Baking for a Cure!

Next week I’ll be participating in Bake for Hope.  I found out about this event at Cupcake Camp, at Jen from Beantown Baker’s  booth. 

Per the website, Bloggers Bake for Hope is a virtual bake sale. Bloggers will donate their time, ingredients, and shipping costs so there are no expenses associated with this virtual bake sale. All proceeds from the bake sale will be sent to the Massachusetts Komen for the Cure. The virtual bake sale will take place on May 4-6, 2011.  Buyers will make virtual pledges on the Bloggers Bake for Hope site, and at the close of the bake sale the highest bidders will be awarded the donated baked goods. They will make their donations via PayPal, and the bakers will then bake and ship their goods. Because the bakers are donating their ingredients, time, and shipping costs, there are no expenses associated with the virtual bake sale. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Massachusetts Komen for the Cure.  

I’m going to be making my M&M Cookies with Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chips  for this event.  You can view these and all the other items available for auction here.  I hope that on May 4^th you’ll head over to the site and bid on some baked goods (there are some awesome looking treats on there)!!

M&M cookies with Chocolate and Peanut Butter chips

On a spring-like day a few weeks ago I picked up this HUGE bag of 'Bunny Mix' M&M’s at the store.

One of my favorite cookies is an M&M chocolate chip cookie, adapted from this recipe on the M&M’s website.  At Cupcake Camp, I spoke briefly with Jen at Beantown Baker about Bloggers Bake for Hope and decided to participate.  I was trying to think of baked goods that would be fairly simple to ship, so decided to contribute 2 dozen of these cookies.  And for something different, I added some Reese’s peanut butter chips this time.

I love these cookies because they’re easy to make and freeze really well.  Plus, M&M’s always has different holiday colors out for Christmas, Halloween, Spring, 4^th of July, etc so it’s easy to make these festive for different occasions!

First I creamed 1c softened butter with ½c each of white and light brown sugars.

Then added 1 egg and 2 ½ tsp vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, whisk together 2c flour, ½ tsp baking soda and 1/8 tsp salt.  Slowly add the dry ingredients into the butter/sugar mixture.

ooohhhh when two become one....

Then add the good stuff!  For these, I added 2c M&M’s, 3/4c chocolate chips and 3/4c peanut butter chips.





Use a tablespoon to drop onto cookie sheets and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are lightly browned at the edges. 

Cool on wire racks and enjoy!

Bidding starts May 4th and goes through May6th - be sure to check out the Bloggers Bake for Hope site to check out some of the other delicious treats that will be up for sale!

M&M cookies with Chocolate and Peanut Butter chips

(makes approx 36 cookies - if you don't eat 4 cookie's worth of dough like I do!)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 large egg

2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 cups milk chocolate M&M’s

¾ cup chocolate chips

¾ cup peanut butter chips

·         Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl cream butter and sugars; beat in egg and vanilla.

·         In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt; slowly add into creamed mixture.

·         Stir in M&M’S®, chocolate chips and peanut butter chips.

·         If the dough is very soft, put in refrigerator for 10-15 minutes to chill slightly

·         Drop tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

·         Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned

Cinnamon Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

It was rainy and dreary last Monday and I was craving some comfort sweets - and I had a big can of oats in my cupboard, along with a few  random bags of leftover chocolate chips.  So I decided to make some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, which have always been a favorite of mine.

I adapted this recipe from my favorite cookbook - the classic Joy of Cooking.

The recipe is below, but the ingredients are pretty basic.  First I preheated the oven to 350.  In a small bowl, I whisked together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

In a large bowl I creamed butter and sugar then added 2 eggs and vanilla.

I liked this speckled egg!

Once the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla were combined, I slowly added in the dry ingredients, then stirred in the oats and chocolate chips.  I had both mini and regular size chocolate chips in my cupboard, so I used those.



Oats, Oats, lots of Oats...

Roll them into 1-inch balls on a baking sheet... then, bake for ~13 minutes , pour a glass of cold milk and enjoy!  This recipe makes a lot of cookies, but one of my favorite things about these cookies is how well they freeze, so that when I'm craving one it's easy to take one out to satisfy my sweet tooth!

Cinnamon Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
makes approximately 36 cookies

Ingredients:
1 3/4 c all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1tsp ground cinnamon
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/4 c sugar
1 1/2 c brown sugar
2 large eggs
3 tsp vanilla
4 c oats
1 1/2 c chocolate chips

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and white sugar.  Once blended, beat in the brown sugar, then add the eggs, one at a time, and vanilla.

Slowly add the flour mixture.  Once combined, stir in the oats and chocolate chips.  Put the dough in the fridge for ~10 minutes to firm up (which makes it easier to roll the dough).

Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. 

Bake at 350 for ~13 minutes.

Make like this guy and EAT!

So there are a lot of random things that are fairly common foods to make that I have never even attempted to bake/cook.  I decided to record them on here – my goal is to attempt all of these before my (gulp) 26th birthday, which is in early September – so approximately 6 months.  Hopefully having them here for all the world to see will give me extra incentive to actually try all these and not just resort to my tried & true recipes!

Without further ado, here are my top Foods To Make Before I Enter My Late-Mid Twenties.

The Baked Goods (aka the majority of this list)

·         Fudge - I know, the simplest thing ever – or so I’ve heard

·         Pillow Cookies - essentially a brownie stuffed into a cookie.  I’ll have to save this for a diet-busting day

·         S’mores Cupcakes – I love s’mores. I love cupcakes. These should make me ecstatic (which means “like, really really happy” as Deena from Jersey Shore taught us last night)

·         Popovers – I’ve tried Jordan’s popovers in Bar Harbor.  I don’t expect mine to be nearly this good.

·         Layer Cake – I’ve never made one of these from scratch.  I tend to stick to smaller, more manageable treats.

·         Bread – I’d like to try honey wheat, but any (non-dessert) bread will do!

·         Soft Pretzels – from SCRATCH (sorry Crate & Barrel, I loved your kit but it’s time for me to put on my big girl pants and venture into the great world of pretzel-making on my own!)

·         Angel Food Cake – one of my favorite desserts when I was younger; I’ve always used the store-bought variety (I know, boo! hiss!)

·         Shortbread – I LOVE shortbread, but have never attempted it.  I once tried butter cookies and they were nothing short of a DISASTER; I think it scared me off all similar recipes.

·         Cappuccino Cupcakes – a special request from my boyfriend, who is a weirdo and doesn’t like sweets, and usually just humors me by having a bite or two of my baked goods. 

·         Cake Pops – I love Bakerella’s website; and love looking at all the images of these cute pops.  But I’ve always been too afraid/lazy to make them.

·         Whoopie Pies - normal sized ones this time. 

The “Real Food”

·         Beef Stew – nice n’ hearty; I better make this before the weather warms up!

·         Roast Chicken – yup.

·         Soup – any soup. I’ve only ever used the canned variety.  I’d like to conquer this; or at least attempt it.

·         Macaroni and Cheese – the possibilities are endless.. truffle oil, bacon, spinach, oh my!

Obviously I’ll record my successes (and failures!) here.  Godspeed to me!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've had a few bags of Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet chips sitting in my cupboard for awhile now and decided to make some simple chocolate chip cookies.  I love baking cupcakes and 'fancier' treats, but sometimes nothing beats some old-fashioned cookies (or the raw cookie dough!!). 

I've been trying to find a good recipe for awhile.  My mom makes the best chocolate chip cookies, but she knows her recipe by heart at this point.  I tried the recipe in Martha Stewart Cookies, but they came out greasy - I'm sure that was my fault, not Martha's.  So this time I tried the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip back - it can be found here.  And they came out great!

I only baked mine for about 7-8 minutes, and they came out just right.  That may have just been my oven, though.  Also, I used about twice the number of chocolate chips the recipe called for - so while the cookies were delicious, they were very gooey and messy!

Here are a few pictures - from now on, I envision the posts being more illustrated as they go, but I'm still figuring out this blogging thing!  Feel free to comment on YOUR favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes :)

I took the cookies in to work the next day - and they went over VERY well with my co-workers.  The only negative feedback I received was from my friend Larry - who pronounced them "too cakey, with too little chips."  But I'm gonna go with the majority on this one ;)