With Sprinkles on Top

I love malted milk balls and I thought they would be awesome in a cookie. Turns out, so did other people, as a quick search on recipezaar.com turned up this recipe. I was disappointed, however, that the dough wasn’t chocolate, which I thought was the obvious choice. So I came up with a chocolate version which is posted below. These cookies achieve that perfect crunchy-crumbly texture and are extra chocolate-y. Next time, I might leave out the milk balls altogether- when they are baked, they deflate and become little hard nuggets in the cookie, which, although the taste is that of delicious milk balls, the texture is kind of a distraction in the context of the cookie.

Chocolate Malt Cookies
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1 c. butter, softened

3/4 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 c. flour

1/4 c. cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Special Dark)

3 Tbsp. malted milk powder (I used Carnation’s)

2 c. chopped malted milk balls

Directions

• Preheat oven to 325 ^oF.
• Cream the butter and the sugars. Add the egg, salt and baking soda and beat until well combined. Stir in dry ingredients until just incorporated. Fold in candy. Dough should be stiff.
• Drop by generous rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets with ~3 inches of space in between. Bake 15-16 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheets until set before transferring to cooling racks.

I found this recipe years ago in a magazine and they were called “Fun Marshmallow Bars” — but really, I like to call them: The-Perfect-Way-to-Use-Up-Your-Leftover-Easter-Candy Bars.

Yield: About 24 brownies

Fun Marshmallow Bars

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Throw everything except the kitchen sink on these brownies!

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 package Devil’s Food cake mix
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 large egg
• 3 cups mini marshmallows
• 1 cup M&Ms (or any other type of candy you’d like to use)
• 1/2 cup peanuts

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375F.

2. Combine cake mix, water, melted butter, and egg. The batter will be THICK. Press into a greased 9×13 pan.

3. Bake for 20-22 minutes.

2. Remove from oven and sprinkle with marshmallows, candy, and peanuts. Bake 2-3 minutes or until marshmallows begin to melt. Cool on a wire rack.

Notes

Your yield will depend on how big or small you cut your bars.

So, the inspiration for this recipe is from this one from Woman’s Day. This recipe was supposed to have pistachios in place of almonds, but it seems that the Salmonella scare has eliminated all the pistachios in the Chicagoland area. Nevertheless, we press on, nobly tricking my coworkers into thinking these are pistachios using chopped slivered almonds and a bit of green food color. Actually, it didn’t work. Don’t get me wrong- they taste great but are definitely almond-y. Also, in hindsight, I probably would have substituted in chopped maraschino cherries for the dried ones as the freezing process turned them into little sticky pebbles when it came time to slice and bake. On the whole, pinwheel cookies aren’t nearly as hard to make as they look, so don’t be shy!

Chocolate, Cherry & Almond Pinwheels
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3/4 c. butter, softened.

1 c. sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 1/2 c. flour

1 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, melted

1 tsp. almond extract

red and green food color

1/4 c. dried cherries, chopped

1/2 c. slivered almonds, chopped

Directions:

• Cream together first 5 ingredients. Add in flour til dough just forms.
• Divide dough into 3 portions. Stir chocolate into one third, cherries and red food color to desired shade into another third, and almond extract, almonds and green color to desired shade into remaining third. If dough is too sticky to handle easily, add flour until it becomes more manageable.
• Roll out each third between 2 sheets of wax paper into a rectangle ~ 1/4″ thick. Peel off top paper from 2 layers and gently sandwich them together, overlapping as much as possible. Repeat with last layer. Remove top sheet again and trim edges to a rectangle. Gently, roll dough from short end of rectangle into a cylinder, wrap in wax paper and freeze until firm (~1 hour). Rotate position in freezer every so often to avoid getting a ‘flat’ side on the dough roll.
• Preheat oven to 350 ^oF. Unroll dough and slice 1/4″ thick pieces off log with a knife. Coax slices into uniformly thick disks if necessary. Place onto ungreased baking sheet and bake for 11 – 14 minutes. Let rest on pan til firm and then transfer to cooling rack.

I LOVE anything having to do with a) lemons b) sour cream and c) poppy seeds. So I nearly burst with happiness when I found this recipe in my stash. I forgot to write down the source, so forgive me!

Lemon Sour Cream Muffins
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1 box golden pound cake mix
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
2 teaspoons lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Mix ingredients and fill muffin cups 1/2 full.
3. Bake 30 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Cool on wire rack and spread lemon glaze over the muffins.

Lemon Glaze
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
2-3 teaspoons lemon juice (I found that I needed closer to 4 or 5 teaspoons)

Mix ingredients until smooth. Use a pastry bag to pipe onto muffins. You can also fill a ziploc bag with the glaze and snip the corner of the bag — a do-it-yourself pastry bag!

First of all, happy birthday to my mom! She turns fiftysomething today! She’s here in Chicago this weekend visiting me. Carrot cake is one of her favorite desserts, so I decided to make carrot cake cupcakes for her. Yummy:

Actually, carrots are the only vegetable that I absolutely despise. So therefore, I’m not really a fan of carrot cake. But according to my mom, these things ROCK. The recipe is from Martha Stewart:

Carrot Cake Cupcakes
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1-1/2 cups flour, spooned and leveled
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tablespoons plain, low-fat yogurt
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups grated carrots
**Do not use the store-bought shredded carrots — they will not be moist enough. Buy whole carrots and use a food processor to chop them.

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg; set aside.
3. In another large bowl, whisk together melted butter, brown sugar, egg, yogurt, and vanilla. Stir in carrots. Gradually add dry ingredients to the butter mixture until well combined. Divide among lined muffin tin.
4. Bake 25-30 minutes, rotating pan halfway through the baking time. Remove and cool on a wire rack. Makes 12 cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 package (8oz) cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Cream the butter and cream cheese using an electric mixer.
2. Gradually add confectioner’s sugar until smooth and well-mixed; beat in vanilla.

And here’s one more photo. Just because. Oh, and I got the carrot-shaped sugars at Delicious Creations in Hickory Hills, IL.