Christmas Pretzel M&M Blondies

Pretzel M&Ms are my new obsession, I literally cant eat just one or even 10 :) I have been wanting to bake something with them for a while and just not gotten around to it. A couple of weeks ago on a Target trip, I ran acorss the Christmas Pretzel M&M's and immediately thought of how pretty they would be baked into a blondie. So I went home and started googling, and saw Bridget, from Bake at 350, had made exactly that. Off I went to the kitchen :) I did tweak her recipe a bit, as I didnt have fleur del sel on hand and at the last minute decided against topping with sea salt.

Pretzel M&M Blondies from Bake at 350

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temp

1 cup light brown sugar packed

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup pretzel M&M's

Preheat oven to 350. Melt the butter and set aside. Line an 8 x 8 pan with foil, with some hanging over the sides.

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, vanilla and salt. With the mixer on low speed, beat in the flour. Stir in the M&M's.

Pour into the prepared pan and spread out evenly.Bake for 30-35 minutes or unitl a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack. Lift up the foil and cut into sqaures. I drizzled red and green candy melts over the top to add a little Holiday Cheer :)

Go grab a bag and make these today. They are chewy with crunchy and salty with the sweet! Amazing!! Print This

Giveaway Winner

Sorry I fell asleep on the couch last night as I was suppose to be picking the giveaway winner. So a little late :)

The winner is... Michel-lee from Whipping Up Something Good, who said her favorite holiday dessert was a cranberry cream cheese mold. I will email you and get all your information and ship it out to you on Monday.

Congrats!

More posts coming soon!

Happy Holiday :)

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A Very Merry Red Velvet Cake & My First Giveaway!

Happy Holidays everyone! I am trying to get back in the swing of regularly posting on the blog and I still haven't posted any of my Thanksgiving recipe but I wanted to share this Red Velvet Cake before Christmas, cause it's the perfect cake to serve around holidays. I found this recipe on Bakerella's site. This cake was delicious and sooo moist! Definitely hands down the best homemade red velvet cake I've ever made and everyone that tried it love it as well.

Red Velvet Cake from Bakerella

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 tablespoon cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups oil

1 cup buttermilk

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 oz. red food coloring (Note: if you use food coloring paste you will not need as much)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 8 or 9 inch pans. Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended. Set aside.

Place all dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together really good with another wire whisk.

Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium high for about a minute or until completely combined.

Pour into cake pans and drop on counter a few times to release any air bubbles. Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. After about 10 minutes remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack. You can also cover in plastic wrap as the cake cools.

While the cake cools, make the frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting also from Bakerella

8 oz. cream cheese, at room temp

1 cup butter, at room temp

1 teaspoon vanilla

6 cups confectioners' sugar

Sift powdered sugar and set aside. Beat cream cheese and butter on high until creamy. Add vanilla. Then add the sugar in batches. Scrape down the sides in between each addition. I also added about a teaspoon of heavy whipping cream just to make it extra creamy. It was delicious!

And now for the giveaway.... the last couple recipes I posted were cookies I had made in the Muffin Top Pan I found at Sur la Table. I got many emails asking about it. So I decided I would include it in my first giveaway. Giveaway includes: 1 muffin top pan, 1 3D Snowman Spatula and 1 can Sparkling Sprinkles in holiday colors.

To enter just leave me a comment (one comment per person please) telling me what your favorite holiday dessert is. A winner will be chosen and revealed on Friday, December 10th. Make sure to leave your name and way for me to contact you if you win.

Best of luck to everyone!

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Sugar Saucers

I made these cookies towards the end of summer but just now getting aroung to posting them. These were the lightest and fluffiest cookies I have ever eaten. The kind of cookies you eat 2 of and think hey I could have a couple more and still feel ok... Yea, these are those. There is a hint of lemon in these that make them perfection.

Sugar Saucers from Annie's Eats adapted from The Pastry Queen
Printable Recipe

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
8 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temp
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar, plus extra for sugaring the tops of cookies
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
Zest of half a lemon



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parment paper or a silicone baking mat. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Whisk together to blend and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the vegetable oil and beat on medium-high speed until incorporated. Mix in the granulated sugar and confectioners sugar until well blended, about 1 minute.

Beat in the egg until incorporated. Blend in the vanilla and lemon zest. With the mixer on low speed blend in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour or freeze for 15 minutes before proceeding.

Using a cookie scoop, drop the dough onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing the cookies at least 2 inches apart. Press the dough down to evenly flatten slightly and sprinkle with additional sugar. Bake about 11-13 minutes for large cookies, 7-9 minutes for smaller cookies, until the edges are golden. Let cool on baking sheets for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with any remaining dough. Store cookies in an airtight container.

And one more top view of how pretty these cookies were, they didnt last long!
Ok, now I think I am done posting about cookies for a while. Keep checking back this week, I am hosting my first giveaway :)
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and looking forward to all the Holiday posts coming up!

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XL White Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip & XL White Chocolate Cinnamon Chip Cookies

So... I think I win the worst blogger of the year award, I havent posted in over a month and havent commented on anyones blogs recently either. But, dont worry I still have been looking at all the yummy fall desserts every one has been baking up lately. I promise to get back in the

swing of things soon.

My last post was about XL Chocolate Chip cookies I saw on Picky Palate. These are the same cookies just using slightly different ingredients! This time I used white chocolate chips and added peanut butter chips in half and cinnamon chips in the other half. I didnt really end up getting many pictures with the peanut butter chips cookies cause they dissappeared quickly.

This recipe can be changed so easily to whatever cookie flavors you are craving. I really enjoyed the white chocolate and cinnamon combination however, most people went straight for the peanut butter chip ones! If you dont have this muffin topper pan, I highly recommend running out and getting one! I love mine!

Printable Recipe

More new posts coming soon!
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Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Loaf

This month the Cake Slice Bakers baked up a Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Loaf from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman . I have made a pumpkin chocolate chip bundt cake before and it was awesome. So I was super excited to try this recipe as well. Instead of using chocolate chips though, I decided I would try out white chocolate chips instead. This cake smelled amazing while it was baking and I could hardly wait to cut into it and try it! What a way to start the fall baking season!!!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Loaf

Recipe from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman

Printable Recipe

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

/4 teaspoon ground cloves

pinch of nutmeg

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp

1 1/4 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used white chocolate chips)

1 cup chopped walnuts (I omitted these)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat the 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with non stick cooking spray.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg in a medium bowl.

Cream together butter and sugar on medium high speed for about 3 minutes until fluffy.

Reduce mixer speed to medium low and adds eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition.

Mix in pumpkin.

Slowly add dry ingredients until well combined, scrapes down sides as needed.

Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts, if using.

Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 55 minutes to an hour or until cake is firm and toothpick inserted into center of a cake comes out clean.

Slice and serve!

This cake was delicious, if you want to see the other pumpkin chocolate chip cake I've made before check it out here.

If you want to check out other member of the Cake Slice Bakers check out the blogroll here.

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XL Chocolate Chip Cookies

Over the summer I picked up this Muffin Top Pan than Jenny from Picky Palate is always gushing over! (I got mine from Sur La Table)



I made cookies one night with it and fell in love. Who doesn't love thick xtra large cookies? I made these several different ways with the same recipe just changing up the chips. The first go round I just stuck to the basics and used chocolate chips. As you can see in my picture, I had originally thought of adding white chocolate chips but at the last second I changed my mind. I have a weakness for cookies, I see them and just think I'll have a bite and before I know it, the whole cookie is gone! Whoops :)

Xtra Large Chocolate Chip Cookies from Picky Palate

2 sticks softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons pure vanilla
3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
12 oz bag of chocolate chips (or any chips you prefer)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a stand mixer beat the butter and sugar until well combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Place flour, baking soda and salt into a large bowl, stir to mix. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet. Once combined, add the chips.

Scoop 1/4 cup of dough and press into muffin top pan. Bake for 10-13 minutes, until edges just start to turn a golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes in pan and then move to a cooling rack.




I made these cookies to go on a dessert platter I was bringing some friends that just moved on our street. They were fabulous and so simple to throw together!

Run out now and go get this pan, you will not regret it! I have a few others things Ill post soon using the pan, for other suggestions go on over to Picky Palate. Ill post the other variations soon, so stay tuned! Also I created a Smitten Sugar Fan Page on facebook, so go like the page if you like my blog.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

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