Yesterday was a rainy day here.  I wanted to bake, but didn’t want to venture out.  Before my son was born I would have braved almost anything outside my front door if there was something I needed from the store.  Not the case anymore!  So I raided the pantry.  I had a half of a package of Oreos, but no chocolate chips.  I did have cocoa, butter, flour, sugar and eggs.  So I decided to make a chocolate cookie dough and use that to encase the Oreo.  I ended up with these little…ok, fine, rather large beauties.

These were good.  Gooey, chocolatey, decadent and perfect served with a cold glass of milk or a nice little scoop of vanilla ice cream.    If I had to choose between these and the chocolate chip version, I’d choose the chocolate chip.  I think the texture of the chocolate chip dough against the Oreo was better.  Adding chocolate chips to the chocolate dough might be a good way to get closer to the other version while still giving the chocolate lover in you a nice treat.

My first batch spread quite a bit, making the Oreo inside pretty obvious.  So, prepare the cookies, then chill them on the cookie sheets in the fridge for 15 minutes or so.

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 2/3 cup cocoa
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 15-18 Oreo cookies

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes.
3. Add in eggs, one at a time, then mix in vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
5. Mix dry ingredients into butter mixture on low speed until all flour is incorporated.  Use a spatula to get dough from the bottom of your bowl, then mix again until dough is uniform.  Chill dough for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
6. Scoop 2 rounded tablespoons of dough, slightly flatten one scoop and place Oreo on top.  Cover Oreo with the other scoop of dough and press dough around edges, making sure the Oreo is enclosed and the cookie is even in thickness.
7. Repeat, and bake cookies (about 6 to a sheet) for 11-13 minutes.  They will look done, but still be soft.  Let them cool on the sheets for 2-3 minutes, then move to cooking racks.

If you’ve been part of a cookie exchange or received some gifts from the kitchen this Christmas, then there is a good chance you have seen these.  A super simple, three ingredient treat that looks way more impressive than it actually is.  These cute little goodies are so sweet and so yummy.

When you shape these, make sure to make them small.  They really are rich.  If they are too big you may not be able to eat the whole thing, or you’ll feel too guilty taking a second one, and then you won’t get to try both kinds!

The recipe for the Oreo truffles came from the Kraft website.  I used candy coating instead of chocolate squares.  Melting chocolate just never seems to harden well enough.  Does anyone have any tips for coating with real chocolate?

After I made these I thought I should have used the white candy coating for a nice contrast from outer white coating to inner dark chocolate.  Then I thought about all the possibilities there are with these truffles.  You could use any sandwich cookie.  So I did the same thing with a package of Nutter Butters.  The white coating gave me some issues, so these were not as evenly coated as the chocolate.  The peanut butter truffles would have been delicious with the chocolate coating.  Who doesn’t like that peanut butter and chocolate combination?

I love the sprinkles of cookie crumbs on top of these truffles.  It gives them more of a true chocolate truffle appearance (and it helps to hide any uneven coating).  If you really wanted to dress these up even more and make them appealing to foodies, sprinkle with some flaked sea salt.  Some people might be averse to this sweet and salty combo, but it really is wonderful.  You can find flaked sea salt at many grocery stores.  It isn’t cheap, but you don’t use very much and it goes a long way.  This one by Maldon is the one I see most often.

If you don’t have a food processor, get to work with a large ziploc bag and a rolling pin to break the cookies into crumbs.  Make sure when you start coating the balls that you have 2 cookie sheets prepped with parchment paper, wax paper or Silpats.  This makes clean up a breeze, and removing the truffles much easier.

Oreo Truffles

Ingredients

• 1 package Oreo cookies
• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 1 package chocolate candy coating

Directions

1. Process Oreos in a food processor to fine crumbs.
2. Reserve about 1/2 cup of the crumbs in a small bowl.
3. Combine the remaining crumbs and the cream cheese and mix until evenly combined.
4. Form dough into ping pong sized balls, between 45 and 55 depending on size.
5. Melt chocolate coating according to package instructions.  Coat each ball and place on parchment or wax paper.  Sprinkle with reserved crumbs while chocolate is still wet.
6. Chill truffles for at least an hour, then store in sealed containers in the fridge until serving.

Nutter Butter Truffles

My sister worked at Half Price Books a couple years ago and got her hands on this neat cookbook from the Cook’s Country editors.  It contains recipes that have been around for a while that have been shared by home cooks.  Stories accompany each recipe telling who they came from, and how and where they originated.  The goal of this cookbook is to bring back recipes that are worth remembering.

This simple chocolate sheet cake is called “Scotch Cake” in the cookbook.  The note about this recipe says:

“The origin of the name of this simple sheet cake, with its unique pecan and coconut topping, was a mystery to Melinda and her mother, whose recipe card for it included a note that said: “I don’t understand the name of this cake.  I just call it my “boil it” cake”.”

I brought this cake to a potluck dinner, and it received a few compliments.  It’s a great potluck dessert because you can make it a day in advance and keep it in the fridge, it’s simple to prepare, you can take it in the pan and it cuts really nicely.  After being refrigerated the cake becomes almost fudgy and the coconut pecan icing gets that nice sugary crunch.  You know what I’m talking about.

Chocolate Snack Cake with Coconut Pecan Icing

From America’s Best Lost Recipes

Ingredients

Cake

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 sticks of butter
• 1 cup water
• 4 teaspoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

There is no baking required and therefore no need to turn on your oven, which is nice for me.  It’s been over 100°F most days this summer.

I changed a few things about the assembly of this pie to make it a little simpler.  If you read the recipe from the cookbook you notice that the assembly requires some marbling of the caramel, peanut butter and cream cheese mixture.  I just put a layer of caramel on top of the crust and then mixed the peanut butter in with the cream cheese.  This seemed to be a fine way to assemble the pie, maybe just not as pretty as the marbling would have been.

I highly recommend putting the peanut butter cups in the fridge or freezer prior to chopping.  This makes life, cutting boards, knives and hands, much cleaner.

As you might have noticed, there is not much sugar in the filling.  I was a little worried about this, but it was perfect.  Who am I to doubt Magnolia Bakery?  Combined with the cookie crust, caramel and peanut butter cups it is just wonderful and not overly sweet.

One of my new guilty pleasures are those Reese’s Minis, and I happen to have a stash of them in the fridge (where I must keep any chocolate with it being so hot this time of year.)  I halved the minis and chopped some unsalted peanuts for the topping.  If I were feeling really crazy I might use salted peanuts as a nice salty contrast.  Something else that might be interesting would be using some of the white chocolate Reese’s…I think it could work.  Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Icebox Pie

From The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

Ingredients

Crust

• 1 stick butter
• 2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs

Filling

• 12 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup (1 pint) heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks
• 6-8 regular peanut butter cups, chopped
• 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/2 cup caramel sauce

Garnish

• Handful of chopped peanut butter cups
• Handful of chopped peanuts

Directions

Crust

1. Combine butter and cookie crumbs in a bowl until crumbs are evenly coated.
2. Press into a 9-inch pie plate.
3. Chill in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Filling

1. Beat cream cheese until fluffy, 2 minutes.  Add sugar gradually, then beat in peanut butter and vanilla.
2. Whip the cream in a separate bowl, then fold gently into the cream cheese mixture.
3. Fold in the peanut butter cups.

Assembly

1. Remove the crust from the freezer.
2. Spread the caramel on the bottom of the crust, then spread the filling over the caramel and smooth the top.
3. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 8 hours, or overnight.
4. To serve, garnish with peanut butter cups and peanuts.

These bars require no mixing.  Just a little crushing of graham crackers, melting of butter and then layering of ingredients.  A mere 25 minutes in the oven and they’re done.  This is a great last minute dessert.  If you don’t have pecans, then you can use walnuts.  You could probably even use peanuts, honey roasted might just be amazing.  Yum.  If you don’t have chocolate chips you could use white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips or a combination.  You can also use margarine if you don’t have butter.  But who doesn’t have pounds of butter in their fridge at all times?  Crazy people.  That’s who.  Enjoy!

Hello Dolly Bars

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups crushed graham crackers
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 1/3 cup shredded coconut
• 1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

Directions

1. Pour melted butter in bottom of a 9×13 pan.
2. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over butter followed by pecans, chocolate chips and coconut.
3. Drizzle condensed milk evenly over everything.
4. Bake for 25 minutes @ 350°F.

Like many of my baked goods these days, this one was an attempt to use things I had on hand.  I had a cake mix, a jar of peanuts, and chocolate chips.  So, I made these cookies.  And they are not bad.

These cookies taste like a cake mix, and that’s OK with me.  I happen to like that flavor every now and then.  The mix I had already had some little chips in it, so add a few more chocolate chips if your mix does not.  I used half butter and half margarine since I had half sticks of both in the fridge.  These were crazy delicious while still warm and gooey in the middle.  They weren’t quite as good the next day for some reason.  Just pop one…or two…or five in the microwave for 5-10 seconds to warm them up, and enjoy with a cold glass of milk. Mmmmm…

Switch the chips for whatever you want.  Use different nuts.  Whatever. Enjoy!

Fudgy Chocolate & Peanut Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 box chocolate cake mi
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups salted peanuts
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup peanut butter chips

Directions

1. Beat butter or margarine until smooth.  Beat in cake mix, then oil, eggs and vanilla until smooth.
2. Stir in peanuts, and chips.
3. Bake cookies at 350°F for 9-12 minutes.

Baking Bites (link here) does a post called “Bites from Other Blogs” where she  introduces you to new food blogs and recipes.  This one caught my eye, and thanks to always buying more than I need I had a fresh box of OREOS in the pantry!  It was fate, my friends, fate.

The recipe came from picky-palate.com and I will be forever thankful to both blogs for introducing me to this cookie!  Bless you, Jenny!  I am now subscribed to your blog : )

The only change I made was to use part of a bag of chocolate chips, some Heath bar bits, and some chopped semi-sweet chocolate to make the full 10 ounces.  I liked the combination of chips, chunks and bits of toffee.  It makes these cookies even better, in my opinion anyway.  These are so evil.  I recommend bringing somewhere to pawn them off on other people so that you are not tempted to eat them all yourself!

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 sticks softened butter
• 3/4 Cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 Cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla
• 3 1/2 Cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 10 oz bag chocolate chips
• 24 Oreo Cookies

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.   In a stand or electric mixer cream butter and sugars until well combined.  Add in eggs and vanilla until well combined.
2. In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda.  Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips until just combined.
3. Using a cookie scoop take one scoop of cookie dough and place on top of an Oreo Cookie.  Take another scoop of dough and place on bottom of Oreo Cookie.  Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until Oreo Cookie is enclosed with dough.
4. Place onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet and bake cookies 9-13 minutes or until cookies are baked to your liking.
5. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Desserts with which you have a love-hate relationship are usually the best ones.  This brownie recipe will be one that I will make again.  Simple ingredients.  Easy preparation.  Sinfully good.  And while I ate more than one for dessert, a normal person with a healthy relationship with sweets really only needs one to be satisfied.

I found this recipe on Tasty Kitchen, the recipe sharing site from the Pioneer Woman.  Here is the link to the site.  I’ve enjoyed searching through all the recipes, but have yet to submit any of my own.  There are already so many recipes with a pretty great variety that I don’t know if I will.  One of the things I like about sites like these is that real people made the recipes and so they are usually pretty easy and tasty.  Thank you, Tasty Kitchen!

On the site these brownies are called “Are We in Heaven?  No…It’s Just the Brownies.” which is what made me take a second look at this recipe.  I thought it was funny.  Would I say that these brownies are like being in heaven?  No.  Nothing on this earth is going to be that good.  But they are incredibly good.

The brownie is fudgy.  The frosting is pretty sweet, so a thin layer is all you need.Frosted Cocoa Brownies

Ingredients

BROWNIES:

• 1 Cup Melted Butter
• 2 Cups Granulated Sugar
• 2 Teaspoons Vanilla
• 4 Eggs
• 1 Cup Flour
• 2/3 Cup Cocoa
• 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder

FROSTING:

• 6 Tablespoons Softened Butter
• 6 Tablespoon Cocoa
• 2 Tablespoons Light Corn Syrup
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
• 2 Cups Powdered Sugar
• 3-5 Tablespoons Milk

Preparation

BROWNIES:

1. Blend butter, sugar and vanilla. Add each egg one at a time just until incorporated.
2. Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder, then blend into butter mixture.
3. Spread into a greased 9×13 pan. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Cool completely.

FROSTING:

1. Cream the butter, cocoa, corn syrup and vanilla.
2. When mixed, add powdered sugar until blended.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of milk at a time until you reach the desired consistency.  Spread on brownies.

Here are the changes I made; I used 2% instead of whole milk and I sprinkled the top with granulated sugar instead of the turbinado.  This is a dense, slightly sweet bread that is bursting with tart cranberries.  The top of the bread comes out of the oven crunchy and delicious.  After a day wrapped in foil, however, the top became a little gooey.  It remains delicious, especially when toasted.

This bread is easy to make and isn’t too sweet to serve for breakfast, unlike some quick breads.  Almonds or pecans would be yummy in this bread.  Enjoy!Cranberry Bread

Courtesy of Martha Stewart.com

Ingredients

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees; grease and sugar a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan (8-cup capacity), and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, combine butter, egg, and milk.
4. Add wet mixture to dry mixture, and whisk to combine; fold in cranberries.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan; sprinkle top with turbinado sugar, if desired.
6. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
7. Transfer pan to a wire rack; let bread cool 30 minutes. Invert onto rack, then immediately turn right side up to cool completely.

In fact, the only problem I encountered in making this cheesecake is that my pan wasn’t deep enough to add the sour cream layer on top of the cheesecake, and without this layer the cheesecake had a visibly cracked top.  But that issue was hidden by the chocolate ganache layer.

In the past I have been known to cut corners in the time department.  I have very little patience.  I don’t allow things to set up or chill completely, usually because I have not given myself enough time to complete the dessert.  I gave myself plenty of time for this cheesecake, and my planning and patience paid off.  The cake cut nicely and had a terrific creamy texture.  So, give the cake the time is deserves to set in the oven, chill in the fridge overnight, and chill with the chocolate layer as well.

This recipe is from allrecipes.com.  Here is the link to the recipe.  I left out the sour cream layer completely, but other than that I did not make any changes.  You will need one package of Oreos…unless you plan to snack on them along the way.  I crushed them in the food processor, which is tons easier than banging them in a plastic bag that inevitably breaks and creates quite a mess.

Cheesecake alone is decadent, but this one is especially so thanks to the Oreo crust, the layer of Oreo in the middle and the lovely chocolate top.  This was a hit at the Christmas party I took it to.  You will not be sorry if you take the time to make this!  Enjoy.

Oreo Cheesecake

Ingredients

• 2 cups chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 pounds cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Combine 2 cups cookie crumbs, melted butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a medium bowl; firmly press mixture evenly onto bottom and 1 inch up sides of a 10-inch springform pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 5 minutes; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually mix in 1 1/4 cups sugar, 1/3 cup whipping cream, flour, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Pour 1/3 of batter into prepared pan. Top with 1 1/2 cups cookie pieces; pour in remaining batter.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes.  Turn oven off and leave in oven for 45 minutes. Remove cheesecake, and let cool completely on a wire rack.
4. Combine 1 cup whipping cream and chocolate chips in a saucepan; stir over low heat until chocolate melts, and then stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Pour mixture over cheesecake while still warm. Refrigerate until serving time. Should be at least 8 hours for refrigerator time, remove about 1/2 hour to 1 hour before serving, remove ring from springform pan, decorate to choice