New Chocolate Chip Cookies...

The last few weeks I have discovered that I love avocados.

I have eaten quite a few of these hard boiled egg and avocado sandwiches on the way to work the last few weeks. Yummy. I have been looking for new ways to incorporate avocados into other meals during the day.

I saw a reipe for Avocado Chocolate Chip Cookies on Eat, Live, Run. This blog post got me thinking about how to incorporate avocados into my own chocolate chip cookies.

When I got home from the race expo yesterday afternoon I decided to put my knowledge of chocolate chip cookies to the test and whipped up my own avocado infused chocolate chip cookies.

Along with an avocado, I also added ground oats and flax seed. Of course, I had to use semi sweet and dark chocolate chips. I mean, they are chocolate chip cookies after all. I baked the first dozen to see how they baked, and discovered that they don't flatten on their own. They remained in the same shape. I flattened out the rest of them before they went in the oven, and that was a little messy. The dough was a little sticky.

I just have to say, these cookies are amazing. You can't taste the avocado, and the texture with the ground oats and flax seed is fantastic. They are moist and chewy and chocolaty. The girls and Josh all really like them, and had no idea they had an avocado in them until I revealed my secret ingredient. Now I can't wait to see where else my beloved avocados will turn up.

Stick around and I will let you know.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Beer Sprocket 2013...

This was the third year for me to be a part of Beer Sprocket. After cupcakes in 2011 and beer cupcakes last year I decided to change it up this year and bake cookies. Cookies and beer, I think they go together, but I tend to think that cookies go with everything.

I started baking on Thursday night. After making two batches of my chocolate chip cookies I made two batches of my white chocolate chip Nutella cookies. I made all of the cookies a smaller size than I usually made so they would be a bite or two.

I overbaked the Nutella cookies, and after they rested over night I decided I could not use them. I got up early on Friday and baked a couple batches of regular sugar cookies and chocolate sugar cookies.

Last but not least I made two batches of sweeties, one green and one pink. Those get glazed right out of the oven, so all there was left to do was frost the chocolate sugar cookies with chocolate frosting, and then the regular sugar cookies got white frosting and sprinkles. Last but not least was the white squiggles on the chocolate sugar cookies.

We loaded up the cookies and headed out to Choctaw on Saturday afternoon. It turned out to be a beautiful day, but it was really windy. We lost a few cookies to the very strong wind during the set up.

Kim and Jessica (aka Dancing Jessica) came out to hang out with us for a few hours. I like to think they were there for me and not just the free beer and cookies.

We were almost completely out of cookies by about 8 pm so we packed up and headed home. It was really getting chilly by then.

Another great year. I hope I get invited back next year.

 

Posted with Blogsy

A Little More Baking...

I have been on quite the baking kick again. It's kinda nice. I made some of my triple chocolate chip cookies to take to Kendra's birthday party Friday night. These are packed with semi-sweet, dark chocolate and milk chocolate M&Ms. I say if one kind of chocolate is good, three is even better.

I baked up these cupcakes Sunday, but I will tell you more about them later. Just know that they were yummy.

I saw the recipe for Peanut Butter-Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips on the Brown Eyed Baker's blog a while ago. I never managed to have ay overly ripe bananas to use in the recipe, but tody I finally did. So I whipped up the batter.

I poured the batter in a lined loaf pan.

And I baked it up until it was golden brown and beautiful.

I have not had a chance to taste it yet, but based on the smells coming out of my kitchen, I think this recipe is going to have to be repeated.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Birthday Cookies...

One of my favorite kiddos celebrated a birthday on Saturday.

I was so excited to make cookies for her to take to her party at school on Friday. What would be better for a four year old's birthday than sparkly sugar cookies shaped like the letter 4?

I started with a batch of my go to sugar cookie dough.

I baked them up on Tuesday night and then got up early on Wednesday morning to decorate them. The beauty of frosted sugar cookies is they can be made a couple days ahead of time. I prefer to give them atleast one day to set up, so there's no worries about messing up the decorations.

If you are going to decorate sugar cookies, this is the meringue powder you should use. I buy it at William's Sonoma, and it makes me very sad when they run out. Don't waste your money on the brand from Hobby Lobby, it doesn't taste as good, and the texture is not always the best.

Start with the outline.

Then flood with thinned out frosting, and then add the rainbow sprinkles.

I love making sugar cookies, it's even better making them for someone that is going to be so excited to get them. I am loving getting back into baking again.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Baby Shower Cupcakes...

I love when I have the opportunity to bake for my friends. My friend Patti was hosting a baby shower and I volunteered to make some mini cupcakes for her.

I woke up early on Friday morning and decided to get to baking. White cupcakes and red velvet cupcakes were on the menu.

I don't know what it is about mini cupcakes, but I just love them. They are so stinking cute. I made half batches of both flavors and it was enough to make three dozen of each.

Saturday, after my run, I made vanilla buttercream frosting for the white cupcakes. They got pink sprinkles on top, because the baby is a girl.

What else can you put on red velvet cupcakes but cream cheese frosting. I just couldn't put pink sprinkles on these very red minis, so they went sprinkle-less.

It feels good to be baking again. I have some more baking to do this week, I'll leave that for later.

 

Posted with Blogsy

More Sugar Cookies...

After baking some Hostess Cupcake cookies on Friday there has been some serious cookie eating going on in the Craig house. It's a good thing I gave almost half of them to my favorite six-year-old gymnast because that meant that no one here ate those cookies. Even so we have gone through quite a few cookies in the last four days.

I decided to whip up a batch of my favorite sugar cookies this afternoon.

I wasn't feeling especially creatie, so I decided to just make circles.

I made the chocolate frosting that I used on the Hostess Cupcake cookies. I mae a little smaler batch.

Just under 2 cups of powdered sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons of light corn syrup, and about 5 tablespoons of almond milk, mixed together. I used my stand mixer this time, mixing this by hand is not easy. I love how the frosting sets on the cookies. I tried to put a few sprinkles on them, but I didn't get them on the cookies before it hardened.

I don't mean to toot my own horn, but they are very good. Not too chocolatey that they wouldn't go great with a nice glass of dark chocolate almond milk.

You should come by and try one.

 

Posted with Blogsy

The Oven Still Works...

It is no big secret that I have lost my baking mojo this year. Today I actually made steps to get it back. Since I am not running or doing yoga for a few more days, I tried to sleep in this morning. It is harder for me to sleep in than it is for me to run ten miles.

I got up and decided to try out a new recipe that I saw on one of my favorite baking blogs a few weeks ago. Hostess Cupcake Cookies! How awesome does that sound?

You can get the recipe here. The only change I made to the recipe was I used almond milk instead of regular milk in the glaze, and I used royal icing for the squiggles. I also didn't refrigerate the dough before I rolled it out. Mostly because I was being lazy; I did put the cut dough in the freezer prior to putting them in the oven. In my opinion it's easier to roll out dough that isn't really cold.

You might be wondering how they taste. I think they are fabulous.

The best part of baking, for me, is giving them to people I care about. I know a little gymnast that I plan to box some of these chocolaty cookies up for tomorrow.

I can't wait to see what I mix up next.

 

Posted with Blogsy