​Dense chocolate fudge brownies made even more delicious with walnuts and espresso chips!

Ingredients:
1 stick of butter or margarine
8 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 ¼ cups white, granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
¾ teaspoon salt
3 eggs – beaten
¾ cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/2 cup of espresso chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts.

Optional: if you prefer, the espresso chocolate chips and walnuts can be omitted from this recipe. Your brownies will still be delicious!

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line an 8-inch square baking dish with foil or parchment paper. If using foil, spray lightly with a cooking spray like Pam for Baking. Set aside.
In a large saucepan, over low heat, melt butter (or margarine) and chocolate chips together. Don’t be tempted to add more than the 8 ounces of chocolate. Trust me, this is plenty! Once the butter and chocolate have melted completely, remove saucepan from stove top. Add sugar and stir. Add vanilla and salt. Stir until completely combined. Add the 3 beaten eggs and stir until the mixture is smooth. Gently fold in the flour until combined but don’t over mix. If you’re using the espresso chocolate chips and walnuts, add them in. Spread batter evenly in your prepared pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before cutting!

*** Check brownies at the 45-minute mark to see if they’re done. The top will be just slightly firm. Turn off the oven. Let the brownies finishing baking in the still warm oven for the last 5 minutes. ***

*** This recipe calls for ¾ cup flour. It’s the perfect amount. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup then level off any excess by running a knife over the top of the measuring cup so it’s a leveled amount. Also, when adding the flour to the chocolate batter, resist the impulse to over mix. Gently mix until it’s combined. This recipe doesn’t use baking soda. If you over mix the batter, your brownies will be flat. ***

​I’ve been making Blondies forever. They’re delicious! Sort of a cookie, sort
of a brownie – minus the cocoa powder.
Directions:
Line an 8 inch square baking pan with foil or parchment paper. If using foil, spray lightly with a cooking/baking spray such as Pam. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients:
Step 1:
In a medium sized bowl whisk the following ‘dry’ ingredients together,
then set aside:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
Step 2:
In a larger bowl combine the following ingredients together until creamy:
½ cup of butter or margarine
½ cup of dark brown sugar
½ cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 egg.
Step 3:
Now add your dry ingredient (flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt) to the creamed ingredients. Mix completely - until the batter pulls away from the sides of the bowl. This is to make sure the flour and butter combine thoroughly and don’t separate while baking.

Now stir in: 1/2 cup of chocolate chips (I like a combination of dark chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate) and ½ cup of butterscotch chips. I also add 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. If you don’t like nuts, this is optional.
Step 4:
Spread Blondie batter evenly in your prepared 8 inch square pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes – or until golden brown. Cool in the pan. Enjoy!

***** For a decadent treat, top warm Blondies with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and a drizzle of hot fudge! *****

Bananas always seem to ripen, and over ripen, at the same time. What to do? Make cookies! Over ripe bananas add lots of sweetness, so you don't need as much sugar in these cookies. With no added preservatives, these taste best the day you make them.

Recipe makes about 3 dozen small cookies.

Ingredients:
1 or 2 ripe bananas - the equivalent of a ½ cup, well mashed with a fork
1/3 cup unsalted butter or margarine (at room temperature)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
                                                              1 teaspoon of vanilla
                                                              1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
                                                              1 teaspoon baking powder
                                                              ½ teaspoon salt
                                                              3/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
                                                              ½ cup of chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

​Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Line baking pans with parchment paper or foil. If using foil, spray lightly with Pam or other baking spray. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl mix flour, baking powder and salt together. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream the banana, butter or margarine, sugars, vanilla and egg together until well combined. Add the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips and chopped nuts if you’re using them.
4. Dough will be soft so let it chill in the fridge for a ½ hour, or until it’s easy to handle.
5. Place rounded teaspoon sized scoops of dough (I like to use a small ice cream scoop) on your prepared baking pans and bake 9 to 11 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cookies cool on the pan. Enjoy!

 
*** Store in an airtight container. Because of the bananas, these cookies do not freeze well. ***
​

​Ten years ago, I made these cookies for my family. They have the perfect combination of spicy ginger with molasses, allspice and cinnamon. They're so good I’ve been baking them ever since! 
​Recipe: makes about 3-4 dozen cookies.

Ingredients:
4 ½ cups of all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 generous teaspoon Jamaican allspice or regular allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup shortening
½ cup unsalted sweet cream butter or margarine – softened
4 teaspoons of chopped or minced ginger
2 eggs
½ cup dark molasses

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, set aside 1 cup of coarse sugar such as Damara or raw cane sugar to roll the cookie dough in.  If you don’t have Damara or raw cane sugar, you can use regular granulated sugar.
2. Preheat your oven to ‘350 F’ degrees.
3. Line baking pans with foil or parchment paper. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on low speed, beat the butter, shortening, sugar and ginger together. Add the eggs, then the molasses. Beat until the mixture is completely combined.
5. Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and salt. Mix until completely combined.
6. To make the cookies, scoop 2 tablespoons of dough into balls. I use a medium-sized ice-cream scoop, to make sure they’re all the same size. Roll the balls of dough in the coarse sugar. Then place the dough on your prepared pans. Make sure the cookies are about 2 inches apart because they spread while they bake.
7. Using the middle rack of your oven, bake one pan at a time, for 10-12 minutes or until the tops of the cookies have crackled and are golden brown. Allow the cookies to fully cool on the baking pans.

***** Oven temperatures vary, check your cookies at the 10-minute mark. If they aren’t done, bake for an additional minute at a time. To tell if they’re baked, touch the tops of the cookies. If your finger leaves an indentation, they need a few more minutes in the oven. *****
 
‘Half Hot’ (rum & ginger cookies)
Here’s an ‘adults only’ cookie variation. In Bermuda we call people ‘half-hot’ when they’re halfway to having too much to drink. ‘Full-hot’ means they’re drunk!
Use the same recipe and baking directions for gingersnaps but add 1 to 2 tablespoons of dark rum (in Bermuda we use Gosling’s Black Seal Rum) to the cookie dough at the same time you’re adding in the molasses. I suggest starting with one tablespoon of rum and add more to your taste.
Roll the cookies in coarse sugar before baking or glaze them once they’ve baked and fully cooled with the rum glaze shared below.
Rum glaze – whisk together ½ tablespoon of dark rum with a ¼ cup shifted powdered sugar. If the glaze is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick, add more rum, a ½ teaspoon at a time.