Been Baking

A little while ago I was blog surfing, and I came across a blog entry talking about a new cook book that was out. Actually they were giving away free copies of this cook book. I was intrigued to say the least. So I did some more surfing and decided to purchase Pioneer Woman's new cookbook. I have tried out a couple recipes, but they have all been from the dessert section.

The first was this recipe for a chocolate sheet cake for Andre's birthday. It turned out really well, and sure enough, everyone did moan about how good it was.

Then last week (New Years Eve to be exact) I wanted a brownie. Actually I needed a brownie, so I cracked open her cookbook again and made her mocha brownie recipe. I'm not a huge fan of mocha icing though so I substituted the icing recipe from the chocolate sheet cake instead. They were so yummy, I served them as dessert for our company for New Years Eve.

Here is a picture of the finished product:

Famous Cookies

I'm going to temporarily jump on the Food Blog Bandwagon and post the recipe for some cookies I just made today. It's the second time I have made them and they are so delish. The recipe is from: Company's Coming: Cookie Jar Classics.

Famous Cookies

3/4 cup Hard Margarine (or butter), softened

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup Granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups Quick-cooking rolled oats, processed in blender for 10-15 seconds

1 cup All purpose flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

1 cup Semi-sweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup chopped pecans

2 Sweet chocolate baking squares (1 oz., 28g, each) grated

Cream first 3 ingredients in large bowl. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla. Beat until smooth.

Combine next 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Add to margarine mixture in 2 additions, mixing well after each addition until no dry flour remains.

Add remaining 3 ingredients. Mix well. Roll into 1 1/4 inch (3cm) balls. Arrange about 2 inches (5cm) apart on greased cookie sheets. Bake in 375 F oven for about 10 minutes until edges are golden. Let stand on cookie sheets for 5 minutes. Remove cookies from cookie sheets and place on wire racks to cool.

Makes about 60 cookies.

*Notes: Since Andre is allergic to all tree nuts, I substituted 3/4 cup of the chocolate chips instead of pecans.

For the grated chocolate I use 2 oz of Victorian Epicure chocolate (it comes already grated).

I don't know how they say this makes 60 cookies, I only end up with about 3 dozen. Maybe mine are bigger?