Feb 3

Dark Chocolate Cookies With White Chocolate Chips

Is it ever going to stop snowing around here? Yesterday was so nice I decided to take my son out for a walk…and today it’s snowing again. It’s snowing a lot. And I’m tired of it. Thank goodness I have cookies. Cookies make everything better.

These cookies are really easy to make, and I like the contrast of the white chocolate chips with the dark chocolate base. I especially like dipping these babies in hot chocolate while watching the snow fall from the comfort of my living room.

darkchoccookies

Dark Chocolate Cookies With White Chocolate Chips

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened (but not melted)
2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups AP flour
3/4 cup dark cocoa (I used Hershey’s Special Dark)
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Very lightly grease a few baking sheets and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.
  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.
  4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and mix until well-combined.
  5. Stir in the white chocolate chips.
  6. Drop the dough by rounded spoonfuls onto your cookie sheets.
  7. Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until the outsides of the cookies get crisp (the centers may still be somewhat soft but they will firm up during the cooling process).
  8. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let the cookies rest on the sheets for two minutes; then transfer the cookies to a rack to cool completely.
Jan 29

Pretzel-Crusted Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Caramel Blondies

Wow, that’s a mouthful. No pun intended. The great thing about blondies is that they can be pretty simple. Or not, like these bars. Want to know what inspired these? I was sort of looking for a way to emulate the taste of Chubby Hubby, one of my favorite Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavors, in blondie form, and this is what I came up with.

These bars are pretty outrageous. You’ve got a sweet and salty pretzel crust on the bottom, a rich caramel-peanut butter blondie center packed with chocolate chips in the middle, and a generous layer of chopped peanut butter cups to top it all off. In other words, these bars are really rich. But really, really good.

Chubhub

Pretzel-Crusted Chocolate-Peanut Butter Caramel Blondies

Ingredients:

For the crust:

2 cups crushed pretzels
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
1/2 cup dark brown sugar

For the blondie layer:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temp
1 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup AP flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup caramel sauce (store-bought is fine, or make your own by melting about 12 Kraft caramel candies with a tablespoo of heavy cream)
1 cup chopped peanut butter cups, for topping

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×9 baking pan and set aside.
  2. Make the crust by combining the pretzels, melted butter, and brown sugar in a small bowl and mixing well. Press the crust into the bottom of your prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, peanut butter, and egg. Stir in the vanilla.
  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and salt.
  5. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet until well-combined. Then, stir in the caramel sauce and chocolate chips.
  6. Pour the batter on top of the crust. Sprinkle the chopped peanut butter cups on top of the blondie layer.
  7. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let the blondies cool in the pan (at least one hour) before slicing and serving.
Jan 23

Everything Blondies

I’ve been kind of bad about posting stuff lately – we can thank my new work schedule for that. But believe it or not, I have been doing a fair amount of baking. And eating, of course. In fact, I devoured more of these blondies than I’d like to admit, but they were really just so darn good I couldn’t resist.

One of my favorite things about blondies is the fact that they’re so versatile. So when I found myself having trouble deciding what type of blondies to make for an impromptu get-together, I decided to simply cram a whole bunch of different flavors into a gooey, buttery base. The result? Another fabulous batch of treats.

everythingblond

Everything Blondies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temp
1 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup AP flour
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup butterscotch chips
2/3 cup white chocolate chips
2/3 cup cinnamon chips
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8×8 baking pan and set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, and egg. Stir in the vanilla.
  3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and salt.
  4. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet until well-combined. Stir in the various chocolate chips, reserving a small amount of each to sprinkle on top if desired.
  5. Bake for 28-32 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let the blondies cool in the pan (at least one hour) before slicing and serving.