Easy Mini Tart Desserts!

New recipe posted on my new blog!

Easy Mini Tart Desserts!
So easy to make and a great alternative to chocolate treats!

See the recipe here!

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Fudgy Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

The most amazing

 FUDGY PEANUT BUTTER CUP BROWNIES!

Find the recipe over on my new blog

You may also like my recipe for:
Caramel Fudge Brownies 

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Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cupcakes!!!

These Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cupcakes are AMAZING!!! Please join me over on my new WordPress "Baking with Melissa" Blog to get the recipe and see the Ehow.com video I shot a few weeks ago!!!

My Grandma's French Chocolate Pie

Every single time I visited my Grandma Randall this pie was waiting for me in her refrigerator. 

She called it "Your Special Pie"!

And it is indeed, a special pie, known to most people as a French Chocolate Pie. 

It is fairly easy to make and absolutely delicious!

I hope it becomes "Your special pie" as well!

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Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter (softened)
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 2 squares of unsweetened chocolate
• 2 eggs
• 1 large container of cool whip (3 cups)
• 1 graham cracker crust
• pecans, finely chopped

 Directions:

• Melt the squares of unsweetened chocolate in a heat proof container in the microwave (microwave a few seconds at a time until melted). Set aside to cool.
• Cream the butter and sugar together
• Stir in the cooled chocolate
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating 5 minutes after each addition at high speed
• Fold in thawed cool whip
• Pour into graham cracker crust and sprinkle with finely chopped pecans over the top
• Chill until firm about two hours

 For more information about Baking with Melissa check out: www.bakingwithmelissa.com

THE BEST CHOCOLATE PIE I HAVE EVER HAD!!!!!

You may also like my Grandma's recipe for Rocky Road Candy

or my highest pinned recipe on PINTEREST my famous Mississippi Mud Cake

 

Caramel Fudge Brownies

 

BEHOLD!! 

These are by far the BEST BROWNIES in the entire world! 

 After tasting these, you will never see brownies the same way again!

These Caramel Fudge Brownies are dense and have the perfect fudgy brownie texture

and covered smothered in chocolate fudge and caramel candies! 

Oh my goodness gracious alive (quote from my grandfather)

These will change your life!

INGREDIENTS FOR THE BROWNIES:

(If you do not have the time use a brownie mix, but the brownie recipe below is the BEST)

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
•  4 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chocolate chips 

INGREDIENTS FOR THE FUDGE LAYER:

• 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 bag (12 oz) of Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 1 tsp Vanilla
•  1 12oz bag of ROLO'S unwrapped and candies cut in half

Instructions for the Brownies

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray non-stick spray into a 9x13 pan. 
2. In small saucepan over low heat, melt butter completely. Stir in sugar and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. Do not allow sugar mixture to boil.
3. Pour butter mixture into a large bowl or stand mixer, beat in cocoa powder, eggs, salt, baking powder, and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
4. Stir in the flour and chocolate chips until well combined.
5. Spread into prepared pan (batter will be very thick and sticky) and bake for about 25 minutes in the 9x13 pan. Cool Completely (this is the hard part).

Instructions for the fudge

1. Melt the sweetened condensed milk and chocolate chips in a pot or double boiler stirring constantly over low-med. heat. 
2. After mixture is melted remove from heat and stir in 1 tsp of vanilla.
3. Pour fudge over brownies, spread evenly.
4. Press sliced ROLO pieces into the fudge layer.
5. Cool completely (to speed up the process place in refrigerator for 30 minutes to allow fudge to set). 
6. Cut into squares

Chocolate Fudge Layer

SO SWEET AND AMAZING!

Amazing Fudge Brownies!

YUM!!!

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You might also like my Mississippi Mud Cake

Cookies and Cream Fudge Cups

 I love baking in mini muffin pans!
Like, LOVE it!

Not only does everything bake faster, 

but your treats also cool faster; which means you can eat them faster!! 

Yippeeeeeeee! 

And Oreo's....OOOOOOOO how I LOVE Oreo's!

Behold the sweetest cookie cup you will ever meet!

Cookies and Cream Fudge Cups
 Ingredients

• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips (or regular size if that is all you have)
• 12 Oreo Cookies, broken up 

Fudgy Middle 

• 7 0z (or half a can) of condensed milk
• 1 cup of chocolate chips
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F (or 325 F if you are using dark baking pans) and spray 1- 24 count mini muffin pan with cooking spray. (Note: this recipe makes approx. 32 cookie cups so you can bake the additional 8 in another pan. Be sure to add a small amount of water to the empty cups).

Place butter and sugars into a large bowl, mix to combine, at least 2 minutes.

Add egg and vanilla, mixing to combine.

Add flour, baking soda, salt.

Add chocolate chips and broken Oreo cookie pieces, stirring to combine.

Scoop dough with a small cookie scooper and place into the bottom of prepared baking pan and gently press down. 

In a small pot, melt condensed milk, butter and chocolate chips together; mixing constantly...after melted mix in vanilla.

Top each cookie cup with 1 tsp of melted chocolate and then top each cookie cup with additional cookie dough that you crumble on. Do not cover the entire fudge top.

Bake for 10 minutes, until golden brown. Cool completely. You should be able to twist cookie cups out of the pan, if not use a thin flat knife and loosen up the edges. Makes approx 32 cookie cups.

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You may also like my Fudgy Oatmeal Cups

or my Peanut Butter Oatmeal Dream Cups

Are you in the Los Angeles area? 

Want Miss Melissa to come to your child's next Birthday Party?

Check out www.bakingwithmelissa.com for more information.

Not-So-Blonde-Blondie-Cups

Not-So-Blonde-Blondie-Cups

So, to be completely honest, these were a mistake....a wonderful happy accident! 

Here's what happened....I woke up on a mission to make my favorite brownie cups and well, wouldn't you know it, I only had 3/4 of a cup of coco powder...not enough for those wonderful brownies! Boooo!!! Sooo, I decided to make Blondie's instead...in the middle of mixing and clearly not thinking...I poured in the 3/4 of a cup of coco powder into the mix...and this is what happened!

 Fudgy-Not-So-Blonde-Blondie-Cups

YUM!

Ingredients:

1 cup of butter (melted)
4 eggs
3 cups brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup coco powder
1 cup chocolate chips plus additional 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees...spray 2 non-stick 24 count mini muffin pans OR 2 non-stick 9x13 pans. Note: if pans are darker reduce over temp to 325.

In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, melted butter, eggs and vanilla just until blended. Combine the flour, coco powder, baking powder and salt; add to brown sugar mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. 

•  Bake Blondies in the muffin pans 8-9 min. take out of oven and add additional chocolate chips on top. Let cool before taking out of pans.

• Bake Blondies in the 9x13 pans 18-20 min. take out of oven and add additional chocolate chips on top. Let pans cool completely before cutting.

I doubled the recipe above...so here is the recipe for a smaller batch.

1/2 cup butter (melted)
1/1/2 cup brown sugar 
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/8 cup coco powder or 6 tbsp
1/2 cup chocolate chips (plus additional 1//4 cup) 

Bake times/temp are the same 1-24 count mini muffin pan or 1-9x13 pan

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LOOK AT THEM!

THE ADDED CHOCOLATE ON TOP MADE THEM PERFECT!

 

ALL PHOTOS TAKEN BY "BAKING WITH MELISSA"

                              The perfect bite sized treat!  
                                           ENJOY!!!

You may also like:  Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Dream Cups!

Fresh Strawberry Yogurt Cake

I have a confession, I am a Chocolate Lover! Shocking right? If you follow this blog you will notice that 99% of everything I bake has some sort of Chocolate in it! I mean, if I am going to do the damage, I may as well be in LOVE with what I am eating, right?

Last week, I was looking around at my Pinterest Boards I found this amazing recipe for a Fresh Strawberry Yogurt Cake and well, my goodness, the title alone gets me excited!

Take a look at THIS!!!

All photos taken by "Baking with Melissa"

Fresh Strawberry Yogurt Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 Tb. lemon juice, divided
Zest of 1 lemon
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, divided
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
8 oz. plain or vanilla, Greek yogurt (I used Vanilla)
12 oz. fresh strawberries, diced
1 cup powdered sugar

 The batter alone is what won me over! Look at this goodness!

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan. Mix together 2 ¼ cups of the flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in the lemon zest and set aside.
• Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 1 Tb. lemon juice. Alternate beating in the flour mixture and the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated.
• Toss the strawberries with the remaining ¼ cup of flour. Gently mix them into the batter.
• Pour the batter into the Bundt pan. Place in the oven and reduce the temperature to 325 degrees. Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
• Allow to cool at least 20 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Once cooled whisk together the remaining 2 Tb. of lemon juice and the powdered sugar. Place cake on cake plate and then drizzle mixture over the top of the cake. (Note: Only using 2 Tb of lemon juice made my glaze very thick, next time I will add 3 Tb. to the powdered sugar to make it thinner).

I have a very DARK bundt pan which tends to bake my cakes faster and darker. If you have a darker pan, watch your cake and make sure you do not over bake it!

YUM!

This cake is definitely worth making! Note: The Strawberries can all fall to the top or disperse themselves throughout the cake depending on the thickness of the Greek Yogurt you use. Either way, this cake is moist and delicious! The mixture of lemon and strawberry is AMAZING! 

The bottom of the cake is dense yet gooey! 

Everything about it is perfect!

ENJOY!

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Original Recipe was found here!

Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Dream Cups

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Dream Cups

Everything tastes better baked in a mini muffin pan!  

 

 

I was inspired by this recipe that I found on PINTEREST and just HAD to try it! My goodness these are AMAZING! And not only that, you can make this recipe in 2 bowls and you don't even have to bust out a mixer or run out to the store (if you already have the basics for baking in your pantry)!

The center of these sweet treats is where all of the magic happens! The peanut butter center is so creamy and delicious! I never knew that Oatmeal and Peanut Butter were such a perfect match! But they are! You will LOVE these!

 Ingredients:                                                                               

• 1 cup melted butter 
• 1 cup brown sugar 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 2¼ cups Old Fashioned Oats
• 1½ cups flour 
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• ½ cup creamy peanut butter
•  1 can sweetened condensed milk 
• 2 cups of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips 

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350.

• Lightly spray 2 mini muffin pans with PAM. 

• In a medium mixing bowl, stir together melted butter, sugar, soda, oatmeal, flour & salt until it’s crumbly. Add one cup of the chocolate chips.

• Press the crust into prepared mini muffin pan and fill up about 1/2 way. 

• Set aside the rest of the crust for later. 

• Bake crust for 2 minutes.  

• While crust is cooking, in a small bowl, stir together the peanut butter and sweetened condensed milk. 

• Once crust has baked, put one full teaspoon of the peanut butter filling over each of the mini muffin cups.

• Evenly sprinkle the reserved crumbs on top of the peanut butter and sweetened condensed milk mixture. Bake for 8 minutes. 

• Once done baking press the remaining chocolate chips on top of the cups so the chocolate melts.

• Allow to cool and then gently twist the cups out of the pan.

• Yeilds 36-48 Mini Cookie Cups (depending on how full you fill your pans)!

You may also like my: Fudgy Oatmeal Cups 
or my Cookies and Cream Fudge Cups 

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Girl Scout inspired: Thin Mint Brownies!!!

Since the Girl Scouts are out selling cookies right now, I thought I would play around with some Thin Mints Cookies and my favorite brownie recipe! Lately, I have been baking everything in mini muffin pans, so here is my latest creation (with full pan instructions as well)! Girl Scout inspired Thin Mint Brownies!!! YUM! I added a Mint Buttercream Frosting and Peppermint Patty pieces for decoration, but it is not needed.

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Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
•  4 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 bag or 1 cup of semi-sweet mini chocolate chips (if you don't have mini chips use the regular size)
• 1 sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies (crushed) 

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray non-stick spray into a 9x13 pan or 2 (24 count mini muffin pans).
2. In small saucepan over low heat, melt butter completely. Stir in sugar and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. Do not allow sugar mixture to boil.
3. Pour butter mixture into a large bowl or stand mixer, beat in cocoa powder, eggs, salt, baking powder, and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
4. Stir in the flour and chocolate chips/Thin Mint Cookie pieces until well combined.
5. Spread into prepared pan or use a small cookie scoop to put batter in mini muffin pans (Note: batter will be very thick and sticky) and bake 25 in the 9x13 pan (do not over bake) or 8 minutes in the mini muffin pans (if you like fudge brownies bake on lower end).  Cool on a wire rack.
6. If you want buttercream frosting: Beat together two sticks of softened butter, slowly add in 4 cups of powdered sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla (or peppermint extract), a pinch of sea salt, 1/4 cup coco powder and add 2-4 Tbsp of milk as needed. Pipe or frost onto brownies. Add sprinkles or top with remaining Thin Mint Cookies or Peppermint Patties pieces!

THIN MINT BROWNIE CUPS!!!

Fudgy Oatmeal Cups

Today I am sharing one of my favorite Signature Sweet Treats!!! People LOVE these cookie cups! This recipe is very similar to my Fudgy Oatmeal Bars, but I have baked them in Mini muffin tins for individual bite sized goodness!

How cute are they!?

Fudgy Oatmeal Cups

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

3 cups quick cooking oats

1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 Tbsp vanilla extract, divided
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp salt


Preheat oven to 350 degrees (temp should be set at 325 degrees if using darker pans). Lightly grease a 2-24 count mini muffin pans (makes at least 48 cookie cups but plan on a few more than that).

In a large bowl, beat together 1 cup butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Mix in eggs and 1 tablespoon vanilla. In another bowl, combine oats, flour, baking soda, and 1 teaspoon salt; stir into butter mixture. Stir in 1 cup of mini chocolate chips. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, heat sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, 3 tablespoons butter, and 1/2 teaspoon salt over low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in 1 tablespoon vanilla.

Using a small cookie scoop place dough into muffin tins filling the cup 1/2 way to the top. Spread 1 tsp of the chocolate mixture evenly over the top of each cup, and dot each cup with the remaining oat mixture.

Bake for 10 minutes in preheated oven.

Let cool completely, then remove from pans.

Removing them can be tricky, just wait for them to cool and use a knife to ease up the edges. The BEST part about baking them in the muffin tins is the cooling time is SO fast compared to baking this recipe in a 9X13 pan which can take HOURS to cool completely!

You may also like my:  Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Dream Cups
                      Fudgy Cookies and Cream Cups 

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"Outrageous" Brownie Cups!

Having a bad day? These "Outrageous" Brownies will make you VERY happy! They are super sweet and loaded with chocolate!

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
•  4 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 bag of semi-sweet mini chocolate chips (if you don't have mini chips use the regular size)
• 1/2 bag of Heath milk chocolate toffee baking bits

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray non-stick spray into a 9x13 pan or 2 (24 count mini muffin pans).
2. In small saucepan over low heat, melt butter completely. Stir in sugar and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. Do not allow sugar mixture to boil.
3. Pour butter mixture into a large bowl or stand mixer, beat in cocoa powder, eggs, salt, baking powder, and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
4. Stir in the flour and chocolate chips/heath bar pieces until well combined.
5. Spread into prepared pan or use a cookie scoop to put batter in mini muffin pans (batter will be very thick and sticky) and bake for about 30 minutes in the 9x13 pan or 9-11 minutes in the mini muffin pans.  Cool on a wire rack.
6. If you want buttercream frosting: Beat together two sticks of softened butter, slowly add in 4 cups of powdered sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla, a pinch of sea salt, 1/4 cup coco powder and add 2-4 Tbsp of milk as needed. Pipe or frost onto brownies. Add sprinkles or top with remaining heath bar bits!

THESE ARE MOIST AND DENSE FUDGE BROWNIES!!

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My recipe was adapted from this blog/recipe

CHOCOLATE CHIP CRUMB MUFFINS

 CHOCOLATE CHIP CRUMB MUFFINS

Recipe adapted from Gingerbread Bagels

I had the opportunity to bake for 7 days in an industrial size kitchen at the summer camp I have been teaching theatre at for the past 10 years! It was SO much fun! I had to bake for over 120 people for three meals a day! So it was time to bust out the recipes that I have been collecting from my favorite bloggers over the past year! These muffins were a HUGE success! People went on and on about them, loved the crumb topping and kept asking me for the recipe! I was able to multiple my recipe by 8 with no problems with the science what-so-ever!

LOOK HOW LOVELY THEY ARE!

Chocolate Chip Crumb Muffins
(makes about 16 muffins)

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips mixed with 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/2 cup light brown sugar
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, diced
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (you can chop them if you would like, but I like the whole chunky chocolate chips)

Sift together the all-purpose flour, cinnamon, baking soda and kosher salt.

Set aside.

In a mixer (with the paddle attachment) mix together the sugar, brown sugar, canola oil, eggs and vanilla extract on medium speed for about 3 minutes.
Slowly add the dry ingredients into the bowl on low speed and mix until almost combined. Then fold the ingredients together with a spatula.
Add in the sour cream. You’ll need to fold, stir, fold, stir, etc. Stir gently, but make sure the sour cream is completely mixed into the batter and not over mixed.

Mix the chocolate chips with 1 Tablespoon of all-purpose flour and gently fold the chocolate chips into the batter.

Line a muffin pan with muffin liners.

Scoop the batter into each muffin liner. Set the muffin pan aside while you work on the crumb topping.

In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Add the diced butter and cut it into the other ingredients with a fork. Add the remaining chocolate chips to the crumb topping and mix them in. Sprinkle the crumb topping onto the muffins.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 23 minutes.

And there you have it!  

THE PERFECT CHOCOLATE CHIP CRUMB MUFFIN

YUM!