chocolate fudge cookies

I've never been a box of chocolates kind of girl. Sure I've appreciated the gesture whenever one has been gifted to me, but chocolate candies don't really do it for me. I'd much prefer say...a heart shaped cookie cake. Lucky for me, I never had a problem communicating this preference to Kent, so the box of chocolates he left at my freshmen room door was my last.

There is a funny story about this last box of chocolates. Kent wanted to surprise me on our first Valentine's Day together (7 years ago already) by leaving flowers and candy at my dorm. So the story goes at least because I never received said flowers and candy. We have reason to believe that my spiteful suite mate stole them. Kent was surprised when he hadn't received acknowledgement of the gifts by night, so he finally asked me if I came home to anything good that day. I told him begrudgingly that I hadn't. Things were not looking good for Kent when I had received nada by the end of the day. We still have no real evidence to corroborate the theory of the kleptomaniac suite mate, but I feel pretty confident that it was her. In any case, Kent replaced the missing flowers and candy with new ones, and I placed the flowers in a gatorade bottle, naturally. #dormroomliving

I may not be a fan of chocolate candies, but I am a fan of anything involving chocolate. Enter chocolate fudge cookies.

These cookies are incredibly rich in chocolate flavor. I have never once tasted a dessert and exclaimed that it was too rich to eat (such a perplexing response), but I feel that I must disclose that these are not for the faint of heart.  They remind me of a brownie. In the best possible way. They are dense in texture and provide the depth of chocolate flavor that a brownie offers, but they're cookies. And I love cookies.

I recommend milk with these babies.

And a card if you're using these as a loving and thoughtful gift for your sweetie. If there's not a sweetie in your life, then I recommend a glass of wine instead :)

Happy Valentine's Day family and friends!

Chocolate Fudge Cookies

Recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction

1 cup + 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped 

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

5 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup semi chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350
Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside
Melt the chocolate in the microwave for about 1 minute, stir, continue to melt in 30 second increments until fully melted and smooth. Set aside
In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and vanilla. Set aside
Beat butter and sugars in a standing bowl
Mix in the beaten egg and vanilla until incorporated
Add the melted chocolate and beat until combined
Add the dry ingredients on slow speed
Fold in the chocolate chips. Do not overmix
Chill dough for at least 30 minutes
Scoop rounded tablespoon of dough and roll into a slightly flattened ball. Place on cookie sheet
Bake for about 10 minutes
Let cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes before moving to cooling rack

red velvet cookies with cream cheese frosting

Happy Tuesday!

Today I'm sharing an easy recipe that uses a boxed cake mix. I can't believe I've never made sandwich cookies before. For someone who's known to eat multiple cookies in one sitting, you would think I'd make these more often as a loophole to eat more cookies. Plus, I love frosting. These cookies come from Lizzy at Your Cup of Cake. She primarily features cupcakes on her site, but she includes other sweet treats from time to time and this recipe is one of those. 

You combine the cake mix, oil, eggs, powdered sugar, and vanilla until a gooey mixture forms. I stuck the mixture in my freezer for a few minutes so that it would be easier to scoop. Once the mixture has firmed up a bit, drop tablespoon sized balls into powdered sugar and generously coat. Place on the cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.

While the cookies are cooling, whip together your cream cheese frosting. I have never found a cream cheese frosting that I like from a can, so I highly recommend the extra effort to make your own. This frosting is really good. Scoop the frosting into a gallon sized plastic bag, push to one corner, and snip the corner once ready to pipe onto the bottom side of half of your cookies. Sandwich with the unfrosted cookies. 

These cookies were a hit at Kent's office. Bake them for Valentine's Day, or for no reason at all. Everyone could use a sandwich cookie. Enjoy!

Red Velvet Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipe from Your Cup of Cake

1 box of red velvet cake mix

2 large eggs

1/3 cup oil

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup powdered sugar

4 oz cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened (1/2 a stick)

1 tsp vanilla extract

3-4 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 and line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpat liner

Combine cake mix, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract

Scoop out tablespoon sized balls (mixture will be gooey, so I recommend chilling mixture beforehand)

Drop balls into powdered sugar, coat in sugar, and drop onto baking sheet 3 inches apart from other balls

Bake for 8-10 minutes and let cool

For filling, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add vanilla. Slowly add powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency and taste

Pipe frosting onto bottom of half of the cookies and sandwich with the other half (use piping tip mentioned above)

weekend review

So, this happened this weekend:

We didn't intend to celebrate Valentine's Day early, but when Kent and I stopped at Harris Teeter for dessert after dinner on Saturday night, I couldn't resist the steal of a deal on this cake. I won't kid myself into thinking I need a reason to buy a cake (i.e. the costco cake from this past November...to welcome us to Baltimore?), but I decided that it's close enough to the actual day to justify celebratory dessert. Themed dessert is a serious weakness of mine.

We had the usual quiet weekend. Erica was supposed to visit us, but Nemo stranded her in New York. We stayed in on Friday night and watched our latest netflix obsessions, alternating between Downton Abbey and House of Cards. Both shows are quite good. I coaxed Kent into watching Downton with me, but he's more of a passive viewer, reading a book while it's on. Oh well. 

I used Saturday morning to run some errands. I ventured to the suburbs to pick up some supplies for food styling at Hobby Lobby. I got lost on the way, of course, and finding my way around Hobby Lobby was no walk in the park, so the outing took longer than expected. I hit the gym early afternoon to do my typical elliptical workout for an hour. I've finally gotten used to the weird movement of this machine, so I'm enjoying it more than when we first moved in. I try to reach 9 miles whenever I go on the elliptical- I'm not sure how that translates to actual mileage, but it's always a challenge. 

We dined at a new restaurant called Metropolitan on Saturday night. It's located in the cute area of Federal Hill, which is right next to our neighborhood. We started the meal with fried goat cheese. Balls of goat cheese and pine nuts are wrapped in potato, fried, drizzled with a balsamic glaze, and served with toasted baguettes- simply delicious.

I normally don't consider salad to be an entree, but the Ladykiller salad sounded too good to pass up. Jumpo lump crab and shrimp are served over roasted vegetables, white cheddar, parmesan, olives, bacon, and hard boiled eggs in a sesame ginger vinaigrette. I was very happy with this choice, but I wish I had known about the banana peppers beforehand. My wine did little to neutralize the fire in my mouth.

Kent ordered a salad as well. His had marinated steak strips tossed with cucumbers and tomatoes in a Japanese ginger dressing. It was quite delicious too.

We popped into Harris Teeter once getting home and purchased the aforementioned cake. We consumed it in its entirety while watching more Netflix. Netflix marathon weekends are very common in the Jaggers' house, but at least we're getting our money's worth out of the subscription.

Today was another casual day. I spent a large part of the day baking and photographing red velvet whoopie pies, which I'll feature early this coming week. I initially wanted to run outside because the sun finally made an appearance, but it's still too cold for my southern blood. I ran 6 miles on the treadmill instead. My treadmill tracks the time elapsed by flashing the percentage completed every 6 minutes, so I like to increase by .2 mph with each flash. I ran 6 miles in about 45 minutes, which is a lot faster than outdoor running, but I was still happy with my time. Kent pulled himself away from House of Cards to squeeze in a workout as well. I have no idea what he does in the gym, so I don't have much to comment on that. I do, however, think he feels pretty accomplished that he finished the entire first season in one week. Our Netflix marathons are no joke.

Our Sunday night TV line up is fairly intense now that Walking Dead is back. HBO's Girls has been hysterical so far and so on point with addressing issues that plague twenty-somethings. Shameless is another top contender. I wish Jimmy Steve would just come clean to Fiona already. I plan to read more of my new book, The Happiness Project, until my shows air later.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Stay tuned for a couple Valentine's treats to post this week :)

Runs On Sundae Welcome Cookies

Well, it finally happened. I decided to create my own blog. If you didn't already know, I've loved reading food blogs for some time now. I recently expanded this interest to fitness and health blogs, but food has a dominant presence in my google reader (which I foolishly didn't even use until Kent told me about it this past year- huge time saver & obsession enabler). 

Runs on Sundae will encompass me writing about everything I love: baking, fitness, family, friends, television shows, books, my new home of Baltimore. The name comes from my two great loves- dessert and running. I think a balanced diet is one with dessert in both hands, so I try to be as active as possible. I'm not really sure how to do this whole blogging thing, but I'm excited to start!

My addiction to blogs, specifically food blogs, has turned me into that person who always shows up with some freshly baked cookies, so of course I had to welcome you to my little corner of the blogosphere with my favorite chocolate chip cookies. They come from my absolute favorite baking blog, Sally's Baking Addiction. She shares the most delicious recipes with beautiful pictures. I also love how she writes in a uniquely conversational voice. I feel like she's my friend and we haven't even met! I am obsessed with chocolate chip cookies and I have tried countless variations, but these are my favorite. They are the best. Make them. Seriously.

Thick & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction, adapted from Kelseys Apple A Day

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

3/4 cup dark brown sugar (I use a combination of light & dark)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg at room temperature 

2 tsp vanilla

2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cornstarch 

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chip

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large bowl, cream sugars and butters together until light in color and fluffy

Add egg and vanilla and mix to combine

Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined

Stir in chocolate chips (dough will be thick)

Drop by the tbsp onto ungreased sheet

Bake for 8-10 minutes (not longer than 10)

Remove and let cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes. If too puffy, flatten with back of spoon

Transfer to cooling rack

Enjoy!