Dark Chocolate & Orange Macarons (plus macaron-making tips!)

Hello hello!

This week, friends, I’ve got a shiny new recipe that took many attempts to perfect.
I offered to write a guest post for Laura’s Mess and decided upon French macarons.

As we Northerners enter into the cold and desolation of winter (Well, we’re technically entering into fall, but we likely won’t be graced with its presence for long before winter shows its face!), and Southerners enter into the fresh rejuvenation of spring, I decided on a macaron recipe fitting for all seasons and any hemisphere: Dark Chocolate Orange. The slight piquancy of citrus is especially for those of you in or entering a season of warmth, and the chocolate is for anyone, because is there ever not a time for chocolate?

Advertisement

Cuatro Choco Cookies {& updates}

HELLO!
Were you beginning to worry about me?

I do apologize; I’ve been holding out on you.

It’s been months now since I created this cookie recipe, but the impending busyness of life (a full-time job plus two side businesses, et cetera) has prevented me from sharing it with you. Fortunately, the time has come!

These cookies are for those of you who crave and adore chocolate as much as I do. They’re brimming with FOUR different kinds of chocolate! Is it overkill? No, not at all. I assure you.

With cocoa powder, melted semisweet chocolate, milk chocolate chips, and dark chocolate chips (or white chocolate, if you prefer), these cookies are not for the faint of heart. For those who prefer fruity or salty sweets, these may be a bit of an overload. However, you should at least give them a chance. 😉

Melt Away Cookies (& Christmas favorites!)

It’s December! Snow has fallen! Christmas is coming!

And with Christmas come lots of unneeded-calorie-wise but temptingly-delicious treats and goodies that fill my belly with joy.

One such Christmas-time treat is the Melt Away cookie. (I think they’re also known by the name “Melting Moments.”) I’ve been making and devouring them since I was a wee child, and you’ll see why once you make them!

Caramel Stuffed Chewy Chocolate Cookies

Happy Friday, everyone!
I hope your sweet tooth is ready, ’cause you’re in for a sweet treat today.

Do I really need to say more? I feel like the chewy chocolate and oozing caramel kind of speak for themselves… Ah, what the heck, I’ll tell you more anyway.

Coconut Oil White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Do you like cookies?
Do you like white chocolate?

Do you like trying new things?

If you answered “yes” to those questions, you best try these Coconut Oil White Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Even if you answered “maybe” or “I don’t know,” you need to try them.

 

Homemade XL Ritz Cookies

I have a confession.
I love my husband and would never do anything to hurt him.
But I did something bad: I gave him a sweet tooth.

Rob grew up eating healthy meals made by his mom, and he didn’t really crave chocolate and sweets. Well, that unfortunately has changed since he married chocolate-loving me.

Don’t get me wrong; we still eat healthy, and I don’t bake indulgent treats nearly as often as I want to. But I do fall into the tempting trap of the Sugar Monster on occasion, and I’ve unintentionally dragged Rob into this trap with me. I’m a horrible person.

But on a happier note, I made some awesome chocolate peanut butter cookies! After dinner the other night, Rob sheepishly told me he wanted chocolate. I wasn’t about to turn down a request for dessert, so here’s what I made!

 

Krumkake

Hello, everyone, and happy 2013!

Please forgive my absence, but I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and are enjoying the new year thus far! Rob and I moved into our new house a week and a half before Christmas, and then we left town to spend the holiday with his family. So we’ve been crazy busy, and my blog, unfortunately, has been neglected.

Now we’re back at home, and my new kitchen is finally all cleaned and set up for fantastic food-making! Furthermore, my new kitchen is now equipped with a new KitchenAid mixer thanks to my wonderful husband. Hurray! I’ve never owned one, so you can probably imagine my excitement. 😀

Aside from getting to spend lots of quality time with some quality people, that beautiful stand mixer was one of my favorite Christmas gifts. What was your favorite?

That good-looking bunch is my family. Aren’t they beautiful? God really blessed me by bringing them into my life. We gathered at Rob’s parents’ house, and we had a most joyful time!

Let’s get on to the food now, shall we? I’m a Midwest girl, and like most Midwesterners, my ancestry contains a fair amount of Norwegian roots. The Norsk Høstfest, America’s largest Scandinavian festival, is hosted annually by my hometown of Minot. As you’ve probably figured out by now, today’s recipe comes from Norway. Krumkake (pronounced KROOM-kah-kah), is a Norwegian waffle cookie that looks and tastes similar to a waffle cone.

 

Chewy Chocolate Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips

This week has included a larger-than-average amount of baking.
Therefore, it has been a good week! 😀

 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Blossoms with Pumpkin Spice Kisses

Don’t you just love all the seasonal goodies that appear in the grocery store in the fall?

More specifically, don’t you love all the pumpkin goodies that appear in the grocery store?! I’m sorry that my second dessert post is another pumpkin one. Well… I’m not sorry. But I am sorry if you’re not a pumpkin fan. Get this though, you don’t have to use pumpkin spice Hershey Kisses– you can use any kind of Hershey Kiss! But I think the pumpkin spice ones are awesome. And they only come once a year.

So I saw these while grocery shopping the other day, and they immediately went into my basket. I didn’t know right away what to make with them, but thinking of a recipe for these little pumpkin gems wasn’t too difficult.

Before long, I was reminiscing over these Hershey Kiss cookies my mom and I used to bake. I didn’t even realize they were a well-known cookie, but after asking my mom for the recipe this week, she told me they’re called Peanut Butter Blossoms. Oh, I’ve heard of those. 🙂

Ours were a little different though. We made them in a mini muffin tin so that the chocolate gets submerged in the cookie and becomes melty and gooey. YUM. Not to mention cute!

 

Glazed Pumpkin Cookies

Fall is officially here!
Personally, I broke out the pumpkin weeks ago. I knew it was still summer, but that didn’t stop me. Everybody else was breaking out the pumpkin already, so I did, too! Don’t judge.

This time, though, I’m getting more extreme with my pumpkin obsession. Before this, I had NEVER made my own pumpkin puree. Never! Can you believe it? I feel like a fraud, calling myself a pumpkin lover for all these years without having ever made homemade pumpkin puree.

And you know what? It’s not even difficult. Or time consuming. Or expensive. So why had I never done it before? You’ve got me.