Chocolate Chip Cookie Granola Squares

We are heading to Fargo on Friday to visit our old stomping grounds and I’m really excited! It’s been 5 months since we moved and although I’m finally starting to feel at home here, I still really miss our first home. And I’m totally ready to eat some delicious food including pizza, burgers and doughnuts….I should make sure to pack some maternity pants so I have some extra room.

But first on the list is driving by our old house. Our first home together, the home we brought Noah home to after he was born, the home where I instilled a love of cooking in Noah. And one of Noah’s favorite things to make and eat is granola bars. I can’t believe that I haven’t shared any with you all here.

We were taking a trip to Kansas to visit Joel’s family so I wanted to bring a treat that was dairy free for my mother-in-law and something that Noah would enjoy too. These granola squares fit the bill perfectly. They tasted cookie-like but included healthier ingredients that make it a little easier to indulge your sweet tooth.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Granola Squares
recipe slightly adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction

3/4 cup Trader Joes Cookie Butter or Biscoff Spread (or nut butter of  your choice)
2 Tbs.p coconut oil
1/3 cup honey or maple syrup
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. chia seeds
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
sprinkles, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8×8 pan with nonstick spray or line with foil for easy cleanup.

2. Melt the biscoff and coconut oil in the microwave. Stir in the honey/maple syrup, egg and vanilla until combined. Stir in the remaining ingredients.

3. Dump the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth it out. The original recipe states to bake for 21-24 minutes but mine took more like 30 minutes. Bake until no longer gooey and edges turn golden brown.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

So, I don’t want to jinx things but it seems like maybe, just maybe, spring weather is finally arriving around here (despite the fact that it snowed a bit earlier this week). It’s been in the sixties the past few days and forecasted for the 70s next week. Can’t complain about that! Hopefully, it just stays this way and the heat doesn’t come and slap us across the face right away.

But in case it does, I have this ice cream in my arsenal to help cool us off. And now you all do too!

Joel’s favorite ice cream is cookie dough and I have made it for him several times (please forgive me for the pictures, it was in my early days). But when I saw this, I knew it was all over. Why just make plain old vanilla ice cream and add cookie dough when you could make cookie dough flavored ice cream with cookie dough chunks mixed in. And so much cookie dough that it is literally bursting full and difficult to mix in. Now that’s what Joel’s dreams are made of…brown sugar, browned butter, chocolate chip-y goodness.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
recipe from Annie’s Eats

For the cookie dough:
5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

For the ice cream:
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
2 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
4 large egg yolks
Pinch of coarse salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 cup mini chocolate chips

1. For the cookie dough: stir together the butter, salt and brown sugar in a small bowl. Once combined, mix in the flour, vanilla and chocolate chips. Spread the dough out onto a piece of saran wrap and tightly cover. Refrigerate for at least an hour.

2. For the ice cream, melt the butter over medium high heat. Stir constantly and continue cooking until the butter begins to brown and smell nutty. Whisk in the heavy cream and bring to a simmer. While waiting for the cream to simmer, whisk together the egg yolks and brown sugar until thickened and pale. Slowly stream in a bit of the warm cream into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Once combined, stir in the rest of the cream then pour it back into the pan. Stir in the salt then cook until thickened and the mixture reaches 170-175 degrees F. Remove the mixture from the heat and pour through a fine mesh sieve into a large, clean mixing bowl. Stir in the vanilla and milk. Cover, place in the refrigerator and chill for at least a few hours.

3. Once chilled, freeze your ice cream according to your manufacturers instructions. Meanwhile, cut the cookie dough into small, bite-size chunks. During the last five minutes of freezing, slowly add in the cookie dough and chocolate chips so that they can mix in thoroughly. If your ice cream maker doesn’t allow this, wait until the freezing is done then quickly mix in the dough and chocolate chips. Freeze until firm or enjoy immediately.

Brownie Nests

These chewy, super fudgy brownies are amazing on their own but by adding a few crispy Mini Cadbury Eggs they become divine and festive too. And they are easy to boot. What’s better when you have a dozen things to prepare for Easter dinner?

I, of course, had help from my little man while making these and goodness does he have sticky fingers and a love for those little eggs. If you have the same problem around your house, you may need to buy three bags!

Joel had to work super late a few days in a row so Noah and I decided it was the perfect opportunity to make an Easter treat early to share with you all while surprising Joel and his co-workers with a well deserved sweet. I kept two at home so we could sample them and delivered the rest and Joel came home with an empty bowl! So, I think they were a hit!

These are a fun little dessert for the kiddos and adults alike. I love that they are little so you can practice your portion control. Not that even one is really a healthy choice since it’s three types of chocolate topped with chocolate crispy coated eggs…. Sorry, but I made no claim to be providing you with healthy Easter treats. Make sure to check out some other delicious (and still not healthy) treats for your Easter dessert table at the end of the post!

Brownie Nests
yields approx. 54 brownie nests

2 bags Mini Cadbury Eggs
1 fudgy brownie recipe, ingredients mixed but not baked

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin tin liberally with non-stick spray. Fill each halfway with brownie batter. Bake for about 12 minutes, making sure they are still a bit soft in the middle.

2. Let cool for about 5 minutes then remove from the muffin tin to cool completely. Gently press three mini Cadbury eggs into each mini brownie.

Check out these other delicious options for Easter:

Cherry Dump Cake - Joel’s favorite

Lemon Hush – my favorite

Key Lime Cheesecake with Fresh Strawberry Sauce

Jello Cookies

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes

Classic Southern Lemon Bars

Almond Joy or Mounds Eggs

If you are looking for a fun Easter treat to make with the kiddos, this is it! Noah and I are huge coconut and almond lovers so this was an ideal sweet for us.

Noah loved dumping all the ingredients into the KitchenAid and turning it on. Needless to say, we may have had a powdered sugar shower. Once the dough chilled, I formed the eggs and the dude put the almonds on top. This is my disclaimer to any of you that received these (in case there were two on top of each other or they were pushed down to the bottom). After awhile, he got a little bored and decided he would just eat the almonds while I finished them up. And like a typical boy, he put too much in his mouth and decided he would spit them out into the bowl of almonds…lovely I know. After that little incident, the eggs became Mounds. Oh, the joys of cooking with kids.

These turned out absolutely perfect! They taste a lot like almond joys and are the perfect small bite when you have a sweet tooth. The recipe states that it makes 28-30 eggs but I decided to make them a little smaller and came out with about 40. I still placed two almonds on each egg (you know, before the spitting incident) so keep that in mind when considering how many almonds you will need. I sprinkled the Mounds version with sprinkles so that we could tell the difference and well, because sprinkles make everything happy.

Coconut Cream Almond Joy {or Mounds} Easter Eggs
recipe from food.com

1/4 lb. butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 lbs. confectioners’ sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
15 ounces flaked coconut
20 -23 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (almost 1 lg. bag)
Unsalted almonds, 2 for each egg

1. Mix the butter and cream cheese together (I use my KitchenAid) Add the confectionary sugar about 1 cup at a time, salt and vanilla then mix well. Add the coconut and mix until well blended (it will be very thick).
2. Place the mixture in the freezer to chill for at least 20 minutes.
3. Take out of the freezer and form into egg shapes with your hands. (It is helpful to put some confectionary sugar on your hands so the eggs don’t stick to them when rolling out the dough).
4. Place each egg on a cookie sheet, covered with aluminum foil. When you are done, add 2 nuts on the top of each egg, pressing in slightly, so they don’t fall out.
5. Place in the freezer again for at least 25 minutes.
6. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.
7. Dip the bottom of the egg into the chocolate, then place it on a small flat dish. Take a large spoon and spoon some melted chocolate on top, spreading around with a butter knife. Make sure you don’t get it on too thick, or you won’t have enough for the whole batch. To put the egg on the cookie sheet, use a sharp knife, and run it under the egg to transfer to the cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil.
8. When done making eggs, put in the freezer for a few minutes to harden. Store in the refrigerator, covered with aluminum foil.

Festive Valentine’s Cake

I love festive sweets and treats so whenever a holiday rolls around I jump on the chance to make something cute and kitchy. And this is the official one for Valentine’s Day people (but don’t worry, I may have other things up my sleeve too). I originally came across this idea on Pinterest when I saw it in a red, green and white theme for Christmas and thought, why not for Valentine’s Day? I clicked over to the original blog and saw that she already had that thought…and integrated chocolate into the mix which is perfect for this lovely hallmark holiday. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Valentine’s Day but it’s kind of hard to consider a holiday if you ask me. But, it gives me a reason to make pretty, sprinkly, pink things so I guess I’ll go with it.

The original recipe uses pink, red and black swirled cake to make a fun pattern but I have never liked the combination of pink and red. They don’t go and it bothers me. Call me crazy, maybe I am? I just couldn’t do it. So instead I went with a light pink, fushia and black. It still turned out very cute and Valentine’s-y. Especially because of those adorable itty bitty heart sprinkles. Love.

Another Pinterest find….how to make a cake mix taste like a bakery quality cake. I like using cake mixes as a starting point but I just can’t stand the idea of not doctoring them up somehow so when I saw this little idea I kept it in the back of my mind for future use. And this was the perfect time to put it into play. Random side note: that last sentence sounded sports-related…Joel is already sports obsessed and now his job revolves around sports….too.much.football.talk. It’s not good for my brain.

Ok, back to the cake mix trick. To make it taste oh so much better, replace the water in the recipe with milk (I used skim), add an extra egg for richness and replace the oil with double the amount of butter. Oh yeah, delicious. It came out super moist and if I wasn’t the one who had made it, I would have never guessed it started with a mix.

For step by step photos of the process, click here.

Festive Valentine’s Cake
recipe from Cooking with Sugar

1 box white cake mix
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box (or milk, butter and eggs as statedd in directions above)
1 box dark chocolate cake mix
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box (or milk, butter and eggs as statedd in directions above)
Black food coloring (I use Wilton Food Coloring Gel)
Red food coloring (I use Wilton Food Coloring Gel)
1 (12 oz) can white frosting
Colored Sprinkles

1. Heat oven to 325°F. Generously grease a 12-cup bundt cake pan. Make cake batters as directed on boxes. Divide the white cake into two separate bowls.

2. Add some red food coloring to one bowl and mix to the desired shade of pink.  Then, add red to the other and mix to the desired color red.

3. Pour 2/3 of the chocolate cake batter into a bowl and mix with a few drops of the black food coloring. Discard the remainder of the batter or use it for cupcakes. (You only need 2/3 of the chocolate cake batter, because if you use the whole thing in won’t fit in the tube pan).

4. Pour 1/2 of the chocolate cake mix into the bottom of the greased pan. Carefully pour the pink over the chocolate, making sure you don’t stir it. Just pour it on top.

5. Then, carefully pour the red batter over the pink batter and pour in the remainder of the chocolate.

6. Bake as directed on box or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes.

7. Turn pan upside down onto cooling rack that is placed over a cookie sheet. Cool cake completely, about 30 minutes.

8. Once cake is cool, equally divide your frosting into 3 bowls. Use the food coloring again to make one bowl red, one bowl pink and leave one white.

9. Microwave each bowl of frosting for a few seconds on high until it is smooth enough to drizzle over the cake (about 10-15 seconds). With a spoon, drizzle the pink frosting back and forth around the whole ring in a striping pattern until you use it all. Then do the same with the red and then the white.

10. Sprinkle with colored sprinkles if using. Set cake aside to dry. Store loosely covered and unrefrigerated. Cake can be made a day or two in advance.

Frito Bars

I have been overwhelmed lately to say the least with the state that our house is in and just life in general. The kitchen is unpacked for the most part…the pantry is still a mess. So, I still haven’t really cooked all that much but I’m looking forward to getting into a new rhythm in my new kitchen.

I actually made these bars a few months ago for a Husker get together and I can’t believe that I never shared them with you until now. I love the sweet and salty combination so these are pretty perfect for me. Joel is a huge Special K Bar fan (also known as scotcheroos) and these are very similar but with a saltier, crunchier bite. I don’t care for butterscotch so I like these better because they are all peanut butter plus they have peanuts which is always a good addition in my book.

Frito Bars
recipe from Jennifer Cooks

10 1/2 ounces Fritos corn chips, lightly crushed
1 cup white sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup dry roasted peanuts
1 ½ cups milk chocolate chips

1. Grease a 9×13 baking pan and set aside.

2. In a saucepan, bring the sugar and corn syrup to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter until smooth.  Stir in corn chips and peanuts and gently stir until coated.

3. Pour corn chip mixture into greased baking pan and spread evenly.

4. Place chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 1 minute; stir and then microwave for 30 seconds more, if necessary to melt.

5. Drizzle melted chocolate over Frito Bars and allow to cool completely.  Once cooled, cut into squares and serve.

Top 12 Recipes of 2012

2012 has been a wonderful, busy, crazy year and I’m so glad I have been able to share it with you all! My readership and views have skyrocketed this year and it’s all thanks to you. I truly appreciate all the views and comments and just for giving me a little of your time each day! So here are the top 12 most viewed recipes of 2012. I hope you take a look and {hopefully} enjoy them again! Happy New Year!

Chocolate Cake with Mint Chocolate Chip Frosting

Extra Crispy Spicy Fried Chicken

Sweet Cornbread

Cheesy Bread

Whole Lemon Blueberry Walnut Muffins

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes

Mexican Chicken Salad with Chili Lime Vinaigrette

Salted Pretzel Caramel Bark

Skinny Bang Bang Shrimp

Lasagna Cupcakes

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies {Christmas Tray 2012}

We are closing on our new home today and I will officially be a Nebraska resident again! I don’t think you understand how much this excites me! Especially after the week we just had. Of course, Fargo had to send us off with one last bit of nasty weather. I was feeling all sad and everything about packing and leaving and getting mail for the new owners when it was still MY house but that weather put it into perspective and left me saying “adios suckers, I’m out.” Well, I try to talk big and bad but it was still incredibly hard to leave. Shutting the door for the last time, ugh. I was not a pretty sight.

I have been having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year with all that we have had going on with the move but when I whipped up these cookies I felt a little bit more cheery. The smell of peppermint filled the house while these are baking which always reminds me of Christmas. And now that we are officially in Nebraska, we get to decorate a tree (my parents waited to put theirs up so that Noah and I could help) so that will totally fix me. I was majorly bummed that we didn’t get to put ours up this year.

Although I loved these cookies (they taste like a white chocolate version of thin mints), they were a bit to crispy for me but I prefer a soft, chewy cookie. The flavors of peppermint, cocoa and white chocolate were pretty heavenly together making this recipe a huge keeper. I may roll out the dough a little less next time so that they have a bit of chew to them but that’s really the only change I would make. Not only are they delish but they are really festive and pretty! Try them….you will like them!

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
recipe from My Madison Bistro

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup fine sugar
1 large whole egg, plus 1 large yolk
3/4 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
4 large candy canes, crushed (or Andes Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips)
1 pound white chocolate or confectioners’ coating, coarsely chopped

1. In a medium bowl, whisk dry ingredients.

2. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar on medium until fluffy, about 4 minutes. On medium-low, add egg, then yolk, until blended. Beat in peppermint extract. Reduce speed to low and slowly add flour mixture, beating until just mixed.

3. Divide dough into 2 and place dough on sheets of plastic wrap. Shape dough into disks, wrap, and refrigerate 1 hour (up to 2 days).

4. Lightly flour surface and roll out one disk to 1/8 inch thickness. Using a 2 inch circle (I used 3 inch because my other cutters were already packed), cut into rounds and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Reroll dough scraps and cut remaining rounds.

5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Bake for 9-12 minutes. Transfer parchment to cooling rack; cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

6. Place candy canes in a plastic bag and bang away with a kitchen mallet until the candy is crushed. Or if you are lazy like me, use Andes Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips.

7. Melt white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Dunk cookies half way into chocolate. Use a fork to brush excess from cookie bottom, then transfer to parchment-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle the cookies with the candy cane chunks.

8, Refrigerate baking sheets until set (3 hours). Serve immediately, or freeze.

Salted Caramel Pretzel Bark {Christmas Tray 2012}

If you are on Pinterest, I’m sure you have seen this recipe floating around. The second I saw it, I knew it would have to be featured here for the Christmas Tray series! What is more perfect than pretzels, chocolate and salted caramel for Christmas?

I know this is the second salted caramel recipe I have shared for Christmas this year but it’s a huge favorite in our family (as well as pretzels) so I knew it would be a big hit. My parents watched Noah recently so I whipped this up for them as a thank you. I sampled it before giving it all to them. I had to be able to tell you all what it tasted like. Oh, the sacrifices I make for this blog.

This is another simple and quick recipe to whip up at Christmastime. It seriously only took about 15 minutes from start to finish (not counting the freezing time). Throw a big handful in a cute cellophane bag, tie it up with a ribbon and hand out the happiness.

Salted Caramel Pretzel Bark
recipe from Mama Say What?

½  bag of mini pretzel twists
2 sticks of butter
1 cup of brown sugar
1 bag of chocolate chips
Sea salt or table salt (I used coarse sea salt)

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then line a large jelly roll pan with aluminum foil and lay a single layer of pretzels down.

2. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and the brown sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Let it boil gently just until it starts to stick to the bottom and it forms a nice smooth caramel. You’ll want to let it bubble a little and get really thick. Remove from heat and pour evenly over the top of the pretzels (don’t worry if every single pretzel isn’t covered).

3. Place in the oven at 350 degrees for five minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top. You can let the caramel melt the chips, but I prefer to put it back in the oven for one minute. Spread the chocolate chips around with a spatula until mostly melted. Sprinkle generously with salt.

4. Let cool on the counter top for a few minutes and then pop in the freezer for at least two to three hours. When it comes out of the freezer, break it up into uneven chunks with your hands and serve.

Crock Pot Peanut Clusters {Christmas Tray 2012} + An Announcement

I have a very exciting announcement to FINALLY make. After a lot of thought, prayer and consideration we decided to move to Nebraska. Joel accepted a position at a sports software company in Lincoln, Nebraska (where we both graduated from college). We are so unbelievably excited to be moving so close to our families. We will be 1 hour from my parents and brother (vs. 6 hours) and 3 hours from Joel’s parents (vs. 9 hours). We were incredibly lucky to sell our house in about 3 weeks and we found a new house in Lincoln.

Although we are ecstatic about moving, we are really going to miss this place that has become our home. We have made some amazing friends and found a great church family that we are going to be so sad to leave. This is where we started our married lives and it’s the only place we have called home together…it’s the only home Noah has ever known.

It really hasn’t hit me yet. We have started packing things here and there, set up mail forwarding and gotten moving estimates but it still doesn’t seem real. It’s less than a month away! I think the week before is when it will finally set in and when I close that door for the last time. Eeee, when I think of it that way then it gets emotional.

So, I’m sorry if this little piece of the internet that I rule has been lacking. I wrote a bunch of posts and set them to autopost so that you wouldn’t feel abandoned but it still feels lacking to me somewhat. I haven’t been cooking and experimenting as much; I’ve been trying to use up all the crap in my pantry and freezer that we don’t want to move. What that really means is that our meals have been easy and weird and boring and totally not blog-worthy. And I’ve been using a lot of shortcut and store-bought ingredients so that I don’t go and re-stock the pantry by accident. It’s been really hard and I’m really looking forward to getting settled into our new home so I can get back to my cooking routine. Plus my new kitchen is way better, yay! Well, except for the appliances and builders grade cabinets and ugly 90s light fixture. But that is all going to be fixed with stainless steel appliances (I just squealed a little, I’m so excited), painting of the cabinets (thanks mom in advance *wink wink*) and recessed lighting.

The month of December is going to be totally crazy for us, so you might not see as much of me. But please don’t worry, things will be back to normal very soon. I promise!

Now onto the recipe. I’ve had my eye on this recipe for awhile now and knew it would be perfect to try for Christmas this year. I have really been trying to provide a variety of Christmas treats this year so that you all have great options and aren’t bombarded with cookies (not that there is anything wrong with lots of cookies…they are our favorite around here).

These peanut clusters couldn’t have been easier. Noah dumped all the ingredients into the crock pot and turned it on. So, if a two year old can do it so can you! The only problem with the recipe was the waiting. Once he had dumped, he was ready for candy and didn’t understand why he couldn’t have candy NOW. Oh, the joys of toddlers! I finished them up while he napped so they could harden and would be ready when he woke up. What’s better than a little bit of chocolate after waking up? For him, nothing.

While it was great and classic with the peanuts, I personally prefer almonds with chocolate so next time I may do half peanuts, half almonds to mix it up. It would be great with some cashews or pecans thrown in there too.

Crock Pot Peanut Clusters
recipe from Trisha Yearwood via Redbook

2 lbs (36 oz) salted dry-roasted peanuts
4 oz (4 squares) German’s sweet  chocolate
1 12-oz package semi-sweet chocolate chips (about 2  cups)
2½ lbs white almond bark (I cut this along the perforated squares, doesn’t need to be small)

1. Put the peanuts in  the bottom of a 4-quart slow-cooker. Layer the chocolate over the peanuts,  beginning with the sweet chocolate, followed by the chocolate chips, and then  the almond bark. Set the temperature on low and cook for 3 hours. Do not stir  the mixture.

2. After 3 hours, stir the mixture with a wooden  spoon until smooth. Drop the candy into cupcake pan liners, using about 2  tablespoons per liner. Allow the candy to cool completely before removing the  cupcake liners. Makes 30 to 40 pieces.