earl grey shortbread cookies

baked these cookies today. they were super easy to make. even a monkey could do it, cuz i'm sure monkeys know how to use an electric beater, they do have opposable thumbs. u basically dump all 5 ingredients into a bowl, mix, then press onto the bottom of an 8 inch square pan.

earl grey shortbread cookies

*1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

*1 tbsp earl grey tea leaves (about 2 tea bags)

*1/2 cup powdered sugar

*1 cup flour

*1/2 tsp salt

preheat oven to 325 degrees F. grease an 8 inch square pan. beat together butter and tea. add powdered sugar and beat. add flour and salt then beat. transfer dough to prepared greased pan and press down with fingers to make an even layer. bake until edges are golden, about 30 minutes. using a fork make perforated lines down into the dough to form 16 cookies. cool for 10 minutes, then slide cookies out of pan.

i really enjoyed these cookies, especially since it's my first time baking shortbread cookies. the texture is just right and i'll def be making these again. the only thing i would change would be to either omit the salt of reduce it down to 1/4 tsp. i like this recipe cuz it's so easy aaaaand i can make it with all different kinds of teas.

irish car bomb cupcakes

i baked stout cupcakes as i do every st patrick's day, but  this year i changed it up a bit. i had left hand milk stout so i used that for the cupcake, and i made baileys frosting. i meant to do something with irish whiskey, but i kind of forgot, but either way these cupcakes were soo fuggin yummy. when i moved i apparently threw away my cupcake pan so i only had a mini cupcake pan and i must say i love baking mini cupcakes so much more than regular cupcakes. the take half the time to bake and sometimes a huge cupcake is too much for some people. so since this was my first time baking mini cupcakes, i didn't realize it meant i'd be making triple the cupcakes! so i bake half of the batter and i had like 50 cupcakes. i ended up bringing a bunch to work. then the following day i baked the remaining batter for a bbq and i still had a ton of cupcakes leftover from that, so i brought those to work as well.

irish car bomb cupcakes (yields 24 cupcakes, 48 mini cupcakes)

*1 cup stout

*1 cup butter, softened

*3/4 cup cocoa pwdr

*2 cups flour

*2 cups sugar

*1 1/2 tsp baking soda

*2 eggs

*3/4 tsp salt

*2/3 cup sour cream

frosting:

*2 cups butter, softened

*5 cups powdered sugar

*6 tbsp baileys

preheat oven to 350 degrees F. bring the stout and butter to a simmer in a saucepan. add the cocoa powder and whish until smooth. cool slightly. whisk flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. beat eggs and sour cream together then add stout chocolate mixture. add the flour mixture. bake for 17 minutes (8-10minutes for mini cupcakes). frosting: whip butter, then add powdered sugar. add baileys and mix. frost cupcakes after completely cooled.

apple crumble pie

i had a giant bag of apples, so i made this pie again. it's def one of my favorite pies to eat. it's pretty easy to make, the only pain in the ass thing to do is cut up the apples. now that i'm looking at this photo, i want to eat this again.

cream cheese sugar cookies

 i haven't written a post in forever. i kind of actually forgot i had a blog until gillian mentioned it the other day. i've been away for a while. not locked up or anything. i just checked my last post and noticed it was right before i went to sedona, az (i did not join a cult either), i went to the grand canyon for the first time, then i moved back home to brooklyn for about 3 months, then i moved to amarillo, tx. so this recipe is the second thing i baked since i've been here. the first thing was a chocolate meringue pie that came out awful! i baked these cookies because i wanted to use the siamese twin gingerbread man cookie cutters my friend amanda had given me. she purchased them from the mutter museum in philly, which is a place i tell everyone to visit even though i haven't been there myself. i also realized i don't bake cookies too often and i want to learn how to make them better.

cream cheese sugar cookies

*1 cup sugar

*1 cup butter, softened

*1-3oz pkg of cream cheese, softened

*1/2 tsp salt

*1/2 tsp almond extract

*1/2 tsp vanilla extract

*1 egg yolk

*2 1/4 cup flour

combine sugar, butter, cream cheese, salt, almond & vanilla extracts. beat until smooth then stir in flour. chill dough for at least 8 hours. preheat oven to 375 degrees F. on lightly floured surface, roll out dough 1/3 at a time at 1/8 inch thickness. refrigerate remaining dough. cut w cookie cutter and bake on ungreased baking sheet for 7-10 minutes. cool completely before frosting.

the only thing i changed with the recipe is that i used lemon extract instead of almond extract. i also make a cream cheese lemon frosting. these cookies were da bomb.