Cream cheese stuffed chocolate cookies.

These cookies taste just like the stuffed ones at Tim Hortons. They're thick, sweet, puffy, and fudgy.

Cream cheese stuffed chocolate cookies
Recipe adapted from: Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients for the cookies:
1 cup and 3 tbsp of all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup of white sugar, divided
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 Tablespoon of milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract


Cream cheese filling

4 ounces of block cream cheese
1 and 3/4 cups of icing sugar
1 Tablespoon flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla.


For the cream cheese filling:
Mix together the softened cream cheese, icing sugar, flour, and vanilla. Drop teaspoons onto a lined baking sheet and freeze for at least 1 1/2 hours.


For the cookies:
Mix together the butter, 1/2 cup of white sugar, the brown sugar, the egg, the milk, and the vanilla.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Mix the butter mixture with the dry ingredients, chill the dough for at least 1 1/2 hours or until firm enough to handle( I like to freeze it so that it takes less time).

Remove the cream cheese spoonfuls from the freezer, roll them into balls, then put them back into the freezer, so that they stay cold until you're ready to use them.

Roll the cookie dough into tablespoon sized balls, and make indents in the balls using your thumb. Place a cream cheese ball in each indentation and cover the cream cheese ball with another cookie dough ball. Mold the cookie dough around the cream cheese ball so that it is completely covered. The dough gets a bit sticky, but I find that wetting your hands helps keep the dough from sticking to them. Do this with the remaining dough and roll the balls in white sugar. Bake for 12-13 minutes until the edges are done with the centers are still soft. Allow them to cool for 5 minutes before removing them from the pan.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

 These are quite possibly the best cookies I've ever had. They're chewy, gooey, and not the slightest bit cakey.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies:
Recipe from Yammie's Noshery


1/2 c. softened butter
1 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. sugar
5 tbsp canned pumpkin
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. cloves
1 1/2c. flour
1 c. chocolate chips


Beat together the butter and sugars. Add in the pumpkin. In a separate bowl whisk together the baking soda, spices, salt, and flour. Combine the wet and the dry until just combined and stir in the chocolate chips. Bake rounded balls of dough on a pan lined with baking paper and bake at 350 degrees for 12-17 minutes until they puff up a little and crack.

Chocolate peanut butter cup cake ( new & updated)

This is my favorite cake recipe that I keep tweaking until I get it perfect. Rather than modifying the original post over and over again, I thought I'd just post an updated one.

Chocolate cake:
Recipe from: Hershey's 

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
Mix together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat in the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Stir in the boiling water and pour into 2 prepared 9-inch cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-35 minutes.


Peanut butter filling:
recipe from: Allrecipes 

 Ingredients:
- 1/2 c. butter, softened
- 1 c. peanut butter
- 1 1/2- 2 c. icing sugar
- 3 tbsp. milk

Beat all the ingredients together and use it to ice in between the 2 chocolate cakes. 


Chocolate Ganache:
recipe from: Allrecipes 

Ingredients:
- 12 oz. chopped chocolate( that's 1 of those Hershey's chocolate chip bags)
- 1 2/3c. heavy cream

Place the chocolate in a bowl. In a saucepan, heat the heavy cream until it's brought just to a boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and whisk until smooth. Refrigerate until thick and then use it to ice the outside of the layer cake.

 

Chocolate chunk muffins with DIY peanut butter chips

These muffins rise really nicely and you can very easily make homemade peanut butter chips to go inside them. My mom said she liked that they tasted like those big coffee shop muffins, but they aren't as greasy.

Chocolate chunk muffins:
yield: 12 muffins
Recipe from TopWithCinnamon

Ingredients:
1 2/3 c. flour
1/2 c. cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 c. sugar
2 tbsp + 1 tsp melted butter
6 prunes*  pureed with a tiny bit of hot water until smooth
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 c. yogurt or milk
peanut butter chips ***


Put the first 7 ingredients in a blender until combined. Then add the prunes, eggs, vanilla, and yogurt and blend until smooth. If it isn't blending, just pour the batter into a bowl and use a mixer. Stir in the peanut butter chips. Grease a muffin tin and fill each muffin slot to the top. Bake at 425 F for about 4 minutes and then lower the temperature to 350 and bake for another 15 ish minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

* dates or anything else that's the same consistency would probably work as well.


** Mix 1/2 c. peanut butter and 1/2 c. icing sugar. Spread out evenly on a baking sheet and freeze until firm( about an hour). Then cut it into chunks.

Chocolate buttermilk pancakes with cinnamon syrup

 I made these for breakfast today because we had no school ( thumbs up for public holidays.) My sister loved them, and my parents both mentioned that they really liked the syrup.

( I just noticed that yellow splash on the plate, don't worry it's melted butter... ;)

Pancakes:
Recipe adapted from Averie Cooks.

1 c.  flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 c. buttermilk
1 egg
2 tbsp yogurt

Whisk together the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another. Cook on medium heat flipping once on each side.



Cinnamon syrup:
recipe from Allrecipes.
yields: 1/2 cup

1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 tbsp. flour
1/2 c. water
1/4- 1/2 tsp cinnamon.
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Heat the ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Continue to stir for a minute and then allow to cool for around 10 minutes or until thick.

Enjoy!

S'mores bars

 

I've got a killer recipe for you guys. At first, I was hesitant to post these because I'm kind of a perfectionist and I wasn't too happy with the photos. I took them around 6:30pm on a Wednesday night ( because they were going to school the next day), so it was already starting to get dark out, but I figured I can't not post the recipe for these because they are so stinkin' delicious. These bars are one of the most deliciously fudgy, sweet, and chocolaty desserts I've ever made. The brownies are dense, the marshmallows are soft,  the crust crunches and the chocolate peanut butter on top is just deadly. It took all the self-control in me to not eat the entire pan.

 Graham cracker crust:

3 1/2 c. of crushed graham crackers or digestive biscuits

1/4 c. brown sugar
1 c. melted butter

Mix all the crumbs, butter, and sugar together and press it into the bottom of a pan lined with baking paper. Bake at 325 degrees for 5-8 minutes.


Brownie Layer ( recipe from: Inspiredtaste.net)
1 1/4 c. butter
2 3/4 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. cocoa powder
4 eggs
1 c. flour

Put the butter, sugar, and cocoa powder in a bowl and microwave, stirring the batter at 30-second intervals. Microwave until melted ( it's okay if the batter looks gritty) Whisk in the eggs one at a time and then add the flour. The batter will look thick and shiny. Pour the mixture onto the graham cracker layer and bake for 20-30 minutes at 325 degrees F.


Topping:
1 bag of marshmallows
2/3 c. melted peanut butter
2/3 c. melted chocolate

Next you want to put the marshmallows on top of the brownies and put them in the oven for about 5 minutes. Keep an eye on them and take them out when the marshmallows are golden brown

Drizzle the melted peanut butter and chocolate on top and let it cool before slicing.






Enjoy!!!

Chocolate peanut butter cup cake

This was my Dad's birthday cake and its the best cake I've had in my 14 years on this earth. My whole family's been talking about it since it entered our fridge. If you need a cake for anything or if you just want cake, make this! It tastes like a giant Reese's peanut butter cup and its the best cake I've ever had.

See the new updated version of this recipe!

(Healthy) Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

 These lightened up brownies are really good ( event if my word choice isn't) They're not just "good considering they don't have any butter, oil, or flour," They're actually great and according to my calculations they come out to about 110 calories and 15g of carb for a decent sized brownie ( based on 16) which is not too shabby if you ask me. They're a different texture then the brownies you're probably used to but they're still fudgy and chocolatey which I think we all can agree is the important thing.

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies
recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of peanut butter
6 oz. yogurt
1/4 cup skim milk
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup sugar ( or 1 cup if you want them sweeter)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup cocoa powder


Throw all the ingredients except for the peanut butter into a blender until the oats no longer look like oats ( they'll be ground up). Pour the batter into a greased 8 by 8 pan. Melt the peanut butter and pour/drizzle it onto the raw brownie batter and use a knife to swirl it around. Bake at 350 degrees for around 20 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test. Wait for them to cool COMPLETELY before cutting them or they'll fall apart ( I put mine in the freezer for an hour first).





Nutrition Facts:

2 minute mug brownies

Mug brownies are genius. This is by far my favorite mug brownie recipe and this is great  if you want a little something sweet but don't want to make a whole pan or spend lots of time baking.

 Mug brownie:
Makes one very small serving so if you want more then that just double it. ( I don't know why but the consistency's not as good  if you triple it or quadruple it.)

Ingredients:
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp brown or white sugar
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp oil

Mix everything together in a mug and microwave for about 30 seconds.The top should be bubbling when you take it out. Just be careful not to microwave it for too long or else it will get all weird and rubbery.

Enjoy!


UPDATE ( March 18, 2015)
Below is my new favorite mug brownie recipe. If I ever make it again anytime soon I'll update the photos and make a new blog post. Please note that this one makes about 3 times as much.

Ingredients:
1/4 c. flour
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. milk
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
2 tbsp melted butter
a pinch of salt

Melt the butter and then add everything else. Mix and microwave for about a minute.

Chocolate Banana Bread

I first found this recipe at Joythebaker Its not too sweet and really  chocolaty. The original recipe had chocolate chips in it and I didn't have any on hand but it was still great even without!

Chocolate Banana bread:
recipe from: Baking from My Home to yours


Ingredients:
2 cups of flour
1 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 bananas mashed
3/4 cup buttermilk ( I just used regular milk and added a tbsp of lemon juice)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder

In a separate bowl beat the 2 sugars, and butter. Add the eggs one at a time and then the bananas. Add in the dry mixture and then the buttermilk.
Pour into a pan lined with baking paper and bake for 30 minutes. Then cover it in foil to keep the top from burning and bake for around 30 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.


Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

These are probably one of my favorite cookie recipes. They're a dense chocolate cookie and a peanut butter cookie in one which make them so delicious and  addicting.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl Cookies
Recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients:

chocolate cookie dough
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar (or dark brown)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons milk (almond, cow's, soy, or half-and-half)

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE DOUGH
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar (or dark brown)
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Chocolate cookie dough:
Cream together the butter and sugars. Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined.Combine flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda in a separate bowl. Mix the dry and the wet ingredients together and add in the milk.

Peanut butter cookie dough:
Cream together the butter and sugars. Blend in the peanut butter, egg, and vanilla, Mix in the baking soda and the flour.

Refrigerate dough as needed until its firm enough to make into balls.

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Take a tablespoon of peanut butter cookie dough and roll it into a ball. Take a tablespoon of chocolate cookie dough and roll it into a ball. Press the 2 balls together and roll into one larger ball.  The longer you refrigerate the dough, the easier this will be. Put the balls on a pan and press with a glass to flatten until they're about 1/2cm thick.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
Enjoy!