Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes

At last year's holiday dinner for work we did a gift exchange. I didn't like my original gift (it was two kitchen tools I knew I wouldn't use) so I asked to switch. My new gift was a tin of 4 dozen Kirkland Signature-brand chocolate-hazelnut candies (AKA Ferrero Rocher). I took them to Christmas Eve dinner to put them out as one of many offerings for dessert but we only ended up using 1 dozen. The rest sat in their original tin on the floor beneath my kitchen table for almost a year.

Which is why I finally decided to bake with them recently. I focused on cupcakes because I rarely make them (and I randomly bought a cupcake carrier/holder with a coupon at Michael's a while back and had yet to use it). Most of the recipes I found had the candy inside the cupcake but I wasn't sure about doing that (my overthinking brain kept going back to the idea that they'd be too hard to bite into). I finally settled on a recipe from Dixie Crystals (a cane sugar company) that sets the candy on top of the frosting. And since the frosting is Nutella (to go with the chocolate and hazelnut flavors of the candy), I decided to add some Nutella to the cupcake as well, using an idea I found on a food site from the UK.

Sprinkles Biscotti

I'm somewhat in denial.

My little cousin is a college student. After graduating high school last spring, Carly is now a Freshman at Gonzaga. How did this happen?

I swear she was only recently that little girl who sent ME care packages (with Nonni's help) when I was away at Central. I even still have the paper fall wreath she made me.

Like it or not, it's now her turn to be away for school. So of course I had to send her a care package. Right away I knew I wanted to send her some cookies like my mom used to send me. Obviously the cookies had to have sprinkles in them. This is where my 24/7 Food Network-watching came in handy: one of the network's newer stars is a food blogger and cook named Molly Yeh and she's just as obsessed with sprinkles as Carly is. She even made Sprinkles Biscotti in an episode of her show Girl Meets Farm, something I immediately decided to eventually make for Carly (why not the birthday that followed, I'm not sure). They seem like the kind of cookie that travels well.

Coffee Chocolate Chip Biscotti

I feel like I've given biscotti to almost every family member who I give baked goods to as a gift. OK, so this is an exaggeration: there are still a few to check off the list. Specifically, the one person I hadn't yet made it for is the one I wanted to: Chiara. My September Girl. I felt almost obligated. So I decided that's what I would make for her for her birthday this year.

As for the flavor, I didn't want to do a fall flavor. I didn't want to repeat the ones I'd done before and wasn't sure if she liked maple. There is one other flavor that she loves: coffee. You know all those memes and mugs that say things like "I can't function until I've had at least 2 cups of coffee"? Yeah, that's Chiara.

I wasn't sure if it would be easy to find a coffee-flavored biscotti recipe. After all, it's a cookie that is often eaten with a cup of coffee. Starbucks even has individually wrapped biscotti at their cash registers. Still, I was able to find one on Food.com, a site that posts recipes submitted by readers.

Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Every year the Seattle Passport Agency holds a Passport Day, where the lobby is open on a Saturday for applicants who might not be able to apply for a passport during the week. It's a good opportunity for overtime (one I didn't take advantage of last year) despite being on a weekend. As I've done for previous Saturday overtimes, I decided to bake something to help us get through the somewhat long day (we clock in earlier on these days but also clock out earlier). Because it's officially fall, I decided on something with pumpkin. After a lot of searching (I had eggs to use up, so I was a bit picky this time), I finally chose a pumpkin cookie recipe from Dear Crissy.

Lemon Yogurt Cookies

I've noticed that lemon is a bit of an Italian flavor. So to me it made sense to find a lemon recipe for my Italian family to enjoy while on vacation. I chose a cookie recipe from one of my cookies and bars cookbooks. This one had an ingredient I had never used before: yogurt. Still, I figured it'd be easy to find. Lemon's gotta be a yogurt flavor that all stores have right?

Nope! The only lemon yogurts that Target has are Greek, which I was aware would change the flavor. So to avoid changing it for the worse, I went to Safeway after putting my groceries away at home. They tend to have a lot more flavor options of certain items. Fortunately, yogurt ended up being one of those items. Now all I had left to do was make the cookies.

Blonde Beauties (S'mores Blondies)

Last year I decided to make M&M cookies for Chelan since Nonni wasn't going to be able to make them. I ended up making two other types of cookies as well. Since they were such a hit (I had all three containers empty and clean by Wednesday of our week, if I remember correctly), I figured I'd repeat that this year. Other than the family-favorite M&M cookies, I chose two flavors that I was pretty sure the family would love: s'mores and lemon. After looking through my s'mores recipe book, I picked a s'mores blondie bar.

Fireworks Pudding Cookies

We have many opportunities to work overtime on Saturdays at my job. This year I started working the occasional Saturday (between season tickets to The 5th Avenue Theatre and to the Seattle Mariners, I need the extra cash for meals). I've noticed on Mondays that food is usually brought in on Saturdays (start time is 7 a.m. after all) so I decided to do that too. For a late June Saturday overtime, I figured patriotic cookies for the upcoming 4th of July holiday would be perfect. I searched my Patriotic/4th of July Pinterest board and found a recipe similar to what I made two years ago. I even bought the ingredients the week before so I didn't have to rush to the store after work on Friday then rush home.

And then Saturday overtime was cancelled.

So after spending a few days trying to figure out what to do with the ingredients (specifically the pudding mix - I'm not really a pudding eater), I decided to still make the cookies. Like two years ago, we had a work day between the 4th and the weekend. Cookies seemed like the perfect thing to make up for it (again). The recipe is from Crazy for Crust.

Buttermilk Scones with Chocolate Chips

For my next Sunday morning breakfast I wanted to make scones. I had some butter and eggs that needed to be used as well (specifically the butter: I had half a stick, which is one of my pet peeves). So I searched Pinterest, my hard copies, and the internet for a good recipe, finally deciding on some peanut butter chocolate chip scones.

And then I forgot to buy the sour cream that's on the ingredient list. And I couldn't use/make any of the substitutions that I found.

So I searched for a chocolate chip scones recipe and decided on a buttermilk scones recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. While it didn't use the eggs that I had (which was OK because I worked overtime the following Saturday so I was able to make some cookie bars), it used up all the butter I had. Granted, this recipe called for cinnamon chips but it none of the other ingredients indicated that the scones would be affected by substituting chocolate chips. It also seemed pretty easy to make.

Amish Cinnamon Bread

After making the Buttermilk Waffles, I had some leftover buttermilk. I didn't want to just throw it out but I also couldn't figure out what to do with it. So when my mom said we were going to have brunch at their house to celebrate Mother's Day, I figured I'd use it for that. After not fully liking what I had for hardcopy recipes, I went through Pinterest. While there were quite a few options for cake, two caught my eye that seemed a bit more appropriate for brunch: cinnamon coffee cake and amish cinnamon bread.

You remember the amish cinnamon bread, right? You get a starter batter and over the course of about 10 days, you knead the bag to get everything mixed and to activate the yeast. About halfway through add a few ingredients before kneading. Eventually, you divide the batter to give your friends their own starter batter and you use the rest for the bread itself (if you want to make your own starter, I found a good recipe on a website called Friendship Bread Kitchen, which has a ton of recipes that use the starter after the 10-day process).

For the sake of nostalgia, I decided to make the amish bread, completely forgetting about the 10-day mashing process. Turns out, that wasn't a problem: the recipe I found is a quick alternative recipe. No kneading, not waiting 10 days. Just combine the ingredients and bake like a normal recipe. The recipe comes from Redfly Creations.

Buttermilk Waffles

When I was a senior in high school I was FINALLY able to do what I had wanted to do for several years: take electives. Between band and the required ASL, science, and PE, I didn't have time in my schedule for any class that wasn't a basic requirement (English, math, social studies/history). But since science and PE were only required for a certain number of years and not enough students signed up for 3rd Year ASL, I had room for two classes each semester that could be WHATEVER I WANTED. (Apparently this ended up being step 1 to my current state of independence.)

One such class was creative cooking. It covered 5 courses: Breakfast, Appetizers, Main Dishes, Side Dishes, and Desserts (I'll give you one guess which one was my favorite 😏). For most units/courses we were given two recipes and each group picked the recipe we would make. As the class went on, we compiled all the recipes in a binder for future use (and, obviously, our final grade). In the 14 years since I've probably only made one recipe from it: Buttermilk Waffles. These things basically taste like the Eggo© Cinnamon Toast Waffles in the grocery store freezer section. They're a bit time-consuming to make but so worth it! After making it several times for Sunday morning breakfast since moving into my apartment, I figured I should share the recipe.

Easy Strawberry Cake and Frosting

I feel like there are some flavors that are universal in my family. As in, just about everyone likes them. Other than chocolate (because, duh), peanut butter is the main one that comes to mind: with the exception of Carly and Stefan, I think everyone in my family likes peanut butter (just don't put it into frosting 🤦‍♀️).

There's also strawberry. Other than my dad, I'm not sure if there's anyone in my family who doesn't like strawberries (if there is, they're not as vocal about it 😏). So since he wasn't going to be here for Easter, I decided to make something with strawberries in it. After looking at both hard copies and digital copies, I decided on a cake and frosting recipe from The Spruce Eats.

Lemon Poppy Seed Mini Muffins

I got another new baking tool for Christmas - a mini muffin pan. Seeing as how there's not a lot of choices for mini cupcake liners, I decided to use it for muffins, as least at first. I even had a recipe in mind: a muffin recipe I found in the newspaper insert Parade back in 2012 (at least I think it was Parade - the torn page I saved doesn't have the name of the publication on it). It's a base muffin recipe with almost a dozen different variations, including lemon poppy seed (just like with soft pretzels, I think this lemon "kick" is permanent). I quickly realized that I wasn't sure how long to bake them for since this is a mini pan. After doing a little research, I found an informative page that explains how to convert a muffin recipe into a mini muffin recipe, specifically for the baking time. Pretty simple - I think I might do all my muffins like this from now on.

Scotcheroos

When I was growing up we'd spend most of our 4th of Julys camping on Camano Island. My dad's high school friend's parents owned property there and my dad and all their friends had been camping there since they met. This is where I first remember having scotcheroos: peanut butter Rice Krispies treats topped with a melted chocolate-butterscotch chips mixture. I even copied the recipe from what the mom had written down - which ended up being unnecessary as it's pretty much from Rice Krispies itself.

I'd been craving them for a while so I decided to make them for Rowan Fae's annual St. Patrick's Day weekend road trip - except due to scheduling conflicts, we only had two shows on Sunday night. Oh well - these last a while so more for me!

Chewy Sprinkle Cookies

Birthdays are a call for celebration - especially the milestone ages. And what says celebration more than funfetti/sprinkles? So of course I had to keep Carly's birthday sprinkle treats tradition going for her 18th birthday. I even found a sprinkle-themed card:

I looked through my entire cake batter and funfetti Pinterest board until I found what is probably the most appropriate treat I can bake for Carly: sprinkle cookies. The way the blogger at Pear Tree Kitchen described them, they're basically snickerdoodle cookies but rolled in sprinkles instead of a cinnamon-sugar mixture. For the sprinkles I decided to use jimmies since that's what I have on hand; however, the blogger used nonpareils and said you can use pretty much any kind of sprinkles.

Chocolate Mint Crinkles

Another one of my favorite cookies that we make around Christmastime is chocolate crinkle cookies. They're so chewy and chocolatey and delicious that I don't care how messy they are (which is saying something because I'm the baker who cleans as I work). One thing we've never thought to do, though, is add peppermint. Even without the internet to give us recipes with the exact amount, it's a pretty easy addition.

Which is why I decided to make peppermint crinkle cookies for work's usual Valentine's Day potluck. You see, we got some snow. Which lead to me staying close to home for about 4 days. During the first couple days I tried to use up two things: my packets of hot chocolate (because of the calories I don't drink it as often as I would like) and the almost-empty bottle of peppermint extract. Except using peppermint extract to make peppermint hot chocolate is A HORRIBLE IDEA! So with Monday off I decided to find a recipe and make the cookies in order to use up the extract (who says peppermint is only for Christmastime?). I ended up modifying a recipe from Betty Crocker's website. The recipe was for a chocolate crinkle version of the peanut butter blossoms (kinda like the peppermint thumbprint cookies I made once) except I left out the candy cane Hershey's Kisses.

Condensed Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

I hate having leftover ingredients. With a few exceptions (mainly coconut), I try to use them up as soon as I can. Even if they can last a long time, like the leftover sweetened condensed milk I had from Auntie Paldina's coconut truffles. Coincidentally, I came across a cookie recipe on Pinterest that uses a small amount of sweetened condensed milk. It seemed very simple and easy. Also, it's egg-free and low in sugar since the milk makes up for that. The recipe is from A Pretty Life in the Suburbs.

Buttery Spritz Cookies

Growing up my mom had a cookie press that we would always bring out at Christmastime. We made trees, wreaths, and ornaments with it using colored and chocolate dough, usually topping them with sprinkles. I think we also brought it out at other times of the year every once in a while too (there's a heart plate and a bunch of flower plates). So when Mom had a Pampered Chef party to benefit her Relay for Life team years ago, I bought one. Or so I thought. Turns out it's a decorator of some kind. So I did a little research and added a Wilton cookie press to my baking-themed Amazon wish list.

Somehow Kevin and Helen found out about this (possibly from Kati - it was one of the ideas I gave her for Christmas) because look what I got from them:

I decided to break it in last week when I had a day off from work. I also wanted to use up the half-dozen eggs I had leftover - except the only recipes I could find had just one egg (oh well - I do like egg salad sandwiches). I finally settled on a recipe from one of Taste of Home's special edition holiday magazines as this one also allows for food coloring (something I also wanted to use up).

Chocolate Coconut Cream Truffles

As I said in Barba John's recipe post, I got the main flavors for Barba John and Auntie Paldina mixed up. I really shouldn't have though - Barba John is Nonni's brother and while I know siblings don't always share favorite flavors (Anthony's love of dark chocolate and my distaste for it is just one example), there's still the possibility of that when they grow up together (my brothers and I all love peanut butter). I still mixed things up, though, and focused on the coconut recipes I've saved for Mom and Nonni when searching for Auntie Paldina's present. I finally settled on chocolate-covered coconut truffles from Sugar Apron, thinking they'd be easy. Right?

Coconut Jam Squares

Nonni's present was a bit hard to pick out. She had heart surgery back in August so I wanted to make something that was heart-healthy. Mom told me to try and be low on butter and salt. I also wanted to find something that would taste good with coffee and could maybe pass as breakfast because Nonni always texts me a few days after getting a gift from me saying that she's enjoying her present with her morning coffee. After lots of looking I found a recipe for squares with coconut and raspberry jam in my 500 Best Cookies, Bars, & Squares cookbook.

Andes Creme de Menthe Cookies

A while back I made Kevin some gooey cake bars with Thin Mints. Another ingredient in these bars is Andes Crème de Menthe pieces. Since I made the bars for Kevin twice for his birthday (not to mention the homemade Thin Mints I made him), I figured he'd like mint cookies. While searching through my clipped recipes (mainly from Good Housekeeping, People Country and various packages), I kept coming back to Crème de Menthe Cookies from the pieces bag so I stuck with those. The recipe is also available on the parent company's recipes website.

Chocolate-Coated Lemon Almond Biscotti

I'm still kinda on "dark chocolate" for Anthony. And "lemon." Two flavors that I discovered go together when I first successfully made macarons. So I decided to do both for Anthony's present. I realized that (almost) every year so far I've made biscotti for someone. And for whatever reason, I decided that this year was gonna be Anthony's year to receive biscotti. I pretty quickly found a recipe that fit the bill, combining both the original recipe and a suggested variation, in Crazy About Cookies, one of my many baking cookbooks.

Peanut Butter Brownies

Helen's present was another recipe I decided to make during the week. Since last year's Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge was successful, I decided to do the chocolate-peanut butter combo again this year. After doing lemon brownies for Anthony a couple years ago for his birthday, I decided to see if peanut butter brownies were a thing (also, brownies and bar cookies are easy to do in just a couple hours). Turns out, they are! The recipe I found in Taste of Home Best-Loved Cookies & Candies 2012 special issue even has chocolate chips in it, which I was gonna put in anyway.

Fudge Cookies

A year ago, right after Christmas, Nonni texted a suggestion to me: add her brother and sister-in-law (my great-aunt and great-uncle) to my list of people to make Christmas gifts for since they usually give me something. She had a point so I got some flavor ideas: coconut for Barba John and chocolate for Auntie Paldina. Since it was so simple, I figured I'd remember it, even when looking at my flavor ideas list when choosing recipes.

Except I got the two mixed up and chose a chocolatey cookie for Barba John and a coconut treat for Auntie Paldina. Oops! Apparently this didn't matter: when I asked Chiara and Matteo for more flavor ideas for their grandparents, they said that both liked chocolate and coconut. So I decided to stick with the recipes I originally chose for them. For Barba John, I chose a fudgy cookie recipe from Just a Pinch (Auntie Paldina makes fudge for almost everyone for Christmas so I kinda always associate anything fudge-related with both of them).

Peanut Butter Brookies

I love and hate the holiday season. Love because Christmas music and movies are awesome and there's all kinds of treats. Hate because I bake treats for almost a dozen people (not to mention make candy for 5 cousins) so it can get a bit overwhelming. I technically only have one main day - Saturday - to take my time to bake since Sundays I have to leave mid-afternoon for dance class and the rest of the week I work. So I sometimes pick a few recipes that are quick to make.

Like for Kati's present. I also kinda wanted to make something that's been a trend for a few years - brookies (a brownie-cookie hybrid). There are a few different ways to make them. The one I chose is layered - one layer of cookie dough and one layer of brownie batter. The recipe I found on Jen's Favorite Cookies allows a box mix for the brownie layer (and honestly, why not? Box mix brownies are THE BEST of all mix choices). And they bake at the same time. Bonus - the cookie layer has peanut butter in it.