My Family, My 10 Year Blogiversary, Milton Hershey, Chocolate Chip Cookies and more...

And they really thought it wouldn’t last… 

 So “Woo Hoo” to me for persevering for 10 years, I’ve amazed myself!

Chocolate and Cappuccino Coffee Cake

So… you say you’re a chocolate addict and a coffee lover?  Then, there is no reason why you won’t like this coffee cake… 

But, even better, you adore a little coconut thrown in the mix?  Splendid!  A bite of this will surely put you on cloud nine!

Chocolate and Cappuccino Coffee Cake is made with a kitchen staple, “Bisquick.”  You know ~ that bright yellow box with the delicious looking pancakes on the front, that’s filled with baking mix.  I can’t say that I use it often but, it’s good to know it’s around and handy for quickly stirring up a fresh home- baked goodie. 

This coffee cake from Betty Crocker is easy to make and is a great sweet treat for breakfast or as a snack later in the day!

Chocolate and Cappuccino Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

1/3 cup flaked coconut
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon butter or margarine, melted
2 cups Original Bisquick
2/3 cup milk or water
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1 egg
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted
2 teaspoons powdered instant coffee (dry) 

Method:

Heat oven to 400ºF.

Grease square pan, 8x8x2 inches.

Mix coconut, nuts, 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon butter; set aside.
Beat remaining ingredients except chocolate chips and coffee in large bowl on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly.

Beat on medium speed 4 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.

Pour into pan.

Stir together chocolate and coffee; spoon over batter.

Lightly swirl chocolate mixture through batter several times with knife for marbled design.

Sprinkle coconut mixture evenly over top.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until light golden brown.

Serve warm.

ENJOY!!!

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog @My Kind of Cooking for great tips on Tuesday’s and good and easy recipes every Friday!

“Yummy ~ Not Pretty” Cookies for Valentine’s Day

You know those pretty little heart-shaped sugar cookies that are drizzled with chocolate that you bake for Valentine’s Day?  I was all ready to bake them until Bill went to the mailbox and came in the house with the March issue of “Food Network” magazine ~ the Chocolate issue!  

I’m not the resident chocolate addict, but I drooled my way through the magazine, and came to “The Way the Cookie Crumbles.”   It told me, “Choose your chocolate chip cookie style:  crispy, chewy or somewhere in between.”  “Chewy” got my attention!

I don’t bake cookies a lot any more like I used to, but when I do; it’s usually some variety of a chewy type cookie.  In my cookie baking experience, I know it can be hit or miss in making a cookie that claims to be “chewy;” only to have it turn out crunchy!  

So many variables:  baking time, whether the dough is chilled or not, etc.  These cookies live up to their description:   chewy, delicious and chock full of semi-sweet chocolate chips!

My chocolate chip cookies may not be as pretty as those dainty, beautifully decorated red, pink and white Valentine cookies, but I can tell you for a fact ~ they taste great!  Are you a crispy or chewy sort of person?

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2¾ cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2½ sticks unsalted butter, softened

1¾ cups packed dark brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda together into a large bowl.

Beat butter and both sugars in a bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes, or use a stand mixer.

Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla.

Reduce mixer speed to low.

Add flour mixture and beat until combined.

Stir in the chocolate chips by hand. 

Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the dough and refrigerate at least 1 hour or preferably overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Drop heaping tablespoonful’s of dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2” apart on cookie sheet.

Use my cookie scoop and cookie sheets with ridges.

Bake until the cookies are golden around the edges but still soft in the middle, about 12 minutes.

Remove the cookies from oven and let cool 10 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

Makes about 30 cookies

YUM!!!

Here’s wishing you all a Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

                                  

Sinfully Delicious Lemon Chocolate Chip Gooey Butter Cookies!

You’re probably like me and have been seeing these cookies all over the internet.  If you like gooey butter cake, you’ll need to make these cookies ~ and then just try not eating the whole batch!

These melt in your mouth cookies are soft on the outside and ooey gooey on the inside.  They have a buttery lemon taste with semi-sweet chocolate chips complementing it.  Rolling them in powdered sugar before baking gives them just the right sweetness and dusting with powdered sugar after baking just makes them pretty. 

The dough should be covered and refrigerated for at least 2 hours before baking to firm up so you can roll the batter into balls.  I let them sit overnight in the refrigerator.  Instead of rolling them into balls, I used a medium cookie scoop which was perfect for the job; not as messy and giving a uniform size.  If you don’t have a cookie scoop, roll the dough into walnut-size balls.

The cookies are usually made with a yellow cake mix but you can substitute your favorite.  Maybe it’s chocolate or strawberry, coconut, pineapple or red velvet.  They’re easy to make and it’s fun experimenting with different flavors.  They’re simple and a hit with everyone!

 

Lemon Chocolate Chip Gooey Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

1 stick butter, room temperature

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature

1 egg

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 box Duncan Hines lemon cake mix

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Powdered sugar for rolling/dusting

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.

Beat in the egg and vanilla.

Beat in the cake mix.

Add the chocolate chips and mix well.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Roll the chilled batter into walnut-size balls or use a medium cookie scoop.

Roll them in powdered sugar.

Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart.

Bake 12 minutes.

The cookies will remain soft and gooey.

Cool completely and dust with more powdered sugar, if desired.

Makes 3-3½ dozen

They’re like a little bit of heaven when you take a bite!

Don’t forget to enter my CSN giveaway I posted last Monday!  Today is the last day you can enter!  The drawing is tomorrow.

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog @My Kind of Cooking for great tips, recipes and cookbook giveaway!

Saltine Toffee Crunch

This is one crazy delicious toffee delight and soooo easy to make! I'm so glad I came upon this recipe in our local newspaper, The Northwest Herald!

A saltine cracker has always been one of life’s little pleasures for me whether spread with peanut butter, topped with a cheese slice or along with a bowl of soup but, I never would have imagined the lowly saltine cracker being exalted to a great party confection!

The combination of the salty cracker with the butter and brown sugar that turns into toffee and then topped with semi-sweet chocolate and toasted pecans is addictive for sure.  The saltine renders an irresistible salt crunch to play off the buttery sweet toffee.  What great cracker candy!

Saltine Toffee Crunch

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

35 saltine crackers

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 package (12 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips, I used Ghirardelli’s

1 cup chopped pecans, toasted

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line a 10” x 15” rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper, allowing for some overhang.

Melt butter in a large saucepan.

Brush parchment with a little butter.

Line up crackers on buttered parchment, touching but not overlapping.

Whisk brown sugar into remaining butter.  Set over medium-high heat.  Bring to a boil; boil thick, 2 minutes.

Pour evenly over crackers.

Place in 400-degree oven and bake until brown and bubbly, 10 minutes.

Carefully remove from oven.

Scatter molten surface with chocolate chips.

Let melt 5 minutes.

Use an offset spatula to spread chocolate.

Cast on nuts, gently press into chocolate.

Freeze until firm, 30 minutes.

Lift parchment by its overhang and set toffee (paper and all) on a cutting surface.

Slice into 18 squares, then into 36 triangles or break into chunks.

I’d call it “sin on a cracker!”

Be sure to enter my CSN Giveaway for a $35 gift certificate that I posted on December 17^th!

Also, check out my friend, Linda’s blog, at My Kind of Cooking for her great recipes and cookbook giveaway!

Low Fat Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Muffins can be a breakfast food, right?  Some are so sweet and loaded with a heap of fat that they could be called a cupcake.  Actually though, a muffin is kin to a quick bread baked in individual servings while a cupcake is just that ~ a small cake.

Muffins are great and these are low in fat and low in sugar as well.  They are filled with great banana flavor and flecked with semi-sweet chocolate chips for a terrific taste combination to make them extra special.  The addition of sour cream produces a muffin that holds its shape as you eat it and doesn’t crumble apart because of dryness.  To get the best banana flavor, use really ripe bananas!

Low Fat Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:

1¾ cup flour

1/3 cup sugar, or Splenda

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup banana, mashed (about 2 bananas)

½ cup low fat sour cream

¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Grease or paper-line a 12-muffin cup pan.

In small bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl, mash bananas.

Add oil, egg and vanilla.  Blend without over-stirring.

Stir in sour cream and chocolate chips. 

Distribute in muffin cups.

Bake in 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in pan 5 minutes.

Remove muffins to wire rack to cool completely.

They’re tastylicious!

Check out my friend, Linda’s blog, at

My Kind of Cooking for her great recipes and giveaway!

Lindsay’s Chocolate Café Chocolate Chip Cookies

Midwest Living magazine published a wonderful recipe for chocolate chip cookies and I would like to share it with you.  These cookies are made at Lindsay’s Chocolate Café and Coffee House in O’Fallon, Missouri, in the St. Louis area.  I will definitely be visiting this café the next time I am headed that way!

The cookies have a “flavor-packed lineup” of ingredients that make for a great treat.  They are filled with rolled oats, grated milk chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate pieces and nuts to make each bite delectable.  The double chocolate adds color and flavor and the oats and nuts add a great chewy texture.

The unique thing about this recipe is that the cookies can be baked on a preheated stone as well as cookie sheets.  The article states that the baking stone makes slightly crisper edges.  I have never heard of cookies being baked on a baking stone.  Are you familiar with that?

Lindsay’s Chocolate Café Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2½ cups regular rolled oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 12-oz. pkg. semisweet chocolate pieces (2 cups)
1½ cups chopped walnuts or pecans
4 ounces milk chocolate bar, grated

Method:

In a medium bowl, combine oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds.

Add sugars; beat on medium speed until mixture is combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.

Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined.

Beat in as much of the flour mixture as you can with the mixer.

Stir in any remaining flour mixture with a wooden spoon until combined.

Stir in chocolate pieces, nuts and grated chocolate.
Drop dough from a large cookie scoop (3 tablespoons) 4 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets or a preheated baking stone.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 9 to 10 minutes or until edges are light brown.

Cool on cookie sheets or baking stone for 1 minute.

Transfer to wire racks and let cool.

Makes 30 cookies.

This cookie is a star!

Bailey’s Irish Cream Cake

I think there is a little bit of Irish in all of us on St. Paddy’s Day!  And what better way to celebrate it than with a great dessert with Bailey’s Irish Cream in it?

I have made this cake many times and enjoyed taking it to work for yet another pot-luck celebration.  I worked at a Social Service agency for people with disabilities for many years.  If we employees weren’t talking about the latest diet we're on, we were talking about food and our recipes.  

It seemed like every other conversation was about food and I don’t know how we actually got any work accomplished but, we did!  The agency was full of many good cooks and believe me, we used any excuse to make it food day.  Just try working there and not gaining weight!

Back to this cake now ~ I would say always have a bottle of Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur on hand!  If you don’t have any, you must make a trip to buy it and since this is the season, I’m sure it is on sale everywhere.  Then you are set to either enjoy imbibing or adding it to a variety of dessert recipes.  This cake tastes delicious and is just a little heavy. 

Bailey's Irish Cream Cake is a doctored up cake using pudding and cake mixes.  It's quick, easy and pretty impressive, especially for "Bailey" lovers!

For the Glory of Ireland

Paddy the Englishman, Paddy the Irishman, Paddy the Scotsman, and Paddy the Welshman were all flying together in an airliner. The captain announced that they were losing altitude rapidly and that one of them would have to jump out to save the others.

"I do this for the glory of Scotland," said Paddy the Scotsman and he jumped out.

"We need to lose more weight," said the captain, so Paddy the Welshman shouted, "I do this for the glory of Wales," and jumped out.

"Sorry," said the captain. "I'm afraid we need to lose the weight of just one more person."

"I do this for the glory of Ireland," said Paddy the Irishman and threw out Paddy the Englishman.

Bailey’s Irish Cream Cake

Ingredients:

1 yellow cake mix

1 large box instant chocolate pudding

4 eggs, room temperature

¾ cup oil

¾ cup water

¼ cup sugar

½ cup Bailey’s Irish Cream

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Glaze:

½ cup Bailey’s Irish Cream

½ cup confectioners’ sugar

For cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Grease and flour Bundt pan.

Mix all cake ingredients, except chocolate chips, on medium speed of electric mixer for 3 minutes.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour batter into Bundt pan.

Bake for 1 hour or until it tests done with a toothpick.

Let cool for 10 minutes.

Remove from pan.

For glaze:

Combine Irish cream and confectioners’ sugar with electric mixer.  If a thick consistency is desired, add additional confectioners’ sugar.

When cake is completely cool, spoon glaze over top.

‘Tis incredibly delicious!