C is for Cookie and that is Definetly fine by me!

For those who were anxiously waiting for those photos of my pineapple upside down cupcakes, here are just a few a pictures I took throughout the whole baking process.

If you recall correctly, I mentioned yesterday just how vivid the color of the pineapple and the contrasting cherry color were compared to the gray mini-cupcake pan. As you can clearly see, I was completely spot on about the color. At the same time, the smell of the pineapple combined with butter and brown sugar was absolutely delicious. Not surprising that the taste didn't fail to deliver either :P

As for the final product, look how cute they are! Though I usually turn my nose up at mini cupcakes (come one, there is no way that something that tiny could satisfy one person's sweet tooth) I couldn't deny how tempting they appeared. Of course things got even better when I flipped them over. Now I am not going to lie, this was the part of the recipe that I thought would fail; that the topping would either have burned or the cupcake itself would fall apart if I tried to remove them from the pan. Yet somehow, perfection!


Overall I think I'm going to write this off as another baking success.

But anyway, I'd like to walk away from cupcakes for a few minutes and turn everyone's focus to cookies. Yes cookies, those crumbly little things that always seem to have a place at any kind of function. Why cookies? Well, originally I was supposed to go with a few others on a trek to the Mount Washington. Jumping the gun as I tend to do, I promised my group leader, and friend, Therese, that I would bake cookies. Of course, the next day I realized that I couldn't walk away from my academic responsibilities for another weekend. And yet, I made a promise and I needed to follow through it.

Cue the epic searching music!
I journey to the mythical place that is the internet and sought out a recipe that sounded delicious, interesting, and most importantly, didn't call for a lot of ingredients that I didn't already own. At first I was going to try something a bit more complicated, chocolate hazelnut cookies, but decided that perhaps I should save the wow factor for another time. So I selected something called Monster Cookies! Ever hear of them? Well, I had never heard of them either so don't fret about it.

A combination of oats, chunky peanut butter, peanut M&M, regular M&M, and chocolate chips, these cookies really live up to their name. It didn't help that I accidentally scooped out too much cookie dough for each cookie, meaning that when they reached the oven, the expanded into large sizes, ultimately forming into one giant, misshapen cookie. In total, I made three cookie sheets worth of cookies, twenty-five and all. Of course, the last five cookies came out perfectly shaped. What a surprise.

Does anyone want to hear a fun fact? This was my first time baking cookies by myself! And from the general consensus of everyone who's tasted them, they are the definition of delicious. Ironically,  I thought that I had messed them up when I went to pull them from the oven. Rather then being a solid form, they were mushy, having the consistency of oatmeal. They were brown like the recipe said they'd be, but I had reservations about pulling them from the heat. So, I put them back in for another three minutes. After I pulled them out and let them cool, I cautiously cut them up, half expecting to see that I had burned the bottoms. I hadn't! I had totally just baked the my first solo batch of cookies and they had come out perfectly! Talk about a shock to my system.

Considering my cookie success, I plan on baking some more at another point in time. But for now, let's get back to why we are all here: Cupcakes! As for my next baking endeavor, I am gonna try and bake four different recipes all based off caramel cupcakes with a caramel center. Sound good? Well, I hope so 'cause that's what's I'm baking.

Until next time,
Jill

Monster Cookies

Yield: 26 large cookies

Prep Time: 45 minutes | Bake Time: 10-12 minutes per baking sheet

3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon corn syrup*
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup (4 ounces, or 1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1½ cups chunky peanut butter
4½ cups rolled oats
½ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup chocolate chips
¾ cup Reese’s Pieces
¾ cup M&M’s

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line three baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (If you don’t  have three baking sheets, just be sure to cool the ones coming out of the oven before placing more cookie dough on them. If I’m short on sheets I will run them under cold water to cool them down.)
2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the eggs, both sugars, vanilla extract, corn syrup, baking soda and salt. Then stir in the melted butter and peanut butter, followed by the oats and flour. Lastly, stir in the chocolate chips, Reese’s pieces and M&M’s. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
3. Drop the dough by ¼ cupfuls onto baking sheets (if weighing, each ball of dough was approximately 2.7 oz or 77g). Use your fingers to flatten the dough slightly. Baking for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are a light golden brown. Cool on a rack and then store in an airtight container at room temperature.


*I accidentally bought corn starch so I just used 1 teaspoon of molasses
*I put them in the fridge to cool over-night so they wouldn't be too gooey. It worked out fine for me, but it's not necessary