Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy Thursday! I realized that I've never posted my recipe for chocolate chip cookies before, and since I baked them on Tuesday night, I decided to share the recipe with you all today. There's nothing super special about them, but whenever I bake them I get lots of compliments and people can never eat just one! This time I used bittersweet chips because I was out of semi-sweet which most people prefer, but they were still just as delicious. They're perfectly soft in the middle and a little bit crispy on the outsides. Let me know if you decide to try them out! :)

Recipes: Best of Fall

Some of you have probably noticed that I've been slacking in the Cupcakes department lately when it comes to Cupcakes & Couture...I've been so busy with work and the blog and the cats {and some semblance of a personal life} that there hasn't been much free time to bake! But, that doesn't mean I don't have some great fall recipes that I've already tried out and you may not have seen yet. Here are 7 of my favorite fall recipes - just click each of the links to be taken to the full recipe. Let me know if you try one out this season or if you have any favorite fall recipes in the comments below!

Caramel Filled Apple Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

{use your leftover apples from your apple picking trips!}

Butterfinger Stuffed Cupcakes

{perfect for Halloween!}

Caramel Filled Vanilla Cupcakes with Pumpkin Buttercream

{all the best fall flavors rolled into one delicious dessert!}

Thanksgiving Recipes

Can you believe Thanksgiving is tomorrow?! This year has just flown right by! For those of you who plan to bake for the holiday and don't want to make a traditional pie, I wanted to share some of my recipes that are perfect for Thanksgiving dessert. Please let me know if you end up baking any of them and how they turn out! :)

I'm taking tomorrow off from blogging - I hope you all have a very happy and delicious Thanksgiving! :)

1. Pumpkin Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Frosting. Take off the Halloween peep and top them with some cinnamon sugar to make these Thanksgiving appropriate.

2. Pumpkin Pie Stuffed Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting. These are definitely a project, but they're super delicious and will impress your family and friends!

Cream Cheese Filled Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Now that it's officially fall, I guess it's time for me to start baking some seasonal recipes! I was planning to have this cookie recipe ready for you guys last week, but due to a series of unfortunate events, I wasn't able to bake them. But my friend Jen let me use her oven so all of the batter didn't go to waste...yay!!

These cookies are so good - crispy and sugary on the outside, soft and pumpkiny on the inside and then filled with a cream cheese center. I had to stop myself from eating all of them, which is really rare for me!! {Cream cheese is my weakness though...} Try these out for the fall and let me know what you think!

Caramel Filled Chocolate Chip Cookies

This past Saturday I went to visit my former coworker and good friend Kim at her house to meet her new baby girl Cora! I decided last minute that I wanted to bring something homemade over, and after doing a quick survey of my cabinets, I realized I only had enough to make chocolate chip cookies. Then I noticed I had some leftover Kraft caramel squares and I thought, why don't I stuff the cookies with caramel to give them a little twist? The result was simple, but delicious! The cookies are best just out of the oven when the caramel center is gooey but you can also stick them in the microwave for 20-30 seconds before eaten to soften the caramel up. :)

Oatmeal Trail Mix Cookies

I bought Joy the Baker's cookbook months ago but never opened it up until last weekend! I'm not sure why it took me so long to make one of her delicious recipes, but I'm sure glad I found these oatmeal trail mix cookies - they are so dang good! They taste exactly like a handful of your favorite childhood trail mix with M&Ms, raisins and peanuts...I felt like I needed to go hiking after I tried them. They're super easy to make and are great for both kids and adults - a fun new twist on oatmeal raisin cookies!

"Drunk" Triple Chip Cookies

This past Friday night, I had my friend Renee over for some pizza, wine and girl talk. After a few (very full) glasses of Tempranillo each, she was really in the mood for some homemade baked treats, so I rummaged around my baking cabinet and fridge and realized that I only had enough supplies to make cookies. I had some butterscotch chips leftover from the brownies I made last week along with chocolate chips and peanut butter chips, and so the "drunk" triple chip cookies were born! :) These were surprisingly delicious and I really loved the three flavor combo...much better than regular old chocolate chip cookies!

Chocolate Peppermint Whoopie Pies

Happy Monday! I wanted to make a fun holiday-themed treat over the weekend so I tried my hand at these chocolate whoopie pies with peppermint buttercream filling. They were the perfect wintery combo of chocolate and candy cane mint and I added some fun candy cane sprinkles I found in the baking aisle at Shaw's for decoration.  I don't find whoopie pies to be very photogenic, so I only have a few photos, but I hope you enjoy! :)

Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip CookieS

I hope you all had a great weekend! Thanks to everyone who entered my Fossil watch giveaway - I'm so excited to announce the winner today!

Congratulations to Lalaine Hagler - you are the winner of the Fossil watch! :) I will send you an email later today to confirm all the details.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My boyfriend's birthday is this Wednesday (12/12/12!) but he's traveling all week for work so I won't get to celebrate with him. I wanted to make him an early birthday treat this weekend combining his two favorite things - chocolate chip cookies and Nutella! I used this recipe and adapted it a bit using what I had in the house. I also didn't add the sea salt because Christian didn't want it, but I am sure they're just as delicious with the salty twist! I actually don't like Nutella so I didn't even try one (I'm crazy, I know), but Christian said they were absolutely delicious, so I trust his judgement! :)

Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies

I have always loved Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies. When it comes to store bought, individually wrapped desserts, they have been my favorite since I was a kid. This past Saturday I baked a homemade version of this classic treat and fell in love - I could not stop eating them no matter how hard I tried!! They tasted even better than the store bought pies (sorry Debbie) and are definitely better for you since they are all natural and fresh.

Cadbury Mini Egg Cookies

Last night I was determined to make cookies with Cadbury mini eggs inside of them. You can only find them in stores around Easter time, so I figured now was the best time for me to bake them! I went to Shaws and they had a gigantic Easter candy aisle, but there were NO Cadbury mini eggs to be found. WHAT KIND OF GROCERY STORE DOESN'T HAVE CADBURY MINI EGGS AT EASTER TIME?! I asked 3 different employees and none of them could find any mini eggs. I was so sad.

So I had to bake using these imposters instead:

I mean, they're good, but they are NO Cadbury mini eggs!! Bahhhh. I did the best with what I had!

Now, on to the cookies.

click to enlarge

M&M Cookies

This past Sunday was bitterly cold in Boston with a high of 9 degrees...brrrrr! On these kinds of days when I have absolutely no reason to leave the house and choose to stay inside, I always get the urge to bake. I usually like to try new recipes and new flavor combinations, but my boyfriend requested his childhood favorite: M&M cookies! Although they are not the most creative recipe and take little effort, they sure are delicious!! We've been eating them all weekend.

(click to enlarge)

S'mores cookies for 'Cookie Swap for a Cause'

Today I had the pleasure of participating in the Cookie Swap for a Cause hosted by Boston Food Swap and the Swapaholics in Fort Point! All proceeds from the event benefited Cookies for Kids' Cancer, so it was great to see so many people who baked and came out to support this awesome charity.

I chose to make a delicious S'mores cookie recipe that I've made a few times before and people always love, and sure enough, they were a hit at the event!

Christmas Cookies

In my job as a Manager Assistant, I support 6 very busy consulting managers. I never know what to give them for Christmas because they can buy themselves anything they want!! I decided to bake them each a batch of Christmas cookies this year and although I wouldn't call them professional looking (or even close!), they are definitely cute and full of Christmas cheer. I did the best I could using the only Christmas themed sprinkles and icing tubes I could find at Shaws! (There wasn't much to choose from...)

Here is the recipe I used to make the Christmas cookies.. I doubled the cookie recipe to make enough cookies to give to 6 people, but the frosting recipe did not need to be doubled to cover all the cookies!

Sugar Cookies
adapted from Our Best Bites

For the cookies...

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large or extra large egg
• 1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups flour
• 1.5 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy - about 2 minutes. Add egg and vanilla extract and mix to incorporate.
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.
3. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined.
4. Immediately roll dough out between two sheets of parchment paper and then place on a flat surface in the fridge. Chill for about a half hour.
5. Lightly sprinkle flour on your counter top and roll the dough out with a rolling pin. Using your Christmas cookie cutters, cut out as many shapes as you can!
6. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes for a nice soft sugar cookie. If you want the cookies to be crispier, bake for 10-12 minutes.

For the icing...

• 1 pound powdered sugar
• 6 tablespoons whole milk
• 6 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

With a whisk, combine sugar and milk until smooth with no lumps. Then stir in corn syrup and vanilla extract.

Some helpful tips...

• make sure you let the icing harden completely before trying to decorate your cookies. I didn't do that because I was rushing and I ended up with droopy faces on my snowmen and gingerbread men. :(
• let the icing and decorations set before you put your cookies in their containers or packaging. This will keep them from rubbing off onto each other.
• use icing to outline your cookies! it makes them look more vibrant :) I didn't have outlines on any of them at first but when I started to outline the edges, they started to look much cuter.

Even though they look a little childish, they tasted fantastic and my managers were all very surprised to receive them today!! They really do make a great gift.

No Bake Oreo Chocolate Balls

If you want to make a delicious treat that everyone is sure to love, you need to make these no bake Oreo chocolate balls. I can't stop eating them...they are amazing! They are super easy to make as long as you have a food processor and only require 3 ingredients!

Hello Kitty Cookies - Recipe & Instructions

A few people have asked me how I made the Hello Kitty sugar cookies I posted a photo of a few weeks ago.  Here is the recipe and my instructions on how to make these cute cookies - they are much easier than you’d think!