#19) Chocolate Oatmeal Chippers

Yummo! These little sweet treats are chocolate lover's dream. Me, I love a good chocolate chip cookie, but this twist on a classic is scrumtious!!! The oats give the cookie a nice texture that stands up to a good glass of milk :) PS - I apologize for the short, sporadic posts, but school is eating up ALL of my time :(

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 3/4 cup chocolate chips

1 3/4 cup oats (quick or old-fashioned)

Steps:

- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a mdium bowl.

- Cream butter, sugars, and vanilla. Beat in eggs.

- Gradually beat in four mixture.

- Stir in chips and oats.

- Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. (I used a silicone sheet and they came out beautifully)
- Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on wire rack.

*makes about 4 dozen cookies

#18) Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

If your tastebuds are anything like mine, then the combo of chocolate and peanut butter is heaven in your mouth. I am also a brownie lover, so a peanut butter swirl brownie just sounds too good to be true.... Although this brownie is a little gooey for my taste, it is still a sweet treat I wouldn't turn down :)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup butter
3 eggs
1 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup flour + 1/4 cup flour, divided
dash salt
1/3 cup peanut butter

Steps:

- Melt chocolate and butter together. Let cool 5 minutes.
- Beat 2 eggs with sugar. Stir in vanilla. Pour chocolate over top.
- Sift flour and salt over chocolate. Fold until blended.
- Pour all but 1/4 cup batter into greased 8-inch pan.
- Add peanut butter and remaining egg to the 1/4 cup batter. Mix until combined.
- Spoon dollops of peanut butter mixture into pan. Run knife through to create desired design.
- Bake at 350°F for 30-40 minutes.

#17) Coffee Cupcakes with Quasi-Chocolate Ganache

No, they weren't a textbook success, but these little cupcakes are one yummy sweet treat.

I was walking by the bookstore the other day, and well, they had this cute little cupcake and muffin cookbook there fore less than $7. Well, I just had to have it! So I brought home my new little treasure and read it cover to cover and drooled over every single picture.

The recipe I attempted here sounded perfect! I love the taste of coffee, but drinking it makes me sick, so when I can whip up a coffee-flavoured sweet treat, I am one happy woman. The recipe was easy to follow and I had everything on hand for it, or so I thought, so I whipped up the batter and put them in the over.

After I finished licking the spoon (oh, you all do it!!!!), I started making my topping. It was supposed to be a nice, thick choclate ganache-ish frosting. BUT..... I didn't have any cream in the fridge and all the stores were closed! So in my amature frenzy I decided chocolate milk would have to do.

What was I thinking?!??!?!?!?! Instead of a nice, thick ganache-ish frosting, I ended up with a rather tasty bowl of dark chocolate soup. Frenzy #2 - What in the world will I put on top of my now baked and cooled coffee cupcakes???? This "soup" was too runny to use as icing, and to messy to drizzle over top......

Then my bf came up with the great idea of just dipping my little sweet treats into the chocolate soup concoction. Aren't they just adorable? We used several toppins - coconut, silver balls, and colored sprinkles. The coconut was best!

Well, there you have it - my very long-winded explanation of this sweet treat. The lesson I learned - be 100% sure you have ALL the ingredients you need, and then double-check to be 110% sure. By the way, thanks for your help Babe. I love you!

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 cup instant coffee

1 cup butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 cup water

1 tbsp instant coffee

3/4 cup cream

1 cup dark choclate, finely chopped

Steps:

-Preheat oven to 360°F. Line muffin tray with paper liners.

-Sift dry ingredients together. Set aside.

-In a medium bowl, beat together butter, vanilla, and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time.

-Add dry ingredients. Mix. Slowly add water and mix again.

-Pour batter into muffin cups. Bake for 18-20 mintues.

-Meanwhile, gently heat coffee and cream in saucepan.

-Pour hot mixture over chocolate. Stir thouroughly.

-Use star tip to pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

#16) Chai Tea

I feel so badly about having been away from Sweet Treats for so long, but school has become even more time consuming now with midterms, and the bf has been visiting for the past couple of weeks so any free time I did have was spent with him, instead of in the kitchen. But last night I started reading a slow cooker cook book I bought for the bf last week and it was very impressive. This recipe for chai tea really caught my eye becasue a mug of this tea is one of my favorite ways to end a long day. It has just the right amount of sweetness and its aroma will surely make you smile :) This sweet treat is really simple... All you do is dump everything in the slow cooker for a couple of hours and presto, you have calming chai tea!

Ingredients:

8 cups water

8 bags black tea (I used orange pekoe)

1/2 cup sugar (chai tea is meant to be sweet, but you can surely adjust it to your own taste)

16 whole cloves (I used 3/4 tbsp powdered becasue its what I had on hand, but of course it has all settled to the bottom, making that part too strong for me... next time I will pick up the real stuff!)

16 whole cardamom seeds, pods removed (same deal as cloves)

5 cinnamon sticks

8 slices fresh ginger

1 cup milk (I used white soy in some and chocolate dairly in some - there wasn't really any difference in taste)

Steps:

-Combine water, tea bages, sugar, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, and ginger in slow cooker.

-Cover and cook on high for 2-2.5 hours.

-Strain and discaard solids.

-Stir in milk just before serving.

*Can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Sweet & Simple Bake #2 - Vanilla Apple Cake.... Errr, I mean Vanilla Blueberry Cake :)

Alright folks, here it is - my attempt at this month's truly scrumtious Sweet & Simple Bake. This recipe is generally a simple recipe, but the end product is worth it's weight in gold! I am telling you, one bite of this thing and you are not going to want to share. I made some alterations to the recipe, some intentional, some not so much, but I will get to that later. Thanks ladies for another worthwhile experiment and I look forward to the next :)

Ingredients:

250g/9oz unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

250g/9oz golden caster sugar (or normal caster sugar)

4 eggs, beaten

250g/9oz self-raising flour

1 vanilla pod, split, seeds removed and reserved (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

3 small Bramley apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges (or any other type of cooking apple, if not apple of your choice)

2 tbsp Demerara sugar

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

*My ingredients:

1 cup + 2 tbsp butter

1 1/3 cup sugar

4 eggs, beaten

1 tbsp vanilla

2 1/3 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 cup milk

1 cup fresh blueberries

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

...Reasons for changes:

more vanilla - just because I love vanilla and always add more than the recipe calls fore :)

extra flour - when I done my conversions I wrote down 2 full cups instead of just the 1 needed

milk - to offset the extra flour

blueberries - I didn't have any apples on hand, but had a load of fresh berries

more cinnamon - same as vanilla

Sorry for all the changes SSB, but desperate times call for desperate measure LOL

Steps:

-Heat the oven to 350°F.

-Spray 8-inch springform pan, then line the base with baking paper.

-Beat the sugar and butter together until the mixture turns pale and fluffy.

-Beat eggs with vanilla.

-To butter mixture add eggs, flour, baking powder, and milk. Beat together quickly to make a smooth batter.

-Pour into the prepared pan. (I had enougb batter left over to make 6 muffins as well).

-Sprinkle the berries on top of the batter, pressing in with the bottom of a measuring cup.

-Sprinkle with the brown sugar and cinnamon over top.

-Bake for 1 hour 5 mins, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean and the sponge is risen and golden.

-Leave to cool for a few mins, then release the tin and cool the cake completely on a wire rack.