Almond Joy Brownies

I found this recipe from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen,  
Her pictures are better than mine.

                                                but I'm pretty sure they tasted just as good :)
You first bake the brownie and then place coconut and an almond on top, and then dip in chocolate!
How good does that sound?!

Ingredients:
Brownie batter (homemade, from a boxed mix, whatever is your favorite. I used Ghirardelli)
4 cups sweetened shredded coconut
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
About 4 dozen almonds 
Chocolate candy melts or almond bark

1.Preheat your oven according to brownie recipe directions and bake brownies either in a mini muffin pans or just a regular pan. ( If you don't use muffin pans you will have to use a cookie cutter or something to get them in the form you want). When brownies are done, cool completely.

2.In a bowl, combine coconut and sweetened condensed milk. With clean hands, roll coconut mixture into balls and press onto tops of brownie bites. ( The coconut gets stuck to your hands and then doesn't form into balls so what I did was wet my hands with some water. That helped the coconut stick together).

3.Press an almond on the top of each and place brownies in the freezer to harden for about 15 minutes.

4. Melt almond bark dip the tops of the brownies in the chocolate. Place dipped brownies on a wax paper lined baking sheet and refrigerate until chocolate is set.

Enjoy,

Sugar Dust

S'mores Cookie Bars

I was planning on making these this weekend but my brother( who, I must say eats EVERYTHING!) opened the Hershey's chocolate bar that I needed so I figured if I don't make them today I wont be left with any chocolate. 

Well, these are S'mores in the form of bars/cookies. It tastes exactly like the ones from a campfire. If your like me you know that theres a difference between the S'mores you make at a bonfire and the ones you make at home, on your stove.  I don't know, maybe its just me but there IS a difference!!

Again, another simple recipe. I got this from Lovin in the Oven.   Yea I know again, but I cant help it she just has some amazing recipes!

After you make the dough spread half of it in an 8x8 pan and place your chocolate bars on top.

As you can see, I am missing chocolate so I had to use chocolate chips:/

Cover with marshmallow fluff and then cover with dough.

The tricky part is getting it dough to spread, so I suggest that you use your hand to flatten the dough and then place it on top.

Do the best you can:)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare an 8x8 pan.
2. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy and light. 
3. Add egg and vanilla and beat until mixed well.
4. Add the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt and mix until well incorporated.
5. Divide the dough in 2 and place one half of it into the pan. 
6. Place the Hershey bars on top . ( I used the extra large chocolate bars so everything fit in perfectly.)
7. Add the marshmallow fluff on top.
8. Add the last layer of dough on top of the marshmallow. ( I suggest flattening out pieces of dough with your hand and then laying them on top of the marshmallow one by one.)
9. Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy,

Sugar Dust

BOMB Cookies

So today I asked my little brother what he felt like eating?
He said cookies so I decided to make him these Pillow cookies from Divine Baking.  Lovely little blog.

Anyways I have made these before but using a different recipe and lets just say they did not come out quite as I would have expected. But thankfully this recipe did not disappoint like the last one:)

Yet they did not come out looking like the ones on Divine Baking's Blog either.
They came out HUGE!!

Thats where the name BOMB cookies comes in hehe:)
My mom actually came up with the name. I'm not sure how Divine Baking formed the cookies but who's complaining, everyone loves a huge cookie!

Well for those who don't know a Bomb Cookie (aka pillow cookie) is a chocolate chip cookie with a brownie  center.

Sorry again about the photo. I really need help with those:(

but they really are good.

They came out pretty big and one of these bad boys should satisfy anyone!

Ingredients:

1 box of brownie mix (or you can make your own)

16 tbsp cold butter, cut into small cubes
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. First bake the brownie according to the instructions on the box. Let cool completely.

2. In a bowl, beat butter and sugar together until barley combined. Do not beat until creamy or fluffy.

3. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.

4. Add your flour, baking soda&powder,salt. Mix until dough forms.

5. Add chocolate chips. ( Just FYI, I added 2 cups and my brother said it was too much).

6. Put in the fridge until the brownies are done and cooled.

When you are ready to form these Bomb cookies, cut the brownies into squares about 1inch x 1 inch. Take some of the cookie dough in your hand and flatten it in your hand. Put the brownies on top and then add some more cookie dough on top. Spread the cookie dough all around, making sure the brownie is not showing. Repeat for all the other cookies.

My cookies came out really big and I only ended up with about 12 cookies. I think I needed to flatten out the dough more. The actual recipe is supposed to be for 24. It just depends on how much cookie dough you use per brownies. Well good luck and let me know how it goes!:)

Enjoy,

Sugar Dust

Peanut Butter Oreo Pies

Let me just say that I love Oreos....

anddd peanut butter

So I figured that together they would be even better. Am I right?

When I saw this recipe on 

Picky Palate I had to try them.

Unfortunately, in my opinion they did not taste as good as they looked. Don't get me wrong, these could probably be amazing but the pie crust sucked out all my sweetness. I have a major sweet tooth so, to me they were not sweet enough and the main flavor was the pie crust. If I make these again I'm going to sweeten them up a bit. Thats why if you plan on making this add some extra sugar on top or inside 

(or anywhere).

Or you could even make the pie crust really thin so then the crust doesn't triumph the Oreo&peanut butter.( This is probably better because we all know sugar = calories :/ eh)

and dip them in milk! They are very good with milk. It softens the crust.

Anyways...

This recipe requires only a few ingredients so I was even more excited to try them. Everyone loves an easy, quick recipe.

Ingredients:

2 pie crust ( the refrigerated kind you find at local grocery store)

A pack of ores ( around 16 for 8 pies)

Around 1 cup of creamy peanut butter ( but you don't have to measure, just scoop it out of the jar)

2 tablespoons of melted butter

2 tablespoons of granulated sugar

1. First preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and spray your muffin pan.

2.Unroll pie crust. I rolled mine out to make it larger.

3. Make about a 4inch circle in the pie crust and press into pan.

4. Spread about 1 tablespoon of peanut butter on top of an Oreo and then stick an Oreo on top of the    peanut butter. Then add some more peanut butter on top of that Oreo.

5. Press cookies in pie crust.

6. Using remaining pie crust, cut strips to make lattice top. ( for photo instructions visit Picky Palate). 

7. Brush top of pies with melted butter and add lots of sugar!

8. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy

Sugar Dust

Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies

So its been a really long time since I have posted something because my camera broke:(
but I did end up getting a new one . It took a really loooong time but better late than never right?
But we are back in business!

So, I have been craving brownies for the longest time but I didn't want to make just any kind of brownies....

I wanted to make these<3

Yea, yea I know my photography skills need some work but thats not the point.

The important thing that we need to focus on is how sweet... and salty... and crunchy and ..oh I can go on and on about these things! 

The point is you have to try these.

Its pretty simple.

Its a brownie in between a peanut butter layer and crushed pretzels.

I found the recipe from How Sweet it is. 

You have a preztel crust which actually becomes the top....well at least I think it looks better this way.

Heres the recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

2/3 cups chocolate chips (optional)

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

1/3 powdered sugar

1 3/4 cups crushed pretzel pieces

6 tablespoons butter, melted

1. First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and prepare an 8x8 pan.

2.Combine pretzel crumbs with melted butter until pretzels are moist. Form pretzel crust in the pan and add more butter on top if pretzels seem loose.

3. In a separate bowl, add  butter and sugar and beat until fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs one at a time. 

4. Add the coca powder, flour, salt and mix until mixture is smooth. Add chocolate chips (optional).

5.Then, spread brownie mixture on top of pretzel crust and bake for about 25 minutes or until brownie is well baked.

6. After the brownie is baked, you add the peanut butter layer. 

To make the peanut butter layer, melt peanut butter in microwave and then add powdered sugar. Mix until sugar has dissolved. Pour on top of brownies and refrigerate until layer is hard.

Enjoy ,

Sugar Dust

Christmas time!

So its been a while. School has definitely been keeping me busy, but thank you God for Christmas break!!
I finally have time to bake and just enjoy Christmas with my friends and family. It has become a sort of tradition to go see Christmas lights every year. We usually go to Main Street where every house in that little neighborhood is filled with lights. We haven't done that yet but we will hopefully tomorrow. But we did go downtown to the Mission Inn which was just as great! Definitely got everyone in the Christmas spirit. There were mini boutiques and hot chocolate to be bought and they even had the cutest cupcake shop! I wish I had pictures to show you but my camera died.

But I do have some pictures from before.

This was the cutest little house I have ever seen! It looked like a little cottage from a movie, just adorable
There were also reindeer like this one

And now baking. We made chocolate covered pretzles.

   

And Marshmallows

It was really easy and fun. I had all my brothers and sister helping out.

We had them covered with sprinkles, toffee, chocolate chips and much more. It was really great and you and your family would enjoy it as much as we did.

Chocolate Covered Pretzels and Marshmallows

•  Pretzel Rods
• Marshmallows
• Sprinkles (any kind you like)
• Tofee
• Mini Chocolate chip
• CandyQuick Chocolate Coating and Vanilla Coating
• lollipop sticks (or any kind of sticks, I used skewers)

So first melt your CandyQuick coating by following the directions on the box. I love this stuff because as soon as it hardens you just stick it back in the microwave and it just as good. Other chocolate hardens and you cant get the same consistency back.

Then quickly put any kind of sprinkles and toppings on your pretzels and place them on wax paper or foil until dry.

For the Marshmallows, you follow the same process. First, put your marshmallow on a stick and dip in your choice of chocolate. Sprinkle with toppings and let dry on foil paper or wax paper.

Hope you enjoy 

baking gone wrong!

Ok, so I always try to make things a little healthier and this time it was a big mistake! I tried to make walnut fudge. I got the recipe a while back but I can't remember exactly from where. Anywho, I subsituted fat free evaporated milk for just plain evaporated milk. I thought my adding fat free milk it should make it healthier in some way right? Well my fudge did not come out as fudge exactly.....




First I got all my ingredients ready.

yep lots of chocolate chips!

Pour in your sugar,evaporated milk and butter over medium heat

Add chocolate and marshmallow

It might look funny but keep stirring!

See!

Pour in pan and put to chill

This fudge might look okay but looks can be deceiving because when I picked it up it was as soft as goo....

But it was still yummy of course. It just didn't set correctly. But I don't like to let things go to waste so I used it to make a Peanut butter and Fudge sandwich:)

All I did was  take two pieces of bread and on one I spread peanut butter, while on the other fudge. I put it on a skillet and let it get soft and chocolaty

It was good yet so bad!

 But don't be afraid to try this fudge recipe, just make sure you don't use fat free evaporated milk, use the regular one. The taste came out really good too it just didn't harden enough. Here's the recipe:


Walnut Fudge

• 7 ouces of marshmallow cream
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 chopped walnuts
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. First line an 8x8 pan with foil
2. In a large sauce pan over medium heat combine butter sugar and evaporated milk. Bring to a full boil and cook for 5 minutes stirring constantly.( very important to cook for those 5 minutes!)
3.Remove from heat and pour chocolate chips and marshmallow creme and stir until everything is smooth.
4. Stir in nuts and vanilla. Pour in pan and allow to chill in fridge for at least two hours or until firm.

I hope yours comes out better than mine. Enjoy!