Oreo Dirt Cookies

I know I mentioned this in my Banana Peanut Butter Oreo Bread, but there is no greater feeling than moving a recipe to "Completed Recipes" on Pinterest. I have seen so many recipes for Oreo cookies and I kept trying to make them, but one group always stuck out to me.

I am a huge cookie fan.One reason, is of course the small portions so I don't feel like a total cow when I finish one or two or three. Also, they don't require a ton of bowls and a ton of different steps that involve me to freeze or wait. I'm impatient! I can't be waiting for those cupcakes to cool when I know just how good that batter tasted and how good the icing I just made is! With cookies, I can just pop them in and out of the oven (in about 15 minutes) and start devouring! They are perfect for weeknight baking too.

I had some Oreos left from the banana bread, so I knew what was coming!

Oreo Dirt Cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

3 oz cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1 cup crushed Oreos

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and cream cheese using a hand mixer until they are well combined.

3. Add the sugar and vanilla and mix until ingredients are well combined. Add the flour and mix on low until incorporated. Fold in the mini chocolate chips.

4. Make the dough into 1 inch balls and roll in Oreo crumbs until it is covered. Place on baking sheet and bake 12-15 minutes or until edges are golden.

5. Cool on the pan for 2 minutes. ENJOY!! 

Cookies And Cream Oreo Fudge Brownies

I have to admit...I am totally eating one of these as I type this. I had made these before (a year or so ago) at my old job and that was the icing on the cake of being the favorite office baker. I had men asking me for the recipe so they could tell their wives. I had never had such good reviews from anything I made before!

Now, this is probably one of the easiest recipes because...wait for it...it comes from A BOX! There are a few changes to make it not just a boxed brownie but these are so good and everyone will love them!

My boyfriend, for one, is probably never breaking up with me after he knows I can make these. He has had 5 since last night. Including one for breakfast this morning which was totally like catching a kid with his hand in the cookie jar when I walked into the kitchen this morning.

The first time I made these I used birthday cake oreos. Those were incredible. This time I used double stuffed oreos. Also incredible. Therefore, use any oreo your little heart desires!

That broken oreo is so annoying in this picture! but check out those new counter tops!

Ingredients:

1 box brownie mix (plus ingredients on box)

1/4 cup hot fudge sauce

1 package Oreos

Combine brownie mix and ingredients on box in one big bowl. Stir in hot fudge mix until well combined with batter. Pour about half of the batter and and layer Oreos over top. Pour the rest of the batter and cover oreo layer completely. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean.

ENJOY :) 

Vanilla Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

See? I told you I would be better at posting! My roommate was supposed to come home from California last night, so I made cookies for her on my night off! I was trying to think of a good chocolate-less cookie that we both could enjoy, so I found a Puffy Vanilla Peanut Butter Chip Cookie from Six Sisters Stuff.. I love soft cookies. I will always buy the Chewy Chips Ahoy over the regular. I have also developed an obsession with pudding cookies. Mmmmmmm! These cookies definitely came out soft, chewy, and puffy! But, be warned, they are not kidding with the vanilla flavor! I'm not too sure if I had a heavy hand with the vanilla or if I should have been warned with the title of the cookie, but they are not shy about the vanilla taste! My roommate will be trying one today, so I will update it with her reaction, but I am a fan!

From Six Sisters Stuff

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Crisco

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tablespoon water

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup peanut butter chips

Directions:

Preheat over to 375 and grease cookie sheet. Beat together Crisco, sugars, egg, water, and vanilla until batter is creamy. Mix in cinnamon, salt, baking soda, flour and mix until just combined. Fold in chips. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Form 1 inch balls (they do not spread much at all) and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes and cool on wire rack. 

Inside out carrot cake muffins

It has been very busy at work these past few weeks. It was quarter ends, year ends, audits, financials, and everything in between. I work for a very small company, and there is one other person in my department. He was about 100 times more stressed than I was and he was sick on top of it. He made a special request for a carrot cake flavored treat. I secretly did a celebratory jump inside because I had this recipe from King Arthur Flour that I was dying to try but didn't know anyone that enjoyed carrot cake.Both my roommate and boyfriend don't like vegetables in their muffins so these were a treat solely for the office. Its a simple muffin with frosting inside (hence, the inside out name). Approval from all around so far!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. First, microwave 8 oz cream cheese and stir in 1/4 cup sugar for the filling.

Next, combine all your dry ingredients 

 Whisk together your wet ingredients, and stir them together. Note, you do not need to beat this! Just stir the wet and dry ingredients together until it is combined. Fold in your carrots. I actually coarsely chopped mine rather than shred it and it gives it a nice crunch! 

Then, pour about 1.5 tbs of the carrot cake batter into a muffin cups. Then evenly distribute the filling mixture between the 12 muffins and pour another 1 tbs of the muffin batter on top. Bake for about 20 minutes or when an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Filling

one 8oz package of cream cheese

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Muffins

2 1/4 cups of flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 large-medium carrots (shredded or chopped)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line standard 12 cup muffin pan with liners and grease

2. For the filling. Place the cream cheese in a microwavable safe bowl and heat on low for 40 seconds. Stir in the sugar and set aside.

3. For the muffins: Whisk together all the dry ingredients. 

4. Whisk together eggs water and oil in separate bowl.

5. Combine the wet and dry ingredients

6. Fold in the carrots.

7. Drop about 1-2 tbs of the muffin batter into the liners. Spread to make sure it covers the bottom. 

8. Dollop about 1/12 (1 tbsp) of the filling into the center of the liner on top of the muffin batter.

9. Drop about another tbs of the muffin batter on top.

10. Bake the muffins for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin (not filling) comes out clean.

Celebrating the roommates birthday!

It was my roommates birthday this past Sunday. I had been planning what to make her for quite some time so I was very excited when I got out of work early on Friday and had some baking time.

I baked her these birthday cake cheesecake bars from My Prairie Window. They taste just like funfetti cake batter and are absolutely incredible! Did I mention they are ridiculously easy too? Ah-mazing.

UPDATE: I should have mentioned that these are very very sweet. I have found that a lot of guys do not enjoy them as much as the females. My boyfriend hated them, for one. My coworker wasn't the biggest fan either. They should probably be eaten in more fudge sized pieces than bars.

First you just take a box of rainbow chip/funfetti cake mix and mix it with 1/2 cup of room temperature butter. Honestly, my mixture just looked like a somewhat more crumbly version of dry cake mix, so I probably should have waited a little bit longer for the butter to be room temperature-ish. Save about 1 cup of this mixture for later.

You're going to take this mixture and just press it into a greased 9x13 pan to form your crust.

Then, you are going to mix your cream cheese, rainbow chip icing, and one egg at a time together. Just pour that delicious mixture over your crust.

Pour that one cup of the dry mixture over top. Bake @ 325 for 45 minutes and let cool in the fridge for 2 hours before serving.

YUMMM.

Ingredients:1 box Party Rainbow Chip cake
1/2 cup butter – at room temp
1 container Rainbow Confetti frosting
2-  8oz. blocks of cream cheese – softened
3 eggs
Preparation:*In a bowl place the dry cake mix and the butter, mix until butter is incorporated, I use my stand mixer it works great.  Reserve 1 cup of the crumb mixture, and set aside.
* In a 9×13 pan or cookie sheet lined with foil and sprayed, place the remaining cake mix crumble in the pan and press into a crust.
* In same bowl place cream cheese and frosting and mix until smooth, then add eggs one at a time until combined.
* Pour mixture over crust, sprinkle with the reserved crumb topping.
* Bake at 325 degrees for 45 mins- the bars will be set, but still slightly jiggly, and slightly golden.  Remove from oven and let cool completely. Place in fridge for at least 2 hours then remove and cut to serve

Cookies & Cream Rice Krispie Treats

Well I previously mentioned that going to the gym was a "hobby" of mine...mostly because I am going to Miami in March, but that is besides the point. Anyway, two days this week have been GORGEOUS as far as January in New York City goes. I have pumped myself up to go for a run as I look out the window and see a beautiful 50 degree day. Two days in a row, I step out of the office and it starts raining. Now I understand that real "runners" go out in the rain and I applaud them, but probably one of the only times I went running in high school was right after a rain storm and I fell on a pile of leaves and couldn't try out for basketball.

Anyway, yesterday I got to leave work early because I had a photo shoot for the company website. Photo shoot took about 8 minutes and I got to leave to go home at 4! My options were either go to the gym, go for  a run, or go bake something for the office. Guess which won?!

I found this recipe for cookies and cream rice krispie treats  from Mallo & Co. Great blog for rice krispie treats too! I was pretty sure my new office was going to fire me if I didn't bake something so I figured these were nice and easy. Oh and DELICIOUS.

First, you crush your oreos in a nice big bowl. I always just put them in a ziploc and smash them. Good anger management therapy too.

Then you mix it with the rice krispies until they are evenly distributed.

Then, you melt some butter and one or two of those extra large Hersey's Cookies & Cream bars.

Add in your marshmallows and wit for them to melt. 

Make sure you wait until it a smooth consistency! 

Add a teaspoon of vanilla, and mix with your krispie & oreo combination. Then spread in a pan, cool for 5 minutes and add a chocolate drizzle if you desire!

Cookies and Cream Rice Krispie Treats

4 Tbsp butter
6 cups marshmallows
1 1/2 - 2 large Hershey's Cookies N' Cream candy bars (you could substitute with white chocolate chips if you must...)
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 cups rice krispies
25-30 crushed Oreos
Chocolate Drizzle (recipe below)

In a large mixing bowl combine the rice krispies and Oreos. Set aside.

Melt the butter and Hershey's chocolate in a saucepan over low heat. Once they're melted add in the marshmallows. Stir until the marshmallows are mostly all melted (this will take a few minutes--low and slow is key for perfect texture) then stir in the vanilla.

Once fully melted, take them off heat and pour over the rice krispy mixture. Stir lightly to combine. Dump the mixture into a greased 9x9 pan. Let it sit for about 5 minutes, then with greased hands go in and flatten the top. Allow them to cool for about 20 minutes, then top with the chocolate drizzle. 

Chocolate Drizzle
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 tsp oil or butter

Melt chocolate and oil in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second increments, Stirring between each one. Continue until fully melted.

Gooey Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Monday was a holiday at work for me, which is a miracle in itself. I spent the somewhat long weekend in the Poconos with a bunch of my college friends and my boyfriend which I was very much looking forward to...just about until Saturday morning when I woke up with food poisoning. What a miserable experience that was! Anyway, I spent a good portion of Saturday laying down, all of Sunday laying down, which actually left Monday for some "me" time which was greatly greatly greatly needed.

Naturally, I spent my "me" time in the kitchen since I avoided the gym in fear of dehydrating myself more than I already was. I decided to bake cookies based on a "gooey butter chocolate chip cookie" recipe I found from Buns In My Oven. I was mostly attracted to the simplicity of this recipe...also because my boyfriend has a palate of a 12 year old boy and his favorite baked good is chocolate chip cookies.

For one, the batter of this was dangerously good. As in, I could sit there with a spoon (or shovel) and eat the entire thing. After the cookies were done, they tasted a little more like a very moist, dense, cake rather than a cookie (which I know my boyfriend will hate) but I have no problem eating them all myself. It was SO simply to make, uses boxed cake mix, and simple ingredients all around!

There should be an egg in here (oops!)

First, you just combine your butter and cake mix until you get a consistency similar to the picture below.  

Then, you add your egg & vanilla and beat until combined. Next, fold in your chocolate chips! 

Then just throw it on a greased cookie sheet @ 350 degrees and you will not be disappointed! 

INGREDIENTS:
1 box butter cake mix
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:
Beat together the cream cheese and butter until well combined. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the cake mix and beat until well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Roll tablespoonfuls of dough into balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until the top is set, but the center is still gooey.
Cool on a wire rack.