Chocolate Toffee Cookies

There's nothing like homemade cookies. Now don't get me wrong. I love a good Double-Stuff Oreo, Girl Scout Samoa or E.L Fudge Cookie in a pinch...but there is still nothing like a homemade cookie. My Dad is a bonafide Cookie Monster so cookies are something I have grown up with. Cookies have the ability to please so many people on a wide-spread scale that it is amazing. There are chewy, crispy, crunchy, chunky, gooey, no-bake, soft... the possibilities to please are endless!

These particular cookies fall into the crispy chewy category. Crispy cookie with chewy toffee bits in it. Kind of like a Heath bar cookie. I happened to have almost all the ingredients for these already in the pantry so it made a perfect selection for my weekend baking treat!

Chocolate-Toffee Cookies

(from the American Test Kitchen Magazine)

2-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 bag (8 ounces) chopped milk chocolate toffee pieces (such as Hershey's Heath Bar baking pieces)

1. Heat oven to 375°. Coat baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.

2. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt in a medium-size bowl; set aside.

3. In a large bowl, beat together butter and both sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla.

4. On low speed, gradually add in flour mixture. Beat for 2 minutes or until blended. Stir in chocolate chips and toffee pieces.

5. Drop batter by tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets and bake at 375° for 12 minutes or until golden. Cool baking sheets on wire racks for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

Hints and Tips: I used mini semisweet chocolate chips in mine. I wanted the chocolate to be spread throughout the cookie instead of in chunks, plus that's what I had in the pantry to use. Coat your baking sheets very thoroughly with cooking spray! The toffee in the cookies will stick to your pans even with the spray and I can't imagine how difficult (or I should say even more difficult) they would have been to remove from the baking sheets. My cookies got too brown cooking at 12 minutes so I reduced to 11 minutes. This also helped with removing them from the pans. Bake the first pan according to the directions and then adjust cooking times depending on your oven performance.

Even with all the drama of removing the cookies from the pan (I only had two of the 4 dozen fall to pieces on me) these cookies were a huge hit! My husband and daughter loved them and the 3 dozen I took to work disappeared before lunch time. The next time I do make them, I might try cooking them on parchment-lined baking sheets. Sometimes that will make the cookie softer and it will lose the crispy texture. I guess I will just have to try it out and see what happens!

Double Chocolate Brownies

So I have been really busy lately. Husband started a new job. Enrolling Lana in pre-school. It has been hectic. And when I feel like I am totally losing it I bake. Have you ever seen the movie Julie and Julia? There is a scene where Julie has had the most terrible day at work and she is feeling completely overwhelmed by her life. So she goes home and bakes a chocolate pie. And she is explaining to her husband how she doesn't know about a lot of things but she knows if she puts these ingredients together and cooks them just right it will turn into a perfect chocolate pie. Yes that scene is my life. Baking is my therapy. And thankfully I have a work who is all too eager to take all those calorie-ridden treats off my hands. Still on the diet folks. Down six pounds!

So anyway back to these brownies. I dug out the old recipe binder that is overflowing from magazine recipe tear-outs. Back from the days before Pinterest, when I received multiple food magazines via ye olde mailbox and I was a newlywed. I canceled those subscriptions and promised myself I would renew them when I got through some of the recipe binder bulk. Yeah so that didn't happen.

But things have changed now. I have a Kitchenaid mixer. I have a three-year-old daughter who loves to be my baking assistant. And I work at a lab that has a break room to dispose of the goodies. I'm trying to bake one new thing a week to try some recipes and keep some sanity during my jam-packed summer. Every weekend there is an event!

So here is the first recipe. Double-Chocolate Brownies from the America's Test Kitchen magazine. They were pretty much amazing. Tasted like gourmet brownies but went together like a simple box mix. The only down-side was they tended to dry out quickly. I'm not sure if it was because I pre-cut and packaged them for special deliveries or the recipe just tends to be better the first few days after they are baked. My special delivery peeps didn't have any complaints so maybe I am just being a dessert food snob!

Double-Chocolate Brownies

(from the America's Test Kitchen Magazine)

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

4 ounces (4 squares) unsweetened chocolate

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup chopped pecans

1 bag (12 ounces) chocolate chips (2 cups)

1. Heat oven to 350°. Line a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan with nonstick foil, leaving overhang.

2. In large glass bowl, heat butter and chocolate in microwave on HIGH for 2 minutes; stir until smooth. Let stand 5 minutes to cool slightly. Whisk in sugar, eggs, flour and vanilla. Stir in pecans and half of the chocolate chips (1 cup). Transfer batter to prepared pan. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup chocolate chips.

3. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes, until top is dry to the touch. Let cool completely in pan on wire rack. Lift brownie from pan with foil. Cut into squares and serve.

 All the gooey rich greatness about to be mixed together!

 My little helper mixing up the goodies!

 All mixed up and in the pan. Now time to sprinkle some more chocolate chips on top!

 Right before going into the oven...

The recipe says that it makes 24 brownies. I was good and cut mine into 24 pieces. Be warned - they may look small but they pack a wallop of richness! They are best eaten in the following two to three days. Enjoy!

Mickey Mouse First Birthday Cake

Okay so let me just say that yes, the smash cake in this photo got a little pre-smashed. Unfortunately it slid a little in the car and hit the side of the tote it was in. My first casualty in cake delivery! And thankfully my beautiful friend just went with it and said "Hey, it's going to get smashed anyway, right?"

Levi is the son of one of my dear friends from the high school days. He is an absolutely gorgeous little boy with blond hair and an impish grin who immediately fell in love with my daughter and followed her around trying to gain her attention when it was diverted from him. And he turned the big one this week!

His mom had sent me a picture of a cake topper she had planned to get about a month ago and asked me to theme the cake after it. No problem right? Sketched up a cake, got her approval and we were on our way to Mickey Mouse Cakedom! After I got the cake finished and sent her a photo, she told me the topper had been discontinued and she had to improvise on the cake topper. It all worked out in the end but let me just say on a side note for all those parents out there - buy party supplies when you see them and decide on the party theme! I don't know how many times I have uttered the phrase "I'll pick it up next time" just to be completely bummed out when it wasn't there when I went back. Let's just say my husband is tired of hearing it!

For example, my daughter is My Little Pony crazy. And Wal-mart has the party supplies. And her birthday is in September. Guess who has a laundry room full of pony party supplies? That's right. I have learned from my past mistakes.

I hope that Levi had a wonderful party and everything (else) went smoothly for his parents. Here's to a great first year with many more to come!