Kitchen Sink Cookies

I had never heard of such a thing as a kitchen sink cookie until Aaron brought home a box of some from Central Market's bakery.  I was hooked.  I was also PMSing so they were kind of perfect.  They are sweet, salty, crunchy, dense, and chocolaty with a crunch.  So ya know, PMS perfect. 

When I started googling some recipes, I couldn't find any that seemed anything like the ones I had from Central Market.  They were just chocolate chip cookies with like candy and stuff tossed in, instead of just chocolate chips.  That was not the case with the Central Market cookies - they had a distinctly fantastic flavor.

So I decided to use my smarts I have acquired from 18 years of school and two advanced degrees to...read the ingredients list.  I know, revolutionary.  I was pretty impressed with my own deductive skills, too.

Good thing I did, because I NEVER WOULD HAVE GUESSED what was in these cookies.  Not in a million years.  You will probably laugh, because I did too - they have pretzels, oats, chocolate chunks, butterscotch bits (so far not CRAZY), coffee and potato chips.  Yup - potato chips. 

NO WONDER I LOVED THEM.  Coffee and potato chips and chocolate! Its everything a mom needs in life.  So, without saying more, I figured out my own recipe that its really close and pretty much awesome.  Go forth and eat your coffee, moms.

Kitchen Sink Cookies

Yields 2 Dozen Large Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted and cool
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1/8 cup strong brewed coffee or espresso
• 2 1/3 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 generous cup old-fashioned oats
• 3/4 cup crushed traditional potato chips (like Lay's Classic)
• 1/4 cup toffee bits
• 1/4 cup butterscotch bits
• 8 oz bar semi-sweet chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugars until well blended.  Beat in the vanilla and eggs, until smooth.  Beat in the coffee or espresso.

Mix in the flour and baking powder until evenly combined.  Beat in the oats and scrape down the bowl.

Add in the chips, toffee, butterscotch and chocolate chunks. Mix until all add-ins are evenly distributed.

Place the dough into the fridge while you pre-heat your oven to 350°.

Once the oven is ready, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat.  Scoop out large tablespoons of dough, roll into balls, and drop two inches apart on the cookie sheet. 

Bake for 9-11 minutes until just browning on the edges.  DO NOT OVER COOK. 

Allow the cookies to cool on the sheet for at least 15 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Great Grandma Pauline's Chocolate Chip Blondies

These are my mom's equivalent to chocolate chip cookies.  They were a pantry staple at our house growing up, there was always a tray of them in the kitchen for us to snack on.  Turns out, when I asked her about the recipe, she got it from her grandmother (my great-grandmother, Pauline Crocker) who always had a batch of these in her pantry when my mom was growing up.

The recipe is really simple and can easily be done in one bowl.  I even used the opportunity to try out making a video for the recipe! A first for Broad & Hill!

The only thing I would say about the recipe is that it NEEDS to be baked in a metal pan.  I've made them other times and had to use glass or ceramic baking dishes and for whatever reason, they came out cakey and not chewy.  Also, you can divide it into two 8 x 8 pans (if you like the edge pieces) or you can use one 9 x 13 pan.  If you are using the smaller pans, they should only need 15 minutes or less to be done.  The bigger pan will need 35-40 minutes.

Pauline's Blondies

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2/3 cup butter, melted
• 3 eggs
• 2 2/3 cup flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 12 oz chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional - I don't use them, but my mom always does)

Preheat oven to 350° and grease and flour two 8 x 8 or one 9 x 13 metal baking pan, set aside.

Stir together the brown sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until just combined.

One at a time, beat in the eggs, mixing well after each addition.

Add the flour, baking soda and salt.  Mix well.

Stir in the chocolate chips and (optional) nuts.

Spread into prepared pans evenly.  Bake smaller pans for 12-15 minutes and larger pan for 35-40 minutes.  Top should be golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.  Don't over bake! Cool completely before cutting.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yesterday when I was deciding what sweet treat to bake to send with Hondo to school, I hit a snag and couldn't decide what to make so I made two things.  I went the pumpkin route because its October and I'm very excited and because little ones really seem to like pumpkin (as do lots of big ones too).

I made these fantastic Pumpkin Cream Cheese Blondies and then I made these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip ones that I gussied up with pumpkin as well.  Its a variation of my favorite Oatmeal Raisin recipes from Sally's Baking Addiction - replace some egg with pumpkin, brown sugar and the right spices, replace raisins with chocolate chips and off we go!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yields 2.5 Dozen Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 7 generous tbs. of pumpkin puree
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 generous tbs. molasses
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 generous cup milk chocolate chips

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars until fluffy.  Beat in the pumpkin, vanilla, and molasses until smooth.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon.  A little at a time, beat the dry ingredients into the wet until combined.

Stir in the oats until evenly distributed.  Fold in the chocolate chips using a spatula, the dough will be thick and sticky.  Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Roll generous tablespoonfuls of dough into balls and place an inch and a half apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.

Bake for 10-20 minutes depending on desired chewiness.  You can take them out as soon as they begin to brown at the edges and just as the centers have set, or you can wait until the tops are golden.  Removing them earlier will yield a chewier cookie, but you will have to wait until completely cooled to remove from the cookie sheet.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Blondies

October is here! Rejoice, it is officially autumn, the weather might actually start cooling off and the leaves might start falling! Break out your sweaters, pour a hot cup of anything and feel that breeze.

Oh and enjoy the pumpkins! Pumpkins everywhere.  They are pretty too look at a delicious to eat.  I love making things with pumpkin.  Its a nice earthy flavor, lots of nutrients to offer (not pumpkin spice, actual pumpkin), smells great and adds a nice layer of texture you can't quite replicate with another ingredient.

A while back I learned that because of the moisture in pumpkin puree, you can almost always replace eggs in a baking recipe with pumpkin (about 3 tbs per average sized egg).  So each fall I try it out on some new things.

This week was Hondo's birthday and gave me a great excuse to make some new pumpkin creations.  I wanted to send him to school with some special treats but having been a teacher for little ones his age, I didn't want to send anything covered in frosting and teeming with sugar.  Neither is a recipe for a happy class of toddlers and their teachers.

Thankfully, most kids love pumpkin too so I thought this was a great opportunity.  For the longest time, Townes though pumpkin muffins were cake - no frosting needed.  The same has been true with Hondo.

I couldn't decide what to make to I tried out two new things: Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies and Pumpkin Blondies with a Cream Cheese Swirl.

The recipe I used for these Blondies is my great-grandmother Pauline Crocker's.  She made her blondies with chocolate chips in them and always had a batch in the pantry waiting for her grandkids (my mom).  I replaced some of the eggs with pumpkin, but not all of them because I didn't want them to be fluffy and cakey, but dense like a fudge brownie, they ended up somewhere in between.  I also added some cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and obviously, the cream cheese swirl.

They didn't take long at all to whip up and came out lovely.  I still want to concoct a denser, fudgier type pumpkin bar, but haven't nailed it yet - stay tuned though, I'm sure I'll crack it this fall!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Blondies

Fills a 9 x 12 baking pan

For the Pumpkin Bar:

• 2/3 cup butter, melted
• 2 1/4 cup (1 lb. pkg) of dark brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 7.5 oz (half of a 15 oz. can) of pumpkin puree
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

For the Cream Cheese Swirl:

• 8 oz. bar of cream cheese, softened to room temp.
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 egg

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees; grease a 9 x 12 baking pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the melted butter and brown sugar until combined.

Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat in one egg at a time, until just combined - do not over mix.  Next, stir in the pumpkin puree until combined.

In a separate bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients.  Stir together and then mix the dry ingredients into the wet a little at a time until smooth.  Set aside.

Make the cream cheese swirl.  Using a hand mixer, whip the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the sugar, egg, vanilla and cream and whip until stiff peaks form.  Set aside.

Pour two-thirds of the pumpkin batter into the prepared pan.  Spread it evenly across the bottom of the pan.

Using a large spoon, drop large dollops of the cream cheese mixture on top of the pumpkin batter in the pan.  Drop the remaining pumpkin batter among the cream cheese.

Then, using a butter knife, swirl the cream cheese and pumpkin batter together slowly.  Don't worry if it doesn't look too pretty, when you cut them it always seems to work out.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the pan completely before cutting and serving.  Enjoy!

Lemon Blueberry Shortbread Bars

Chanel and I are already huge fans of citrus baked goods, lemon bars and cookies in particular.  They are so fresh tasting and tangy sweet.  So when Clay said lemon bars were his favorite desert, I got super excited to try something new for the baby shower I was throwing to celebrate him and his wife Katie and their expected baby boy.

This version is a variation of a recipe I saw from Fresh April Flours - the way we did it made the prettiest layers of shortbread, topped with oozing blueberries, and then a lemon custard and crumble top.  Even the colors coordinated perfectly with the baby shower, gold and purple.  They were a huge hit.  A couple people even asked to take some home after the party was over.

Lemon Blueberry Shortbread bars

Adapted from Fresh April Flours

Makes 24 Bars (recipe can be halved)

Ingredients

FOR THE CRUST

• 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tbs. vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon salt
• the zest of two lemons, divided
• 4 cups all-purpose flour

FOR THE FILLING

• 16 ounces (2 bars) cream cheese, room temperature
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cup granulated sugar
• 11 ounces lemon flavored Greek yogurt (2, single serving yogurts)
• 2 tbs. lemon juice
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 18 oz. fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Line an 12" x 9″ baking pan with parchment paper and lightly spray with oil. Leave an overhang on the sides. Set aside.

To make the shortbread crust: stir the melted butter, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, salt, and half of the lemon zest together in a medium bowl. Add the flour and stir until combined. Reserve 1 1/2 cup of the shortbread crust and place in the refrigerator or freezer until needed. Press remaining crust evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 15 - 18 minutes while you prepare the filling.

To make the filling: in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a medium sized bowl with a hand mixer, beat cream cheese on high until smooth. Beat in eggs, scraping down the sides as necessary. Add sugar, lemon flavored Greek yogurt, remaining lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt and mix thoroughly. Add flour and mix again until just combined.

Once the crust has cooled to the touch, cover with a single layer of blueberries (you may have some left over).

Pour filling over the blueberries carefully. Remove reserved crust from refrigerator and crumble into pieces with your fingers, then sprinkle over top of the filling. Sprinkle with sugar (or Sugar In The Raw). Bake bars for 55-60 minutes minutes, or until toothpick placed in center of pan comes out mostly clean. Allow pan to cool at room temperature on a wire rack. When completely cool, chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

When bars are completely chilled, lift out of the pan using foil overhang and cut into squares. Top with lemon zest before serving. Bars can be stored covered in the refrigerator up to 5 days.