Snickerdoodle Blondies

3 September, 20142 September, 2014Marissa

I tried a couple recipes for snickerdoodle bars or blondies before finding this one from Six Sisters Stuff. It’s so good! I still prefer the actual snickerdoodle cookies, but this is a very tasty bar form that takes much less time to make since the dough doesn’t need chilled and you bake the whole thing at once.

Snickerdoodle Blondies

1 cup butter, room temperature

2 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla

2 2/3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

Topping

2 Tablespoon white sugar

2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Combine the butter, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl by hand or with an electric mixer. Stir in dry ingredients.

Spread batter in a greased 13×9-inch baking pan. In a small bowl, mix the cinnamon topping ingredients, then sprinkle over the top of the batter.

Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes or until top springs back when pressed.

Crunchy No-Bake Cookies

27 August, 201426 August, 2014Marissa

I have perfected the no-bake cookie!

Okay, perhaps that is a bit of an exaggeration, but these are seriously good. My previous no-bake recipe (a rather standard one using cocoa powder) typically resulted in a sticky, fudge-like mess that tasted good but wasn’t much like a cookie. These are more substantial, and hold their cookie shape once they’ve set.

You could make it with creamy peanut butter, but I prefer having the crunchy peanut pieces. That’s also the reason I use full-size chocolate chips — they’re large enough not to melt completely, so there are chunks of chocolate in the finished cookie. If you’d rather have the chocolate all melted in, just stir it longer or use mini chocolate chips.

Crunchy No-Bake Cookies

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup butter

1 cup crunchy peanut butter

3 cups rolled oats

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine sugar, milk, butter, and crunchy peanut butter in a large sauce pan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. As soon as the mixture boils, remove from heat.

Stir in vanilla and oats. Add chocolate chips and stir just long enough to mix them in, but not long enough to completely melt the chips. Drop from a spoon onto cookie sheets covered with wax paper. Chill and serve.

Summer Cheesecake Bars

6 August, 20145 August, 2014Marissa

I’m re-sharing two recipes today that I’ve already posted because they’re just way too tasty to only share once. I’ve been making these fruit cheesecake bars for most of our get-together this summer, and they’re always popular. Both need fresh fruit, so this is the best time of the year to plan on enjoying them.

Peach Cheesecake Squares | marissabaker.wordpress.com — Click here to visit the recipe page for Peach Cheesecake Squares

Lemon-Blueberry Cheesecake Bars | marissabaker.wordpress.com — Click here to visit the recipe page for Lemon-Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

Berry Swirl Cheesecake (Updated Recipe)

21 May, 201420 May, 2014Marissa

I tried out an almond raspberry cheesecake a few weeks ago, which tasted great but I wasn’t quite happy with how it cooked up. Fortunately, this time I ran out of raspberry jam and substituted black raspberry jelly. Oh. My. Goodness. Black raspberries and cheesecake belong together.

The basic recipe is much the same as the last one, but I used dough hooks to make the crust instead of hand-kneading it and that worked well. I also didn’t swirl extra jelly into the top, hoping the cake would crack less. It was less, but still not perfect.

Berry Swirl Cheesecake

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Crust

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup ground almonds

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325° F. Line a 9-inch spring-form pan with aluminum foil. Using the dough hooks on an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add ground almonds and 1/2 cup of flour, and mix well. Flour hands and press dough into the spring-form pan. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

Filling

3 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon almond flavoring

3 eggs

1/4 cup berry preserves

Berry Swirl Cheesecake recipe by marissabaker.wordpress.com Beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla at medium speed with electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing at low speed after each addition.

Mix 3/4 cup of batter with 1/4 cup raspberry preserves. Spoon 1/3 of the raspberry mixture over the crust. Pour the remainder of the cheesecake batter into the pan. Drop the remaining raspberry/cream cheese mixture by spoon fulls over the top of the cheesecake and smooth into the batter. Use a knife or spatula to swirl the berry mixture.

Bake cheesecake for 1 hour at 325° F or until center is almost set. Run a knife along the inside edge of the pan ring when it comes out of the oven. Cool before removing rim of pan. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

Fruity Thumbprint Cookies

14 May, 201413 May, 2014Marissa

Really wanted a filled cookie the other day, so I compared several recipes online and came up with this. The previous recipe I’d been using made fewer cookies with the same amount of butter, so this is definitely an improvement. We used black raspberry jelly from a local Amish store and they were delicious.

Fruity Thumbprint Cookies

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Fruity Thumbprint Cookie recipe by marissabaker.wordpress.com — all ready for dipping

1 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs, separated

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped nuts

3/4 cup fruit jam or jelly

Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar on high speed until smooth (about 2-3 minutes).

Beat egg yolks and vanilla into the butter mixture. Reserve egg whites. Add flour and salt and mix until just combined. Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Beat egg whites in a small bowl until bubbly and frothy.

Form dough into 1-inch balls and dip in the egg whites, then roll in chopped nuts. Place on the cookie sheets. Flatten balls slightly, then press with your thumb or a small spoon to make a well in the center. If dough cracks, reshape with fingers. Fill each indentation with 1/2 teaspoon jam.

Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes or until slightly firm and barely golden on the edges. Let cookies cool for a minute or two on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a wire rack.

Glaze (optional)

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Tablespoon cream or milk

1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

Stir glaze ingredients together until smooth, adding sugar or milk to reach desired consistency. Drizzle over cooled cookies and allow a couple hours for glaze to set.

Fudgy Buttons

30 April, 201415 November, 2014Marissa

Do you ever have a craving for fudge, but don’t want to pay the exorbitant prices per pound and don’t have the time to make a batch yourself (or don’t think it’s a good idea to have a 9-inch by 13-inch sheet of fudge lying around the house)? Here’s the solution — fudgy buttons! I think they came from a Taste of Home magazine. This size batch will make an even dozen, but you could halve it if you like.

Fudgy Buttons

4 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon baking cocoa

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon milk

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Melt butter in a small saucepan and remove from heat. Add cocoa and mix well. Stir in sugar. Add milk and stir until smooth, add peanut butter and mix well. Divide into 12 parts, form into patties, and place on wax paper. Refrigerate until firm.