Cocoa Almond Granola

Cocoa Almond Granola

I am a huge fan of granola. I eat it almost every morning with greek yogurt for breakfast (and sometimes even as a snack or dessert). My friends say I am a tad obsessed with this food combo, but there's something about whole grain oats, nuts, accompanied by flavors of spice that amplifies a cup of plain yogurt, tossed in a bowl of milk, or simply grabbed by the handfuls, that I can't resist.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie

These are my go-to cookies. Over the course of the past year, I have made these cookies at least a dozen times. Between my own fondness, my roommates requests, and the simple combination of delicious flavors, these cookies are always a success.

Peanut butter and chocolae is a match made in baking heaven. These cookies are moist, slightly chewy with a crisp edge. The chocolate chips melt in your mouth and swirl with the creamy peanut butter on your tongue. All you need is a glass of milk, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream sandwiched inbetween a pair of these delights, and then you will be in dessert bliss.

Bailey's Chocolate Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

Bailey's Chocolate Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

A couple of weeks before school let out, I made a batch of surprise Bailey's cupcakes for a friend. It was a special request that she jokingly asked me to do, "Will you make me something with Bailey's?" I've seen countless recipes using Bailey's Irish Cream, and other kinds of alchohols, but I had never made the effort to go out of my way to bake something that incorporates them.

Nutella Brownies.

Nutella Brownie

I have yet to meet a single person who dislikes Nutella. What could be better than chocolate and hazelnut combined into the most delicious and addicting spread, ever (at least I think so).

Espresso Chocolate Chip Shortbread

Espresso Chocolate Chip Shortbread

I love coffee. For my close friends and family, this is a well known fact. I will drink it black, with or without cream and sugar, and in all forms: Drip, Espresso, Latte, Mocha, the list is endless. Anything coffee flavored joins this list of my caffeine indulged taste buds. This shortbread included.

Grandma's Asian Chocolate Chip Cookies

Grandma's Asian Chocolate Chip Cookies

My Grandma is a huge inspiration to me. She's considerate, organzied, strong, and overall a wonderful woman. 

She is also, a phenomenal baker. My Grandma has always been known as the bearer of all things delicious and homemade. In addition to baking, she's a wonderful chef, but everyone knows at family gatherings that the wonderful spreads of sweets are truly hers. Once you take a bite, you know it's one of Grandma's cookies.

Cookies and Cream Cookies

Cookies n' Cream Cookie

After baking the enormous Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies, I had half a package of double-stuffed oreos left. I wasn't sure what to do with them at first, especially since I'm not a big consumer of store-bought cookies. However, one of my favorite baking blogger's Kirbie, from Kirbie's Cravings, had my solution in the form of her Chewy Cookies and Cream Cookies.

Kirbie has a lot of fun recipes on her blog. She takes a single ingredient and makes over five different baked goods using it. Oreos is one of those ingredients. She features cookies, muffins, cupcakes, as well as other tasty treats that feature oreos. What I appreciate the most, is not only her fun and love for food, but she definitely enjoys experimenting and adapting recipes to create her own unique ones, such as these chewy cookies and cream cookies.

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie

A few months ago, my best friend posted a link to Picky Palate's blog on my Facebook wall, which featured this chocolate chip cookie stuffed with an Oreo. Originally, I had set the idea aside thinking this was kind of a weird concept, and not very "creative." 

Well, to go back on my word, I obviously made these monsterous two in one cookies. This cookie recipe has been flooding the foodgawker, pinterest, and food blogging world. I finally caved last week and decided, that I too, needed to follow the trend. 

Hot Chocolate Cookies

Hot-Chocolate Cookie

Hot Chocolate Cookies. Or, you can call them Chocolate Surprise Cookies. Regardless, the name sounds pretty awesome. Hot chocolate flavor packed into a cookie with a marshmallow on top, this sounds promising.

Unfortunately, these cookies disappointed me. The chocolate cookie dough baked to be pretty dense. The chocolate flavor was dark, but also a tad chalky. These tasted like chocolate graham crackers, or chocolate teddy grahams, which if you like that taste, then you will love these. However, I am not a fan of either of these delights, and therefore I wasn't a huge fan of these cookies.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Prior to Easter, the food blog world was flooded with cute, pastel-candy-inspired-embellished baked goods. There were so many ideas for Easter themed baked goods, it was a tad overwhelming. Personally, I'd rather eat something that tastes good, then looks pretty when decorated. Hence, I made carrot cake.

This carrot cake is absolutely delicious. It is light, moist, and includes only the essential ingredients. This recipe is from one of my mom's friends, who I will call "D." Over spring break my mom brought bake a couple of D's carrot cake slices home. I ended up eating all of them over the course of a couple evenings.

Almond Poppyseed Muffins

I love muffins. They are soft, yet firm. They are light, yet cakey. They are technically a "breakfast food," but you can certainly eat them at anytime of the day. They are versatile, and easily adaptable, all things that I love about baked goods, are packed into that simple liner.

Poppyseed muffins are hands down my favorite. Throw in some almond flavor and slivers on top, and the combination becomes my best seller, and ultimate weakness when it comes to pastries. Poppyseed muffins remind me of some of the few good memories from high school mornings. My mom always bought me the giant four-pack of towering poppyseed muffins from our local market. She always froze them, to "preserve them," as she says. I got used to heating up a muffin from the freezer on a daily basis. Enjoying a giant warm muffin, with a large cup of chai tea is how I mustered up energy for my daily 5 a.m. (yes 5 a.m. extracurricular activities that I like to say helped get me into college...) days.

Coconut Macaroons

Coconut Macaroons

Spring has truly sprung, the sun is shinning on a daily basis, and I am welcoming the start to a brand new quarter this week!

I made these coconut macaroons over my spring break last week (hence, the beautiful lighting from my Mom's kitchen, something that is seriously lacking here at school!). I absolutely love coconut, and it's not an ingredient I have gone out of my way to buy down here at school. However, when I was home, and had a fully stocked fridge and pantry open or me, I had to satisfy my craving.

Pretzel Crusted-Peanut Butter- Brownie Filled Thumbprint Cookies

What a long name to describe a cookie! This cookie describes the end of Winter Quarter: a bunch of different components all tied into one delicious thing. It was simultaneously, the last baked good I made over the course of the past three months!

This is the twelfth baked good that has made it on my blog. I can agree with all of my friends that I have definitely amped up my baking this quarter. Baking is continually becoming more of an outlet for me during stressful school days. This all being said, I took a break over finals week away from baking and searching for recipes online. It was a huge relief not feeling anxious about the giant mess, and time, that baking would take out of my schedule (as much as I love it, it can be a time consuming task!). 

Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake

Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake

During my first year of college, my roommate and I shared an addiction for two things: coffee and coffee cake. We had this obsession for finding the circular streusel covered pastries in all of the dining facilities that would accept our Dining Dollars (a great and not-so-healthy-way of using up our dining plan!). We were successful in our search to say the least; and I was also successful in contributing to my "freshman ten." Nevertheless, I haven't been scavenging for these delicious pastries nearly as much as I did my first year, but that didn't stop me for searching for recipes to make a homemade version instead. 

I made a 9x13 pan of this cake a week ago on Monday, and it was all gone by Wednesday. Simply, this recipe was a huge hit amongst my friends. 

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Blueberry Crumb Bar

I needed a break from chocolate. Yes, I just said that. I have been baking pretty consistently lately, and many of my baked goods have featured this delicious ingredient (see here, here, and here). Even as a lover of chocolate, it was time to take step in another direction, and let some other ingredients shine.

I have never been a big fan of fruit. Especially, in baked goods. However, last summer I discovered how much I absolutely love blueberries. I ate them everyday with breakfast. My blueberry addiction lead me to exploring the internet for some possible recipes. Lo' and behold, my favorite food blogger Smitten Kitchen came through, yet again, this time in the form of these blueberry crumb bars.

Classic Brownies.

Classic Brownie

I had my last meeting with my fellow "tour guides in training" this past week. As they all know, one of my fun facts on my tours is that I'm an "avid baker."A few have been asking me to bake for them, and frankly I never pass up an excuse to bake on a Tuesday night...or any night that is.

It's been a brownie-filled week! I always strive to make something different each time I bake, but frankly I had no clue what particular sweet that my fellow friends would enjoy.

Cream-Cheese Swirl Brownies

Cream-Cheese Swirl Brownie

I accidentally bought an extra container of cream cheese a couple of weeks ago (for another project that I never accomplished), and had been brainstorming what baked good to use it in. I have yet to make brownies this entire year, and while surfing the countless recipes I have saved on my computer, I knew I had to make Smitten Kitchen's particular brownie.

Like every other baked good I have made, these barely survived the night. There were three when I checked the plate in the morning. Maybe, you all noticed a trend with my housemates?

Sea Salt Stuffed Nutella Cookies

Sea Salt Stuffed Nutella Cookies

National Nutella Day was on February 5th. Ever since I heard about this specific national food day, I've had nutella on my mind. I stumbled upon this recipe on foodgawker, and I couldn't resist this simple sugar cookie filled with a delicious nutella surprise. Now, almost a month later, I was able to fulfill my craving.

This recipe made exactly twenty nutella filled cookies, and the next morning there were only four left in my house. Let's just say they were a "giant" hit. Giant, being they were both absolutely delicious and large in size.