Lovin' From the Oven

Snickerdoodle Blondies

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Hooray! Finally, finals are over and I have time to sleep during regular hours once again. I wrote a total of 51 pages in essays last week and am so glad it’s all over. I decided to celebrate and do what I haven’t been able to do all week.. Bake! Thank goodness I had a little bit of time to bake before I leave for Lake Tahoe tomorrow morning. I’m so excited to finally take a break from everything. Does anyone have experience with baking in high altitudes? Any tried and true recipes for the high elevation? I’d love to know!

I’ve seen this recipe floating around Tastespotting and Foodgawker for quite some time now and always wanted to try it. I mean, snickerdoodles into a bar? Genius! Everyone that has tried them raved about them on their blogs, so I knew I had to try it out. The result? Well, let’s just say it didn’t tickle my fancy as much as everyone else’s. Even with the ridiculous sweet tooth that I have, I just couldn’t handle the 2 cups of sugar plus some in this recipe. It was just way too sweet for me.. I think I’ll stick to my regular snickerdoodles. You can still give these bars a shot too, maybe you’ll rave about them just like everyone else.
I adapted the recipe from the crepes of wrath:
  • 2 2/3 cups AP flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 cups brown sugar
  • 1 cup softened butter
  • 2 eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp white sugar
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • a pinch turbinado sugar
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9×13 pan. Combine flour baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and set aside.
2.) In a large bowl, beat together butter and brown sugar for 3-5 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, and beat until smooth.
3.) Stir in the flour mixture until well blended. Spread evenly in prepared pan. Combine the granulated sugar, cinnamon, and turbinado sugar in a little bowl. Evenly sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over the top of the batter.
4.) Bake 25-30 minutes or until surface springs back when gently pressed. Cool before cutting. Makes 20-24 bars.

Chocolate, Toffee, & Almond Cookies

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WOW! Where did all you people come from? Apparently a giveaway was all it took to bring you guys out of your shadows. 🙂 I’m so overwhelmed with the responses I got on my last post, thank you! It also bought me some time for posting because I’ve been so busy with finals coming up this week that I haven’t had time to update my blog as often as I normally do. I’ll probably be taking this week off as well, considering I have 4 essays to write by Wednesday. Eeeekk! Talk about a week of all nighters. Thank goodness I only have to do all of this ONE more time and then I’ll be done with school for good!

Remember, the last day for my giveaway is this Saturday by midnight! So if you haven’t left a comment there yet, I’d recommend doing it before time runs out. I’ll be posting again briefly on Sunday to announce the winner since I won’t have time to bake next week, either. :/
Now on to the cookies… I LOVED them! They were thick & chewy, sweet and salty. I was lucky enough to be contacted by Oh Nuts! a couple weeks ago to sample some of their items. I received dried blueberries, dried strawberries, and slivered almonds. Boy was I surprised to see that I got a POUND of each! I used the slivered almonds in these cookies to bake with, and they surely are addicting! Speaking of addicting, I couldn’t stop eating the dried strawberries. They tasted just like fruit leather, but seemed healthier… a perfect alternative when you need to satisfy that sweet tooth! What’s even better is that Oh Nuts! sell their items in bulk; When buying in bulk, you know that you’re saving money by stocking up on necessary items!
The only thing I would change about this recipe is that I would cut down the brown sugar to 3/4 cup instead of 1 cup the next time I make them (and I will be making them again) because I found the cookie to be a bit sweet. I would either do that, or substitute using a dark chocolate/bittersweet chocolate bar to chop up instead of milk chocolate. Besides that, the cookies were perfect.

  • 1/2 cup softened butter
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 1/4 cups AP flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/4 cups of chopped chocolate (you can use chocolate chips if you’d like)
  • 1 cup of toffee pieces
  • 1 cup almond slivers
1.) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2.) Mix dry ingredients together in a separate bowl: all purpose flour, baking soda, & salt.
3.) Cream together butter & both sugars. Add eggs & vanilla, mix well. Slowly incorporate the dry mixture into the sugar mixture.
4.) Stir in the chocolate chips, toffee pieces, & almond slivers.
5.) Drop by tablespoons onto baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes.

Chocolate Cupcakes & a Giveaway!

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When I’m in the mood for chocolate, I’m in the mood of chocolate.. lots and lots of it. A little piece from a candy bar won’t satisfy my craving. I need a mound of it, something that’s over the top chocolate-y. I was thinking of some of the most decadent chocolate treats to make for myself (chocolate mousse, pudding, flour-less chocolate cake, fudge, brownies, etc), when I just happened to turn my box of Hershey’s cocoa over. What did I find? Hershey’s “perfectly chocolate” chocolate cake with “perfectly chocolate” chocolate frosting. With a name like that, I knew I was sold. I mean, what other dessert has chocolate 4 times in the title?

I have nothing but great memories of Hershey’s. I was lucky enough to go to Hershey’s Chocolate World in Pennsylvania when I was younger with my family and see how chocolate was made. I still have a souvenir from there– a picture of my entire family on the ride that teaches you the entire chocolate making process. I remember being so appalled and in complete awe of the amount of chocolate in the factory, while wanting to take a bite out of everything. I’d definitely recommend a trip there, if you haven’t already, for all the chocolate fiends like me! :]

I followed the recipe exactly as stated, adding a bit more cocoa into both batters. The result? A perfectly chocolate chocolate cake. Moist, sweet, and chocolate-y, without a sense of empowerment from any of the flavors. Everything blended perfectly together. I dusted half the cupcakes with powdered sugar and left the other half as is. The cupcakes were so beautiful that I couldn’t help but post a million pictures of them. Enjoy!
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 3/4 cups AP flour
  • 3/4 cup HERSHEY’s cocoa
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup boiling water
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease & flour 2 9-inch round baking pans or line muffin cups with bake cups.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on med speed for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter onto prepared pans.
3. Bake 30-35 minutes if doing 9-inch round pans, 22-25 minutes for cupcakes until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans/cups to wire racks and cool completely.
  • 1/2 cup or 1 stick butter
  • 2/3 cup HERSHEY’s cocoa
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
Melt butter, stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. Makes about 2 cups of frosting.
Hooray for my 100th post on Lovin’ From the Oven! Thank you so much everyone for following along. You guys are the very reason why I’m still blogging today! To show my appreciation, I’ll be doing my very first giveaway! I’ll be giving away A Year of Cookie Cutters from Crate & Barrel!
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If you recall, I own this set myself and LOVE it! I used the cutters in my previous post to make no fail sugar cookies. I love it so much that one lucky winner will be able to get your own, BRAND NEW set! It comes with 12 different cookie cutters, one for each month. The cookie cutters are adorably packaged in its own cookie container. It doesn’t get any better than that!
All you have to do to enter in my giveaway is leave a comment, saying anything you’d like… a random comment, a question, a thought… on this post with a way for me to contact you by Saturday, March 14th, 11:59PM Pacific time. I’ll choose the winner by using random.org. Good luck!
You can find more details about this gift (or if you just want to buy it for yourself) on Crate & Barrel’s site HERE

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