A Sweet Review

Anyone else beeline to the “new items” end cap at Trader Joe’s? We salivate as we admire the recently added yumminess. And without a doubt we find a treasure. On a recent trip, we found an irresistible container of Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookie Mix. We knew we had to give them a try. Of course, we had to change the recipe slightly – Sister Sweetly style. We added butterscotch chips and toffee to the mix and once cooled we topped the cookies with cream cheese frosting. Delish! Run! Don’t walk to your nearest Trader Joe’s before supplies run out!

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Ultimate Sweet Sharing

Do you have a recipe that others continually ask you to share? And by share they mean deliver ready made to them? Our Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies are probably the most requested goodie we make. However, in our opinion they are best served fresh out of the oven. So, we came up with a way to grant these wishes. By freezing the cookie dough into tablespoon-sized balls they can be simply plopped onto a cookie sheet, baked in the oven, and ready to devour in 7 to 9 minutes! These make fabulous gifts too. Package them in a ziplock inside a festive take-out container. You can thank us later!

Directions

Make a batch of Sister Sweetly’s Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe . Roll into tablespoon-sized balls and place on a cookie sheet. Put the cookie sheet into the freezer until the balls are completely frozen. Remove the balls from the freezer and put into ziplock bags labeled with baking instructions:

Bake at 325 for 7-9 min

Put back into the freezer until ready to share.

Apples Sweet Apples

It’s Saturday! To the apple orchard we go. We’re off to pick a bushel of sweet, delicious apples to bring home for baking up a pan of Apple Crisp Shortbread Bars. Oven and aprons ready! Can’t wait!

INGREDIENTS

Shortbread Base:

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unbleached flour

Apple Filling:

• 3 large fresh orchard picked
• apples, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 Tablespoons unbleached flour
• 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Topping:

• 1/2 cup unbleached flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter – melted or room temp to cut in.

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F and line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper. Be sure to bring the parchment up the sides as it makes it easier to lift out later.
2. Shortbread Base:
3. Place butter into your mixer and turn on high for 5 minutes or until the butter turns white rather than yellow, that’s how you’ll know it’s creamed. Next mix in the brown sugar, vanilla, and salt. Once combined, add in the flour and stir well. Press the mixture into the parchment lined pan and bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes.
4. Apple Filling:
5. In a bowl, combine the apples, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg until the apples are well coated.
6. Topping:
7. Mix flour, ¾ up brown sugar. Cut in the butter and knead together.
8. Remove the crust from the oven and turn the heat up to 350 degrees F. Sprinkle one half of the Topping over the short bread, then layer the apples on top. You will have multiple layers so try to keep it level. Once this is finished, sprinkle the remainder of the Topping evenly on top and place in the oven to bake for 30 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool fully before placing in the fridge to set for at least 2 hours. Once it’s set, remove from the baking dish by lifting out the parchment paper and cut into bars. Top with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream.

*recipe inspired by Life Straight Up

A Sweet “Pear”ing

We’ve had a pear tree in our backyard for the past 12 years and have never ever once used them for baking. We decided this was the year we were going to change that. Thanks to Google, we educated ourselves on when best to pick our pears and how to ripen them off the tree to make them even sweeter. After a couple of weeks, our bushel of pears is finally ready. Time to get our bake on! Harvest Pear Crisp, here we come. A pair of twins sharing a pear crisp…what a sweet “pear”ing!

Ingredients

• 6 cups pears, cored and cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick slices
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/3 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
• Vanilla ice cream
• Caramel sauce

Directions

Step 1

Preheat oven to 375°.

Step 2

Combine pears and lemon juice in a 2-quart baking dish; toss gently to coat. Combine granulated sugar, cornstarch, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon; stir with a whisk. Add cornstarch mixture to pear mixture; toss well to coat.

Step 3

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Place flour, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, brown sugar, and salt in a food processor; pulse 2 times or until combined. Add chilled butter; pulse 6 times or until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add oats and walnuts; pulse 2 times. Sprinkle flour mixture evenly over pear mixture.

Step 4

Bake at 375° for 40 minutes or until pears are tender and topping is golden brown. Cool 20 minutes on a wire rack; serve warm or at room temperature. A la mode with caramel sauce of course!

It’s Pumpkin Time! Sweeet!

We’re barely into September and we’re going for it! Pumpkin spice season may not officially start until October, but really who’s keeping track? Our Pumpkin Bars are just one of many pumpkin goodies we’ll be inhaling this fall. Pumpkin Spice Forever!

Ingredients:

2 cups unbleached flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

4 egg whites

1 2/3 cups sugar

1 cup canola oil

1 can (15oz) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

Walnuts

Toffee bits

Butterscotch chips

Directions:

Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt & soda) and set aside. In a large bowl, combine egg whites, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Add the dry ingredients, gradually. Mix well.

Spread batter in a greased 15x10x1 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 – 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely.

Frost bars with cream cheese frosting (recipe below) once cooled, sprinkle with walnuts, toffee bits, and butterscotch chips. Then cut into snack size pieces.

Frosting:

1 8oz. package of cream cheese

1/3 cup softened butter

4 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 Tbsp almond milk

Cream together butter and cream cheese until smooth and fluffy.  Add powdered sugar, vanilla and almond milk.  Mix on high speed until smooth creamy.

*recipe inspired by Bake It And Love It

Sweets In The Mix

Two things happening this weekend…Labor Day and National Trail Mix Day. Did you even know there was such a thing? We didn’t either, but decided why not celebrate this thing on this long and much needed weekend. Soooo instead of packing our trail mix for our family Labor Day picnic, we decided to add it to our favorite cookie base. Easy enough. And at this busy time of getting back in the school routine, easy is good! Trail mix is always good. And trail mix cookies-even better!

Recipe

Sister Sweetly’s Favorite Oatmeal Cookie Dough

Subtract the butterscotch, chocolate chips, and Heath. And 2 cups of prepared trail mix instead. Frosting is optional.

Bake according to directions in the recipe link. Picnic time!

Sweetening Hard Times

Starting school is hard. Our Chocolate Chip Butterscotch Cookie Dough Gooey Cake Bars help!

Ingredients

Base

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 egg white

Cookie Dough Filling

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp almond milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup unbleached flour

• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 cup butterscotch chips
• Sea salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325°

Base

1. Line 9×13 pan with parchment and spray with cooking spray.
2. In bowl of stand mixer combine cake mix, egg white and melted butter until a thick dough forms.
3. Press this into your prepared pan.

Cookie Dough Filling

1. Cream butter and sugar together until combined. Add milk and vanilla, mixing until smooth. Beat in salt and flour until dough is combined
2. In bowl of stand mixer beat cream cheese and brown sugar until smooth. Add in egg whites and vanilla, mixing until combined and smooth, scraping sides as needed.

1. Beat in powdered sugar until there are no lumps.

1. Stir in chocolate chips and butterscotch.
2. Pour this over the base layer.

1. Place 9×13 pan on top of a cookie sheet and place in oven on middle rack. Bake for 30-35 minutes until edges are light golden brown and center is almost set. It will be a little “jiggly”.
2. Dust with sea salt.
3. Allow to cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes and then transfer to the refrigerator to chill completely, at least 2 hours.
4. When completely chilled cut into squares.

* recipe inspired by Cookies and Cups