Cookies

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Ingredients:

  3/4 cup packed brown sugar

  1/2 cup sugar

  1/2 cup unsalted melted butter

  2 large eggs

  2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

  3/4 teaspoon baking powder

  1/2 teaspoon salt

  1 cup dried cranberries

  1 cup white baking chips

  3/4 cup oats

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, beat sugars and butter until blended. Beat in the eggs, cream, and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add in in the sugar mixture, mix well. 

Stir in the cranberries, 3/4 cup chips and oats. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls, space 2 inches apart onto parchment paper. 

Bake 8-10 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned.

This makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Hot Chocolate

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Ingredients:

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Dash of salt

1/3 cup hot water

4 cups milk

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Mix cocoa powder, granulated sugar, and salt together in a medium saucepan, add the water; mix well.Place over medium-high heat, boil.

Add the milk, and stir occasionally until the liquid reaches the desired drinking temperature. Do not boil. Remove from heat and add the vanilla extract.

Pour into mugs and serve!

Whipped Cream

This is optional, My daughter loves whipped cream on her cocoa 

so I make this for her and add a few sprinkles to the top.

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Chill the clean bowl of a stand mixer and the whisk attachment in the freezer for 10 minutes. 

Add all of the ingredients to the bowl and whisk on high speed until medium peaks form, 

(note: you can use a hand whisk and a large chilled bowl. 

Whisk all of the ingredients until medium peaks form.) 

Coconutty Caramel Chocolate Chip Brownies

Batter:

4 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

8 ounces (1 whole cup) melted butter

1 1/4 cups cocoa, sifted

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Topping:

1 cup coconut

1 cup chopper pecans

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup caramel chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Spray an 8-inch square pan with Baker's joy.

In a mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.

Pour the batter into prepared 8-inch square pan. Add coconut, pecans, chocolate chips and caramel chips. Bake for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with toothpick, when inserted into the 

center of the pan should come out clean. 

I made this cake for the home coming even at our church and it was such a huge hit. 

Something this yummy is hard to keep to myself.

Ingredients:

Peanut Butter Cake

One box plain yellow cake mix 

6 TBS sifted cake flour

1 1/3 cups water

1/3 cup smooth peanut butter

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease two cake ball pans (inside and outside) with Baker's Joy. Set the pans aside.

Place the cake mix, water, peanut butter, oil, eggs, flour, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. Spoon cake batter into pans. Bake at 30 for 15 minutes. Cool cake balls then trim the edges off the tops to make them rounder. 

Set these aside until after we get the chocolate cake mixed and ready for pans. 

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Chocolate Cake:

2 cups sugar

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). 

Pour a small amount of batter into pans, place cake balls in the batter and pour remaining batter ovr cake balls.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. 

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Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Icing:

10 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

5 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

2/3 cup smooth peanut butter

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl often. Continue to beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.

Add the peanut butter and beat until thoroughly blended. *You can thin this out by adding milk to the icing if you feel it is too thick. 

Ice cake and put cake in fridge while mixing up the glaze, this helps the icing "set" a little more.

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Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze

6 ounces semi sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 cup half-and-half

DIRECTIONS:

In the top of a double boiler combine the chocolate, peanut butter, and corn syrup. Cook, whisking often, until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.

Remove from the heat and whisk in the half-and-half, beating until smooth. Spoon ontop iced cake..it's okay for the chocolate to fall down the sides.

Decorating Tips:

You can decorate your cake like mine by using a 1M star tip in a decorating bag. Pipe some simple swirls and chop 6 mini Reese Peanut Butter Cups to put on top of each icing swirl.

You can also grate some chocolate to put on the bottom and the top like I have here.

Enjoy!

Mocha Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Ingredients

CRUST:

2 cups chocolate wafer crumbs (about 32 wafers)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

FILLING:

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon instant coffee granules

3 packages (8 ounces each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup (6 ounces) miniature semisweet chocolate chips, divided

Directions

In a large bowl, combine crumbs and sugar; stir in butter.
Press onto the bottom and 2 in. up the sides of a greased 9-in. springform pan; set aside.

*for the cupcake variation, just put the crumb mix into the cupcake tins and mash them into the bottom, for this I use a bent spoon.

In a small saucepan, combine cream and coffee granules; cook and stir until granuals are dissolved let stand for 1 minute.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add flour and beat well. Add eggs, beating on low speed just until combined.

Add coffee mix to cream cheese mixture with vanilla; beat just until combined. Stir in 3/4 cup chocolate chips. Pour into crust. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips.
Bake at 325° for 50-55 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour. Refrigerate overnight.

*Tips:

-Let your eggs and cream cheese set out for about an hour to allow 

them to become room temperature before using them.

-I use Oreo cookies for the crumb crust. 

Just open the cookies and scrape out the cream and crush the wafers.

BUCKEYES/ CHOCOLATE BALLS

Makes about 48 (1-inch) balls

Ingredients:

3 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 block of paraffin

*2 cups white chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using a handheld mixer, beat together the sugar, peanut butter, butter, and vanilla at medium speed. The dough should end up slightly crumbly. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheet and stick a toothpick into each ball. Place in the freezer and chill for 1 hour.

3. In the top of a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips and paraffin  stirring until smooth. Holding a ball by the toothpick and placing a fork under the ball to stabilize it, dip it into the hot chocolate. Return the chocolate ball to the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining balls.

4. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Remove the toothpicks before serving.

**If you want to add the drizzle as we have here you will need white chocolate chips.

Follow the melting directions as before with the milk chocolate. Take a spoon and drizzle the white chocolate onto the chocolate balls after the milk chocolate has dried and cooled.