Brownie Blessing and Wedding Treat Part 2

I wanted to take another day to share what I learned with the different brownies and now cookies. I had the thought to just put the brownies in little muffin tins and when I tried that the outsides grew up the sides of the tins and were flat in the center. They tasted OK but looked horrible. My sister suggested that I add some flour and use the higher altitude suggestion. I did that and then tried mixing in some flavored chips into the cups. I wanted to try some different options so I mixed some in. Put some at the bottom, sprinkled some on the top etc. I wanted all the different flavors to have something different on the top as well so we could distinguish the difference between the flavors so I could put them on different platters.

I then baked them and they came out great. The one's with the chocolate chips on top weren't very good. The chocolate baked and became dry. I think the one's with the chips in the middle were best. I put heath bar sprinkles on the tops of the peanut butter chip brownies and put blue sprinkles (wedding color blue) on the top of the dark chocolate chip brownies and left the one's with cinnamon chips with nothing on top.

I made about three different batches trying different things and took some up for the wedding couple to try. They liked them all. That batch was a bit dry as I added a bit too much flour but I have been timing them to get the best baking time and also think it would bake better if I used non-stick baking spray on the top of the sheet as a few over flowed and stuck to the top of the pan. The added flour suggestion made them rise like muffins would.

I baked one tray for 14 minutes, one tray for 15, one tray for 16 , and one tray at 17 minutes. I baked them at 350 degrees and I liked the one's baked at 16 minutes the best.

I froze some for a few days and then we ate some and they tasted great. We did like the heath bar on the peanut butter and those went first.

I was talking with my friend about what I was going to do and she told me that she does the same thing with cookie dough. I have never seen that before so I came right home and tried it with some frozen cookie dough that I have. I bought a case of several different flavors which I have used for family gatherings and when we need to take treats somewhere. I pulled out some of the smaller cookies which are the sugar cookies. I cut it into half and then thirds to see which worked better. I also pulled out some coconut/pecan cookies and those are a bit bigger cookie. I cut those into quarters and thirds and put some into the mini muffin cups. I also sprinkled some crushed candy canes onto the sugar cookies to give them color and flavor and then some blue sprinkles onto some of the coconut cookies.

I baked them at 350 degrees and checked them at 10, 11, 12 and 13 minutes and the baking time was good between 13 and 14 minutes. I pulled them out and they didn't last long as kids could smell them and came running.

The ones I show first above were the 1/4 coconut cookie and 1/3 of the sugar cookie. The sugar cookie did what the first batch of brownies did. They rose on the sides and sunk in the middle. In the second picture above, I used 1/2 of the sugar cookie and 1/3 of the coconut cookie and they are almost to the top of the paper.

Because they are pre-made cookie dough, there isn't much I can do to the sugar cookies to make them not fall in the middle so I had a light bulb moment and stuck a Hershey's kiss in the middle of the fallen cookie upside down and stuck them back into the oven for a few minutes to melt the "kiss" into the fallen cookie hole. I had the oven off but it was warm from baking them. I then sprinkled some crushed candy cane onto the tops of the melted chocolate.

I liked the chocolate in the middle so I think I may make some of those as well as trying some other cookies I have frozen. It will save me money not having to use the chocolate chips as I do in the brownies. The reason I didn't want to use the cookie dough I had was that I was worried they would get crushed or crumbled in transit to the wedding. Now, I can use the cookie dough I already have and clean out the freezer at the same time. I kept some and froze them along with the brownies to make sure they will freeze well once baked so that I can make them all ahead of time and just take them up made.

I learned that 1/3 to half of a large cookie will fill a small muffin tin and and for sure half of the smaller cookie. I liked the crushed candy cane on top. I think I may do that on the dark chocolate chip brownies and use the blue sprinkles for the cinnamon one's since the sprinkles don't taste, it won't matter.

Princess number 1 didn't want any Christmas decorations but said I could use the crushed canes so I will! I am learning so much doing this wedding. Perhaps it will save you some trials if you ever have to do something like this!