Monster Chocolate Crackle Cookies

I saw these cookies in a Pillsbury recipe book, they seemed really easy and I have lots of Craisins on hand so I made them to take to school with me. They were really good warm, I was afraid the Craisins were going to be too tough but they really softened up and everyone liked them. Also, the dark chocolate really cut down on the sweetness, which was surprising but good.


Monster Chocolate Crackle Cookies


Active Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
INGREDIENTS

1 bar (3.5 oz) 70% cocoa dark chocolate, broken up ( I used 60%)
1 roll (16.5 oz) refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough, at room temperature
2/3 cup cherry-flavor Craisins
2 Tbsp sugar

PREPARATION

Heat oven to 350°F. You'll need a baking sheet. Melt chocolate in microwave on medium or in a saucepan over very low heat.

Break dough in chunks into a medium bowl. Add melted chocolate (no need to cool) and Craisins; stir with a wooden spoon until blended.

Put sugar in small bowl. Roll 1⁄4-cupfuls dough into balls. Roll in sugar to coat. Place 21⁄2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheet. Flatten cookies with bottom of measuring cup to 21⁄2-in. rounds.

Bake 14 to 16 minutes until tops of cookies look dry and crackled.
(Cookies will still be very soft.) Let cool on sheet on a wire rack 2 minutes before removing to rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Irish Cream Cake

Anna at Cookiemadness.net posted this recipe for St. Patty's Day, and I just got around to making it yesterday. My friends Erin and Keith, who were getting their apt ready for him to move in, were making dinner so I brought dessert. This cake is amazing and has a TON of Irish Cream flavor. It's very rich, and I suggest sticking to the original filling recipe, as I used the 1 to 1 ratio of milk to irish cream. Other than that, the only change I made was to eliminate the almonds. Oh and my oven is a little screwy, and I had to bake the cakes for 25-30 min, and the one layer still turned out sad, but that's ok because it left a nice dip for me to put more filling in the middle :)



Chocolate Irish Cream Cake

Chocolate Irish Cream Cake (from Cooksrecipes.com)
Cake:
1 (18.25-ounce) package chocolate cake mix
1 (4-ounce) package chocolate instant pudding mix
4 large eggs
1/2 cup Irish cream liqueur
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Filling:
1 1/2 cups cold milk
1/2 cup Irish cream liqueur
1 (4-ounce) package chocolate instant pudding mix
1 (5.2-ounce) package whipped topping mix - (contains 4 envelopes) (Dream Whip)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 2 9 inch round cake pans with flour-added cooking spray.

Combine all cake ingredients together in a large bowl and beat at medium mixer speed for 2 minutes. Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Do not over bake. Cool in pans 10 minutes on wire rack. Remove from pans and finish cooling on racks.

Prepare filling: Combine milk, liqueur, pudding mix and topping mix (use all
4 envelopes) in a deep narrow bottom bowl. Blend well at high speed for
4 minutes, until lightly and fluffy.

Split layers in half. Spread one cup filling between each layer and on
the top layer. Garnish with chocolate curls, if desired.

Makes 12 servings.
Cook's Note: For more of the Irish cream liqueur flavor in the filling,
decrease the amount of cold milk to 1 cup and increase the amount of
Irish cream liqueur to 1 cup.

Pics:

Crescent Lemon Honey Buns

I made these for Easter. They are from a Pillsbury recipe magazine I saw in the grocery checkout aisle. They are AMAZING.



Crescent Lemon Honey Buns

Makes 12 rolls

A perfect blend of tart lemon flavor and the
sweetness of honey and sugar!

3 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. coconut, if desired
1 Tbsp. honey
1 t. lemon juice
8 oz. can refrigerated crescent dinner rolls


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In small bowl combine cream cheese, sugar,
coconut, honey and the 1 teaspoon of lemon
juice until smooth.

Separate crescent dough into 2 large
rectangles. Overlap long sides to form 13"
x 7" rectangle; firmly press edges and per-
forations to seal. Spread with cream cheese
mixture.

Starting at longer side, roll up; press edges to
seal. Cut into 12 slices. Bake on ungreased
cookie sheet 15 to 20 minutes until golden
brown.

In small bowl, combine glaze ingredients;
spread over warm rolls.

Refrigerate any leftovers.


For the glaze I made my own: 1tbsp honey, a splash of milk, and powdered sugar til you have enough.

mmmmmm check out the pics!!

ingredients


rectangle


filling








slices




done


iced

Update

Just a quick update... I tried making Brownies from a Betty Crocker mix and substituted Bailey's Irish Cream for the 2 Tbsp of water.... bad idea!!! I baked them for the minimum amount of time, yet they turned out hard as rocks when they cooled and had a terrible texture. I definitely won't be repeating that again.

Also, I made no-bakes again last night. Same recipe as always, but this time I used a whisk to stir the sugar and cocoa together before putting in the pan because the Hershey's Dark Cocoa I have been using won't break up easily when I mix it in with the melted butter and milk. This gave me a much smoother mixture in the pan. I recommend it.

Valentine's Day

Haven't posted in awhile, mostly I've been busy back at school and only baking things from a box or that I've made many times (rice krispie treats). But, I did go all out for V-Day. Yesterday I made cut-out cookies (the pillsbury kind, leftover from X-Mas), pink funfetti cupcakes, chocolate rice krispie treats, and individual brownies. These all come with instructions so I don't have any recipes for you guys. However, the one brownie mix I made called for 2 tablespoons of water, and I realized too late that I should have substituted something fun like liquor! Oh well, maybe next time.

I was excited though because I used my new cookie cutters that I got for X-Mas, 100 of them, but I only used the V-Day ones. And I got two pink silicone mats for lining the cookie sheet with, and got to try those out as well. AND, my friend Roxanne got me heart shaped aluminum baking cups for my birthday and that is what I used for the brownies. Exciting!!!!

Tuna Pot Pie

I found this recipe in some magazine awhile ago and had been meaning to make it, since it was so simple. So I made it for my mom's first day of work at her new job. She really liked it, I think I would rather have it with turkey or chicken though.

Tuna Pot Pie

2 cans of tuna (in water)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 box of frozen mixed vegetables
1 can of large biscuits

Mix the tuna, cream of chicken soup and vegetables together. Pour into casserole dish. Tear 5 biscuits into chunks and place on top. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes, or until biscuits are very brown on top.

Snowman Cake

This is a late post, but on December 13th I made a cake in the shape of a snowman for my friend Roxanne's birthday (she love's snowmen!). I had two circular cake pans of the same size, so I just cut the one into a smaller circle. It was a French Vanilla cake mix with Pink Funfetti Frosting. I used coconut for the snow, junior mints for the coal, a stick of candy cane for the nose, and some random candy I found in the checkout isle for the scarf. I think it's supercute!!

Pink Grapefruit Cookies

Awhile ago I found this recipe online from Martha Stewart. As it is practically December, and my mom has a dinner she needs to take cookies to on Saturday, I thought this is probably a good time to use up any citrus recipes. I think the baking time is horribly off, especially when you roll something to 1/8inch thickness, so 10 minutes were all my cookies needed (after burning the first tray). Also, they are supposed to be sandwich cookies, but that halves the amount you can give out! So, I just iced them individually.


Pink Grapefruit Sandwich Cookies
Makes 15 sandwich cookies


Grated zest of 1 Ruby Red grapefruit, plus 1/4 cup freshly squeezed juice
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
3/4 cup cake flour (not self-rising)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 large egg yolks



1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. In a small bowl, combine zest with 1 tablespoon sugar; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together both flours, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and remaining sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add egg yolks, and beat until combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in reserved zest-sugar mixture. Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the juice, and beat to combine.

3. Turn out dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, and shape into a 1-inch-thick disk. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.

4. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out disk to 1/8 inch thick using a lightly floured rolling pin. Using a lightly floured 2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out rounds and place about 1 inch apart on prepared sheet. Bake, rotating sheet halfway through, until edges are golden, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack to cool 5 minutes. Transfer parchment paper and cookies to rack to cool completely.

5. Using an offset spatula, spread 1 tablespoon filling onto flat sides of half the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies, keeping flat sides down. Once filled, cookies can be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Pink Grapefruit Cream Filling

Makes enough to fill 15 sandwich cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed Ruby Red grapefruit juice

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in honey. Add juice, 1 tablespoon at a time, until filling holds together and is smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl, cover, and set aside until ready to use.

Raspberry Cobbler

I found a recipe for Blueberry Cobbler online, and coincidentally had a bag of berries in the freezer, although they were Raspberries. My mom wants to defrost the freezer so I've been trying to use up everything and yesterday I decided to make this recipe to use the Raspberries. It was so amazing, I can't even tell you. If I could open a bakery, this would sell like crazy and I would be totally rich. For real.

Here is the website I found it from:
http://thepioneerwomancooks.com/2007/08/the_great_cobbl.html

However, here is an easier list of the recipe:

1 stick butter
1 cup self rising flour
1 cup milk
1 cup of sugar
2 cups berries

Melt the butter. Measure 1 cup of sugar and pour into a mixing bowl.Measure 1 cup self-rising flour and dump into the bowl. Whisk in 1 cup of milk. Mix together well.
Next add the melted butter into the bowl. Whisk together. Now butter a baking dish…
Now pour the batter into the buttered baking dish.Now start sprinkling the 2 cups of berries over the top of the batter.Try to distribute them evenly. Now, sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar evenly over the top. Because if some sugar is good, even more sugar is better*.

Now pop the dish into the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or until golden and bubbly. You can sprinkle an additional teaspoon of sugar over the cobbler 10 minutes before it’s done.

*That single statement sums up the entire philosophy of my cooking.