Not so monster Monster Cookies

Anyone who knows me (should) know that I have a major sweet tooth - you might could call it an addiction because when there are sweets in the house, they are like crack to me. So when I found the blog Cookie Madness a few months ago I was hooked - a whole blog devoted to yummy desserts (not just cookies). What I especially like about this blog is that she doesn't just make fru fru desserts, but things that everyday people eat (and make) - that is the main appeal to me because I just can't do fru fru.

I can't tell you how many of her entries I have starred in my Google Reader to make, but this is the first one I have actually gotten around to making. Halloween Monster Cookies. When I needed to make a few cookies to bring to a friend, this seemed perfect because she has scaled the original recipe down to only make 8. But I made them smaller than called for, so that's why I called them "not so monster." I'm not going to post the original here because I didn't make any changes* and besides, you really should check out her awesome blog!

* Okay, I did make a couple changes. I made them smaller (as I already said) and used 1/3 cup regular M&M's. Plus I replaced the chocolate chips with a 1/3 cup candy corn to compensate for the lack of Halloweeness. But I don't really consider those changes.

Mini Apple Coffe Cakes

I had some apples that needed to be used pretty soon and wanted to make something yummy with them - more specifically I wanted to make this apple cake from MrsPresley's blog Good Eats and Sweet Treats, but when I opened my refrigerator, I was dismayed to find that I only had one stick of butter left to make a cake that called for 3 (yes 3) sticks. Oh, and I also only had one egg. So I had to scratch that idea. I also had to scratch any idea of making something that called for eggs because I needed that one egg to make cookies for a friend.

Enter my Dining on a Dime Cook Book. As a cook on a budget, I love this cookbook because it has tips to save money at the grocery store along with simple recipes that won't break the bank. In there is where I found a simple coffee cake recipe that had much fewer ingredients than I have seen in a recipe. I followed the recipe exactly except with the addition on chunks of apples. Oh, and the fact that mine was cooked in mini loaf pans in a toaster oven instead of an 8x8 pan in a real oven :) I changed the order of the directions slightly to make more sense.

Apple Coffee Cake

• 2 cups flour (I used half whole wheat)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 rounded Tbsp shortening
• 1 cup milk
• 1 medium diced Apple (I used Gala)

Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and shortening. Set aside 3/4 cup of the mixture for the topping. Add milk to remainder of flour mixture and mix until smooth. Pour batter into an 8x8 buttered pan.

• 2 Tbsp butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3 Tbsp brown sugar

Combine 3/4 cup of reserved flour mixture with above ingredients and sprinkle over the top of batter. Bake for 30 minutes.

This recipe filled two mini loaf pans and also made 4 muffins. These were really yummy and were had just the right amount of crumbliness (is that a word?) Despite the minimal list of ingredients, they packed a good flavor. Plus Justin said we could consider it healthy since they had whole wheat and fruit in them :)