Magic bars

To be honest, I think they might just be magic.  This delicious bars are so easy I think my girls could have made them all by themselves.

Magic Bars

1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs

1/2 c. butter (melted)

1 1/2 c. chocolate chips (I like to mix white and milk chocolate)

1 c. chopped/sliced nuts (almonds, pecans or walnuts, really anything)

1 1/2 c. flaked coconut

1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

Mix the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter in a bowl until combined then press into a 9x13 greased pan.  You can mix the dry ingredients and then evenly place them over the crust or one by one add them.  We sprinkled the chocolate chips over, then the nuts, then the coconut on top and slightly press/flatten down.  Open the can of sweetened condensed milk, and drizzle evenly over all the toppings (you can use a spoon or just pour straight out of the can).  Just make sure to keep a slow drizzle so that you evenly distribute it.  Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.  The top and edges should start to brown.  Let cool before you cut them.  

My photo shoot buddy :)

Wonderfully Raw Macaroons!

So, I will confess that this cookie is a 100 % knock off of the Wonderfully Raw Coco-Roons that I love oh so much, but are too pricey to buy in bulk.  Although my sweetheart of a husband said they were better :) I've been searching for a couple weeks with foodgawker/google/pinterest and other places for similar-looking recipes, and I think I found/created a winner.  I've only made them once (I stupidly made a huge batch so I couldn't justify make more the next day, even though I wanted to, just so I could make some tweaks to the recipe).  Obviously things can end up different depending on the brand of the ingredient you use, or your specific oven and things like that, so don't be made if it doesn't come out perfect :/

Raw Vanilla-Maple Macaroon

1 1/2 cups almond flour
3 cups coconut flakes (dried and unsweetened)
3/4 cup maple syrup (real maple syrup)
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1 1/2 Tablespoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Mix the dry ingredients (flour, coconut, and salt) thoroughly.  Add the wet ingredients (syrup, oil, and vanilla), and mix.  If for whatever reason it feels to dry to roll into a ball and stay intact, add a little more coconut, but this mix should work fine.
On cookie sheets lined with parchment paper I scooped/formed the cookies, using a small cookie scoop.  You could roll them if you want, if you don't have a scoop, but that made it the easiest for me.  The size of the cookie doesn't really matter, but you will have to change the cook time accordingly.  If you had a dehydrator, you could use that, which would make this cookie truly raw, but I don't.  One recipe I found that used a dehydrator said 8 hours, but it really just depends on how you want the cookie to turn out.  So try it out half way through!  I used my oven at 200 degrees, with the door open.  This took almost 2 hours.  Yes, this very simple recipe has a painfully long finish time.  I checked the cookies at the hour and a half mark to make sure they had not dried through the middle and the bottom was still quite moist (not easy to handle) so I let them stay in longer.

This recipe made about 2 dozen, maybe a little more (I forgot to count darnit).  You only need one pan because they don't expand, you can place them right next to each other.  Let them cool and store in an airtight container.  I didn't refrigerate them and they lasted just fine for a week.

Wonderfully Raw, has an amazing assortment of these cookies!  We've tried the lemon (my favs), vanilla-maple (martin's fav), and the chocolate brownie one (I'm not the biggest choco fan).  I'm trying the apple pie next!  You should try them first and then you really know how to create this perfect little cookie.  My next flavor to make will be lemon :)  This is the basic recipe so I would assume I'll use this and add to it.
Bob's Red Mill is the brand I use for most of my flours/grains and other things.  I buy my almond flour and coconut flakes in bulk on amazon :)  They really have everything, especially if you have to do gluten free, which I'm obviously going for.  We just love their gluten free pancake mix.

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies

A while ago I posted this recipe for peanut butter cookies, it's my favorite, always turns out amazing.  THIS recipe is just the gluten free and slightly less processed version.  My goal is to make it completely unprocessed and more natural but I'm not completely there yet.  Surprisingly I didn't have to change the amounts of any ingredients, just simple substitutions, which was amazing! I might actually keep this healthy baking up now :)  So, all I did was sub Bob's Red Mill all purpose gluten free flour, for traditional all purpose flour, and organic coconut sugar for granulated sugar.  It wasn't much of a change, but gluten free!  My next step is substituting all the sugar, and switching out the butter for coconut oil.. next time!

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. organic coconut sugar (or regular sugar)
1/2 c. all natural peanut butter
1 T. honey
1 egg
1 1/2 c. Bob's Red Mill all purpose gluten free flour
3/4 t. aluminum free baking soda
1/4 t. salt

Cream butter and sugars till light and fluffy.  Add the peanut butter and honey, mix thoroughly.  

Add egg , make sure to scrape bottom of bowl, and continue to mix.  

Mix in flour, baking soda, and salt.

Use a cookie scoop or spoon, and then roll into 1 inch balls.

Use fork to make cross marks, dip fork in flour if it sticks to the dough.

Sprinkle the top with sugar (I used the coconut sugar).

Bake at 375 for 8-9 minutes.

Makes about 2 dozen.

I like my cookies soft and chewy, so I'm very careful about when I take them out of the oven.  The cookies will puff up slightly and start to gain a little color around the edges before ready to be taken out.

*Important side note: the dough should not stick to your hands.  You should be able to roll a ball without a mess, so if it's sticky, add a little more flour.   Reason that the recipe doesn't always have the same moisture levels include, size difference in eggs, temperature of butter, brand of flour, brand of peanut butter.. tons of things!  So just keep this in mind.

i am baker

So I know that I haven't been baking much, it's sad for me too. But, I still have some yummy things to share with you. This is a blog I found through foodgawker I believe, and I just love it! The site is called "i am baker" and it's fabulous. She makes the most amazing sugar cookie designs ever, and of course, amazing cakes as well! Check her out, book mark her, visit on holidays.. all that. Enjoy :)

Too cute, huh?? Well I hope everyone has a wonderful thursday! There's a 3 day weekend coming up!!

with love,
kristin ann

Fudgies!

my only no bake cookie recipe... and they are literally Martin's favorite thing in the whole world right now... thanks for the recipe mom :)

1/2 c. butter
1/3 c. milk
3 T. cocoa
2 c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
3 c. oatmeal

In a medium sauce pan, combine butter, milk, cocoa, and sugar. With a wooden spoon, continue to mix over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil. For 5 minutes you will continue to stir will boiling. Take the pan off the heat, add vanilla and mix in, then add oatmeal. Mix till combined. On and ungreased cookie sheet, test one cookie, by using a spoon and dropping a spoonful of the mixture onto the pan. The cookie should keep its form and the chocolate and oatmeal should stay together. If the chocolate oozes down and spreads, you will need to keep the mixture on boil for another minute or so.
I make rather large cookies so I only have about a dozen, if you make them a small spoonful, you should have 2 dozen.

holidays holidays :)

I have a few st. patricks day ideas.. some are mine, some are not, whatever :)

The adorable "green velvet" cupcakes and cake bites are from the wonderful bakerella.com! Go to her site, check out the recipe. I have posted red velvet before, so you could use that recipe and just change the red food coloring to green and add some green sprinkles!

Also there are a few tricks for making a quick and easy red velvet or green velvet :)

You can use a cake mix and just make a few modifications! Here's one example (I've done it, and it works great!!

1 box white cake mix (2-layer size)
1 box (4-serving size) instant vanilla pudding mix
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 ounces red food coloring or GREEN!!

Bake using the regular box directions! My cream cheese recipe can be found if you go to my red velvet link.

These are my favorite sugar cookies!!! I made these cuties up last st. patricks day, check out the recipe if you haven't already!

Valentine's Dessert ideas!!

I love pink, and desserts, and cupcakes, and Martha Stewart (most of these ideas are from her), and of course, I love my Martin.

Who and what do you love?!

White Chocolate Chip and Craisin Cookies

This is a holiday recipe of mine that I just recently created. I love the use of spices in holiday baking. For basic cookies, feel free to take the nutmeg and cinnamon out.

1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 1/3 c. butter
2 eggs
1 T. vanilla
3 ¼ c. flour
1 t. baking soda
¾ t. salt
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. cinnamon
12 oz. white chocolate chips
1 1/2 c. craisins

cream together sugar, brown sugar, and butter, until completely smooth; make sure to scrape bottom of the bowl
add eggs to butter mixture and blend thoroughly, scrape bottom of bowl, then add vanilla
add about half the flour, mix thoroughly, then add the rest of the flour with the baking soda and salt mixed in, add nutmeg, and cinnamon; the dough should just barely be dry enough so it doesn’t stick to your fingers
add white chocolate and craisins
use a spoon, or a cookie scoop; you should fit about 12 on a buttered pan; bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes, until edges are just turning brown; if the bottom of your cookies tend to brown, put a sheet of foil under your pan, shinny side down.

*Personally I like white chocolate for this recipe, but use whatever you like! How I get the cookies to have a perfect shape everytime, which, is soooo tricky, I'm not sure why chocolate chip cookies always turn out different, but it's the temperature of the oven and whether or not you have foil under the pan. Sometimes you just have to play around with your oven to find out what works best. Good luck!

Christmas Sugar Cookies and Peppermint Sugar Cookies!!

This is one of my favorite recipes! Given to us by Debbie Childs; I know this will become one of your favorites as well. Jana and I love holidays purely for the fact that we have a reason and a theme for a new batch of sugar cookies!! Yes I have posted these before.



Sugar Cookies

2 c. butter
1 ½ c. sugar
4 egg yolks
2 t. vanilla
4 ½ c. flour

Cream butter and sugar, add yolks and vanilla; gradually add flour. Dough rolls out best if it has been chilled for at least 4 hours, but not necessary. Roll out dough with plenty of flour, about ½ inch thick. You don’t have to roll out the whole batch of cookies at one time; I usually split it in thirds or so. Place cut out dough on a buttered cookie sheet. They don’t bake much bigger than as cut out, so you can put them relatively close. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. I only love these cookies if they’re a little undercooked. So when the edges have any golden color, take them out. Also, if your oven or cookie sheets tend to cause the bottom of your cookies to burn, place a piece of aluminum foil underneath the pan, shinny side down.

Icing

2 lb. bag of powdered sugar
3 T. powdered meringue (wilton)
1 t. clear vanilla
1 t. butter flavoring

With a whisk attachment mix ingredients, and color if wanted (preferably gel paste color). You will need to add water tablespoons at a time until it can be mixed completely and is thin enough to pipe through a bag. The frosting should still be thick. If it’s too thick to use a piping bag, add a very small amount of water. Use the thick frosting to outline the cookies, and save some if you’re planning to do any writing or decorations. With the remaining frosting, add water just until frosting is wet enough to drip off a spoon. Use this frosting to fill the cookies that have already been outlined, use fingers or spoon to push frosting to edges, but it should lay out smooth on it’s own, if not, add more water. Let frosted cookies dry over night.

**For Peppermint sugar cookies, I added crushed peppermint candies to the cookie dough. It was very annoying trying to crush them with a ziplock bag and a rolling pin, I was losing patience, but then end result was worth it. But if you can find crushed peppermint candies in the store, maybe in the baking section, it would be worth it. I also added some of the crushed candies to the cookies after being frosted (but while the frosting is still soft) either peppermint candies, or peppermint bark, or just shaved chocolate. I decorated the plate with some red hots, and other christmas candies.

**In the treat bags, I threw in a few regular sugar cookies (although they're not regular, they're amazing) and a few peppermint, and then some random holiday candies. The clear treat bags can be found at Michaels (The happiest place on earth, well, tied with Nordstrom). :)

Classic Gingerbread

Ingredients

Makes 18
3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for rolling
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup unsulfured molasses
2 cups confectioners' sugar
4 teaspoons powdered egg whites (meringue powder)

Directions

1.In a large bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy; beat in egg and molasses. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture; mix just until combined. Divide dough in half; flatten into disks. Wrap each in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours and up to 2 days, or freeze up to 3 months (thaw before baking).
2.Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks set in upper and lower thirds. Working with one disk at a time, place dough on lightly floured parchment paper, and roll out to 1/8 inch thick, dusting lightly with flour as needed. Using paper, lift dough onto two baking sheets; freeze until firm, about 20 minutes.
3.Remove paper and dough from baking sheets. Using a long offset spatula, loosen dough from paper. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters, and brush off any excess flour. Transfer to baking sheets. (Gather scraps, briefly freeze, and re-roll.)
4.For softer cookies, bake 8 to 10 minutes; for crunchier cookies, bake 11 to 12 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
5.Make icing: In a large bowl, whisk together confectioners' sugar, powdered egg whites, and 1/4 cup water (if needed, adjust consistency with confectioners' sugar). Transfer icing to a pastry bag with a small tip, or place in a resealable plastic bag, and snip a small hole in one corner. Decorate cookies as desired, and store in a single layer in airtight containers.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Every holiday is another reminder to me of how much I absolutely love this sugar cookie recipe! Take it upon yourself to invest in some cookie cutters. If I am remembering correctly, my mom bought me a box set of cookie cutters, probably with about 100. I went through them, threw away the ones that had too much detail or small shapes (since the smaller the cookie and the more detailed the design, the harder it is to cut out, and cook without burning). Then over the years I have slowly added to that collection. For example, on St. Patricks day, I went through my box found a perfect shamrock (the bigger of the two) and then went to michael's to see what else they had. Of course Michael's, being as amazing as they are, had a slightly smaller size. Usually when I make these cookies I like to do the same object or theme of objects but in at least 2 different sizes. I do this for 2 reasons; it's a lot more fun to decorate when not everything is exactly the same, and it gives people the option to eat smaller ones. Anyways, please start making sugar cookies; you'll be happier and so will your friends :) Enjoy!! You can find the post with the recipe under the recipe tab, sugar cookies is the title!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe, I believe, is used by my grandma green, whom I love dearly, and passed down to my mama, and tweaked by me. Hope you enjoy!




1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 1/3 c. butter
2 eggs
2 T. honey or corn syrup
1 T. vanilla
3 ¼ c. flour
1 t. baking soda
¾ t. salt
12 oz. chocolate chips

cream together sugar, brown sugar, and butter, until completely smooth; make sure to scrape bottom of the bowl
add eggs to butter mixture and blend thoroughly, scrape bottom of bowl, then add vanilla and honey, mix well
add about half the flour, mix thoroughly, then add the rest of the flour with the baking soda and salt mixed in; the dough should just barely be dry enough so it doesn’t stick to your fingers
add chocolate chips
use a spoon, or a cookie scoop; you should fit about 12 on a buttered pan; bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes, until edges are just turning brown; if the bottom of your cookies tend to brown, put a sheet of foil under your pan, shinny side down.

*Personally I like semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips, but use whatever you like! How I get the cookies to have a perfect shape everytime, which, is soooo tricky, I'm not sure why chocolate chip cookies always turn out different, but it's the temperature of the oven and whether or not you have foil under the pan. Sometimes you just have to play around with your oven to find out what works best. Good luck!

Snickerdoodles

1 c. butter
1 ½ c. sugar
2 eggs
2 ¾ c. flour
2 ½ t. baking powder
¼ t. salt

Cream butter, sugar and egg. Add dry ingredients. Dough shouldn’t be sticky at this point. Roll into 1 inch balls and roll in cinnamon/sugar. Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes (these cookies do not need to brown, as soon as they color at all, they’re done).
*For a little more flavor, roll the balls of dough in a cinnamon/sugar/nutmeg/cloves mixture!

Sugar Cookies

This is one of my favorite recipes! Given to us by Debbie Childs; I know this will become one of your favorites as well. Jana and I love holidays purely for the fact that we have a reason and a theme for a new batch of sugar cookies!! Jana has some pictures she took of her valentine sugar cookies on her blog, here's the link... and also, Jana deserves at least half of the credit for the cookies in these pictures :)

http://janalaurene.blogspot.com/2009/02/better-late-than-never.html






Sugar Cookies

2 c. butter
1 ½ c. sugar
4 egg yolks
2 t. vanilla
4 ½ c. flour

Cream butter and sugar, add yolks and vanilla; gradually add flour. Dough rolls out best if it has been chilled for at least 4 hours, but not necessary. Roll out dough with plenty of flour, about ½ inch thick. You don’t have to roll out the whole batch of cookies at one time; I usually split it in thirds or so. Place cut out dough on a buttered cookie sheet. They don’t bake much bigger than as cut out, so you can put them relatively close. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. I only love these cookies if they’re a little undercooked. So when the edges have any golden color, take them out. Also, if your oven or cookie sheets tend to cause the bottom of your cookies to burn, place a piece of aluminum foil underneath the pan, shinny side down.

Icing

2 lb. bag of powdered sugar
3 T. powdered meringue (wilton)
1 t. clear vanilla
1 t. butter flavoring

With a whisk attachment mix ingredients, and color if wanted (preferably gel paste color). You will need to add water tablespoons at a time until it can be mixed completely and is thin enough to pipe through a bag. The frosting should still be thick. If it’s too thick to use a piping bag, add a very small amount of water. Use the thick frosting to outline the cookies, and save some if you’re planning to do any writing or decorations. With the remaining frosting, add water just until frosting is wet enough to drip off a spoon. Use this frosting to fill the cookies that have already been outlined, use fingers or spoon to push frosting to edges, but it should lay out smooth on it’s own, if not, add more water. Let frosted cookies dry over night.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. peanut butter

1 egg

2 T. honey

1 1/2 c. flour

3/4 t. baking soda

1/4 t. salt



cream butter and sugars till light and fluffy, add peanut butter

add egg and honey, make sure to scrape bottom of bowl

mix in flour, baking soda, and salt

use a cookie scoop or spoon, roll into 1 inch balls

use fork to make cross marks, dip fork in flour if it sticks to the dough

sprinkle top with sugar

bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes



*if your oven generally burns the bottom of the cookies, use a piece of foil, shinny side down, underneath the pan