scrimpySnack of the Week: Blonde Bites

Good Sunday afternoon! Here in Boston, it's rainy and dreary, and Dylan is teething and so miserable. I have a new follower, Ariel, so that's has really made my day. I just love to see people are reading. So, welcome Ariel, and thanks for following me as I try to enjoy life in the city on the cheap!

This week's scrimpySnack is Blondie Bites. It's actually surprisingly difficult to think of new and unique things to bake each week, but I'm looking forward to getting a bit more adventurous. This week's snack is not adventurous. I didn't have any chocolate, but I had everything I needed to make blondies (and I'm sure you do, too). I just finally realized that "blondies" are a play on "brownies". Like, blonde vs. brown hair I guess? Anyways, I should probably go ahead and file this post away in the "i am an idiot" folder.

I hope you enjoy these bites, we sure did/are still. They kind of taste like sugar cookies.

the centers fall to form the cutest little dimple on top!

Bangin' Blondie Bites

makes:
2 dozen mini-bites
1 dozen normal muffin-tin size
1 9 x 9 pan

2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour (you could use half whole-wheat, half AP...$.37)
2 1/2 t. baking powder (as usual, double check you're not using baking soda...$.10)
1/2 t. salt (<$.01)
3/4 c. butter, softened (1 1/2 sticks...$1.05)
1 c. white sugar ($.31)
2/3 c. brown sugar ($.40)
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract ($.24)
2 eggs (organic - $.70)

Total is $3.18...not bad, my friends!

1. Prepare muffin tin or pan with butter or muffin cups. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt.
   
3. Cream butter (if you haven't thought far enough in advance, and your butter isn't softened, cut it into very thin slices) and sugars.
   
4. Add eggs to the butter mixture one by one, making sure one is incorporated before adding the next.
   
5. Add vanilla to the egg + butter + sugar mixture.
6. Gently stir flour mix into wet ingredients until combined.
7. Spread in pan, or put into tins. For pan, bake 25 minutes, for bites, bake 15-20 until golden and crisped on top.

scrimpyTips:

- For a chocolaty kick, add a cup or two of chocolate chips...or caramel chips...or peanut butter chips.

- I made mini-bites and a few normal muffin tin size, and they were too cute. These would be great to bring to a home as a hostess gift or dessert!

- How about this...make regular muffin sized bites, and top with tiny little scoops of vanilla (or any) ice cream and a shaving of chocolate on top. Easy, scrimpy, elegant, and cute! (Haagen Dazs is on sale 2/$6 at CVS this week!)

scrimpySnack of the Week

Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone!

I'm sick, so I'm sorry if I sound a little bit stuffed up. Just ask me to repeat anything you can't understand (oh my god HA HA HA!).

Every Sunday I try to make a delicious snack to go in Mike's lunches. Sometimes it's banana bread muffins and sometimes it's cookies, and then other times when I'm lazy he just gets 2 pieces of fruit. This Sunday, I came across a recipe that's great for two reasons.

Reasons this cookie recipe is great:

1. It's delicious
2. It uses vegetable oil instead of butter which is convenient if you:

1. Don't have any butter (on the off chance you have MOLASSES but not butter...)
   
2. Have a dairy allergy or something else like that

Molasses Crackle Cookies
(Oh, and another cool thing about these is that they actually crackle on top and look really pretty...next time I will try rolling them in confectioner's sugar...on that note, is it "confectioner's sugar", "confectionary sugar", or "confection sugar"? From now on I should say C. Sugar. OK solved.)
Makes 32 cookies (enough for 2 days...they're pretty good)

2/3 c. vegetable oil ($.58)
1 c. sugar ($.31)
1 egg ($.29 - organic)
1/4 c. molasses($.42 - organic - TJs)
2 c. flour ($.30)
2 t. baking soda (not powder...quadruple check this PUH-LEASE) ($.02)
1 t. cinnamon ($.06 - CVS)
1 t. ground ginger ($.06 - CVS)
1/2 t. ground cloves ($.06)
1/3 c. sugar ($.10)

Total: $2.20 (that's $.07/cookie (Seven Sent Cookies, like Heaven Sent, just Seven Cent!) The molasses makes them a little more expensive than some other cookies...)

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Combine oil and sugar then add egg and molasses.
3. In a separate bowl sift together (or just whisk together if you are LAZY - like me sometimes) flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.
4. Add the dry mixture to the wet.
5. Roll into nice sized balls (ha)...about 1 1/3"-1 1/2" and then roll those balls in sugar (HA).
6. Place them with about 3 inches in between each other on the cookie sheet (they are going to flatten out and spread...hopefully...)
7. Bake for 10 minutes, or until they're crackled on top.
   
8. Let them sit on the baking sheet to get hardened a bit, and them remove them to a plate to cool.
   
9. Store them in an air-tight (preferably glass with a plastic top) container. I stored them like this and they have stayed really soft and chewy. Trust me, I just had 4. They're still good to go.

scrimpyTips:

- I found that when my oven got a bit too hot, around 360ish, they crackled better, so I don't know...you may want to put your oven a TAD bit higher than 350. My first batch came out the least crackled, and the subsequent batches came out better...
- If you don't have ginger or cloves, you could easily omit them. Granted, they wouldn't be AS good, but they'd still be good, just a little different.
- If you only have one good cookie sheet, put the dough in the fridge in between batches.
- These would be great with soft vanilla ice cream in between them.
- These make great Christmas cookies