White Chocolate Fudge Bars: Variation

This week, I baked some bars from 500 Cookies entitled White Chocolate Fudge Bars. But, seeing as I can't get white chocolate easily here, I did the variation of using normal chocolate for melting, and butterscotch chips for putting inside the bars.

I found these bars utterly amazing, and I think using butterscotch and normal chocolate made it possibly even better than otherwise. It is especially better if you do not enjoy white chocolate. I highly recommend these, and my fellow family members found them:

Mom: Tasty

Dad: Delicous.

Brother: Edible (just ignore his opinion!)

Chocolate and Orange Sandwich Cookies

This week I made Chocolate and Orange Sandwich Cookies from 500 cookies. I choose them because I like the taste of chocolate and orange together and I wanted to see if they were as good as the Chocolate and Orange scones I made. (Verdict: Well, they are full chocolate with a stronger orange taste, so they are better. But not by that much.) I found these cookies delicious, but there could be some slight adjustments to the recipe to make them even better. For me, that is. After questioning my family I have come up with these opinions:

Mom: Wow! I like the subtle hint of orange. (Personally I am surprised at this because I found the Orange quite strong)

Dad: I like the combination!

Brother (you can't expect it to be good): They're good. (oh well)

If I were to do this recipe again, I would rather not add the orange zest to the frosting, because it make the frosting grainy in texture. I also might take away a little bit of the orange juice from the frosting to make it less orangy. I might just be more sensitive to it, but I found the orange very strong, and a little too strong for my liking.

Here is the recipe from 500 Cookies:

(I will add this later, but right now I need to post this!)

Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprints

I choose this recipe for 2 reasons 1) it was simple, and I only had one day and 2) PB+J sandwiches are basically my absolute favorite food! (I say basically because there are plenty other delicious foods out there!)

This recipe is from 500 Cookies :

Ingredients:

3/4 cup superfine sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1 cup (8 ounces) peanut butter

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/3 cup raspberry jelly or Nutella*

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (or 190 degrees C)

Combine all the ingredients, except for the jelly in a large bowl. Mix until smooth.

Roll the mixture into 1 in. (2.5 cm.) balls. If they are a bit sticky, use a little flour on your fingers.

Place the balls onto non-stick baking sheets about 2 in. (5cm.) apart and, using a floured thumb, make a deep impression in each ball of dough. Bake for 10- 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Fill each impression with Jelly. Store in an airtight container for 4-5 days.

This is supposed to make 3 dozen.

*One variation of this recipe is to add 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips to the dough, and then fill the impressions with Nutella. (If you have never heard of Nutella for some strange reason, it is next to the peanut butter in a grocery store.)

Doesn't your mouth just water?

COOKIES!

In this blog, you will learn of my baking escapades as I attempt to bake 43 different types of cookies. (That depends if we move and I am interrupted.) I will choose 43 recipes, that are able to be done with German ingredients*, from the books entitled "Big Fat Cookies," (Even the cover makes my mouth water) and "500 Cookies" (500 hundred whole recipes!) If I am un-able to bake one week, that is because either a) my mom says we have to many sweets or b) I am busy doing something else and am un-able to.

*Just to let you know, I am living in Germany, so I am un-able to get access to American ingredients