Toffee Cheesecake Brownies and 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

I know brownies aren't really cookies but when I saw these over at Buns In My Oven I knew I had to make them. I mean brownies AND cheesecake? That has my name all over it! I added a little something extra to her recipe... Heath toffee bits. Because doesn't everything taste better with Heath toffee bits!?!?!

And what better thing to make for week 5 of 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies? Yep, you read that right. Week 5!!! That means Christmas is in 7 weeks! That can't be right. Holy cow!

Ingredients:

• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces (I used salted)
• 4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk
• 5 tbsp sugar
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
• Heath Toffee Bits
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9×9 pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. I used my fantastic perfect brownie pan. Have you heard of it? It's awesome. It makes the perfect brownie. I guess that's where they got the name =o)

Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler (or use the microwave like I did, but be careful not to burn the chocolate) stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and beat in the 2/3 cup sugar and 2 eggs. The recipe says to sift in the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Ummmm... sift? What is this word sift? =o) Stir in the vanilla and chocolate chips. Spread in the prepared pan.

In your mixer, beat together the cream cheese, egg yolk, 5 tbsp of sugar, and vanilla extract until smooth. Here's where you add the good part - Heath toffee bits. I added the entire bag because I love these little morsels of deliciousness!

Drop large spoonfuls of the cream cheese mixture over the brownie batter. Use a knife to swirl the cheesecake through the brownie mixture.

(Hey, I never said I was a professional brownie swirler.)

Bake for 35 minutes or until the batter in the center of the pan is just set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Lift out the brownies using the foil and cut into squares. (Or if you have the perfect brownie pan, boom, they are already cut into perfect squares!

They are quite tasty! Super moist and the toffee adds a ton of flavor!

Now sit back and enjoy! And don't forget to check all the wonderful recipes in this weeks blog hop put on by Abby Sweets. What? You missed the previous weeks? Don't fret! You can check them out here, here and here. (I know that's just three. I was a week late in joining. )

And come check out the other great linky parties on my sidebar!

Severed Finger Pens

We started putting all of the Halloween craft supplies away last weekend. But before we did we had to make one last project. I saw this over at the Family Fun site. I don't know why I don't go there whenever I am looking for a craft to do. They have such great ideas!

Materials needed:

* It says to use modeling clay but have you ever tried to use modeling clay? It's rock solid. There was no way we could form that stuff so we bought soft clay that you have to bake. Much softer and easier to use!

* Disposable ink pen

* Fake fingernails

* Fingernail polish and decals (or whatever you want to use to decorate the fingernail)

* Glue gun

We wrapped the ink pen with the clay. It doesn't have to be perfect, it's supposed to look like a finger. (Ours aren't great fingers but I'm not an artist. Nor a finger maker by trade. So we just went with this.)

Don't forget to put the creases in the knuckles!

Take one of the fake fingernails and place it in the end where you want to put it. Push it down just a little so it makes a mark where it'll go.

Preheat the over to 275 degrees (or whatever temperature the clay says.)

Bake for 15 minutes. Let cool.

While the "fingers" are cooking, prep your nails. You can buy really cool Halloween fingernails at most stores. But I bought these at the Dollar Store (for $1!) We painted them with fingernail polish and then added Halloween decals that my daughter had.

After the polish has dried, glue them to the ends of the fingers.

My son wanted his to have blood on the end so he painted his with some red acrylic paint. He thought that looked cool.

How fun would these be in a gift bag? They were pretty cheap to make. And the kids love using them!

Enjoy and Happy Halloween! Be safe out there with all the trick-or-treaters!

And come check out the amazing linky parties on my sidebar!

Milk Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies

One of my all time favorite cookies is shortbread cookies. I love the buttery deliciousness of them and could eat way too many of them. But top them with milk chocolate and I'm in trouble. So when my kids and I found this awesome Wilton pan at my favorite store (that would be The Decorette Shop) I knew I had to have it.

So we searched for a yummy Butter Shortbread recipe and found this one on All Recipes.Com. (Great site!)

Ingredients
* 2 cups butter
* 1 cup sugar
* 2 tsp. vanilla
* 4 cups flour

Mix all of the ingredients in a mixer. (How easy is that?!)

You can roll it out and cup shapes with cookie cutters but that's a ton of work. (And half the joy of this pan!)

Squish the dough in the pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.

Remove from oven and let sit in the pan for about 5 minutes. Then remove to a cooling rack.

Now comes the fun part! Decorate with whatever you have. I melted milk chocolate Guittard Apeels (again from my favorite store). These are so deliciously wonderful and melt great! You can dip the cookies. We also used a pumpkin pan that we had.


You can squeeze out frosting (my kids liked this part.)


This is how my daughter wanted me to decorate the candy corn cookies.


Delicious! And yes, I ate way too many of them. Thank goodness they freeze well or else i would have eaten them all!


RIP weight! This Halloween I'm eating cookies!

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Chocolate Mint Brownie Cookies & 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

Are you tired of cookies yet? Nah. Me neither. Who gets tired of cookies? I mean, really!

My son and I were on a search last weekend for a particular cookie that he wanted me to make. (That post will come later.) When we were googling we came across this recipe. It sounded so yummy we had to make it. See how I wrote had? Like it was a calling or something. But it kind of was. They were (I mean are) fantastic! =o)

Ingredients:
Brownie/Cookie layer
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Middle Layer
Mint chips, melted (we love these!)


Frosting
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

* Cream butter and sugar together for about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and mix together. Add milk.
* Add flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda and mix well.

I used my Pampered Chef small scoop and placed them on an ungreased cookie sheet (or silpat. Because doesn't the silpat rock?!?!)


*Bake in a 350 degree oven for 9-11 minutes, until firm.

* Cook on a wire rack.

After they are cool, melt the mint chips and dip the tops of the cookies in the mint. We used white but it would be fun with any color. Green for Christmas!


* While the mint is hardening make the frosting.
Cream butter. Add cocoa and powdered sugar and vanilla. Add milk a dash at a time until it is the consistency you want.)

* Frost the cookies when the mint is hard.

They look pretty good, don't they?




Now on to the blog hop! It's week 4 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies over on Abby Sweets. Come check everyone out and see all the amazing creations!

And don't forget to check out all the other great linky parties on my sidebar!

A Little Halloween Bling

I've seen a lot of pumpkin variations out there in blog land. There are duct tape ones (which were pretty cool by the way) and glitter ones and painted and jeweled ones. I'm kind of the traditional orange pumpkin kind of gal. I like the carved basic pumpkin pumpkins. So I didn't really pay too much attention to all the other "styles". Then I remembered it wasn't just me =o) and quickly ran to Michaels so my kids could do a little something different this Halloween. I wasn't sure what they would think of this but I figured it's glittery and sparkly and my daughter is usually all about that.

I bought the basic white fake pumpkins at Michaels. They were 50% off which was a big bonus. Then I headed to the Dollar Store and bought some glitter. Sure, they had glitter at Michaels but it wasn't $1.

I wasn't quite sure how we were going to do this but when in doubt... mod podge, right? So my kids started covering their pumpkins in mod podge.

Then came the glitter. I do have to be honest with you and tell you that this was about the messiest project EVER! But we worked out in the garage so I didn't care too much. When in doubt, go in the garage. That's what it's for, right? =o)

My kids loved it!

When it was dry I sprayed them with a finishing spray. I didn't want the glitter to fall off and go everywhere and I want to keep these so we can use them next year. What do you think? Sure, I still love the traditional orange pumpkins but these look pretty cool too.

My daughter covered hers in pink and white sparkles. Then decided to throw in a little gold on one side. She said she was being creative.

And this smile made it all worth it! (We were cleaning out old Halloween costumes in the garage. I guess she liked the Batman cape!)

Happy Halloween!

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Candy Corn Kisses & Cookies!

There are a billion reasons why I love Halloween! Dressing up in costumes, watching all the little kids get excited, all of the decorations and festivities going on and the plethora of Halloween candy out there. I love Halloween candy! Okay, I love candy in general, but Halloween candy?! It calls my name. The miniature candy bars are awesome. Best invention ever. I can eat them and not feel like I'm eating a big, giant candy bar. For some reason my mind (and my thighs) justify it because they are tiny.

Another thing I love about Halloween is candy corn! LOVE IT! It looks so darn festive and Halloweeny. So when I saw these at Target I had to buy them. Yes, had. I was compelled. How cool are they?!?!

My daughter loved them. She was having so much fun unwrapping them for the cookies and looked so blissful, I had a hard time getting mad at her when she popped every fourth one in her mouth. She looks so stinkin' happy just touching them, doesn't she???

She did a great job helping. And don't they look festive?

I know there are lots of recipes out there for the peanut butter kiss cookies but my kids aren't real keen on peanut butter cookies. So I wanted a "plain" recipe. Who knew there was an entire Hershey's website with recipes on it! My new favorite site that I will be surfing at all hours of the night. So we made one of the recipes off the site and it was delicious!

Ingredients:
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 tsp. vanilla
* 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
* 1/4 tsp. baking soda
* 1/8 tsp. salt
* Hershey kisses

Directions
* Beat butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
* Stir together flour, baking soda and salt.
* Slowly add to butter mixture.
* Refrigerate dough until fim enough to handle.
* Roll into one inch balls.
* Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
* Remove from oven and immediately place a Hersheys kiss in the center of each cookie.

Let the kisses firm up again (they will melt from the heat of the cookies.

We drizzled ours with white chocolate (because that just sounded good) =o)

Now enjoy! Oh yeah - and Happy Halloween! It's almost here!!!

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