Kitchen Adventures (2): Triple-Chocolate Hot Fudge Brownie Cookies

Hey all! I know I skipped a couple weeks of baking, but yesterday I got together with friends Lisa and Amanda, and we baked away! I made Triple-Chocolate Hot Fudge Brownie Cookies from Chelsea's Messy Apron, while Amanda & Lisa made bread from Alexandra Cooks' recipe (the bread won't be featured in this post, though it was delicious). My cousin, Kendra, also hung around most of the time, so it was a fun girl's morning with chatting and nail polish-painting included.

Prepare yourselves for picture overload, because mine didn't turn out blurry this time, and Lisa took some. :)

Left: Me, about to add pudding mix to the bowl. Please ignore my scary face.
Right: Adding the hot fudge to the other ingredients.
(Photos courtesy of Lisa)

These cookies were super easy to make—you just mix all the ingredients together, form little cookie balls, then bake.

Left: Our workstation, with me mixing everything together in the back. (Photo courtesy of Lisa)
Right: Chocolate chip time!

Left: The cookies right before they went into the oven.

Right: FRESH COOKIES.

The recipe says to add chocolate chips to the top before you bake, if you want them looking extra pretty, and next time I make these I think I'm going to do that; the chips will make them look that much better!

And now for the cookie "glamour" shots!

All in all, a pretty lovely morning.

L to R: Me, Lisa, Amanda

Until next time!

Kitchen Adventures (1): Apple Cinnamon Rolls

I'm not much of a baker (or a chef, for that matter), and I've decided I want to change that. Every week I'm going to attempt to bake one of the many recipes I've saved on Pinterest and Tumblr, and I will chronicle my results here to keep me accountable. My first recipe is Flourishing Foodie's Apple Cinnamon Rolls, and they turned out to be delicious!

I took a bunch of pictures throughout the baking process, but only a few were not blurry, so here they are:

About to cut in the butter for the cinnamon sugar mixture.

The rolls right after they came out of the oven.

And the rolls right after I frosted them.

While I felt there was a little too much lemon juice in the frosting, the actual roll was most excellent. (Full disclosure: I did spill a bit when measuring out the juice, so that could account for the too-strong flavor.) I think the apples made this classic treat just that much better. I definitely recommend giving the recipe a try.

Glamour shots:

Drool-worthy, right? I may or may not have had two before I realized I should probably eat a "real" dinner.

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Bonus: Yesterday I made these super easy garlic knots from Damn Delicious. They went perfectly with the spaghetti and meatballs I had for dinner, and I can't wait to make them again!

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Not sure what I'm going to make next week, but I'm thinking it will be some kind of cookie. Must ponder.