Chocolate Birthday Truffles

After soooo many cupcakes and cakes over the holidays and the recent family birthdays, I was ready for a different sweet treat for my birthday.



How can you make cookies & cookie dough better??? Cover them in chocolate of course!



I had received some Oreo Cookies Truffles from a friend at Christmas and I had to have more. They are so easy to make!



Just toss a regular size package of Oreos in a blender or food processor until they are crumbles....everything good in the blender, of course! I went with the Oreos with chocolate filling for extra chocolatey chocolate truffles.











Next, just toss in an 8 oz. package of softened cream cheese and blend together.






Roll the dough into balls (it's ok if they aren't perfect because you can roll them into better balls once they are chilled) and put in the fridge for at least an hour.









I also looked to my dear Paula Deen for some inspiration and that sweet lady never lets me down-Cookie Dough Truffles! Are you kidding me??? How can you beat that!


1/2 cup softened butte

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 (14 oz.) can of sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups flower

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

(I skipped the 1 cup chopped pecans, but the recipe does call for that-I wanted more chocolate instead!)

1.5 pounds chocolate candy coating (melted)





First, beat the butter and brown sugar until fluffy (just like regular cookies.)

Add condensed milk and vanilla and beat until combined.








Gradually add the flower and lastly the chocolate chips (and pecans if you included them.)



It looks and tastes just like cookie dough! I wanted to just eat this stuff up!







Again, roll into balls-this one needs to be in the fridge for at least 2 hours. This batter is waaaay stickier then the Oreo dough.

Once the dough is chilled melt up that chocolate! For both recipes I used a total of 2 pounds of chocolate. You can buy chocolate candy coating in almost any grocery store baking aisle.

Use toothpicks to dip the chilled doughs in the chocolate and place on a baking sheet-definitely use some parchment paper if you have some. Clean up would have been such a nightmare without it. CHOCOLATE EVERYWHERE! :)

I used some Oreo crumbs and m & m's for the garnish on the Oreo Truffles

The Cookie Dough Truffles were not as easy to make pretty, so I mixed up some frosting to cover up the cookie dough that didn't get completely coated.

The real mess. YIKES!

SOOOO YUMMY!

The final look....you won't believe how delicious these un-baked good are! They will definitely be a tradition in my house now...and I already have friends wanting to order some more!

Cheers to birthdays with good friends and LOTS OF SUGAR!

Cheers,

Tipsy

Love & Colors

For Valentine's Day I just had to pull out the old DeYoung cook book for some sweet sugar cookie love!

It is a family recipe...shhhh! So, I thought I would just share the colorful frosting that I mixed up with my dear friend Michelle instead of all the Dutch details!!

Rolling out and cookie cutting the dough...

Crispy baked cookies and all the colorful frosting!

I asked the Hubs to make one for me and look what he came up with! I LOVED IT! :)

My cookies for my Valentine! So cheesy, but I love it! If you can't be cheesy on Valentine's Day after a few mimosas, when can you be?

AND!!!!!! My new official Tipsy Baking mascot! We adopted her Valentine's weekend and she loved watching me make cookies/eating up any little crumb that I dropped-my little girl, Tipsy! She has three legs, so she doesn't really need a drink for an excuse to be tipsy...literally, she tips over! LOL! I just love her and have to share a cute pic of her!

Cheers to the hubs being creative, adopting a new little love and celebrating love with some fun colors and sweet treats!

xoxo,

Tipsy

Cookies for Breakfast

This week the temperature FINALLY dropped in the hot hot desert and I was oh-so ready for some Fall inspired treats! I LOVE pumpkin everything! I had already made my bossy cakes in anticipation of the crispy air and when it finally did arrived I wanted to try something new....how can you make pumpkin even yummier?-add chocolate!
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I found this recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies and I am so glad that I did!
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1 cup butter
3/4 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon ( I added a bit more-love love love cinnamon!)
1 c. pumpkin puree
1.5 c. chocolate chips (of course, I added more)
1 c. cooking oats
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Cream butter & sugars
Add Egg & Vanilla
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Combine flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon
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Stir dry ingredients into butter/sugar mixture alternately withe the pumpkin puree. Then add chocolate chips
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Bake at 350 degrees for 11-12 minutes.
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Can't wait to make some brandied cider to go with these sweet little babies!
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These are so yummy and I must confess that I have been eating them for breakfast! I think the oats and pumpkin make them an acceptable breakfast food, what do you think?!



Cheers to being an adult and being able to eat cookies for breakfast...Next time I will call them pumpkin scones...the hubs won't know any better and then there will be more for me anyways. ;)
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xoxo,
Tipsy

Anglaise Macarons Pour Ma Petite Soeur

My sweet lil' sis left for a year of studying abroad in Paris just last week. Of course, we had to send her off full of sweets and memories of a week long celebration...we are just trying to make sure she comes back at the end of the school year! :)

You can follow her adventure on her brand new blog at From P-town to Paris

I wanted to make something French inspired for the party and these colorful macaroons were just what I was looking for. I was a bit intimidated as so many blogs and articles mentioned the difficulties of getting them just right, but I was up for a challenge and my fridge was stocked with cold bevees to get me through!

I started with a chocolate recipe that I found and doubled the recipe.

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup powdered almonds

2 tablespoons Dutch cocoa

2 large egg whites

5 tablespoons sugar

I lined a couple of cookie sheets with parchment paper and got my pastry bag ready.

I grind the powdered sugar, almond powder, and cocoa in the food processor.

Then, in the kitchenaid I beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks and then added the sugar while it continued mixing.

Folding in the dry ingredients (in 2 batches) and being careful not to over mix.

The combined ingredients:

Then I piped the cookies onto the baking sheet as close to the same size and shape as possible.

I baked them for 16 minutes at 375 degrees. YAY! They actually look like macaroons!

I paired them up to prep for the filling.

The filling is super rich and not too sweet. I think next time I will use semi-sweet chocolate..I just can't get enough SUGAR!!!

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I went with a Raspberry Chocolate Ganache Filling that I found on Epicurious.

3 oz. bittersweet chocolate-chopped

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon unsalted butter-softened

1/16 teaspoon raspberry extract

I heated the cream and chocolate in the microwave (instead of on the double broiler-too much work). Then stirred in the raspberry extract and butter.

I cooled it completely and it was still too thin, so I refrigerated it until it was thick enough to spread like butter! I am so turning into Paula!

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The finished Chocolate Macaroons with Raspberry Chocolate Ganache Filling-so yummy!

For my regular macaroons I made the mistake of blanching the almonds myself. It took me a good 45 minutes and lots of vino! I was going crazy peeling the skins off of these little monsters!

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I used this cookie recipe where I also got the raspberry chocolate ganache.

I doubled this recipe:

1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar

6 oz. blanched almonds

3 large egg whites

3 tablespoons sugar

3/4 teaspoons salt

Food coloring ( I chose four colors to compliment the party in hot pink, lime green, lemon yellow, and bright orange)

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Blanching almonds consists of pouring boiling water over them-let sit for a couple minutes:

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Then rinse with cold water. All the articles I read made it sound like the skins would just fall right off-BUT NO!

You have no idea what this meant to me once these were lookin' like this...2 drinks later!

I lined my baking sheets again and got the piping bag ready!

I pulsed the almonds and 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar until very finely ground (3 minutes).

I transferred it to a big bowl and then sifted in the rest of the powdered sugar and stirred it up.

Next, I beat the egg whites and salt in the kitchenaid until soft peaks form and then slowly added the sugar while beating the eggs until stiff peaks formed.

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Since I had four colors to make, I divided the mixture into four bowls and added the colors. I love this part!

Then, divided the almond mixture into each color....

The finally piped cookies. These were harder to get into the right size and shape then the other batter for sure!

I let them stand for 30 minutes until they were no longer sticky and had a light crust. Then into the oven at 300 for 25 minutes (or before edges begin to brown).

I started up the delicious buttercream filling... this is soooooo buttery and irresistible!

1 cup unsalted butter at room temp

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla (my addition to the recipe)

(I skipped the 1 teaspoon of instant coffee in 1 tablespoon of hot water as I was going for a vanilla flav)

Whip up the butter until fluffy and add the powdered sugar and drizzle in the vanilla.

I had so much fun mixing up the colors of frosting to match the cookies.

The damage! I was tipsy dish washing for hours!





The FINALLY finished cookies. These are so much work, but they are so cute and delicious! I will definitely be making them again.

The dessert buffet with my dad's beautiful fruit tarts.... I think this will make her want to come back at the end of the year! We are already planning her homecoming party sweets!

My beautiful sis!




Je t'aime Natalie!

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à la vôtre!

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xoxo,

Tipsy

Instant Party

Just a quick night of the classic pairing of Chardonnay and cookie dough! I think EVERYONE needs to try this combo!

I made my never failing chocolate chip cookies, but with some colorful sprinkles to make them festive for a friend at work who is having a birthday tomorrow!

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There is just something about sprinkles that makes anything feel like a party!

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Happy FRIDAY tomorrow! :)

xoxo,

Tipsy