It’s bake sale time at Emma’s school again. I was suffering with mutant tonsillitis when the notice came home last week, so I had to wait till yesterday to do any kind of food prep. The idea for these came from this pin on Pinterest. When I followed the link I noticed there wasn’t much of a tutorial, so I thought I’d try to help avoid any future Pinterest fails.

Ingredients:

1 package Oreo Double Stuf

1 package white candy melts

1/4 tsp Peppermint extract

Candy canes, crushed (about 1/2 cup) for sprinkling

Additional Materials:

Lolly sticks

Waxed paper

1. Unwrap and crush your candy canes. (the kids were amazing at this part)
2. Assemble all of your ingredients so that they are handy. Line cookie sheets with waxed paper and make sure you have lolly sticks ready. You need to work quickly with the melted chocolate, it’s better to have anything you need nearby.
3. Pour candy melts into a glass bowl (mine had a handle, I highly recommend . Microwave in 15-30 second intervals, stirring in between. After first 30 seconds, add peppermint extract and stir. Continue with intervals till chocolate is melted & smooth.
4. Here is the secret, what makes this a Pin-Win instead of an epic fail. Heat the Oreos in the microwave before inserting the lolly stick. I found that 15 seconds for 2 cookies worked well for me. You might have different times based on your microwave. You want the icing barely soft, not melted. This way you can put your lolly stick in and not bust your cookie. (snicker)
5. Dip cookie into chocolate using a spoon to help coat.
6. Lay on wax paper & sprinkle with candy cane bits.

I’ve been looking for a recipe to substitute for the Bear Paw cookies my kids love so much. Something a bit healthier, cheaper, you know, with a bit more love in it. Inspiration struck in the form of a HungryGirl email yesterday. She was talking about mixing muffin mixes with pureed pumpkin for a healthier, low-fat version.

Hey…I’ve made cookies out of cake mix…why not try to make cookies with cake mix and pumpkin??

I thought I was an amazing inventor and savvy, smart mom. Till I googled “pumpkin and cake mix cookies”. Oh well. The internet makes it hard to be the first person doing anything.

Ingredients:

1 box of Betty Crocker Super Moist Devil’s food Cake Mix (or other flavour of your choice, they all work)

15 oz of pureed pumpkin (make sure it’s just pumpkin in the ingredients, not pie filling)

3/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

That’s it.

Seriously.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Line baking sheets with parchment paper
3. Mix your pumpkin and cake mix together with paddle attachment of your mixer. (You can do this by hand, but you’ll work up a sweat)
4. Fold in chocolate chips.
5. Drop by rounded spoonful onto prepared baking sheets. Flatten cookies slightly with the bottom of a glass.
6. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until edges start to golden.
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool 5 minutes on your baking sheet. Transfer to wire rack or counter top to finish cooling.

This was before I flattened them.

A couple of things about these cookies. They wound up being HUGE. They rise in the oven and don’t spread out, so my tablespoonish portions came out roughly the size of muffin tops. Speaking of muffin tops, that’s what these are like, very soft and cakey, like the perfect top of a muffin without the dry spongy stump.

Also speaking of muffin tops, these will not give you one. The big honkin’ cookies weigh in at about 100 calories each with less than 3 grams of fat. You could absolutely make them smaller and save even more if you like. Here are the nutritionals as per Spark Recipes.

Most importantly, the kids went wild over them. Even after I told them the secret ingredient was pumpkin (you can’t even taste it). These were so fast and easy, I can see myself making lots of them in all kinds of flavours over the year.

I don’t mean to brag, but look at this cake!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Torte via one of my Pampered Chef recipe books. Mmmmmmm…

I’ve been lamenting the amount of pre-packaged snacks that seem to make their way into my daughter’s lunch lately. Not only are they packed with high-fructose corn syrup and other additives, they are expensive! So I’m going to try my hand at making some of her lunch snacks.

I found this recipe in my handy-dandy Pilsbury Complete Cookbook, but you can find it here. Pilsbury my go-to cookie & cake book. Every recipe in here is dead easy and delicious, and really, you can’t go wrong with that crazy giggly guy. Also, I just so happened to have the cake mix required. Not exactly as “home made” as I intended, but good enough for the first time.

I ALWAYS bake cookies on parchment paper. They don’t stick, they don’t burn and clean up is a breeze.

I love setting cookies to cool on my granite counter. They cool in no time, and you don’t have to worry about funny little rack marks in the bottom.

The original recipe calls to ice the cookies, but I thought that would make them messier harder to transport. My mom said “Why don’t you make them sandwich cookies?” Yes? Why don’t I? (evil laugh) More cookies! I had a container of ready made icing in the pantry that I tinted blue (Em’s favourite colour), but it was way too much. I have tons of icing left over, next time I’ll make a double batch of cookies to even things out.

This made about 20 sandwiches, and they taste like crispy cake! Since the icing was still a little loose, the cookies were sliding a bit. I put them back on a cooled cookie sheet and wrapped them loosely with plastic wrap. I’ll put them in an airtight container later and Em’s will be able to have confetti cookies in her lunch this week.