Sweet Beats

Here’s another cookie recipe using my “cookie base mix”. I guess that’s what I’ll call it from now on haha. It’s basically a simple cookie recipe that I just add “special ingredients” too. In this case it’s white chocolate chips. It’s a good base for just about anything you could think of adding to a cookie.  

Ingredients:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup butter(1 1/2 sticks) softened
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup of white chocolate chips 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a large bowl cream the sugars and shortening for 2-3 minutes. Add egg and mix until incorporated. 
3. Add vanilla and mix until light and fluffy.
4. In a separate bowl mix flour, salt and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture. Dough will be stiff.
5. Fold in white chocolate chips
6. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet or parchment paper, spaced about 2-inches apart.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown.
8. Cool for 2 minutes on baking sheet; transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. 
9. Yields 25-30 cookies

Enjoy! :)

-Kristen Brooke

These have become a new staple of mine. They are extremely delicious, especially if you’re a fan of Butterfinger. I made them once for a meeting I had and they were gone in minutes! The cookie itself is a base recipe that I like to use for a variety of cookies and then I just add the special ingredient like chocolate chips or M&Ms or in this case Butterfinger. I’m definitely a fan of candy in cookies and other generally unhealthy things haha. 

Ingredients:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup butter(1 1/2 sticks) softened
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 bag mini Butterfinger candies crushed 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a large bowl cream the sugars and shortening for 2-3 minutes. Add egg and mix until incorporated. 
3. Add vanilla and mix until light and fluffy.
4. In a separate bowl mix flour, salt and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture. Dough will be stiff.
5. Stir in crushed Butterfinger candies
6. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet or parchment paper, spaced about 2-inches apart.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown.
8. Cool for 2 minutes on baking sheet; transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. 
9. Yields 25-30 cookies

Enjoy! :)

-Kristen Brooke

These were some cupcakes I made for a friends Super Bowl party that I attended. I tried to do the frosting the colors of the teams, green and yellow for the Packers and red, yellow and blue for the Steelers(I didn’t have any black to just do black and yellow like I wanted). Both the cupcake and the frosting are simple recipes, I just added white chocolate to the cupcake and icing colors to the frosting. :)

Cupcake Ingredients:
1/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
6oz white chocolate bark(or 1 cup white chocolate chips) melted 

Buttercream Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
red, yellow, green, blue icing colors(I used Wilton Icing Colors)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cream shortening and sugar together until smooth, about 2-3 minutes.
3. Add eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. Mix until light and fluffy.
4. Sift flour, baking powder and 1/2 salt and add alternately with milk to creamed mixture.
5. Add vanilla and melted white chocolate and mix.
6. Spoon batter into paper-lined muffin cups filling each cup 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean.
8. Cool in pans on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely. 
9. Frost with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Frosting:

1. Cream shortening and butter. Add remaining ingredients and beat on low speed until creamy. 
2. Divide frosting into separate bowls and using a toothpick, add a drop of icing color to the bowl and mix. Add more color if needed to reach desired color. 
3. Fill piping bags with frosting and using a 1M star tip, frost each cupcake starting on the outside of the cupcake in a circular motion and work your way in to the middle.  

Enjoy! :)

-Kristen Brooke

It’s been a while huh? Sorry for the hiatus haha, but now I’m back! Even though I haven’t posted in a while, I have been baking up a storm. Especially now that I finally got a stand mixer! It was a Christmas present from my mom and I absolutely love it! It just makes everything so much easier haha. I’ll be updating soon with all the new recipes I’ve tried recently.

Oh and here’s a pic of the mixer I got. :)

This was the first time I’ve ever made meringue cookies. I was just sitting in my Gay and Lesbian studies class and thought, hey! I wanna try to make meringues tonight. Random I know lol. I found a simple recipe online and went for it. They came out pretty good for my first time I think. This was perfect to make tonight because it takes about two and a half hours to bake so I was able to do homework while waiting. Okay, who am I kidding? I sat there and drank wine and watched The Real Housewives of Atlanta premiere haha. Okay enough chit chat, on to the recipe! :)

Ingredients:
3 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cups super fine sugar
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees or whatever is your stove’s lowest setting. Line baking sheets with parchment paper
2. In a mixing bowl, beat the egg whites at a low medium speed until foamy. 
3. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat the whites until they hold soft peaks.
4. Add the sugar gradually and continue to beat until the whites hold very stiff peaks.
5. Beat in the vanilla extract.
6. The meringue is done when it holds stiff peaks. You can also do the old turn the bowl upside down test. If nothing comes out the bowl it is done. 
7. Either using a pastry bag or spoons, place rounds of meringue in a line on the parchment paper about an inch apart. 
8. Bake the meringue cookies for 2 hours. When done turn off the oven and let them sit in the oven for an additional 30 minutes to cool.
9. Remove from the oven and let them finish cooling on a wire rack.
10. Makes around 20 meringue cookies.

Enjoy! :)

-Kristen Brooke