Apple Pie Stuffed Snickerdoodles

“I choose to slow down to connect with the gift I’m given in this moment.”

HELLO FALL!

Something about this season really just gets me every dang time! I don’t know if it’s the beauty that fall brings in New England (yes, I know I live in the south now!), the fact that I was married in the fall, the smells and flavors, the coziness… the list truly could go on FOREVER! There are just so many amazing foods that make me think of fall, apples and apple pie being at the top of the list!

I’ve done my fair share of apple desserts, and it helps that my husband and son love all things apple—I mean my husband buys apples specifically for himself… and that being said, I just wanted to add another good one to the books! This all started with me really wanting to make snickerdoodles, but that just doesn’t sound exciting enough for me, which is where the apples came in. As my 4-year wedding anniversary is coming up in just a few weeks, I will most likely spend every day until then reminiscing about what a beautiful, crazy, exhausting, perfect day that was, and there were SO many apples included in it. Like so many. One of the tiers of our cake was apple pie, we had baskets of apples all over the venue (a family tradition, oddly enough!), my father-in-law brings up said baskets every time we are together, part of my gifts to my bridesmaids were fall scented (mainly apple) candles, the list goes on and on.

Anyways, stuffing these spiced up cookies with some delicious apple pie filling only made sense! I’ve stuffed cookies before, like these caramel stuffed gingerbread cookies or maybe these caramel corn Nutella cookies helllooooo (!!), and I just love it! It’s a fun little surprise and adds so much more flavor. These cookies are soft and chewy all on their own but adding extra moisture to the middle only ups their game! I’ve also increased the spice level as well. Cinnamon is great and all, but freshly grated nutmeg and some cloves really intensify the fallness in this cookie!

While our fall here in Atlanta is still in the 80’s, there is definitely some foliage going on in our backyard and I’ve added some candles to the mix, so we are getting to the coziness level that I love! Our son may not remember his first fall except through all of the hundreds of photos we take per day, but I hope that when he starts to love all of the seasons like I do, it’s the smells and colors and flavors that bring him joy, just like they do me!

apple filling ingredients

Apples—2 large, I love Gala or Honeycrisp

Cinnamon—1 TBL

Lemon Juice—½ lemon

Water—2 TBL

process

Cut up your apple into small, bite-sized pieces. Peeling is optional, I prefer to keep the peel on!

In a small saucepot, combine apples, cinnamon, lemon juice and water over low heat

Continue to stir every minute or two to make sure that all of the apples are getting cooked evenly

Cook until the apples become soft, this should take about 10-15 minutes depending on how small you have cut the apples

Remove from the heat and allow to cool while you’re making the cookie dough

cookie ingredients

Butter, room temperature—8 oz, or 1 C

Brown Sugar—6 oz, or ¾ C

Coconut Sugar—4.5 oz, or ¾ C

Eggs—2

Vanilla Extract—2 tsp

Flour—18 oz, or 3 C

Salt—1 tsp

Baking Soda—1 tsp

Cream of Tartar—2 tsp

Cinnamon—2 TBL

Nutmeg—1 ½ tsp

Cloves—1 tsp

process

In the bowl of your mixer, combine the softened butter and both of the sugars

Cream on medium speed for about 10 minutes, making sure to scrape down the bowl often

Once fluffy, turn mixer to low speed and add in the vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time

Beat until combined, again, making sure to scrape down the bowl often

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves

Slowly add this to the mixing bowl, while on low

Scrape down the sides of the bowl

Once all combined, turn the mixer off and prepare 2 cookie sheets with either a Silpat, nonstick spray or parchment

Scoop out all of the cookie dough using either a small-sized ice cream scoop, or about 2 TBL of dough.

Take one ball of scooped dough and flatten it

Add in about 2 tsp of the cooked apple pie filling

Take another ball of dough, flatten, and cover the apples

Pinch the sides together, roll the large cookie dough ball in your hands to make sure that no filling will leak out, and place on the baking sheet

Do this with the rest of your cookies

You may have some left-over apple-pie filling! This is amazing for a snack, my 7-month-old loves it, as it is just soft enough for him to eat!

Put your cookies in the fridge while you preheat the oven—this is the only chilling that is necessary!!

Preheat your oven to 350˚F

Once your oven is preheated, you now have two options: you may either bake just like this, or you can mix ½ C of sugar with 1 TBL of cinnamon and dip the tops of the cookies in this for extra flavor and crunch! They are so good both ways, but I love the added spice!

Bake for 12 minutes, rotate the pan, then bake for another 8 minutes

Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a cooling rack

These are best enjoyed warm, so if you are reheating, a good 20-30 seconds in the microwave does the trick!

Bon Appétit!

Nut Butter Cookie Dough Bites

“It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.”

— David Steindl-Rast

Good Morning! Happy Weekend!

I will be totally transparent here: this recipe was an ALMOST fail that turned into a BIG win! I had this brilliant idea of making these yummy raw cookie dough bars with a coffee filled crust, but somehow it just did. not. work. I made the “crust,” if you will, a few times, and truly loved it! Coffee, cocoa, almond butter, dates, oh my it was truly lovely! And then, once I layered the following cookie dough recipe on top of it, it just fell flat to me! So, as I sat eating this cookie dough, being totally bummed out, I realized that THIS was the recipe I had to share!! An egg-free (well actually vegan and raw…) nut butter cookie dough!

Is it good as a snack on its own? Yep. Is it ideal for a late-night dessert? Duh. IS IT A PERFECT SMOOTHIE TOPPER?!? Oh, hell yes. That’s when I knew that I had created something so beautiful and delicious: when I threw a bunch of these on top of my morning green smoothie and the flavors were so in sync—wow totally in a dream world with that thought…

I’m truly loving these nap time sweet treats! Even though Oliver can just about sit up on his own in his highchair, I don’t want to spend hours with him just sitting there watching me throw ingredients in a bowl and mutter to myself just yet! But, let me tell you, once this boy can eat and can understand what I’m doing in the kitchen, he will totally be plopped there while I not-so-gracefully run around trying to cook/bake something new (him trying everything, of course!). ANYWHO! The failed first recipe took me probably about an hour. And then, my sad-girl turned ecstatic-girl dough recipe only took half the amount of time! Boom. Another one. Do people still quote DJ Khalid? Is that so 2016?

Overall, we can say that I am pretty dang jazzed. I love putting granola on top of my smoothies but doesn’t everyone?! So, let’s really get wild here in 2020 and put COOKIE DOUGH on them things. Like, SAFE cookie dough. I eat as much eggy cookie dough as the next person, but I suppose I should be slightly more careful now with our little dude (even though he will totally get sneaky bites of it!). I would even argue that this cookie dough is relatively healthy! There ain’t much in these bites, and a nice chocolate chip in the morning on top of a beautifully greens filled smoothie is truly what we all need these days!

ingredients

Nut butter—9.5 oz, or 1 C

Coconut Sugar—8 oz, or 1 ½ C

Vanilla Extract—1 tsp

Milk—4 oz, or ½ C

Coconut Flour—8 oz, or 1 C

Salt—1 tsp

Maca Powder (optional)—2 tsp

Chocolate Chips—7 oz, or 1 C

process

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the nut butter and sugar until smooth.

Add in the vanilla extract and milk, mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt and maca powder.

Slowly pour this into the mixer, making sure to scrape down the sides.

Add in chocolate chips.

Spread cookie dough out evenly onto a baking sheet or a dish so that it is easier to cut into chunks once it has firmed in the fridge.

Allow to sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Once the dough has firmed up, cut it into small chunks/cubes.

Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

This is great as a healthy treat, to top on your smoothies, ice cream, etc.!

Bon Appétit!

Peanut Butter S'more Bites

“Maybe 2020 isn’t so much about specific goal setting as it is taking care of our mind, being kind through our thoughts, fine tuning our daily mind set, and seeking to uplift ourselves and others. Perhaps everything from there with naturally find its course.”

Here’s the deal: since having a baby 3 months ago (what!!??) and now being at home with a new appreciation for all things parenting, I’ve decided to pick this blogging thing back up! I needed a ‘me’ activity. Yes, I do consider my workout time me time, even with little Oliver sitting right there watching and giggling at me the entire time! That aside, unless you want to consider showering my personal time, I don’t have too much of it. My incredible husband (like, seriously, out-of-this-world-amazing. Does middle of the night wakeups, the bad diapers, knows when to refill my wine glass when I haven’t said a word…) suggested that I start to do something that is truly me time. While I LOVE a good workout and am so excited that we just got a lawn mower, this blog has been on the back burner (hah!) for quite some time. I’m ready to pick it back up with some TLC!

So, in quick mom fashion, here’s the DL. Having Oliver is probably the greatest thing to happen to me, to us, ever! I can’t even begin to explain the love I have for him – if you’re a parent, you know what I’m talking about. Like, right now at 9:45pm, while he is asleep, I just watch him on the monitor and want to cuddle him!! Obsessed is an understatement.

Anyways, I could ramble about him for dayssssss. Seriously. Little did I know that being a mom would take up every breathing moment of mine. Feeding him alone is a full-time job! Oh, and then my husband and I are both in graduate school. LOL. We love to take on as much as possible, clearly! With all of that + my husband working like crazy from home, I didn’t think I should get any down time, so I totally just shut off any part of my brain that wasn’t related to baby / dog / school / scheduling. But hey, guess what? Mental health needs some lovin’ too there, mama! Which is where I was like dang, I miss that blog. I’ve put so much time into this baby and then I just stopped writing. Stopped baking. Stopped experimenting. So, boom, I’m going to wipe the dust off of this thing!

I then started to write down recipes like crayzee! But not just any recipes. Healthy ones. Quick ones. Parent-friendly ones. Cause here sits a mom who has anywhere from 15 minutes-2 hours when babe is napping that I can do things. Sure, I love to let him do independent play, but I also love to play with him and watch him grow every single second! So, these recipes are a mix of healthy and slightly not, simple and quick, hell, a lot of them will probably even be raw and frozen because helloooo timesaver and what’s up Atlanta summer from March-November!

Recipe #1. Peanut butter s’mores. An eggless PB cookie + a 10-minute marshmallow + a simple chocolate dip. What more could you want!? Not your traditional s’more setup, but peanut butter is my jam – and it’s a top allergen so I should just be consuming it by the jar, right?! And I am storing these babies in the freezer, which is my place of choice to keep desserts. Something so decadent about a frozen treat to me! Also. Still no dairy for this gal, so ice cream is not an option. Probably ever again. Eye roll.

How many times have I said that I’M BACK!!? Let’s try this again. Get ready for parent-friendly, quick, minimal ingredients, healthy, TASTY snacks/goodies/what have you. This mama is making her comeback!

peanut butter cookie ingredients

Peanut Butter—4.75 oz, or ½ C

Honey—1.5 oz, or 3 TBL

Vanilla Extract—1 tsp

Coconut Sugar—1 TBL

Flour—3 oz, or 2/3 C

Baking Powder—½ tsp

Maca Powder—1 tsp

process

Preheat your oven to 350˚F.

In a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and maca.

In another small bowl, combine the peanut butter, honey and vanilla extract.

Add the wet into the dry, mix until combined.

Roll into balls, about 1 tablespoon in size.

Flatten each cookie and, if you wish, make a crisscross with a fork (in true PB cookie fashion!).

Bake for 10 minutes until they just begin to brown around the edges.

Remove from the oven to a cooling rack.

marshmallow

Recipe can be found here! I have cut this down into a quarter of the size, as you do not need that much!

chocolate dip ingredients

Semisweet Chocolate Chips—¼ C

Coconut Oil—2 tsp

process

Combine the chocolate and oil in a heat safe bowl.

Melting this for 20 second increments in the microwave is the quickest/easiest way to do so!

assembly

Once the PB cookies have cooled, spoon a dollop of the mallow on top.

If you have a torch, light these babies up! It’s a fun ‘indoor s’more’

Put these into the freezer to set up slightly while you melt the chocolate.

Once the chocolate is melted, dip each cookie halfway into the chocolate.

When you are finished coating in chocolate, place the tray in the freezer.

I have found that there store best in the freezer, as they are a nice refreshing treat!

Recipe makes 16 PB S’mores

Bon Appétit!

Chai Spice Snickerdoodles

It’s holiday baking season!!! The best time of the year!!!

Yeah yeah, I have been nonexistent on this bad boy for a majority of the year, but that’s life! When you buy a house, change jobs AND find out you’re pregnant, my little passion project that is this blog seems to go to the backburner. Or, well, into storage, where it gathered a lot of dust and you only remember it when you’re busting out the Christmas decorations mid-November…

All of this being said, I’m going to do my best to post on here as often as I can! Seeing as I am no longer working in a bakery, I actually miss doing it a lot! I’m no longer drained from 2am wake ups, my feet don’t hurt from standing on them all day long in a bakeshop, and I actually have true weekends now, so I’m going to enjoy this life as long as I can until the baby boy comes in February, and get back into this wonderful world of baking! 

Now that y’all are up to speed with my personal life, let’s talk COOKIES! I love a cookie, especially a holiday one. The flavors are incredibly inviting, the options are endless, and they are simple. That’s exactly what I love around the holidays. You can bake up a million different types of cookies, fill platters with them, gift them, bake them all day long and feel accomplished, plus, they’re easy! Sure, if you’re hand cutting them and decorating them with piped icing, that takes some time, but overall, they’re the most loving and forgiving of desserts!

 I first made these chai spiced snickerdoodles for my work Halloween party (and won 1stprize I might add!) and decorated them with some buttercream and spooky eyes for that mummy look. When I put these out, all I could think of was uhhh HOLIDAY COOKIE STAPLE! They’re soft, they’re filled with the perfect blend of spices, they’re cozy, I could go on. These chai spiced snickerdoodles are also light enough to not give you that belly ache when you eat a few after dinner, or for a snack…see, perfection.

The recipe is a nice creamed cookie method, and you have TOTAL control over what spices are added! Also, black pepper? Yep—that’s in chai! So it’s in these babies, too. If you want more or less of something, of course, that’s up to you and your taste buds. Also, the chocolate drizzle is another optional addition to these, but it’s a nice touch to the sweet outside of the cookie to put something slightly rich yet not overwhelming on them, so I promise that you won’t regret that drizzle!

WELL! Happy holiday baking season, let’s spend this next month turning up in the kitchen, belting out your favorite holiday tunes, putting lights in every open space, and just being full of joy and happiness (and cookies…)!

ingredients

Butter—13 oz, or 1 ½ C

Brown Sugar—8 oz, or 1 C

Eggs—2

Vanilla—2 tsp

Flour—15 oz, or 3 C

Baking Soda—1 tsp

Baking Powder—1 tsp

Salt—½ tsp

Cinnamon—2 tsp

Black Pepper—1 tsp

Maca Powder (optional)—1 tsp

Sugar—½ C

Cinnamon—1 ½ TBL

Ginger—1 tsp

Cloves—½ tsp

Nutmeg—1 tsp

Black Pepper—¼ tsp

Semisweet Chocolate—8 oz, melted

process

In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add in the eggs and vanilla, and mix until combined. Scraping down the sides of the bowl is necessary for this step.

In a separate bowl, sift together all of the dry ingredients (from flour-maca powder).

With the mixer on low, slowly add in the dry ingredients to the creamed ingredients.

Mix until combined, scraping down when needed.

Wrap and transfer cookie dough into the refrigerator for a couple of hours.

When you are ready to bake cookies, preheat your oven to 350 F.

In a small bowl, combine the sugar and spices.

Roll your cookie dough into 1.5 oz balls, or about 2 TBL worth of dough—of course you can make these as small or as large as you’d like!

Roll each ball into the sugar spice mixture and place on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat or sprayed with nonstick spray.

Bake cookies 12-15 minutes. They will be slightly browned on the edges, with a nice soft center, this will be what keeps them so soft.

Place on a cooling rack until ready to coat in chocolate.

When you are ready to drizzle chocolate on these cookies, melt your chocolate (I like a nice 70%-80%) either in the microwave or in a double boiler over the stove.

To drizzle, you may either use a piping bag, a spatula or a spoon to drizzle as much or as little chocolate as you’d like over these cookies.

Allow to cool before storing. These can be stored at room temperature up to a week!

Recipe makes 2 dozen cookies.

Bon Appétit!

Spicy Pumpkin Cookies

“Under the light of awareness, the energy of irritation can be transformed into an energy which nourishes.”

— Thich Nhat Hahn

One of the greatest jokes ever played on me was fall in the south. We’re almost halfway through September, and it’s still 90˚. No, not a heat wave, not a nice toasty day to finish off summer – this is just how it will be for at least another month and a half …

But hey, this girl won’t be complaining any longer! Even though it’s hot AF outside, I can’t break out my absurd sweater collection just yet, and a hot cup of tea makes me sweat, at least I’m still working out in leggings + a sports bra, and can bake all of the fall things in my house! No one will stop me!

If you’re new to these little rants, then you must know I love every season. There’s something spectacular about each one, something that just makes me feel so fresh and renewed! But, if I had to pick a favorite child, fall will win every time. The best flavors, the best smells, the best crunchy leaves, the best wardrobe, the best movies, the best baked goods. Must I go on? Don’t get me wrong, give me a bikini and throw me on the beach, I’ll be annoyingly happy. Put on Elf and place a cup of cocoa with mallows in my hand, I’m a giddy child. Throw me into a field of wildflowers in the rain, this spring baby is OH so happy. BUT.The moment I see some leaves changing colors, smell cider on the stove, see the word September, I look and act literally like a gal whose crush just smiled at her.

Yep. That’s it. I’m hardcore crushin’ on autumn, it’s just the best love story of all time. Hell, I mean even my wedding anniversary is at the end of September!

Now that we’re on the same page, lets talk cookies. I’m pretty sure that I have more cookie recipes on this blog than anything else—they’re just so damn versatile and I also fckin love cookie dough, so why wouldn’t I be making them all of the time?

My goal for these cookies was to figure out how to add about as little sugar as possible, how to make them super moist while not loading these up with lots of butter, and to shove as many spices as possible into these lil babies!

Annndddd, I’m pretty sure I’ve accomplished all of it.

Even though there’s only a fraction of the amount of butter in these than my usual chocolate chip cookies and the rest was replaced with pumpkin purée, you honestly cannot tell the difference. I added the smallest amount of coconut sugar as I could, only ¼ cup, which definitely goes a long way. I wanted the true pumpkin flavor to come out, as well as ALL of the spices I threw in here—turmeric and black pepper being the most pleasant surprise of them all!

Ohhhh these are so good, and make the entire house smell like an autumn dream. AUTUMN. DREAM. Yeah, tell me how you’re going to turn that down!?

Okay, I’m done. Go do your thing in the kitchen, fall it up in there, I mean have I ever led you wrong here?!

ingredients

Pumpkin Purée—9 oz, or 1 cup

Butter—2.5 oz, or 5 TBL

Coconut Sugar—1.15 oz, or ¼ cup

Vanilla Extract—2 tsp

Eggs—2

Almond Flour—3.5 oz, or 1 cup

All Purpose Flour—8.5 oz, or 1 ½ cup

Oats—3.5 oz, or 1 cup

Baking Soda—1 tsp

Salt—¾ tsp

Maca Powder—1 tsp

Cinnamon—1 TBL

Nutmeg—1 tsp

Ginger—1 tsp

Black Pepper—½ tsp

Turmeric—½ tsp

Chocolate Chips—6 oz, or 1 cup

Coconut Flakes, unsweetened—1.25 oz, or ½ cup

process

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the purée, butter and coconut sugar until smooth.

Add in vanilla, mix.

Add in eggs, 1 at a time, mix.

At this point, your dough will be veryrunny, do not worry!

Add together the flours, oats, baking soda, salt and spices in a separate bowl. Mix with your hands to combine.

With the mixer on low, slowly add in the dry ingredients until just combined.

Fold in the chocolate chips and coconut flakes.

Cover and refrigerate your dough for at least a few hours, so the dough can stiffen up a bit – as you will notice that it is quite a soft cookie dough!

When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350˚F.

Roll your cookies into 2 oz balls, or a heaping tablespoon, and bake for 12 minutes, rotating, 4 minutes.

Allow to cool on a rack slightly, so you won’t burn your tongue like I did!

Bon Appétit!