Loaded M&M Oreo Cookie Bars

Yum! How can you go wrong with blondies, candy, and cookies all rolled into one? The answer: you can't! I repinned this a few days ago and then got a few requests for this to be my next recipe, so I had to make this delicious treat from http://www.bloglovin.com

This recipe is so easy that there is no way this shouldn't become a go-to sweet treat to make people! To make things better, the mix-ins can be switched for almost anything!

For this goodie, all you need is:

1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter
1 large egg
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
Approx 18 oreo cookies (they will become a majority of the flour)
Approx 1/2 cup of M&Ms

Seriously, the hardest part of this dessert is not eating the mix-ins before you are ready to put everything into the oven!

If you don't like oreos, you can use anything you'd like, ooorrrr if you want more oreos, GO for it! And, you can put whatever chocolate candy you'd like on top!

All you have to do is wait about 20-24 minutes and you are good to go! These would be perfect for when you need to make something in a crunch and don't want anything too labor intensive. Also, like I said, these would be super easy to customize to whatever your favorite cookies and/or candy are!

Just let these babies cool before you cut them, and then you are ready to share!

Happy Baking!

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing

Oh my my! Fall in sweet cupcake form. This little gem has been repinned like crazy lately, and being a pumpkin lover myself yearning for fall, I HAD to make these. I didn't think these could be nearly as delicious as I imagined in my head, but BOY, let me tell you, they are! The original recipe comes from http://nancycreative.com/2012/09/21/pumpkin-cupcakes-with-cinnamon-cream-cheese-frosting/. I did tweek a few things, and I will tell you along the way.

To the dry ingredients, I threw in some pumpkin pie spice because... well why not? Forewarning, the cake part is SUPER dense. I am not sure exactly why or if that is just the nature of pumpkin, but it was not light and fluffy. It was more like a muffin, but don't get me wrong. It was still delicious, the cake part was just heavy.

Now let's move on to the icing. Can we say heavenly?!? I am not kidding! WARNING: DO NOT.... I repeat... DO NOT make the whole batch of icing! I halved the ingredients (except the cinnamon and vanilla, I still added 2 teaspoons) and it was more than enough for the ~20 cupcakes. I even have a tupperware with lots of leftover icing. So unless you want icing for days (and you might! ha) half the icing recipe!

I wish I had some icing tips here at my apartment so I could make the icing pretty, but who needs pretty when you have something this delicious?!

I cannot wait to take these to class tomorrow where it *seems* that there are many pumpkin lovers. I will absolutely be making these again and advise you all to put this one in the favorite recipe folder!

Happy baking AND eating!

Blueberry Cheesecake Cookies

For those of you who know me, you know that I love to bake. I love making little treats for people. (Especially so I can eat one or two and then give the rest away!) So I have decided that about once every week or two (depending on my free time) I am going to try out a new recipe from pinterest and review it!

Here goes:

For my first review, I decided to try out a cheesecake cookie from http://julesmalley.blogspot.com/2013/02/hiatus-ended.html. Cheesecake is my favorite thing, so I figured having it in cookie form would be fantastic!!

A few things I noticed right away when making these cookies: 1) there is no egg, which I found odd, but went with it 2) the batter is very very thick 3) for this being a cheesecake cookie, there is not much cream cheese (disclaimer: I added an extra oz) and 4) I figured they would be too plain, so I topped them with blueberry pie filling.

They came out pretty enough:

They were okay, but I don't think I would ever make them again. I am officially on the hunt for a fabulous cheesecake cookie recipe!! But here are my thoughts on the cookie...

1. They tasted more like a shortbread. A few people commented about this in the comments section of the original recipe so I wasn't all that surprised when I came to the same conclusion.

2. Do not just roll them into a ball and put them on the cookie sheet like the instructions say. They will NOT flatten out. They remain in their original position.

3. DO NOT... I repeat.... DO NOT overcook! They really need about 10 minutes tops and they are good to go. My rule of thumb for baking is that it is far better to undercook a hair than to overcook! Ooey gooey is much better than hard and dry.

4. I would not make these without a topping, otherwise they would be even more shortbread like. You could really have fun with the topping.

Sooooo....

Overall, they are good for those of you who aren't into super sweet things, but were not my favorite and I will not be making them again.

Hope all my classmates eat them when I take them to class tomorrow!!

Until next time!!

Happy baking!!

Update**: People actually seemed to really like this cookie. While the did agree that it tasted like a short-bread, they said it sort of had a scone-like texture. Maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought!