Chocolate Chip Sugar (Holiday) Cookies!

Once the exams, papers, projects, and overall stress was over and Eileen and I had some time to finally just…live and enjoy the holiday season we made a little list of reasonable things that we would want to do for our week off from school. I was super excited and it felt good to only have work, itself. It was something like… “real life” minus the frugal grad school lifestyle (haha)

On this night we decided to make chocolate chip sugar cookies! We tend to improvise a lot with choc chips and would virtually add them to well, anything. We also used food coloring added to Betty Crocker cream cheese frosting and SPRINKLES! to decorate 🙂

what’s needed: 1.75 c. all purpose flour // 1 tsp baking soda // 0.5 tsp baking powder // 1 c. butter (softened) // 1.5 c. granulated sugar // 1 egg // 1 tsp vanilla extract // whatever you would like to decorate // *we also added some water (immeasurable) to make the dough easier to work with and mixed

directions: 1// preheat oven to 375 degrees F. 2// prepare the cookie sheet. 3// In a small bowl: stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. 4// In a large bowl: mix together butter and sugar until smooth. 5// beat in the egg and vanilla into the large bowl mixture. ADD CHOC CHIPS! 6// Gradually fold in dry ingredients into the large bowl. mix. 7// Add water, if needed to form a mixture that is dough-like. 8// roll rounded balls of dough (we flattened ours a bit) and space apart on cookie sheet 9// bake 10 min in oven. 10// cool. 11//decorate!

happy baking, friends! and enjoy your great company this holiday season!

Ketch-up Post #1: Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

do you like my play on words?! i love ketchup. and with fries, it’s a must have. so to comply with taking responsibility for my lack of posts this fall, i’m giving you just a tad bit of humor. this series of posts will be giving overall posts on what has been going on in the last few months during one of the craziest semesters of my life..but don’t worry i thought of you, all and certainly have plenty to say! happy reading!

This semester was beyond me. For my <10 posts all Fall and for the ones that were posted, I’m sure you could assume that it’s been nearly impossible to find time for myself, anything social, anything fun, etc. My good friend, Eileen and I decided that we should make a “pact” (which we really did abide by) to do one fun/relaxing/deserving thing every weekend. On this specific weekend, we had lots of work but managed to make these AWESOME pumpkin choco chip cookies! they were a hit with everyone who tried ’em! We also had so many that it’s safe to say that the recipe provided below will make pleeenty.

The recipe is adapted from My Baking Addiction‘s Pumpkin Oatmeal cookies with white chocolate and cherries click {here} to see their version. My Baking Addiction is a blog on baking and cooking with tons of recipes!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Choc Chip Cookies

what’s needed: 2 c. all purpose flour // 1.5 c. oats // 1 tsp baking soda // 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon // 0.5 tsp salt // 2 sticks (softened) butter // 1 c. brown sugar // 1 c. granulated sugar // 1 c. pumpkin puree // 1 egg // 1 tsp vanilla extract // 1 BAG choc chips (bc why not)

directions: 1// preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 2// line baking sheet with foil. 3// combine flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. 4// in a large bowl; mix butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until fluffy. 5// add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla. 6// add flour mixture and mix until all ingredients are mixed in well. 7// fold in choc chips. 8// drop spoonfuls onto the baking sheet. 9// bake for approx. 17 min, until brown. 10// cool and enjoy!

Donut Emergency!

FRIENDS. where can I find a well-priced compartment donut baking pan?!

quick and easy ice cream sammiches

after my visit to sarabeth’s in may (see post about it HERE) i became obsessed with real, homemade ice cream sandwiches. baked fresh with amazing ice cream flavors between. with my last month of school being the most hectic of my life i ended up craving all things sweet and thought of a quick and easy way to make my own! (without having to worry about the heat of the oven in the fall-like weather)

simply, what you’ll need: ready to bake pillsbury cookie dough, ice cream right out of the freezer!

all you need to do is place the {i chose chocolate chip} cookie dough in the oven at 350 for approximately 15 minutes. let them cool completely and take a great scoop of {i chose neapolitan} ice cream and squeeze it between two cookies. you’ll likely need a bowl to eat it all together as the cookie might break but it is one of the greatest, quickest treats that combines two of the best things…ice cream and cookies!

p.s. if the cookies are a little burnt, it actually tastes awesome with the ice cream (in my opinion)

enjoy this treat for the last couple weeks of summer!

xx|A

vegan jimmy carter (peanut butter) cupcakes!

lately, i’ve gotten back into baking…something i love to do though really don’t do it as often as i would like. my little sister is vegan and this weekend for mother’s day we baked some vegan peanut butter cupcakes!

i, first of want to say..sort of as a disclaimer that vegan baking is very different (and sometimes difficult) than “regular” baking. a problem that I encountered when baking these cupcakes specifically had to do with the amount of oil used (although the recipe called for 1/3 cup canola oil i should have known to use a bit less–but hey, all part of learning) also, my cupcakes “sank” which to any baker…is such defeat. and also, i wish that i had left the vinegar and milk to curdle for longer. also, when they had cooled and been iced, putting them in the refrigerator to harden would have been a great idea as they were naturally very loose and tasted much better cold. (just some tips i’m sure you could appreciate) BUT i will keep making these cupcakes until i believe i get it as best as possible.

the recipe comes from a vegan cupcake book my sampooh gave my little sister: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

what’s needed:

3/4 cup soy milk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup natural chunky peanut butter
1/3 cup canola oil (remember, use less than this!)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tbs dark molasses
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground flaxseed
1 cup & 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

*to garnish…chocolate icing with a maraschino cherry (duh!) is perf.

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. mix milk and vinegar and leave to curdle on the side, separately
3. in a large bowl cream the peanut butter, oil, sugar, molasses, vanilla, and flaxseeds
4. add milk and vinegar mixture to large bowl and mix until incorporated

5. sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a separate dry ingredients bowl and mix

6. add dry ingredients to the the wet and mix until combined.

7. put cupcake liners into cupcake baking pan, fill 2/3 full and bake for about 23-26 minutes.

8. cool then garnish!

happy baking, friends! xoxo