Christmas Cut-Out Cookies

Who's ready for Christmas? We are! We had our first Christmas party of the season this weekend. It was a potluck Christmas party, so everyone brought a side dish or a dessert. Of course we took a dessert: cookies!

We thought that since it was a Christmas party, why not take Christmas tree and candy cane cut-out cookies. They were fun to make and also really cute.

Here are just some pictures of the cookies that we decorated:

We used royal icing because it hardens and becomes smooth. We were going to put decorations on the Christmas trees, but we ran out of time, unfortunately. So, show us how your Christmas cookies come out, especially your Christmas trees!

S'more Brownies

 One of our favorite things about the fall is being able to sit around a campfire with some toasted marshmallows, and of course s'mores. You can't have a campfire without at least having one s'more! Now that it's winter, it's too cold outside to be having a campfire, so indoor s'mores are the next best thing, right? 

Well, we saw a picture of s'more brownies, and we thought: we have to try this! What could make a brownie better? Adding marshmallows of course! We didn't have a recipe so we kind of just made one up as we went along.

The first thing to do is to make a graham cracker crust. You can use your favorite recipe, or buy one from the store and make it like a brownie s'more pie. If you make one homemade, you can crush your graham crackers in a storage bag with a rolling pin, or you can simply use a food processor(which is what we did). Then, put the crust into whatever size pan that you are going to use. We baked our graham cracker crust before putting the brownie batter onto it, but next time we make these we are going to try making them without baking the crust first. If you try it without baking the graham cracker crust first, let us know how it turns out!

Our favorite type of brownies are fudgy brownies, so that is the kind of brownie that we made, but you can use whatever type of brownie that you prefer. Then you bake the brownies until they are almost done. 

Before the brownies are completely done, add the mini marshmallows to the top of them. The marshmallows will take about 5-10 minutes to get the golden-brown color on the top. If you are worried about your brownies being overdone, a kitchen torch can be used to brown the marshmallows.

These are just some pictures of how the brownies looked when we were all done! We hope you enjoy these brownies as much as we did!

***Note: Be sure to cut these brownies before they are completely cooled, so that the marshmallows are easier to cut through. Also, make sure to use a non-stick spray on your knife or else the marshmallows will stick to your knife and it will be a pain in the butt to cut all of your brownies.

S'more Cupcakes!

One of the best parts of fall is sitting around the warm fire on a chilly night, right? What makes that night even better..... S'MORES!!! S'mores are the perfect combination of graham crackers, chocolate and gooey marshmallows. We transformed these delicious campfire snacks into a delicious cupcakes! 

So, basically we made a graham cracker cake, put a chocolate ganache on it, and then topped it with a toasted marshmallow. To make the graham cracker cake, we made a simple yellow cake and replaced about half of the flour with crushed graham crackers. 

As you can see in the picture above, the marshmallows look different, this is because we were experimenting on which toasting method we liked better.

These darker marshmallows were toasted in the oven.This way is quicker because you can do more marshmallows at a time. To do this, line a baking sheet with parchment paper (this is very important or the mallows will stick!) then place the mallows about 2 1/2 inches apart because they will spread. Only put them in the oven for a couple of minutes.

This marshmallow was toasted in the oven and then it was browned with a kitchen torch. We tried this way because the oven was being used and we only needed a few more mallows. This way worked well too. To toast a mallow in the microwave, put it on a plate and then microwave it for 8-10 seconds, its really easy (and you can even make indoor s'mores this way too!)

We liked these cupcakes a lot! Next time we make them, we are going to fill the cupcakes with marshmallow fluff and then just top the cupcakes with chocolate ganache and some graham cracker crumbs. Either way they will be absolutely delicious!

Check out our YouTube video about these delicious cupcakes: here

Cookies!!!

We made these cookies for a friend's surprise birthday party. The chocolate chip cookie triangles were the first kind to disappear. 

     From Left to right, the cookies are no bakes, peanut butter, and chocolate chip cookie triangles. In order to make the chocolate chip cookies into triangles, we baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies in a 9x13 pan. When it was completely cooled, we cut them into squares then cut the squares in half from corner to corner to make triangles! It is so easy and so adorable! :)                                                        

We actually made two trays this size and had only a handful of cookies left after the party!

Over the weekend, we got a little carried away and just baked a ton of cookies. By the end of the weekend, we realized that we had baked nearly 300 cookies!

Pumpkin Spice Puppy Chow!

Happy October! This is the month of pumpkin and so we thought we would share this delicious spin on puppy chow (it's also called "muddy buddies"). This is a delicious and easy snack/dessert to make.This is perfect for a party, bake sale, or even just to snack on.

To make this, begin by melting 1 bag of white chocolate in the microwave. When that is melted, stir in 1.5 tsp. of pumpkin spice and 2 tsp. of cinnamon. Next, mix this with 7-8 cups of chex cereal (it can be regular or cinnamon flavored). Put 1 cup of powdered sugar and 1 tsp. of cinnamon into a gallon bag. Put the chex cereal mixture into the zip-lock bag and shake it to cover the cereal in powdered sugar (but make sure the bag is sealed before you start shaking!). This last step is optional, but we think it is delicious! Last, mix in about 1 cup of candy corn (you can put in as much as you want, really).

Here are some more pictures of the pumpkin spice puppy chow:

Peanut Butter Temptations

These cookies are called Peanut Butter Temptations because it's so tempting to just eat all of them! (who doesn't love peanut butter and chocolate, right?)

These cookies are fairly simple to make, and very delicious. We just make a peanut butter cookie, but instead of cooking them like normal just cook them in a mini cupcake pan.

To make the cookies in the mini cupcake pan, simply make a ball of dough and place it inside one of the little cupcake wells. When the pan is full just bake them in the oven and when they come out push the Reese's cup into the center of the cookies. Do this directly after the cookies come out of the oven so that the Reese's cup easily goes into the cookie.

You don't have to use Reese's cups, although we think that this is the best way. You can also use Hershey kisses. We prefer to use the Reese's cups because they look the best, but you can use whatever you think would be great!

Sugar Cookie Stars

We made these cookies just for fun, because who doesn't love decorating cookies, right? (especially if you get to eat them afterwards!)

This is a picture of a way to arrange cookies onto a serving tray so that the cookies will look super cute!

This is just a close up of the cookies:

To decorate these cookies, we used royal icing. First we used a piping bag to outline the cookies. If you don't have a piping bag or tips, you can just use a sandwich bag with a little hole cut in one of the corners. Next, we "flooded" the cookies. To flood the cookies, thin out the royal icing a bit and then use a spoon to pour the icing into the already outlined cookie.

                                       

Royal icing can be made with meringue powder or egg whites. It is suggest that if you are going to eat it, and not just use it for decorating, that meringue powder is used so that raw egg whites are not eaten.