OperationLayla Bake Sale

If you read my blog (thank you) you probably like food about as much as I do… specifically baked goods. Am I right? Well, here is a chance to get freshly baked, baked goods delivered right to your front door. #OperationLayla is hosting a bake sale right now!

Please check out “Bake Sale Info” for a detailed description of how this Bake Sale works.


Each item below starts with a minimum bid of $15, and to officially bid on any particular item, you must leave a comment with at least a $1 (one dollar) raise in price. All buyers have until 11 pm EST to submit their bid.


Thank you very much for your generous contributions and support. We will try our best to moderate the comments throughout the day. If you would like to comment anonymously or have any questions or concerns, please email OperationBakeSale@gmail.com. Happy bidding!

I’m donating Chocolate Covered Rice Cereal Bars, gluten free - of course. However, since I’m in the middle of finals right now, I wasn’t able to make them this weekend and take a picture for the website… so I drew one.


Mmmmm, don’t THOSE look tasty? The upside is these will be extra fresh when I mail them out :)

HAPPY BIDDING!!

Easy Peasy: S.O.S. Dessert

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Sadly, I have class tonight so Hubs & I won’t be doing much for Valentine’s Day this year. (I can’t wait to graduate). However, I did whip him up a one of our new favorite desserts last night while we were hanging out on the sofa last night. My Bestie, Felicia, made this for her husband’s birthday a few weeks ago and we’ve been making them at home for the last couple weeks. It’s really easy and might be a fun thing to surprise your honey with tonight… you know, if you don’t already have Valentine’s dessert plans.


Basically it’s a cookie with ice cream on top, but here’s how to make it…

(Click recipe to enlarge)

I hope you all have a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Gluten Free Almond Butter Criss-Cross Cookies

Let me start by saying, I did not make these, my sister did… because she loves me :) (Not that I couldn’t make them, because I totally will now that I know how good they are). This is very similar to the recipe Lara suggested in the comments of my allergy test post, but with almost butter and Splenda mix.


My sister packed them and gave them to my Dad to bring me in the office. I was supposed to go the my parent’s house on Sunday night for my Daddy’s birthday dinner, but I ended up at home sleeping off a day of tossing my cookies. I felt so badly, because my sister had gone out of her way to make the dinner fit in my new diet and I couldn’t eat a thing. I was so happy to see my Dad bring me to cookies she made, on Monday morning. (And, I’ll be even happier after I take my Dad to lunch tomorrow to make up for missing his Birthday dinner).

How do you make them?

Click Recipe to Enlarge

Is anyone else as amazed as I am that they actually look like cookies? Believe me, they taste like them too, and there is absolutely no flour!

Fail: White Chocolate Grapefruit Cookies

Dear Allison,
Next time you need to bake to release stress, don’t attempt something you’ve invented in your head.


Probably best to stick with wine and a recipe you can find on the back of the Toll House Bag. Also, don’t forget to add the egg and then forget to take the 2nd batch out of the oven.


You may also want to wait for Hubs to get home before you throw the rest of the dough down the drain and call the whole experience a loss.


Because, even if they don’t taste like grapefruit, at all, the Hubs may still find them super tasty. Hold on to the other half of the grapefruit and try a different approach over the weekend.


Post about it next week :)

Love,
Ali

Apple Cinnamon Cookies

As often as I make chocolate chip cookies, I'm not a huge fan. I know, who doesn't like chocolate chip cookies? I like the dough more than the cookies. Anyway, last night I was making the Hubs chocolate chip cookies and I decided divide the dough in half and try something. It turned out to be delicious!

Apple Cinnamon Cookies

Recipe adapted from Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Cookie Recipe

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup Splenda Sugar blend
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups chopped apples (about 2 cored apples)

Directions

1 - Preheat oven to 375

2 - In small bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon.

3 - In large mixer bowl combine and cream butter, Splenda sugar blend, brown sugar and vanilla.

4 - Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

5 - Gradually beat in flour mixture.

6 - Stir in apples.

7 - Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

8 - Bake for 10 min or until edges are golden.

9 - Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

I Want, I Need, I Have to Have: Message-in-a-Cookie

So yeah, I'm pretty sure I need this...


It's called 'Message-in-a-Cookie Cutter' and you can get them from Williams-Sonoma. According to the website it comes with three cutters, seven premade words (Welcome, Happy, Birthday, Holidays, Thank You, From, I Love You), three sets of alphabet letters (plus extras of vowels and other commonly used letters).

I'm already dreaming-up funny things I can make my cookies say. OH! and the Alice In Wonderland party I can have with the "Eat Me" cookies! YES PLEASE!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies with Candy Cane

My friend Amy over at Skinny for by Amy started a Baking Gals of 'Bees. I made these for Round 15 which, mails out to our Troops on Wednesday.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies w/ Candy Cane

Adapted from AllRecipes.com recipe by Kathy

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 crushed candy cane

Directions
1 - Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2 - In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy.

3 - Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended.

4 - Mix in the chocolate chips and crushed candy cane.

5 - Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

6 - Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until set.

7 - Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

My original plan was to bake all weekend and make a bunch of different cookies, but then our apartment complex re-finished our shower by mistake and we had to stay in a hotel all weekend. By the time I was back in our apartment Sunday night I didn't have as much baking time as I'd planned so I had to stick to one recipe and I'm filling the rest of the box with an assortment of Easy Mac Cups which, rumor has, the troops really like.

What are your favorite Christmas Cookies?

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Take 2

Technically this is Take 3, I attempted The Chewy and didn't follow the recipe exactly when I spaced out and put in the white of the egg instead of the yolk - D'oh... anyway, they looked EXACTLY like the first chocolate cookies I made, and tasted the same too!

This recipe is from my Bestie Feli and was part a of super cute cookie themed shower present she made me.

She put all the dry ingredients (and I'm assuming the vanilla) in a zip-lock baggie so all I had to do was at the butter and the eggs! Since I'm pretty sure I had the Flu on Tuesday it was nice that this was as easy as possible. (What? You don't bake when you're sick? I can't sit still).

Out of the 3 chocolate chip cookie recipes I've tried so far this is my favorite. I always like the dough more than the cookies, but these weren't bad. They have a saltier taste and are Tast-eee!

Here is the recipe if you want to try them...

Thanks Feli!

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Take 1

I was home sick yesterday and since I can't sit around all day and do nothing, even when I'm sick, I decided to back the Hubs some chocolate chip cookies (his favorite). I sent a request out on Twitter asking for favorite recipes and got back a few great recipes. I decided to try the most simple one since I had to get done at the same time. Special thanks to Charmi over at Life on Minden for suggesting this recipe from Darci at With This Nest....

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs (room temp if possible)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (feel free to throw in the whole bag if you like them super chocolate-y)

Cream butter, brown sugar and white sugar together in a mixer. Then add the eggs, one at a time. Beat until creamy. Add the vanilla.

In another bowl mix the dry ingredients together before slowly adding them to the creamed mixture. When combined, stop the mixer and add the semi-sweet chips. Mix up and then drop by the teaspoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Mold them into a ball as best as you can with the spoon for a more shaped cookie.

Bake on 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Place on wire rack to cool. Enjoy!

Note: For my oven I found the perfect bake time was 9 1/2 minutes.

These were good, but the dough part was a little too bland for me, when I try this recipe again I'll take Katie's suggestion by doubling the brown sugar and using half the white... and Lisa's suggestion by substituting 1t of vanilla for 1T.

Next time I want to try The Chewy by Amy over at Skinny Food by Amy.