Say it with Sprinkles: A baking blog filled with recipes & photos of sweet treats & savory eats.

Is Christmas really just 12 days away?!  Holy holly berries…I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited!

Tree up and decorated?!  Probably not.

Halls decked & stockings hung by the chimney with care?  Ummm, not quite.

Presents wrapped & ready to go?  Uhhh….

Alright alright, despite having just about nothing done in preparation for Christmas,  I’d definitely say I’m in the spirit, though!

I’ve got a list and I’m in the process of checking it twice.

And seriously, the holiday baking?  Totally!  Plus, check out this cute red ramekin I received as a birthday gift from my momma! 😀

The eggnog craze continues.  I promise the next recipe I post will contain neither egg nor nog, for fear of losing all of you out there who expect festive holiday flavor variety.  I get it, I really do.  It’s just that once I get inspired by a flavor, the wheels start turning and basically end up bull-dozing every other flavor in site.  Bear with me for the time being, or if you are a die-hard eggnog lover like myself, enjoy the ride while it lasts!

These blondies are a perfect blend of cookie and cake…the melding of a brownie and, well, not a brownie. Obviously there’s frosting. Not just any frosting, though, this stuff has got a little kick to it, while still being alcohol-shy friendly. I recently read an article reviewing which particular type of alcohol makes for the best-tasting eggnog.  The contenders were Brandy, Rum, and Whiskey, and since Brandy came out on top, that’s what I decided to use, obviously!  To be fair, you really can’t detect the Brandy in it much, so if you feel compelled, maybe pour yourself a glass of spiked nog to go with them? It’s just a suggestion, I mean, there are a lot of holiday gatherings to get through!

Super simple to mix up and throw in a pan to bake without the hassle of sheet after sheet of cookie balling and baking…swipe on a little frosting once they’ve cooled, and voila!…And really, who couldn’t use a time-saving recipe during the holidays, am I right? Maybe if I’d had more of these cookie cake bar blondies in my life I’d have a tree by now, and maybe even gifts under it? Whoa, whoa, I’m not THAT on top of it!

Eggnog Blondies with Brandy Spiked Eggnog Buttercream

Ingredients:

For the Bars-
* 3 Cups All-purpose Flour
* 1 tsp Baking Soda
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 tsp nutmeg (I didn’t have it at the time, but would have added this!)
* 3/4 Cup Butter-flavored Shortening
* 3/4 Cup Brown Sugar, packed
* 1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
* 1/2 Cup Eggnog, any type
* 2 Large Eggs
* 1 tsp Brandy or Rum (If you don’t want to use alcohol, or don’t have any on hand, Vanilla extract would work)

For the Buttercream-
* 3 Cups Confectioners Sugar
* Dash of Salt
* 7 Tbsp Margarine or Unsalted Butter
* 3 tsp Eggnog
* 2 tsp Brandy or Rum (Again, if you want to make this whole shebang non-alcoholic, just use Vanilla extract or more eggnog instead)
* 1 tsp Ground Nutmeg
* Clear crystal Sprinkles (Optional, (but not really!) for topping)
* Red & Green Holiday Sprinkles (Optional, (but not really!) for topping)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*F. Line a 9 x 13″ pan with parchment paper, if you have it.

Cream together the shortening, brown sugar and white sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or by hand!). Beat in the eggnog, eggs one at a time, and the brandy or rum.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing between additions.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes. Check for browning on top after 15 minutes, and cover with foil if it’s getting too brown. Bake another 5-8 minutes, depending on your oven (Mine took 23 minutes). Pull out of oven and allow to cool in the pan.

For the frosting, cream the margarine or butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. Gradually add in about 2 cups of the confectioners sugar and the salt. You’ll get a pebbly grainy texture, which is fine. Add 2 tsp of eggnog and continue mixing. Add in the last 1 tsp of eggnog, and then add in the remaining 1 cup of confectioners sugar. Mix in the 2 tsp of Brandy or Rum. Depending on how thick or thin you like your buttercream, you can add a little more confectioners sugar if you think it’s too thin, or a little more Brandy and/or eggnog if you think it’s too thick. Mix in the ground nutmeg.

Allow blondies to fully cool before slicing into squares while in the pan, and then spreading on the frosting. Top with holiday sprinkles!

I’d love to hear what others have to say about alcohol choice in their eggnog!  Which do you prefer?  I feel like Rum is the most traditional, but I’m not exactly sure where that feeling is coming from, especially since at the drop of a hat I totally went with the reviewer’s suggestion and used Brandy in these bars instead!  To each their own?  Everyone’s different.

Serve. Eat. Repeat!

Happy Holidays!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Finals! Finals! Finals! Finals!

Thought I was going to say the holidays, right?  Much mistletoeing and hearts glowing when loved ones are near?

You were expecting a little of this, perhaps:

 With the kids jingle belling
And everyone telling you “Be of good cheer”
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
It’s the hap-happiest season of all
With those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings
When friends come to call
It’s the hap- happiest season of all

Not so much.  More likely a little rendition that goes a little something like this:

With the sleep-deprived yelling
And professors telling you “Get into gear”
It’s the most stressing-of-times of the year
It’s the hap-happiest season of all
With those sporadic sleepings and long TA meetings
When tests come to call
It’s the hap-happiest season of alllllll 😉

I agree, it needs a little work!

Ok, ok, I’m done funneling my negative feelings about finals into innocent, unsuspecting Christmas carols for now, but no promises I can hold off forever!  In my defense, an 8:00am Tuesday final is not exactly what I’d consider the ideal holiday morning, but I suppose if I can get through that, I can survive any amount of Christmas shopping swarms in the mall come next week!

Let’s talk cookies.  Cookies are not finals.  Cookies are sweet and delicious and sometimes chewy, and never ask me questions that I have to answer via short answer or scantron.  These cookies in particular are cinnamon-sugar studded, crispy on the outside, perfectly dense and chewy on the inside, and have never judged me based on whether or not I know what co-factors regulate the cell cycle, and for that I much prefer them.  I feel like this line of thinking is probably exactly what causes people (totally hypothetically) to stuff 10 cookies in their face at a time in attempts to block out a bad day, or the impending doom of finals….right?  Or maybe cookies are just dang good.

Chewy Holiday Snickerdoodles

(Slightly adapted from How Sweet It Is)

Ingredients:

* 1 cup butter flavored shortening
* 1 cup sugar
* 2 eggs
* 2-4 Tbsp milk, any type, as needed
* 2 tsp vanilla extract
* 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 3 tsp cinnamon
* 1/4 cup sugar + 2 Tbsp cinnamon for rolling

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.

Beat together the shortening and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until fluffy. Beat in eggs, vanilla, and 2 Tbsp milk.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a separate bowl.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing along the way. Add a bit more milk to make the dough come together if it’s too dry.  Wrap up and refrigerate the dough at least 1 hour.

Use a cookie scoop to make dough balls, and then roll them in the cinnamon sugar mix. Arrange on cookie sheet, and bake about 14-16 min. depending on your oven, until golden brown. Allow to sit on the pan a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Cinnamon-sugar rolled dough balls….

Mixed with a little oven time….and voila!

I rolled a portion of the dough in cinnamon sugar mix, part of them in red Christmas sprinkles after the cinnamon and sugar mixture just for a fun pop of color…

And part of them in clear crystal sprinkles for classy, wintery-looking cookies.

Wrap these puppies up pretty, because really, who doesn’t love the gift of cookies during the holidays?

I guess since you’re reading this right now you successfully made it out of your Thanksgiving induced food coma, so congratulations!  You’re probably enjoying Thanksgiving round 2 today, also, which I fully support.  Black Friday shopping?  I wasn’t brave enough, but I admire you if you braved the crowds today! 😉

Last night my family and I enjoyed turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and most of the other dishes that are traditional for us on turkey day.  My favorite, part of dinner was definitely the turkey paired with my super simple cranberry sauce.  I’ll definitely be making it again soon!

I’m sorry to tell you, but I despiseeeee potatoes!  That means mashed potatoes, too, but everyone else seemed to enjoy them.

Various fruit salads…I know, we get pretty fancy with the dishes 😉

Sparkling cider for toasting & sipping!

And last but not least, pie!  Everyone was so stuffed from dinner, though, that we waited several hours to indulge.  I didn’t snap pictures in the horrible, 10:30pm lighting, or lack there of, but the line-up included various berry pies, brought by a family friend (including a gluten-free mixed berry pie that was amazing! YES!), a bit of pumpkin, and a chocolate pecan pie.

Obviously this morning my brother’s fiancee whipped up this classic pumpkin pie!  You can never have too many pies!

Good luck digesting!

Happy (Turkey Day) Thanksgiving!

I know it’s a little late in the game to be posting a Thanksgiving recipe, since most of you are probably spending time with friends, family, and massive amounts of food resulting from weeks of pre-planning and not scouring the internet for last minute recipes…but this cranberry sauce is fairly holiday universal.  I’ll be smothering my turkey with it tonight, but I can see baking it into muffins, globbing it on oatmeal, or even cooking some up for Christmas dinner.  It’s festive!

I’d love to stay and chat, but I have thanks to be giving, and turkey to be getting ready for!  More on that later.

Super Simple Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

* 1 bag (12 oz.) fresh cranberries
* 3/4-1 Cup granulated sugar
* 1 Cup Water
* 1/4 Cup fresh squeezed orange juice
* Zest from 1 Orange

Directions:

Add all ingredients into a sauce pan and heat to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Once boiling, turn down the heat to allow cranberries to simmer and pop. Continue simmering for about 10 minutes.

Allow to cool in the pan for about 20 minutes before transferring into a jar or pretty dish. Eat as is, or refrigerate.

Have a great time with loved ones!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

I suspect that you’re all eating modestly today in preparation for tomorrow’s gluttonous extravaganza, so maybe you aren’t interested in a cookie recipe right this second, right?  Haha, ya, I know  good one.  There’s nothing like the holiday season to really bring out everyone’s eating potential to the fullest- just anticipating a giant turkey leg smothered in gravy and cranberry sauce and then dipped in mashed potatoes is probably just about all that’s necessary to spark the appetite, days to weeks ahead of time.  You can totally handle these cookies.  You’ve got it under control.

I’d say these cookies were pretty standard, if by standard I meant completely not standard at all.  I mean, they look innocent enough.  You’ve seen chocolate chip laced cookies before, they’re pretty classic…even standard.  But something about the holiday season brings out a desire in me to bake with things that are green, and red, and probably glittery.

Since I had no edible glitter on hand, and since let’s face it, I’m not on an episode of Top Chef Just Desserts creating centerpieces out of chocolate that will probably tragically be thrown away 1o minutes after presentation, or like….that guy who used edible glitter a lot…I’m going with the holiday color variations.  Green pepper cookies?  Probably not.  But cranberries?  Doable.  Done.

Cranberry Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Ingredients:

* 1 Cup Butter flavored Shortening (or butter)
* 1 Cup Brown sugar, packed
* 1/2 Cup Granulated sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 tsp Vanilla extract

* 2 1/2 Cups All purpose flour
* 1 tsp Baking soda
* 1 tsp Salt

* 1 Cup Semi-sweet chocolate chips
* 1 Cup Pecans, roughly chopped
* 1/2 Cup Dried Cranberries

Directions:

Beat together the shortening and sugars with a stand mixer, or by hand, until fluffy.
Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing between additions. Add the vanilla extract and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry to the wet mixture, mixing between additions. Don’t overmix, though!

Stir in the chocolate chips, pecans, and cranberries by hand. Refrigerate dough for at least an hour, wrapped up, or covered.

Preheat oven to 350*F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.
Scoop out cookie dough using a dough scooper or a spoon (about the size of a golf ball). Bake 10-12 minutes, depending on your oven, until tops are golden brown. Allow to cool on the pan a few minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack, or directly to your mouth, if you feel like you can take the heat. =p

But seriously, don’t burn yourselves…

You probably shouldn’t let the fact that come tomorrow you’ll be knee-deep in cranberry sauce, doubled over in regret grasping your stomach as you slip into a turkey-gravy-pie-to- top-it-all-off coma affect your decision to make these or not.  You probably should go for it.