Dairy Free Snickerdoodle Cheesecake Bars

Alright, first of all: there is no molasses. There is no full-lactose cream cheese. And these are about to be so addicting you wish to eat the entire pan. Right here, right now.

 

 

Salted Caramel Blondies

   First things first, sorry I did not have a new recipe for you guys last week. I have just been so dang busy! Also, it is difficult to bake in 100 degree heat, especially because the oven makes it even hotter! Well, today was a bit windy so I decided to do some baking, but then the heat picked up so I spent as little time in the kitchen as possible. Nonetheless, I still have a great recipe to share with you guys today!

S'mores Brownies

   As a popular camping dessert, why not bring the s'mores to the kitchen? Sure, there are a heckuva lot of s'mores recipes, but I would say this one is by far the best. It has the sweetness of the chocolate, the crunch of the graham crackers, and even the gooey-ness of the marshmallows! And, knowing me, I looove me some marshmallows! An added bonus to this recipe is that is another of the easy 1-2-3's that are loved by the whole family!

COBB (aka Slutty Brownies)

   First of all, finding a non "vulgur" name for these brownies is hard, the name just fits so dang well! So after a whole day of thinking in my head, I came up with COBB. The Cookie Oreo Brownie Brownie. Or, for short, the slutty brownies. And oh my goodness the name fits well!! It is a whole boatload of sugar and you may or may not need water or milk to get the sweetness out of your mouth. Nonetheless, they are absolutely incredible!

And the best thing about this recipe? It only takes three steps~

Mini Cinnamon Rolls

   Nothing smells better than cinnamon rolls coming straight out of the oven... Or when you walk by a Cinnabon shop. Mmmmm warm cinnamon rolls! The best part about this recipe too is that it is yeast free, only because the yeast is already in the pre-made dough. Any crescent rolls package will work, try different types to get different flavors.

Strawberries and Cream Cookies

   Spring is here, and what better way to celebrate it than with a cookie with strawberries in it! The strawberries are not fresh, but they are just as amazing anyways. They also add a little pop of color, otherwise these would just be white chocolate chip cookies!

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

   Sorry for the hiatus, I was just on spring break and the the week after is always quite hectic! But now that the hype has all died down people have been asking about when the next time I'll bake is, and today is the day! These little guys will be going to school and tested to see if this is a keeper recipe or not. Personally, I think they are very well done with a very brownie-like taste....it's just so much chocolate!! 

Lava Chocolate Chip Cookies

   You know that feeling where you bite into a warm chocolate chip cookie, and just by chance you bite into the middle of a chocolate chip? You know, the one that fills your mouth with warm, silky smooth chocolate that makes you want to stay in that moment, right then and right there? Well that is the exact thing you will experience as soon as you bite into this cookie. I mean, of course you can still bite into a warm chocolate chip, but the middle is where the party is at!

Brown Sugar Cookies

   Sugar cookies are all the rage. I mean, who isn't looking for the perfect sugar cookie recipe? Well I myself have tried a few different recipes "back in my day" and none measure up to those amazing ones you can buy at the local grocery store. So I've given up...almost.

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.

(Baked) Cinnamon Doughnut Holes

   So I am definitely a HUGE fan of doughnuts( Krispy Kreme first fav, Doughboys second) and wanted to make my own doughnuts at home. Soo scrolling down the doughnut page on Pinterest I see that the doughnuts are: fried, fried, has a weird ingredient I have never heard of, fry, fry, fried, and so on. But then finally, FINALLY I found a baked doughnut recipe that not only is not fried, but also had no yeast.

Mini Apple Cobbler

   Ahh, the apple season is underway, with Halloween soon to follow! And then Christmas, which is when the baking happens most! Well, unless you are at my house, there is a huge baking project every time we have people come over! This time is was for a cross-country spaghetti feed for my Brother and his team, and Laurie had the cooking to do while I baked. I was in the kitchen four hours after school on Wednesday, without stop. Here are pictures of what I made:

Here we have some Lemon Poppy seed muffins with Cream Cheese frosting, and Caramel Apple cookies with Caramel Apple frosting. Both of these mixes and frostings can be found at your local Walmart (yes, I know, store-mixes. I just didn't have to or the supplies to create everything from scratch).

Apple Pie Cookies

   Fall is here! With the change in weather also means the flooding of apples at my house! And with these apples comes Applesauce-making time! But what about the extra apples that don't get applesauce-ed? Well, if they aren't eaten they get cooked into foods or desserts. Mostly pies, but this time I have a cookie recipe that uses apples!


   This recipe was found through Pinterest, which sent me to Redbook to find this recipe. Now, I don't have any powdered sugar to make the icing, nor do I like icing my cookies, so I left it off. I also left out the cherries and walnuts, but the cookies taste amazing all the same. They are wonderfully light and fluffy, plus the perfect balance of cinnamon and apples. Try this recipe out if you have a chance!

First things first, the apples. While you butter sits on the counter to soften you can be cutting up both the apples called for in the recipe. Now, I don't have a box grater so the smaller apples you see on the left are just chopped into small pieces. On the right they are slightly bigger, and this is just to help incorporate the whole apple flavor into the cookies.

   After you create the dough you have to mix the apples in. The dough will be pretty thick, but that is okay. That is exactly what you want for these cookies. Then you just stir in all the apples until everything is well incorporated.

   The last thing you do before the baking process is to drop dough by the spoonfuls onto your prepared cookie sheet. Either non-stick spray or parchment paper works fine for that. Plop it in the oven for 10-12 minutes, then viola they are done! You can eat them warm or wait until they are cooled off. Either way, they are amazing!

RECIPE:

INGREDIENTS:

2 Apples:Peeled, cored, and quartered

2 1/3 cups Flour

1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

1/8 tsp Ground Cloves

1/8 tsp Ground Nutmeg

1 1/4 cups Brown Sugar, packed

3/4 cups Butter or Margarine, softened

2 Large Eggs

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease baking sheets with non-stick spray, or line with parchment paper. Chop up one apple into small pieces, leave the other  one alone. Set aside.

2.  In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cloves, and nutmeg. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, blend the brown sugar with the butter. Then, beat in the eggs one at a time, until well blended. Then stir in the flour mixture, the dough will be thick. Stir in both the apples.

4. Drop dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2-inches apart. Bake 10-12 minutes, or until the edges have started to brown and the top has set. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

   Enjoy! Both warm or not these cookies taste fabulous!! Store in an air-tight container for up to three days(if the family doesn't eat them right away)

Try this recipe? Tell me how it went 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!

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

   First things first, Happy suicide prevention week! This week goes to those that have committed suicide at my school as well as everyone else that has tried (and/or succeeded  in suicide. Even though times may be rough, just know that there will always be someone out there that loves you. And if you don't believe that, then I love you. I love everyone, there is no doubt about it! And if anyone ever needs someone to talk to, then I am here to help you bake up a batch and listen to your troubles. Here's to a good week, and hopefully (we can only wish) that you will not commit suicide. We all love you, I love you. Please be safe ♡

 


   Now, on to the baking! This last weekend I was searching around on Pinterest for a new recipe to try. Not just new to this blog, but new to me too. I have always been a softy when it came to Snickerdoodles, but there was just too many weird ingredients in it that I didn't have at home. And then I found this recipe from a blog called Lil' Luna, which is too easy not to try! It was quite a quick one too.

   And since I sell these at school, I bakes them in cupcake tins instead of a cake pan. I also doubled the recipe found on the site, which made 2 dozen cupcakes. And boy did they sell fast! The original recipe called them Snickerdoodle Blondies, but they work well as cupcakes too. The thing about blondies is that they are soft and gooey  which many may not like that kind of texture. I definitely do, and so do my buyers! Either way, this is definitely a recipe to try, and a good one to add to the recipe book as well!

  

 Alright, so you should know the basics of baking by now. Have to mix it all up in a bowl! First the butter and sugar; then the egg, salt, and vanilla; and ending with the flour and cinnamon.

Then pour into prepared muffin tins(or two 8x8 pans) and sprinkle with your prepared cinnamon-sugar. Bake it! The muffins needed to be cooked 20-25 minutes, while the bars need to be cooked 25-30 minutes.

These are done as soon as the toothpick comes out clean. Then you can cool down and eat them! They are definitely amazing, and if they somehow manage to last longer than the first day, they can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

Recipe:

Adapted from Lil' Luna

INGREDIENTS

2 cups Sugar
1 cup Butter, soft
2 Egg
1 tsp. Salt

4 tsp. Vanilla

2 cups Flour

3 tsp. Cinnamon

   Topping: 2 Tbsp. Sugar

                   2 tsp. Cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare muffin tins with cooking spray or paper liners. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until smooth.

2. Beat in the eggs, salt, and vanilla. Stir in the flour and cinnamon until well incorporated.

3. Pour mix into prepared muffin tins, then cook for 20-25 minutes. Makes 2 dozen cupcakes.

*Note: The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup cinnamon chips. I didn't have any, so I substituted that for the cinnamon. You could easily swap the cinnamon out for 1 cup cinnamon chips.

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

Easy Sugar Cookies, the Old Fashioned Way

   Back to school yet again! This week I came with Sugar Cookies, which actually sold pretty quickly! They do also look like little snowballs, hence the nickname. This picture here was the first time I made these, right around the holiday season. And the nice thing about these cookies is that you can top them with any type of candies, I just used sugar on these. Peppermint would be good for the holidays, and I will have another recipe for that! But that is waay in the future, and right now we are in the present. And the present tastes good with these cookies!!
   I found this recipe in the old Betty Crocker cookbook one day, and decided to try it. And oh my goodness how simple, yet delicious they were! I just had to share them with the family, which scarfed them down in one sitting. It makes about 2 dozen cookies, which goes fast when you are in a family of 8; the three dogs included! I just can't get over how simple they are as well, something that can definitely be made quickly, for a sweet craving or a last minute bake sale.

Alright, so mixing everything up to the butter should make the dough look crumbly like this. It doesn't have to be perfect, you just have to make sure the butter is well incorporated.

Then you will mix in the egg,vanilla, and milk. Mix well! This will make the batter look more dough-y, while giving off that wonderful sugar cookie smell that makes you want to eat just the batter! But don't worry, the cookies will taste even better!

And since this is an older recipe, of course you have the choice on whether or not to roll the dough and make shapes. If not, just refrigerate it for 15 minutes, then roll into little balls by hand! Too bad I don't have any cookie-cutter shapes, or I would totally make them! Not really sure how that would work out either, I have definitely never made cookies into any shape other than a circle. That's basic, and I like basic.

Yay for baking time! Just remember that whatever shape your cookies are before baking, they will be that same shape (just fluffier) after you pull them out of the oven. I like to sprinkle a little sugar on top, mostly for texture but also for presentation! Then just stick the pan in the oven and viola you have yourself some wonderful little snowball sugar cookies!!!

Recipe:

3 cups Flour

1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

1 cup Sugar

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 cup Butter

1 Egg, lightly beaten

2 teaspoons Vanilla

3 tablespoons Milk

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and grease a baking sheet.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.

3. Cut up butter into chunks and drop into flour mixture. Mix until crumbly.

4. With a fork, stir in the egg, vanilla, and milk until well incorporated.

     ***If you aren't rolling the dough, chill for 15 minutes, then skip to step 6

5. On a flour-ed surface roll out your dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes.

6. Place dough on prepared baking sheet. Bake 6-8 minutes, or until the edges have a light brown color. Cool and enjoy!

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

Cinnamon Doughnut Muffins

Sorry I haven't been able to post much, I have just been soooo busy! Between school and my baking sales.... I wonder how I find time to do other things! At school the baking sales are a little low, but that it because it's the beginning of the year, and word hasn't spread yet. Soon though, I will be selling out and baking like crazy!!
   Once again I settled with a simple recipe for the week. Cinnamon Doughnut Muffins, a Pinterest recipe you can also find here. Oh yeah, and I have a whole board full of cupcakes, cakes, and other desserts if you wanted to check that out! Now remember, those aren't my recipes, just all the recipes I liked or wanted to try on Pinterest!

First you will want to mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Pretty simple, right? I sure hope so!

Next, in another bowl, you will want to mix the sugar, oil, milk, and egg together until it is one big happy mixture! It might take a bit of mixing, the oil never wants to cooperate, and apparently the egg didn't want to either. Huh, I have some frisky ingredients!

Add your frisky mix in with the dry ingredients, and stir stir stir to get everything well incorporated  Like one happy mixture, I suppose. Just don't over-mix it, then your muffins will never rise! I leave lots of little bumpy things in my batter, that way my cupcakes are fluffy and have rounded tops!

Now Bake them!! It shouldn't take long, and they always make the house smell good. Come to think of it, baking in general makes a house smell good!Anyways, when they are done baking melt some butter in a little cup and dip the muffins in the melted butter. Now, I sell these so I have wrappers around my muffins, but if you don't, feel free to cover those muffins! Then dip (or roll) the muffins in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Enjoy!

Recipe:

1 3/4 cups Flour

1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 cup Vegetable Oil

2/3 cup Granulated Sugar

1 Egg

1 cup Milk

For the cinnamon sugar topping:

1/4 cup Butter, Melted

1/3 cup Granulated Sugar

1 tablespoon Cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350º and grease or line your muffin tins. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Set aside for now.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, sugar, and oil until well combined. Then, take the egg mixture and combine with the flour mixture; stir until combined.

3. Bake 15-18 minutes (10-12 for mini cupcakes), or until a toothpick comes out clean.

4. Melt the butter, and then coat the muffins while hot. Combine the cinnamon and sugar in a different bowl; dip the muffins in mixture. 

5. Let cool so the butter and sugar can harden a bit before serving. Refridgerate any leftovers in an airtight container.

Note: these are best served fresh out of the oven, but they can last for up to 3 days

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

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

   Well, the start of the school year also signifies the start of me selling again! Some kids sell drugs or test answers, but I sell all the things I bake! At the beginning of the year I am usually just baking on Sundays, then selling throughout the week. But, when business picks up, I can be baking anywhere from 1-3 times a week. Sounds exhausting to some, but I love doing it! And after High School I am hoping to pursue a career in baking and pastries, maybe even catering!

   Oh yeah, more exciting news! I was offered by the owner of Never Enough Ballroom to cater for on the weekends! On Saturdays they offer free dance classes, which you can read more about on their website here. It is truly a fun thing to do, and is fun for the whole family as well! I am definitely thinking about taking that offer, good for experience!

Anyways, for this week in school I decided to start with something simple, something that will get business booming the way it was last year. Chocolate chip cookies! I mean, who doesn't love them? And they are also really super quick and easy as well, so I won't be spending too much time on something if people end up not liking them. If they don't, more for my family! This recipe I found here on the allrecipes.com website!

Note: I ran out of chocolate chips, so I cut up some bakers chocolate, which is why my cookies are so speckled.

First things first, get all your ingredients! I will have a list below of all the things you need, but you may already have them in the kitchen! Then you will want to combine the butter with both sugars. Beat in the eggs one at a time, and well incorporate them. Don't forget the vanilla! And the baking soda too, as well as the salt. Can't make good cookies if you are missing the ingredients!

The flour and chocolate chips might be important to. Well, might be! Actually, no, they are very important and you can't make good chocolate chip cookies without the flour and chocolate chips! Mix mix mix, get it all blended together nicely. I might be crazy, but mixing everything together is my favorite part! The flour might be a little tricky, so I usually mix in the flour 1 cup at a time. Just a helpful tip!

Then just drop them on that cookie sheet! The website says you don't need to grease the pan, but you definitely need to! Oh, and my pan isn't dirty, Macy just burned it trying to make garlic bread. But that is for another day! I spray my hands with Pam and roll the dough into little balls too, people won't buy if your food doesn't look good! I mean, you don't have to do that, it is all based on your preference. 

Then stick that pan in the oven and you are a free agent for all of 10 minutes! Woohoo!! Better than no time I guess! This is the time I use to clean up, then just sit down and relax as the cookie smell makes itself known around the house. Mmm the smell reminds me of holiday baking. So many good memories there! I absolutely love baking, but the holidays are the best, that is when you get to make all the tasty treats with peppermint. Pumpkin too! I actually have a pumpkin bread mix, I would say watch out for that one since it is coming soon! Ding Ding that is the timer, better get them out before those burn too!

Don't they look beautiful?

Recipe:                                  *Makes about 4 dozen*

1 cup Butter, soft

1 cup White sugar

1 cup Brown sugar, packed

2 Eggs

2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

3 cups All-Purpose Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

2 teaspoons Hot Water

1/2 teaspoon Salt

2 cups Chocolate Chips (and kind is fine)

1 cup Chopped Walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350˚ and grease a cookie sheet.

2. Combine butter and both sugars. Beat in each egg, one at a time, until well incorporated. Stir in vanilla.

3. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water, then add to the batter along with the salt. Stir in the flour, chocolate chips, and walnuts (optional).

4. Drop dough by the spoonful onto your cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are nicely browned. Cool and enjoy!

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

Apple Crisp

Alright, peach season is over...time to bring on the apples! Every year my family and I go up to apple hill to get apples to can them! And boy is homemade applesauce yummy! The whole process is fun too!!
   But this isn't what I made this fine summer night! We actually had some store-bought apples that nobody ate, so Laurie cooked them. Then she asked me to pull out our old Betty Crocker Cookbook (picture edition, 1956) to see if there was a crunchy recipe we could put the apples under/over. Well, just my luck, I found this wonderful apple crisp recipe!

And let me tell you, it is absolutely amazing! Very easy too!! Now, Laurie had already cooked the apples with some cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg, but if you would rather not cook them you can just place them in the baking dish. That is what you should do in the original recipe, which I will place down below. But, if you wanted to flavor your apples, just cook them in a pot with some sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg!

Here are the apples, all nicely cooked! But, if you don't have a lot time or would rather un-flavor the apples, just cut them up and put them in the baking dish. Make sure you peel and core the apples, as well as cut them up. Both slices and cubed apples work fine, it is purely based on preference.

Then, you will make the topping! Just mix the brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter into a medium sized bowl until crumbly. This is where the crispy top comes from! It is very simple, and almost a fail-proof recipe. I mean, someone out there might find a way to mess it up, and I would congratulate them. Just kidding, I'm not that mean!

Then you will want to crumble the mixture onto the top of your apples. It doesn't have to be perfect! And, seriously, before and after you bake it the topping will look the same!! The only way you can tell that it is done is if the topping is more of a golden brown color, and is crispy and hard-ish. I mean, if it was completely hard it might just be burnt and burnt doesn't taste so good!

But, stick this in the oven and let it cook for a while. And when I mean a while, I mean you can watch your favorite tv show, clean the kitchen, or even make a dinner! It will take a while for this to bake to perfection! And oh my goodness does this make the house smell amazing! This is definitely one of those desserts you wouldn't mind smelling forever!

Then, viola, it is done! This dessert is best served warm, and a little side of ice cream won't hurt either! If it isn't eaten right away, you can put some saran wrap over it and store it on the counter, it doesn't need to be refrigerated  But, if storing, don't do it for more than a couple of days, because then the topping will get soggy and a little gross. EW!

Recipe:

4 Apples; peeled, cored, and sliced

2/3-3/4 c Brown Sugar

1/2 c All Purpose Flour

1/2 c Rolled Oats (Quaker Oats are fine)

3/4 tsp Cinnamon

3/4 tsp Nutmeg

1/3 c Butter, softened

1. Preheat oven to 350˚ and grease an 8" pan (either square or round works).

2. Place the sliced apples in the baking dish, set aside for now.

3. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the rest of the ingredients until it has a nice crumbly texture to it. Crumble over the apples.

4. Place dish in oven and bake 30-35 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown with a crispy texture. Serve warm for best results.

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