Valentine's Peppermint Pattie Brownies

Extreme cold weather and no school = BAKING!!  Valentine's Day is right around the corner and we were looking for a cute Valentine's day project.  We found this recipe from Two Twenty One's blog.  So cute and so easy!!!!  We just added our own touch with lots of sprinkles, gels and icing and of course help from my friend Brynn!!

Notice: We don't have as many pictures as usual.  A memory card would help!  

Here is the link to Two Twenty One's site.

Peppermint Pattie Brownies

Ingredients:

- One package of York Peppermint Patties

- One box of  brownie mix( We used Hershey's!!!!)

 Here are the ingredients for the brownies:                         

The York peppermint patties are from Hershey and do not have a nut warning.  Hershey's is usually good about labeling when may have cross contamination.   

We also made a Vanilla Icing recipe we found on Allrecipes.com .  You can get details on the recipe here.   It was so good but juts needed a little extra milk.

Vanilla Icing

DIRECTIONS!!!!!!!

First, we followed directions on the brownie box. Since we used Hershey's we needed to stir together 1 egg, brownie mix, chocolate syrup from package and water. 

Next we sprayed cooking spray on a muffin pan. 

Then, we filled the muffin tins with brownie mixture about a 1/3 full and cooked them for about 18 to 20 minutes.  We had 16 brownies total. We probably could have spread them to 18.

While the brownies were baking we unwrapped all the patties.  Once fully cooked (use a toothpick to check see if ready) we took out the brownies out of the oven.  We immediately pressed the patties in carefully into the brownie.

While the brownies were cooking we made the icing.  

Finally it was time to decorate!!!!!!  We used Cake Mate sprinkles to decorate the brownies.  Not all sprinkles are safe... make sure to check the label.  We also used Betty Crocker Cake Icing that we had used in our chocolate chip cookie cake recipe.

It got pretty messy when we were decorated but it was all worth it.  As my friend Teagan would say, these brownies are my ticket to paradise!!!!

I love the way they turned out!!

These were Brynn's designs - super cute too!

Chocoalate Chip Granola Bars

Hard to find nut free granola bars?  No problem!!  Quick...get in the kitchen and make some yourself.  They're quick, easy and no baking required! 

Chewy bars can be one hard to find item for a girl like me.  Here are some of the safe chewy bars I have had in the past.  

* No Nuttin - These are now called Libre Naturals.  My mom used to order these for me all the time.

 * Chewy Bars by Quaker Oats - From Canada Only (not US ones)!! -  I've been lucky to have my     wonderful Aunt Helene bring me lots of goodies from Canada.  My favorite was the S'Mores bar

* President's Choice granola bars 

* Enjoy Life - My favorite is Cocoa Loco - These are easy to find close by.

These are all awesome, but not always easy to find.  You can order online or find an aunt like mine. :-)

So back to homemade chewy bars.  The recipe is from Lauren's Latest and is the greatest!  

Lauren's Latest Chocolate Chip Granola Bar

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup honey

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 cups quick cooking oats 

1 cup crispy rice cereal (we used Rice Krispies)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips

Here are our ingredients:

In a large bowl, we mixed together the Rice Krispies and oats.  

Then we put this aside. 

 In a small pot, we heated the butter, brown sugar and honey on medium-high heat until it bubbled.  

Then we turned the heat to low and let it cook for another 2 minutes.  

We then added vanilla to the butter mixture and stirred.  Then poured it into the oats & Rice Krispies bowl and mixed it up until it was coated all the way.

Then we spayed the pan.  Lauren used a jelly roll pan 12x8x1.  We didn't have this size so used a glass baking dish 13x9x1.  But in the end I think ours were thinner and the sides didn't come out straight so a jelly roll would probably be better.  (P.S. - It still tastes just as good!)

We then packed down the mixture with a rubber spatula to get it all even.  

Then we sprinkled the chocolate chips on.  We didn't have mini and also learned that mini is better because it spreads it apart too much.  

Once it is done, let sit out in room temperature to set for 2 hours.  This will help it to stay together.  This can be stored at room temperature or in the fridge to keep a little longer.  

According to Lauren if it is falling apart may not have boiled butter mixture enough, may be too thin or not packed enough.  Put into the fridge for 20 mins to help it stick together before continuing to cut.

Here is one packed up all ready for lunch.

Why are you still sitting there? :-)  Time to make some chewy bars!

Banana Mini Muffins

Do you have some old, gross bananas?  What to do?  Make banana muffins!!!   That's what we did!

My mom's friend Maria gave this recipe to my mom a few years ago.  My mom and I have been making this recipe ever since.  She tries to make other recipes like a low-fat and I tell her "next time"  I want this one again!  :-)

So here's the recipe:

Banana Bread

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 large, ripe bananas, mashed and whipped with a fork

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, flour and baking soda and stir until well mixed.  Fold in vanilla and bananas.  Bake in a greased 9 x 5 loaf pan for one hour.  

Makes 1 loaf or about 48 mini muffins.

We did not have enough bananas for this recipe so we just used 1/2 the recipe.  The recipe shown is a full recipe.

The ingredients:

First we preheated the oven to 350 degrees.  Then in a large bowl, we mixed together butter and sugar until it was fluffy (like cotton candy he he).

Next we added the egg, flour and the baking soda.  We stirred until it was well mixed.

Then in a smaller bowl, we mushed up the bananas and vanilla with a fork. 

After the mushing, we folded the banana mixture into the larger bowl with other ingredients.

We filled the cups about 2/3 of the way to the top and with half the recipe still got 24 mini muffins.

Quick FUN Fact:  Did you know when if you stick a marble into the side of your cupcake liner it will make your muffin into a heart shape???  Cute!

Baking time!!!  We baked ours for about 10-11 minutes.

Donesos!!! Finished!!! They look so good.  Oh and I forgot to mention I added a few chocolate chips to some of the muffins.  Yes, I used my Dark Hershey's chips again! 

Picture time!!!

Oh and what do you think of this guy???  Doesn't he look like a reindeer?   I think he's a straggler....left over from Christmas. :-)

Oreo Cupcakes

OMG! I love these babies! Well I guess there not babies, so I guess I'll just call them yummy, tasty, fantastic, awesome, delicous cupcakes! My favorite cookie + my favorite dessert = Yes please! Oreos are way better when, of course, they're baked in a cupcake! Oreos are my go to cookie for when I need a quick nut free treat at school or for a party, etc

Today I was baking with my friend Arianna, my sister and of our moms.   It was a little crowded but fun!  So on to the awesome awesome awesome and yummy recipe!

Here's the recipe from  Bakeaholic:

Oreo Cupcakes

Oreo Cupcakes

Ingredients

24 Oreo halves, with cream filling attached

2¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 2/3 cup sugar

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

2 tsp. vanilla extract1 cup milk

20 Oreo cookies, coarsely chopped 

Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature

6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

2 tbsp. heavy cream

Oreo cookie crumbs

24 Oreo cookie halves

And of course our ingredients.  The only thing we changed was we used Half and Half instead of heavy cream.  many Oreos do not have a "may contains" peanut or tree-nut but be careful because some do like Cakesters.  

First we preheated the oven and put the paper liners in the cupcake pans.  Then we carefully separated the Oreos and place them in the cupcake liner cream side up.  Save the other side for the end to put on top of the cupcake for decoration. Some of them may break, but you can put those in your crushed Oreo pile.  

Next grab a medium sized bowl and combine the flour, baking soda and salt.  You can use a fork to mix the ingredients.  Set this aside for later.

In a separate bowl combine butter and sugar.  Use an electric mixer on medium to high speed until the mixture is fluffy.  It should take about 2 minutes.

Then add the egg whites one at a time to the mixture.  After add vanilla extract.  

Slowly add the dry mixture into the butter mixture.  Use the mixer on a low speed to combine thourougly mixed.  

Next chop or lightly crush the Oreos.  We put ours in a plastic bag and pound lightly with the rolling pin.

Fold in the crushed Oreo's.  This is what our mixture looked like!

We then filled the cupcake liners about 2/3 full.  Then into the oven they went! 

 Bake for 18-20 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.    

At this point, you can start the frosting or take a 18-20 minute break and make rainbow loom bracelets like we did.

Ding ding ding!!!  Breaks over....time to make the frosting.  

First we combined the cream cheese and butter in a new bowl. We used the mixer on medium-high until it was smooth.  Will take approximately 1 minute.  Then add the vanilla extract and mix.  Next mix in powdered sugar until smooth about 1-2 minutes.  Finally, add the heavy cream and mix on medium-low speed to mix it up.  Then we increased speed to medium-high for 4 minutes until it was light and fluffy.

Once the cupakes were fully cooled, we put the icing in a bag and had fun decorating!  Use the cookies to add your final touch.  

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Happy 2014!!!  Today we are making a chocolate chip cookie cake!!  It's my first cookie cake ever!  For this recipe I had a guest baker, Riley.

Here is my giant Wilton cookie pan that my mom bought at least three years ago.  Never used.   We got our recipe off the back of the paper from the pan.

The recipe was also available online on the Wilton site:

Wilton Cookie Cake Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar packed
• 1 egg
• 3/4 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Makes

Cookie serves 8- 10.

And here's all my ingredients:

(Please always remember to check ingredients and research which products are safe for your allergens!)

So let's get baking!!  First, we preheated the oven to 350.  Next we sprayed the pan really good with cooking oil.

Then we creamed the butter and sugars together.  Then added in the egg and vanilla and mixed well.

After that, we stirred in the flour, baking soda and salt.

Finally, we stirred the chocolate chips into the mixture.

Next we spread the dough into the cookie pan with spatula.  We used our hands to piece it together and make it all even.  The recipe said not to put the dough all the way to the edge so ours wasn't but left too much room. It came close enough to it after baking.  I would suggest to leave a 1/2 inch space all around.   Ok into the oven the cookie goes!

Waiting, waiting, waiting!!!  Will this ever be done!?!?!?

DONE!!!

Well, almost.  Let the cookie cool on a cooking rack for a while.

Now it's time for the fun part. Decorating!!! We decorated with Betty Crocker cake icing from the can using different tips.  

And the final product....ta da!!!

We brought this to our friend's house and the overall consensus.....YUM!!!!

HAPPY 2014!!!