The BEST Cookie Recipes!

Hello Blogger World! I've noticed that I still have heavy traffic over here on this blog! Thank you SO much!!! Did you know that I have moved my blog over to my website? Find it ---->  HERE! Please head over there and subscribe to my blog so you can keep up with my AMAZING recipes there! :)

In the meantime, since the holidays are approaching! I have decide to put together my list of AMAZING COOKIE RECIPES! All tried and true!

Here is my recipe for CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

These cookies are pretty much the BEST THING EVER!!!

You may also like my recipe for M&M CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

The secret ingredient to these? Pudding! 

The easiest Shortbread Cookies

   

Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies

Fudgy Oatmeal Cookie Cups!

Chocolate Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Peanut Butter Cookies with Hershey Kisses! 

Butterscotch Pudding Cookies

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Fresh Strawberry Yogurt Cake

I have a confession, I am a Chocolate Lover! Shocking right? If you follow this blog you will notice that 99% of everything I bake has some sort of Chocolate in it! I mean, if I am going to do the damage, I may as well be in LOVE with what I am eating, right?

Last week, I was looking around at my Pinterest Boards I found this amazing recipe for a Fresh Strawberry Yogurt Cake and well, my goodness, the title alone gets me excited!

Take a look at THIS!!!

All photos taken by "Baking with Melissa"

Fresh Strawberry Yogurt Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 Tb. lemon juice, divided
Zest of 1 lemon
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, divided
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
8 oz. plain or vanilla, Greek yogurt (I used Vanilla)
12 oz. fresh strawberries, diced
1 cup powdered sugar

 The batter alone is what won me over! Look at this goodness!

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan. Mix together 2 ¼ cups of the flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in the lemon zest and set aside.
• Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 1 Tb. lemon juice. Alternate beating in the flour mixture and the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated.
• Toss the strawberries with the remaining ¼ cup of flour. Gently mix them into the batter.
• Pour the batter into the Bundt pan. Place in the oven and reduce the temperature to 325 degrees. Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
• Allow to cool at least 20 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Once cooled whisk together the remaining 2 Tb. of lemon juice and the powdered sugar. Place cake on cake plate and then drizzle mixture over the top of the cake. (Note: Only using 2 Tb of lemon juice made my glaze very thick, next time I will add 3 Tb. to the powdered sugar to make it thinner).

I have a very DARK bundt pan which tends to bake my cakes faster and darker. If you have a darker pan, watch your cake and make sure you do not over bake it!

YUM!

This cake is definitely worth making! Note: The Strawberries can all fall to the top or disperse themselves throughout the cake depending on the thickness of the Greek Yogurt you use. Either way, this cake is moist and delicious! The mixture of lemon and strawberry is AMAZING! 

The bottom of the cake is dense yet gooey! 

Everything about it is perfect!

ENJOY!

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Original Recipe was found here!

Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Dream Cups

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Dream Cups

Everything tastes better baked in a mini muffin pan!  

 

 

I was inspired by this recipe that I found on PINTEREST and just HAD to try it! My goodness these are AMAZING! And not only that, you can make this recipe in 2 bowls and you don't even have to bust out a mixer or run out to the store (if you already have the basics for baking in your pantry)!

The center of these sweet treats is where all of the magic happens! The peanut butter center is so creamy and delicious! I never knew that Oatmeal and Peanut Butter were such a perfect match! But they are! You will LOVE these!

 Ingredients:                                                                               

• 1 cup melted butter 
• 1 cup brown sugar 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 2¼ cups Old Fashioned Oats
• 1½ cups flour 
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• ½ cup creamy peanut butter
•  1 can sweetened condensed milk 
• 2 cups of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips 

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350.

• Lightly spray 2 mini muffin pans with PAM. 

• In a medium mixing bowl, stir together melted butter, sugar, soda, oatmeal, flour & salt until it’s crumbly. Add one cup of the chocolate chips.

• Press the crust into prepared mini muffin pan and fill up about 1/2 way. 

• Set aside the rest of the crust for later. 

• Bake crust for 2 minutes.  

• While crust is cooking, in a small bowl, stir together the peanut butter and sweetened condensed milk. 

• Once crust has baked, put one full teaspoon of the peanut butter filling over each of the mini muffin cups.

• Evenly sprinkle the reserved crumbs on top of the peanut butter and sweetened condensed milk mixture. Bake for 8 minutes. 

• Once done baking press the remaining chocolate chips on top of the cups so the chocolate melts.

• Allow to cool and then gently twist the cups out of the pan.

• Yeilds 36-48 Mini Cookie Cups (depending on how full you fill your pans)!

You may also like my: Fudgy Oatmeal Cups 
or my Cookies and Cream Fudge Cups 

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Girl Scout inspired: Thin Mint Brownies!!!

Since the Girl Scouts are out selling cookies right now, I thought I would play around with some Thin Mints Cookies and my favorite brownie recipe! Lately, I have been baking everything in mini muffin pans, so here is my latest creation (with full pan instructions as well)! Girl Scout inspired Thin Mint Brownies!!! YUM! I added a Mint Buttercream Frosting and Peppermint Patty pieces for decoration, but it is not needed.

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Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
•  4 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 bag or 1 cup of semi-sweet mini chocolate chips (if you don't have mini chips use the regular size)
• 1 sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies (crushed) 

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray non-stick spray into a 9x13 pan or 2 (24 count mini muffin pans).
2. In small saucepan over low heat, melt butter completely. Stir in sugar and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. Do not allow sugar mixture to boil.
3. Pour butter mixture into a large bowl or stand mixer, beat in cocoa powder, eggs, salt, baking powder, and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
4. Stir in the flour and chocolate chips/Thin Mint Cookie pieces until well combined.
5. Spread into prepared pan or use a small cookie scoop to put batter in mini muffin pans (Note: batter will be very thick and sticky) and bake 25 in the 9x13 pan (do not over bake) or 8 minutes in the mini muffin pans (if you like fudge brownies bake on lower end).  Cool on a wire rack.
6. If you want chocolate buttercream frosting: Beat together two sticks of softened butter, slowly add in 4 cups of powdered sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla (or 1/2 tsp peppermint extract), a pinch of sea salt, 1/4 cup coco powder and add 2-4 Tbsp of milk as needed. Pipe or frost onto brownies. Add sprinkles or top with remaining Thin Mint Cookies or Peppermint Patties pieces!

THIN MINT BROWNIE CUPS!!!

Fudgy Oatmeal Cookie Cups

Today I am sharing the recipe for one of my favorite Signature Sweet Treats!!! People LOVE these Fudgy Oatmeal  Cookie Cups! Originally a fudgy "bar" recipe that I later baked in mini muffin tins for individual bite sized goodness!

How cute are they!?

Fudgy Oatmeal Cookie Cups

Ingredients for the cookie layer: 

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Ingredients for the Fudge: 

• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp vanilla 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (temp should be set to 325 degrees if using darker pans). Lightly spray 2-24 count mini muffin pans with non-stick spray (this recipe makes at least 48 cookie cups but plan on a few more than that).

In a large bowl, beat together 1 cup butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Mix in eggs and 1 tablespoon vanilla. In another bowl, combine oats, flour, baking soda, and 1 teaspoon salt; stir into butter mixture. Stir in 1 cup of mini chocolate chips. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, heat sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, 3 tablespoons butter, and 1/2 teaspoon salt over low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in 1 tablespoon vanilla.

Using a small cookie scoop place cookie dough into muffin tins filling the cup 1/2 way to the top. Spread 1 tsp of the chocolate mixture evenly over the top of each cup, and dot each cup with the remaining oat mixture.

Bake for 10 minutes in preheated oven. Let cool completely, then remove from pans.

Removing them from the pans can be tricky, just wait for them to cool and use a knife to ease up the edges and then twist them out. You can use muffin liners if you want too, but I prefer to ease them out of the pans so people can see the wonderful marbled look of the cookie cups!

Be sure to check out my new WordPress blog 

with amazing new recipes HERE! 

You may also like my:
  Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Dream Cups

                                                          Fudgy Cookies and Cream Cups 

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Photo by Blake Gardner Photography

"Outrageous" Brownie Cups!

Having a bad day? These "Outrageous" Brownies will make you VERY happy! They are super sweet and loaded with chocolate!

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
•  4 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 bag of semi-sweet mini chocolate chips (if you don't have mini chips use the regular size)
• 1/2 bag of Heath milk chocolate toffee baking bits

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray non-stick spray into a 9x13 pan or 2 (24 count mini muffin pans).
2. In small saucepan over low heat, melt butter completely. Stir in sugar and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. Do not allow sugar mixture to boil.
3. Pour butter mixture into a large bowl or stand mixer, beat in cocoa powder, eggs, salt, baking powder, and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
4. Stir in the flour and chocolate chips/heath bar pieces until well combined.
5. Spread into prepared pan or use a cookie scoop to put batter in mini muffin pans (batter will be very thick and sticky) and bake for about 30 minutes in the 9x13 pan or 9-11 minutes in the mini muffin pans.  Cool on a wire rack.
6. If you want buttercream frosting: Beat together two sticks of softened butter, slowly add in 4 cups of powdered sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla, a pinch of sea salt, 1/4 cup coco powder and add 2-4 Tbsp of milk as needed. Pipe or frost onto brownies. Add sprinkles or top with remaining heath bar bits!

THESE ARE MOIST AND DENSE FUDGE BROWNIES!!

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My recipe was adapted from this blog/recipe

CHOCOLATE CHIP CRUMB MUFFINS

 CHOCOLATE CHIP CRUMB MUFFINS

Recipe adapted from Gingerbread Bagels

I had the opportunity to bake for 7 days in an industrial size kitchen at the summer camp I have been teaching theatre at for the past 10 years! It was SO much fun! I had to bake for over 120 people for three meals a day! So it was time to bust out the recipes that I have been collecting from my favorite bloggers over the past year! These muffins were a HUGE success! People went on and on about them, loved the crumb topping and kept asking me for the recipe! I was able to multiple my recipe by 8 with no problems with the science what-so-ever!

LOOK HOW LOVELY THEY ARE!

Chocolate Chip Crumb Muffins
(makes about 16 muffins)

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips mixed with 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/2 cup light brown sugar
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, diced
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (you can chop them if you would like, but I like the whole chunky chocolate chips)

Sift together the all-purpose flour, cinnamon, baking soda and kosher salt.

Set aside.

In a mixer (with the paddle attachment) mix together the sugar, brown sugar, canola oil, eggs and vanilla extract on medium speed for about 3 minutes.
Slowly add the dry ingredients into the bowl on low speed and mix until almost combined. Then fold the ingredients together with a spatula.
Add in the sour cream. You’ll need to fold, stir, fold, stir, etc. Stir gently, but make sure the sour cream is completely mixed into the batter and not over mixed.

Mix the chocolate chips with 1 Tablespoon of all-purpose flour and gently fold the chocolate chips into the batter.

Line a muffin pan with muffin liners.

Scoop the batter into each muffin liner. Set the muffin pan aside while you work on the crumb topping.

In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Add the diced butter and cut it into the other ingredients with a fork. Add the remaining chocolate chips to the crumb topping and mix them in. Sprinkle the crumb topping onto the muffins.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 23 minutes.

And there you have it!  

THE PERFECT CHOCOLATE CHIP CRUMB MUFFIN

YUM!

Banana Split Brownie Pizza! Fun for Kids!

THIS IS AN EASY AND FUN RECIPE TO MAKE WITH YOUR KIDS!!!

Banana Split Brownie Pizza or in other words CRAZY CHOCOLATE BROWNIE HEAVEN guaranteed to have everyone bouncing off the walls in no time! 

This is a fun idea for a kids birthday party or sleep over night!

First you want to start off with your favorite brownie recipe or a box mix 

(bake them in a cookie sheet or thin baking pan for about 15 minutes)

Let the brownies cool completely while you want make this amazing cream cheese frosting 

(cream together 1 stick of butter, 1 8oz package of cream cheese and 1 tsp of vanilla then 

slowly add  2 cups of powdered sugar) or you can use already made frosting and
then frost your brownie pizza

 

Then you want to slice up two bananas and 1 cup of strawberries

and place them on top of the frosting 

Next sprinkle mini chocolate chips all over the pizza

Optional but HIGHLY suggested: Place Mini Oreo Cookies around the pizza

Next you MUST drizzle Hershey's Chocolate Syrup all over the entire pizza

Then CUT into HUGE slices

SERVE AND ENJOY!

If you can handle it, serve with chocolate ice cream too, but it is perfect without it!

Mmmmm.....this is good for grown up people too...especially when you are having a really bad day.

NOTE: The photos shown were taken from two different kids baking classes today so you might notice the difference in pans in a few of the photos!

SHOWING OFF THEIR BROWNIE PIZZA! HOW CUTE ARE THEY?

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DOUBLE COOKIES AND CREAM BARS

I found this recipe and fell over with excitement! I mean COME ON! Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough with Oreo's and Hershey's Kisses! What will they come up with next?

DOUBLE COOKIES AND CREAM BARS

recipe from: Picky Palate

• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips
• 12 Oreo Cookies, broken up 
• 25 Cookies and Cream Hershey’s Kisses                                                                                  

NOTE: You have choices here! You can use any of these items to make this work! 

Cookies N Cream Kisses

Old Fashioned Cream Drops (I USED THESE)

Cookies N Cream Miniatures

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line an 8×8 inch baking pan with foil sprayed with cooking spray.

Place butter and sugars into a large bowl, stir to combine, at least 2 minutes.

Add egg and vanilla, mixing to combine.

Add flour, baking soda, salt.

Add chocolate chips and Oreo cookie pieces, stirring to combine.

Press 1/3 of the dough into the bottom of prepared baking pan. Top with 5 rows of Hershey’s Kisses 5 per row (or as many as you can fit in like I did). Note: I used the Old Fashioned Cream Drops instead of the Kisses. Top with remaining dough and gently press. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool for 30 minutes, cut into squares and serve.  Makes 12-16 bars

Optional: I crushed up more Oreo Cookies and put them on top. I mean...why not!?  These bars are already a bazillion calories each!  May as well make it count!

Look at all of the layers of chocolate goodness!

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You may also like my recipe for OREO STUFFED BROWNIES