Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

So I made these to take to a lunch/play day buuut that got canceled so i'm stuck with a big 'ol plate of these guys. Good thing my brother is coming to town for his reserve weekend, maybe he can take some of these back to his co-workers. I love eating desserts but I can't always be eating the whole plate by myself! It's no good for my girlish figure! Atleast that's what I try to tell myself in efforts to stop pigging out. P.S. i've already eaten like 3 of these, today.
Ok, in all honesty i'm not really a big cheesecake fan. Even going to The Cheesecake Factory it always looks and sounds good but when I eat it I feel like it was good, but not that good. So since those are my feelings on cheesecake, when I saw these bars I thought they looked/sounded reallly good.. and they were actually really good!! I think because it also had cookie dough on it, it wasn't pure cheesecake. However they tasted a little like the smore's bars but with cheesecake instead of marshmallow. I gotta say I still like the smore's bars better but if you're a cheesecake person these are right up your alley! Anyway I definitely think i'll be making these again sometime.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars
cookies and cups


Ingredients:
Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

5 T. butter, melted

2/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cookie Dough:
5 tablespoons butter~room temperature

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

3 T. granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup AP flour

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Cheesecake Filling:
10 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping: (optional, I didn't do the topping. I felt the cookie dough had a high chip to dough ratio so the extra drizzling wasn't needed)

1/3 cup semi sweet chips

1/2 T. butter

Directions:

For crust:
Preheat oven to 325°.
Line 9x9 in. square pan (I used 8x8) with foil, leaving enough to extend over the sides. Spray or butter the foil.
Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter until crumbs are moistened. Stir in chocolate chips.
Press crust mixture into bottom of pan and 1 inch up sides. Bake for 6 minutes. Set pan on wire rack to cool.
For cookie dough:
Using mixer, mix butter, brown sugar, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract at medium speed until smooth. Adjust mixer speed to low and add flour. Mix just until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Set aside.
For cheesecake/filling:
Using mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add egg and vanilla extract, beating just until blended.
Pour batter into cooled, baked crust. Drop cookie dough by teaspoonfuls over the top of the filling. Bake about 30 minutes, or until set. Transfer to wire rack.
Topping:
For chocolate topping, melt 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips in the microwave. Add about 1/2 tablespoon of butter to make chocolate smooth.
Using a ziplock bag with corner cut off, drizzle chocolate on bars.
Cool bars in pan completely, about an hour. Or refrigerate, 1/2 hour.Using the edges of the foil, lift the bars from the pan.
Cut into bars and serve.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

I've had this recipe from Pinch My Salt bookmarked for a while. The other day matt brought in this HUGE zucchini that was hiding in the garden. It was seriously the biggest zucchini i've ever seen!! It probably weighed like 3 lbs. Immediately I knew what I wanted to do it! (well..about 1/2 of it since the thing was so huge!) This recipe is originally from Cooking Light and uses applesauce in place of butter. It was amazing! I seriously LOVED this stuff! As did Matt and Rylee. They're so moist and fluffy. I made them right before dinner and ended up eating it for dinner. And dessert. And as a snack throughout the rest of the evening. I also was a huge fan of using a mini muffin pan instead of a loaf pan. It cooked sooo much faster and there's no slicing involved. And they're just cute as little muffins. Since I still have half of the monster left in my fridge I think I might make another batch since yesterday's is about gone =\

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:
3/4 C. sugar

3 T. vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1 C. applesauce

2 C. all-purpose flour

2 T. unsweetened cocoa

1 1/4 t. baking soda

1 t. ground cinnamon

1/4 t. salt

1 1/2 C. finely shredded zucchini (about 1 medium)

1/2 C. semisweet chocolate chips (mini chocolate chips also work well)

cooking spray

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.2. Place first 3 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at low speed until well blended. Stir in applesauce.3. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture, beating just until moist. Stir in zucchini and chocolate chips. Spoon batter into a 9×5-inch loaf pan (or mini muffin pan) coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour (or about 15 min. if using mini muffin pan) or until wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack, then remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Yield: 16 servings (serving is one slice) (I got 36 with mini muffin pan)
Nutrition info (per slice): Calories: 161; Fat 5.1 grams; Protein: 2.9 grams; Carb: 27.3 grams; Fiber: 1.4 g; Chol: 27 mg; Sodium: 145 mg

Sugar Cookie Bars

I've seen recipes for these for a while now but never really cared to try them. I'm not really a big sugar cookie fan. I only make sugar cookies like once a year around Christmas time, and even at that it's more of an activity. But when my friend told me someone at work made them and they were amazing I thought i would give them a try. I don't know what recipe she had, but either way i'm sure they're pretty much the same. These turned out really well! Tasted like a typical sugar cookie but thicker and without all the work. And in bar form. I love things in bar form. I didn't use a vanilla bean, but the lemon zest really adds flavor to these. I only made 1/2 batch since I thought a full batch would produce way too many but it didn't make quite as many as I thought. Even with 1/2 though it was enough for Matt to take to his club at school.

Sugar Cookie Bars

Annie's Eats

Yield: about 4 dozen bars

Ingredients:

For the cookie bars:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (optional)

Zest from 1 lemon

5 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. baking soda

For the frosting:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

5 tbsp. milk

Food coloring (optional)

Directions:

To make the cookies, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Grease a 13 x 18″ rimmed baking sheet. Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until light and smooth, about 2 minutes. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Blend in the vanilla, seeds from the vanilla bean, and lemon zest. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking soda. Stir together with a fork to blend. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl and beat on low speed just until incorporated.
Transfer the cookie dough to the prepared baking sheet and press into an even layer. Bake 10-15 minutes, until light golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting, place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Blend in the vanilla, salt, and confectioners’ sugar until smooth, 1-2 minutes. Mix in the milk. Tint as desired with food coloring. Spread over the cookie in the pan, cut into bars and serve.

Cookie Dough Brownies

This was my first time using Dutch processed cocoa. It's a little harder to find than normal natural cocoa since most typical grocery stores don't have it. I got mine at Whole Foods and they only had 1 kind. I thought these brownies were reallly good!! Matt thought they were good. But he doesn't really like homemade brownies. What?? I know..he likes boxed mix best. Which is fine, I like that kind too, but I like homemade better. He also doesn't like 'fake' cookie dough. So this wasn't his favorite dessert but he didn't think it was bad. I mainly thought of his brother when I saw these because he really liked the cookie dough cupcakes. The cookie dough topping was a little too much for me. It was really thick and i ended up scraping off 1/2 of it so it was more like a frosting than a thick layer. (the pic is from before I removed 1/2 the cookie dough). This recipe makes a lot, so be prepared to share.

Cookie Dough Brownies

Beantown Baker

Brownies:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

2 1/4 cups sugar

4 large eggs

1 1/4 cups Dutch-process cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups chocolate chips

Cookie Dough:

3 sticks butter, softened

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup sugar

9 tbsp milk

3 cups flour

3 cups mini chocolate chips

Prepare Brownies:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan. In a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the heat briefly, just until it's hot, but not bubbling; it'll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating this mixture a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.

Transfer the sugar mixture to a medium-sized mixing bowl. Stir in the cocoa, salt, baking powder, and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs, stirring until smooth. Add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth. Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9" x 13" pan.

Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. Remove them from the oven and cool completely on a rack.

For cookie dough:

Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in milk. With mixer on low, add flour and mix until well combined. Stir in mini chocolate chips.To assemble:Spread the cookie dough onto the cooled brownies. Chill the brownies until the cookie dough is firm. Cut into bars and serve.

Strawberry Hand Pies

Remember those little packaged pies that came in like every flavor..cherry, lemon, chocolate..well here's a homemade version. I've seen these things on several blogs. It's funny how most of the same food pops up on like every blog.. Anyway, I used the recipe from Annie's Eats. These turned out really good. A little more work than a regular pie I think since you do these individually, even though they were super easy and pretty quicker than I thought. But a lot cuter than a regular pie since they're handheld. Mine didn't turn out as visually appealing as they could have since I was trying to put as much filling as I could fit in them and then they didn't seal as nicely..didn't want to waste any. Even though I still had a little bit of filling left over. You could also fill these with whatever you want (blueberries, raspberries, etc.).

I made a half batch and ended up with 6 pies.

Strawberry Hand Pies

Ingredients:
For the pie dough:
½ tsp. vanilla extract
6-8 tbsp. cold buttermilk
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. sugar
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. lemon zest
2 sticks (1 cup) cold butter, cut into ¼” pieces
powdered sugar, for dusting

For the filling:
4 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered
4 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

For finishing:
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
turbinado sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Directions:
To make the pie dough, in a small bowl, combine vanilla and buttermilk. Stir to combine and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar, salt and lemon zest. Mix to combine. Add in butter and mix on low speed until the mixture resembles coarse meal and pieces are less than pea sized. Add buttermilk mixture and stir until the dough comes together. Transfer the dough to a powdered sugar-covered surface and shape into a flat disk. Wrap the disk tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.
In a medium bowl combine the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Mix well and set aside. Meanwhile, place the pie dough onto a powdered sugar-covered surface. Cut the disk into 12 equal sized pieces. Gently form each section into a small disk. Roll out disks into 6-inch circles, about 1/8” thick.
Preheat oven to 400°. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. (Do not use wax paper, they will stick to the pies!) Place a dough round onto a prepared baking sheet. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of the strawberry mixture into the center. Using a pastry brush, brush the edge of half of the dough round with the beaten egg. Fold the dry edge onto the egg-brushed edge forming a semi-circle shape. Press the edges together to seal with the tines of a fork. Repeat with the remaining dough rounds and strawberry filling. Brush the tops of the pies with the egg mixture and sprinkle with sugar, if using. Use a small knife to make a 1-inch slit in the top of each pie to allow the steam to escape.
Bake in the preheated oven until the tops begin to turn golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let cool on baking sheets 7-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely

Chocolate Chip Muffins

I got a jumbo muffin pan last month for my birthday and decided I need to break it in. I tend to like things (cupcakes, cookies, muffins, etc) either tiny or really big. Regular size seems boring. Even though I do make regular sized things a lot. Originally I was searching for a chocolate chocolate chip muffin recipe but didn't find one I wanted to try and settled for just chocolate chip (for now) since these looked pretty good. Matt thought these were really good. I thought they were good too, but not exactely what I was looking for. This muffin does have pretty good taste but is kinda thick/dense. I wanted something more lighter and fluffy, more like a cupcake I guess :) Still, it's not a bad cupcake at all and will go in my book until I find one to replace it.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

found on joy of baking

(who needs a fancy plate when you can use a paper towel??)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1 cup milk or cream
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cups granulated white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips (I used milk)

Topping:
1 tablespoon granulated white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 deg F. Butter muffin pan or line with liners.
In a bowl whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla.
In another bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt then stir in chocolate chips. Fold the wet ingredients (including butter) into flour mixture just until combined. Tough muffins will result from over mixing.
Fill muffin cups evenly with batter. In a small bowl combine topping ingredients and sprinkle over each muffin.
Bake about 18-20 min. or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool about 5 min. before removing from pan.
Makes 12 regular size muffins (or 6 jumbo)

Apple Fritters

I made these apply fritters a couple of weeks ago and let me tell you...they were d-licious! If you don't know what an apple fritter is, it's kind of like a donut (doughnut?) Or more like a donut/doughnut hole really but with little chunks of apple in them. I've only made apple fritters once or twice before and I think I was in middle school. So it's been a while. I didn't take a picture (sorry) it was like 9:30pm when I made these bad boys and didn't waste any time attacking them hot out of the oil. Which I don't advise doing unless you want to dance around waving your hands in front of your face because your mouth is burning. There's also a glaze recipe included that looks amazing but I went the powdered sugar route. Next time.
P.S. if you want a photo..or several..visit the original recipe from The Pioneer Woman.

Apple Fritters
The Pioneer Woman

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 10 Minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Servings: 8

Ingredients
FRITTERS
2 cups All-purpose Flour
½ cups Sugar
3 Tablespoons Sugar
2-¼ teaspoons Baking Powder
1-¼ teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
2 whole Large Eggs
¾ cups Whole Milk
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2 Tablespoons Melted Butter
2 whole Granny Smith Apples, Peeled And Diced
Powdered Sugar (optional, For Dusting)

GLAZE (optional)
1-½ cup Powdered Sugar
¼ teaspoons Salt
¼ teaspoons Vanilla
¼ cups Milk

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with a fork, then add milk, melted butter, and vanilla.
Gently fold dry and wet ingredients together until just combined (do not overmix.) Fold in apples. Add enough apples to make a very chunky batter. You want the apples to shine though!
Heat a couple of inches of canola oil over medium to medium-low heat. When it gets hot, drop a little drop of batter into the oil. If it sizzles immediately and rises to the top, the oil is ready; if it burns quickly, turn down the heat.
Drop teaspoons of batter into the hot oil, six or eight at a time. Sometimes they’ll flip over by themselves; sometimes you have to flip them. Just watch them and make sure they don’t get too brown, but cook them long enough to make sure the batter’s cooked through, about 2 to 2 1/2 minutes total.
Remove and drain on a paper towel. Dust very generously with powdered sugar, or dip fritters in a light doughnut glaze (mix all glaze ingredients together, then dunk warm fritters).
Serve warm!

May be heated the next day in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes.