Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

My first un-assisted cookie success! I'm sooooo happy!!!!

My entire life, every cookie that I've baked on my own has turned out bad. Usually, the texture is more like a cake than a cookie. And usually, I'm attempting to make chocolate chip cookies.

Well, this time I decided to tackle a different type of cookie, hoping to get better results. Oatmeal raisin is classic, right? But I still wanted my chocolate, so I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies instead. It was a brilliant idea if I do say so myself, haha.

I used an oatmeal raisin recipe from Smitten Kitchen but substituted chocolate chips for raisins. It turned out soft and chewy and wonderful. Maybe I can tackle regular chocolate chip cookies next!

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients:
- 1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
- 2/3 cup of light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour (I used bread flour because that's all I had in the house, and it still turned out well)
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1 1/2 cups of rolled oats
- 3/4 cup of chocolate chips

Directions:
- Cream the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla together in a bowl.
- Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt to the butter/sugar mixture.
- Fold in the oatmeal and chocolate chips.
- Scoop the cookies onto a lined cookie sheet, giving them plenty of space to spread, and stick them in the fridge (or freezer if you're impatient) until they're cool.
- Bake them in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. I found that they actually need more like 15 because they started off cold. Basically, you want the edges to be slightly brown and the middle to be slightly undercooked.
- Remove them from the oven and let them cool in the pan for a few minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
- Dip them in some cold milk and indulge!

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Sorry for the long silence, but I have some news...

We're having a GIRL!!!

So in honor of this news, I went through my pictures of yet to be blogged about dishes and found something pink :)

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes (minus the lemonade).


I found this recipe at Annie's Eats and it looked tasty, so I decided to give it a try. But I got lazy and skipped the lemonade part. :P

These were definitely better than my previous attempt at strawberry cupcakes. They weren't as gorgeous as Annie's but by my standards, this was a huge improvement. These were much fluffier than last time, the flavor was great and the icing wasn't a total disaster! I still need more practice baking, but I there is hope! :)

Inspired by Annie's Eats

Cupcake Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. lemon zest
- 12 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup milk
- 2 cups strawberries, chopped (I used thawed frozen strawberries)

Frosting Ingredients:
- 1 cup strawberries, chopped (I used thawed frozen strawberries)
- 12 oz. cream cheese (room temperature)
- 18 tbsp. unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 2 2/3 cups confectioners’ sugar (sifted)
- 3 tsp. lemon juice
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
- Mix flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest. Set aside.
- Beat the butter on medium in a stand mixer until light and fluffy.
- Add the sugar and beat until combined.
- Add the eggs one at a time until combined.
- Add half of the flour mixture and beat until well incorporated.
- Add the milk and mix.
- Add the rest of the flour mixture until everything is smooth and incorporated.
- Fold in the strawberries.
- Fill up paper-lined cupcake tins about 3/4 way full.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

- Blend the strawberries in a blender for the frosting.
- Strain the strawberries to remove the seeds.
- Beat the cream cheese and butter together until fluffy.
- Add the powdered sugar and beat until thoroughly mixed.
- Add the lemon juice and vanilla extract.
- Mix in the strawberry puree one tablespoon at a time until it reaches the texture, flavor, and color you want.
- When the cupcakes are totally cool, frost them and serve!

Banana Oatmeal Cookie

This time it wasn't my fault. I stopped buying bananas because they always get mushy and then I'm forced to use them for baking and I've learned my lesson. This time, I had mushy bananas because my in-laws brought them over one day and left them behind. Then, to no one's surprise, they got mushy and I had to find something to do with them.

I found this recipe on There's always thyme to cook. I really liked these cookies. They weren't overly sweet and I felt (sorta) healthy eating them since they had bananas and oatmeal. I did mess with the recipe a bit because I had 4 rotting bananas, not 3, but it still turned out fine, which is surprising because if you've followed my blog at all, you know that I suck at baking. Oh, I also kept them in the oven much longer than 12 minutes the original recipe called for because they weren't browning and came out mushy. With or without my tweaks, they were yummy and I definitely approve of this recipe.


Adapted from There's always thyme to cook
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 4 ripe bananas (the original recipe calls for 3, so 3 would probably work too)
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 cup walnuts

Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar together.
- Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
- Mix in the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon until well-combined.
- Mix in the banana, oats, walnuts and chocolate chips.
- Put spoonfuls of dough on a greased baking pan, parchment paper or silpat and bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cookies are just beginning to brown. (The original recipe says 10-12 minutes, but I found that it wasn't enough)
- Cool on a cooling rack and then share them with your friends!

Strawberry Bread

Our strawberry plants are producing a lot less fruit this year. Maybe it's because the plants or older now, or maybe because I thinned out the patch a bit earlier this year. Either way, it's probably a good thing because we still have frozen strawberries leftover from last season that need to be used up.

And because we can only eat so much strawberry jam and drink so many smoothies, I'm always looking for ways to use the strawberries and came across this strawberry bread. It's like banana nut bread, but with strawberries! Maybe next time I'll try a strawberry and banana nut bread since strawberries and bananas go so well together...

I got this recipe from Amber's Delectable Delights and highly recommend it!

Source: Amber's Delectable Delights
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
- 1 1/4 cups (6 1/2 ounces) flour (I used bread flour)
- 1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) mashed strawberries
- 1/2 cup (2 1/2 ounces) vegetable oil

Directions:
- Mix the walnuts, flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and nutmeg together in a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the lemon zest, eggs, strawberries and oil.
- Combine the two until well blended.
- Pour everything into a greased 9x5" loaf pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for 55-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool the bread in the pan for 15 minutes, then move it to a cooling rack.
- Slice and serve!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Why oh why must I be cursed with an inability to bake? I have really got to be one of the worst bakers ever! Everytime I attempt some sort of baked goodie, I make a mess of it. I swear I follow the directions as precisely as I am capable of. I try, try, and try again. But I fail, fail, and fail again. Arrrrgh! But, I'm going to keep trying and hopefully one day I'll learn.

Remember that episode of Friends where Monica makes a million batches of cookies in an attempt to make the best chocolate chip cookies without any success? That's how I feel. No matter what recipe I've tried (yes including the Phoebe's mom's famous Nesele Toulouse recipe), no matter whose oven I'm using, no matter what the weather is like outside, no matter how full the moon is, or how the planets are aligned, they ALWAYS come out cakey. See those below? That's not what a cookie should look like...


The ONE time they turned out right was the time the hubz was helping me and screwed up the recipe because he didn't bother to read it carefully! They were chewy and delicious and definitely not my doing. I tried to make them again the right way the following week without his help, and guess what? CAKEY! Next time I'm going to try his messed up version, but I bet those will turn out cakey too.

Seriously, what's wrong with me?

Ok, enough wallowing in self-pity. Here's the recipe for Alton Brown's "The Chewy", aka "The Cakey" when I get my hands on it. The accidental changes that my husband made in his version, which tasted fantastic by the way, are in blue.


Ingredients:
(my hubz changes are in blue)
- 2 sticks of butter
- 2 1/4 cups of bread flour
- 1 teaspoon of kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1/4 cup of sugar (1 c of sugar)
- 1 1/4 cup of brown sugar (1/2 c of brown sugar)
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons of milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 2 cups of chocolate chips

Directions:
- Melt the butter (I used a microwave).
- Add the sugar and brown sugar into the butter and cream them together.
- Add the egg, egg yolk, milk, vanilla extract and mix.
- Slowly mix in the flour, salt and baking soda until well incorporated.
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Chill the dough.
- Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Scoop the dough onto a cookie sheet and bake for 14 minutes.
- Enjoy the fact that you can make cookies that have the texture of cookies and I can't.

Strawberry Cupcakes

As you may know, we have a little strawberry patch in our yard that produces way too many strawberries for us to keep up with, so I harvest them, wash and hull them, and then freeze them to use throughout the year.


Since they were taking up so much space in the freezer, I decided it was finally time to do something with them. And who doesn't love a good cupcake?

I found this recipe for Sprinkle's strawberry cupcakes at Martha Stewart's website and decided to give it a go. This also makes these cupcakes perfect for Jennifer, the Domestic Goddess's event called Sugar High Fridays because this month's host, Palachinka, has decided to make the theme copy cat recipes! Check out the roundup on Friday, February 27th, or submit your own creation to this fun event.

Unfortunately, my copy cat attempt wasn't exactly a copy cat. It wasn't light and fluffy and was actually pretty dense, but tasty nonetheless. I think I probably didn't beat the butter enough? And don't even get me started on the frosting! It looked like someone threw up in my mixer, so I left my cupcakes naked. I'm still learning when it comes to this baking business. It's not easy! But I'm learning and improving and happily eating my mistakes along the way.

Here's the recipe. Hopefully you'll do better than I did.

Source: Martha Stewart and Sprinkles Cupcakes
Makes 1 dozen

Ingredients:
- 2/3 cup whole fresh or frozen strawberries, thawed
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 c milk (room temperature)
- 1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 1 c sugar
- 1 egg (room temperature)
- 2 egg whites (room temperature)

Directions:
- Puree the strawberries. You should have about 1/3 c of puree (add more or less to get 1/3)
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside.
- Mix the milk, vanilla and strawberry puree together and set aside.
- Cream the butter on high until light and fluffy.
- Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until combined.
- Turn your mixer speed to low and slowly mix the egg and egg whites in until just blended.
- Add half of the flour mixture until incorporated. Then add the milk mixture. Then add the last of the flour.
- Fill 12 lined cupcake tins and bake for 22-25 minutes at 350 degrees.

*If you want non-naked cupcakes, the recipe for frosting can be found here.

S'mores

What could be better than snuggling with your honey in front of a nice cozy fire? S'mores and hot chocolate! And you know what's even better than that? Bailey's in that hot chocolate!

Ingredients:
- Graham crackers
- Marshmallows
- Chocolate

Directions:
1. Stick a marshmallow (or two) on a skewer and hold it a few inches above the tip of the fire. Don't let the marshmallow catch on fire and keep rotating the skewer every so often so that no one side burns. The goal is a lightly browned and crispy outside and ooey melty goodness all the way through. If you let it catch on fire or burn, the outside will be done before the inside is. This is important stuff here!
2. Place a piece of chocolate (or two) on the graham cracker.
3. Put the perfectly cooked marshmallow on the graham cracker and chocolate. Using another piece of graham cracker, smush the marshmallow down and slide the skewer out.
4. Take a bite into this heart-warming sandwich and repeat :)