Butterfinger Gift Basket

Butterfinger is my sisters favorite candy bar and I always think of her when I see unique butterfinger treats. I've seen a lot of new butterfinger products come out in stores lately, so I thought it would be fun to send her a small themed basket for her birthday.

Item #1 - Butterfinger Stuffed PB Rice Crispy Treats

Item #2 - Butterfinger Pretzels

Selling at Walmart

Item #3 - Butterfinger Cups

Selling at 711 & Walmart

Cookies & Cream Gift Basket

Our friends son had surgery and we wanted to give him a get well gift. Come to find out his favorite candy bar is the Hersey "cookies & cream."

I thought it would be fun to make him a cookies and cream themed gift basket since there are so many cookies and cream products out right now. We didn't want to load him up with too many sweets though, so we gave him a basket with five treats.

Item#1 - Cookies'n'Cream Cereal

Selling at Winco

Item#2 - Cookies & Creme Pop-Tarts

Selling at Winco

Item#3 - Cookies & Cream Muddy Buddies

Selling at 7-Eleven

Item#4 - Cookies & Cream Cookies

Item#5 - Cookies & Cream Candy Bar

Cookie Gift Basket

We do a service auction every year at church and this year I decided to bring two assorted cookie plates to it. Here's a post that includes most of the cookie recipes in the picture below.

I added a cute little tag to the packaging with the cookie monster on it.

The font I used to create the tag is free. I love the hearts in it.

Banana Split Themed Products

Banana Split Trail Mix

Selling at Roth's

Banana Split Cookies

Banana Split Pudding

Unique Bar Cookies

#1 - Chubby Hubby Bar

This bar was bought at a bakery. I'm pretty sure it was inspired by the "Chubby Hubby" ice cream. It has cookie dough, peanut butter, Oreo, white chocolate and a bunch of other stuff in it. Here is a recipe online for a homemade Chubby Hubby Bars.

#2 - "Raw" Naimo Bar

Here is a "raw" naimo bar recipe if you'd like to try it at home. These are amazing! Better than the original in my opinion.

 #3 - Cinnamon Roll Bar

This bar cookie is chewy and sweet with a cream cheese frosting on top.

#4 - Marionberry Pie Bar

Selling at Stone Soup Bistro. Similar online recipe.

 

#5 - S'more Bar

Similar Recipe online.

#5 - Cinnamon Toast Crunch Bar

Here's a homemade cinnamon toast crunch rice crispy treat bar recipe.

#6 - Rice Krispy bar with dried fruit & nuts

 

Here is a similar recipe I found online for these rice crispy oat dried fruit bars.

#7 - Rocky Road Brownie

These rocky Road Brownies were selling at Walmart. They looked like regular brownies with Rocky Road Toppings. I thought it was a great idea. 

Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

I used the New York Times best chocolate chip cookie recipe for the base of this cookie. I mixed in bacon bits, but had a hard time tasting them. There were just so many chocolate chips and they were overpowering. I would cut back on the chocolate chips if I made this cookie again. I would also increase the pieces of bacon.

Butterfinger Stuffed PB Rice Crispy Treat

I was surprised by how good the butterfinger and peanut butter rice crispy flavor combination was in this cookie. I sent these cookies to my sister for her birthday and her and her husband loved them.

Recipe
10 oz marshmallows
1/2 cup peanut butter
6 cups rice crispy's

Microwave 10 oz of marshmallows for a little over a minute until they're melted. Stir in 1/2 cup peanut butter. Added 6 cups of rice crispy's. Poured 1/2 the mixture into a brownie pan. Add 2 butterfinger candy bars (spaced apart), then top them with the remaining crispy cookie mix.

Cinnamon Roll Cookie

This cookie was really soft and in that way it reminded me of a cinnamon roll. Otherwise, it reminded me of a cookie. It was still good though and it was pretty. I topped the cookies with cream cheese frosting.

Here's the recipe I used.

Rocky Road Cookie

When I drive to my hometown, to visit family, I like to stop off at a place that sells rocky road cookies. These cookies are big, brownie like with walnuts inside, marshmallows on top with fudge frosting on the top. They're rich and they are heavenly.

I set out to recreate the rocky road cookie. I used a box of brownie mix and prepared it the normal way, I just made them into cookies. I did add in walnuts.

Once they cooled, I topped them with marshmallows and fudge frosting from the store. They were super rich, but still really good, especially with a glass of milk.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Whopper Cookie

My favorite candy right now is chocolate peanut butter whoppers and my favorite way to eat them is combined with soft chocolate chip cookies. So, a chocolate peanut butter whopper cookie made perfect sense to me. It was just a wonderful cookie creation waiting to happen.

I started with the New York Times best chocolate chip cookie recipe and added whoppers to it. I quartered the whoppers before mixing them in.

I only used a quarter of the dough to make these cookies, so to that I added about 10 PB whoppers.

Compost Cookies

If you've never had a compost cookie, it's basically a chocolate chip cookie with a bunch of random ingredients that you want mixed in.

I used the new york times best chocolate chip cookie recipe as a base for the cookie. To that, I added lays chips, pretzels, peanut butter chips, and granola. The cookies were thick and had a wonderful texture. There was a great balance between salty and sweet.

These cookies were one of my favorites out of all the cookies I baked (about 15.)

Lavender Chocolate Chip Cookie

I have been liking lavender lately. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like culinary lavender is becoming more popular lately. I see it in baked goods at the farmers market and in candy bars at the store. I think it's exciting.

The first time I tried lavender was in a lemon lavender cupcake with cream cheese frosting. It was such a good dessert. So, I was intrigued when I came across this recipe for chocolate chip lavender cookies. 

I wasn't able to grind the lavender, so I added it in whole. I still thought it tasted really good. I made about 15 different kinds of cookies and this one was one of my favorites.

Lemon Curd Cookies

There is a bakery where I live that sells the most delicious lemon curd short bread cookies. I set out to recreate them and was very pleased with the results. I used store bought lemon curd, which sped up the process.

Here is the shortbread cookie recipe that I used. I greased my muffin tin and pressed 1 Tbsp of the shortbread cookie dough into each compartment. I baked them for about 10 minutes, but 3 minutes before they finished baking, I pulled them out and spooned 1/2 TBSP of lemon curd in the center of each cookie and put them back in the oven. Let the cookies cool when finished baking and dust with powdered sugar.

Avalanche Cookies

The Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory sells a plethora of delicious goodies, but one of their most popular treats is their avalanche bark.  It is a mixture of white chocolate and peanut butter that has some rice crispy and marshmallows mixed in and is topped with chocolate chips. It's super rich and more like a fudge.

Recently, I came across the idea online to make an avalanche cookie. I used a different recipe, but it turned out great. The cookie base tasted like Reese's pieces filling and the texture from the rice cripys and other add ins really made the cookie delicious.

Recipe
Cookie Base Recipe (I used 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup PB)
1 cup Rice Crispys
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup marshmallows

Toppings
small marshmallows, chopped
chocolate chips, chopped
peanut butter chocolate chips, chopped

Make the peanut butter cookie base and add the rice crispys, white chocolate chips and marshmallows. Use 1/4 cup to measure out the dough. Bake the cookies at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes on a silpat. Pull the cookies out of the oven a few min early and top them with the chopped marshmallows, chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips. Then put them back in the oven for another minute until they start to brown. Let the cookies cool completely once down and gently move when set.

Caramel Apple Cookie

These caramel apple cookies are SO good. I baked them along with about 15 other types of cookies and they were one of my favorites.

The cookies have dry apple cider spice packets mixed into the dough that give a sweet/tart apple flavor and pair wonderfully with the melted caramel center.

The texture of the cookie was amazing. Even without the caramel, the cookie was really chewy, but adding the caramel to the cookies made them even more chewy and delicious.

Here is the recipe I used.

Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

I came across strawberry shortcake cookies at the store and thought it was such a unique idea. I guess they're just sugar cookies topped with strawberry frosting. Good advertising, right?

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to make a strawberry shortcake cookie and they turned out so pretty. I could see these being served at a fancy tea party or something.

I used this recipe to make the shortbread cookies. I added some pureed strawberry to cream cheese and powdered sugar to make the frosting.

Here's what the store bought cookies looked like (see picture below...)

Dragon Pizza

Our friends son loves dragons. I often think about him when I see dragon-y things. One funny story is that he was given the opportunity, by his parents, to select a middle name for his younger brother and chose "dragon" for the name.

Recently this little boy (8 years old) had to have surgery, so we brought his family dinner. We thought pizza would go over well with the kids and I thought it would be fun to cut a dragon shape out of one of the pizzas for him. When asked what part of the dragon he wanted to eat first, he responded with "the tail." Haha! We brought over some "dragon wings" (BBQ chicken wings) too.

Dragon Pizza:

I used a dragon image that I found online as a guide when creating this pizza. I had to simplify the image so that it would be easier to cut out.

Dragon Pizza Tutorial:

Step #1 - Trace / Cut Out Image

 Step #2 - Bake Pizza / Cut Around Image

Step # 3 - Finishing Details

I didn't like the way the head turned out so I simplified it. I added some detail on the wings too with pepperoni slices.

 

Bacon Chipotle Ranch Dip

Recently, I tried some chip dip samples at the Saturday market. I was blown away by the flavor combination of the bacon chipotle ranch dip. I bought some and my husband and I finished it off in no time. Then, I went out and bought ingredients to recreate it at home and make more!

I think I came really close to recreating the dip. It tastes the same to me. The consistency of the dip was like the whipped cream cheese spreads that you get at bagel shops. There was a mild ranch flavor, some heat from chipotle peppers and bacon bits throughout for added smokyness and texture.

Recipe

16 oz tube whipped cream cheese
8 oz sour cream
1 dry packet hidden valley ranch
1/2 cup real bacon bites
pureed chipotle peppers with sauce to taste (2-4 Tbsp)

Just mix all the ingredients together.

For a fancier version, you could leave out the bacon bites and cheese, pipe the dip onto bread rounds and top the appetizers with bacon rosettes. 

 This dip is also good at the base of a layered chip dip instead of beans. Leave out the bacon, top the dip with guacamole, sour cream, salsa, and olives, green onions, tomatoes.

Bacon Rosettes
Cut a piece of bacon into 3 equal sections. Roll them up, stick a skewer through them, bake at 400 degrees until they are crispy. You'll have to turn them and keep a close eye on them so they don't burn. Snip off the ends of the bacon pieces and use these as your rosette garnish.

Maple Bacon Bagel

Today, at the Saturday market I came across a booth that was selling the most unique bagels. There was jalapeno bacon pepper-jack bagels and caramel apple bagels, but the one I knew I had to try was the maple bacon bagel. So, I did.

My review - First of all, I thought the bagels were BIG. Upon closer inspection I found that they had nice texture. I think they were able to capture the flavors well. There was crumbled candied bacon stuffed inside and on the outside of the bagel and there was plenty of maple syrup-yness on it too.

My only complaint was that it was too sweet for my taste. I almost think the bacon should have been left salty to balance out the sweet syrupy flavor.

I'm still really excited about this new company (Bagels & Beyond) though and want to try their other unique bagel flavors. They are planning to open a store front this summer in South Salem by the Fred Meyer. 

S'more Pop-tart Fudge

Today, at the Saturday market, I came across a booth selling s'more pop-tart fudge. The presentation and uniqueness of the fudge sold me on it, even though I'm not a big fan of fudge. It's just so rich.

It was...just as I thought, too rich, but I did like the texture of it with the pop-tart and marshmallows add ins.

The fudge base actually reminded me of a simple fudge recipe (chocolate + condensed milk) that I've made in the past, for a friend.

I think I might have liked a chocolate peanut butter version of the pop-tart fudge better, but I'm a picky eater. The idea was definitely there.