My all time favorite cookie recipe is for Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut cookies. Since we’re getting into that season where cookies, a good book or movie, and a blanket is the perfect recipe for a wonderful evening, I thought I’d share my recipe with you! It’s super easy to make and doesn’t take much time at all. I love whipping up a batch of cookies when I know friends are going to be coming over and I want something special to share with them.
Oven Temp: 375 degrees
Time: 10-12 minutes
Serves: 3 dozen
½ cup butter, softened
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. baking soda
1 cup macadamia nuts, chopped
1 ¼ cups semisweet chocolate chunks
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/8 cup flour
Preheat oven.
Lightly grease 2 large cookie sheets.
Cream the butter and sugars together in a large bowl.
Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until blended.
Sift together the flour and baking soda.
Gradually blend into the batter.
Stir in the chopped macadamia nuts and chocolate chunks.
Drop rounded teaspoons onto the cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart.
Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown.
Remove from the oven, and transfer the cookies to cooling racks.
On Saturday Shawn and his friends are having a BBQ. We signed up for dessert and potato salad. So of course, I wandered over to my trusty website Pinterest, to find a good cupcake recipe. The cupcakes are delicious so if you have an hour and feel like baking, I encourage you to make these!
One day, my Pinterest attempts will look as good as they do on Pinterest… Photos of a few of the different steps are after the recipe!
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups water
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pans with cupcake liners.
In large bowl combine all dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk until well combined.
Add oil and sour cream and mix together with whisk.
Gradually add water and continue to whisk.
Add vanilla and eggs and whisk until combined.
Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter.
Bake for 16 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Let cupcakes cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove to wire racks to finish cooling.
Once cupcakes are completely cool, hollow out the center of your cupcakes using a Cupcake Corer or Apple Corer.
Fill centers will Cookie Dough and frost with Cookie Dough Icing. Garnish with chocolate chips and a mini Cookie Dough cookie.
For the Cookie Dough filling:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
In bowl of stand mixer beat butter, sugar and vanilla until creamy.
Gradually add in flour and sweetened condensed milk and mix until well combined.
Stir in chocolate chips.
If dough seems too sticky, put in refrigerator to set up for about 30 minutes before filling cupcakes.
Fill center of cupcakes with Cookie Dough. I used a melon baller to get a consistent size ball for each cupcake.
Roll out the left over cookie dough using a rolling pin and cut out mini cookies using a small circle cutter. Chill the dough cookies until they are firm and then use to decorate the tops of the cupcakes.
For the Icing:
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup milk
In bowl of stand mixer cream butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar together for 1-2 minutes until creamy.
Gradually add in flour and confectioner’s sugar mixing well and scraping down sides of bowl.
Add milk as needed to reach desired consistency.
Mix in vanilla.
Continue to mix icing for 3-4 minutes.
Place icing in piping bag fitted with large round tip and swirl on top of cupcakes.
Normally I schedule my posts the day before to go up at midnight, however I have been having so many computer problems, I’m having to do my posts on my iPad. Thus, leading to it being a little more difficult to do my posts, but hey, they’re still getting done,
Well, yesterday I decided to make something I found on Pinterest, and that was Andes Mint Cupcakes. Those mints are some of my favorite, so why not make a cupcake with them? Click the link to see where I got the recipe. But for now, here are some photos I took while I was making them. Please note: what you make on your own, never looks the same as the Pinterest pictures.
preppy california 
