I’m counting the days until the end of summer, not that I don’t love summer flavors, as you could tell from all my lemon recipes lately. It’s the heat I can’t stand. Plus, fall and winter have my favorite flavors of all time and winter is my favorite season.

The warmth of ginger, the intoxicating smell of cinnamon baking in the oven, and the comfort of brown sugar. I spend all year waiting for it. Yes, I do eat it year round but there is something about a warm slice of pumpkin bread or one of these molasses spice cookies in the cool fall weather or the bright white snow in the dead of winter that can’t be duplicated any other time of year.

These are easily one of my top cookies. Chewy and soft all over, a slight crunch from the sugar coating, a strong molasses spice flavor, and it’s easy to make a large batch. I ate most of them after baking but I’m still snacking a day later and everyone I shared them with wanted the recipe, so I’m going to share it a bit early so you can all get into your fall baking ahead of time.
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I never actually eat Oreos. I eat the store brand chocolate sandwich cookies because they taste better, don’t have high fructose corn syrup, and are a lot cheaper. I guess I could make my own supply all the time too, but I’m lazy, so I decided this is probably a one time only kind of thing.

I like the idea of homemade versions of food like this because you can customize it to your liking. If you like a lot of frosting, you can add it. If you wanted to add a layer of raspberry glaze, nobody is going to stop you. You could also shape these to be oval to allow for easier milk dipping. The possibilities are endless, so endless I got overwhelmed and just made them circles with an average amount of filling and nothing special about them at all.
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I wish I had better backdrops and dishware to photograph for you guys. I wish I had a light box and a bunch of cool props to use, but the reality is I don’t. I can’t afford that stuff so I shoot food on plastic plates from Target and in tupperware containers.

I’m in the process of looking for a second job so hopefully that will change soon, or I’ll get a book deal, that would be great too. I’ll also buy a food processor and a kitchen scale.

In the meantime, I’m going to hope you guys don’t judge my recipes based on the things they are set upon because these cookies are better than good. They are similar to my last chocolate chip cookie recipe because they both use browned butter (yum!) but this recipe also adds a salty component, (vanilla bean infused) fleur de sel!
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I thought meringues would be harder to make, honestly. I’ve heard some sad stories about sticky meringues and things just not working out, but these were surprisingly easy. Maybe because it isn’t humid at all and there wasn’t much moisture in the air so everything worked in my favor.

These meringues have a subtle brown sugar flavor and are light as air, they are crisp but almost melt in your mouth. They also only require three ingredients: egg whites, brown sugar, and salt.
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I finished off my jar of Nutella with these cookies so you guys can relax for a little bit, you are safe from that dreamy combination of chocolate and hazelnut (for a week or two at least).

I made these cookies a bit big and because of that they came out crisp but I wanted a slightly bigger cookie. I have a small oven and small cookie sheets that don’t hold much so I didn’t want to keep going in and out of my oven. Speaking of my oven, as I put these in there I realized it wasn’t hot at all. My pilot light had gone out (I have a gas oven). I always get so nervous re-lighting the pilot light because I worry as I put the flaming skewer back there it’s all just going to explode and a fireball is going to come flying at me.

Luckily that didn’t happen and I was able to make cookies.
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Yes, I could have sliced this brownies really nicely and taken an nice photograph of them all set up on display.

Instead, I lost all self control and started eating the brownie out of the pan. Let that be a message to all of you: these are amazing.

It’s a chewy chocolate brownie with a layer of soft, buttery cookie on top. It is an amazing experience, a perfect fusion of two great recipes that combines my favorite texture of both treats. As soon as I saw this recipe I went straight into my kitchen and made it, I didn’t have a chance to fiddle with my camera for process shots (sorry!), I just had to get these brownies out of the oven and into my mouth, and it was worth it.
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Chocolate chip cookies aren’t my first choice when it comes to cookies. I’d much rather reach for a soft sugar cookie or a butterscotch chip cookie, but I do enjoy chocolate chip cookies every now and again.

My perfect chocolate chip cookie is chewy without a crisp edge. These cookies, however, do have a crisp edge but a delicious, soft center, packed with milk chocolate chips and a strong brown butter flavor, making them almost perfect. To perfect them in the future, I’ll lower my oven temperature 25 degrees to make them come out softer and chewier.
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I believe in healthy eating, as surprising as that may be considering I run a blog full of sugar and sweetness, but I promise you I don’t eat every single crumb of everything I bake. I know a lot of people are gearing up for their New Year’s resolutions (I’ve already started mine), and a lot of people want to eat healthier, so I have this recipe for you!

It has butter and chocolate and sugar and peanut butter! But it also has oats in it, so there you go, it’s healthy! I used 2% milk (you could use fat free or whole, probably even soy). Also, the butter can be replaced with margarine if you’re into that kind of thing. Totally health-ified. I also believe sweets are good for you in moderation (as in, don’t eat the whole tray of these, share with friends or put them out at your New Year’s party).

Oh, and they don’t require baking, just a couple minutes of cooking on the stove and a half hour on the counter. Make them and wrap a bunch up, eat one on your lunch break as dessert, and don’t feel guilty: it’s okay to indulge sometimes.
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I’ve been wanting to make these whoopie pies for a month and I didn’t want to wait until pumpkin was out of season or totally irrelevant. I love pumpkin in baked goods, especially that pumpkin bread I never shut up about.

Whoopie pies are rumored to have originated in Lancaster, PA, it’s also rumored that upon tasting one, someone shouted “whoopie!!” which gave them their name. I tell that to everyone whenever someone mentions whoopie pies. You should too, especially to the people you share these with.
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I love sugar cookies year round but when December rolls around all I want to do is eat gingerbread men. They are easily my favorite cookie but I’ve never made them before.

These are a little different because they have a hint of chocolate in them and are perfect. They are crisp but chewy at the same time, they won’t break your teeth but they don’t fall apart either, it’s the perfect texture. I decorated the cookies with cinnamon flavored royal icing and it was back breaking. While I was doing it, after I finished, and even when I woke up this morning, I had decided I never want to decorate cookies again. It’s a lot of work and a lot of mess, but now looking back at my finished cookies I am glad I did and can’t wait to try my hand at it again and get better and hopefully not have it be so back breaking. I think you should give it a shot, it takes some time but it isn’t really too hard.
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