I don't know why, but suddenly yesterday I was craving something maple flavored.  I found a maple syrup cookie recipe I had bookmarked and started baking.  The recipe I used said it would make 60 cookies - what was I going to do with 60 cookies?  Since school isn't in session anymore I don't have a large group of taste testers.  I have been sending the leftover cookies to work with Kelly.

I decided 15 cookies would be a good number, knowing that I would actually end up with more than that.  I divided everything by 4 from this maple syrup cookies recipe.  The dough came out really sticky.  I put it in the fridge for a little while, but that didn't help much.  It may have been because I estimated what 1/4 of an egg would be, but the syrup probably didn't help the consistency.  

I almost added nutella, but decided against it this time.  I went for pure maple cookies, but next time there will be chocolate.  The maple favor is amazing and the cookies came out sticky and chewy - perfect.  I let them cool before putting them in a container, but they stuck together anyway.  I would recommend using wax paper between layers of cookies.  Even the cookie pieces that can be pulled apart capture the maple essence and remind me of the maple syrup farms in the Northeastern states.

As I become more confident in my baking skills, I experiment more with ingredients.  I still stick to the same base (sugar, butter, flour, etc.) that the recipe calls for, but I add or subtract minor ingredients that typically mess only with flavor and not consistency.  
Angela leaving a huge container of applesauce in our fridge and me offering to bring dessert to a dinner were my motivation for making these cookies.  Of course, I immediately set to googling a recipe and found this one.  I don't like frosting so I didn't make the carmel frosting.  I did follow the recipe besides adding a few things to enhance the flavor of course!

I halved the recipe and it still made a cookie mountain.  Seriously!  There were at least 36 large cookies.  

After everything was mixed together, I added 12 mashed Biscoff cookies.  If you don't know what these are, Google them.  They are the cookies Delta serves on flights, but they have also been turned into a toast spread that is absolutely divine - I recommend the crunchy version.  I also added approximately 1/3 cup melted cinnamon chips, a tad of extra cinnamon (I couldn't help it), and little nutmeg.

They turned out irresistibly delicious - must have been the cinnamon!  You would never know that I had to measure out all the ingredients using a Tablespoon (that would be 32 Tbsp of flour) because I had already packed all of my measuring cups.

My second attempt at "stuffed" cupcakes.  I like the infinite combination possibilities "stuffed" cupcakes offer - so many more options than the regular baked and frosted cupcake. 

Here is the recipe I used (from this blog):

For the cupcakes:
3/4 stick/ 6 tbsn. unsalted butter
3/4 cups sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 + 1/8 cup milk


For the custard:
1 small boxes of french vanilla pudding
1 cup of whole milk ONLY, no substitutions!
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract


For the ganache frosting:
10 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces (chocolate chips work well too)
1 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake tin with liners and set aside. In a bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, making sure it is well incorporated. Beat in vanilla, add flour in three batches, alternating with milk. DO NOT over beat. Divide batter among cupcake tins and bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.
For the custard, whip everything together until pudding has become thick, about 8 - 10 minutes. Once the cupcakes are cool, use the cone method to remove the tops, then fill it in with custard and replace tops.
To make the ganache, place the chocolate in a large bowl. Heat the heavy cream on medium high until it comes up to a boil. Remove from heat and immediately pour over the chocolate. Let sit for 2 minutes then stir until completely melted and glossy. To pipe the ganache, allow the ganache to completely cool and set up. When you are able to spoon the ganache and and it can hold its texture it is ready to pipe.

These "stuffed" cupcakes were by far the best dessert choice at my sister's graduation party.  They were almost all gone before half of any other choice had been devoured.  I was informed that if I can't graduate college, I could always open a bake shop and sell these.  

I was in charge of making the custard, filling the cupcakes, putting their tops back on, and making the chocolate ganache.  Make sure to use a big enough bowl when making the ganache, and a whisk is a much better tool choice than a rubber spatula (I know from experience).  My sister doesn't yet trust my skills with carving out the holes for the filling yet.  I did get to add ingredients to the cupcake batter, and put the the liners in the pan.  Someday, Rowan will trust my cupcake skills, but for now I accept that she knows best (only for cupcakes).

This was another dessert for my sister's graduation dinner party.  Since she is the expert cupcake baker, I was under her direction.  I did get to fill the cupcakes, make the frosting, and frost them all by myself because a football game was on tv.

The recipe (from http://traceysculinaryadventures.blogspot.com/2011/06/white-chocolate-raspberry-cupcakes.html)

White Chocolate Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
4 oz white chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk

Preheat oven to 325 F.  Line muffin pans with paper liners.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl.  Add the white chocolate to a small microwave-safe bowl and heat in 30 second intervals at 50% power, stirring in between each interval, until melted and smooth. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed until light, about 3-4 minutes.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Mix in the white chocolate and vanilla extract.  With the mixer on low, alternately add the flour mixture (in 3 additions) and milk (in 2 additions), starting and ending with the flour.  Beat just until incorporated.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans, filling each about 2/3-3/4 full.  Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs.  Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the cupcakes cool for 5 minutes before removing them from the pan to cool completely.

Makes 15-18 cupcakes

Raspberry Filling
1 (12 oz.) bag frozen raspberries, thawed
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch 

Add the raspberries to the bowl of a food processor. Process until smooth. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a small saucepan to remove the seeds (this takes a few minutes, just be patient and keep using a rubber spatula to push it through). Add the sugar and cornstarch to the pan, whisking to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-low heat, whisking often. When it reaches a boil, remove the pan from the heat and let cool slightly. Chill before filling cupcakes.

Raspberry Buttercream
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup raspberry filling (seedless raspberry jam works too) 
6 cups confectioners' sugar

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and raspberry filling on medium speed until completely incorporated, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the confectioners' sugar (I like to sift as I add to avoid lumps), one cup at a time and beat until you reach your desired consistency.

To assemble the cupcakes: Use a paring knife to cut a cone out of the center of each cupcake.  Place a few teaspoons of the raspberry filling inside.  Cut the tip of the cone off and replace it on top of the cupcake.  Place the raspberry buttercream in a pastry bag fitted with your preferred tip, and frost the cupcakes.  Garnish with fresh raspberries if desired.

"Oh Wow - these are divine!!" was the reaction that these cupcakes elicited.  The cupcake was light and fluffy.  The raspberry filling was incredibly smooth ( I spent 45 min straining the seeds out from the mashed raspberries) and the perfect blend of sweet and tart.  I would have preferred a thicker consistency to the frosting, but it tasted delicious.  The combination of the white chocolate and raspberry was perfect and these were a bit hit.

I went home for a brief vacation and my sister's high school graduation.  I, of course, offered to help bake the desserts for her dinner party after graduation.  I had these snickerdoodle blondies bookmarked and was just waiting for an occasion to make them.  We didn't have an 8x8 pan, so I used a shallow 8x11 pan.  It took a lot of effort to spread the batter in the pan and it ended up being a very thin layer.  They took the full 30 minutes to bake all the way, and as you can tell from the pictures they came out very thin.    

They were absolutely delicious and quite addictive.  They surprised the guests at the party (everyone is so used to chocolate brownies or regular cookies), but everyone loved them.  No one could just eat one - that's what I call a success!

Here is the recipe I used ( from http://sorumblyinmytumbly.blogspot.com/2012/04/snickerdoodle-blondies.html)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar + 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8×8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, and spray with non-stick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in salt, egg and vanilla extract until well combined. Add in flour and stir until no streaks of dry ingredients remain. Pour dough – it will be thick – into prepared baking dish and smooth it into an even layer.

Stir together remaining 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp ground cinnamon. Sprinkle dough evenly with cinnamon sugar mixture.

Bake for about 30 minutes, until bars are set and the edges are just very lightly browned. Cool in the pan before slicing.

The recipe: (modified as usual)

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process dark cocoa powder1/2 teaspoon baking soda1/2 teaspoon salt4 ounces good-quality dark chocolate, 4 ounces coarsely chopped1 bag M&Ms1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter1 cup sugar1/2 cup brown sugar2 large eggs1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside. Melt coarsely chopped chocolate with the butter in a small heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
2. Transfer chocolate mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add sugars, eggs, and vanilla; mix on medium speed until combined. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Fold in M&Ms.
3. Scoop batter using a spoon; place 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until cookies are flat and surfaces begin to crack, about 15 minutes. Transfer on to wire racks. Let cool 5 minutes. 

Last summer Leslie, Mariah, and I had one day in Alaska where we all overlapped.  So we had one day packed with everything amazing.  This of course involved baking cookies.  We found a recipe for double chocolate chunk cookies, but when we went to add chocolate chips, Leslie only had M&M's, so we made the substitution.  I loved how the colors of the M&Ms stood out against the brown cookies.
I promised to bake cookies for a meeting and had a craving for chocolate, so those cookies popped into my mind.  They turned out just as delicious - I don't think any one just took one!

My time recently has been consumed with school work and lab work as the semester winds down.  This has left me with limited time to bake.  Even though I had other things I should have been doing, I decided to make these lemon cookies for class because they were simple.  Besides there is nothing like a cookie bursting with lemon flavor to brighten your day.
I must admit that I cheated a little with these cookies, but I followed a recipe so I am obviously not the first one to do so.  I found this recipe after I received a box of lemon cake mix in one of my care packages.  [Do you see a trend in my baking? I tend look at what I have and find a recipe or adjust one to suit my needs.]   I did use applesauce instead of vegetable oil.  Not to make them healthier necessarily, but because I didn't have any vegetable oil.
Ingredients1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix2 eggs1/3 cup vegetable oil (or applesauce)1 teaspoon lemon extract1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decorationDirections

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Pour cake mix into a large bowl. Stir in eggs, oil, and lemon extract until well blended. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough into a bowl of confectioners' sugar. Roll them around until they're lightly covered. Once sugared, put them on an ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 6 to 9 minutes in the preheated oven. The bottoms will be light brown, and the insides chewy.

The dough was definitely not of a rollable texture.  I don't know if applesauce makes it wetter or what happened.  Maybe if I chilled the dough, I would have been able to roll them in the powdered sugar.  As a result, I ended up dropping the dough onto the cookie sheets and sprinkling the powdered sugar over them.  The powdered sugar didn't stick to the cookies for the first batch, so I pressed it into the dough for the second batch and that worked better.  

Surprised!!! You really shouldn't be knowing how much I love cinnamon.  I have been wanting to make these for a while, but I ran out of cinnamon chips.  
Note: My mom buys a big box of cinnamon chips and sends me baggies full in my care packages.
I knew I would be receiving some in the near future, so I just kept putting off making these.  Obviously, I finally got a package with cinnamon chips.  Yumm!!! If you haven't ever tried these you probably should.  They are delicious in a lot of cookie recipes and I add them instead of chocolate chips to almost any recipe.
I had some pretzels left over from the last recipe, so I decided to try a pretzel crust.  Most recipes I could find called for butter and sugar melted together and mixed with the pretzels.  But of course I didn't follow a recipe.  I add cinnamon chips to my crushed pretzels ( I estimate maybe 1 1/4 cups) and melted it in the microwave.  I mixed it all together and spread it on the bottom of a sprayed 8 x 8 pan.
I used a recipe for proportions of certain ingredients with this recipe, but I just decided to experiment a little.  I will give my best shot at explaining what I did.

Ingredients:
4 Tbsp butter, softened
4 Tbsp applesauce
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup +1Tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups cinnamon chips

Directions:
If you aren't making the pretzel crust, prepare an 8x8 pan by spraying it with cooking spray.  
Beat butter, applesauce, and brown sugar together until creamy.  Add the egg and vanilla and mix briefly.  Add the flour and cinnamon and beat until combined.  Stir in the cinnamon chips.  You can add more or less cinnamon chips depending how much you like them.  Pour batter into prepared pan with or without pretzel crust.  Bake for 25-35 min.  

I baked mine for 25 minutes and they were still super gooey.  I took some of the edge peices and put them back in the oven.  They didn't get any less gooey after another 7 or so minutes, so I am assuming this recipe just make super gooey blondies.  I tried a piece immediately and they are still divine even though they seem under cooked.

My mom used to make chocolate chip cookies with pieces of potato chips in them.  It created a little crunch and a salty flavor that accentuated the chocolate flavor.  Who knew salt and chocolate mixed well?
Anyway, this gave me the idea to add pretzels instead to my chocolate chip cookies for a few reasons:

1.  I had a bag of white chocolate covered pretzels, which I don't like and wanted to use.
2.  I had another package of pretzels, so I knew I would have enough pretzels.
3.  I don't really care for potato chips and therefore didn't have any and didn't want to buy any.

I ended up using this chocolate chip cookie recipe (http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/18476/Original-NESTL%C3%89-TOLL-HOUSE-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies/detail.aspx).  I halved everything so I only made 30 cookies.  I also added dark chocolate chunks and 1 1/2 cups pretzels.  I may have added more pretzels, but I never keep track of things that, which is terrible for anyone who wants to try to repeat my treats (including me).  I also baked them for less time, so they were slightly gooey and chewy. 

 I thought they were delicious, especially straight out of the oven and still warm.  Most people enjoyed them, but I think the pretzel was something new for a lot of people.
I probably would use only plain pretzels next time.  I think the white chocolate was just too much chocolate and overpowered the saltiness of the pretzel.  
Oh and cinnamon!  I would definitely add cinnamon next time!  I CAN'T believe I forgot to add cinnamon!

Happy Birthday Colin!  Colin said I should send cookies to him at school, so I made his favorite and sent them with Angela.  He wanted just plain peanut butter cookies, with the criss-cross fork mark on the top - his description, not mine.  I used this recipe (http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/peanut_butter_cookies/), and I didn't even add cinnamon or adjust the recipe at all.  It did say to chill the dough for 3 hours, but I didn't feel like staying up until 1 am.  I chilled it in the fridge for 1 hour and then the freezer for 30 minutes.  The dough was still soft, which made the fork marks difficult to make.  I ended up dipping the fork in sugar before making the criss-cross marks so it wouldn't stick to the cookie.  Next time I will follow the instructions and actually chill the dough for all three hours.  
The cookies spread a lot and were very thin and gooey.  They still tasted delicious, but weren't as presentable as I would have liked.

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