Sweets For Sweet Friends

Wow! It’s been a tough year. But things seem to be looking up. We’ve seen more friends, been out and about more, and given more hugs than we did all last year. It sure feels good! You know what else feels good? Gifting our sweet friends with our favorite sweets. Chocolate is our love language and we feel that a gift of chocolate will ALWAYS brighten someone’s day. This Saturday we’re baking our favorites, brownies and chocolate chip cookies, and giving them to some of the sweetest people we know. Friends, hugs, chocolate…yep, things are definitely looking up!!!

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A Love So Sweet

Brownies. We love them. We love everything about them. We love them plain. But we especially love them when they come with extras. This Saturday we’re indulging in brownies covered in Oreo pieces and hot fudge. And Heath bits too. We might even top them with a little whip cream. Thank you brownie inventor. You make our Saturdays full of sweet love.

Double the Sweetness

Brownies remain at the top of our must indulge list. And reinventing them is a continuous passion project! This time they’ll be twice as yummy with both dark and milk chocolate bars and chips mixed into the batter. Our Double Chocolate Brownies might be the best recreation yet!

Directions:

Make you favorite boxed brownie batter and mix in dark and milk chocolate chips and bars. Underbake for the best brownies ever! YUM!

Season’s Sweetings

Tis the season for visions of sugar plums dancing in heads! But in our case we’re dreaming of ooey-gooey chocolatey yumminess. Holiday M&M Brownie Batter Cookies to the rescue! These are the perfect addition to our Christmas Cookie Tray! What’s on your baking wish list this year? Season’s Sweetings!

Holiday M&M Brownie Batter Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 sticks Butter Flavored Crisco Sticks

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar

• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

• 2 large eggs whites

• 1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract

• 1 cup prepared dark chocolate brownie mix, chilled

• 3-1/2 cups all purpose flour

• 1 tsp. kosher salt

• 1 tsp. baking soda

• 2 cups Holiday M&Ms

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Beat the Crisco and sugars until well combined. Add eggs whites and vanilla until well combined. Add brownie batter, mixing until well combined.

3. Place flour, salt and soda into a large bowl, mixing to combine. Add to wet ingredients mixing to combine, then add M&Ms to combine. Scoop rounded spoonfuls onto prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes, don’t over-bake. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Let cool completely then enjoy with a cup of cocoa!

*recipe inspired by Chef In Training

The Sweet Act Of Giving Back

With all the WANTS this time of year we feel it is a MUST for ourselves , as well as our kids, to give back to those in NEED. We’re giving back in service, resources, and time. So, when our church asked for cookies to be donated we strapped on our aprons, gathered supplies, and baked with happy hearts. We’re hoping our Caramel Stuffed Brownie Cookies bring smiles to many faces. It truly is better to give than receive!

Ingredients

1 (21 oz.) dark chocolate brownie mix

1/2 cup flour

6 tablespoons canola oil

2 egg whites

2 tablespoons water

24 Dove Caramels , unwrapped and chilled

1 cup powdered sugar, for rolling

Instructions

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

2 Combine brownie mix, flour, oil, eggs and water in a large mixing bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon until well blended. Cover and refrigerate dough for 1 hour.

3 Shape about 1 tablespoon of dough around 1 chocolate. Roll the dough in powdered sugar to coat well.

4 Place on prepared baking sheets and bake until cracked on top, about 10 minutes. Let cool for 2 minutes on baking sheets. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

*recipe inspired by Let’s Dish

Homemade Birthday Sweet

The best part of our birthday is sharing it together…and the CAKE! Instead of letting someone else make it for us we decided to make our own. Greatest decision ever! Oatmeal Cookie Brownie Birthday Cake! 1/2 our favorite cookie dough + 1/2 our favorite brownie batter = 1 big birthday wish come true!

Oatmeal Cookie Brownie Birthday Cake

Directions

• make 1 box of dark chocolate brownies according to directions on the back of the box

• make 1 batch of Sister Sweetly’s favorite oatmeal cookie dough

• pour half of the brownie batter in a parchment lined 9 x 13 baking dish

• spread the cookie dough on top of the brownie batter

• top with the remaining half of brownie batter

• bake at 350 for 40 min

• enjoy while singing Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday too!

Gimme Energy…Gimme Sweets!

Ready or NOT, here we go into another school year!  This means early morning alarms, chauffeuring kids to and fro, and (the dreaded) homework! Thinking of this has us longing for the easy, breezy days of summer. We’re gonna need plenty of energy to make it through these first few weeks! The best way to battle this head on is with a fully leaded espresso. And even better when it’s smothered with chocolate and caramel! Salted Caramel Espresso Brownies will sure help us weather the storm we’re about to endure! 

Ingredients

• 1 box of dark chocolate brownies, plus ingredients on the back of the box
• 1 large sea salt caramel chocolate bar
• 1 Starbucks Via

Directions 

Make the brownie batter according to the directions on the back of the box. Stir Vis into the batter. Pour half if the batter into a prepared pan. Break the candy into pieces and lay in top of the batter. Pour the remaining brownie batter on top of the caramel pieces. Bake for 25 min. (We recommend undertaking!) Eat when cool and get stuff done! 

A Love For Sweets

Don’t you love it when the people you love know exactly what you love and turn around and give you these lovely things? That has happened to us a lot recently. I guess we’ve made it perfectly clear that we LOVE chocolate. This weekend we’ve decided to use a few of these delicious gifts to create a unique treat. We’re taking a box of chocolate fudge brownies and a box of caramel turtle brownies and layering bits of an enormous milk chocolate bar in between. Thanks loved ones! We’ll be share to leave enough to share! 

16 Ways to My Sweetie’s Heart

Happy sweet 16th Anniversary to my hubby and me! He’s one lucky guy! Ha!Ha! Seriously time goes by so fast, especially when you’re busy having fun (and raising kids)! We’re not much for extravagant gift giving around here, but we gotta celebrate! So what better way than 16 differently topped brownies! Love never tasted so yummy! 

16 Differently Topped Brownies

1. Caramel Sea Salt
2. Hazelnut Grenache
3. Toasted Marshmallow
4. Rice Krispie Treat
5. Hugs & Kisses
6. Candy Bar
7. Peanut Butter
8. Almond Joy
9. Dark Chocolate Toffee
10. Chocolate Chip Cookie Pieces
11. Trail Mix
12. M&M
13. Potato Chip
14. Salted Pretzel
15. Coffee Bean
16. Sugar Dusted

Applepreciate Sweetly

If you have kids you know how important the educators are that touch their lives each day. Our kids are very lucky to go to schools with amazing teachers who truly care about their students! What better way to thank them for their endless support than with A+ Brownies! We”ll be scoring major brownies points for sure! Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! 

A+ Brownies

Ingredients:

• 1 box of dark chocolate brownies, plus ingredients on the back of the box
• waffle pretzels
• chocolate chips 
• M&M Minis – Red and Green

Directions:

1.  Bake brownies according to the directions on the back of the box.
2. Allow brownies to cool for 10 minutes.
3. Plaxe 7-8 Pretzel on a microwave plate lined with parchment. Cover the pretzels with chocolate chips. Heat in a microwave oven for approximately 45-50 seconds. The exact timing will take a bit of trial and error. You want the candy melts to be melted enough to press the M&M into, but not so melted that the chips melt lose their shape. 
4. Once the chocolate chips are softened, place six red Mini M&M’s on the melted chocolate.  Finally, add two green Mini M&M’s at the top of the apple to represent the apple stem/leaves.
5. Put the apple pretzels on top of the brownies and press to make them stick.
6. Give to you child’s outstanding teachers!