Nom Nom Creations

Merry Christmas, Tumblr! We at Nom Nom Creations hope you had a fabulous holiday complete with family, fun, and frosting!

Apple Pie Muffins! I made these muffins yesterday for my staff Christmas party and they were a hit! They were really easy to make and unsurprisingly delicious.

Muffins:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup half and half
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 cups diced apples

Topping:

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp melted butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Mix dry ingredients in large mixing bowl, mix wet ingredients (with apples) in small bowl. Add wet mixture to dry mixture; mix well. Mix topping ingredients in small bowl. Grease muffin pan (or fill with paper muffin cups), scoop batter into pan, and sprinkle topping mixture over batter. Bake 25 minutes.

P.S. They will smell VERY GOOD as they’re baking, but be wary not to take them out before they’re done!

(Source: nomnomcreations.com)

Coconut Macaroons! These strangely cute little guys are melt-in-your-mouth and perfect to snack on when you’re craving something sweet. Made of mostly shredded coconut, these macaroons are really easy and quick to make, and will be a hit with whomever tries them! FYI: to make this many little macaroons, I doubled the recipe that is listed here.

1 large egg white
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp almond extract
3/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Butter a baking sheet, then line with foil and lightly butter and flour foil, knocking off excess flour.

Stir together egg white, sugar, vanilla, almond extract, and a pinch of salt until combined, then stir in coconut. Drop mixture onto baking sheet with a spoon. 

Bake until tops are pale golden in spots, 15-20 min, then carefully lift foil with macaroons from baking sheet and transfer to a rack to cool completely, about 15 min. Peel macaroons from foil.

Dip in chocolate, if desired.

Snickerdoodles! For those who don’t know, snickerdoodles are cookies. Delicious cookies. They melt in your mouth and are just the right amount of sweet. The best part? They’re just as easy to make as sugar cookies or chocolate chip cookies! Let’s get started.

Cookies:

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup butter or margarine (I used butter)
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

(Source: tonedcurves, via thecakebar)

Sweetness Spotted! Check out these beautiful cakes! Red Velvet and Godiva cakes at the Crave Cafe in Sherman Oaks, CA.

Chocolate Chip Almond Waffles! Who says breakfast can’t be sweet? These waffles are made from scratch and perfect to eat right off of the griddle.

Get out your waffle maker! Oh, and preheat it, too.

 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup cooking oil
2 egg whites
Chocolate chips
Crushed almonds

In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, and 1/2 tsp salt. In a small mixing bowl, beat egg yolks with a fork. Beat in milk and cooking oil. Add to flour mixture all at once. Stir mixture until blended but slightly lumpy.

In a small mixer bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold beaten egg whites into flour-milk mixture, leaving a few fluffs of egg white. Do not over-mix!

Pour batter onto grids of a preheated, lightly-greased waffle maker. Sprinkle chocolate chips and almonds throughout the baking batter. Close lid quickly; do not open during baking. Use a fork to help lift the baked waffle off of the grid.

Yum!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake Balls! You heard me right. These are cake balls with cookie dough inside of them. If you want to dress these up a little bit, pop them onto a lollipop stick, and you’ve got cake pops! Oh, the versatility! The best part is that the cookie dough has no eggs in it, so your mom couldn’t get too mad at you for eating a few of these…

Cookie Dough:

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
7oz sweetened condensed milk
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup finely chopped chocolate

Cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla. Mix in the sweetened condensed milk, then the dry ingredients. Then stir in the chocolate chips. Set aside.

Chocolate Cake:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup +2 tbsp oil
1 egg+ 1 egg white
3/4 cup yogurt
1/4 - 1/2 cup chocolate frosting

Chocolate for coating

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease any kind of cake or brownie pan. Sift dry ingredients together. Stir in the wet ingredients until fully combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. After 5 minutes, turn out the cake onto a cooling rack and set aside.

Scoop about 1 heaped tsp of cookie dough (depending on how much cookie dough you want in each ball), and roll into a ball. Feel free to dust the cookie dough with flour if it sticks too much to your fingers as you roll it into a ball. Place on a cookie tray lined with baking paper. Repeat until all cookie dough is used up. Refrigerate.

Once the cake is completely cool, crumble it into a bowl. Stir in enough frosting so that you get a consistency where the mixture will stick together when squeezed. Scoop tablespoons of cake ball mixture into your hand and flatten it out into a circle in your palm. Wrap this circle of cake ball mixture around a cookie dough ball, roll slightly with your hands, then place back into the cookie tray. Repeat until all cookie dough is used, then refrigerate while you melt your chocolate.

When the chocolate is melted, remove the cookie dough cake balls from the fridge and dip one at a time into the chocolate. Place back onto lined cookie tray. Put in the fridge to set.

Pumpkin-Oreo Cheesecake Bars! Think of cheesecake. Now think of pumpkin, a fall favorite. Now, think of them together, and you get these delectable Pumpkin-Oreo Cheesecake Bars. With a classic Oreo crust, these bars have just the right amount of crunch in the crust to go with the sweet and smooth cheesecake. Come try these out for yourself! You won’t be sorry.

1 lb package Oreo cookies
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
3 8-oz packages cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup pure pumpkin, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or, a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves)
1/2 tsp salt
3 large eggs, room temperature

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line a 9x13 in pan with foil, leaving a 2 in overhang on two sides. Spray with cooking spray.

Crust:
Place 28 Oreos in a food processor until finely ground (or, do as I did and put them into a plastic bag and crush them that way). Pour into a large bowl, add the melted butter, and stir in a flexible spatula until all crumbs are moistened. Place the cookie-crumb mixture in the lined pan and, with your fingers, press the mixture firmly and evenly into the bottom. Bake 10 min, and then remove to cool while making the filling, leaving the oven on. Snap the remaining Oreos in half, put them in the food processor (or plastic bag), and turn on and off quickly a few times, just until the cookies are roughly chopped.

(Nom Nom note: My family and I ate the extra Oreos before I realized I needed to put them into the cream cheese mixture, so my version doesn’t include that part.)