Cake Batter Pancakes!

It's my BIRTHDAYZZZZZZ! By the addition of the z, I mean it is my sober birthday April 1, and my belly-button birthday April 2. Belly-button birthday is the actual day that I graced this world with my presence, 24 years ago. So I started writing this post on the 1st, and I will end it on the 2nd, so yah, BIRTHDAYZZZZZZ. This morning I decided to make myself a special breakfast to celebrate my 2 years of sobriety. If you remember, I made Cake Batter pudding cookies a few weeks ago. These are along the same same lines, but they are PANCAKES with SPRINKLES and instead of syrup you serve them with ICING. Just sounds all over amazing right? Yep, exactly what I thought!

 

Looks yummy!

So as I said, the 2 candle is for my sobriety birthday. I also have a 4 candle to add to it with whatever fun stuff I choose to make myself tomorrow. YIPEE! I got this recipe from www.chef-in-training.com, same as the cake batter pudding cookies.

You'll Need:

For Pancakes:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup yellow cake mix
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 cups milk
• assorted sprinkles

  For Glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• assorted sprinkles

You'll Do:

For Pancakes:
Combine flour, cake mix, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix. Add 1 cup of milk, egg and vanilla extract and stir until smooth. You want the batter to look like regular pancake batter; not too thin, not too thick. This will vary greatly on the brand of cake mix you use. Start with 1 cup of milk and add more if needed.  *You may need to have small taste test to see if the pancakes are flavored enough, if not, add a little more yellow cake mix until desired flavor is reached**

Preheat a skillet on medium heat (or an electric grilled and turn it to 250 degrees). Fold desired amount of sprinkles into batter. Pour batter in 1/4 cup measurements onto skillet and let cook until bubbles form on top, about 2-3 minutes. Flip and cook for 1 minute more. Serve with vanilla glaze.

For Glaze:
Mix milk, extract and powdered sugar until glaze forms. You may need to add a little more sugar or water/milk to reach desired consistency. I needed to add more milk.  Mix into glaze and drizzle on pancakes.

YAY! Happy....pancake making??

Cookies of the Week 12 and 13

Week 12: Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Drops!

Warning: Don't Judge this cookie by it's picture:

I had some trouble focusing because of the different textures. grrrrrr. This cookie was really gooey and fell apart when people took them out of the cookie jar, which just means pure peanut butter chocolate awesomeness. My recommendations is that you pawn off unwrapping and chopping up the mini Reese's, that was the worst. The rest of the recipe is quite simple, Made from a saucepan. I got this recipe from www.hersheys.com.

You'll need:

• 38 to 40 REESE'S Peanut Butter Cups Miniatures
• 3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter or margarine
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

You'll do:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper. Remove wrappers from peanut butter cups. Cut each peanut butter cup into 4 pieces; set aside.
   
2. 2 Melt butter in medium saucepan over low heat. Add sugar and cocoa; stir to blend. Remove from heat; stir in eggs and vanilla. Stir together flour, salt and baking soda; stir into chocolate mixture. Stir in peanut butter cup pieces.*
   
3. 3 Drop by heaping teaspoons onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set and edges are firm. Do not overbake. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.
   About 4 dozen cookies.
   
   * For more visible peanut butter cup pieces, some of the pieces can be held back and then pushed into the cookies just as they come out of the oven. 

Week 13: S'mores cookies!

Who in their right mind doesn't like s'mores?! I mean really. Quoting The Sandlot is enough reason to love this campfire treat. So I found this awesome recipe for a S'mores cookie and of course I had to try it out!

Looks pretty amazing right? Yah, I know. So I found this recipe on www.kevinandamanda.com. These cookies have certainly gotten more rave reviews from my variety of taste testers than any other before. And I agree completely!

You'll Need:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cups flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (7 full graham cracker sheets)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup Mini Hershey’s Kisses (or chocolate chips/chunks)
1 cup Jet Puffed Mallow Bits

You'll do:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray. Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, use a food processor or blender to crush 7 graham cracker sheets into 3/4 cup fine crumbs. In a separate bowl, whisk together the graham cracker crumbs, flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix on low speed until the dough just comes together. Add the chocolate and marshmallows and stir to combine.

Place 1.5 tablespoon sized scoops of dough onto the prepared cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

My tips: Get the Marshmallow Bits! I made to batches of these cookies, the first one (in the picture) used regular mini marshmallows. The marshmallows puffed up and melted on the cookie sheet and it was nearly impossible to get all of the cookies off the sheet with out messing them up. The second batch (I went to Target to hunt for the bits, my local grocery store didn't have them) used the mallow bits and it was TONS easier and the cookies came out prettier also.

Happy Baking!