Lovin' From the Oven

Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year! I just wanted to take the time to thank each and every one of you guys for coming by and supporting my blog all year long (even when I seemed to fall off the face of the planet at times). I would be no where without you guys and can’t believe I’m already over 300 followers!

I know, I know.. I didn’t get to finish my 12 days of cookies. 🙁 Life seemed to catch up with me in more ways than one. I’ll actually be starting school on.. MONDAY! Eek! And not at CSUN, that wretched school, but at a private school called National University! They have a better program for me that allows me to get my Masters in Education AND my teaching credential at the same time. The only downside is that it is a bit more expensive since it is a private school and I’ll be paying for half since my parents can’t pay it all.

With that being said, I’m afraid I won’t have the necessary funds to update my blog as much as I did. Baking is not a cheap hobby with all the ingredients I have to buy. Before, I didn’t have to worry about money and could spend it freely on a pound of macadamia nuts and good quality chocolate. Now, 3 out of 4 of my paychecks will be going toward school, while the other paycheck will go toward gas/food/entertainment. 🙁 I guess welcome to the real world, right? It sucks!

Anyways, I added a donation button on the left side of my blog if you guys feel so inclined to help out to keep my blog running. I promise that all the money donated will go directly to my blog and for creating new goodies for you guys to see/try out! I truly love baking and will do my best to update as much as I can.

Moving on.. I was craving something quick and easy and ended up making rice crispy treats. I spruced them up by using cookie cutters to cut out some shapes. Cookie cutters are always a good idea for just about anything. Can you guess what each one is? My boyfriend guessed 3/4. Special little surprise goes to the one who guesses all of them correctly! I’ll reveal what they really are in the next post. 🙂

Day 11: Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

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So I’ve been playing external flashes as of late. The SB 600 is a little bulky for my taste, so I used my dad’s SB 400 for these pictures. It’s the perfect size for me! It’s kinda cute, too… It makes my camera look a bit like Wall-E. I don’t know why I never used external flashes before.. they make a heck of a difference in pictures!

I’m so excited because I’ll be going to the Lakers game tomorrow night all thanks to my friend, Matt! First game I’ll be going to this season. Let’s hope they learn how to step up and play better– the Christmas game was SO disappointing. I’m not gonna lie, I miss Luke Walton a little bit.

Day 11 of my twelve days of cookies: I adapted these from Natalie’s Killer Cuisine— it makes about 4 dozen cookies. These were definitely a moist and chewy cookie. The pudding does that– it keeps them moist for days. Not only that, but look at the shape of these cookies! They turned out perfect! They rose beautifully and maintained their shape. Although, I’m not gonna lie.. nothing beats my favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe (I just noticed how similar these cookies look to them!).

  • 1 cup Butter (2 sticks), softened
  • 3/4 cup Brown Sugar
  • 1/4 cup Sugar
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
  • 2 1/4 cups AP Flour
  • 1 Vanilla Pudding (3.4oz) Mix by Jello (I used the bigger mix and probably used about 3/4 of it)
  • 1 tsp Baking Soda
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1 3/4 cup Chocolate Chips

preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Cream the butter and sugars together, about three minutes. Next add the eggs and the vanilla.
2. In a separate bowl combine the flour, dry pudding mix, baking soda and salt. Add to the wet mixture and mix until combined.
3. Add the chocolate chips and combine again.
4. Scoop out tablespoon sized scoops and roll in a ball, having at least 1.5 inch space between each cookie.
5. Bake 11 minutes and remove from the oven. Let cool on the baking sheet 2 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

Day 10: Toffee Walnut (Heath Bar) Cookies

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I hope everyone had a great Christmas! So I definitely didn’t complete my goal in blogging about 12 cookies before Christmas, but I’ll finish it by the end of the month.. Promise! I got so wrapped up in baking for the holidays that I didn’t have time to take a breather and take pictures/blog. For Christmas, I ended up baking 24 dozen cookies for my family and close families to me. I know, crazy, right? I used two ovens and baked for 4 hours straight. I made all the dough the night before so I could just bake all of yesterday. There were a total of 6 different types of cookies and the result was well worth it!

Day 10 of my twelve days of cookies: Heath Bar cookies! These are hands down my boyfriend’s favorite cookie. He adores toffee and even sneaked a ton to save for himself for later. I found the recipe over at Simply Recipes and adapted it just a tiny bit with the amount of vanilla. This made just over 4 dozen cookies for me, since I made a slightly bigger cookie than normal. These cookies are some of my favorites as well, since the walnut and toffee just go hand in hand.

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups chopped Heath Bar pieces (Eight 1.4 ounce bars)
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine Heath Bar pieces and chopped walnuts. Set aside.

2 Cream butter until fluffy. Add the sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy (a couple minutes). Beat in eggs one at a time, and vanilla.

3 Alternatively mix in the Heath Bar mixture and the flour mixture, a third at a time, until well blended. Chill cookie dough for at least 30 minutes (better an hour).

4 Preheat oven to 350°F. On cookie sheets lined with parchment paper or Silpat, spoon out the cookie dough in small 1-inch diameter balls (size of a large marble). Place dough balls 3 inches away from each other on the cookie sheets. (Make sure there is plenty of room between the cookie balls, and that the cookie balls aren’t too big. These cookies spread!)

5 Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are just starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes. Then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

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PS.. I just had to share with you what my boyfriend got me for Christmas. It came in this lovely white box…and when you open it up, there’s a little black bag inside of it…
and inside the little black bag, is this beauty!:
It’s the YSL mail ring, which is the style I’ve been obsessed with as of late! I’m dying to track down a YSL mail bag and wallet. But yeah.. LOVE IT! I got him an SB600 external flash for his Nikon. How nerdy, I know. What did you guys get for Christmas? Any fun goodies?

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