My Weekend

My first time making Snickerdoodles. These were actually a pretty big hit with my family. Although, my brother did comment that there was too much ‘snicker’ not enough ‘doodle. 😉

My boyfriend came him on Friday and told me he wouldn’t be working the following morning (he works first shift so that means he wakes up around 3am) so I took out my cookbook and started flipping through the recipes.

Him being home and not having to go to sleep early meant that I would be able to bake something without being constantly interrupted by the kiddies. They still mingle with me in the kitchen but it is a bit easier to get things done, correctly, when Da’Vi is around to help.

I went over my list of things to bake for March and realized that I hadn’t made my peppermint brownies yet. So, I went to the pantry grabbed my huge bag of York Peppermint Patties and started the process. I always read my recipes through before I start them, so I realized that these brownies would be cooked that night, however, they wouldn’t be ready to eat until the next day so I made sure to fill Da’Vi’s sugar fix with a bananas foster shake.

Anywho, the brownies turned out great. Way better than I expected. They weren’t over powered by the peppermint and they were just the right amount of rich and sweet. I won’t get too descriptive though because I will be posting about them sometime soon. But here’s a sneak peek and what they looked like…

Peppermint Brownies

Saturday, I spent pretty much the entire day in the kitchen. We all woke up around 8 and decided to have bananas foster waffles with bacon. These are bisquik waffles with a bananas foster rum and syrup topping. Super super SUPER SWEET. Da’Vi loves them, but the rest of my family finds them a bit too sweet. I’m in between… it’s kind of like having a sticky bun for breakfast. Super sweet, but you get what you expect. I paired our waffles with (over cooked) bacon. The savory bacon helps cut the sweetness just a little.

The bananas foster sauce bubbling away… 

For the purpose of pictures I used some Reddi Whip on a waffle. But I did make home-made whipped cream. My KitchenAid Mixer is the perfect partner in the kitchen, especially when it comes to making whipped cream.  Oh, and the reason I used Reddi Whip is because regular whipped cream melts very fast.

See what I mean? The home-made stuff was threatening to take over the plate within seconds of being placed on it. 

After breakfast I cleaned up, did a little photo shoot with my lovely peppermint brownies, and got to work on some other recipes.

I decided that Saturday would be the day to finally try making stuffed chocolate chip cookies. I found a recipe that claimed it was a cake like cookie (it wasn’t) and took out my stuffing materials… Reese’s Cups, Oreos, Twix, and left over York patties.

Now, these quickly became a flop. Mostly because my nice big round cookies that were going into the oven were coming out flat and lumpy. They tasted great, no doubt about that, but they didn’t look like big yummy stuffed cookies. They looked like skinny cookies with giant tumors. Not exactly appetizing.

This is the original way I was making them. Stuffed Cookie is another way to say diabetes, I think.

When I looked down at my cooling rack and saw nothing but flat cookies I had a stroke of genius. I whipped out my muffin pan, buttered up a few cups, and dropped some dough in each one. I stuffed one with each of my four stuffers and topped them with another dollop of dough. They went into the oven and cooked for about twice as long.

They came out and to my surprise… they were adorable, delicious, and PERFECT.

These little cuties gave me inspiration. I’ve decided that The Sugar Bar will offer a fun alternative to cake, cupcakes, and cake pops. The reason for this is that… GASP! some people don’t like cake. Truthfully, I’m not a huge fan of it but I do enjoy making it. So, for those of you out there that want something different The Sugar Bar will be offering CupCookies! Ok, that’s not a very catchy name, so that’ll probably change but you get the idea.

These tentatively named, CupCookies, will be a stuffed cookie of your choosing topped with different colors and flavors of frosting. They can be made to look just like cupcakes with cute little liners and everything. I scoured the internet and have yet to find anything like it so I’m hoping that it will catch on and be a success. I mean, they’re cute, they’re new, and they are a total surprise for people expecting to bite into a cupcake. They come in different flavors just like cake: chocolate chip, sugar cookie, peanut butter, etc.

My disastrous stuffed cookie. The food for thought behind CupCookies! Oh, actually you can see some naked CupCookies up in the corner. What do you think? 😉 Be nice, those were the ‘first draft’.

A good friend of mine has a daughter who doesn’t particularly like cake so I’m thinking of asking her if she’d like to give the stuffed CupCookies a shot at her daughter’s birthday get together. I’m pretty excited about this idea if you can’t tell. I mean it’s so much more fun than a boring flat cookie ‘cake’ and it’s just as filling as a cupcake considering it’s actually two cookies and a candy center with frosting.

Eeeek. So excited 🙂

Oh, and just so I don’t forget anything. Sunday, I made snicker doodles (so yummy), white chocolate macadamia nut sugar cookies, and I also made the chicken lo mein in a larger quantity for my family. They loved it.

I spent my weekend baking for my family, what did you all do this weekend? 🙂

***UPDATE I do believe we have settled on a name. Goodbye CupCookies… HELLOOO “Chicago Style Cookies” Deep-dish and stuffed just like a Chicago style pizza. Thoughts? 🙂