Kim’s sweet treats

January 9, 2012 5 Comments

chocolate chip cookie bars

Many of you know my youngest has severe food allergies. He’s allergic to all dairy products and nuts. Needless to say, it’s challenging. Every school snack, every birthday party, every sports snack… he always looks to me with that face and those big blue eyes… “Can I have it mommy?” It’s heart breaking because 90% of the time I have to say “I’m sorry baby!”

I of course carry snacks with me, but it’s just not the same when he can’t have what all the other kids are having, especially when it’s something chocolate. That’s just a treat he doesn’t get very often.

So I’ve been working on some recipes that I can make for him and that other moms who have little ones suffering from food allergies can eat too! And with that in mind, if you know of a great website, resource, recipe, etc. I’d love to hear about it. My biggest challenge is finding dairy-free chocolate easily. The chocolate featured in this post is from a local bakery, but it only comes in small chips. I want large blocks and chips for melting and baking.

So this weekend I whipped up dairy-free chocolate chip cookie bars. Both of my boys loved them and my oldest does’t have food allergies. Here’s what you’ll need:

2 1/4 cup self-rising flour
1 cup softened butter (I use Smart Balance Light, make sure you look for the “vegan” language on the front as there are a few ”light” versions)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
tsp. vanilla
1 12 0z package semi-sweet dairy-free chocolate chips (as I mentioned above, these are from a local bakery, but I’d love a resource for large chips and blocks if you know one)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs

Preheat to 375 and in small bowl combine butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla, beat until creamy. Beat in eggs and then gradually add flour, mixing well. Finally stir/fold in the chocolate chips. Bake in a 8″ pan for 16 min and cut into 2″ squares.

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake and create!

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leap year frog cookies

Did you know that 2012 is a leap year?! Well it is and how better to leap into a little fun than with a yummy treat! Try my super easy cookie for the special day. The kiddos will love assembling him and then you can help them gobble him up!

You’ll need:

Body & Head ~ 4 Oreo cookies
Feet ~ 2 Keebler Vienna Wafer cookies
Eyes ~ sugar gummies (I used an icing tip bottom to cut them out in a perfect circle) and two green candies from a candy necklace (I wanted the holes, but you could use tons of things)
Tongue ~ red Chicklet

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake and create!

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simple Rudolph cookies

I love to bake with my boys, especially at the holidays. After seeing these fun and super simple Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer cookies on pinterest via Meet The Dubiens, I knew the boys would love being able to make cute cookies without a ton of icing work. See, they love the flour, the rolling, the cutting and eating the icing… but not necessarily piping the icing. {wink}

We prepped our area (I typically just flour our granite countertop) and pulled out a ton of cookie cutters.

Then my little one remembered to grab his apron… or maybe I reminded him as his cute stripe pjs from Target were getting slightly floured. I have pics of flour all over his cheeks too. He was trying to get low enough to see the thickness of his dough (so his cookies would bake evenly) and he put his face on his rolling pin!

Next we cut out all the shapes.

Then I reminded the boys that we had to chill the dough or our pretty shapes would come out of the oven as blobs. They understood and waited patiently… okay… they tried. Let’s face it, it’s not easy with the smell of gingerbread in the air.{grin}

For the reindeer cookies we used chocolate (melted in 8 second intervals in a resealable bag and the tip snipped off) and Red Hots. A few lines and a few dots and we had adorable Christmas cookies!

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake and create!

milk & cookies Christmas party

For my most recent Kellogg’s Snackpicks.com article I created a simple milk and cookies party idea inspired by “the big guy” himself, Santa of course!

And the best part, I didn’t bake a thing! I let the elves handle that part, the Keebler® Elves that is! {wink}

The table was packed with all of your family favorites with fun holiday names: Keebler Fudge StripesTM {wreaths}, Vienna Fingers® {sleighs}, Fudge Sticks {North Poles}, E.L. Fudge® Elves {elves} and Chips Deluxe® {ornaments}.

Hop over to Snackpicks.com for ideas on how to easily embellish your cookie wreaths and North Poles, ideas on how to style your dessert table…

plus a DIY tutorial for my coffee filter cookie sleeves!

You can also find my complete Santa printable party collection in the shoppe including beverage wrappers, dessert tags, cupcake wrappers and dessert table mat. As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake and create!

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cherry chocolate cake cobbler

I was recently asked to come up with a fun dessert for the holidays using my favorite Duncan Hines mix and Comstock fruit fillings. This was such an easy yes! I use Duncan Hines all the time because most of their mixes are dairy-free and as you know, I have a little one with severe dairy allergies.

This recipe is so easy. I call it a cherry cake cobbler, but it tastes a bit like a cherry cordial brownie. No matter what you call it, you’ll say BAKE ON!

You’ll need three things: Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix, Comstock Country Cherry filling and butter. (I used vegan butter for my little guy.)

Grease the bottom of the pan with butter and spread 3/4 of the can of cherries on the bottom.

Crush up (or sift) 1/3 of the Duncan Hines dark chocolate fudge cake mix in the bag and spread over the cherries. (Save the rest for cupcakes or your next cobbler.)

Put pats of butter all over the top of your cobbler and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. The cherries will bubble up and the butter will melt cooking the cake mix.

Dish the cobbler, topped with the remaining cherries, AND maybe a scoop of ice cream. My family loved it!

You can visit Duncan Hines’ website www.duncanhines.com to find other great recipes for your holiday get-together! You can also find Duncan Hines on facebook and twitter. As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake and create!

Join us on facebook, follow us on twitter and pinterest. Thanks to Duncan Hines for sponsoring my writing. Sponsorship selection by the Clever Girls Collective.

cherry chocolate cake cobbler

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