Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars/ Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundae

I really wanted to have a chocolate chip cookie sundae so I decided the easiest way to accomplish that was to make chocolate chip cookie bars instead of large chocolate chip cookies. These were SO good! Basically for the recipe I used the back of my chocolate chip's recipe but instead I put the batter into a greased 9x13 pan, and it had to bake for about 30 minutes or so. But I would keep checking it every 10 minutes since everyone's ovens are different. For the sundae part, well, that's completely up to you! :)

Easy and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

This is one of my favorite recipes because it is so easy and delicious! I love peanut butter cookies and they were so good!

Recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies:

Ingredients:
2 Cups of Peanut Butter
2 Cups of Sugar
2 Eggs
1Tsp. Vanilla

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix peanut butter and sugar together, then add eggs and vanilla. Roll into balls and place on a greased baking sheet. I normally stick a fork into the sugar and pull it out and put a Criss-Cross pattern on the cookies, but you could do it without the sugar. Then bake for about 9-11 minutes. Yum!

Peanut Butter Bars

So I decided to make something sweet for my friend, Alicia. I was going to make her peanut butter brownies, but it was so hot in my house I decided to look for a recipe that I didn't have to bake. I looked up "bar recipes" and I found this delicious recipe from www.allrecipes.com, here is the link for the recipe and the pictures of the ones I made. If I could do anything different though I wouldn't use the graham crackers, they made it seem a bit crunchy and I wasn't too thrilled with the texture haha. Other then that, they came out yummy! :)

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/peanut-butter-bars-i/detail.aspx

Mint Chocolate Chip Brownies

I've never made homemade brownies but I thought to myself that regular old brownies was boring, so I decided to try some chocolate chip brownies, but then I remembered that I had a bag of mint chocolate chips that I was just dying to use, so I looked up some recipes, tweaked them a bit and here we go!

Recipe for Mint Chocolate Chip Brownies:

Makes an 8x8 pan, About 12 Brownies (Depending on how big or small you cut them)

Ingredients:

• 15 ounces of Mint Chocolate Chips
• 1/2 cup + 3 tbsp of butter (Weird measurement, I know!)
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/4 cup of flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease an 8x8 pan. Melt 8 ounces of mint chocolate chip and butter in a saucepan, stir until smooth and then remove from heat.

2. Stir in eggs, flour, sugar, vanilla, baking soda and remaining mint chocolate chips. Spread into your baking pan.

3. Bake for about 22-30 minutes (checking occasionally). It may or may not have to go longer, but keep in until a toothpick comes out slightly sticky. After cooling, cut into bars! 

4. Enjoy! ;)

Chocolate Cupcakes on a Friday Night

      So I decided to make cupcakes for my cousin while she was out of town, but I didn't want the usual "vanilla" or "chocolate" icing. It just didn't seem appetizing! I started to think of what I could do, and then it hit me that peanut butter and chocolate is pretty much the best combination. While I got busy looking at different recipes to make for peanut butter frosting I looked over at an Oreo container and thought...Oreo frosting...mmm. So I decided to try that as well. I think they both came out wonderfully, and one day I would love to have both in my bakery. :) 

For the Oreo icing I just made regular vanilla frosting then smashed up Oreos in my food processor and mixed it in with the vanilla until it was light and fluffy. Yum. For the peanut butter I also used the regular vanilla frosting recipe and added peanut butter. I think it was a successful day of baking. 

Recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes:
Makes about 20-24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cups of flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 3 tbsp. butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup milk 

Directions:

1. Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F. Line your cupcake tin with paper or foil liners. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, salt & sugar. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl mix butter, eggs, vanilla. Then add your flour mix alternately with the milk and beat well. Fill the muffin cups about 1/2 full.

3. Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.


Recipe for Peanut Butter Frosting:

Frosts about 16 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 tbsp. milk, or as needed
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl and beat with an electric mixer. Gradually mix in the sugar, when it starts to get thick add milk one tablespoon at a time until all the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is spreadable. Beat it for about 2-4 minutes so it can become more fluffy.

Recipe for Oreo Frosting:

Frosts about 16 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 3tbsp. milk, or as needed
• About 6 Oreos

Directions:

Blend the butter and sugar together, stir in the vanilla and milk and beat until it is nice and fluffy. Crush Oreos (I found putting it in the food processor was easiest because you want the crumbs very small) and add to frosting mixture then beat.

There you have it! Enjoy! :)