When I was still living in Los Angeles I remember having a craving for an American Cookie Company cookie cake say that 10 times fast like whoa, I was all, ‘I’m totally gonna eat the heck out of one of those cookie cakes for my cheat day, and maybe a couple of their snickerdoodles too‘ I could practically taste their delicious cookies and cookie cakes as I excitedly looked up the nearest one, and womp womp womp the closest one was 60 miles from me, 60 MILES!?!? and 60 miles driving in/out/around Los Angeles might as well be 500, trust me my cheat day would have been over by the time I got home. 

Yes, there are other closer cookie cake making companies I could have gone to alliteration much, but either American Cookie Company was going to make it or no one was, dadgumit.  Weeelll after my initial heartbreak, sorrow sadness wore off I figured I might try my hand at making a similar, though obviously not the same, giant cookie thing at home.  I was sooo not disappointed, so I knew I needed to share it and this time I went buck wild  I added browned butter (always an excellent idea), butterscotch chips, Mini M&M’s and vanilla pudding mix to really make it nice and moist.  Honestly, just straight up eat this with a spoon out of the skillet, it’s just that good 🙂 and a giant ass scoop of ice cream is also beyond awesome too.

Lets start with some browned butter shall we? for a better explanation of how to brown butter go here

Place the browned butter in your mixing bowl, let it cool a bit then add your brown sugar…

Then add your granulated sugar…

Mix, mix, then add your flour, pudding mix, baking soda, salt and eggs (forgot to take a pic)…

Then mix, and add all in the extra goodies you want and there you have your dough…

Press all that goodness in your buttered skillet…

Bake 🙂

And enjoy!

Deep Dish Skillet Cookie

2015-01-23 13:19:21

A delicious deep dish cookie baked to perfection in an iron skillet.

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Ingredients

1. 1 Cup (2 Sticks) Unsalted Butter, Browned.
2. 1 Small Package of Vanilla Pudding Mix.
3. 1 Cup Packed Brown Sugar.
4. 3/4 Cup of Granulated Sugar.
5. 2 Large Eggs.
6. 2 Tablespoons of Vanilla Extract.
7. 3 Cups of All Purpose Flour.
8. 1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda.
9. 1 Teaspoon of Salt.
10. 1/3 Cup of Butterscotch Chips.
11. 1/3 Cup of Mini M&M's.
12. 10" Iron Skillet.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degees F.
2. In a pan on medium heat, melt your butter while stirring constantly, until brown flecks start to form on the bottom of the pan and it has a delicious nutty aroma, and remove from the heat.
3. Pour your browned butter into your mixing bowl to let it cool for a little bit.
4. Then place your browned sugar into your bowl with the butter and mix until incorporated.
5. Then place your granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
6. Then add your flour, baking soda, salt and dry vanilla pudding mix and combine.
7. Then add in your butterscotch chips and mini M&M's and mix until evenly distributed.
8. Press the dough into your skillet with your hands and bake 25-30 minutes or until slightly set around the edges, you will want the middle to still be gooey.

Notes

1. You can use whatever variation of chocolate chips, toffee bits, M&M's etc that you personally like.

HOLLY'S CHEAT DAY https://www.hollyscheatday.com/

So, gotta be honest, I became completely obsessed with my Mini Tea & Cookie Cups and knew I had to recreate them with my other obsession besides tea…coffee.  In my original quest of getting healthy several years ago, a gave up a lot of vices, coffee is not one of them.  Now,  I drink my coffee completely black, no sugar, no milk, no fancy shmancy toffee flavored creamers… nada.

These cookie cups on the other hand, are deliciously sweet with that coffee kick to them, and have one of my absolute favorite cookies as the base, snickerdoodles.  All that cinnamon sugar goodness filled with coffee infused whipped frosting, oh snap y’all, sooo good.  And I can’t get over how adorable and extra wonderful these cups are in mini form and I’m gonna go ahead and throw out there I will probably be wracking my brain for further amazing, wonderful flavors to make into mini cookie cups. 🙂

 Alrighty, let’s go ahead and infuse your milk with your instant coffee

Take your coffee/milk and your flour…

Mix it up and start to heat it…

When it starts to look like thin mashed potatoes take it off the heat…

Now take your cookie mix and butter…

Then add your egg…

Mix, mix and mix…

Roll your cookie dough in your cinnamon/sugar…

Press your cookie balls into your mini pans…

Baking…

While still warm, press your teaspoon into the dough to form a cup…

Take your butter and sugar…

Whip your butter and sugar until light and fluffy…

Then add your coffee/milk mixture to your butter and sugar…

Then whip, whip, whip until it’s super light and fluffy and wonderful…

Pipe your frosting in your cups and enjoy!

mmm fancy sugar crystals and a coffee bean…

Mini Coffee and Doodle Cups

2015-01-08 14:56:41

Yields 30

Miniature snickerdoodle cookie cups filled with coffee whipped frosting.

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FOR THE COOKIE CUPS

1. Betty Crocker Snickerdoodle Cookie Mix.
2. 1 Cinnamon/Sugar Packet (that comes with the cookie mix).
3. 1 Stick (1/2 Cup) of Unsalted Butter, Melted.
4. 1 Tablespoon of Water.
5. 1 Egg.

FOR THE WHIPPED FROSTING

1. 1 Cup of Milk, Warm.
2. 1.5 Tablespoons of Instant Coffee.
3. 2 Sticks of Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature.
4. 1 Cup of Sugar.

COOKIE CUPS

1. Preheat your oven 375 degrees F and spray your mini muffin tins with baker's spray and set aside.
2. If using cookie mix, place in mixing bowl and place cinnamon/sugar mixture in a small separate bowl.
3. With a handheld or stand mixer with paddle attachment mix your melted butter, water, and egg into the cookie mix until it forms the dough.
4. Scoop your dough and roll into 1" balls then roll your dough into the sugar/cinnamon mixture until covered completely.
5. Place the dough in your tins, pressing in the middle and up the sides to form a cup shape.
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until slightly golden, I took mine out at 9 minutes and they were perfect.
7. While your cups are still warm, press them with a 1 teaspoon measuring spoon to form a perfect cup.
8. Let cups cool completely and remove from tins.

FROSTING

1. Measure your milk and warm slightly in the microwave, not too hot just warm enough to dissolve the coffee crystals.
2. Place your crystals in the milk, stirring, making sure they dissolve fully.
3. In a medium saucepan place your coffee/milk mixture and flour.
4. On medium heat continuously stir your milk/flour mixture until it becomes the texture of thin mashed potatoes, let it come to room temperature.
5. With a handheld or stand mixer with paddle attachment beat your butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy.
6. Then add your milk/flour mixture and beat, beat and beat until it is the texture of whipped cream, you will whip this frosting a lot.
7. Then place or pipe into your cookie cups and enjoy!

Notes

1. You can totally use your own snickerdoodle cookie dough recipe if you like, but the cookie mixes have worked wonderfully for me so far.

By Holly

HOLLY'S CHEAT DAY https://www.hollyscheatday.com/

It has just come to my attention that I have been making a lot of desserts with alcohol in them recently. I promise I haven’t developed a drinking problem, but I will admit that at this time of year there seems to be a plethora of recipes that encourage the addition of these kinds of beverages.  Let’s be honest, there is something to be said when you get that kick on your tastebuds.

Anyways, per usual for the holiday season I keep seeing all of these bourbon balls, rum balls, eggnog balls, mistletoe balls-juuust kidding, balls and more balls sorry for all of the ball talk.  Though some of them sounded appealing, I was afraid that they might not be sweet enough due to the use of certain, shall we say, slightly bitter alcohols.  Weeell, that’s why adding the ever tasty and sweet Bailey’s Irish Cream seemed like an excellent idea, as well as adding more crushed up cookies and no nuts.  Wowza y’all these are so good.  They are definitely rich cough, cough you really get that kick especially after letting them sit for a couple days but super good.  Perfect little hand-held bite-sized balls of perfection is that inappropriate?  These are a cinch to make, so I definitely suggest doing so 🙂  Enjoy!

Let’s crush up some Nilla Wafers shall we?

You want your cookies pretty finely crushed up like this…

Then put your cookies, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder in a bowl…

Whisk together…

Then add your wet ingredients and mix, not the prettiest dough in the world but it’s awesome…

Roll dough into balls, then into the powdered sugar…

Then enjoy!!!

Irish Whisky Balls

2014-12-22 12:14:53

Yields 30

A no-bake decadent cookie recipe with the wonderful addition of Bailey's Irish Cream.

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Ingredients

1. 4 Cups Crushed Vanilla Wafers (About 1 Full Eleven Ounce Box and 1/2 Of Another Box).
2. 1/2 Cup of Powdered Sugar.
3. 3 Tablespoons of Cocoa Powder.
4. 2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract.
5. 1.5 Tablespoons of Light Corn Syrup.
6. 2/3 Cup of Bailey's Irish Cream.
7. Additional Powdered Sugar for Rolling.

Instructions

1. In a food processor or rolling pin, crush your cookies to fine crumbs.
2. In a large bowl, mix together your cookie crumbs, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder.
3. Then add your corn syrup, vanilla, and Bailey's, and mix until well incorporated.
4. Roll your dough into about 1" balls and roll them in the powdered sugar.
5. Place your balls in an airtight container for at least a couple of days to let the flavors develop.

HOLLY'S CHEAT DAY https://www.hollyscheatday.com/

There is just something about the buttery, slightly sweet, simplicity of shortbread.  It has always been a favorite (add it to the list right?) of mine, and is usually a staple around the holidays, and doesn’t food always seem to taste better around the holidays?  I don’t know if it’s the cold weather, fuzzy socks, or fireplaces, but it definitely does, but anyways, I digress. I started daydreaming thinking about making shortbread at the first chill in the air, but I wanted to shake it up a little bit.  Instead of making an entire pan of shortbread, I thought it would be cool to make Russian teacake-esque (minus the nuts of course eww) shortbread in cookie form aaannnd maybe throw in some chocolate chips because, well,  you never need a reason for chocolate chips, they are always a good idea.  To finish them off, while they were warm I rolled them in powdered sugar to make them extra pretty.  These by far exceeded my expectation, they are so pillowy and buttery and sugary and holiday-ee, mmm, and like a lot of things I make, very easy because I don’t have much patience when it comes to waiting for my goodies on my cheat day. Enjoy y’all.

Mix your butter and sugar and we will pretend the flour, chocolate chips, vanilla and salt are also pictured here…

Mix, mix, mix, then you have beautiful dough…

Roll ’em into balls…

Once out of the oven and slightly cooled, roll them in powdered sugar if you want -but I do recommend 🙂

And get a big buttery bite of one (or 10)…

Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

2014-12-01 13:38:53

Yields 25

bite sized shortbread cookies with mini chocolate chips, rolled in powdered sugar

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Ingredients

1. 2 1/4 Cups of All Purpose Flour.
2. 1 Cup of Unsalted Butter, Softened.
3. 1/2 Cup of Powdered Sugar.
4. 2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract.
5. 1/2 Teaspoon of Salt.
6. 1/4 Cup of Mini Chocolate Chips.
7. Additional Powdered Sugar (optional).

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, and line your cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. With a handheld or stand mixer with paddle attachment cream butter, then add the powdered sugar and vanilla and blend until well incorporated.
3. Now add your salt and flour and blend completely.
4. Now add your chocolate chips and beat in or fold in until distributed evenly.
5. With a mini scoop, roll out balls around 1.5-2 tablespoon size and put on your cookie sheet.
6. Bake your cookies for about 8 minutes or until they slightly spring back to the touch, but it is best to slightly under bake these than over bake.
7. While your cookies are still warm, roll in powdered sugar if desired.
8. Now enjoy!

HOLLY'S CHEAT DAY https://www.hollyscheatday.com/

So, we have already established my absolute love of browned butter poured directly into my mouth in just about everything, and recently I have discovered putting it into chocolate chip cookies as well, so before you scoff at a ‘boring old chocolate chip cookie recipe’ hear me out.  This isn’t any old chocolate chip cookie, this one is deep dish, yes, deep dish, as in a whole hunk of awesome cookie-ness AND I have added the super awesome bonus of browned butter.  Please, do not underestimate the power of browned butter y’all, it adds such an amazing rich, must shove it in your mouth now thing going on..y’all know what I’m talking about.  Oooh and I almost forgot to mention that I put chocolate chips with caramel inside of the chips in these cookies, droool.  I saw a bag of these little caramel chocolate bites at the store, and they basically jumped in my grocery cart, I just had to have them for my cheat day.  Make these deep dish cookies, I promise they will not disappoint. 

Now, let’s brown some butter mmmkaay?…see the bubbles starting?

Still bubbling,  but bubbles starting to subside…

See all of the flecks starting to form?…

Time to take off of the heat…look at all of that browned butter deliciousness…

And now your final result, I insist you take a big whiff of this at this point when you make it…

In your bowl after your butter has cooled, add your sugars, vanilla, egg, flour, baking soda and mix…

I highly recommend you add these chocolate chips…

All mixed in…

Roll into balls and put in your tins…

And Enjoy!!

Look at that soft, chewy middle mmmm…

Deep Dish Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

2014-11-25 14:42:13

Yields 12

a delicious deep dish chocolate chip cookie enriched with browned butter in every bite

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Ingredients

1. 1 Stick (1/2 Cup) of Browned Butter.
2. 1 Egg
3. 3/4 Cup of Light Brown Sugar, Packed.
4. 1/4 Cup of Granulated Sugar.
5. 2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract.
6. 1 1/2 Cups of Bread Flour (All Purpose Flour Can Be Substituted).
7. 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda.
8. 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
9. 1/4 Cup of Caramel Chocolate Chips (Or Semi-Sweet)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. and spray 12 cupcake tins with baker's spray, make sure well coated so they pop right out.
2. Brown your butter.
3. To brown your butter, place one stick of butter in a saucepan and melt on medium heat, continuously stir your butter as it starts to bubble up. The bubbling will start to slow down and it will start to turn amber, as soon as you see brown flecks start to form on the bottom of the pan, remove from heat and continue stirring so it doesn't burn. Pour your browned butter in your mixing bowl and let it cool slightly.
4. Now add your sugars and vanilla to your browned butter and mix well.
5. Now add your egg, flour, baking soda and salt, mix until well blended.
6. Fold in your chocolate chips.
7. Roll your dough into balls which should fill the tins about 3/4 of the way full.
8. Bake 8-11 minutes, or just until the tops are set, just make sure to not over bake these because they will continue to firm as they cool.

Notes

1. You can certainly use more than 1/4 cup of chocolate chips, I just really like the cookie over the chip, and you can sub white chocolate chips, mini (another fav of mine), butterscotch etc.

HOLLY'S CHEAT DAY https://www.hollyscheatday.com/

Y’all, these, cookies…I can find nothing to improve upon in these cookies. They are perfectly moist, but gooey, and also kind of fluffy. The perfect amount of chocolate and sweet, but not too sweet. These cookies have a 100% approval rating by every person I have ever given these to..and well, you can’t beat that.  I brought these into the office of a TV show I was working on once, and one of the actresses was asking everyone who had made them.  She went out of her way to track me down just to say thank you because they were so incredible.  Also, my guy, who is hands down the pickiest eater ever absolutely loves these, and they are my method of payment to my sister for her help in all matters relating to computers 🙂  Okay,  have I talked these up enough to convince y’all to make these yet?  They are sooo easy and sooo delicious, and the recipe can easily be doubled (which you will need to) so what I’m saying is, go, go, goooo and make these! 🙂

Roll the balls in the sugar like so…

All ready to be baked up..

 mmmm, cookies…

Gooey Chocolate Cookies

2014-11-10 10:37:54

Yields 20

super moist chocolate cookie

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Ingredients

1. 1 Box of Moist Milk Chocolate Cake Mix
2. 1 Egg
3. 1 Block (8 ounces) of Cream Cheese, Softened
4. 1 Stick (1/2 Cup) of Butter, Softened
5. 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
6. Confectioner's Sugar for Dusting

Instructions

1. With a hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.
2. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
3. Add in the chocolate cake mix, and blend until smooth (this batter will be very thick).
4. Cover the batter and refrigerate for 2 hours.
5. Roll the chilled batter into balls (about 2-3 tablespoons depending how big you want them).
6. Roll the balls into the confectioners sugar, covering completely.
7. Place the balls onto a greased cookie sheet 2 inches apart.
8. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes, do not overbake these cookies, they will stay gooey in the middle which is what you want.
9. Sprinkle more confectioners sugar if desired.

Adapted from Paula Deen

Adapted from Paula Deen

HOLLY'S CHEAT DAY https://www.hollyscheatday.com/