Chocolate Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk White Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Recipe 30.

Chocolate Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk White Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Yes, that's what they are called. You can comment on this post with a better name for them and I just might take your suggestion into consideration. My iphoto album for these cookies is definitely titled "choc oatmealchocchihchoochocookies." I apparently couldn't get through it one more time. I need help.

They are super delish. SUPER. I had to get rid of them as fast as possible to keep myself from eating them all! Once they were cool I practically ran to my friends' various apartments and threw the cookies at their faces.

I'm watching my weight.

HAHAHAhahahaha. Oh man, yah right about the weight watching.
But I really did throw cookies at people. Almost.

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup rolled oats
lots of chocolate chunks and white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Stir together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a large bowl cream the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together.  Beat in the egg and vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients. Once well mixed, stir in the oats, chunks, and chips. As many as you want!

Shape into really large portions of heaven and bake for 8-10 minutes. Allow them to cool for about 5 minutes before removing from the baking sheet to a cooling rack.

Chocolate Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk White Chocolate Chip Chookie recipe reviewer comment of the century:

"I would kiss you on the lips if you would let me."

Deep Dish Cookies.

Recipe 29.

Deep Dish Cookies (inspired by many sites).

I've been seeing a lot of blog posts and pins about deep dish cookies. I couldn't resist! Especially since I recently bought the cutest ramekins ever.

Basically, the secret is to fill ramekins half full with your favorite cookie dough, bake for a little bit longer than usual, and scoop ice cream on top. Eat them before they cool off!

Here is the recipe I used for mine:

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups  flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 sticks softened butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. In another bowl stir together butter, both sugars, eggs, vanilla, and cocoa. Gradually stir in flour mixture and mix well. Stir in way too many chocolate chips.

Fill ramekins 1/2 full with cookie dough. Place ramekins on a cookie sheet and put in the middle of the oven. Bake 12-18 minutes, or until tops look fully cooked. The insides should be slightly undercooked but not too doughy.

Remove from oven, top with a few scoops of ice cream, grab a spoon, eat your heart out!!!

"Knock Your Socks Off" Brownies.

Recipe 26.

"Knock Your Socks Off" Brownies (from Pioneer Woman).

Ok, I'll get real with you. The brownies are actually called "Knock You Naked," but we are keeping it PG here, folks. What am I supposed to say to my friends? "Eat this brownie. It will knock you naked, and then this whole social situation will become really awkward." I'd rather just see some bare feet.

I'm a brat.

I was walking home after delivering a plate full of these to my friend, and was startled by him yelling "BREANNA!" out of his third story window. "THESE BROWNIES HAVE CARAMEL IN THEM! Oh my gosh!" And then, his roommate kissed my hand the next time he saw me. Either I looked really good that day or he tasted some of these brownies. I'd guess on the latter. I don't wash my hair everyday.

Ingredients:
1 box German Chocolate Cake Mix
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup evaporate milk for later
1/2 cup melted butter
60 whole unwrapped caramels

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the cake mix, pecans, 1/3 cup evaporated milk, and melted butter. Stir together until well combined, it should come out really thick. Press half the batter into a greased 9x9 or 8x8. Bake for 8-10 minutes, remove from oven, and set aside.

While half the batter is baking, melt your caramels with the 1/2 cup evaporated milk over the stove. I don't have a double boiler so I use a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. This takes longer than you think so get it started!

While the caramels melt, form the rest of the dough into a square shape about the size of the pan.

Pour the melted caramel over the first brownie layer.

Set the remaining brownie dough on top of the caramel. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Allow to cool to room temperature, and then refrigerate for several hours (or just eat them, like we did). You can sift powdered sugar over them if you'd like!

Wait for it..

yes yes yes...

YES!

Forget PG. If these really did knock you naked, no one would even notice because we'd all be focusing on the brownie/caramel/nuttiness making our taste-buds sing.

Swiss Chocolate Mousse Cake.

Recipe 23.

Swiss Chocolate Mousse Cake.

One of my favorite people at my school is a sweet German lady who pulls my students and does interventions with them. She got a glimpse of my baking blog while she was in my classroom, and offered me a family recipe. She told me she doesn't give it to everyone, but she knew I would use it well. I asked her permission to share it with all of you and she said, "Of course!" She gave the recipe to me in gram measurements, so I took some time converting it into customary units and perfecting the amounts to make it easier for us Americans. My friends raved over this cake, and you will too!

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup butter

1 1/3 cup sugar

9 eggs, separated

11.5 oz chocolate chips, melted

1 1/3 cup flour

The steps are simple. Beat the separated egg whites in a bowl. In a large bowl, combine butter, sugar, chocolate, and flour until well mixed. Then fold in the egg whites. Bake for 30-45 minutes at 300 degrees. The middle of the cake should be almost solid, but not fully cooked. It is mousse cake, so you want it to be soft and gooey in the middle. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Eat your heart out.

This is a recipe that I plan on using time and time again. It is beautiful, classy, and still a crowd pleaser. It's going in my all-life-time favorites. Which is saying a lot!

Cadbury Egg Cookies.

Recipe 16.

Cadbury Egg Cookies.

(from a conglomerate of places, but mostly this one)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening
1/2 cup melted, unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 beaten eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour
6 tbsp cocoa powder
1 bag miniature Cadburry eggs

Preheat the oven to 350.  Crush your chocolate eggs in a bag with a rolling pin, mallet, or a hammer if you are as awesome as me and your neighbors already hate you from the time you smashed Lemonheads so it doesn't really matter if you do it again.

Cream the butter and sugars until the are light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then slowly add it into the wet mixture. Add the Cadbury eggs and beat a couple more times.  You want to dough to be a little wet, these cookies are supposed to turn out brownie-like.

Drop balls of dough onto a cookie sheet and bake for... drum roll... EIGHT minutes! That's right, you are only 8 minutes away from heavenly bliss. 

Then hurry and distribute them onto paper plates and deliver them as fast as you can to keep from having enormous love handles. Because once you pop, you just can't stop.

Texas Sheet Cake

Recipe 12.

Texas Sheet Cake

(from my mom from my aunt)

It's funny how anything with the word "Texas" in it is incredibly appealing and must be had/bought/made by a Texan girl. 

My favorite part of this cake was telling people, "It's Texas sheet cake," and watching their faces when they connect my home country with my creation.  Then they tease me.  In the same way people (who decided on their own to come to college in Utah) complain about Utah, they try to resist Texan pride by mocking it.  But they were weak arguments, they couldn't stop eating the cake anyway. Texas will always win. You'll agree once you have a slice.

Cake:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup shortening

4 tbsp cocoa

1 cup water

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Icing:

1/2 cup butter

3 tbsp cocoa

6 tbs milk

1 lb powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Sorry about the pictures, I had two hours to make three cakes for a last-minute birthday party. So I pretty much forgot about my camera until the party was about to start, snapped some shots, and regretted it later.

Many Texas sheet cakes are sweeter than this one.  I loved this one because the balance between the cake and frosting was perfect. And it was so easy to make! It was a hit; both sheet cakes were gone by the end of the night.

Boil the butter, shortening, cocoa, and water for the cake. Sift the dry ingredients. Pour the mixture over all the dry ingredients. Add the buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla. Beat well and bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

While baking, boil the butter, cocoa, and milk for the icing.  Add in a whole pound of powdered sugar (celebrate!) and the teaspoon of vanilla.  Mix it up and pour it over cake as soon as the cake comes out of the oven. Let set for about 20 minutes before serving.

Oh, and when you are making the frosting and it is looking super weird and not frosting-like, check the recipe. You forgot to add the pound of powdered sugar. Believe me, you can add it in still, it isn't picky.

"Texas does not, like any other region, simply have indigenous dishes. It proclaims them. It congratulates you, on your arrival, at having escaped from the slop pails of the other 49 states."

 - Alistair Cooke

Chocolate Fudge Cake.

Recipe 8.

In honor of my best friend's birthday:

Chocolate Fudge Cake

(from the Tasty Kitchen)

8 oz. semisweet chocolate
1 box chocolate cake mix
3.4 oz. instant chocolate pudding mix
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water
8 oz. frozen whipped topping
12 oz chocolate chips (yes, more)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease two round baking pans. Look at those ingredients, and don't worry about the grease. You know you need to fill out your love handles better anyway. Beat the cake mix, dry pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, oil, and water in a huge bowl just until moistened.  Beat for about 2 more minutes on medium speed. Stir in about 2 oz of chocolate chips. Seriously, it's that easy.

Pour the very thick batter into the greased pans and bake for about 30-35 minutes.  Cool for 10 minutes in the pans and then flip them out and let them cool completely.

Fudge frosting: Put about 6 oz of chocolate chips in a bowl with the frozen whipped topping and microwave for about 60 seconds, stir, and then nuke it for about 30 more seconds. Nuke is a much cooler word. Let it stand and thicken for about 15 minutes.  Frost in between the cakes and the top and sides until it is as beautiful as mine (just kidding, yours will be prettier).

If you are really awesome and can make chocolate curls (I failed miserably), go for it. If you are like me, just melt some more chocolate, spread it on a cookie sheet, let it cool, and use a knife to make chocolate shavings for the top of the cake! Then, don't forget your really cute candles when you leave to go to your best friends house, because you will be really upset about it and no one else will understand.

Happy Birthday Adrianne!

Chocolate Marble Cheesecake

Recipe 7.

Chocolate Marble Cheesecake.
(from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, a little tweaked)
My first cheesecake. How precious.

1 1/2 cups finely crushed graham crackers
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup melted butter
2 8-oz. packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup milk
3 eggs
4 oz. melted semisweet chocolate

Preheat the oven to 375. For the crust, combine the crushed graham crackers, walnuts, cinnamon, and sugar. Stir in the melted butter. Press the mixture into a spring form pan to form the crust. It should be about 2" up on the sides (you may need to use more graham crackers than the recipe calls for). Set aside.

Beat cream cheese, 1 cup of sugar, flour, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.  Beat in milk until smooth. Stir in the already-beat eggs. Separate the filling, and stir the melted chocolate into one half.  Pour the plain filling into the crust, and then the chocolate. Use a knive to gently swirl the fillings.

Place the pan into a shallow baking pan and bake for 40ish minutes, until the outside edges appear set when gently shaken. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes and use a small knife to loosen the crust from the sides of the pan.  Allow to cool for 30 more minutes.

Remove the sides from the spring form pan and cook cheesecake completely on the rack.  Chill for at least 4 hours. I know, it takes serious self control to wait that long. Place on your pretty cake stand, take some pictures, and then cut in!

Make sure one of your friends is really into food presentation and makes this piece of art for you:

I know it doesn't look like a perfect cheesecake, but I was so proud of my first one!

Toffee Chocolate Puff Tarts

Recipe 6.

Toffee Chocolate Puff Tarts
(from the Chocolate Box cookbook)

Makes 12

15 oz. prepared puff pastry
5 oz semisweet chocolate
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
4 egg yolks

Toffee Sauce (from allrecipes.com)
1/3 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 tbsp. water
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Before starting, pull out your puff pastry to thaw for at least 40 minutes. But don't let it dry out.  I thawed mine with a wet towel draped over it.  Cut two inch circle of wax paper and line the bottoms of a 12-hole muffin tin.

Once the puff pastry is manipulatable (actually a word), cut out twelve 2" circles. I used a cup with an approx. 2" diameter to cut out the circles. Then cut twelve strips and roll them out until they are about half the initial thickness of the pastry.

Line the sides of each muffin hole with the strips, and then press in the circle to the bottom.  Seal together to make a tart shell.  Prick the bottoms of each shell and chill in the fridge for half an hour.

Preheat your oven to 400. While the shells are chilling, melt your chocolate over a pot of simmering water (oh how I have done this millions of times..). Remove the bowl and cool just enough, then stir in the cream. Beat together the yolks and sugar and mix well with the chocolate.

The recipe told me to buy toffee sauce, but since I couldn't find it at my local grocery store, I decided to just make my own! Melt the butter in a medium saucepan, stir in the brown sugar, corn syrup, water and condensed milk.  Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla!

Ok, back to the original-ish recipe.  Pull out your tart shells and get ready for the exciting part! Poor a spoonful of toffee sauce into each shell, and then divide the chocolate into each shell. Honestly, pouring the chocolate over the toffee might have been one of the defining moments of my life.

Be careful! You will have too much chocolate! Don't fill the shells up too much, mine expanded much more than I expected. Bake for 20-25 minutes, and turn the tray around halfway through.

Cool the tarts, remove the wax paper, and top with whipped cream and a dusting of cocoa powder! Voila!

Reviews (from boys, I might add):

"Those were seriously the most delicate delicacies I have ever tasted. Danka."

"These things are sooooooooo good. I propose the name 'better than ___* cream puff brownies."

*editing of text messages done by yours truly.

Molten Chocolate Cake

Recipe 1.

We'll kick it off with Martha, of course. Just a little tweaked to my tasting.

Molten Chocolate Cake (or Lava Cake)
serves 6 (don't worry, I quadrupled it)

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
8 oz. semisweet chocolate, melted
powdered sugar or vanilla ice cream for serving

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter the muffin tins and evenly dust with sugar. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy and add eggs one at a time while beating.  Beat in flour and salt until combined and then beat in ALL the chocolate. Pour into tin.

Bake 8-10 minutes, let stand 10 minutes. Flip cakes over onto a baking sheet and then serve with powdered sugar dusted on top (or vanilla ice cream, woo!).


Seriously, this was my first shot at molten cake and they turned out PERFECT! Good enough to share with boys. Some of them are the very boys I'm sitting with right now, watching the BYU basketball game. SHOUT OUT! Feel important Brandon, Zane, and of course my roommate Kendra who lets me borrow ingredients all the time.

Seeing as it was the beginning of my Project Bake and I didn't know I would be documenting it, I forgot to take pictures!! Here is Martha's version:

find her more perfect recipe here.