SMiLes by Meg

Small Batch Boxed Mix Brownies

In my former life as a teacher, I used to bake for my students as a treat every so often. I’d make some really big batch of a recipe (usually cookies) so I had enough for all of my classes and anyone else that stopped by. Want to know what their absolute favorite thing I ever made was? Boxed mix brownies. Just plain old Duncan Hines brownies. As a baking blogger who thinks that she makes brownies much better than what a box can do, I was pretty offended. But there really is something about a boxed mix brownie that’s

Tahini Shortbread Cookies

So. Many. Cookies. Every year, I make cookie tins for friends and colleagues, and usually spend an entire weekend in my kitchen making the cookies. This was that weekend. Since yesterday at noon, I’ve made 6 different types of cookies, 3 of which are new recipes, and I’m not even done yet (I still have to ice the sugar cookies).  Making cookie tins is a bit of an art. You want to have a cookie to make everyone happy, and different levels of effort/impressiveness. When designing my boxes this year, I decided I needed a couple classics (sugar cookies with

White Chocolate Ginger Cookies

It has been a baking marathon at my parents’ house this week. I have made four separate, brand new, types of cookies AND have the components of a trifle in the works right now. Doing the math, I actually won’t have to bake again until the end of January. And you’ll get new cookie recipes for a month! Which, really, is better than making all four types of cookies at the same time. Because my family is getting dangerously close to kicking me out from what I can tell, since everyone’s main food group has now been cookies for 3