Five-ingredient peanut butter and chocolate cookies

Sometimes I come across a recipe so simple and so easy that I can't understand why I haven't made it before. This is the case with these cookies. Five ingredients, naturally gluten free, no special techniques or tools needed, and totally delicious and cute looking. What was I waiting for?

Chocolate Dinosaur Brownie Cookies

OK, yours don't have to be dinosaur shaped. But that's what really made them for me. It's been a long time since I've made roll and cut cookies, probably because they're more work than drop cookies and I'm lazy. But they're also more fun than drop or bar cookies, and when my roommate brought me a set of dinosaur and farm animal cookie cutters, and then I came across this recipe for brownie roll out cookies in my new Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, I knew it was meant to be.

 

Trio Cookies

Yes, I have about 50 cookbooks lining my living room wall. No, I don't cook from them all. At least a dozen of them I've never made one recipe from. But I love flipping through them, taking one idea from here, another from there, taking inspiration from a chicken dish and turning it into one with turkey or tofu. But there are some cookbooks that inspire devotion - some that when I turn the page, and see a photo, and say "I must make that" - I mean it. Which is what happened when I got the Gourmet Cookie Book - and found the recipe for these adorable jam trio cookies.

 

Chocolate Gelt Cookies

Sure, Chanuka/Hanukkah is all about the frying, but that doesn't mean the only desserts you can serve all week are dripping with oil. Chocolate gelt - another traditional symbol of the holiday -
are just as cute when part of some cute sugar cookies. And they're less likely to melt in your hands!

Mini (Cream-filled) French Beignets

I really only deep fry once a year. Yes, I run a baking blog, which isn't the healthiest of places, but deep frying is the special kind of indulgence that I can only allow for the holiday of Chanuka. So when it's this rare, I have to make it memorable. Enter mini cream-filled French beignets.

 

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

It's been an interesting month here for me at casa Baking and Mistaking. I semi-dealt with a superstorm, had a semi-vacation and survived a semi-war. And what better way to deal with everything than baking - specifically, pumpkin whoopie pies with cinnamon cream cheese frosting?

Mini Dutch Apple Pies

 I'm a sucker for individual desserts. And, I know I'm not the only one, since they always seem to disappear before my eyes when I bring them places (or from the kitchen table). And what better thing to miniaturize than one of the all time classic desserts - apple pie? 

Chocolate-Dipped Potato Chip Cookies

I've always had a thing for sweet and salty. That's why chocolate-covered pretzels are one of my favorite snacks - homemade or bought. So when I stumbled across a few recipes lately for cookies filled with crushed potato chips, I knew making them wouldn't be far off. And thank goodness I didn't wait too long.

Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes

I'm not a vegan. Not even close. But I do run out of eggs sometimes, and I do like to stretch my baking horizons. These vegan chocolate cupcakes are easy and delicious - you won't miss eggs or milk - or even butter - at all!

Blueberry, Lemon and White Chocolate Shortbread

For reasons unbeknownst to me, blueberries are not something widely available in Israel. Or at all. For about the cost of an arm and a leg (or, you know, rent) you can buy some frozen, but I don't think in the year that I've lived here I've ever seen fresh for sale. But when I stumbled across some dried blueberries in the open-air market next to my house (that only cost a leg), and found this recipe at the same time, I knew it was meant to be.

Cherry Brownie Bites

I bought a few new pans several months ago, and I'm really loving them. Especially my little mini square pan - there's something extra adorable about tiny square baked goods. And when those baked goods are rich chocolate brownies studded with flecks of dried cherry - all the better.

Cinnamon French Toast Cookies

I suppose I could be called a little schizophrenic when it comes to baking. There's one side of me that likes to take on ridiculously ambitious projects, with tens of complicated ingredients and odd-sounding combinations that make some people think twice before taking a bite. But there's another side that likes to bake simple people-pleasers, and these definitely fall in to that category.

Lemon Sticky Buns

There are desserts meant to be eaten with a fork and knife. Some need a spoon, others a straw. But some desserts are really meant to be grabbed with both hands - however sticky, gooey and messy they may be. This is one of those desserts.

Chocolate Financiers - Gluten free and Passover friendly!

I have started and abandoned at least three posts over the past couple weeks. Inevitably - life: school, work, friends, errands, laundry - gets in the way. And now - now it's almost Passover! As the four hours I spent cleaning yesterday can attest, the yearly tradition of removing any products with flour from your home - and baked goods! - is almost here. So while I have tons more flour-packed goodies to share with you, the next couple weeks Baking and Mistaking is going gluten free! And there's no better place to start than these delicious chocolate financiers. 

Chocolate Caramel Thumbprints

Do you ever see a picture of a cookie and you just have to have it? Well that's what happened when I spotted these "Sandies by the Sea" in a recent issue of Cook's Country. But I wasn't really happy with any part of the recipe, more just the inspiration, so I set about to create my own, delicious, version.

Lime Macarons with Strawberry Curd Filling

French macarons are a terrifying dessert. You didn't think dessert could be terrifying, did you? Well they are. I just spent a week on them in pastry school, and I'm still not sure I mastered them. I mean, I'm quite sure I didn't. Have I scared you yet? OK well relax, you really can make them, if you follow the instructions to a T and don't mind the occasional imperfection. Better yet - if you eat the occasional imperfection. So you too can tackle lime macarons with strawberry curd filling! (P.S. read to the end of the post for a cute bonus!)

Peach Hand Pies

Over the 2 1/2 years I've been blogging, baking and mistaking, I haven't shied away from sharing some fairly total disasters with you. I've dropped cakes, I've left out key ingredients, I've made inedible yeast doughs, seven disastrous attempts at caramel, and I even ended up with ice cream all over the walls, couch, floor and counter one night. But sometimes, sometimes I just have to pat myself on the back for creating a dessert so addictively delicious, which such...limited resources. So seriously, these peach hand pies were incredible, as is the fact that I managed to whip them up in my current kitchen. 

Peach Strawberry Pie and Missing Things

Forgive me for I have sinned. It has been 10 days since I last baked. Outside of school, that is. But moving halfway around the world, starting school and a job and everything else that comes along with that is a touch time consuming. Luckily I made bread this week in class, which was great! I'm adjusting well, but often tiny little things that I never expected missing pop up. But more on that later, because lucky for you I still have pre-move baked goods to share, like peach-strawberry pie! Yes, you heard right.

Peanut Butter Rice Krispie-Topped Brownies

So I've moved halfway around the world, started pastry school...and baked nothing. We are supposed to begin the actual baking portion of the course today, with bread, so that should be interesting. And even though I haven't baked anything in the past week, as promised I am here to deliver on what I stand behind as the most delicious dessert of 2011 (still in competition with this key lime tart, but as they are so different I shall allow them to remain on a pedestal together). I present to you: Peanut Butter Rice Krispie-Topped Brownies. OK, so I'm not good at naming. 

Cherry Blueberry Pie

I love pie. And it's not just that I love eating pie - which I do. I love making pie. I love crafting pie, baking pie, smelling pie and presenting pie to people who ooh and aah over the golden brown crust, the bubbly filling and the perfect lattice. It's true. I'm in it for the glory.