Butterscotch White Chocolate Blondies

Happy Memorial Day folks!  To round out my baking contributions for our annual camping weekend, I decided to make something I've actually never made before: blondies.  I actually love these sweet treats so its relatively ridiculous that its taken me so long to make them.  I was not disappointed.

I decided to go with a well reviewed recipe from allrecipes.com, but made a few minor changes along the way.  Here is my version of the ingredients:

3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup salted butter
2 1/13 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips

Melt the butter over low heat, then whisk in the brown sugar until it has dissolved completely.  In a separate bowl, sift together all your dry ingredients.

Remove the butter/sugar mixture from the heat, and let it cool a bit.  then whisk in the eggs one at a time.  Once you've got that all mixed up, add the mixture in with the dry ingredients, and stir until just combined.

Then it's time to fold in your chips....

Yum.  Then it's time to pour your batter into a greased 13x9 baking dish.  Bake at 350F for 35 minutes.

These smelled sooooo yummy when they came out of the over.  BUT word to the wise, let these cool completely before attempting to slice.  they will be very soft and gooey.  Unless you're not planning on serving them to anyone but yourself, then by all means, scoop out some of the gooey yumminess and add some vanilla ice cream.  De-Lish.

These were very well received by my fellow campers, I'll definitely make them again! I hope you all had a great holiday weekend!

Orange Chocolate Chip Blossoms

Happy almost-long weekend!!! I'm looking forward to sharing in some BBQ festivities over the weekend with some good friends and their kiddos, so naturally I whipped up a few batches of tasty treats!  First up was a new spritz cookies with a little chocolaty touch in the center.

I used the base recipe for my Buttery Spritz cookies, and substituted orange extract for the almond extract.  Although very fragrant, the orange extract doesn't really provide much in the way of orange flavor.  Next time adding some zest will probably be the way to go.

Onto the ungreased, unpapered cookie sheet....some of my little blossoms were prettier than others....

Then into the oven at 400F for about 7 minutes....

And a sprinkle of powdered sugar while they're nice and hot.  Yum.  I really like these cookies, they're not super sweet, and the texture is light and melty....

I also whipped up a batch of the ever-popular White Chocolate Macadamia Nut...

Yum. I'm not supposed to eat raw cookies dough while pregnant, but I must confess I sampled an itty bitty bite of this stuff (woops).

Also on the docket for Memorial Day weekend: some White Chocolate Butterscotch Blondies which I'm really excited about.  Apparently I'm on a white chocolate kick lately.  I'll write up a detailed post at a later date.

I hope everyone has an awesome weekend! and Happy Baking And/Or Grilling!

White Chocolate Coconut Biscotti

Happy Monday!  This weekend I whipped up some biscotti with the remnants of my baking supplies (I have to reload this with).  I came up with another tasty biscotti combination, and this one is sweet, sweet sweet.  Definitely more of a dessert than a breakfast food....

Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
dash salt
1 1.2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons almond extract
6 tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 cups shredded coconut
5 ounces white chocolate, melted

Mix together your dry ingredients, then make a well in the middle of the flour and add in your egg yolks and eggs.  Also add in your extract.  Mix until the flour is moistened.  Then add in your melted butter and mix until combined.  Finally, add in the shredded coconut.

Yum.  Now form the dough into 2 logs.  It will be very crumbly, so your have to knead it a bit to get it in the shape you want.

Then its into the oven at 325F for about 25 minutes. Let cool.

Then slice.....

Place the slices on their side on your baking sheets and bake for 10 minutes.  Flip and repeat.

After the slices had cooled complete, I melted down some white chocolate and transferred it into a plastic bag. 

Then I snipped off the corner of the bag, and drizzled the chocolate over the biscottis....

I let these little babies chill in the fridge for a half hour or so to harden up the chocolate. 

And we're done!  Pretty happy with these!  Obviously I'm slightly obsessed with biscotti.  This weekend I'll switch things up a bit for our memorial day festivities with some classics and hopefully a sweet treat that I NEVER make, but often crave: Blondie Bars.  Yum. Stay tuned.

A New Oven, and a Thank You!

Big news straight out of my kitchen!  Thanks to the huge generosity of Joe's Auntie Debbie, we are the proud owners of a much newer, much nicer Oven!  Woohoo!  And you know what that means, dear blog friends: More, bigger, and better cookies.

Ta-da!  For the maiden voyage, I thought it was only fitting to make some Thank You cookies for Auntie Deb.  I went for some classic chocolate chip cookies, which I don't make often enough, I think.

Using my Go To Chip-Cookie recipe, I whipped up a batch, and admired them, as they baked, through the little viewing window....wow....this is a big step up from our 1970's clunker of yesteryear....

oooooh, ahhhhh

A new era of cookie baking has begun! 

Thanks Auntie Debbie!

A Fun Announcement, Cookie Monster Style!

Well, faithful readers, we've kept it quiet for as long as we could: Joe and I are expecting our first baby!!!  On or around Thanksgiving Day of this year we are planning to welcome another cookie-sampler to our family, and we couldn't be happier!

Back in Early April, I put together some little Easter baskets for our Moms to break the good news, and of course I had to include some baby themed cookies (I couldn't help myself).

Using the same sugar cookie dough that I baked in my Easter Strawberry Tart, I rolled out and cut some cute little onesie cookies with a cookie cutter I actually bought when my cousin announced she was pregnant in December (who knew I'd need it for myself!).

I only had Blue gel food coloring to dye my Royal Icing, which has led some to believe I am hoping for a boy (No Comment).

Hehehe, I had way too much fun making these. I decided to add the Due Date for a little personalized touch.

Then into the baskets they went with a little ribbon and plastic wrap and a baby book to keep them company....

We are so Excited to finally share the news with more than just a few people.  Hopefully I will continue to keep up with the baking (several of my recent posts were the results of odd pregnant lady cravings).

Happy Baking!