Baking: College Edition. Brownie Cookie Sandwich

Learning names can be SO HARD when you're meeting a million people.  Luckily, you're never too old to play games.  Even as a junior in college, two of my teachers have already had us play games to learn everyone's name in the classes.

Game number one:  Each student has to think of an adjective that describes them and starts with the first letter of their first name.  Then everyone says their name and adjective out loud (Kind Katie) and the names and adjectives of all of the people who went before them.  Pretty effective.

Game number two: Everyone gets a miniature dry erase board and marker.  They have to write their name at the top and then below draw something that everyone can remember them by.  Then everyone holds up their board to the class and describes what they drew.  My drawing sucked but I tried to draw my blog.  Also effective.

My first week of classes has been consumed by learning names and way too many syllabus' (syllabi?).  I haven't been able to sleep very well so if anyone has any tips on sleeping they'd be greatly appreciated!!

I also had my first baking experience at school!  I prepared everything in the room (everything but the actual baking part).  My roomies weren't really phased by that because they already know about my blog, but when I went down to the commons area to put the cookies in the oven, it got a lil' awkward.  The kitchen was packed with people hanging out so they were all grilling me about what I was doing.  But I kept on bakin' on and made these yummmyy cookie sandwiches with packaged frosting and a box mix. (My roommate brought them for me because she knew I had a blog :)) 

What do you guys think about box mixes and packaged frosting?

I hate them both.  Buuuttt... they're cheap and easy.  And I'm a college student now, ya know.  Let's be cliche here and go with it.  

These were so good.  They reminded me of oatmeal cream pies.  The texture was exactly the same... that soft and chewy cookie with the whipped, creamy filling, but the flavor was even better than oatmeal cream pies!  They're really decadent, but so worth it and so cheap.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but I highly recommend these, processed chemicals and all. 

What do you do when you can't sleep

Do you use boxed mixes?

Brownie Cookie Sandwiches

Straight from Duncan Hines

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg Duncan Hines® Chewy Fudge Premium Brownie Mix
• 1 large egg
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 can Duncan Hines® Creamy Home-Style Classic Vanilla Frosting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 ºF. Grease cookie sheet.
2. Combine brownie mix, egg, water and oil in large bowl. Stir until well blended and soft dough forms. Drop by level measuring tablespoons about 2 inches apart onto greased cookie sheet.
3. Bake at 375 ºF for 7 to 8 minutes or until cookies are set in center. Do not over bake. Cool for 1 minute before removing to cooling rack. Cool completely before assembling.
4. Spread frosting on half the cookies. Top each frosted cookie with another cookie. Gently press together.

Red Velvet Cupcakes- Made with love for Mikey and Jenni

I just want to say, for the umpteenth time, how proud I am to be a part of the blog world.


I don't know if you've read Jennie's post yet, but it brought tears to my eyes.  Go to her page to read what she wrote, because there's no way I can recreate her heartfelt words.


TasteSpotting has dedicated a whole page to Jenni and Mikey. There are posts all over foodgawker dedicated to them.  Food blogs are posting peanut butter posts dedicated to them.  Last but not least, the words of love, encouragement, support, and prayers are overwhelming on her blog.  It's so reassuring to know how people come together to help someone in their time of need.


Jenni, I know these aren't peanut butter, but they're for you.  And for Mikey.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Carrot Top Mom

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups flour (I use all-purpose)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk with 2 teaspoons lemon juice)
• 1 teaspoon red food coloring
• 4 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
• Frosting

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in Greek yogurt, milk, food coloring and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not overbeat. Spoon batter into 24 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full.
3. Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Gently remove from oven (these are super-moist, and will collapse if you aren’t careful). Cool in pans on wire rack at least 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely.
4. Frost the cupcakes generously, and serve at room temperature!

Yellow Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Hello, guys!

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!  Mine was spent with Kellen, friends, food, and fireworks!  Can't get much better than that. :)

Okay, so I of course wanted to make a festive dessert, and I did, but I just couldn't decide what I wanted to make.

I ended up deciding on cupcakes and I was completely pumped about it and ready.  The recipe looked great and the whole time I was thinking "this had better be the best cupcake I've ever made" because they're pretty labor intensive.

Nope.  I overbaked the first batch and the frosting wasn't so great (If you make these, I recommend turning the temperature down to 350).  But hey, they were still red white and blue!

Anyway, I'm still on the hunt for the best cupcake recipe ever.  What is yours?? And what did you all do for the 4th?
Also, I always mess up cream cheese frosting!  It gets all elastic.  What can I do to fix that?


Yellow Cupcakes
Click here for recipe!

 To make egg whites, it's best to have a cold mixing bowl and room temperature whites!

Overbaked. :(

White Chocolate Frosting Blondies (Frosting in the batter!)

I used to do this thing where I ate when I was sad or upset.  A lot.  I didn't know why I did it, but I did.  Baking became a hassle for a while because I knew that every time I did it, I would eat way too much of what I was making, but for the love of you all, I did it anyway.

After trying and trying to just flat out stop stress eating, I sat down and tried to figure out why I did it instead.  I came to the conclusion that either:

a) I did it one time when I was upset and it made me feel better, so after that I just turned to food every time I was stressed out.

or

b)  When I'm eating and eating and eating, I don't think about anything, I just taste the sweet (because it was mostly sweets) in my mouth and all I know is that it's making me feel good.

Once I found the root of my problem, I was able to fix it.  Considering that there are many other things to relieve stress, I made a list of alternatives and haven't done it binged since then.

Here's my list:

1.  Start a craft of some sort.  Lay everything out and just start it.  Once you get into it, the project will most likely consume you.
2.  Call one of your friends you haven't talked to for a while.  Talking to a friend will immediately release stress and hopefully by the time you get off the phone, the feelings will have passed.
3.  Drink a glass of water and go for a walk.  The water will fill your stomach and the walk will clear your head.
4.  Watch TV or read a good book.
5.  Write!  Anything... make a list of things you're grateful for, or things you love about yourself.  Or just write whatever comes out.
6.  Set a budget and go shopping.  It doesn't have to be big... makeup, jewelry, clothes, whatever. Just go... but don't let it turn into retail therapy. ;)
7.  Do yoga.  I've found that yoga is really good at clearing your head.
8.  Make a hair or nail appointment.
9.  Make a list of how you're feeling and then another list of how to fix that without doing something you'll feel bad about later.
10. Paint your nails.
11.  Clean the house. Wash the dishes by hand.
12.  Go for a drive and listen to your music.
13.  Color.
14.  Donate clothes to someplace or someone.
15.  Just get dressed up.  I find that when I put myself together I already start to feel better.
16.  Go the library.  I love going to the library!
17.  Take a long bath.
18.  Take some online quizzes or play some online games or just do stuff online.

You might feel unproductive doing some of these things, but just let yourself enjoy them and remember that any of these things are better than stress eating (or anything else you do because of stress).

And, since some of you are probably here for a recipe, I've got one for you!  Remember those White Chocolate Frosting Cookies I made with the frosting in the dough?  Well, I've turned them into blondies! They're suppperr good.  When they first came out of the oven last night, I was kind of worried because they weren't very dense.  They tasted good, but more like cake.  But when I woke up this morning, they had become dense and blondie-like.  And they're delicious, so make them! :)

White Chocolate Frosting Blondies
Serves 30ish (depending on how big you like your pieces ;) )

Ingredients

• 
  
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 16 tablespoons (2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 cups frosting, room temp.
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Lightly butter an 9x13 inch square baking pan.
Using an electric mixer, beat together the brown sugar and eggs until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add the vanilla, butter, and 1/2 cup frosting and beat to mix well.
In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt and add to the butter mixture, beating until just incorporated. Do not overmix.
Using a spoon, stir in the white chocolate.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
Drop the remaining 1/4 cup over batter and spread into top of batter with a spatula.
Bake the blondies for 40-45 minutes, until the top is dry and golden and a knife inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached (not wet, but not perfectly dry).
Remove the pan from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Cut the blondies.
The blondies can be stored, well wrapped, at room temperature for up to 3 days (they get better as they sit).

I like to make these even worse for you and drizzle white chocolate on top. ;)

White Chocolate Frosting Cookies (Cookies made with frosting)

Do you have foods that if you keep them in the house, you can't stop eating them?

I do.

Mine are peanut butter, white chocolate, ice cream, and frosting.  And if they're in my house, they'll most likely be gone in a week.

Which is why I made these cookies.  Jessica's white chocolate frosting was obviously a hazard and I had to get rid of it quickly.  And not by eating it.

Which is why I made these.

...and after all that work of getting rid of the addictive frosting, I created an even more addicting cookie.

What foods do you find addictive if left in your house?

**

White Chocolate Frosting Cookies
adapted from: The Caramel Cookie

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup vanilla frosting (or white chocolate frosting)
1 egg1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup white chocolate, melted
*Optional: 1/2 cup sprinkles

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350. Grease a cookie sheet or line with a silpat.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking soda.
3. In a seperate bowl, mix the frosting, egg, vanilla, and sugar on medium speed for 2 minutes.
4. Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir until well combined. Once combined, slowly drizzle in melted chocolate while mixing.  
5. Then, add your sprinkles and incorporate, but don't over-mix. **Also, it's optional to roll in powdered sugar like shown above, but I don't recommend it.  I did it to a few and I didn't like the final result.
6. Drop cookies by large tablespoon fulls onto prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until edges of cookies are lightly browned.

Vanilla Cupcakes for ONE!

Sometimes, I just can't handle more than two cupcakes.

Am I being for reeealll???  Yes, I'm being for real.

I just can't do it.  Especially since Easter was yesterday and Easter means Easter Bunny.  Easter bunny means:

That's not even the half of it, or the third of it... I would even venture to say that that's not even the 1/16th of it.  Candy overload.  I act like this is a problem, though.

As much as I enjoy it, I was still thankful to find Jessica's one bowl vanilla cupcakes for two.  I may or may not have turned them into one bowl vanilla cupcakes for one.  But, I healthified it, so that's fine, right?  Just like it's fine to make up words...

How was your Easter?!  Did the Easter Bunny bring you anything?  I'm pretty sure I'll be receiving an Easter basket until I have children.

One Bowl Vanilla Cupcakes for... One

Adapted from How Sweet Eats

serves 1

Ingredients

1 egg white
2 tablespoons Splenda (or sweetener of choice)
2 tablespoons pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla (yes, a full teaspoon – they are super vanilla-y!)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 heaping teaspoon of baking powder
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons (almond) milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with 2 liners.

In a bowl, add egg white and Splenda and whisk until combined. Add in vanilla and pumpkin and stir until mixed. Add flour, baking powder and salt and stir until smooth. Stir in milk. Divide batter equally between the 2 cupcake liners.

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, or until cake is set. Let cool completely, then frost as desired. 

Frosting:  I used a mixture of one tablespoon Mascarpone cheese, one tablespoon powdered sugar, and 2 teaspoons cocoa powder for one and the other I did the same thing, only I added 2 teaspoons of peanut butter instead of cocoa powder.