted Nuts

12 oz bag Chocolate Chips

1 cup Craisins

1/4 cup Pretzels

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the shortening, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, mix up the remaining ingredients. Then combine with the dough and mix until everything is well incorporated.

4. Drop balls of prepared dough onto an un-greased baking pan, then cook for 10-15 minutes, or until the edges have a golden brown color. Cool and enjoy!

Try this recipe? Tell me how it went down below in the comments!

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

   I am definitely liking my caramel this week!! Although this time, instead of Hershey's kisses, I used caramel topping. You know, the caramel stuff you put on top of ice cream to make some caramel sundaes? Yeah, that's what I used in this recipe, since I didn't have any caramel chips and heavy cream on hand. I have to admit, it still tasted pretty good though! I sold these bars at school for $1 apiece, and even the students enjoyed them! They may not look like much at first, but that first bite will take you to a whole new realm of flavor. The salt balances well with the chocolate and caramel, as long as you don't go too overboard on it.

   This recipe is adapted from Blahnik Baker, which takes absolutely amazing pictures and always  has good recipes to try! I discovered this site through Pinterest, and it is absolutely gorgeous. Maybe some day my blog will look as good as that, but that itself is its own dream. For now, focus on school! But I took this recipe and followed it pretty closely up until the caramel part. I used Caramel topping (Smackers brand) instead of the caramel chips and heavy cream. The end results look different, but they still taste amazing!

So I mixed the dough, then placed half of it in this Pam-sprayed 8x8 pan. Then I poured some of the Caramel topping on the top and spread it with a spatula. Make sure it is an even coat, but you can add as much or as little caramel as you want. After you are done pouring the caramel, sprinkle your salt over the top. Table salt works fine if you don't have sea salt for this part.

This is what my pan looked like after I placed the remainder of the cookie dough over the caramel. You can try to spread it around with a spatula,  not push down too hard or the caramel will integrate with the cookie dough. I also sprinkle this layer with salt, so that there will be the saltiness throughout each bar.

Just stick them in the oven for 30 minutes, and you're done! You can see that the caramel did integrate with the cookie dough a little bit, but that was probably because I put a lot of salt on it. Either way, they taste amazing and have a cool marble look to it. They are easiest to cut after a few hours when they have cooled a bit, or if you are super excited to eat them (as I was), then you just need to grad a fork, it's going to be goey!

Recipe:

Adapted from Blahnik Baker

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/8 cups Flour

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

3/4 cup Butter, melted and cooled

1 cup Light Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Sugar

1 large Egg, room temperature

1 large Egg Yolk, room temperature

2 teaspoons Vanilla

2 cups Chocolate Chips

Smackers Caramel Dessert Topping

Sea Salt, preferred, for sprinkling (table salt works fine too)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8x8 pan or line with parchment paper(leaving an overhang). If using parchment paper, spray that with nonstick spray as well.

2. In a large bowl, which together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

3. In another large bowl combine the butter with both sugars until combined. Add in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Slowly stir in the cry ingredients until just combined. The stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Pour half of the batter in your prepared pan. Cover with a layer of Caramel sauce, then sprinkle the salt over that. Then, drop the remaining cookie dough over the top of the caramel and smooth with a spatula. Sprinkle with salt again.

5. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a the edges are a light brown color and peel away from the sides of the pan. Cool completely before cutting.

Try this recipe? Tell me how it went down below in the comments!

Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies

   Fall is almost upon us! And with this new season comes the flood of pumpkin recipes, sweatshirts, and (yes) even yoga pants. This is definitely the best time of the year to bake since there are soo many different recipes, and baking is also the quickest way to warm up the house!!

   So with this fall season, I wanted to try some different recipes. And I have definitely had a hankering for caramel lately, so I visited Pinterest and found this Milky Way Salted Caramel Cookie recipe! So, of course, I was super excited and went down to the store to get some candy, and guess what. Guess what. They were completely out. All of Walmart was out of the Caramel Milky way, and I was thinking what now? Now I dont have a fancy smartphone so I couldn't just look for a recipe to create, and I really didn't want to go back to Walmart again, then BING! An Idea came to me! Why can't I buy Hershey's Caramel Kisses and bake them inside my Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe? So that is what I did, and here is my wonderful journey to a happy tummy!

Yay for Caramel Kisses!! I saw these candies and came up with the recipe immediately  And I sure was glad I did, they turned out amazing! So first this first is that you are going to want to create the basic chocolate chip cookie batter, which you can find here.

Then you will take the dough from the basic recipe and roll into little balls encasing the kisses. It is fairly easy to do, and if the dough isn't cooperating, just add some more flour to it. Not a lot, but enough to make the dough tangible. It always comes out different fr me, so there is definitely no set measurements for extra flour. Make sure they are covered all the way, although the tip can stick out a little bit, it isn't a big deal.

See! All closed into it's own little ball. Drop onto ungreased pans about 2 inches apart, they will spread but not too much. The more baking soda you put into the basic recipe, the more it will spread.

Then when they are all covered and ready to bake, stick them in the oven!! They bake for the same time as a normal chocolate chip recipe. And if you happen to look in the oven periodically and see that the cookie looks flat while the Hershey stands tall, don't worry; it will all even out in it's own time.

Recipe:

INGREDIENTS

Prepared cookie dough~ I use this recipe

1 package Caramel Hershey Kisses

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Take prepared cookie dough and roll in a ball, encasing the Caramel Kiss completely.

2. Drop onto un-greased cookie sheet, and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are a light brown.

That's It!

Try this recipe? Tell me how it went down below in the comments!

Almond Joy Cookies

   This time I have an actual recipe....that you can share with people! Because, sharing is caring right? Unless you are in my household, we definitely do not share well! Well, we don't share the super yummy foods, so someone always ends up getting more than the other person. Oh well, at least the food isn't going to waste! Actually, the food would never go to waste, it would go to my herd of chickens. That's right, I have somewhere around 30 (give or take a few) chickens, and they get all the leftovers that we do not eat! Which doesn't happen very often, my family is good about eating food!!
   Alright, so these cookies are a twist off the favorite chocolate/almond candies, Almond Joy. I mean, who doesn't love the perfect chocolate/coconut to almond ratio? I know I do! And I had decided to make a cookie to honor the times when the candy cannot be found around the house (Bummer!). They are still amazing, and you can even drizzle chocolate over the tops of the cooled cookies if you are looking for that extra chocolate-y flavor. And I found this recipe on the back of a shredded coconut package. SCORE!

(The Most Important thing is to) Grab all your ingredients out of the cabinet. I will have the full recipe below, with picture-steps for those that like visuals! You will need a large bowl, since this is a huge recipe!

Preheat your oven to 375˚ and grease your cookie sheet, or line with parchment paper. What ever works for you!

Now, in a large bowl cream together your brown sugar, white sugar, and softened butter. The more it's mixed, the better!

Beat in your eggs one at a time. The dough might be a little water-y looking, but that's alright! That will get evened out later. I beat my egg with a spoon, but a fork would work and a whisk might too. I don't know, try new things!

   After your eggs are well incorporated into your mixture, you are going to add in the vanilla! This part is easy, because all you have to do is stir it in.

The next hing you are going to do is add in the flour, baking soda, and salt. This is what will give the dough a more dough-like consistency. Stir until everything is combined. The dough will get thicker  so make sure there aren't any hidden, flour-filled bubbles in your batter. If you have had that happen before, then you know what I'm talking about. If not...well, you do not want that!

And the final thing before baking....adding in all the good stuff! This is the part where you combine the coconut, chocolate chips, and almonds. Adding these things will not only give texture to your cookies, it also gives that almond joy taste that many love!

After everything is combined, drop by the spoonful onto the prepared sheet. Make sure to space them well, as they will spread out! Bake and enjoy(:

Finished product! Yumm ♡

Full Recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Butter, soft

3/4 cup White Sugar

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

2 teaspoons Vanilla

2 1/4 cup Flour

1 tablespoon Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 cup Coconut

1 cup Chocolate Chips

1 cup Almonds, Chopped

1. Preheat oven to 375˚ and grease a cookie sheet, or cover using parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, cream together both sugars and the softened butter util creamy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.

3. Stir in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Make sure everything is well incorporated.

4. Add in the coconut, chocolate chips, and almonds, stir until everything is evenly distributed.

5. Drop spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 6-10 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown. Cool and enjoy!

Did you try this recipe? Tell me how it went for you below in the comments!