Gooey Snickerdoole Bars {Secret Recipe Club}

It's the third Monday of the month.  You know what that means.  It's Secret Recipe Club reveal day.  Yeah!  I love this day!  Call me a dork but I look forward to this day all month.  It's fun.  It brings me joy.  Don't judge.

My blog assignment this month was Julie's Eats & Treats.  With a blog name like that, I knew I would have no trouble finding one (or twelve) recipes that I wanted to try!

There were so many recipes that I wanted to try, like the Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars or the  Meatball Bubble Biscuits.  Everything looked so good and it was so hard to chose.  But then I saw the Gooey Snickerdoodle Bars and knew my kids would love these!

Gooey Snickerdoodle Bars

Source: Julie's Eats & Treats

Bars

2 1/2 c  flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 c. butter, room temperature

1 1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar, slightly packed

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Cinnamon Sugar Filling

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp sugar

Glaze

1 1/4 c. powdered sugar

3 Tbsp milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Spray the bottom of a 9×13 pan with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

My kids love baking with me.  I think I love it more than they do, but either way, it's a win-win.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter for 30 seconds until light and fluffy. Mix in the sugars and continue creaming until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs and vanilla. Beat for 1-2 minutes. On a low speed slowly mix in the dry ingredients.

Spread half of the batter in the bottom of the pan. Combine the sugar and cinnamon for the cinnamon sugar and sprinkle over the batter.

Take a small spoon (I used my small scoop for this) and drop the remaining batter evenly over the cinnamon sugar.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Let cool completely, about an hour. Whisk together the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla for the glaze. Drizzle over the bars.

As the glaze soaks into the bars they transform from a cookie bar into a gooey, delicious, soft Snickerdoodle bar.  Amazing!

They are kind of a cross between a Snickerdoodle and a Cinnamon Roll.  They are a Snicker Roll... or a Cinnamon Doodle.  You decide.  But man oh man.  I can't even tell you how amazingly delicious they are. 

 

Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies with Carrot Cake M&Ms

Who knew they made Carrot Cake M&Ms.  No, that's not a question.  That's a statement.  Who knew!   I saw them over on Inside BruCrew Life and was intrigued.  I say intrigued because I wasn't totally sold on them right away.  I mean seriously.  Carrot Cake M&Ms?  If you know me at all you know about my aversion to mixing desserts and vegetables.  It's just not right in the dessert scheme of things in my book. 

Over on Cookin' Cowgirl I saw her recipe for Carrot Cake Cookies using the same M&Ms.  Again, intrigued but a little scared.  Vegetables... IN desserts!  I'm not quite sure.

So I took it slow.  You know, ease in a little.  None of this "taking the leap" stuff for me.  So I kind of revised the idea a little.  I used my all time favorite Oatmeal Cookie Recipe (found on the lid of the Quaker Oats box) and added a little to it.  So here's what I came up with.

Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies

Revised (a little) from Quaker

* 1/2 cup plus 6 Tbsp. butter, softened

* 3/4 cup packed brown sugar

* 1/2 cup sugar

* 2 eggs

* 1 tsp. vanilla

* 1 3/4 cup flour

* 1 tsp. baking soda

* 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

* 3 cups oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)

* 3/4 cup shredded carrots

* 1 bag Carrot Cake M&Ms

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars until creamy.  Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.  Add combined flour, baking soda and cinnamon; mix well.

I grated my carrots pretty small.  I didn't want giant chunks in the cookies =o)

Add oats and carrots and mix well.  Add M&Ms.

I used my medium cookie scoop to drop dough onto a Silpat (or cookie sheet lined with parchment paper).  Bake for 8 - 10 minutes.

Cool for about a minute and then transfer to a cooling rack.

They don't have a big carrot flavor, which is good in my book.  And I dont' really know what carrot cake tastes like, since I don't eat it.  I know.  Don't judge.  But these cookies were wonderful.  The Carrot Cake M&Ms are strange tasting, but good.  Strange because when I first ate one I couldn't quite figure out what it tasted like.  But again, I don't eat carrot cake, so maybe that's exactly what they taste like.  But they are fun and different, and I'm all about fun and different.  And cookies.  SO there you go.  Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies with Carrot Cake M&Ms.

=o)

 

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Funny Bunny Nutter Butter Cookie Pops

Normally when I look at Sue's blog I sit back and think "Man, why can't I do that?!"  She is amazing and so talented when it comes to baking and decorating the cutest cookies ever.  Then I saw this post and thought "holy smokes, I can do that!"  I was so excited!  I'm always looking for fun treats to make for my kids (and some of my co-workers.)  These were perfect.

Funny Bunny Nutter Butter Cookie Pops 

Source: Munchkin Munchies

* Nutter Butter Cookies

* Vanilla bark

* Popsicle sticks

* pink M&Ms

* black food marker

Melt the vanilla bark following the directions on the package.  (I cut it up into small pieces and microwave it in 30 second bursts, stirring after each one, until it's smooth.)

Open the Nutter Butter cookies and place a blob of the white chocolate on the end of a Popsicle stick.  Place it on the inside of the cookie and place the other cookie on top to close.  Let the chocolate cool.  (This keeps the stick from falling out.)

 

Holding onto the Popsicle stick, dip the cookie into the melted chocolate.  Tap off any excess.  Add a pink M&M for the nose.  You can place the sticks at this point in a styrofoam block.  I just layed them on a piece of waxed paper to harden.

 

When the chocolate is hard, use your black food marker and draw on a cute bunny mouth.  Mine aren't as cute as Sue's but my kids loved them!

 

You can add a bow with a glue dot or a small dab of melted chocolate or tie a ribbon around the stick.

Aren't the adorable?!
 

Enjoy!

 

 

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Caramel Bars {Secret Recipe Club}

Every month I get excited about getting my blog assignment from Debbi, my group's leader for the Secret Recipe Club.   I love clicking on the link and then getting immersed in a blog filled with deliciousness and then trying to narrow it down to one recipe to make. 

This month was a tough one for me.  My blog assignment was Cook with Sara.   Sara has an amazing blog with so many wonderful looking recipes.  Sara and I have a lot in common: a love for baking and eating =o), learning to cook at a young age and a Mom who showed her the joys of making a delicious meal.

But here's the problem.  Sara had too many recipes that I wanted to make!  It was so hard to narrow it down to just one.   Her Caramel Toffee Crunch Cheesecake was on the top of my list, but I knew I'd eat the entire thing by myself so I used all the will power I could muster up not to make it.  Her Greek Layer Dip is now on my to make list (and I'm okay with eating it all by myself!)

Then I saw these Caramel Bars and I knew these were going to be what I made.  I like to make something that I can put half of in the freezer for later.  (Because I seriously will eat them all.)  And I love caramel!  So these were perfect! 

Caramel Bars

Source: Cook with Sara

* 1 box of yellow cake mix (I used French vanilla because that's what I had)

* 2 eggs

* 1/3 cup oil

* 1/2 cup butter

* 1 can sweetened condensed milk

* 1 bag of caramels (about 32 caramels or 8 ounces)

* 1 cup milk chocolate chips

In a medium saucepan, melt butter, sweetened condensed milk and caramels and stir until melted and blended.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool.  I used Caramel Bits because they are my favorite =o)  Have you made cookies with these bad boys yet?

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together cake mix, eggs and oil.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Line a 9x13 inch pan with parchment paper.  I love parchment paper.  Whoever invented it really should win a prize if they haven't already.  Like a Nobel Peace Prize or something.  It brings me lots of peace =o)

Spread about 2/3 of the batter in the pan.  This was kind of tricky because I didn't think it would be nearly enough dough.  But it managed to work.

Bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.

Pour caramel sauce over cookie.  Top with remaining dough.

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool.  The recipe said to cool for about 15  minutes and then cut.  Yah, that was a giant mess.  They were sticky and hot and so didn't want me to cut them.  So I cooled them completely before I cut them.  But I have to admit, they were amazing when they were warm!!!

So I waited until they were completely cooled before I cut into them.  I LOVE THEM!  They are so good.  The caramel is amazing and gooey but not drippy gooey.  I hate making recipes and the caramel runs all over the place.  This doesn't.  It's firm but not hard.  Perfect.

Definitely a keeper!   Enjoy!

 

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Soft & Chewy Gingersnap Cookies

 

I asked my daughter what dessert she wanted to serve at her birthday party.  She isn't much of a cake fan so I knew she would want something different.  She immediately said "Gingersnap Cookies.  The kind that Gramma made."  My Mom made Snickernaps awhile back and my and I loved them.  They were the perfect combination of Snickerdoodles and Gingersnaps.  I was pretty excited that my daughter wanted them because I was pretty excited to eat them.  But then she said "not the white part, just the brown part."  Drats.  She only wanted the Gingersnap part, not the Snickerdoodle part. If you want to check out what a Snickersnap is, go to my Mom's blog, Wives with Knives, to see what they are.

But after making this recipe I was pretty excited to eat them make them for my daughter.  They were delicious!  And they were soft and chewy, just like we like them.  Excellent choice by my daughter and much better than making a cake that the kids won't eat.

Gingersnap Cookies

Source: Wives With Knives

* 3/4 cup butter, softened

* 1 cup sugar

* 1/4 cup molasses

* 1 egg

* 2 1/4 cups flour

* 2 tsp. baking soda

* 1/4 tsp. salt

* 1 tsp. cinnamon

* 1 tsp. ground ginger

* 1 tsp. cloves

* Sanding sugar or granulated sugar

Cream together butter and sugar.  Add molasses and egg and continue beating until smooth.  Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, salt and ginger and beat until combined and smooth.

Scoop into 1 inch balls and roll in sanding sugar.  We ran out so we used "regular" sugar for the last half of the batch.  That worked great too.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 9 - 11 minutes.  Cool for about 3 minutes before you remove to a cooling rack.

 

 

I ran out of the bigger, sanding sugar so I rolled some of them in granulated sugar.  They tasted great but they weren't as "sparkly" as the ones with sanding sugar.  (Those are my daughter's words.)  =o) 

 

Then I remembered my Mom had brought me back some of these big sugar crystals from one of her trips to Paris.  I wish I knew what they were called.  They are pretty cool.  I hadn't used it in a recipe yet and wasn't quite sure it would work on these cookies or not.

 

 

My daughter said it looked like they were covered in teeth.  Ha!  They do kind of look like that, don't they?

 

 

My daughter said the sugar was a little too crunchy for her on these and liked the sanding sugar, but my son loved these!  I thought they were kind of fun =o)

 

Whatever kind of sugar you decide to roll these cookies in, you will love this recipe!   They were a big hit with the girls at the party. 

 

Happy birthday to my girl!  Where did 8 years go???

 

 

 

 

She said she had a great birthday!  Good cookies, good friends, good food and beautiful nails!

 

 

 

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St. Patrick's Day Crinkle Cookies

 

I've had this recipe pinned since October.  They were titled How the Grinch Crinkled Christmas Cookies.  Loved it!   So of course, I wanted to make them, but I never got around to.  So now it's March and I thought they were a perfect St. Patty's day cookie.

 

 

St. Patrick's Day Crinkle Cookies

Source: Delicious Meliscious

* 1 box of French Vanilla Cake mix

* 2 eggs

* 6 Tbsp. butter

* green food coloring

* 1 cup powdered sugar

* 1 tsp. cornstarch

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Melt butter and set aside to cool.

In a stand mixer, mix the cake mix, cooled butter and eggs.  Add the green food coloring (make it as green as you want.)

 

 

In a separate bowl, combine the powdered sugar and cornstarch.

I used a medium scoop and plopped balls of batter into the powdered sugar mixture.  Roll them around to coat and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

 

 

Bake for about 8-10 minutes.  They will look undone but that's good.  You don't want to over cook them!  They will look slightly puffed up.

 

 

Let sit for about 1 minute and then transfer to a cooling rack.

How fun are these great cookies!  Don't they look perfect for St. Patty's Day? 

 

 

Not only are they fun and great for St. Patrick's day, they were delicious!  And so easy.  That's a pretty good combination in my book. 

 

Are you doing anything for St. Patrick's day?

 

 

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