I’m so excited to have Tracy guest post here today, y’all. If you don’t already love her, you will pretty quick. I cannot imagine a better baker. Tracy always delights me with her creations on Sugarcrafter, but also, I want you to know that she is one high quality friend.

In the past three years, I’ve come to realize I couldn’t really live without her. She’s a wonderful person through and through, which I think you’ll learn quickly just by reading a few posts on her blog. Thank you, Tracy, for guest posting today. Love ya!

© Tracy for Bluebonnets & Brownies, 2012. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: baking, cakes, cookies, tea

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More often than not, I cannot leave well enough alone. Whether it’s where a vase sits in the living room, the recipe I can kick up a notch, or even the fonts on this blog – if I think about something for a little too long, I have to change it, make it better.

A few weeks ago you may have clocked a change here on B&B – I finally found some fonts I well and truly loved. So I went back to my developer’s emailed instructions, and patiently set to changing them. Thank the sweet Lord for Chris Graver, is all I have to say.

Chris created the backbone of Bluebonnets & Brownies, took a Photoshop-created mock up I made, and turned it into a reality. He’s an excellent designer, and all around good guy. Every time I email him, he responds cheerily, and he’s always happy to help.

When I decided to mess around with those fonts, I messed a few things up. Chris came to the rescue quick as he could, and fixed it all without even the mention of what I might owe him. I couldn’t let that go by without some sort of thank you.
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Read the rest of Dark Chocolate, Cherry and Pistachio Cookies (356 words)

© admin for Bluebonnets & Brownies, 2012. | Permalink | 17 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: baking, cherries, cookies, Desserts, nuts, oatmeal, pistachios

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This isn’t so much the case in San Antonio right now (where it’s a balmy 68 degrees), but around this time in New Jersey, I start to go a little sunshine-deprivation crazy. I start to crave citrus, sunshine, and time outdoors – even though it’s usually in the 20s.

That’s where these Lemon Crinkle Cookies come in. They’re a direct inspiration from Jamie’s post for Chocolate Crinkle Cookies. I’m certainly not reinventing the wheel here.

But when it’s dark and dreary and you just need a little sunshine in your life? These are the ticket. Using lemon extract and lemon cake, the perfectly lemon-y yumminess is hard to beat.
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Read the rest of Lemon Crinkle Cookies (219 words)

© admin for Bluebonnets & Brownies, 2012. | Permalink | 37 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: baking, cakes, cookies, dessert, lemon, quick and easy

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These cookies may look like nothing special, but to me they mean Christmas, plain and simple.

Every year of my childhood, Nanny and Mom would set out to make several dozen of these little guys, and then into the freezer they would go. First to be eaten at Christmas, but we’d eat the leftovers all year round, directly out of the freezer.

Whether ice cold directly out of the freezer or warm and gooey fresh from the oven, Reese’s Peanut butter cup cookies are a simple, poppable delicious treat for Christmas or any time.
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Read the rest of Nanny’s Peanut Butter Cup Cookies (585 words)

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Post tags: baking, Christmas, cookies, Desserts, Nanny, peanut butter cups

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Shortbread is one of those things I’m sort of a traditionalist about. I hesitate to even add vanilla extract, because I feel adding extra liquids to the perfect balance of flour, powdered sugar, salt, and butter would upset the natural order of things.

So when it comes to adding flavor, I tend to look towards dry ingredients: Vanilla bean paste, or ground tea – yes, tea. For the cookie swap we had in New York City a couple weekends ago, I made “Autumn Tea Shortbread” using a black tea-pumpkin spice blend I had on hand.

But we’re straight up into Christmas season now. I’m ready for cinnamon and clove and buttery shortbread to combine into something magical. Twinings makes a Christmas Tea that, when combined with traditional shortbread ingredients, makes for a spectacular treat.
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Read the rest of Christmas Tea Shortbread (656 words)

© admin for Bluebonnets & Brownies, 2011. | Permalink | 25 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: baking, cookies, Desserts, shortbread, tea

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Mexican Chocolate Chewies have got to be the easiest cookie I’ve ever made. They were also one of those cookies that, once the batter was done, I kind of worried I’d done it wrong. Would this soupy mixture really come together into a chewy cookie?

I put my trust and faith in Lisa Fain, and she did not let me down. The resulting cookies are crisp at first, but give way to a chewiness that rivals any caramel I’ve eaten.

With just a slight bit of heat from the cayenne, you’ll have friends saying “Oooh, what is that?”
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Read the rest of Mexican Chocolate Chewy Cookies (411 words)

© admin for Bluebonnets & Brownies, 2011. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: baking, chipotle, chocolate, cookies, Tex-Mex

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Cookie swaps are a relatively new concept to me. While I often baked cookies for family and friends in Texas, I don’t remember anyone ever getting together to swap what we’d baked. Certainly it never happened in England, I think I was one of the few people I knew that baked or cooked from scratch at all.

When I saw Julie from The Little Kitchen tweet that they were throwing together a virtual swap, amongst food bloggers, I thought, “How fun!” and immediately signed up.

You can sign up for next year now!

Now, I don’t know about you, but in the last few years, one of my favorite things about when the holidays roll around is Hershey’s seasonal Candy Cane Kisses. I actually buy up 5 or 6 bags and freeze them, just so I can have my favorite white chocolate + peppermint combination year ’round.
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Read the rest of Candy Cane Kiss Cookies (452 words)

© admin for Bluebonnets & Brownies, 2011. | Permalink | 30 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: baking, Christmas, cookies, Desserts, Hershey's Kisses, white chocolate

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If you know me, you know I have a mahooooosive sweet tooth. When I was asked to review the new cookbook, “Sugar, Sugar: Every Recipe Has a Story” by Kimberly “Momma” Reiner and Jenna Sanz-Agero, how could I possibly say no with a title like that?

I really enjoy Kimberly and Jenna’s approach to desserts we all remember from pot lucks, fundraisers and bake sales of our childhood. Each recipe is presented with a family story behind the recipe. As someone who started blogging as a way to catalogue those family stories, this book: it speaks to me.
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Read the rest of Giveaway: Sugar, Sugar Cookbook (1,025 words)

© admin for Bluebonnets & Brownies, 2011. | Permalink | 129 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: baking, bars, cookbook reviews, cookbooks, cookies, Desserts

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I don’t really remember the first time I had a Biscoff biscuit clearly. I know it was on a Delta flight, but where or whence I’d come or gone I’ve long since forgotten.

That happens when you spend two years in a long distance relationship plus work travel, I think. The flights start to blur together, the checkpoints and passport stamps seem blasé.

Sitting here now, working from home, having not traveled abroad since last October, no flights anywhere since May – well, I think maybe I was a bit spoiled back then! Biscoff cookies, though, they take me back to that time.

To the flights and the longing for my guy on the other side of the world, and of having so many adventures together. Kinda fun, right?

Not long ago I posted a recipe for Biscoff Bites using Biscoff Spread. When I posted it to my facebook page, some lovely person (I wish I could say exactly whom – FB won’t let me go back that far in posts) linked me to a recipe for the original cookies.

The original post appears on Mum in Bloom, a blog written by Sarah, but I don’t think it was Sarah that left the comment. Regardless, my thanks to both Sarah and that commenter for pointing me at these delicious little homemade morsels of WIN!
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Read the rest of Homemade Biscoff Cookies (438 words)

© admin for Bluebonnets & Brownies, 2011. | Permalink | 45 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: baking, Biscoff, Biscoff Cookies, cookies, copycat recipes, Desserts

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I’ve been baking a lot of cookies lately. Don’t really know why. I’m that kind of baker.. I get into a mood, and I’ll continue baking in a certain ‘genre’ until I’m bored with it.

Don’t get me started on the “Summer of Scones” last year. I may have been classified as ‘obsessed’ by my husband.

One cookie I always have on hand around here are Jamie’s Rolo Cookies. I’m not ashamed to admit that my husband’s favorite cookie isn’t a recipe of my own making. Rolos happen to be his favorite chocolate candy, so combining said candies with cookies = pretty much his most favorite thing ever.

One thing that this recipe of Jamie’s taught me – any and all cookie doughs get better when you let them get really cold again before you bake them. It’s been an exercise in patience, and not one that I really relished.

But at the end of the day, who wants all the effort of baking a cookie, only to end up with a mediocre cookie? Or even a good cookie. If I’m going to the trouble to bake it, I want it to be a great cookie.

Since I started making these, there’s been another little side effect. I no longer see the grocery store candy aisle as just the “land of the forbidden”. Now, I see it as an aisle full of tasty ways for me to bump up recipes, like the Peanut Butter Snickeroos I made using Peanut Butter Snickers.

Of course, candy stuffed cookies can’t be an everyday treat. That would be blatantly unhealthy. Right?

That’s where the genius of this recipe comes in. Because the dough gets refrozen after shaping, you can simply store the pre-made dough balls in a freezer safe ziptop bag, and bake up one or two cookies at a time, whenever you need a treat.

The way I see it, if Pillsbury and Toll House can do it, so can I. And without all the extra preservatives.
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Read the rest of Candy Surprise Chocolate Chip Cookies (689 words)

© admin for Bluebonnets & Brownies, 2011. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: baking, candy, chocolate chip cookies, cookies, Desserts

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