Reindeer Brownies

This is a sponsored post by Challenge Butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!

I love holiday-themed treats more than anything. Any holiday – Valentine’s Day, Easter, Fourth of July, Halloween… I just think making holiday treats is so fun. And there’s just something so special about Christmas treats.

Last year, you may remember that I made Christmas tree brownies for National Brownie Day, which is December 8. They were a total crowd pleaser! Everyone wanted one!

This year I wanted to do the same concept except with reindeer instead of Christmas trees! 

The first step in making the treat is of course preparing the brownies! It is very rare that I use a box mix for anything, but in this case you should definitely use a box mix. The reason being is that you’re already going to decorate these brownies so why create even more work for yourself? 

This Ghirardelli mix is my absolute favorite. But I always doctor it up by substituting the water for milk and the oil for Challenge butter.  The brownies will taste so much richer! 

Also, to create the triangle shape of the reindeer, I recommend baking the brownies in a round cake pan. The cake pan I used is 9 inches in diameter. If you do not have a round cake pan, you can certainly use the pan with which you normally bake brownies. You just may have some scraps leftover after cutting the triangles.

Now, let’s talk about decorating the reindeer. For the antlers I used big twist pretzels, snapped in half. The eyes are brown M&Ms, and the nose is a mini vanilla wafer with a red M&M on top.

The “glue” that keeps everything in place is vanilla buttercream frosting.  This was the only way I could think of to adhere the reindeers’ facial features. If you find an easier way, go for it! Also, keep in mind, vanilla buttercream is delicious and you can use leftovers to spread on graham crackers.

So there you have it! That’s all it takes to make the most adorable holiday brownies ever!

Also, remember this month Challenge Dairy has partnered with UNICEF to fight the childhood malnutrition crisis with their campaign called “Pin a Recipe, Feed a Child." Through December 31, 2016, if you pin a recipe from the “2016 Pin a Recipe, Feed a Child” Pinterest board, Challenge will donate a meal to UNICEF for a child in need.

Reindeer Brownies

Yield: Makes 8 brownies

Ingredients

For the brownies

• 1 (18 ounce) box of brownie mix
• 1/3 cup Challenge butter, melted
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 egg

For the buttercream frosting

• 1/2 cup Challenge butter, room temperature
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 heavy whipping cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For the decorations

• Large pretzel twists
• Brown M&Ms (or chocolate chips)
• Vanilla wafers
• Red M&Ms

Directions

For the brownies

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Line 9-inch cake pan with aluminum foil and spray with nonstick baking spray; set aside.
3. Mix the milk, butter, and egg in bowl. Add the brownie mix and stir until well blended.
4. Spread mix into cake pan and bake for 40 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and let cool completely.
6. Once cooled, lift aluminum foil out of pan and cut into 8 triangles. 

For the buttercream frosting

1. Beat softened butter on medium speed for about 2 minutes until smooth and creamy.
2. Add powdered sugar, cream, vanilla extract, and salt and mix until combined
3. Increase mixer to high speed and beat for 3 full minutes.
4. Add more powdered sugar if frosting is too thin or more cream if frosting is too thick.
5. Decorate brownies by using frosting to adhere the eyes and nose to the brownie. Stick 1/2 pretzel twist into each side of brownie for antlers

Milk Chocolate Candy Cookies

This is a sponsored post by Challenge Butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!

I have a bit of a confession to make – sometimes I get very self-conscience about my baking. I always taste-test my baking, but even afterwards I sometimes still have doubts.

This is the issue I had when making chocolate cookies for the first time this week. I had never made chocolate cookies; actually, I don’t think I had ever eaten chocolate cookies either.

So after taking the first bite I wasn’t so sure about them.

The texture was definitely right; they were soft and chewy, but I had doubts on the flavor. They were very… chocolatey (surprise). They weren’t something I would choose for dessert, and I think that’s what threw me off.

Fortunately, I know plenty of people who are willing to test my baked goods! And my parents and my co-workers were happy to report the cookies were delicious. Several co-workers told me they were the best chocolate cookies they’ve ever had.

So I think this is a lesson in self-confidence. I need to perpetually remind myself that being overly critical of anything won’t make the situation better. Instead, it causes more anxiety, and I miss out on enjoying delicious chocolate cookies.

Milk Chocolate Candy Cookies

Yield: Makes about 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

• 1 (15.25 ounce) box of milk chocolate cake mix
• 8 Tablespoons Challenge butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 4 ounces Challenge cream cheese,
• 1/2 cup M&M's
• 1/2 cup chopped Snickers
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate morsels

 Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine dry cake mix, melted butter, and egg.
2. Add cream cheese and beat until completely incorporated.
3. Stir in M&M’s, Snickers, and morsels.
4. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes so it’s easier to shape into a ball.
5. Once dough has been chilled for a half hour, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. Form dough into 1-inch balls and place on baking sheet.
7. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes. Allow to cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

 Recipe adapted from Inside BruCrew Life

Making festive, fall versions of your favorite cookies

I think we can all agree that fall is probably the best time of the year. Crisp air. Colorful leaves. Cozy sweaters. And most importantly – fall food! Cinnamon, apple, pumpkin, chai, oh my!

So in honor of the first day of October, National Homemade Cookies Day, AND fall I’m sharing my favorite cookie recipes falsified!!!

Wait. No, that’s not right. Do no correct me, spell-check. I meant to say FALL-ified!

First off, make Incredibly Soft M&M Cookies festive by adding autumn M&Ms instead of the regular colored M&Ms. Easy as that!

Secondly, put a fall-spin on snickerdoodle cookies by replacing cinnamon with pumpkin pie spice. And before baking the cookies, roll the dough in pumpkin pie spice and sugar instead of cinnamon and sugar. Same measurements!

Lastly, add pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice to the cream in oatmeal cream pies and fill the oatmeal sandwich with pumpkin buttercream!

PRETZEL KISS TREATS

Everyone loves a good sweet and salty combination, and these pretzel kiss treats are perfect for satisfying that craving! My mom and I typically make these at Christmas, using pretzels, Hershey's Hugs and red and green M&M's. But I recently discovered Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses and I knew I had to try them out. So I decided to remix the typical recipe and add candy corn in place of some of the M&M's. They turned out great, and they are perfect for the month of October. This goes to show that cooking is all about experimentation and making a recipe "your own." Try out this recipe for yourself using your favorite Hersheys and small candies!

PRETZEL KISS TREATS

INGREDIENTS

• 1 bag of waffle pretzels
• 1 (12 ounce) bag of Hershey Kisses or Hugs (any flavor)
• 1 (9.9 ounce) bag of M&Ms or 1 (11 ounce) bag of candy corn

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
3. Align pretzels on baking sheet.
4. Place a Hershey candy on each of the pretzels.
5. Put baking sheet in oven for 4 minutes or until candies just start to melt.
6. Remove baking sheet from oven.
7. Carefully place a candy in the center of each soft Hershey and press down to spread the chocolate
8. Place the baking sheet in the refrigerator until the chocolate has set (about 15 minutes).
9. Store in an airtight container.

These are the only ingredients you need!

Align pretzels on baking sheet and add Hershey on top.

Carefully press down the candy as soon as you remove the baking sheet from the oven.

If you use a Hershey candy with a soft center like the Pumpkin Spice Hershey they seem to melt faster so keep a close eye on them

Add candy corn or M&Ms!

Delicious!

Display them on a cute pumpkin plate.

ADDICTIVE WHITE CHOCOLATE PARTY MIX

WARNING: This party mix is highly addictive.  Once you try one bite, you will not be able to stop. 

This mixture is always a favorite of friends and family! The light white chocolate coating provides the perfect sweet and salty combination. My mom found it in the newspaper years ago, and it's been a staple at all holiday gatherings. It's so easy to grab one little chunk and then end up eating the entire batch. I could eat this stuff until I make myself sick (which I've done quite a few times).

Two of the best parts of this snack are that it's 1) SUPER EASY (everyone knows how to use a microwave and stir) and 2) very colorful! You can use special holiday color M&Ms to make the mix super festive!

The whole recipe makes about 5 quarts. As far as serving size goes... well that's really hard to say. As I previously mentioned, it's hard to stop at just one handful, so who really knows how many servings it makes!

ADDICTIVE WHITE CHOCOLATE PARTY MIX

Printable Recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 10 ounces of pretzel sticks, broken into halves
• 5 cups of Cheerios
• 5 cups of Corn Chex
• 2 cups salted peanuts
• 1 pound M&Ms
• 2 (12 ounce) packages of white morsels
• 3 Tablespoons canola oil

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, combine the pretzels, Cheerios, Corn Chex, peanuts, and M&Ms. Set aside.
2. In a microwave safe bowl, heat white chocolate morsels and oil for one minute.
3. Take the bowl out of the microwave and stir thoroughly.
4. After stirring, stick the bowl back in the microwave and heat for 30 seconds.
5. Remove from microwave and stir again until there are no lumps.
6. Pour melted white chocolate over cereal mixture and mix well with large spoon.
7. Dump mixture onto wax paper-lined baking sheets and spread.
8. Let the mixture cool and break apart into smaller chunks. Store in an airtight bag or container.

Melted white chocolate and oil

Mixing up the mixture!

Spread the mixture onto wax paper until it has cooled.

Break the mix into smaller chunks.

Normally, my family just serves the mixture in a big bowl so everyone can grab from it.

But in this case, I was bringing the mixture to Fox59 for a co-worker's birthday, 

so I thought it would be fun to divvy it up into cupcake liners!

SOFT & CHEWY MONSTER COOKIES

I've been wanting to make monster cookies for quite a while. They've always been one of my favorites because they have a little of everything - peanut butter, M&Ms, chocolate chips, and oats! They're the perfect cookies for someone who is indecisive like myself. It was a bit tricky to come up with a recipe for these cookies all on my own since there's a lot going on, so I adapted this recipe I found on Sally's Baking Addiction to include more peanut butter and more oats.

SOFT & CHEWY MONSTER COOKIES

Yield: About 2 dozen cookies

Printable Recipe

INGREDIENTS

·      1/2 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature

·      3/4 cup light brown sugar

·      1 cup creamy peanut butter

·      1 large egg

·      1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·      1/2 teaspoon baking soda

·      1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour

·      1/2 cup quick oats

·      3/4 cup M&Ms

·      1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1.     Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2.     In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes.

3.     Add in the peanut butter, egg, and vanilla and mix for another minute.

4.     Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

5.     Slowly mix in the baking soda and flour until just combined.

6.     Add the quick oats, M&Ms, and chocolate chips to the dough and fold in with a spatula by hand.

7.     Roll dough into1-inch balls and place onto greased baking sheet.

8.     Bake for 9 minutes.

9.     Slightly press down the baked cookies with the back of a spoon, since the cookies only slightly spread in the oven.

10. Cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
11. Store cookies covered at room temperature for up to 1 week. They also freeze well.

There's a lot going on in this dough!

After you roll the dough into balls, you can add a few extra M&Ms on top for a better look

You may want to flatten the cookies with the back of a spoon after 

you remove them from the oven because they don't spread much.

Mmmm I love how thick they are!

Incredibly soft M&M Cookies

Who doesn't love cookies? They're delicious in all colors, shapes, and sizes. But thick, fluffy cookies will always be my favorite! No sugary tasting crackers for me. Oh no. I like my cookies big and chewy.

So for this recipe, I used my secret cookie ingredient to achieve those results - vanilla pudding mix! I explained the science and the benefits of using pudding mix in my recipe for snickerdoodles. The effects really are incredible. Just look how thick that baby is! It's like biting into a sugary cloud.

Incredibly soft M&M Cookies

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

·         3/4 cup salted butter

·         1 cup brown sugar (207 grams)

·         1 (3.4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding (360 calories)

·         2 eggs

·         1 teaspoon vanilla

·         2 and1/4 cups flour (281.25 grams)

·         1 teaspoon baking soda

·         2 cups M&Ms

Directions

1.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

2.      In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars together.

3.      Add in pudding package and beat until well blended.

4.      Add eggs and vanilla.

5.      Stir together flour, baking soda in separate bowl and slowly add to butter / sugar mixture until well incorporated.

6.      Add M&Ms.

7.      Roll into 1 inch balls and place on greased baking sheet.

8.      Bake at 350 F for 8-10 minutes.