Chocolate Chip Clouds (Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies)

After I learned the hard way that it's better to put egg whites in the freezer than in the fridge, I started freezing the whites after making Pepperoni Pinwheels. Fortunately the brief supply shortage of Pillsbury products (and I think also of pepperoni) helped buy me some time to finish the S'mores Cookie Bars. Once I got close, I started searching for recipes that use 8 egg whites (or at least could be adjusted to use 8 whites). I eventually decided on chocolate chip clouds (a.k.a. meringue cookies) from Skinnytaste. To defrost the egg whites, I put them in the fridge for a few days.

Chocolate Caramel Macarons

Last fall when I thought I was going to be staying home for a while I decided to start baking what I wanted to go with my lunch. Yes, I shouldn't really have dessert with my meals but I honestly can't remember a time when I didn't have something sweet to finish my lunch (well, on a regular basis. And when I eat alone). So for the first time in a long time (if not ever), I made something for me.

Several of the recipes I made asked for only egg yolks. But rather than toss the whites like I usually do (i.e. my famous pepperoni pinwheels) I started saving them. My intention was to make a macaron recipe for someone for Christmas. When that plan changed, I decided to make that recipe for me.

As most of you know, my history with macarons has been hit and miss. One of the main things I've struggled with is size: as soon as the batter hits the cookie sheet, it starts to spread. No idea if this was because the batter wasn't mixed enough or I just made them too big to begin with. Which is why I bought some macaron mats at the Culinary Apple last summer while in Chelan. Didn't entirely help but the shells were better than before, so win?

The recipe itself was easy to find: a while ago I bought a book called Mad About Macarons! by Jill Colonna. She's a bit of an expert on these little French treats, having lived in Paris since the 90s. I followed her instructions, even using metric measurements instead of the usual measuring cup/spoon that I'm used to. It was a longer process than I was expecting (which is why I didn't get to making the filling until almost a week later) but totally worth it.

Caramel-Filled Pretzel Bites

When it comes to non-staple ingredients in my pantry, I try to not have extras sitting around for a while (with the exception of coconut - since only Mom and Nonni like it, I just leave the bag alone). So a while back I started looking for a recipe to use up the caramel squares I still had from previous recipes. I eventually decided on Caramel-Filled Pretzel Bites from Amy's Healthy Baking. Which sat saved on my bookmarks bar for 6 months or so as I tried to figure out when to make them.

Enter St. Patrick's Day. While trying to decide what snacks I wanted to make for spending half the day in the car, I had a lightbulb moment: why not make the pretzel bites? So I did.

Homemade Twix Bars

Ever since I joined Pinterest I've come across a lot of homemade candy bar recipes. Apparently there are several different ways to make your favorite candy bars. So this year I decided to make homemade Twix bars for Anthony. After looking at all the choices I'd saved I finally decided on a recipe from Tastes Better from Scratch as it was the format I wanted.

Pumpkin Cake

Last week we had a potluck to celebrate the end of the fiscal year and reward ourselves for working hard and doing a great job (I have a feeling this'll be the last potluck for a while). Because it's fall I decided to make something pumpkin flavored. After a bit of debate over what kind of dessert to make (bars, cookies, cake, cupcakes...) I finally decided on making a cake since I hadn't made one in a while and I wanted to use up the the last of the caramel cream cheese frosting (based on some of the pins on my Pumpkin/Fall board, caramel goes just as good with pumpkin as it does with apple). I finally decided on a Pumpkin Snack Cake from Kitchen Meets Girl.

Apple Pie Macarons with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

Between last year and Pinterest, I was able to remember that Chiara is a fall megafan. Since she was recently in Paris I immediately decided to make apple pie macarons and use what I could of the caramel frosting (from July) as the filling. One problem: I couldn't really find a good macaron recipe that had apple pie spice in it (I finally broke down and got a container off Amazon). You'd think it'd be easy; however, most recipes I came across either had another source for the apple flavor in the macarons (like freeze-dried apples - no idea where to find those) or had the apple flavor in the filling instead of the shells. Finally, I found a recipe on The Macaron Queen for apple pie macarons.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Caramel Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

As I stated at the end of my chocolate macarons recipe post, I had a ton of caramel cream cheese frosting left over. So after a while of it sitting in my fridge. I decided to make chocolate whoopie pies and use the frosting as the filling. It didn't take me long to find a recipe: a while ago I bought a whoopie pie recipe book at Barnes & Noble. So I pulled it from my (barely used) recipe bookshelf and found a recipe for chocolate whoopie pies (not hard to find as it was the first one. Based on the recent Portland, Maine, episode of the Food Network show I Hart Food, chocolate with marshmallow filling is the original whoopie pie flavor). I mainly chose whoopie pies because a few years ago I got a whoopie pie pan at Kohl's and I've only used it once. Plus, these things are pretty easy to make.

Chocolate Macarons with Caramel Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

When I made the Fireworks Cookies & Cream Cookies for work I had a ton of eggs leftover plus 4 oz. of cream cheese. So I decided to try making macarons again using the same method that I had used last time. For the cream cheese the only solution I could come up with was cream cheese frosting to I started looking at every cream cheese frosting recipe on my Pinterest Frostings board until I found one on Wicked Good Kitchen that only required 4 oz. of cream cheese (and for once, I stayed with the first one I found instead of saving it for consideration). Because it was a caramel frosting I decided to make chocolate macarons since caramel is one of the many things that goes deliciously with chocolate. I finally decided on a chocolate macaron recipe from Diethood.

Caramel Apple Cookies

I don't know why but I keep forgetting that my cousin/bestie/fellow September Girl Chiara loves fall. The flavors, the fashion, the scenery outside - it's her favorite time of year. But it's one fact about her that I can't seem to remember. Fortunately, I do remember that she loves caramel apples. I even have the pictures to prove it:

Taken at the Washington State Fair in 2014

So when I decided I was going to bake her a present this year I immediately started keeping an eye out for caramel apple desserts on my Pinterest feed that were giftable. I decided on Caramel Apple Cookies from the blog House of Yumm.

Peanut Butter Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Back in December I decided to bake the gifts I gave my family (parents, brothers, brothers' SOs, grandmas). With my mom's help (because I suck at paying attention to and remembering people's eating habits), I started compiling a list of everyone's favorite flavors. Since baking gifts has been successful so far, I kept the list for future reference. Like Anthony's birthday. I decided to take a chance and use the flavors of his favorite candy bar Twix, even though caramel wasn't on my list of his favorite flavors. After searching through my Cookies Pinterest board, I finally decided on Peanut Butter Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies from Sugar & Soul. In a way it's like the cookie version of a Peanut Butter Twix so I couldn't go wrong.