Home Baked Happiness

It's the last day of March, and the day before Easter. My son came over for Easter dinner tonight because he has to work on Easter.  He loves chocolate chip cookies so I decided to make minty M&M and chocolate chip cookies for him to take home along with his ham and mashed potatoes left overs. I found these minty M&Ms at the local Wal-Mart at the beginning of March and I knew they would be perfect for one of my "All Things Peppermint" recipes.  Green is my favorite color and this variety of greens just makes me feel all happy inside! I used my go to chocolate chip cookie recipe for these cookies and added peppermint extract along with the vanilla extract, and substituted one cup of minty M&M's in place of one of the two cups of chocolate chips. Here's what you need to get started: 2 sticks butter softened 3/4 cup white sugar 1 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon Peppermint extract 2 1/4 cups flour 1 Teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon ...

It's  March, and March means green.  These green minty cupcakes are supposed to be flavored with mint flavoring, but I adapted the recipe and used peppermint flavoring instead. I served these cupcakes last week  at our church's monthly Community dinner. My friend Dan, who always comes to help out at our monthly dinner, samples my cupcakes and gives me very useful feedback about my little cuppies.  This time he commented that he thinks this one is my best cupcake yet!  That of course made me very excited and happy to share this recipe with you!      Now I think I have said this before, but there is no shame in using a box cake mix. I do that frequently as it is much easier to make, and often box mixes taste better than what can be made from scratch.  There are exceptions of course, carrot cake, peanut butter cake, banana cake, are always made from scratch. But chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, lemon and lime cakes from box mixes tast...

 In Southern California we are finally getting some winter weather. Last December at Christmas time, it felt a whole lot like spring with lots of sunshine and 80 degree weather. And now that we're into the middle of March it feels a whole lot like winter, cold and rainy.   There's finally even some snow on the mountains. All this chilly weather has inspired me to make Peppermint Snowballs. They didn't start off looking like snowballs, they started off looking very red and velvety. Not until they got rolled in the powdery, sugary, yumminess did they start looking like snowballs. And the peppermint makes you feel like you're in the winter holiday months. But I think any season is a great time for peppermint! Here's what you need to get started: 1 cup of butter softened 1 and 3/4 cup of powdered sugar separated in half 2 and 1/4 cups AP flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract 1/3 cup crushed candy cane ...

I have definitely never made blondies before. And I'm not quite sure if I've ever eaten a blondie before. So I was super excited about making them for the first time.   I was pleasantly surprised that they baked up perfectly my first time out!  They are easier to make than brownies because they seem to bake more evenly, and once they're cooled they are easier to cut.  Here's what you need to get started : 1 cup melted butter 2 cups light brown sugar  2 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract 2 1/2 cups flour 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup chopped Andes mint thins  1/2 cup crushed peppermint candies 1/3 cup chocolate chips This time of year it's a little hard to find mint chocolate chips on the store shelves. I looked online and discovered that you can order them from Amazon for more than  $10 a bag! That's a ridiculous amount to pay for an 8-ounce bag of candy.  So I peru...

I think brownies are supposed to be a fairly simple thing to make. But I have always found them to be a little complicated. It's hard to figure out exactly when they have been baked just perfectly. And until now, I have not found a from scratch recipe that I liked better than the boxed brownie mixes you can buy in the store. But this recipe does it for me!  These brownies are moist and fudgy and decadent. Here's what you need to get started : 1/2 cup butter 2 cups chocolate chips (dark or milk) 3/4 cup brown sugar 3/4 cup granulated sugar 4 eggs 3/4 tsp vanilla extract 3/4 tsp peppermint extract 1 cup flour 1/2 tsp salt 1 cup of mint chocolate chips Here's how to put it all together: Use a 9x13 inch pan.  Line the pan with foil and grease it with shortening or vegetable oil. Start by melting the butter in a saucepan over low heat, then add the chocolate chips until melted stirring all the while. Remove from Heat and stir in both of the...

 Decorating sugar cookies is like therapy for me. Sometimes I just get so focused and into it, and I forget about everything else for a while. In the end I have something that is a cute and edible piece of art that makes others smile.  Experimenting with different flavors for the sugar cookies is half the fun. Peppermint flavored sugar cookies are delicious any time of year. Here's what you'll need: 2 sticks butter, softened 1 cup sugar 1 egg 1 tsp vanilla extract 3 cups flour 1 tbsp baking powder 3/4 cup crushed peppermint  Here's how to put it all together: Cream butter and sugar together in mixer, then add egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix together flour and baking powder. Add flour mixture to the other ingredients and mix until well combined. Lastly, add crushed peppermint until just combined.  Next, I like to chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes so that it rolls out easier and sticks less to the surface when you go...

My goal for this year, while I'm on the "all things peppermint" journey: 50 peppermint recipes in 50 weeks,  is to create  a wide variety of peppermint baked goodies. But as occasions come up I am making things that are most suitable for the celebration or event.  This week we celebrated Megan's birthday.  Megan is part of our awesome Dragon Intervention Team at work.  She is such a delightful person to work with!  In honor of Megan's birthday I made these super yummy Peppermint Mocha cupcakes.  Here's what you need For cupcakes: 1 Devils Food box cake mix 1 cup brewed coffee, the stronger the better 3 eggs 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1 packet dry instant hot chocolate drink  mix 1 tsp peppermint extract Filling: 1/2 pint heavy whipping cream 1/3 cup powdered sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla extract  Frosting: 1 cup butter 4 cups powdered sugar 1 cup powdered cocoa 2/3 cup melted milk chocolate chips ( you can a...