Carrot Cake Nest Cookies

Food Network's April cookie of the month is perfect for this time of the year! The cookies jelly beans remind me of Easter Eggs and the carrot cake flavor of the cookie is a bold spring flavor this year. Carrot cake is definitely a Spring flavor and when made right can provide the right amount of sweetness without being over the top sweet.

I made these cookies for a girls night at my friends house. It was a potluck so I thought what a good excuse to bake a fun treat and show my creative side, so that's exactly what I did!

This recipe is pretty easy to make. I baked the cookies earlier in the day and then before I headed out to my friends I whipped (literally!) the cookie filling up real quick, placed the jelly beans on top, and out the door I went. The girls loved them! I had a few left over so I took them to work the next day as a treat for my co-workers. Well I am sure you're dying to know how to make these, so let's get to it!

Cookie Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• pinch of ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup finely grated carrots (about 2)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped toasted walnuts
• 1 1/3 cups shredded sweetened coconut 

For the Filling:

• 2oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/8 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
• Jelly beans for topping

Directions:

1. Position the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven, preheat to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside. Whisk the flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add the egg yolk and vanilla and beat until well combined, then beat in the carrots and walnuts. Reduce mixer to low and slowly beat in the flour mixture until just combined.
2. Roll 1 tablespoon of dough into a ball, then roll in the coconut (you may have to press the coconut onto the dough). Repeat until all the dough is gone and rolled in coconut. Arrange cookies 1 inch apart on prepared baking pans. Make a deep indentation with the back side of your tablespoon or another spoon. Bake, switching trays halfway through, until the cookies are set and the coconut is golden brown (about 22 to 25 minutes). Let cookies cool completely on pan.
3. Make the filling: Beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in a medium bowl until light and fluffy. Mix in the confectioners sugar until fluffy. Refrigerate until ready to use. Dollop a teaspoon of the filling into the deep indentation of each cookie. Fill with 1 teaspoon and if necessary you can go back and add extra filling to fill the indentation. Top with whatever color jelly beans you prefer!

I hope you have fun making this recipe! It's definitely kid friendly as kids could help roll the dough in coconut or top the cookies with whatever jelly beans they want. Choose different color jelly beans depending on what time of year you make them too coordinate with the season or holiday!

Have you made this? I would love to hear how it turned out! Share with me below!

Stay tuned for May's cookie of the month! We're making Macarons!

Buff Bake Cookie Protein Almond Spread

My Review: Buff Bake Cookie Protein Almond Spread

Rating: B+
Tasting Notes: Chocolate, semi-sweet
Food Facts: Gluten Free, 2 tbsp: 200cal, Fat 15g, Carbs 10g, Protein 11g, Sugar 3g

I am so sorry it has been a while since I posted about my recent peanut butter adventures the holidays made time fly by, but I plan on posting a review at least once a month.

SO here we are! A new flavor to chat about! If you couldn't tell from my last few reviews I am on a Buff Bake Brand kick! Mainly because their nut butters are delicious and have good quality ingredients, in my opinion. 

This flavor confused me a little bit because I am not sure where the "cookie" piece came into play. It didn't really taste like a cookie nor did it have chunks of cookies in it or anything of that nature. To me, it tasted like chocolate almond butter, which isn't a bad thing! But again, I didn't really taste/understand the cookie component of this almond butter. 

Also, this almond butter was a little bit thicker than the other flavors I have had. Now that could be because I let it sit in my pantry for a little while before I opened it. I mean I had like 3 other jars of peanut butter open! So once I did open it the oils and almond butter separated (Which says so on their container!) so much that I had to blend it to make it smooth again. I think the texture was fine, not too creamy, but not too rich, so the flavor thing could be my fault that I let it sit too long.

However, I did learn throughout this that a good rule of thumb is if you're having a hard time mixing a jar of nut butter throw it in a blender/nutrabullet/Ninja for a few pulses and it will blend it together for you perfectly!

Like I said this tasted a little more chocolaty to me so it wasn't one of those nut butters I put on everything. Here is what I DID put it on:

• A blob in the center of my oatmeal (So good!)
• A topping on my yogurt
• Banana bread
• Rice Cakes
• Straight from the jar when I had a sweet tooth

This cookie almond butter was REALLY GOOD for curbing any sweet tooth I had. Also, occasionally I would mix 1/2 tbsp of this almond butter with 1/2 tbsp of another kind of peanut butter, like creamy Jiff PB, and the nut butter swirl would be DELICIOUS! If you don't mix your nut butter together I would definitely give it a try!

Have you tried this flavor? If you have, let me know how you like it! Happy Nut Butter Eating!

**These are my own personal food reviews and I am not sponsored or endorsed by any nut butter selling company. I just want to share my love of nut butters with the world! 

Candy Corn Bark

Halloween Recipe #3- Countdown to Halloween!!

Remember when I said I was going to make healthy Halloween recipes and I put in parenthesis next to it that MOST of them would be? Well.....this is one of the exceptions!

I love baking. A lot more than I used to. My love of baking interferes with my desire to stay healthy. :-) So what do I do with everything I bake?? I take it to work with me of course!!! My co-workers love it and it means I don't have to eat all of the baked goods. But on a serious note, I love baking and taking it into work, people get so excited and I feel like it brightens their day! Try it! 

Anyway, this recipe is SUPER EASY to make! I love this recipe because you can make it so many different ways and even coordinate the toppings with the holiday or season you are in. Cook time is probably about 5 minutes and then you stick it in the freezer for a few hours.

Supplies:

You will need a baking sheet with a rim, wax paper, milk chocolate chips, candy corn, and orange frosting (preferably the kind that is in a tube with a point so you can drizzly it over the chocolate like in the above picture). 

Directions:

1) Melt 2 cups of chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl for 45 seconds. Stir chocolate with a spatula. If it's not melted all the way microwave for another 15 seconds and stir again. Continue until chocolate is melted, but you shouldn't need to do it more than twice.

2) While chocolate is melting, lay wax (parchment) paper on baking sheet. Overlap 2 pieces to cover the whole pan, but don't have the pieces overlap in the middle to prevent chocolate from seeping through.

3) Once chocolate is melted, pour onto covered baking sheet and spread evenly over pan with a spatula. You may need to hold the wax paper while you do this since the paper will move around since it's not attached to anything (Make sure you move fast before the chocolate cools!).

4) After you spread out the chocolate to your desired thickness, top with candy corn and drizzle with frosting!*

5) Pop the whole tray in the freezer for 2 hours. Then break into pieces! You can make the pieces as big or small as you want. I used the handle of a metal knife to help break up the pieces so I wasn't manhandling the chocolate!

**You can modify this recipe by adding whatever toppings you want, such as nuts, peanut butter, pretzels, and other assorted candies. You can even use dark chocolate or white chocolate for the base if you want.**

Enjoy and Happy almost Halloween!!