Pink Caramel Delightful Bars

Happy Valentine’s Day! I’m still in class. Sneak typing, you ever do this? So, instead of my own recipe today I offer you a shortcut brownie from Camilla V. Saulsbury’s gem, “Brownie Mix Bliss”. These gooey topped crunchy based treats are reminiscent of Girl Scout cookies on steroids.

Think salty brownie crust that mimics the texture of pecan sandies with all the fixings one might ever want, minus peanut butter.

I wonder if my teacher takes brownie bribes?

Pink Caramel Delightful Bars
Printer Version
Though the coconut mixture’s dyed pink for Valentine’s Day, feel free to leave it out.

19.5 (or close) package brownies mix
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
7 ounce package (about 2 2/3 cups) sweetened shredded coconut
14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Red food dye (optional)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chunks or chips (I used Hershey’s bars)
1 cup chopped pecans, optional but recommended
30 caramels, unwrapped
2 tablespoons milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Position a rack on the lower third of the oven. Grease a 9x13 inch Pyrex baking dish.

2. In a medium mixing bowl the brownie mix and melted butter with a wooden spoon until just blended and all day ingredients are moistened. Press mixture into prepared pan.

3. Bake 15 minutes. Remove pan but leave oven on.

4. Meanwhile, in a medium mixing bowl mix the coconut, condensed milk, vanilla, and food dye until well blended; spread over hot crust (don’t be afraid to use your fingers) and sprinkle with chocolate chunks and pecans.

5. Bake for 15 to 28 minutes, or until coconut is lightly browned. Transfer pan to a wire rack.

6. In a microwave safe bowl, melt the caramels and milk together on high for 30 seconds then stir. Repeat until caramels are melted. Drizzle over brownies. Cool completely and cut into bars.

Recipe adapted slightly from Brownie Mix Bliss by Camilla V. Saulsbury. Photograph by Laura Flowers.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

These cookies are more like tiny cakes with a dollop of fluffy peanut butter frosting on top. The frosting alone is worth making as a topping for other baked goods, or as my mom does, on graham cracker sandwiches.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Printer Version

Chocolate Cake Cookies
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup butter, softened to nearly melted
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 (18.25 ounce) box chocolate cake mix, any kind
1 recipe Fluffy Peanut Butter Frosting, below
1 (12 ounce) bag Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Miniatures, cut in half

1. Line two cookie sheets with parchment and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Place all the ingredients except the cake mix in a mixing bowl and beat well to combine. Add the cake mix and mix just until incorporated. Scoop with a standard (size 50) cookie scoop 2 inches apart onto parchment. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes or until no longer wet looking. Rest on the cookie sheet for a couple minutes and then move to a cooling rack.

3. Once cool pipe with Peanut Butter Frosting, garnish top with half a peanut butter cup.

Fluffy Peanut Butter Frosting
This stuff is so good you might as well just skip the cookies and dig into the frosting.

3/4 cup Jiff Creamy Peanut Butter
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
1/3 and up to 1/2 cup whole milk
½ teaspoon real vanilla extract
1 pound powdered sugar

Beat the ingredients together with a mixer starting with 1/3 cup milk. Mix well and add more milk if needed. Beat on high speed for 4 more minutes until fluffy.

Makes about 52 cookies

Recipe and photograph by Laura Flowers.

Berry Raspberry Icebox Cookies

I know I say this frequently, but these are my new favorite cookies and not just because they’re red, white and blue! I love how each layer has a different flavor but go so well together.

And don’t they look like I slaved over them? No such thing happened. The dough went together in a few short minutes. Think old Rice Krispie Treat commercials where mom pats flour on her face before carrying out a tray of treats, sighing as if she’s spent all her energy baking. That’s exactly how these cookies are.

Of course being red, white and blue might just be my real favorite part.

Berry Raspberry Icebox Cookies Printer Version

The instructions look long, but it's just details in case you need them.

2/3 cup butter, nearly melted and cooled slightly

2 eggs
2 pouches (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
Red food or icing dye
Blue food or icing dye
1 tablespoon raspberry Jell-O
1 tablespoon berry blue Jell-O

1. Line an 8x4-inch loaf pan with waxed paper, extending paper over sides of pan.

2. In a stand mixer beat butter and eggs together. Add the sugar cookie mixes and beat until just combined.

3. Divide the dough into three equal parts and place in bowls. Set one part aside.

4. Add raspberry Jell-O and red dye for color (You’ll need quite a bit or they’ll be pink) to one part. Knead with your hands in the bowl until the Jell-O is mixed in then pick the dough up and finished kneading folding the dough over with your hands until combined. Repeat with berry blue Jell-O and blue dye.

5. Divide the doughs in half again to make 6 layers. Pat a red dough into the wax paper lined pan. Press gently with the back of a dry measuring cup to even out the dough. Next, pat a plain dough between your hands to form nearly the size of the pan. Press the plain dough into the pan over the red layer. Repeat with blue, red, white and blue.

6. Fold the wax paper over the cookie dough and cover with foil. Refrigerate for several hours until firm.

7. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

8. Once chilled, dump the dough out into a cutting surface.

9. Remove dough from pan and trim edges. Cut log into ¼” thick slices. Then cut slices in half to form squares.

10. Place cookies on sheets 1 1/2 inches apart. Freeze sheets for 10 minutes to retain shapes if desired.

11. Bake 8-10 minutes or until cookies are no longer wet looking and are very lightly golden on the sides.

12. Let cookies firm up on the cookie sheets for a couple of minutes then move to a cooling rack.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Recipe & photographs by Laura Flowers.

Absolut Mandrin Dreamsicle Cookies

It was an orange day. I ran across some beautiful mandarin type oranges at the Co-op, Dishboy Scott called and told me about the Absolut Mandrin Vodka he purchased (which I promptly broke into his house and borrowed from him), and I spotted an orange cake mix at Safeway. I figured maybe I could throw everything together into one recipe. So here it is.

These cookies are so yummy. Any type of orange should work fine, so please don’t let that stop you from making these.

You can have your vodka back now Scott. Sorry about the thievery. Can I make it up to you with a cookie?

Absolut Mandrin Dreamsicle Cookies

1 cup sweetened plain jarred applesauce

1/3 cup butter, softened

2 large eggs

¼ cup milk

¼ cup Absolute Mandrin Vodka

1 (18.25 ounce) package Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Orange Supreme cake mix

1 ½ cups unbleached flour

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment.

2. Beat together the applesauce, softened butter and eggs. Then add the milk, vodka, and cake mix and beat until well mixed. Add the flour and beat until just combined.

3. Scoop with a standard (size 50) cookie scoop and drop onto parchment 1 ½ inches apart. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes until lightly golden on the bottom. Rest on cookie sheet for 2 minutes and move to cooling rack.

4. Once cool, make the frosting (recipe below) and decorate as desired.

Makes 60 cookies

Orange Vanilla Frosting

½ cup unsalted butter, softened

Zest of 1 mandarin orange

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons juice from a mandarin orange

2 teaspoons Absolut Mandrin Vodka

¼ cup milk

Pinch of salt

5 cups powdered sugar

1. Beat all the ingredients together until smooth and fluffy. Frost Cookies as desired.

Recipe and photographs by Laura Flowers

Caramel Macchiato Thumbprints & Shortcut Guilt

When I make anything with a mix I always feel a bit guilty. Like I can’t take credit because I didn’t really make it, a company did. I used to think this was just damage from guilt trips my mother used on us kids in an attempt to make us behave. (They rarely worked by the way, sorry Mom!)

Now that I’m deep into Laura Shapiro’s book, “Something from the Oven. Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America.” I realize it isn’t just me. Women in the 1950s felt the exact same way I do as marketers tried to sell their products by promising an easy way out of cooking.

Woman felt like they should cook. That it was their duty, and a chore most women actually enjoyed. Cooking was a matter of pride, just as it is today. (Men often fit in this category too. Or I know my dad and brothers do anyway.) For example, no one felt they could brag about a cake made from mix back then, but one from scratch was worthy of showing off.

Maybe most of us still feel this way 50 plus years later. I can’t be the only one right? Even though I made these cookies, and they are a variation on a mix, I still don’t feel I can take real credit for baking them.

I have a funny little story about Laura Shapiro before I set you loose with this recipe. Although I’m certain she doesn’t remember me at all, I followed her around and talked to her for two days at a food photography conference last June. I just thought she was a neat person who had the same first name as I did. Little did I know she was the Laura Shapiro who wrote all of my favorite American women’s history and food books, plus lots of good articles! Until the day I was leaving that is, and I didn’t even find out from her. It all clicked when I found her Julia Child book for sale on the authors' table.

I’m such a genius sometimes. Geesh! The good news is Laura is really sweet and great to talk to, even if I can’t tell her now that her books are wonderful. So if you find her, please let her know for me.

Caramel Macchiato Thumbprints
This brilliant cookie take on a favorite coffee drink is by 2009 Betty Crocker Cookie Contest Winner Edwina Gadsby from Great Falls Missouri. They really are wonderful, so ignore any feelings of guilt and enjoy them.

2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder or granules
1 tablespoon hot water
1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix
1/4 cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 egg
18 caramels (from 14-oz bag), unwrapped
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon shortening

1. Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, dissolve coffee powder in hot water. Stir in cookie mix, flour, butter, vanilla and egg until very soft dough forms.

2. Shape dough into 1 1/2-inch balls (I made 1-inch balls). On ungreased cookie sheets (use parchement paper here), place balls 2 inches apart. Using thumb or handle of wooden spoon (floured pastry tamper works best), make indentation in center of each cookie.

3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. (Re-indent cookies right away) Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.

4. In small microwavable bowl, microwave caramels and milk uncovered on High 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds, stirring once, until caramels are melted. Spoon (about) 1/2 teaspoon caramel into indentation in each cookie. Cool 15 minutes.

5. In another small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips and shortening uncovered on High 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds or until chips can be stirred smooth. Drizzle chocolate over cookies. Let stand about 30 minutes or until chocolate is set.

Makes 3 dozen cookies.

Edwina Gadsby ‘s Tips
Success
Chill dough for about 20 minutes to make it easier to shape.

How-To
To drizzle chocolate easily, spoon melted chocolate into small resealable food-storage plastic bag; cut small tip from 1 bottom corner. Squeeze bag gently to drizzle chocolate over cookies.

Recipe by Edwina Gadsby @ Betty Crocker. Picture by Laura Flowers.

Sherri's Mom's Awesome Crunchy Oatmeal Pecan Cookies

As an immature rebellious adult female with grey streaks through my hair there are certain behaviors which bring joy to my life. Racing my bicycle the wrong way down the street at full speed through a pile of leaves is one. Taking long walks in the pitch black of night so I can peer into people’s windows as I slowly stroll by is another. Jumping my red Vespa scooter over divits in the road and off sidewalk curbs also brings me jovial happiness. Oh yes, and gleaning fruit off neighborhood trees around town.

But what especially brings me gleeful ornery joy is my refusal to cook and bake the proper way, especially when making cookies.

When my husband started a new job two years ago, I began baking cookies for him to bring to work once a week and many more over Christmas for his employees. I figured after awhile people would grow tired of cookies and I could stop. So far this hasn’t happened, and I’m ensnared in cookie baking madness. What I’ve managed to do though is make every single 106 different types of cookies the wrong way. It’s these little naughty things in life that bring me joy.

So, when Sherri from Everything in Moderation wrote about her mother’s “Gain Friends and Influence People Oatmeal Pecan Cookies” I had to make them, but I also needed to mess it all up and do it the wrong way. I mean why stop now when I’m on such an ornery roll?

I trust Sherri’s baking and cooking, and when she talks about her mom it makes me sit up and listen. These crunchy cookies are just plain awesome. I love them so much in fact, next time I might even make them the proper way.


Mom's Famous Gain Friends and Influence People Oatmeal Pecan Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup extra light olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coconut extract
2 large eggs
2 cups quick oats

1 (18.25 ounce) box yellow cake mix
1 cup chopped pecans

Instructions
1. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. On a plate, cook pecans in the microwave for 1 ½ to 2 minutes stirring every 30 seconds until toasted. Set aside.

3. In a stand mixer, beat together sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and coconut extract on medium speed for 2 minute. Add the eggs and beat for 1 more minute. Then add the oats and mix until combined. Mix in the cake beat just until mixed, and then mix in the pecans.

4. With a standard (size 50) cookie scoop, scoop the dough and place on the parchment 2 inches apart.

5. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until or until golden brown on the bottoms, very lightly brown on top and no longer wet looking. Cool on wire rack.

Makes 53 cookies

Visit Sherri and her mother to learn the proper way to make these cookies. Pictures by Laura Flowers.

Candy Corn Cookies

Thanks to Betty Crocker I made cute little candy corn cookies. Err, strike that. Thanks to a neat idea by Betty Crocker and 97 reviews I was able to make these cookies without having to throw out two pouches worth of sugar cookie dough.

Over the years I must have saved hundreds, if not thousands of dollars from reading reviews that real recipe users write on food sites. If you’re one of those people, my wallet and sanity thank you.

Candy Corn Cookies
Please scan the instructions before getting started.

Ingredients

2/3 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 egg
2 pouches (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
Wilton’s yellow paste food color (Found at Michael’s)
Wilton’s orange paste food color (Found at Michael’s)

Pick one set of extracts for flavoring cookies.

½ teaspoon coconut extract
½ teaspoon lemon extract
½ teaspoon orange extract

Or

2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract

Instructions
1. Line an 8x4-inch loaf pan with waxed paper, extending paper over sides of pan.

2. In a stand mixer beat the eggs until mixed. With the mixer on low speed pour in the butter. *If adding the vanilla and almond extracts do so after adding the butter* Then stop the mixer and add the sugar cookie mix. Beat until just combined.

3. Divide the dough into three equal parts. Put 1 section back into the mixer and add ½ teaspoon coconut extract if using. Beat until combined, then set dough aside.

4. Next, add another section of dough to the mixer with ½ teaspoon lemon extract if using and a very small amount of yellow food color paste until desired color. Beat until combined and set aside.

5. Add the last dough section to the mixer with ½ teaspoon orange extract if using and a very small amount of orange food color paste. Mix until combined.

6. Pat the yellow dough into the wax paper lined pan. Press gently with the back of a dry measuring cup to even out the dough. Next, add the orange dough and repeat. Then spread the plain dough across the top.

7. Fold the wax paper over the cookie dough and refrigerate overnight, or freeze for 1 ½ hours, and thaw on the counter for 20 or so minutes until workable.

8. Once chilled, dump the dough out into a cutting surface. Pry the dough apart from the pan with a spatula between the wax paper and pan if needed before turning out.

9. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

10. Cut dough into ¼ inch thick slices. Then cut slices into triangles as shown. You’ll have some edge pieces left over. These can be kneaded together gently and made into marbled drop cookies or rolled and cut with a cookie cutter later.

11. Place cookies on sheets 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes until very lightly golden on the sides. *To make candy corn shape: working quickly after cookies come out of the oven, take two spatulas and gently move the 2 sides back into shape.* If the cookies harden before you can finish the sheet, stick them back in the oven for two minutes to soften.

12. Cool on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes. Then move to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Makes many dozens of little cookies.

Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker. Pictures by Laura Flowers

Cake Mix Lemon Ricotta Drop Cookies

Thursday night was chaotic. In the middle of dinner and baking and decorating cupcakes for a school bake sale, I still needed to make cookies for my husband to take to work the next morning. Instead of turning to a recipe I could depend on, I decided to add more work to my crazy evening by inventing a new cookie. Hey, why not right?

With a large tub of ricotta about to turn I threw part of it into the mixer with a lemon cake mix and a few other ingredients. After the cookies cooled, I beat a can of lemon frosting with some leftover icing from the cupcakes and quickly piped a dollop on the tops with a large round Wilton tip 2A.

I think the can of lemon frosting whipped well is all that would have been needed. I was attempting to pass these suckers off as homemade, which they were sort of! Soft, moist, cakey, and lemony these gems disappeared in a hurry.

Frosting is probably optional here. I happen to like frosting, but these cookies were quite good without it too.

Ingredients
¼ cup (1/2 stick) melted butter
1 cup ricotta (not non-fat)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon lemon extract
Zest of 1 lemon
1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix
Canned or homemade lemon frosting (optional), whipped well

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees. Position rack in the middle of the oven and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Parchment can be reused one time.

2. In a stand mixer beat together butter and ricotta until fluffy. Add egg, lemon extract, and lemon zest and beat until combined and fluffy. Add the cake mix and beat until combined.

3. With a mini or standard size cookie scoop drop dough onto parchment two inches apart. Dunk scoop into a glass of hot water and shake well after every few scoops when the dough gets difficult to release.

4. Bake a sheet at a time for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom. I used a mini cookie scoop; it might take a minute or two longer for standard sized cookies.

5. Let sit on the cookie sheet for a couple of minutes and move to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

6. Once cool, whip frosting until fluffy and pipe a dollop on top of each cookie.

Recipe by Laura Flowers

Soft Chocolate Cake Mix Swirlers

Life is busy here and I’m guessing it is for you too. School just started. Then there are fairs, rodeos, and other events to attend. This is also the big month for veteran’s group fundraisers. Plus, my daughter learned how to ride her bike this weekend so I’ve been getting lots of much needed exercise following her around. Oh, and traveling. Yikes! I can barely keep my head afloat right now and that means more cake mix cookies for my husband to take to work. I happen to like these ones; well ok of course I like them they’re chocolate! I hope my husband’s co-workers will too.

These brownie like cookies are very good plain and don’t feel that you need to frost them if you’re in a hurry. If you want to go that extra step, stuff half white frosting and half chocolate frosting into a piping bag with a Wilton tip 199 and press the frosting onto the cookies.

Ingredients
1 (18.4 ounce) box Betty Crocker Super Moist Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
2 eggs
1 container fudge frosting
1 container white frosting

Instructions

1. Line a couple cookie sheets with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a mixer mix the softened butter until fluffy. Add the eggs and mix until combined. There may be some little butter lumps, this is ok. Add the cake mix and beat until just combined.

3. With a mini cookie scoop (size 60), or two teaspoons, scoop the dough onto the parchment an inch and a half apart. Keep a glass of hot water nearby to dunk the scoop into after every few cookies as they dough becomes stuck to the scoop. Shake the water off well and continue to scoop the dough.

4. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool on the sheets for 4 minutes and then move to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

5. Once cooled, stuff a piping bag with a Wilton tip 199 (or any tip you want) with half fudge frosting and half white frosting. Then press some frosting into the middle of the cookie gently lifting up as you go. Once you stop pressing pull the tip away from the cookie to create a little swirl on the top.

By Laura Flowers

Cake Mix Chai Spice Cookies

I’m a dork. I admit it. I love making cookies from a cake mix. I think it appeals to my ornery nature which wants to bend the rules. Even rules that aren’t really rules like turning a box of cake mix into cookies. It also helps that these cookies are tender, filled with chai flavors, and have a little bit of crunch to boot.

The trick to cake mix cookies is to have a cup of hot water nearby to dip your cookie scoop or teaspoons into after every few cookies. This dough is pretty sticky, and you’ll find it’s much easier to work with if you rinse off some of that stuck dough and then shake off the water before re-scooping.

Also, If you like vanilla chai, try substituting a Tablespoon of real vanilla extract for the water to make Vanilla Chai Spice Cookies.

Ingredients
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 Tablespoon water
1 (18.25 ounce) package spice cake mix
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
1 (2 ounce or 1/3 cup) package slivered almonds

Instructions
1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Position the cookie rack in the middle of the oven and cover two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a stand mixer, add the melted butter, water, half of the cake mix, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, and ground cardamom and mix until blended and smooth. Add the rest of the cake mix and beat until just combined.

3. Using a mini cookie scoop (or two teaspoons), drop dollops of dough onto the parchment about an inch-and-a-half apart. Sprinkle the tops with a few of the slivered almonds.

4. Bake cookies a sheet at a time for 9 to 12 minutes or until the edges look set and the top looks barely set when touched. Cool for 3 minutes on the cookie sheets and transfer to cooling racks to finish cooling.

Makes about 40 cookies.

Recipe adapted from "Cake Mix Cookies" by Camilla V. Saulsbury. Picture by Laura Flowers.

Easy Apricot Cream Cheese Cookies

This is the recipe I created for the Betty Crocker Cookie Mix Contest. I don't think it will win, but it was fun to create and my husband's work loved them. I think you could probably cut back to a half a box of Jell-O and these cookies would still be apricot flavored, but a little less sugary.

1 (17.5 ounce) Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix
1 (3 ounce) box apricot Jell-O
4 ounces (1/2 package) cream cheese, softened
4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs
¼ tsp almond extract

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl stir the sugar cookie mix and apricot Jell-0 together. Set aside. Next, beat the cream cheese, butter, egg, and almond extract together until fluffy and well mixed. Add the sugar cookie mixture and gently beat until just mixed.

Using a cookie scoop, drop the dough onto the parchment about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly golden around the edges. Let rest on the cookie sheet for 3 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Make approximately 34 cookies.
Recipe by Laura Flowers