The Cake Merchant

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

Nutella-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies

This year, I had the opportunity to participate the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. Not only is it a great way to get to know other bloggers, but it helps Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. Since I’ve had chocolate on the brain, I decided to make a chocolate cookie with chocolate chips. Oh, and I threw in a little Nutella, too, because who doesn’t like Nutella?

I sent my cookies to Kelly and Austin, Babcakes Bakery, and Eat Drink Cleveland. I received cookies from Julie’s Eats and Treats, The Gaited Baker, and someone named Christina (I don’t know the name of her blog, but her cookies were really good). Be sure to check out all of their websites for their wonderful creations!

Nutella-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies

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Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Shortbread Cookies

Brown-sugar-cinnamon-shortbread

You know how sometimes I make something, and then I tell you about how it’s my favorite recipe? Ok, I do that a lot, but this time, it’s true! These brown sugar and cinnamon shortbread cookies have bumped these double chocolate cookies from the #1 spot, and are officially my favorite cookies on the blog (at least for this week).

There are several reasons why these are currently my favorite cookies.
1. I love shortbread. Examples: here, here, and here
2. They are super easy to make
3. They go really well with a cup of tea and Downton Abbey
4. It’s fall!

Brown-Sugar-Cinnamon-ShortbreadBrown-Sugar-Cinnamon-Shortbread

Cinnamon really brings back memories of fall for me, and the smell of it in my kitchen can trick my senses into forgetting that it’s 90 degrees out today and incredibly muggy. These cookies not only have cinnamon in the dough, but they’re topped with crystals of cinnamon sugar that I found at a local spice store. If you can’t find the cinnamon sugar crystals, you can make your own, which I’ve included in the recipe section.

Brown-Sugar-Cinnamon-Shortbread

Brown-Sugar-Cinnamon-Shortbread

Some shortbread cookie recipes use cornstarch in addition to the flour in order to give a lighter texture, but I didn’t feel like these needed any. If you’re gentle during the mixing process and don’t over bake these, the texture will be delicate.

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If you like these, check out my Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies!

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Homemade Peanut Butter Dog Treats

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This is Bigsby. He’s my bestie. Isn’t he cute?

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Bigsby loves peanut butter. He also loves chasing cats and chewing on my shoes, but I just can’t condone those things. The peanut butter, however, I can get on board with, so I decided to bake him some treats. He’s always by my side when I’m baking and taking photos, so I thought he deserved something for being such good company.

I’ve been a crazy cat lady for years, so adding crazy dog lady to my list of qualifications isn’t too much of a stretch. I figured I’d just be an all around crazy animal lady and call it good. But seriously, just look at that face…

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To make these treats, I looked at some books and websites to see what ingredients were safe for dogs to eat. I used wheat flour, oats, eggs, peanut butter, and unsweetened apple sauce, which were all ingredients that I had in my pantry anyway. I dumped them in a bowl, stirred them up, rolled ’em out, baked them, and voila! If your dog is allergic to wheat, you can use all oat flour instead, but it might change the texture (your dog probably won’t care). Your dog probably won’t care if you use a bone shaped cookie cutter either, but I thought they were cute. I used the little one to make treats for my 10 lb. dog, and the bigger one to make treats for a friend’s 85 lb. weimaraner.

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dog-treats

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