semi-sweet chocolate chips

Bacon Chocolate Chip Waffles

April 15, 2015

I have a new addiction. Oh baby, it’s a good one!

I can’t stop watching “Married At First Sight”. I just discovered it a few weeks ago so I am so into now. I am watching the latest episode as I write this. I know it’s going to take me 5x longer to write this post as I will be so distracted watching it.

ummm, 5 minutes just passed as my fingers rested on the keys as I watched…

It’s so interesting! It’s so weird. It’s so amazing. I mean, these 3 couples met each other at the alter. For real, they learned their names then. That’s insane, but cool.

I can’t figure out which couple I like the most. Or which one will actually continue on by committing to stay married after the ‘experiment’ phase.

All I do know is that I love to watch the current season and watching last season.

Anyway, I made these Bacon Chocolate Waffles a few years (ago and shared it then but I wanted to share it again as I had make some tweaks over the years. Mainly more bacon and more chocolate, obviously.

They do such a good job of combining the salty and sweet flavors. Every bite gets a bit of bacon and chocolate. I’ve made them with both regular semi-sweet chocolate chips and mini chips. It’s good both ways. When you make it with regular chips you get bigger bursts of chocolate in each bite, but with the mini chips you get more chocolate coverage. You can’t go wrong either way.

I insist that you make these! Plus, you gotta binge watch “Married at First Sight” so that we can catch up and dish on your favorite couple!!

Bacon Chocolate Waffles

Makes 12-14 (4″ Square) waffles

Ingredients

1/2 pound of bacon
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 cups of buttermilk
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 Cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Process

Cut the bacon into small pieces. I suggest using a scissor. In a skillet, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove and place on paper towels to drain away the excess fat.
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl.
Whisk together the egg, oil, vanilla and buttermilk in a small bowl.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine. Fold in the chocolate chips and crumbled bacon.
Preheat your waffle iron. When ready, scoop a 1/3 Cup of batter into your waffle iron. Cook until the steam has finished escaping out the sides and the waffles are golden brown. Serve with syrup & fresh fruit.

*If you don’t have buttermilk on hand you can make your own with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar for every cup of milk and let it sit for 5 minutes

Reese’s Cup Marshmallow Peanut Butter Cookie Pie

July 18, 2014

I’ve been in a cooking funk.

I’m currently in a ‘nope don’t wanna cook anything’ phase. Basically, all I make anymore is pies. And that is just to have something to post on Fridays. I guess I could post about making Bacon Egg and Cheese sandwiches since I’m a rock star at at making them. But I should be since that is about all I’ve been making lately- breakfast sandwiches, bowls of cereal, and making calls for take out.

Shouldn’t I be super inspired to make some great meals now since some much is in season and we love summer time grilling? It be great for some BBQ chicken breasts with some grilled veggies. Or some of these pork kabobs? What about a juicy steak? Or skip the grill and at least make a great fresh salad, no?

But truthfully, we’re beat. Autumn hasn’t been sleeping that well. Thanks teething. And whatever else is going on. Blah.

And I recently got a Fitbit Flex so I’m all about walking while it’s still nice (I shudder thinking about winter already) and before Autumn’s bedtime so getting out of the house for a 2 1/2- 3 1/2 mile walk at night it my top priority. It’s sooo nice to be able to get out to stretch our legs. But it just means something has to give and that has been making a real dinner.

At least all that walking has helped balance things out when I shovel mouthfuls of warm ooey gooey pie into my mouth. RIGHT?!? That’s what I figure when I walk over 15,000-18,000 steps in a day.

When I was taking photos of this pie in front of our house (best lighting) my neighbor started to say hi and ask what I was doing. He doesn’t know English that well, so instead of trying to explain what blogging is to him I told him to go back inside and get a plate. He then came over with this plate and I slapped a piece of warm pie right on it. I think his eyes bugged out of his head a bit when he really saw this baby.

And then a guy driving by in a truck slowed down and stopped saying “You taking a picture of a pie?” I shouted back “Yep!” He still looked a bit confused but went with it “Okay…” and then drove on.

That’s right, this pie is attention getting!!

How could anyone ignore this Reese’s Cup Marshmallow Peanut Butter Cookie Pie?!?! I mean, come on, a peanut butter cookie crust, chocolate chips, Reese’s Cups, and mini marshmallows. Ridiculous.

The crust is easy to make but if you find a roll of refrigerated peanut butter cookies at your grocery store then feel free to give that a try. Then it’s all about raiding the candy aisle and dumping that into this pie. The candy make the filling ooey gooey so just accept some sloppy slices, but it’s worth the mess. I swear.

Reese’s Cup Marshmallow Peanut Butter Cookie Pie

Make a 9″ deep dish pie

Ingredients

For the Crust

1/2 cup of unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup smooth creamy butter
1 egg
1 1/2 cups self rising flour

For the Filling

1/2 cup chocolate chips
12 Reese’s peanut butter cups
1 1/2 to 2 cups of mini marshmallows

Process

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a deep dish pie plate by spraying with non stick cooking spray.
To make the crust, cream together the butter and brown sugar together. Add the peanut butter, egg, and flour and mix to thoroughly combined. Press 2/3 of the dough into the bottom and up sides of the pie plate. Place the remaining dough into the refrigerator. Bake for 5 to 8 minutes or until it’s just starting to set up.
Sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the semi-cooked bottom. Place the peanut butter cups over the chocolate chips. Lastly, sprinkle the marshmallows over the top.
Roll out chunks of dough to create 1″ round balls of remaining dough into the palm of your hand, press to create a 1/4″ thick disk. Create the top crust by placing the pieces on top of the marshmallows (pieces can overlap).
Bake for an additional 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. The center of the pie will still be very jiggly as the filling should be very gooey.
Cool for at least 30 minutes for the perfect piece to come out. Serve warm.

Crust adapted from I am a Honey Bee, filling from Oh Sweet Basil

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

March 24, 2014

This weekend Price and I went to visit a wedding venue location in the Berkshires. I guess we should do some sort of wedding planning… only been together 9+ years and engaged since Sept. Oh, yeah… and we have a baby together. Been kinda busy with her.

Well, Crissey Farm has beautiful details, great menu options and price points, and it’s in a great location. Unless something incredible jumps out to us this week it seems like that is the place. Plus they have availability in August, November, and this winter.

The owner suggested a New Year’s Eve wedding as they have had so fun ones in the past. He explained that we could get married in front of one of their fire places. I love that idea, but I loved the idea of getting married on 1/2/15 even more as that would be our 10 year anniversary together. But once Price and I thought about the logistics of everyone traveling from WA, AZ, PA, NY, NH, CT, AND FL it became to risky in dealing with travel issues. This winter sucked, and it snowed 8″ inches on our anniversary, so we ultimately decided that was not a risk we would want to deal with.

So that leaves August and November. We quickly ruled out November as all the leaves have fallen at that point so it just won’t be as pretty for pictures. Plus, we would be juggling with Autumn’s first birthday and then Thanksgiving. Just too much going on there.

Now if you look at the calendar you would see that there are only a few months between now and August. So if we decide on that things will be fast passed. That really is okay since the simpler the better for us. Plus Crissey Farm is basically 1 stop shopping since they handle everything so we don’t need to worry about silly suff like linen rentals.

Anyway, if we’re actually cracking down and getting married this year I better stop eating sweets like this!

Well, honestly, breast-feeding and it’s associated weight loss is THE BEST thing ever. hehe! So, I’ll get to enjoy a few of these every now and then.

I used the Nestle Toll House Spring Time Baking Morsels instead of just a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. The Spring Time bag is only 10oz so jut be sure to add another 2oz of chocolate chips to get to the 12 oz needed for the recipe.

These are basically just cookies but they have a softer texture because there is less surface area to them in the bar form compared to the cookie form. Love that. Just like I love the sugar cookie bars I made before.

Enjoy these yummy treats!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Makes 24 bars

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) of semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Process

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 13×9 metal pan.
Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in small bowl; set aside.
Beat the butter, sugars, and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.
Spread into the prepared pan.
Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack. Cut into 24 bars.

Slightly adapted from Nestle

Post contains affiliate links

Andes Mint Chip Brownies

January 8, 2014

I’m kinda hooked on brownies.

I have been baking them up like crazy lately and have plans on several more different kinds of batches to bake up in the next few weeks. I kinda can’t wait!

Anyway, I whipped up these Andes Mint Chip Brownies up right after Christmas so that I could start to feel a bit more normal after having my typical life (showering, cooking, baking, eating, thinking) had been flip flopped after having Autumn. They are so quick and easy to whip up that even I can do them with new mommy brain!

The base for these brownies might just be my favorite. It might be the butter. Or the chocolates. Or maybe it’s the butter AND the chocolates. Maybe it’s the combo of it all. Probably that all together they create a soft, yet sturdy, brownie. I’ve made plenty of really soft brownies that just about need a spoon to eat them (de-lightful!) but these are bake sale brownies. What I mean by that is that you can cut them easier from the pan and could easily package them up to sell at the bake sale. Or toss into a lunch. Or delicately place on the rim of a glass of milk awaiting its sweet demise.

Adding the Andes Creme de Menthe Chips add such a great kick to the brownies. I just love this flavor. It just screams winter to me.

Since we’re still locked into this deep freeze from the “Polar Vortex” I think it would be a great idea to whip up a batch of these brownies to help you get through these cold days and nights. Days like this just call for a brownie and some hot chocolate.

Andes Mint Chip Brownies

Makes 24 brownies

Ingredients

12 ounces of semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 ounces Andes Creme de Menthe Baking Chips

Process

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9×13 baking pan by buttering/spraying with non-stick cooking spray the bottom and sides and lining the bottom with parchment paper or tin foil.
In a large microwavable safe bowl, melt 8 ounces of the chocolate chips and the butter together, stirring every 30 seconds until completely melted and combined.
Add the cocoa powder and sugar, mixing completely.
Add in the beaten eggs and vanilla extract.
Stir in the flour, salt, remaining chocolate chips, and the Creme de Menthe chips to gently incorporate.
Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center is clean upon removal. Do not over bake. Let cool prior to cutting into 24 pieces.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

January 3, 2014

I enjoyed last year’s Thirsty Thursday’s posts so much that I started to think of another series that I could tackle. I wanted to do something that was a bit more of a challenge for me. I was thinking of breads and pizzas but then I would be eating a lot of carbs and cheese. And neither of of those are easy to share with other, which is what I really like to do. So I kept thinking and decided that I would have a year of PIES!!!!

I want to conquer making homemade crusts, creating lattice top pies, making the perfect crimped edge, and creating the perfect filling. This will be a year of fruit pies, chess pies, savory pies, chocolate pies, and meringue topped pies. There will be deep dish pies, tarts, mini pies, and hand pies. This will be an awesome year. 🙂

So I am kicking this year off with this Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie. It’s the combo of 2 great things… chocolate chip cookies and pie!!! And it’s just as amazing as you imagine.

The key to making this super simple pie is slowly incorporating the ingredients into each other. This makes the pie really smooth and light in texture. As well, the butter needs to be really soft as you are adding it into the rest of the beaten ingredients and you really don’t want any lumps.

The pie is best right out of the oven but if you can’t enjoy it right then you should just microwave it on a low power level until it is warmed through again. It makes the chocolate chips ooey gooey and irresistible.

____________________

Stay tuned for another irresistible pie recipe next week!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Serves 8

Ingredients

1 9″ pie crust
2 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (6 oz.) Semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts, such as walnuts

Process

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Place pie crust in pie plate.
Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl or in the bowl of stand mixer on high speed until foamy.]
One at a time, slowly beat in the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and flour until each is incorporated into the eggs. Beat in the softened butter. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Spoon the mixture into the pie shell.
Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until knife inserted halfway between edge and center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream, if desired.

Sourced from Nestle

Snickers Chocolate Chip Cookies

December 30, 2013

Snickers Chocolate Chip Cookies- mix in chopped up Snickers bars into chocolate chip cookie dough to make some epic candy loaded cookies.

Post from 12/30/13, pictures updated 8/24/18

Post Contains Affiliate Links. Read my full disclosure HERE

Candy and cookies are pretty cool. But candy inside cookies are ever better.

…

Banana Crumb Cake with Pecans and Chocolate Chips

December 23, 2013

Will ya look at that?

Just take a minute and look at this crumb cake.

Did you do it?

I hope you really did take the time and soaked in the prettiness of this crumb cake.

But it’s prettiness is not the only nice part. Nope. It’s the bananas. It’s the chocolate chips. It’s the pecans. It’s a triple threat!!

The crumb cake will have you sneaking into your kitchen all day and night just so you can cut sliver after sliver hoping that no one notices just how much you’ve eaten.

It’s just such a good cake. I swear. It’s flavorful like banana bread but the texture is light and airy. Plus there are chocolate chips and pecans in it! Not to mention, the crumb topping is soft, with a nice crunch on top. Ah crumb cake bliss!!

Banana Crumb Cake with Pecans and Chocolate Chips

Makes a 9″/10″ cake

Ingredients

Banana Cake

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup Greek yogurt (vanilla or plain)
1/2 cup oil
2 large eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
3-4 small banana’s mashed very well
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecan pieces

Crumb Topping

3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 Tablespoon softened butter
1 Tablespoon water, if neccessary

Process

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and spray a 9 or 10 inch springform pan with nonstick spray.
To make the crumb topping: in a small bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Incorporate the butter until the mixture is crumbly. If the texture is not right then add in a few drops of water at a time to get a crumbly mixture. Set aside.
Mix all the dry ingredients together in one bowl.
Lightly beat the eggs and add in the Greek yogurt, and oil and mix until well blended.
Mix the bananas into the wet ingredients.
Fold the dry ingredients into the wet banana mixture until just combined.
Fold in the pecans and chocolate chips until just combined as well.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan and then top with the crumb mixture.
Bake at for 30-40 minutes. Allow the cake to cool for 5 minutes prior to carefully removing the outside of the springform pan.

Sourced from Ask Chef Dennis

Monster Cookies

September 27, 2013

Sorry I couldn’t resist. Not this time…

I have really tried to steer clear from making cookies, or most sweets, while I’ve been pregnant. Sometimes I cave, but I at least plan on getting them out of my house ASAP and share so I don’t eat them all.

You see it’s just that I’ve been too afraid that I can’t resist just having one and before you know it the whole batch of cookies are gone.

Or a tray of brownies.

Or a pie.

I can’t stand that I am in love with sweets now. I can’t get off Pinterest looking at desserts hoping they would magically instantly appear in in my kitchen just for me. So when I decided to make Monster Cookies for this weekend’s race at “The Monster Mile” I was just about going to eat my laptop screen. But thankfully I resisted and held out for these mega cookies to appear in real life. And of course, hot from the oven!

These babies are large and in charge. They look really cute with the teeny tiny M&M’s throughout but they are monsters! They pack a punch from the creamy peanut butter, oats, and the double dose of chocolate. Plus they are just giants. Well, isn’t that really the point of Monster Cookies?!?!?!

Hope you enjoy this weekend’s race at Dover.

Monster Cookies

Makes 18-20 large cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon corn syrup
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups quick oatmeal
1 cup mini M&Ms
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks

Process

Preheat oven 350 degrees.
Blend together the butter and sugars in a mixer.
Add the eggs, vanilla extract, corn syrup, and peanut butter and blend until combined.
Add the baking powder, baking soda, oatmeal, and flour and mix until everything is well blended.
Stir in the M&Ms and chocolate chips.
Using a cookie scoop (or just 2 spoons!) scoop dough into balls about 1 1/2″ round on a cookie sheet about 2″ apart. Just slightly flatten the dough balls.
Bake for 11-13 minutes until lightly brown and just set in the middle. Cool slightly on the pan for 3-5 minutes before removing to enjoy

Sourced from Skinny Not Skinny