Festive Chocolate Chip Sandwich Cookies

Who doesn't love the Double Doozies from Great American Cookie Company?  You know, the 2 cookies sandwiched together with a generous helping of frosting acting as the glue?  It is super easy to recreate those same cookies and give them a festive spin for whatever holiday you are celebrating!

 To make 24 of these sandwich cookies, you will need two packages of Pillsbury Ready To Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies (24 count each), 1 container of creamy white icing, red or pink food coloring, and festive sprinkles.

Bake cookies according to the package and let them cool completely.  While they are cooling, tint your icing to the preferred shade of pink or red.  Take one of the cookies and spread a healthy amount of icing (healthy amount of icing...is there such a thing?) all over the flat side of the cookie.  Take another cookie and press it against the icing to make your sandwich.  Dump your sprinkles in a bowl and then roll the edges of the cookie sandwich in the sprinkles.  

You can use different sprinkles for the various holidays.  Red and green Christmas tree sprinkles would be adorable in December.

 

Plate them up on a cute treat stand and you have a sweet dessert that is sure to please!

Showing Off

Everyone loves treats at work.  But I think they taste even yummier when you show them off.  An easy way to do this is putting your treats out on pretty melamine plates.  These are those inexpensive plastic plates that you find at Target and other box stores.  But what about taking it one step further?  Create a treat stand!

Valentine's Day Treat Stand

 

 

These stands are VERY easy to make and cost only about $4!  Plus, you can make different ones to match the various holidays.  I made this treat stand from a plate and coordinating bowl that I found at Target.  They each cost $2.  You will also need a plastic adhesive.  I use Loctite Plastics Bonding System.  It is a 2-step system that is very easy to use. 

Loctite Plastics Bonding System sold at Home Depot 

 

To make the treat stand, first clean your plate and a bowl, and remove any stickers from the back.  Following the directions on your adhesive, glue the plate and bowl together.  If you are using a traditional shaped bowl, make sure you glue the underside of the bowl to the underside of the plate.  Let the stand dry for the amount of time directed by your adhesive.  All done! 

 

 

What a pretty way to show off your tasty treats!



Recipe Fail

Have you ever found one of those recipes (or ideas) that just sounded too good to be true?  But you tried it anyway, and sure enough, it was a big disaster.  That happened to me this weekend.  I found a recipe for Buttermilk Strawberry Bundt Cake.  It sounded amazing, but from the start, it was an epic disaster.  The batter was super sweet but it didn't taste like strawberry.  After baking, it came out splotchy brown and pink instead of beautiful candy pink and tasted like a biscuit.  We won't even talk about the ganache that was supposed to be drizzled on top. 

My ugly cake disaster...the cake was supposed to match the color of the frosting!

 

Truth be told,  I have a love-hate relationship with bundt cakes.  They are hard!  They have to bake at just the right temperature, for just the right amount of time, and then you have to cool them just right.  They are next to impossible to get out of the pan and stay pretty.  They just don't like me, even though I love the look and taste of them.

In the trash can...where it deserved to be!

 

I don't know what happened, but I want everyone to know that these days happen to all bakers.  Sometimes, it just doesn't work.  Don't give up though!  The next recipe is sure to be amazing.  I'm going to get back up on the bundt cake horse and try again next week with Lemon-Lime Bundt Cake...stay tuned!

Recipe For Disaster?

I'm not sure about other 4-month old boys, but I know one who does not care to do crafts at this stage in the game.  It breaks my heart because I love crafts.  I discovered all of this during the past weekend as we tried to make Valentine's Day cards using hand and foot prints.  My little man would tolerate paint on his foot (mainly because there was nothing he could do about it).  But he wouldn't cooperate with paint on the hand.  Every time I had his hand painted and ready to go, he would make a fist and not let up.  Between his grunting, drooling, and scrunched up eyebrows, the boy practically had me rolling on the ground with laughter. 

 Enjoying making mess...before we even got started!

 

Someone did NOT like having his hand painted.

 

Heart stamp card made from paper towel tube

 

From the bottom of our hearts to the tips of our toes, we love you!

 

 We love you with all our hearts!

 Cards made from his footprint and my hand print

But at the end of the day, I won and we made some pretty cute "amateur" Valentine's Day cards.  We plan to use them as decorations in a few weekends for a Valentine's luncheon we're hosting for the family.  I hope these inspire you to get crafty with your little ones.  Even if they don't turn out cute, you will still have a lot of laughs along the way. 

A Tasty Way to Start the Week

Monday's are tough!  That's why I enjoy baking on Sunday so I have a tasty treat to start my week.  It just helps get the week rolling.

Today I tried a new recipe, Salted Caramel and Chocolate Chip cookies.  I was inspired to try this recipe after sampling similar cookies from the Vanilla Bean Bake Shoppe.  If you haven't seen this silver Airstream trailer parked across from the WISD tower, you need to find it soon and try them out!  I always stop for a cookie when I have a meeting at the administration building (because don't we all deserve a cookie after that). 

I have been hearing some buzz around the food blogs about adding cornstarch to your cookie recipes because the ingredient makes a beautiful, chewy cookie.  So, I made sure to find a recipe that called for this ingredient.  I found this great recipe from The Pink Doormat.  I must say, the hype is worth it.  The cornstarch made the cookies puff up so pretty and the texture is out of this world.  If you love chewy cookies, you need to be adding this ingredient to your cookies!

 I don't want to brag, but aren't these cookies pretty??

 My sister Mandy was in town, so she helped with the baking.  As a bonus for being such an excellent assistant, she got to take a dozen to her boyfriend's Super Bowl party (I hope she's not fooling anyone into thinking she made them herself).

Salted Caramel and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1/2 cup caramel bits
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Sea salt for sprinkling

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.
3. In a large bowl, whisk flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and 1/2 tsp. sea salt.  Gradually add these dry ingredients to your whet ingredients and mix.
4. Stir in chocolate chips and caramel bits.
5. Use tablespoon to measure out cookie dough and roll each into a ball.  Spread out 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 10 minutes.  Sprinkle with sea salt immediately upon removing them from the oven.
7. Let cookies cool completely.

Makes about 3 1/2 dozen cookies

"Treat every person like it's their birthday"

I love "Kid President" from Soul Pancake, and I think this is one of their best videos yet.  If I were still in the classroom, I think I would show it once a week to my students.  They need to be reminded everyday that they are awesome, and we need a reminder to treat "every person like it's their birthday."  Even more importantly, students need to know it's okay to mess up, but they have to still keep trying.  That is my warm fuzzy for the day.  I hope you enjoy, and share with those you know!