SMiLes by Meg

S’mores Blondies

November might be a weird time to make s’mores-themed things, but I think campfires carry into the fall. Also, my running offer is that any first year (or I guess we’re now second years?) in the corporate group at work can request whatever they want for their birthday. Taylor wanted something s’mores, and these blondies looked like the best way to accomplish that. Start by pulsing the graham crackers in a food processor until they are finely ground. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and pulse a couple more times to combine. In a stand mixer fitted with the

Elwynn Cookies

Guess what? Thursday is Elwynn’s adoption day! One year ago this Thursday (October 17), I brought Elwynn home from the Animal Rescue League of Boston, and I cannot imagine a better companion for the past year. He has brought me nothing but joy. He cuddles. He loves when I come home from work (mostly because I feed him). He is adorable. He meows back to me when I meow at him. He is pure perfection. So obviously I wanted to make something this week to celebrate him. I came across a recipe for chocolate shaped cookies last year, and, paired

Devil Dogs

One of my favorite places to look for inspiration for this blog is my mom’s recipe box. She has all of these cards from her mom and family, handwritten and passed down. A lot of things I’ve made for the blog come from those cards. This week, I started thinking I was going to make apple crisp. My mom said Grammy had a good recipe, so I opened up the box. I found an apple pie recipe, but then I found something even more exciting: devil dogs. Devil dogs are kind of like whoopie pies, but longer and with a

Cookie Dough Ice Cream

My favorite ice cream is cookie dough ice cream. It always has been. My favorite cookie dough ice cream is from Farfar’s in Duxbury, and is served with M&Ms because they don’t have sprinkles. So, having just finished my sixth year of this blog, I was SHOCKED to find out I had not yet made cookie dough ice cream. I’ve made a couple varieties of vanilla ice cream base over the years. I could have used one of those again, but cookie dough ice cream is special to me, and deserved the best. So I pulled out a book I

Kitchen Sink Cookies

I was shocked that I hadn’t baked kitchen sink cookies for SMiLes by Meg yet. I feel like all I make is cookies, and that I must have already covered all of the standards. Chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, gingerbread, sugar cookies… I seriously thought I’d hit them all. Then, I was sitting in Alaska trying to decide what to bake that would be a good treat to bring hiking, and was thinking about how nice it would be to have a big chunky cookie full of fun stuff. Which, obviously, made me think of kitchen sink cookies. I searched it quick

Chocolate Peanut Butter S’mores

I’d love to tell you a cute story about my weekend, but I’m trying to beat the buzzer getting this posted on Sunday. TL;DR: Erik visited, which made it my absolute favorite weekend of the summer, despite working over the holiday. Now for some baking! First, make the peanut butter cookies. Start by grinding up the peanuts in a small food processor. n a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium high speed for about 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk and beat to combine. Add the maple syrup

Whopper Cookies

This recipe comes from a text Erik sent me (probably a month ago) saying that I HAD to make these cookies and how good they were. Well, he’ll be here in 3 days, and he wasn’t wrong – I just hope there’s still some left when he gets here! First, melt some butter. And by some, I mean quite a bit. Next, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sugar, and brown sugar until no lumps remain. Add the eggs and vanilla extract

Ginger Lime Pie

Happy Father’s Day to the best Daddy-o around! This week, because I was going out to Duxbury, I obviously had to make something for my dad. Unfortunately, I’ve already made a lot of things he likes: whoopie pies, icebox cake, half moons, lemon meringue pie… So I was in a bit of a bind trying to find something good. Then I remembered he LOVES key lime pie. I did a quick search for “lime” on my blog (because this is a recipe I feel like I should have made before), but, fortunately, hadn’t made this particular pie. I was also

Maple Pecan Cookies

This week was a lesson in I-should-have-listened-to-my-five-years-of-baking-blog-experience-gut. I made the batter. I knew it looked too runny to be cookie dough. I triple checked the recipe. I tried to bake it anyway thinking “maybe it won’t spread.” It did spread. And I ended up with cookie pie rather than cookies, and not even good cookie pie at that. Come with me on this journey. First, melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan, swirling occasionally. Pour into a large mixing bowl and set aside to cool. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Millionaire Bars

Last week, I promised to make something with halvah. This week, I bring you: Millionaire Bars. I’m going to keep this post on the shorter side, since I’m typing it before going into the office on Friday, and I’ll be traveling to Portland for the weekend to see what the pacific northwest is all about. Though these take a little bit of work (three separate layers, each with its own instructions), they actually were easy to make during the week. One night, I made the shortbread layer, and let it cool overnight. The next morning, I quickly did the halvah