Cookie's Crumbles

Cookie's crumbles, morsels and tidbits

April 13, 2013 | 0 Comments

Yellow Cake Bars

I found this recipe on Pinterest this week. I told my mom that I would bring a dessert for lunch on Sunday, so I thought I would try these. So easy with only five ingredients. I’ve seen this recipe, or variations of it, many times. But I thought I would share with those of you who might not have seen this before. My sister-in-law also makes these for her Christmas platters every year. Yummy and easy, my favorite kind of recipe. Enjoy!

Yellow Cake Bars:

1 box yellow cake mix
3 eggs
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, melted
4 cups (1 lb) powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 300 and spray a 9×13 dish with cooking spray. Mix cake mix, melted butter and one egg to a soft dough. Press into the bottom of the pan. Mix powdered sugar, softened cream cheese and remaining two eggs until smooth. Pour on top of crust. Bake at 300 degrees for 40-50 minutes until top is golden brown.

March 22, 2013 | 1 Comment

Coconut Flan with Caramel Sauce

So, I took my husband on a surprise vacation to Miami, FL a few weeks ago. We only went for a few days and my intentions were only to sit in the sun and eat all I wanted. We did sit in the sun, but did not make it out to any of the restaurants I wanted to try. But…I did order room service the first night we were there and thought I’d try to coconut flan on the menu. I’ve never had flan and really didn’t even know what it was I was ordering. But oh my goodness…when I took the first bite, I knew I’d be trying to recreate this at home. Flan is actually a Spanish dish very much like custard. It looks difficult to make, but my first try last night produced awesome results! The flan I had in Miami came in little, one serving ramekin sizes; but the recipe I found online said I could do this in a bundt pan. I used a sunflower shaped flat bundt pan my mother gave me. This worked great and looked beautiful. After my first bite, I knew I had a winner. This was easy, tasted great and my dinner company enjoyed it also. Enjoy!

Cocount Flan with Caramel Sauce:

1 cup caramel sauce

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can (13.5 oz) unsweetened cocount milk

1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

6 eggs

1 T vanilla

1/2 t salt

1/2 cup sweetened coconut, toasted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray bundt pan with cooking spray. Warm caramel sauce (I just bought a jar of ice cream caramel sauce and zapped it in the microwave for about 30 seconds). Using an electric mixer, mix sweetened condensed milk, coconut milk, evaporated milk, eggs, vanilla and salt. Take the caramel sauce and pour into bundt pan, turning to coat the bottom and sides. Pour flan mixture over the caramel sauce. Now, the trick to this is to place the bundt pan in a roasting pan and fill the roasting pan with water so that the water comes about half way up the sides of the bundt pan. Cover the bundt pan with foil. Carefully, place the pan set into the oven and bake for about 1 hour and 40 minutes, until the center is set but still jiggles slightly. Remove from oven and let cool in pan for about 40 minutes. Transfer the pan, still covered, to the refrigerator over night or at least 3 hours. Remove from fridge and invert onto a serving platter. The caramel sauce will spill all over the flan, which is fine. Slice to serve and sprinkle with toasted coconut. ENJOY!

March 16, 2013 | 0 Comments

Almond Bars

Simple and delicious! It does not get any better than that. A coworker brought these bars in the other day and I was going to have just one little bite. Well, once you taste these, you’ll see how that went. One bite turned into 3 full servings. These are oh so good. Very easy and they make the house smell fantastic while cooking. Enjoy!

Almond Bars:

1 cup butter, room temp

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 lb almond paste

Cream together with mixer. Add:

2 eggs

1/2 t salt

3 cups flour

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease a 9×13 pan. Cream butter, sugar and almond paste together. Add eggs, salt and flour. As I was putting this together, I thought for sure something was missing from the ingredient list. These go together VERY thick, the batter is almost like cookie dough. But continue on. Press this into the 9×13 pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until slightly brown. Cool completely and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Enjoy!

February 23, 2013 | 2 Comments

Chocolate Cherry Cake

This is a recipe that my mom got from her sister-in-law, my Aunt Cathy. She’s not officially my aunt anymore, but I will always consider her my Aunt Cathy. This is another VERY easy cake recipe, only takes a few minutes to make and is delicious! If you love chocolate, this is for you. I had actually completely forgotten about this cake, but last week my sister made the request that I make this cake for lunch after church tomorrow. So I had my mom dig out her recipe card and I made it today. And because I needed an “after” shot for this blog post, I just had to cut a piece out and test it. So, so, so good! The only piece of advise, be care for any cherry pits that might have made their way into the canned cherry pie filing. I found one in the piece I cut out, hopefully it’s the only one in there. Make this today and enjoy!

Chocolate Cherry Cake:

1 box German chocolate cake mix

2 eggs

1 – 21 oz can of cherry pie filling

2 t. almond extract

Mix above ingredients with a mixer. Spread into a greased jelly roll pan, 10×15. The pan I had was a bit bigger, still worked fine, just a thinner cake. Bake at 350 degrees for 23 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for one hour.

Frosting:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

4 T butter

2 cups chocolate chips

Heat sugar, milk and butter on stovetop until boiling. Remove from heat and add chocolate chips. Stir well until melted and mixed well. Pour over cake. Let cool completely. Enjoy!

February 9, 2013 | 2 Comments

Sugar Cinnamon Quick Bread

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. Very easy and oh. my. word. sooooo good. I just got this out of the oven, let it cool for 20 minutes and just sat down and ate half the loaf myself. Sadly, I’m not even kidding. Perfect for a cold, winter day. The house smells great and I’m hoping some lasts until tomorrow morning so I can eat it with my morning coffee. Enjoy!

Sugar Cinnamon Quick Bread:

1/3 cup white sugar

2 t. cinnamon

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 T. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9×5 loaf pan. Mix flour, baking powder, salt and 1 cup of sugar. Add egg, milk and oil. Stir until just blended. Pour half of the batter into the loaf pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and 1/3 cup of sugar. Cover with remaining batter. Sprinkle with a little more cinnamon and sugar. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Enjoy!

February 2, 2013 | 0 Comments

Seven Layer Bars

Ok, so my mom has been making these bars my entire life. She keeps the original ingredients in the house at all times. We are somewhat snowed in today, so I’ve been cooking. I’ve been trying to use up extra stuff laying around and as I was searching through the cupboard, I saw the lone can of sweetened condensed milk. This made me think of my mom’s seven layer bars. I pulled out the recipe and started grabbing all the ingredients. When I got to the third missing ingredient, I decided to just make up my own recipe today. So here is my version of the classic seven layer bars. Enjoy!

Seven Layer Bars:

1 sleeve graham crackers, crushed

1 stick butter, melted

1 bag caramel bits

1 bag toffee bits

1 bag chocolate chips

1 bag chopped pecans

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 10×10 pan. Melt butter. Crush graham crackers. Mix butter and graham crackers. Pat into the bottom of a 10×10 pan. Sprinkle with caramel bits. Sprinkle with toffee bits. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Sprinkle with pecans. Pour can of sweetened condensed milk over entire pan. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool completely. Enjoy!

January 26, 2013 | 1 Comment

Buffalo Chicken Subs

I found this recipe in the latest issue of Food Network Magazine. They looked so good I just had to try them. These would be great for your upcoming Super Bowl party! The only thing I did not have was celery, they might have been just a little better with something green, like celery or even lettuce. The original also had a recipe for homemade ranch dressing, but I just used store bought. These were easy and tasted great. Enjoy!

Buffalo Chicken Subs:

2 cans cooked shredded chicken breasts

2 T. dark brown sugar

2 t. paprika

1/2 t. cayenne pepper

1 T. olive oil

1 cup buffalo wing sauce, such as Frank’s

salt/pepper

1 loaf of soft French bread

1 cup crumbled blue cheese

ranch dressing

celery or lettuce

Heat chicken and olive oil (and chopped celery if you are using that) in a Dutch oven or skillet over medium heat. Season with some salt and pepper. Let cook for 10 minutes. Add brown sugar, paprika, cayenne pepper and wing sauce and let simmer for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally. When ready to serve, cut French loaf length wise. Place blue cheese crumbles along the bottom half of the loaf. Spread chicken on top. Ranch dressing on the top sub half. Top with lettuce if you decide to use it. Cut into appetizer size bites, or full sub servings. Enjoy!

January 22, 2013 | 0 Comments

Pumpkin Spice Chili

I decided to enter the chili cookoff at church this past weekend. Since I do not like chili, I had to find a recipe that I could make that I might want to eat. I went online and found this one on Taste of Home’s website. It turned out great and I came in runner up in the medium heat category. Not bad for my first try. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Chili:

2 lbs ground beef

1 medium onion

2 can hot chili beans

2 bottles chili sauce

2 cans condensed tomato soup, undiluted

1 cup canned pumpkin

2 t. pumpkin pie spice

1 t. salt

1 t. pepper

1/8 cup chili powder

1/8 cup hot sauce (like Frank’s)

In a large Dutch oven, cook beef and onions over medium heat until no longer pink. Stir in remaining ingredients. Add water if desired to reduce thickness. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 2 hours. Now I like a lot of heat, but feel free to leave out the hot sauce and not add as much chili powder. Otherwise, enjoy!

January 19, 2013 | 0 Comments

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

I found this recipe on Pinterest a few weeks back and they were so pretty I just had to pin them. I’m trying to make a new recipe every Saturday, and so far into the new year I’ve done pretty well. These only use 4 ingredients, it does not get much easier than this. Easy, pretty and oh so good. Enjoy!

Lemon Crinkle Cookies:

1 box lemon cake mix

1 egg

1 – 8 oz container of whipped topping (Cool Whip) thawed

powdered sugar to roll cookies in

Mix cake mix, egg and whipped topping together. The batter is very sticky and gooey. Drop large tablespoonfuls of the dough into a bowl of powdered sugar and roll in sugar. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges are golden brown at 350 degrees. Cool on sheet for 1 minute and then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely. Enjoy!

January 12, 2013 | 1 Comment

Caramel Oatmeal Cookies

I found this recipe today in the latest issue of Midwest Living magazine. The original recipe called for pecans in the recipe, but I left those out. It also called for sea salt sprinkles on top, but I only did that for half the batch. Either way, they taste delicious! Enjoy!

Caramel Oatmeal Cookies:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 t. salt

1/2 t. baking soda

1 t. baking powder

1 t. cinnamon

2 eggs

2 t. vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

3 cups rolled oats

1 eleven ounce pkg caramel baking bits

coarse sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter on medium high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugars, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Beat until combined, scraping sides of the bowl. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in flour. Then hand stir in oats and caramel baking bits. Drop dough mounds 2 inches apart on parchment lined cookie sheets. Sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Cool on cookie sheets. Transfer to wire rack, cool.