Easy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

This quick chocolate chip cookies recipe makes a perfect weekend treat--it's a super quick and tasty recipe that I have never mucked up--which is saying something. Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients:
½ cup SUGAR
¼ cup BROWN SUGAR
½ cup BUTTER (soften)
2 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT
1 EGG
1½ cup ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR
½ tsp BAKING SODA
¼ tsp SALT
1 cup CHOCOLATE CHIPS
(or ½ cup chocolate chips and ½ cup chopped nuts)
directions:
Set out butter to soften and egg to come to room temperature.
Combine sugars, butter, vanilla extract, and egg in a bowl and mix well; you can use a mixer if you like, but I never have--just stir with a spoon to a smooth-ish consistency, do it as well as you can and that will likely be good enough (most things in life are like that, I find).
In another bowl, add flour, salt and baking soda (just ½ tsp BAKING SODA, if you add too much the cookies will be bitter, dude). Add chocolate chips and nuts--or if you don't want nuts, just add chips--but that would be nuts. Mix ingredients well.
Add the sugar/butter combo to the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. The dough should stick together when pressed.
Arrange spoonfuls of dough on an ungreased cookie sheet--about two inches apart. The recipe makes about 18-22 cookies, I usually get 17 or 18 cookies, cause I like mine kinda big.
Slide cookie sheet into an oven heated at 350 degrees F and let bake 10-12 minutes. When cookies are brown around the edges and lightly golden on top, they're finito. Cool on cooling rack or eat them hot out of the oven with a glass of milk or a White Russian, depending on how your day is going.
Give this easy chocolate chip cookies recipe a try and let me know what you think, and bon appetit!
And for another sweet tooth fix, try these heavenly Caramel Oatmeal Squares.

Oatmeal Squares -- Easy Caramel Chocolate Chip Treat!

Caramel Oatmeal Squares make great dessert treats--or bribes, if you need to motivate someone.



Ingredients:
Bars:
1 3/4 cup OATS
1 1/2 cup FLOUR
3/4 cup BROWN SUGAR
1/2 tsp BAKING SODA
1/4 tsp SALT (optional)
3/4 cup BUTTER (melted)
1 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT
1 cup PEANUTS
1 cup CHOCOLATE CHIPS

Caramel Sauce:
3/4 cup BUTTER
1 1/2 cups BROWN SUGAR (firmly packed)
2 Tbsp WATER
1/4 tsp SALT
3/4 cup EVAPORATED MILK
1 Tbsp VANILLA EXTRACT
1/4 cup FLOUR (added after caramel has cooled)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Then, make the caramel sauce.
Combine butter, brown sugar, water, and salt in a medium sauce pan, over medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring to boil and continue to stir for 5 minutes depending upon thickness desired. The longer it boils, the thicker your caramel sauce will eventually be. If you don't stir the pot while the caramel is cooking, it will be a disaster, not as bad as knocking over the cake at a wedding, but the caramel will burn, which will kinda suck.
After 5 minutes, remove sauce from the heat and stir in evaporated milk and vanilla. Set aside to allow caramel to cool and thicken.
Grease a 9 x 13 baking pan.
In a bowl, mix oats, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, vanilla extract, and salt. Stir in butter until well blended.
Reserve one cup of mixture to use as a topping later.
Press remaining mixture into bottom of greased pan. Bake 10-12 minutes until light brown. Let cool 10 minutes. Top with peanuts and chocolate pieces.
Take your caramel sauce and stir in 1/4 cup flour until smooth. Drizzle over nuts and chocolate (keep within 1/4 inch of pan edges). Bake an additional 18-22 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool. Then cut into squares. Give this oatmeal squares recipe a try and let e know what you think.                                                                Enjoy! (chocolate, peanuts, caramel...what's not to enjoy?)

Need a dessert lickety split? Try this Quick Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe.

Biscotti Recipe - Giant-Sized for Dunking Pleasure

Wanna make some big-ass biscotti? This twice-baked biscuit is an awesome accompaniment to your favorite hot beverage.



Biscotti is a twice-baked sweet biscuit that goes great with a hot cup of coffee or tea--it's an easy way to start the day feeling like a real fancy-pants dude or dudette, especially if you're drinking your hot beverage out of a tiny cup with a tiny spoon to stir in your milk and a cloth napkin to wipe your very satisfied mouth. And there is zero butter or oil in this recipe, just a little rummy goodness.

Biscotti Recipe Ingredients:
1 cup ALMOND SLICES
2 cups all-purpose FLOUR
3/4 cup SUGAR
1 teaspoon BAKING POWDER
1/8 teaspoon SALT
3 large EGGS
2 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT
1 tsp ALMOND EXTRACT
2 Tbsp RUM

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Toast almond slices--watch them, it only takes about 2 minutes to toast, just want a few to begin turning.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt then mix and set aside.
Whisk the eggs, rum and extracts until blended well.
Add the dry ingredients, including nuts, and mix until combined.

Dough will be sticky at this point.
Scrape the dough out onto a parchment lined sheet pan.
Quickly shape with wooden spoon into a long flat loaf.

Bake about 30 minutes at 350 degrees F.
Remove from the oven and cool 10-15 minutes.
Lower oven heat to 300 degrees F.

Slice loaf into 1/2" to 1" wide slices.
Lay the slices cut side down on the baking sheet and bake another 15-20 minutes.
Turn the slices over and bake 15 minutes more, or until the cookies are a light golden brown.
Cool the biscotti on a rack.
Cool completely before storing.
And that's it, man. Serve them up with some coffee or hot tea and you'll feel
like a real fancy-pants Italian lawyer.
Give this big biscotti recipe a try and let me know what you think, and bon appetit!

And for another tasty breakfast treat, try this Deadly Scone Recipe.

Scone Recipe -Maple Pecan!

This is a delicious pecan maple scone recipe, but not a good idea for folks with sugar/carb addictions and questionable degrees of willpower...which is pretty much everyone.



The only reason I'm even putting this up is because The Devil assured me that if I did I would one day win an Oscar and live in a luxury beach house in Malibu (which IS going to happen 'cause I was smart enough to get the deal in writing).

Scone Recipe Ingredients:
Scones:
2 cups FLOUR
1/2 cup SUGAR
1 Tbsp BAKING POWDER
1/2 tsp SALT
5 Tbsp BUTTER
1/2 cup PECANS (chopped)
1/4 cup RAISINS
1 cup SOUR CREAM
1/4 cup MAPLE SYRUP
1 tsp VANILLA

Icing:
1 cup POWDERED SUGAR
splash of WATER
2 Tbsp MAPLE SYRUP

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut butter into flour mixture (freezing the butter and grating it into the mix is an easy trick to get this done). Add pecans and raisins into the mix.
In a separate bowl, combine sour cream, vanilla, and 1/4 cup maple syrup. Whisk together until smooth.
Pour the sour cream mixture into the flour mix and gently turn for a few minutes until the flour begins to form into clumps. Most of the loose flour will adhere into these clumps, but it's okay if all of it doesn't.
On a sheet of parchment paper or floured surface, pour the contents of the bowl. Press the clumps together into a mound--it'll want to brake apart somewhat, but that's cool, relax. Flatten the mix into a circular cookie shape about 1 inch thick and cut like a pizza into 8 slices. Arrange onto a flat baking sheet and bake in a 400 degree F oven for 20-25 minutes, until baked through and golden brown.
While scones cool, add powdered sugar into a small bowl. Add 1-2 Tbsp of warm tap water--add water slowly and whisk into a syrup; be conservative, it's easy to add too much water. Then whisk 2 Tbsp of maple syrup into the powdered sugar syrup. Why? I don't know, just crazy.
Drizzle the syrup glaze over the scones and allow the icing to harden (approx 10-15 min).
And there you go...a very sweet and healthy-free combo of questionable ingredients combined to put on the pounds and take potentially vibtrant years off of the back-end of your life.
But this scone recipe is delicious.
Enjoy, if possible.
I usually really like the first two, and then I begin to question my motivations.

For a less decadent, less lethal treat, try a Big Biscotti.

Quick Chocolate Treats

Need to provide a dish for a party, but don’t have the time? Need it to look homemade even though you don’t want to actually make anything? This is a quick chocolate treat idea for lazy hosts and lazier guests. If you're going to a party or having a party, this is an easy dish to whip together with almost zero effort (the most annoying part is unwrapping the candies).

Quick Chocolate Treats

You’ll need:
MINI PRETZELS
MINI PEANUT BUTTER CUPS
CHOCOLATE CARAMELS (we use Rolos)
PECAN HALVES

directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
Arrange pretzels on a baking sheet (putting wax paper underneath will make cleanup a breeze). Top each pretzel with a peanut butter cup or chocolate caramel (if it was just me, I’d use only peanut butter cups, but Camera Girl likes the caramels, and it makes for a better variety if you’re making the dish for guests). Place baking sheet in oven for 4 minutes to soften chocolates. Remove baking sheet from oven and top softened chocolates with pecan halves. For variety, top some of the chocolates with pretzels. Allow chocolate to cool before removing treats from baking sheet.

That’s it! Pretzels, chocolate, and nuts…who doesn’t like that? It’s easy peezey and a great treat to serve when you don’t feel like making a great treat.

Bon appétit!

(I like pretzels on the bottom and top with a peanut butter cup in between. Camera girl likes the pretzel on the bottom with pecan half on top and a chocolate caramel in between; she says it's like one of those "turtle" candies. Pecans are okay, but they're too expensive...pretzels and peanut butter cups are all you really need, but get the rest if you're tryin' to be fancy pants.)