Week Two

This week's cookies, weren't what I had originally planned. My first plan was to make chocolate chip cookies, but then I thought those were boring. My second plan was to make Chai Crescents, but then I realized they are cut out cookies, I don't have a rolling pin, wax paper or cookie cutters. I may borrow those things from my mother and make them later though. So, this is my third plan, Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies. And the picture doesn't do them justice, they are supposed to be (and are in real life), the color of mint ice cream.
Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 pouch Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4-1/2 teaspoon mint extract
6-8 drops green food color
1 egg
1 cup creme de menthe baking chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate chunks

1. Mix cookie mix, butter, extract, food color and egg in bowl, until soft dough forms. Stir in creme de menthe baking chips and chocolate chunks.

2. Using small cookie scoop or teaspoon, drop dough 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

3. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool 3 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Serve warm or cool completely. Store tightly covered at room temperature.


This is supposed to make 36 cookies, when I mixed up the dough, it looked very small, so I made 2 batches, and now I have tons of cookies. I used 1/2 t mint extract in the first batch and thought it was very minty, but after tasting the cookies when they were done, they weren't overly minty. I used 1/4 t in the second batch, and haven't tasted those yet, but with the creme de menthe chips, I bet they're still fine.
I used the 8 drops of food coloring and liked the color.
I didn't realize that creme de menthe baking chips are actually just Andes mints chopped up, I used a leftover bag of chocolate chips instead of chopping up chocolate.

Baking Time

I decided to try and bake some bars/cookies for this holiday season. Every year my aunt has done this for me, so I thought I'd repay her, plus I get more practice baking.
I decided to make a different recipe every weekend (starting the first weekend in November) until Christmas. This week it was Chocolate Revel Bars:
I will post a picture and the recipe here for anyone who reads this to enjoy as well. All my recipes are coming from 100 Best cookies by Better Homes and Gardens. It's a magazine I bought last year.

Chocolate Revel Bars
1 cup butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 teaspoons baking soda
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate pieces
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Reserve 2 T of the butter for filling. In a large bowl beat the remaining butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar and baking soda. Beat until combined, scraping side of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and 2 t vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour. Stir in oats.
2. For filling, in a medium saucepan combine the reserved butter, chocolate pieces, and sweetened condensed milk. Cook over low heat until chocolate is melted, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Stir in nuts and 2 t vanilla.
3. Press two-thirds (about 3 1/3 c) of the oat mixture evenly into bottom of an ungreased 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Spread with filling. Crumble the remaining oat mixture evenly over top.
4. Bake in preheated oven about 25 minutes or until top is lightly browned (filling will still look moist). Cool in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. Makes 60 bars.
To Store: Cover pan and store at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze up to 3 months.

My apartment smells so yummy

And this is why:
I tried out a new recipe from The Best of Taste Of Home magazine I picked up at the grocery store the other day.
It's called a Chocolate Chai loaf. It used chai tea latte mix with chocolate and sour cream. My apartment smells like chai, yummy. The frosting (which makes me wonder if it's really a bread, because you don't frost bread) has the chai tea latte mix in it as well.

I also bought some Do Biz cookie dough at the store the other day and made these Garbage Great cookies.

I originally bought the dough just to eat it. Since, we are going to Okoboji this weekend and I wasn't sure how much longer it could sit open in the fridge, I used the rest of the dough to actually make cookies.

I originally planned to take the bigger chai bread to work, but I'm leaning toward taking the small loaf and taking the big loaf with us this weekend.

Baking

I've been doing some baking for a trivia event tonight.
And of course at the last minute I changed my mind about what I'll be taking.
This is a Chocolate Walnut Tart:
I made two of them because I had the ingredients (actually I bought too many walnuts, so I figured why not), it was a good choice because for some reason they turned out completely different. The first one (below) never thickened up. The filling is brown sugar, dark corn syrup, eggs, butter and vanilla mixed together and poured over the walnuts and chocolate chips in the pie crust. The second one (above), the nuts and chips kinda rose to the top and it's quite a bit thicker underneath, kinda like the consistency of pecan pie. Everyone I've talked to has no idea what happened, I prepared them the same, cooked them for the same amount of time, and they're still very different. I think the runny one would be good over ice cream or pound cake, but I really have no idea what I'm going to do with it.

Next, I made lemon cake with a lemon glaze. I made this for my birthday cake last year and it was soo good. It's a white cake mix with lemon pudding mix and lemon lime soda. It looks great, but I decided not to take it to the trivia night.

And last but not least is the double cheese macaroni and cheese. I made it for dinner last night, but after tasting it, I decided it was waay too rich for me, and I've decided to warm it up in the oven and take it tonight. It's got cottage cheese and cheddar cheese. The sauce on it almost tastes like an alfredo sauce, and I'm not that big of a fan of it. Though it does taste great.

I have to say cooking/baking is something my ex got me started on that I'm so glad he did. I used to only make those box meals, and never bake, but he got me pans, mixing bowls and I got a hand mixer from my parents for Christmas, and most everything I've made so far has turned out good (even when I messed it up, I've gotten pretty good reviews).