MDBD - St. Patty's Day Edition

Since Zoey and I do MDBD on Sunday and St. Patty's Day was this past Monday, it just made sense to do some sort of green recipe for MDBD last week. I searched Pinterest and while there were lots of ideas, nothing really seemed right. So I took the easy way out and made some cookies using this recipe for Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies from the Betty Crocker web site.

Before we get into the recipe, look at the cute new apron I got for Zoey. I found it at Hobby Lobby and planned on including it in Easter, but I was too excited to wait, so I gave it to her early.

I had to include this picture because she looks so sad/scared and I have no idea why. It's cute either way

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Our Ingredients

INGREDIENTS

1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon mint extract (I recommend 1/4)

6 to 8 drops green food color

1 egg

1 cup creme de menthe baking chip (Apparently you can't find these except at Christmas, so I just bought Andes mints and chopped them up)

1 cup semisweet chocolate chunks (We just used chips instead of chunks since I got a huge bag at Costco a few weeks ago)

INSTRUCTIONS 

Heat oven to 350°F.  

In large bowl, stir cookie mix, butter, extract, food color and egg until soft dough forms.  

Stir in creme de menthe baking chips and chocolate chunks. 

Using small cookie scoop or teaspoon, drop dough 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. 

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set (I ended up going with 11 mins) 

Cool 3 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack

 

I personally thought the dough was pretty gross. Way too much mint (we used 1/2 tsp). It was kind of like eating toothpaste. As you can tell from the picture below, Zoey thought it was yummy, but then again, she eats toothpaste. LOL!

 

 

I am a huge fan of the mint and chocolate combination; however, I wasn't a huge fan of these cookies. They weren't terrible or anything, but they won't make my list of things I will for sure make again. 

 

Finished Product

 

MDBD - German Chocolate Cake Cookies

It's rare that I pick a MDBD recipe that is 100% because I think I will love it. However, this recipe for German Chocolate Cake Cookies from A Dash of Sanity was exactly that. I LOVE German Chocolate Cake and German Chocolate Brownies. It's that yummy frosting that does it for me. That fact had me a little nervous because this recipe calls for homemade frosting and those never turn out when I attempt them. However, this one turned out awesome and made these cookies so amazingly good.

German Chocolate Cake Cookies

Our Ingredients

  INGREDIENTS

 

Chocolate Cookie
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs, beaten
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch salt

German Chocolate Frosting
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
½ cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup chopped pecans 

 

INSTRUCTIONS

 

Chocolate Cookie

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. 

Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.

Blend the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla and eggs. 

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. 

Gradually add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and blend until combined.

Drop the dough by tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets

Bake 8 to 10 minutes. 

Cool on a baking rack.

German Chocolate Frosting

Add evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks, butter and vanilla to a large pan. 

Place on stovetop over medium heat.

Stir so that it becomes well combined.

 Continue stirring until thickened, this takes approximately 11-12 minutes. 

Once thickened remove from heat and add coconut and pecans. 

Beat until thick enough to spread.

Spread frosting over the tops of cooled cookies. 

Cookies w/o frosting - Nothing special

Cookie w/ frosting - Freaking amazing

Source picture

MDBD - Blueberry Upside Down Cake

We made this recipe for Blueberry Upside Down Cake from Thibeault's Table on 12/29/13. It looked so yummy and the parts that turned out were good. However, I had to cut the middle of the cake out because it didn't cook all the way through. So make sure if you make this recipe that you double check that it is cooked in the middle. (I tried putting it back in the oven, but that didn't seem to help)

Blueberry Upside Down Cake

Our Ingredients

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups blueberries (fresh or Frozen)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
3/4 cup milk

INSTRUCTIONS
In 9 inch square cake pan, combine melted butter and brown sugar;spread evenly on bottom. 

 Spread blueberries evenly over top. 

Sprinkle with lemon juice.

Cream butter; gradually add sugar, beating until light.

 Beat in egg and vanilla. 

Sift or mix together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon if using. 

Add dry ingredients alternately with milk to creamed mixture. 

Spread batter evenly over blueberry layer.

 Bake in 350°F oven for 45 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (My toothpick came out clean, but when I flipped it over it wasn't done in the middle)

 Let cool 10 minutes in pan, then turn out on to large flat plate.

I love this picture for some reason. Her Perry cup reminds me of someone holding their morning coffee. LOL!

Finished Product. As you can tell, the middle section didn't turn out

MDBD - Orange Creamsicle Cookies

This MDBD was the last one I did before we took a brief hiatus from new recipes in order to make cookies for our Christmas trays. This recipe for Orange Creamsicle Cookies from The Girl Who Ate Everything was so good that I ended up including these cookies in our Christmas cookie trays.

Orange Creamsicle Cookies

Our Ingredients

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons orange zest (for me that was the zest of 2 oranges)
• 2 cups white chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla until smooth. Gradually add flour mixture until combined. Stir in orange zest and white chocolate chips.
4. Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Do not flatten cookies; it will make them dry. Bake 8 - 10 minutes or until golden brown around edges. Do not overcook! Cookies will be plump. Cool for several minutes on cookie sheets before transferring to rack to cool completely. Store in airtight container.

Read more at http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/04/creamsicle-cookies.html#CIh7lPiTTkGU8Dex.99

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons orange zest (for me that was the zest of 2 oranges)
2 cups white chocolate chips

 

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and creamy. 

Beat in egg and vanilla until smooth.

 Gradually add flour mixture until combined. 

Stir in orange zest and white chocolate chips.
Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. 

Bake 8 - 10 minutes or until golden brown around edges. 

 

We let Zoey make some cookies in her own little bake pan. They turned out pretty cute!

Finished product (Zoey's are on the right)

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons orange zest (for me that was the zest of 2 oranges)
• 2 cups white chocolate chips

Read more at http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/04/creamsicle-cookies.html#CIh7lPiTTkGU8Dex.99

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons orange zest (for me that was the zest of 2 oranges)
• 2 cups white chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla until smooth. Gradually add flour mixture until combined. Stir in orange zest and white chocolate chips.
4. Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Do not flatten cookies; it will make them dry. Bake 8 - 10 minutes or until golden brown around edges. Do not overcook! Cookies will be plump. Cool for several minutes on cookie sheets before transferring to rack to cool completely. Store in airtight container.

Read more at http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/04/creamsicle-cookies.html#CIh7lPiTTkGU8Dex.99

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons orange zest (for me that was the zest of 2 oranges)
• 2 cups white chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla until smooth. Gradually add flour mixture until combined. Stir in orange zest and white chocolate chips.
4. Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Do not flatten cookies; it will make them dry. Bake 8 - 10 minutes or until golden brown around edges. Do not overcook! Cookies will be plump. Cool for several minutes on cookie sheets before transferring to rack to cool completely. Store in airtight container.

Read more at http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/04/creamsicle-cookies.html#CIh7lPiTTkGU8Dex.99

MDBD - Chocolate Oatmeal Peanut Butter Bars

This recipe for Chocolate Oatmeal Peanut Butter Bars from A Dash of Sanity was MDBD on 12/8/13. I was really hoping that this recipe turned out well. Sadly, I must have messed something up because they ended up looking like a really jacked up version of the picture on the original blog. They didn't really seem to set up and stick together like they were supposed to.

Chocolate Oatmeal Peanut Butter Bars

Our Ingredients

 INGREDIENTS

Bars
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup margarine or butter, softened to room temperature
½ cup Karo Syrup
4 cups oatmeal
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt

Topping
2 cups of milk chocolate chips

3/4  cup peanut butter

 

DIRECTIONS

 

Bars

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Grease a 9x13 metal pan.

Mix all the ingredients and press into pan.

Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Topping

In a medium glass bowl melt chocolate and peanut butter in the microwave for one minute. 

Remove and quickly stir, return to microwave and heat for another 30 seconds then stir again. 

Repeat until chocolate and peanut butter are well combined and melted. 

Spread on bars immediately after they get out of the oven. 

Chill in the refrigerator. 

Once cooled, cut into squares and serve. 

Zoey thought the topping was pretty good

Original source photo (Mine did not turn out like these)

MDBD - Chocolate Chip Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Since I have so many MDBD posts to get caught up on, and we are still doing weekly MDBDs, I have decided to post the current ones as we go and then mix in the back log ones along the way. Otherwise I will just get further and further behind.

This past weekend, Zoey and I had an awesome MDBD. Zoey always seems excited when I tell her it is MDBD and she immediately goes to her learning tower, so I knew that she understood what it meant. But this past weekend she walked into the kitchen as I was getting all the ingredients out, so I asked her "what are we going to go" and she responded "Mommy Daughter bake day". It made me so happy to hear her say that. It kind of solidified that she understands that this is something special we do together. It was also great to have me ask her a question and get a response other than yes or no (receptive language delays).

For this MDBD we looked to a recipe for Chocolate Chip Banana Oatmeal Cookies from Six Sister's Stuff (a lot of stuff I have pinned seems to come from their site). 

Chocolate Chip Banana Oatmeal Cookies

(Note that the picture shows regular and white chocolate chips. We only used regular)

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1 large)

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

2 cups chocolate chips

 

INSTRUCTIONS

 Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside.

 Place butter and sugars into a mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy. 

Reduce speed to low and add egg and vanilla and mix until combined.

Mash banana and mix in.

 Add flour and mix until just combined.

Stir in oats and chocolate chips. 

Using a cookie scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets spacing about 2 inches apart. 

 Bake cookies until golden brown and just set, about 12 to 13 minutes.

 

(Original Source Picture)

 Scott and I both really liked these cookies, but there are a couple of modifications that I will make next time. I will decrease the amount of chocolate chips. They seemed to cancel out a lot of the other flavors. I will also increase the amount of banana. This is probably my fault for not measuring the banana. More than likely my banana was on the smaller side and did not produce the 1/2 cup that the recipe called for. I may also increase the oatmeal as I didn't really notice it in these cookies. 

MDBD - Chocolate Candy Cookies

This recipe for Chocolate Candy Cookies came from Bakerella and we made them on December 1, 2013. This is a recipe that I found on Pinterest that was on a recipe site that linked back to the original source (like I do), but the pin I found was just for Reese's Peanut Butter Bite Cookies. I ended up making some of those, as well as the more traditional Peanut Butter Blossoms. Both tasted really good, but the Reese's ones were really ugly cookies. The recipe said to make them in a mini muffin pan, but I tried that and ended up baking them for way longer than the recipe called for and they still weren't cooked all the way through. As a result, I made the rest of the batch in the same way that you make the Peanut Butter Blossoms.

Chocolate Candy Cookies

Our Ingredients

Let's Get Baking

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, slightly softened
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
Hershey’s Kisses or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, or both

 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Sift flour, soda and salt with a wire whisk and set aside.

Beat butter and peanut butter
Add sugar and beat until fluffy.
Add egg and vanilla.
Add flour mixture and combine.
Roll dough into 1 to 1-1/2 inch balls and then roll the balls in sugar to coat

 For Peanut Butter Kisses
Place rolled balls on parchment paper covered baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and press an unwrapped Kiss candy into the center of each cookie.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

For Peanut Butter Cuppies:
Press rolled balls into the cavities of a mini muffin tray

Place an unwrapped Reese’s peanut butter cup into each.
Bake for 8-10 minutes.
Remove. Let cool and then drizzle with chocolate if desired.

Cookies weren't done and PB cup was very melted

When I made them without the muffin pan. Not the best looking cookie, but yummy

This is what they were supposed to look like. LOL!

 

 

MDBD - Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies from Two Peas and Their Pod was made on November 24, 2013 for our Thanksgiving MDBD. I honestly can't tell you how they turned out because I don't really remember making them. I saw the picture in my MDBD file and had to ask Scott what I made with pumpkin. I'm sure they were good because they are pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, which are one of my favorites, so I would remember if they didn't turn out. LOL!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Our Ingredients

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 cups chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line a large baking sheet with a Silpat baking mat or parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices.
Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
Add the egg, vanilla, and pumpkin and mix until combined, about 3 minutes.
Slowly add in the dry ingredients.
Mix until just combined.
Stir in the chocolate chips.
Drop by large, rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet.
 Bake for 10 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to brown around the edges.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for two minutes.
Transfer to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.

Checking out all of our ingredients

Yummy!!!

Original Source