Jack-Jack Num-Nums

 At Disneyland, near the Incredicoaster, there is a little booth that sells the most delicious cookies, the Jack-Jack Num-Nums. I love them. 

A few years ago, I got a copy of the Disneyland parks cookbook and it has a recipe in here for these cookies. 

I had a craving tonight and instead of heading over and getting one, I decided to do a batch of my own. 

I got them made and put into my specially bought containers: 

And of course, when they baked, they overflowed a little. But honestly, super delicious, I love them so much.

Cookie Exchange

 So for a couple of years now I've listened to a podcast, Deck the Hallmark. It's grown from being this small podcast to now being an entire network of podcasts, with so many good ones. (they have one that is on every day, called Take the Day Off, and that is a dang delight because they ask us questions and we can send them in, so when they read my answers on air it's legit the best!) 

Anyway. 

This week is when Hallmark is going to air its first Christmas movie. Yes, you have read that right, this weekend, the 24th of October, Hallmark is going to start airing the new Christmas movies. So, in order to do a countdown of the week, we Double Deckers (what people who are Patreon's of the podcast and part of the Facebook page are called) have decided to do a cookie exchange. So we threw our names in a hat and we were given names. I sent some cookies (chocolate chip and pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip) to a gal in California. And today, my cookies have arrived! 

I received some cowboy cookies from a gal in Kansas, how fun! They are delicious and I can't wait to see the new movies as they air! Will they be the same as always? Of course they will be. Any surprises in store? Absolutely not. But will I love and hate them at the same time? Also yes. Happy holidays everyone! 

Treats for a Shower

 I was hired this week to do some treats for a bridal shower. It's a drive by shower, so they had to be individually wrapped, and I had to make between 80-90. They requested 3 things - Oreos, chocolate chip cookies, and Rice Krispy treats. Easy to separate! So I spent all day making these treats and then wrapped them all up. 

I was so proud of all the work I did, and it felt so great to be hired for baking again, it's been a dang minute. 

Jack-Jack Num Nums

Guys, if you have never been to the Incredicoaster at Disneyland, y'all gotta go. ASAP. I know that's hard with the parks being closed, but hey, give it a go.
Jokes, just wait.
But outside of the Incredicoaster, they sell these cookies, Jack-Jack's Num Nums. I found a recipe on Pinterest and of course had to give it a go!
Here's how they go:

• 2 sticks salted butter softened or browned
• 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chunks
• 1/4 cup chocolate chunks for tops of cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and place 8 cookie liner cups onto large baking sheet.Place butter and sugars into a large mixing bowl, beat until well combined.  Note: For another variation, try browning the butter first. Let butter cool for 15 minutes then continue with this recipe. Add eggs and vanilla stirring until well combined.  Add flour, salt and baking soda, stir slowly until dough forms.  Stir in 1 1/4 cups chocolate chunks. Scoop about 3 heaping scoops of cookie dough into each cookie liner cup. 

Press each cookie so dough is even then top with more chocolate chunks, pressing slightly into tops of dough.  Bake for 22-24 minutes, until baked through, starting to turn golden on top.  Remove and let cool for 5 minutes.  Serve warm.

 These are ... pretty good. They taste more like a pumpkin muffin than anything else and that was a bit disappointing. I mean, they're fine and all but they taste absolutely nothing like a Jack-Jack cookie, which was too bad, but hey , they're still a dang good time. 

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Now that Fall has kicked off, it's time for Fall treats. I've chosen today to make Pumpkin Snickerdoodles, which I have made before, but I guess not blogged about? So here it is!

Ingredients

• ½ cup, plus 3 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup, plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup pumpkin puree (do not use the pumpkin pie mix puree)
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1¼ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• Coating:
• ¼ cup granulate sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• Icing:
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
• 2½ – 3½ cups powdered sugar (depending on how thick you want it)
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Instructions

1. Beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar for about 3 minutes on low.
2. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix in the vanilla and egg until combined.
3. Add the pumpkin and sour cream.
4. In a separate medium bowl, combine your dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk them all together and slowly stir into the wet ingredients.
5. Refrigerate the batter for at least 30 minutes to an hour.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees while you start to roll out the dough into medium size balls.
7. Mix together the granulated sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg for the coating.
8. Roll the balls of dough into the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Pat the ball of dough gently with your palm after setting onto the pan (covered with parchment paper or a baking mat).
9. Bake for 14 to 15 minutes. They will finish baking when you let them cool on the baking sheet when pulled out of the oven. Do not over bake.
10. Icing:
11. Beat the softened cream cheese and vanilla for about 1 minute on medium high speed. Alternate the heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar until the right consistency. 
12. Add the cinnamon and nutmeg to the icing. You can hand frost these with a knife or by using a piping bag method.
13. Enjoy!

Now yes, I just copied and pasted this from Pinterest, as I am lazy, its from a blog called Simply Gloria.

Anyway, these were so dang good! 

A Scientific Experiment

Last night, we did a science experiment. We wanted to see once and for all which was better - the Chip chocolate chip cookie or the Crumbl chocolate chip cookie. We ordered the cookies, and we were ready.

After trying them both we decided....
Both have flaws, both have bonuses, they each a bit different so I preferred both of them for different reasons.
Conclusion?
Both delicious.

Deserved

My last class of every week is Thursday, I never have classes on Friday, which is really nice, having a 4-day week. So today, I decided to treat myself to some Chip Cookies. 

Never had Chip? It's delicious! Basically you hit up their website, https://www.chipcookies.co and order some cookies. They will deliver them warm to you! And they have a new flavor in addition to their standard chocolate chip every month, so that's fun. 

Anyway, I tried the flavor of the month, Pumpkin Nutella. I decided to write myself an encouraging note on the package. 

These were pretty good cookies, but not great. I think it's because this is the first time my cookies were delivered to me cold, and that was such a disappointment. They're much better warm! But give then a go, maybe they were just having an off night. 

Brookies

I needed to make a treat for a family dinner tonight, and luckily I had some time before church to make them. Especially with this amazing recipe that was so easy.

Make a brownie mix. Any old favorite mix. Have some cookie dough. Pre-made, make it yourself, etc. Now, fill a muffin tin with paper liners. Scoop them about halfway full of brownie mix. Take a generous scoop of cookie dough, and flatten it into disc-like flat circle. Place them on top of the brownie mix.

Bake at 350 for 20-22 minutes. I forgot to take a pic after they were done but they were DELICIOUS. Even my brother in law, who doesn't really like sweets all that much, kept eating them, he loved them. I can't tell you how good these were. I think in the future I would make my cookie scoops bigger, I think they were a little too small. Enjoy!

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

I wanted some raspberry chocolate chip cookies recently. But the only recipe I could find online only made 12 cookies, and were a "healthy" cookie and to be honest, those cookies aren't always that good, they taste just as healthy as they're supposed to be, so ugh. So instead, I decided to make up my own recipe. And guess what? They actually worked out! They are delicious! Here's the recipe:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups quick oats
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/3 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
   
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup canned raspberry pie filling
• 1 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• 
  

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, oats, baking soda, salt, set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until creamy.  Blend in egg then blend in vanilla extract and raspberry filling. With mixer set on low speed, slowly add in dry ingredients and mix until combined. Mix in chocolate chips. I then put the dough into the fridge for about 15 minutes, so the oats can absorb some of the liquid. It will be a little sticky! 
• Scoop dough out, I used a cookie scoop that is about a tablespoon, and drop onto parchment paper lined baking sheets, spacing cookies 2-inches apart. Bake in preheated oven 12 - 14 minutes. I did 13 for each, and then when I took them out of the oven, I left them on the sheet on the top of the stove for another 10 minutes, because they were still pretty soft. 

And that's it. So then I was nervous, because even though they were smelling tasty, I was nervous they wouldn't taste that good. But! They did! They were actually really yummy and soft and delicious. 

Of course the batter was pink from the raspberries, but these were really delicious and I totally recommend them. 

Ginger Cookies

Its that time of year when I feel like peppermint and gingerbread are everywhere, so I decided to try making some soft ginger cookies. I like how they turned out.

1 ½ cups butter, softened to room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
½ cup molasses
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, beat together butter and sugar on medium speed for 2 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the bowl if need be.  Mix in the eggs and molasses, and beat until each is combined. Gradually add in the dry ingredient mixture and beat until combined.
Place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on top of the dough to cover it.  Then refrigerate dough for 30-60 minutes, until it is completely chilled.
Roll the dough into small balls, about 1-inch in diameter. Fill a small bowl with sugar, and roll each ball in the sugar until it is completely coated. Place on cookie sheet at least 1 inch apart, then bake for about 8-10 minutes, until the cookies begin to slightly crack on top. Remove from the oven and let cool for a minute or two. Then transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

These were pretty good. I find I don't really care for gingerbread as much as I want to, but that's all right, these were tasty.

National Gingerbread Day

Sadly, that day isn't today, but yesterday, Monday the 21st was National Gingerbread Day. And I celebrated by making some cookies. I picked a recipe off Pinterest and gave it a go.

What a mistake.

The problem was that this girl didn't have nearly enough flour in her cookies. These things were a sticky mess. But by the time I figured it out was after the 30 minute refrigeration time, and I didn't want to throw everything back in the mixer and hope to get the flour measurements right. So I just made boring circles instead of making them into cool shapes, and then I decorated them. I have no recipe to share, because I sure as heck am not going to share hers and have you guys as disappointed as I was. So here are my cookies to look at, with the resolve to find a better recipe.

Choco Chip Cookies

I'm always on the lookout for the perfect recipe for chocolate chip cookies. All the ones I've had are delicious of course, but I always want to see if a new one I find is just a little more delicious. So tonight I tried a new recipe. Let's break it down.

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
1 Tb vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp  kosher salt
2 cups chocolate chips

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Melt butter in a bowl in the microwave. Add brown sugar to a large bowl, then pour melted butter over brown sugar. Stir to combine butter and sugar. Let stand 5 minutes.
Add egg and egg yolk; stir to combine, and stir in vanilla extract. Add flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
Using a medium cookie scoop (or your hands if you don't have a scoop, I just do, it's about a tablespoon+, drop scoops of dough 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet. Bake for about 7-10 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Remove to wire rack to finish cooling.

Guys, these were super delicious! I really dug these, and they were so fast and quick to make, when I finished, I could hardly believe how easy they were!

Cake Mix PB Cookies

This is a super simple recipe that turned into a delicious cookie, guys.

1 yellow box cake mix
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs
24-40 Reese Peanut Butter Cup Miniature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix first 4 ingredients together in a bowl until they reach cookie dough consistency. Drop by tablespoon onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-12 minutes (until slightly browned on bottom edge). While baking, unwrap Reese peanut butter cups, set aside.
When cookies are done, remove from oven, and push peanut butter cups upside down into the cookie.
** The PB cup will melt quite a bit. If you don't want them as melted, just wait 3-5 minutes before putting them in.

So the original recipe said that she made 40 of these cookies, but I stretched my dough as far as I could and only made 24, so I guess my tablespoons were considerable bigger than hers. I just have one standard size cookie scoop though, and I'm ok with my sizes. Enjoy these!

Peach Pie Cookies

So, I have a peach tree. In years past, it's blessed us with many delicious peaches. For some reason this year, it gave us a million peaches, but they never grew larger than like, an apricot. They were small and tiny and minuscule. As I had about 6 that were good for consumption, I decided to do something with them. After a bit of searching, I found this recipe on the good site of Pinterest. Here's the recipe:
1 cup instant oats
¾ cup flour
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
2 TB unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 large egg
1 tsp almond extract
½ cup honey
½ cup diced peaches

Whisk together the oats, flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, egg, and almond extract. Stir in the honey. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Fold in the peaches. Chill for an hour. Preheat the oven to 325°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. I used a cookie scoop and dropped the cookie dough into rounded scoops onto the prepared sheet. Bake at 325°F for 11-14 minutes. Cool on the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

Ok here are my notes on said recipe. The almond extract is too much. In the future, I would do a 1/2 tsp of that and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract because the almond OVERWHELMS the cookies so much. I didn't have enough honey so I substituted agave for it. It made the cookies very healthy but also, they tasted healthy. I would like to try a recipe in the future where I just use some brown sugar, see how that would taste. Otherwise, these were pretty tasty. I want to just fiddle with the recipe in the future.

Lemon Cookies

For stamp and chat, I made some cookies, and they were pretty delicious. The only flaw was that I used white chocolate chips to make them, and I just don't like white chocolate. At least it's an easy recipe:

1 box lemon cake mix
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
Juice from one lemon (which is about 3 TB)
1 cup white chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well. Dough will be quite sticky. Chill in refrigerator for 60 minutes, to firm it up.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees. When heated, remove cookie dough from fridge and drop by spoonfuls (I used my handy dandy cookie scoop) onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until very lightly browned - I did for about 9 minutes, they were just a little too underdone at 7. Let cool completely!

These are super delicious, very lemony and tasty. I would like to try with regular chocolate chips and see how they taste. Next time.

Cookie Cups with Snickers

So, last night, I had a little time on my hands before Husband was done with school, so I made a little treat. I had some leftover caramel frosting, and some Snickers from when I did the cupcakes, and decided now was as good a time as any to use them. I had some pre-made cookie dough in the fridge, so here's what I did. I put some mini cupcake papers into a mini cupcake pan, and pressed some dough into them. (I did 48) I baked them at 350 degrees, for 10 minutes.

As they were baking, I had a bag of mini-Snickers. I cut each mini Snickers in half.  Then when the cookie-cups came out, I pressed one of the halves into the middle. I waited about 10 minutes, and then took the cups out of the pans, to cool completely. After they cooled, I used the caramel frosting left over from my Snickers cupcakes, and frosted these.

They are amazing, delicious, and look great (once the frosting is on. Without the frosting, they look awful). Make these when you're in a bind!

Oreo Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Saturday night, baking night y'all. I have a million peppermint chip bags right now (more on that later) so I decided on something with peppermint. After scouring my Pinterest boards, I found a good one. Let's dive in.

2 boxes white cake mix 

2 stick butters, melted 

2 egg

1 tsp peppermint extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

8 oz cream cheese, softened

2 cup Peppermint Oreo cookie chunks (I reckon regular Oreos would work, but I had peppermint, so I used those)

2 cup Andes Peppermint chips

1 cup chocolate chips

Combine the cake mix, melted butter, egg, and extracts. Beat until a dough forms. Add the cream cheese and beat in gently until combined. Add the peppermint chips and chocolate chips first. Then gently stir in the cookie pieces by hand being careful not to break up the cookie more. Refrigerate dough for about 45 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using my cookie scoop, I scooped cookie dough of about a tablespoon onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet, so if you hand roll be careful, the dough is pretty sticky. Bake sheet at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. No less. Literally, they will not look cooked, but please, trust me, I am trusty. Let them sit on the hot cookie sheet for like, 5-8 minutes more (I'll be honest, I left them there until the next ones came out, I'm lazy) to finish cooking, and then move them to a wire rack. Let them chill on the rack until completely cool. Store in a sealed container. I think this made...like 50-something cookies. You could halve it for less, but I make many cookies, since many teenagers come to my house. 

And that's it! These are super delicious, and I recommend them. 

Oatmeal M&M Cookies

Saturday night, time for baking! I wanted to do a cookie tonight again, so I chose oatmeal m&m cookies, they are so tasty. The recipe is:

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 and 2/3 cups (140g) old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 bag (12 oz?) mini m&m baking chips

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Mix together the butter and both sugars together on medium speed until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined. In another bowl, combine the oats, flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt together. Add to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. Add the M&M’s. Roll balls of dough (about 1 tablespoon of dough per cookie)  (or, if you’re me, just use your cookie scooper and plop onto the pan) and place 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 10-11 minutes until very lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft, like they’re not done cooking, but take them out anyway! Let them sit on top of the stove for about 6 minutes, to finish cooking a little. Then let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Guys, I can’t express how good these are. They are tasty. The cinnamon is a nice little spice to add, and these look like Christmas because I bought the Christmas m&m’s. I can’t wait for the holidays!

Brownie Cookies with Cookie Dough Frosting

I still had some leftover cookie dough frosting from making my cupcakes the other day. So I decided, a delicious way to do this was to make brownie cookies, and top them with it. So I made these cookies:

1 18 oz box regular ol’ brownie mix
4 oz cream cheese
1 egg
1/4 cup butter
2 TBS flour

Mix together to make a soft cookie like dough. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Drop mixture onto prepared cookie sheet by the teaspoonful. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes. When you pull them out of the oven, drop the cookie sheet to flatten the cookies a little. Then I topped with the frosting, after they had cooled.

Guys, these were amazing. I recommend highly.

Chocolate Chip Oreo Peppermint Cookies

I made a new batch of cookies tonight, and I had to mix up two recipes together to make them happen. I took the recipe for my chocolate chip cookies, and added some new things. Here’s the recipe for these delicious cookies:

2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup light brown sugar, loosely packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup Andes peppermint chips
1 cup smashed up Oreos (not completely – you want chunks, not just the fine powder)

Toss together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 325F degrees. In a medium size bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the egg, then the egg yolk. Finally, whisk in the vanilla and peppermint. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together. Pour in the chocolate and peppermint chips. Then, hand mix in the Oreos, and don’t overmix or the Oreo’s will take over the cookie dough. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll the dough into balls, about 1 Tablespoons of dough each. Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes. The cookies will look very soft and underbaked. They will continue to bake on the cookie sheet. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

These were crazy delicious! Honestly, the peppermint is such a great edition. But truth be told, when I make these in the future, I think I’ll leave out the Oreo. It’s a delish cookie, and I liked the taste, but I want to see what it’s like without it. But otherwise, these are awesome and super tasty. Enjoy!