Macadamia-White Chocolate Bar Cookies

Macadamia-White Chocolate Bar Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 cups gluten free flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup coarsely chopped roasted, salted macadamia nuts
• 12 ounces white chocolate chips

Step 1

Whisk together first 3 ingredients in a medium bowl. Combine sugars and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer; beat at medium speed 5 minutes or until fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs, mixing until just combined. Add flour mixture, mixing at low speed until almost combined. Add nuts and chocolate, mixing until just combined. Chill dough 30 minutes.

Step 2

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray  a 13- x 9-inch baking pan with Pam.

Step 3

Press chilled dough into prepared baking pan; bake 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Transfer pan to wire rack to cool. Cut into bars.

Most Amazing Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's Sunday afternoon....you're bored...what do you do? BAKE COOKIES of course!!

Most Amazing Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups gluten free flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup butter, softened

 3/4 cups packed brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

12oz. milk chocolate chips (or flavor of your choice)

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F Sift together the gf flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Refrigerate dough for 10-15min. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

Enjoy !!

-Jessica

Texas Sheet Cake Cookies

Darn you Facebook friends who share yummy looking recipes!! This drool worthy recipe for Texas sheet cake cookies came across my news feed. It was a gluten filled recipe that I knew needed to be gluten free ASAP! So I came home from work and did just that.....

Texas Sheet Cake Cookies

Ingredients

Cookies
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/3 cup gluten free flour mix
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips, melted
Icing
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 3 Tbsp milk
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

How to Make

Cookies
1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Line baking sheet with parchment or silicone mat, set aside.
3. In bowl of stand mixer beat butter and sugar together until light, scraping sides frequently.
4. Add in egg and vanilla and continue mixing until incorporated. Mix in baking powder and salt.
5. Turn mixer to low and slowly add in gf flour. Dough will be thick.
6. In a microwave safe bowl heat chocolate chips on high in 30 second increments until melted, stirring after every 30 seconds.
7. Mix melted chocolate directly into cookie dough until evenly mixed.
8. Chill dough in refrigerator 12-15 min. or until firm
9. Drop dough by a measured tablespoon sized mounds onto baking sheet. Bake for 7-8 minutes until cookies just appear set. They will still be very soft on the inside. DO NOT overbake!!
10. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Icing
11. In a medium saucepan combine butter, cocoa powder and milk over medium heat, whisking until melted together. Remove from heat and whisk in powdered sugar.
12. Pour icing over cookies and allow icing to set before serving.

*Make sure not to overbake these cookies. The insides will remain soft and dense if baked correctly.

oooOOOOoooooOOO

SO muxh icing....mmmmmm

Pour a tall glass of milk. These cookies aren't for amateurs 

heaven!

Gluten Free Cake Mix Sugar Cookies

Gluten Free Cake Mix Sugar Cookies

1 box Betty Crocker Gluten Free yellow cake mix                        

1/2 cup butter, softened                        

1/2 teaspoon vanilla     

   

1/2 teaspoon almond extract                 

1 egg

Pre-Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, stir all ingredients with spoon until dough forms. Shape dough by teaspoonfuls into balls. On cookie sheets sprayed with Pam, place balls 2 inches apart. Flatten with bottom of glass or palm of your hand. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until set. Cool 2 minutes; carefully remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.

Dream sickle
add 1/2 tsp. orange extract to dough & frost with Dream sickle flavored frosting (Pillsbury)

Colored sugar
Flatten dough balls with bottom of glass dipped in colored sugar.                 

Lemon Bars....Oh My Goodness!!

 
    This recipe is one that my Mom always made when I was growing up. These are a favorite of mine. Well really anything lemon that she makes is a favorite of mine! ha This recipe was easily converted to gluten free when I was diagnosed. I just switched out the flour in the crust to gf, and switched the flour in the filling to cornstarch to thicken the filling. YUMMMMM!! I had to share one of my favorites with you today! Enjoy!


Lemon Bars - Gluten Free Style

Crust:
1 C. Softened Margarine
1/2 C. Powdered Sugar
2 C. Gluten Free Flour
1/2 tsp. Xantham Gum

Filling:
4 Eggs, beaten
6 T. Lemon Juice
3 T. Corn Starch
2 C. Sugar

Combine the ingredients for the crust. Press into a 9x13 in. pan sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 350 deg. for 15-20 minutes.

Combine the ingredients for the filling mixture and pour over the warm crust. Return to the oven and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar while warm.

I hope that you like them as much as I do! -Jessica

Nutella and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

     Sometimes there are occasions in life that deserve to be celebrated. Today I had one of those surprise moments. I was cruising along on Facebook....and Udi's Gluten Free Foods had posted a link to a recipe. It sure looked good....Mozzarella Cheese Bites. Then I got to thinking...that picture sure looks familiar. Wow, that looks like the dishes that I have at my house. That's MY recipe that Udi's posted!!! Udi's had linked to my Mozzarella Cheese Bites Recipe. It soon became a fun afternoon of watching my blogger stats (I'm a bit of a stats nerd when looking at my posts). I watched that post get over 1,500 views in 20 minutes! It has been pinned like crazy on Pinterest. It has also brought lots of new Silly Yaks to the USASillyYaks facebook page. It has been about 2 hours since Udi's put my link up and about 3,500 people have viewed the recipe. I happen to think that is AWESOME. It blows my mind. So long story short.....I thought we should celebrate with some cookies. Get excited!
     A while back I had experimented with a Nutella cookie. It tasted amazing, but looked like a cow pattie. A very tasty cow pattie though. So I thought today I would give that recipe another shot. Well I adjusted a few things and have still ended up with the same result....cow pattie cookies ha. So these aren't a cookie that you would want to serve for the Queen. They are sort of ugly. However, they taste SO good that I had to share the recipe anyway. I hope you enjoy these ugly amazing cookies.

Nutella and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 C Nutella
1 C. Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1/3 C. Gluten Free Flour Mixture
1tsp Baking Soda
3/4 C White Chocolate Chips

Pre heat the oven to 350 deg. In a bowl combine the Nutella, brown sugar, egg, flour, and baking soda until well mixed. Add in the chips and stir until combined.

Drop the cookie dough onto a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 deg. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool and set up for 4 minutes on the baking sheet before removing them.

The cookies spread out and will not be "pretty" cookies. However, I believe their taste makes up for their looks. Enjoy!!

-Jessica

Mmmmm white chocolate

The dough will be pretty thick, but for some reason it thins out in the oven

Ugly, but so good!

People said "It's hot enough to bake cookies out there"....so I did.

    The people said, "It's hot enough to bake cookies out there!!"....so I did. This experiment is what results when it is SUPER hot out, too hot to go anywhere or do anything fun. I decided to do a little car baking. Yes, you read it right. I used my car to bake cookies.
     Our temperatures here have been HORRIBLE, sizzling, steaming, scorching, and grossly HOT! Today's predicted high temperature is 106 and that doesn't count whatever the heat index makes it FEEL like. I decided it was entirely too hot to go anywhere or do anything. I was also super bored after making this decision. I opted to make my own fun at home........
     I made my favorite cookie recipe Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip . The only thing I did differently than normal was that I used mini chips instead of regular sized. I also made sure that the cookies were uniform in size on the pan. I flattened them down to about 1/4 in. with the back of a spoon so that they could cook well in the sun.

I used a small baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray. I dropped teaspoon fulls of dough onto the tray and then flattened them with the back of a spoon. I would say they were not more than 1/4 in. thick.

I then took the tray out to my vehicle. I put a dark colored towel down under the baking sheet (I didn't want any damage to my dash and the dark color should draw in more heat). I also put my indoor/outdoor thermometer sensor by the baking sheet so that I could keep track of the baking temperature.

I closed the doors, made sure the windows were up and....ready, set, BAKE!

This is the cookies at 1 hour into cooking....they look a little fluffier.

So my indoor/outdoor thermometer idea didn't work out so well.....it only recorded the temperature to about 140 deg. and then it started reading OF.L.....I guess that means HOT. If I did this again I would go and buy an oven thermometer.

2 hours into cooking

I opened the car door to check the cookies at 3 hours and they were solid feeling so I figured they were done. Their coloring didn't change much, so you can't judge by the coloring.

Car cookies are yummy, not exactly the same as oven cookies, but you can't go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter no matter HOW you cook it!

So if you are bored and it is hot out....you now have an activity to try!! If nothing else, it will make your car smell amazing, just like fresh baked cookies!!

Tips for making "car cookies"
1) The temperature outside needs to be at least 95 deg. (the temperature in your car will be 20-40 deg. hotter, possibly even more depending on your interior color)
2) Use a towel or hot pads under the baking sheet to protect your dash from any damage
3) Park in a spot with FULL sun.
4) Make sure the cookies are pretty flat so that they bake more easily in the sun
5) Cooking will take 2- 3 1/2 hours depending on the temperature. Check your cookies every hour or so to see how they are progressing. Their coloring won't change much, texture is what will change.


I hope you enjoyed my silly and fun hot day experiment!!

-Jessica

Dirt Dessert.......Happy Spring!

     Today is the first day of Spring!!! Spring is my favorite season. The temperatures are mild and the flowers are blooming. I LOVE it! I decided that I would make a gluten free version of Dirt Dessert to commemorate the first day of Spring!

Disclaimer: No gummy worms were harmed in the making of this blog.

Dirt Dessert - the gluten free way

1 package cream cheese (8oz), Softened
1 C. Powdered Sugar
3 1/2 C. Cold Milk
2 Packages(3.4 oz) Pudding Mix (use vanilla, chocolate, or white chocolate for best results)
1 Carton (16 oz) Whipped Topping, thawed
1 package gluten free cream filled sandwich cookies, crushed (Glutino and Kinnikinnick both make gf)
1 package gummy worms (check labels to be sure they are gf)

In a large bowl beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth, set aside. In a second large bowl combine the pudding mix and cold milk. Whisk until mixed completely. Let stand for about 2 minutes or until it is soft-set. Gradually stir the pudding mixture into the cream cheese mixture. Mix until creamy and completely combined. Mix 1/2 C. of the crushed cookies into the mixture.  Fold the whipped topping into the pudding/cream cheese/cookie mixture.

Spread approximately 1/2 C. crushed cookies on the bottom of a 9x13 in. pan. Spread the pudding mixture on top of the cookies. Top with the remaining crushed cookies. Lay gummy worms on top of the "dirt" or poke them down into the "dirt".  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

To crush the cookies, I put them into a gallon plastic baggie and banged on them with my meat mallet :) You could also put them into a food processor

Mix the cream cheese mixture and the pudding mixture together.

Fold in the whipped topping.

Dirt dessert can also be made into individual serving cups.

I decorated with some live cut flowers to make my cups more "adult". I just took my live flowers, wrapped about an 1 1/2 in. of the bottom of the stem in plastic wrap and stuck it down into the dirt.

Happy Spring!!!!

I hope you enjoy this fun recipe.

-Jessica