Snowballs revisited

I had another opportunity to make the Dirty Snowball cookie dough this past weekend for my friends and their children. Just like last time, the cookies disappeared off the cooling rack before I could even move all of them. My kids complained how they missed out so I made another batch. This time I rolled them in confectioners powdered sugar. Fancy results - a very pretty cracked chocolate cookie! The biggest difference, aside from being visually pleasing, was that the powder residuals make your fingers sticky. My niece Bianca added white chocolate chips to her dough and said they turned out awesome! This is one of those excellent basic cookie doughs that you can do so much with =)

Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

One of my favoritest cakes is carrot, but being pressed for time, I haven't had the opportunity to bake one from scratch. I found this recipe from Duncan Hines using their Decadent Carrot Cake mix to satisfy my carrot cake craving. It's a carrot cake cookie that was more like a muffin top (even better!). I topped it with a simple cream cheese frosting recipe from Martha Stewart. And let me tell you, the frosting alone is eat-from-the-spoon deelish!

The great thing about the mix is that it includes dehydrated carrot shreds and raisins. Since I dislike raisins, I removed them before hydrating the carrots. It was an interesting dough that was more like a very thick batter. A small cookie scoop would come in very handy since it's also a very sticky dough.

Carrot Cake Cookie
Ingredients:

• 1 box Duncan Hines Classic Carrot Decadent Cake Mix
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
  
• 1 cup hot tap water (used to hydrate carrots and raisins)
  
• 1 cup oatmeal
  
• 1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350°
  
• Hydrate the carrots and raisins in 1 cup hot tap water; Allow to hydrate for a minimum of 5 minutes; Drain and squeeze out excess water.
  
  
• Beat butter and cake mix, add the two eggs; Add drained carrots and raisins to batter; Mix in the 1 cup of oatmeal and nuts
  
  
• Spoon heaping teaspoons of batter onto lightly greased cookie sheets; Press batter out slightly with back of spoon(cookies do not spread)
  
  
• Bake for 12 minutes at 350°
  
• Cool on cookie sheets and then transfer to wire rack and allow to cool completely
  
• Frost cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
  
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
  
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

• Place cream cheese in a medium mixing bowl. Using a rubber spatula, soften cream cheese. Gradually add butter, and continue beating until smooth and well blended. Sift in confectioners' sugar, and continue beating until smooth. Add vanilla, and stir to combine.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Have you ever had the pleasure of eating an Oatmeal Chipper cookie from Paradise Bakery? It was my sweet indulgence when I worked at the Great Mall while going to SJSU. I haven't found a recipe that comes close (they must put some secret ingredient in there!), but here's one that still satisfies the sweet tooth. And you can claim it's healthy since there's oatmeal in there!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
  
• 1 cup sugar 1 cup packed brown sugar
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 2 cups old-fashioned oats 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  

Directions:

• Cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar in a large bowl and beat in eggs and vanilla
  
• Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture.
• Stir in oats and chocolate chips
  
• Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 11-12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

I found that these cookies tasted even better the more they sat. Days later, they were super tastier than when I baked them =). This dough also made about 48 cookies - it was a lot of dough!

I now understand why people pay just a smidge more for the bigger mixer. I had to mix the oatmeal and chips in by hand because it was too much dough for my mixer. But lookie here! I had one of my little helpers in cow pj's to ease the burden!

Random Thoughts

I just wanted to share a couple of my favorite things somewhat related to baking.

Grease your cookie sheet no more!!
I heart parchment paper! Nothing sticks to your baking sheets, cleaning them up is so much easier and you don't have to grease the baking sheets. Be careful not to mistake wax paper for parchment - wax paper will burn if you bake it. Wax paper can be used later for storage and packing but NOT baking.


Achy feet/back when baking?
Have you ever noticed how painful it gets standing for long periods of time while baking? The HR/Safety Manager in me just wants to remind you to work as ergonomically correct as you can or improvise. At the hotel, we provided gel mats for our pastry people to reduce leg, back, feet problems so I was suprised to find a gel mat at my friend Gail's kitchen. I don't have one, so today I slipped on my Reebok Runtones, and my legs and back didn't suffer since I usually bake barefoot. What a difference! I'm hoping it was tightening my tushie too!

Dirty Snowballs

My niece Bianca gave me this easy-peazy boxed cake mix cookie recipe. She was right when she raved about how pretty they looked with their cracked topping, but she didn't push how super scrumptious they would be! The first dozen I baked were gone from the cooling rack immediately! Ben's mom and grandmother each had two and loved them. Reese said they tasted like brownie cookies... mmmmmmmm

Ingredients:
- Box of Betty Crocker Super Moist Devil's Food Cake Mix
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- Small bowl of sugar (to roll cookie dough in)

Directions:
* You will not be following box instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Pour cake mix, oil, vanilla extract and eggs into mixing bowl. Mix until dough forms

- Shape dough into 1" balls and roll in sugar. Place dough on ungreased cookie sheet (I line all my cookie sheets with parchment paper)

- Bake for 8-10 minutes (I baked some smaller portions since they were disappearing, which took 8 minutes).
- Allow to cool, but my family ate them before they could =)

Enjoy with a glass of milk!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2011 everyone!

New year, new treats to try! Here are some photos of past treats that I've done with love. You may have seen them on my FB site.

Spider cupcakes for Reese's Halloween party in preschool


Random designs on leftover red velvet mini cupcakes


Monkey cupcakes for Taylor's 2nd Birthday


Curious George cupcake theme for Taylor's 2nd Birthday


Dora cupcake theme cuppies for Taylor's 3rd Birthday at daycare(I don't really like those sugar things, but they worked for this)


Valentine's Day mini cupcakes for Reese's class

Pretzel Turtles

OH EM GEE! Ben's cousin Margie introduced me to this delectable sweet treat on Christmas. I can't believe how easy they are to make. I just love the sweet/salty combination. I brought some to the Yamat Christmas celebration, and some family members couldn't place the chewiness of the caramel - but what a winner!

Ingredients:
- package of rolos
- package of small pretzels
- package of pecan halves

Directions:
- preheat oven to 350 degrees
- unwrap rolos
- place pretzels on parchment or foil lined cookie sheet
- place a rolo on top of each pretzel
- bake for 2-3 minutes or until rolo is soft (but not totally melted)
- remove from oven and gently press a pecan half on top of each rolo
- allow to cool and set

It's crazy how divine these are! Another easy crowd pleaser!