Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies because of Winter Storm Juno

When people in NYC hear of an impending blizzard, they rush to the store and buy wine and food such as meat, cheese, bread, and veggies to sustain them for a couple of days. I rush to the store and buy wine and chocolate chips.

A big blizzard was predicted to hit NYC last night and this morning. You can read all about it elsewhere.

(SPOILER ALERT: It didn't happen.) 

 

In preparation for being stuck inside due to snow, I decided to make this Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownie recipe. It's been in my "recipes to make" folder for almost two years! I've been avoiding super sugary and dense recipes recently, but something about the middle of winter and snow had me craving both these characteristics.

 

The blog that posted this recipe had problems with the cookie dough sinking to the middle of the brownies. So I looked for other options. I decided to do half pan, half muffin pan to see which worked the best.

Unlike the Pinch of Yum's blog post, I used a "from scratch" recipe and baked the brownies in the 4x4 pan for ten minutes before adding the cookie dough. This helped immensely! No sinking dough! And still a gooey brownie. (Altogether it was in the oven for about 40 minutes.)

 

As for the muffin pans, I put both the brownie batter and the cookie dough in at the same time. This worked smashingly as well! (Altogether it was in the oven for about 30 minutes.) 

 

If you like gooier brownie, go with the 4x4. If you like a more solid brownie, go with the muffin pans. Either way, this recipe is sure to please the brownie and cookie lover in your life!

I used my favorite Supernatural Brownie Recipe for the brownies and I used A Pinch of Yum's suggested cookie recipe. I got the muffin pan idea from Very Best Baking by Nestle.

Bake well and prosper!

Gooey Butter Cookies

I've finally been getting around to my "Recipes to Make" Pinterest board. These Gooey Butter Cookies always caught my eye while visiting my Pinterest boards. Their bright and cheerful yellow color piqued my interest.

Guess what! You just have to use a yellow cake mix to get the yellow color.

This recipe is very simple to put together and is a huge crowd pleaser. These look a little like biscuits but taste like a cake with a slightly firm exterior. What's not to love about a dessert with the labels "cookie, cake, butter"?! Every one at the party I went to (a Festivus Party...yes, FESTIVUS) loved them. (As did I seeing I ate so many of them!)

Gooey Butter Cookies

recipe found by clicking here: How to Nest for Less

Bake well and prosper!

Apple Croustade

This past weekend my roommate had the urge to bake. He had a big bag of apples that he needed to use so he decided to make a crispy/flaky apple pie. He layered the phyllo dough along with a bunch of melted butter in my spring form pan since I didn't have a tart pan.

 

Even though the butter flowed onto the bottom of the oven and created a smoky apartment for a little bit, this tart turned out beautifully. My roomie asked if he could put his pie on one of my cake stands and I said yes.

 

It looked so pretty on my sturdy, white ceramic cake stand that I just had to snap some photos. After I was done, he went to the kitchen to clean up and I went to my room to get ready to head out for the evening.

 

Then we heard a pop. We couldn't figure out what it was at first but then my roomie saw that the cake stand had two cracks in it. I went over to touch the stand and *CLINK* *CLUNK* *WHAM*! The whole stand started crumbling in front of our eyes.

My roommate ran to get another cake stand but it was going to be too late so I did what any baker would do: I put both of my hands under the pie so the masterpiece wouldn't join the ranks of the broken cake stand. I moved it via my hands to another cake stand and then we just looked at the broken cake stand in bewilderment.

The pie had cooled before it went on the ceramic, but we're guessing the heat that was left bugged some weak spot and *POP*!

 

RIP cute vintage cake stand. Hello yummy phyllo dough and butter encrusted apple pie! It was SO delicious. I highly suggest using this recipe for a different take on the normal apple pie. (Just don't put it on an old ceramic cake stand!)

Apple Croustade (Flaky Apple Tart)

recipe found here: saveur.com

Bake well and prosper!