To be quite honest, I had no idea what these even were but per baby brother and his friends requests, I tested these in my kitchen, having a good ole’ time ripping open nostalgic pudding packs, that unmistakable smell taking me back to middle school again.  I produced this recipe by scaling back both the flour and sugar to take the pudding into consideration with an egg binding the dough and of course there are a ton of crumbled cookies mixed into the batter for good measure.

httpv://youtu.be/CvM6mRiQENg

5.0 from 3 reviews

Oreo Pudding Cookies

 

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Serves: 1-2 Dozen

Ingredients

• ½ c unbleached flour
• ½ ts baking soda
• ¼ ts fine salt
• 1 package of vanilla/oreo pudding
• 1 stick soft, unsalted butter
• ⅓ c granulated sugar
• ¼ c brown sugar {just all granulated is fine}
• 1 ts pure vanilla extract
• 1 room temperature egg
• 8-10 crushed Oreos + 2 for the tops
• Melted chocolate/ganache

Instructions

1. In the first bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and pudding mix.
2. In the second bowl, cream together the butter {and both sugars, if using} for 2-4 minutes.
3. Add the vanilla and the egg.
4. Slowly combine the first and second bowl together in thirds. Don’t over mix.
5. Fold in the cookie pieces and if time allows, chill the batter in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
6. If not chilling, proceed by scooping onto flat, greased cookie sheets at 350 for 10-12 minutes {if you want a larger cookie, gently flatten the tops with greased palms before baking}.
7. Cool completely then drizzle with melted chocolate or ganache then crumble the 2 Oreos over the baked cookies.

3.2.2807

Happy baking!

Love,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

These are a triple threat with a bottom layer of deep, dark chocolate fudgy brownies, a middle pink layer of creamy peppermint, and a top glaze of glossy chocolate sauce.  When devoured at room temperature, the entire bite melts in your mouth but it’s also good to know that these keep their shape with each of their distinct, beautiful layers.

httpv://youtu.be/8wS8UxSm_QE

5.0 from 4 reviews

Peppermint Brownies

 

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

45 mins

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Serves: 4-6 Servings

Ingredients

Brownie Layer

• 2 sticks soft, unsalted butter
• 1 c brown sugar
• 2 c white sugar
• 1 tb vanilla extract {or coffee flavored liqueur}
• 4 room temperature eggs
• 1½ c unbleached flour
• 1 ts fine salt
• 1 c unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 c chocolate chips

Peppermint Filling

• 1 stick soft unsalted butter
• 3 oz soft cream cheese
• 1½ ts peppermint extract
• Pink color {I used 2 drops of red}
• 2½ c sifted powdered sugar
• Pinch of fine salt

Chocolate Glaze

• 8 oz bittersweet chocolate
• 5 tb unsalted butter
• Crushed candies/sprinkles {optional}

Instructions

1. For the brownies, in the first bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy {about 3-5 minutes}
2. Blend in the extract/liqueur and eggs, one at a time.
3. In the second bowl, sift together the flour, salt, cocoa, and chocolate. Make sure the chocolate gets coated with the all the dry mixture.
4. Mix bowls one and two together in thirds. Mix just to combine {don’t over mix}.
5. In a sprayed pan, bake at 350 for about 25-35 minutes {I like them under baked}
6. Cool completely.
7. For the filling, cream together the butter and cream cheese.
8. Mix in the peppermint and color.
9. Slowly add in the sifted powdered sugar {it helps to measure after you sift}.
10. Spread onto the cooled brownie and pop the entire thing in the fridge for the filling to harden a bit {about 30 minutes}.
11. For the glaze, melt the chocolate and butter together {in a double boiler or in 30 second intervals in the microwave}. Stir well for a smooth consistency and spread evenly onto the top of the filling. {Top with sprinkles or crushed candy if desired}. Allow this to set in the fridge for about 30 minutes as well before cutting into squares. {When the brownies are entirely firm, it’s easier to cut neater squares and it also helps to swipe the knife clean before eat cut}.

Notes

Time does not include inactive prep: chilling.

3.2.2807

Love,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

This is my favorite, go-to sugar cookie recipe because it bakes up light, buttery cookies that are lightly almond scented and hold their shape when they bake.  Now, you could use this dough, un-tinted for decorating purposes but I thought it’d be fun to twist them into candy canes.

httpv://youtu.be/fzV3iHlOg9s

5.0 from 1 reviews

Candy Cane Sugar Cookies

 

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

15 mins

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Serves: 2-3 Dozen

Ingredients

• 1½ c unbleached flour
• 1 ts baking powder
• ¼ ts fine salt
• 1 stick soft unsalted butter
• ¼ c brown sugar
• ¼ c white sugar
• 1½ ts almond extract {vanilla or peppermint}
• 1 room temperature egg
• 1 tb red food color {in half the dough}

Instructions

1. In the first bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. In the second bowl, cream together all the wet ingredients: butter and sugars.
3. Add the extract and egg.
4. Divide the dough evenly and add the red color to half the dough.
5. Gather it in some plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
6. Tear off even strips from the white and red dough and roll into ropes with the palm of your hands {the warmth will help them be more pliable}.
7. Push the two ropes together and twist, making a crook at the neck to create the candy cane shape.
8. Chill the shaped cookies for 15-20 minutes if you want cookies that don’t spread too much but bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes if you don’t mind them being a bit puffy.

Notes

Does not include chilling time.

3.2.2807

Love,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

If you can’t decide between a cake or a cookie, the whoopie pie is for you.  These have crisp edges, a pillowy bite, and are stuffed with a classic cream cheese frosting.

httpv://youtu.be/5Lp5qKs3knE

5.0 from 4 reviews

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

 

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Serves: 10-12 Whoopie Pies

Ingredients

• 2½ c unbleached flour
• ½ ts fine salt
• ½ ts baking soda
• ½ ts baking powder
• 2 tb unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 room temperature egg
• 1 c brown sugar
• ½ c oil {canola, veggie, grapeseed}
• ¾ c room temperature buttermilk
• 1 ts vanilla
• 1-2 tb red food color {depends on how red you want it}

Cream Cheese Filling

• 16 oz soft cream cheese
• 4 oz soft unsalted butter
• 2-3 c *sifted* confectioners sugar (but it’s really up to how sweet you like it)
• 1 ts pure vanilla
• {Sprinkle of salt}

Instructions

1. In the first bowl, sift together the flour, salt, soda, powder, and cocoa.
2. In the second bowl, beat together the egg and sugar.
3. Add the oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and color.
4. Combine bowls one and two in batches, taking care not to over mix.
5. Bake about tablespoon scoops at 350 for about 8-10 minutes.
6. Cool completely.
7. For the filling, cream everything together and spread on a cookie and sandwich with another or pipe with a pastry bag/tip.

3.2.2807

Love,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

I’m one self-professed donut addict but with these soft and tender donuts that are baked, you won’t feel too guilty on your fourth one

httpv://youtu.be/Uj17G0bXbtU

Gingerbread Donuts {Baked}

 

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Serves: 1 Dozen

Ingredients

• 1 c unbleached flour
• ½ ts baking powder
• ¼ ts baking soda
• 2 ts pumpkin spice
• ⅔ c brown sugar
• 4½ tb canola oil
• 1 ts molasses
• 2 room temperature eggs
• 2 ts pure maple syrup
• ½ ts pumpkin spice
• powdered sugar

Instructions

1. In the first bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder/soda, and pumpkin spice.
2. In the second bowl, cream together the sugar, oil, and molasses. Drop in one egg at a time.
3. Combine the two bowls, taking care not to over mix.
4. Fill a donut baking pan and bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.
5. In a third bowl, whisk together syrup, spice, and enough powdered sugar for a thick glaze consistency.

3.2.2807

{Homemade Pumpkin Spice}

Loving Autumn,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

Sure it’s a mouthful to say but it’s also a mouthful of utter deliciousness. This cookie experience should be deemed illegal. You can’t help but feel naughty when you have melting chocolate smudged all over your fingers, gooey caramel dripping everywhere and cookie crumbs that won’t be brushed off absentmindedly this time. Nope. You’ll be lapping them up just like I did. The incredible complexity of this cookie blooms in multi-layered stages. First, there’s the nutty aromatic browned butter that marries fluffy brown sugar, imparting a slight smokiness that only molasses can do. Then, there’s the aging process where for 3 days, the cookies get to know each other on an intimate level {who knows what they’re doing in there when the lights go out}? Finally, the 2-step process of the salted caramel alone could make for a decadent experience but two cookies come together to create a larger cookie, stuffed with hot caramel with tops flecked with glittering salt. Cookie foodgasm at its finest. httpv://youtu.be/4NqMWjB8jKI

5.0 from 2 reviews

Stuffed Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

25 mins

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Serves: 1 Dozen Large Cookies

Ingredients

• 1½ c unbleached flour + 2 tb
• 1 ts baking soda
• ⅛ ts fine salt
• 1 stick browned butter
• 6 tb granulated sugar
• ½ c brown sugar
• 1 room temperature egg
• 2 ts vanilla extract
• 1 c chocolate chips
• Chocolate covered caramel candies and fleur de sel/sea salt

Instructions

1. In a pot set over medium-low, slowly melt the butter. Swirl/whisk until the pale yellow takes on a bronze color. Don’t walk away. It can go from nutty to burned in a matter of seconds.
2. In the first bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. In the second bowl, sprinkle in both sugars and cream together with the cooled browned butter.
4. Blend in the egg and splash in the vanilla.
5. Mix in the first bowl a little bit at a time to the second bowl. Do not over mix.
6. Fold in the chocolate chips.
7. Wrap the bowl and stick it in the fridge for 3 days.
8. Before scooping, set the bowl out 15-20 minutes before use. Scoop/roll cookie dough.
9. Take on dough ball and smudge in a candy. Take another dough ball and mound it over. Roll into one cookie.
10. Sprinkle over with a touch of salt and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

Notes

Does not include chilling time.

3.4.3177

Love, Your Squishy Monster ^.~

Before I saw these ripe blushing babies, I could smell them.  I bet the world could be a nicer place if it was scented with the perfume of fresh and sweet peaches.  Unless you’re a peach-hater, is there anything like biting into the soft flesh of a fat peach, so juicy that it dribbles down your chin and splats into a sticky mess?  That sounds like the most yummy mess to me.  To extend the pleasure that these beautiful peaches lent me, I gathered them up into a past time that always puts me in a blissful state and swirled it all into a peach cake, a peach upside down cake that is.  Echoing its natural syrupy way, it pairs beautifully with the pale amber of the caramel crusted top and has the loveliest peach flavor that blooms inside of the cake as well.

httpv://youtu.be/rcwqKM8LaWM

5.0 from 7 reviews

Peach Upside Down Cake

 

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

55 mins

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Serves: 6

Ingredients

Topping

• Fresh sliced peaches
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 c brown sugar

Cake

• 1½ c unbleached flour
• 2 ts baking powder
• ½ ts fine salt
• 6 tb soft, unsalted butter
• 1 c sugar
• 2 room temperature eggs
• 1 ts vanilla extract
• ½ c fresh peach juice

Instructions

1. In the cake pan, melt the butter and stir in the sugar. Allow it to blend together and bubble.
2. Arrange the fruit slices on top of the caramel.
3. In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together.
4. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes.
5. Mix in one egg at a time with the vanilla.
6. Blend in the juice.
7. In 3 separate additions, sprinkle in the dry mixture and mix to combine. Don’t over mix.
8. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes.

3.2.1753

{Recipe for pineapple upside down cake}

Next up, a Korean punch recipe.

Love,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

This year, our garden is providing us with an abundance of zucchini and summer squash and grilling them alongside our meat is an easy go-to option nearly every weekend, but when I’m craving an altogether different way to enjoy them, I like to whip them up into something sweet, like this zucchini bread.  Softly spiced, warm and tender, with just a few flecks of telltale green bits, it’s also an easy way to get your kiddies to {secretly} enjoy these veggies too.

http://youtu.be/FQ-wyjeyrLA

5.0 from 2 reviews

Zucchini Muffins/Bread

 

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Serves: 2 Dozen

Ingredients

• 4 room temperature eggs
• 2 c sugar
• 1 c canola/veggie oil
• 1 ts pure vanilla
• 2 c shredded zucchini
• 2 c unbleached flour
• 2 ts baking soda
• 1 ts baking powder
• 2 ts cinnamon
• 1 ts nutmeg
• 1½ ts salt

Instructions

1. In your first bowl, break up your eggs and sprinkle in your sugar.
2. Slowly stream in your oil and vanilla to your “egg mixture,” and then, your zucchini.
3. In your second bowl, sift together your flour, soda, powder, spices, and salt.
4. Combine your two bowls in three separate additions, taking care not to over mix. A few lumps are fine. Stir/blend just until your batter comes together.
5. Scoop into muffin tins and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or into a loaf pan at 350 for 50-60 minutes.

3.2.2807

My other favorite was to enjoy zucchinis?  Zucchini gratin.  What about yours?

Love,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

With Summer rapidly approaching (June 21st), you can’t help but envision BBQ’s and alfresco dining with a generous portion of grilled meat. Along side the conventional dogs and patties, I also enjoy including some chicken, especially this yogurt spiced chicken. The yogurt gets penetrated really well with the spices and makes for an incredibly juicy and flavorful chicken. The powers of yogurt are both delicious and wonderful. You can whip up something savory like this, make parfaits like my friend Sav from EatNowCryLater did or make some light, refreshing (not to mention almost fat free) garlic yogurt dressing or moist and tender honey banana bread.

http://youtu.be/OgTmSKd9xhQ

5.0 from 5 reviews

Yogurt Spiced Chicken

 

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Serves: 4 Servings

Ingredients

• 2 lbs chicken
• 1 c full fat yogurt
• 2 tb chili powder
• 1 tb smoked paprika
• 3 cloves garlic
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Combine yogurt, garlic, and spices.
2. Pour over chicken and allow to marinate for at least an hour (preferably over night).
3. Bring your chicken out about 20 minutes before grilling to allow it to come to room temperature.
4. Grill over high heat and only flip once.

Notes

Does not include marinading time.

3.2.2807

How easy is that?

Happy grillin’!

Love,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

Surviving the end of the world is delicious!  Even if the world didn’t end, there’s lots of excitement brewing with Christmas, New Years, and even a trip to NYC!  Like a kangaroo, I’ll bring back lots of yummies in my belly with pictures of devoured food stuffs to share.

Today, I’ll be sharing gingerbread cupcakes.

http://youtu.be/TojHXiLcxJ0

5.0 from 7 reviews

Gingerbread Cupcakes

 

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Serves: 1 Dozen

Ingredients

• 1¾ c unbleached flour
• ½ ts salt
• ½ ts baking powder
• ½ ts baking soda
• 2 ts pumpkin spice*
• 1 stick soft unsalted butter
• ⅓ c brown sugar
• ⅔ c unsulphured molasses
• 2 room temperature eggs
• ⅔ c whole buttermilk

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 16 oz soft cream cheese
• 2-3 c *sifted* confectioners sugar (but it’s really up to how sweet you like it)
• 1 ts pure vanilla
• ¼ ts fine salt
• Optional: orange zest
• candied ginger, chopped

Instructions

1. In your first bowl, sift together all your dry ingredients.
2. In your second bowl, cream together your butter and sugar.
3. Slowly drip in your molasses and one egg at a time.
4. Tip in your buttermilk and make sure your second bowl is well blended together.
5. In 3 separate additions, mix your dry bowl with your wet bowl. Take care no to over mix.
6. Scoop into a lined cupcake tin and bake at 350 for 19-22 minutes. Do not over bake.
7. While your cakes cool, cream together your cream cheese and sugar. Add in your vanilla and salt.

Notes

*recipe follows

3.2.2807

 DIY Pumpkin Spice

Love & merry yummies,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~