Living the Mad Dash

Y'all, it's late - I know it. But technicallyit's still Valentine's Day. I threatened to post this story a year ago and then- well, life happened. It's back. May your little ones be tucked away in bed and you find yourself blessed with some one-on-one time with your Love.

This is NOT my recipe - all credit goes to the author: Siri Daly. I caught this on a Valentine's Day episode of the Today Show. Frankly, it's worth Googling to watch the entire segment on cooking a special dinner for busy parents. "Just a Few" Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies are delicious and soooo quick to prepare.

Short work is made of a few ingredients that come together to satisfy a taste for chocolate and cookie...but not exactly chocolate cookie. You see, the butter is melted! You don't have to spend time creaming the butter and sugar...you can get on with the good stuff and get these bad boys in the oven.

Because the recipe really is for "just a few" you'll only need small amounts of ingredients. A teaspoon of milk that you can steal from milk that you were going to serve with breakfast? Easy. No one will even notice it's missing.

I did deviate slightly. I added some chopped pecans and skewed my recipe a little more heavily towards the brown sugar than the white. Just the flavors I like. I mean- that WE like.

Just one more pic and I'm sending you to the recipe, I promise! These are always a hit- and they really could be ready in the time it has taken you to read this post. Certainly you'll be able to eat them all by the time your kids stumble out of bed because they smell cookies. Just kidding! I hope they don't wake anybody.

As promised, here's the link to the recipe: http://www.today.com/recipes/just-few-red-velvet-chocolate-chip-cookies-t2056

Happy Valentine's Day! Now go enjoy it.

Easy miniature cheesecakes? Yes, please!

I'm just a home baker. But I do love baking and experimenting with ingredients. I stumbled across this concoction after I'd purchased one of those lifetime supply of cream cheese packages from Costco. I like bagels and all, but there are other things in life! I don't want to forget about these little cheesecakes, so let me write this down.

Brown sugar. Cheesecake. Do I have your attention now, too? I haven't even talked about the potential toppings yet. Just wait and see. I imagine these would do nicely in the freezer for a treat whenever you want (sans topping, of course). I couldn't tell you from this batch because...well...they're all gone.

Here's how I made them...

CHEESECAKE:

2 & 1/2 packs of cream cheese, at room temperature

3 eggs, at room temperature, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup of Chobani Vanilla Greek Yogurt

3/4 cup of brown sugar, packed

Pinch of salt

CRUST:

Muffin tin and liners

1 cup of crushed graham cracker crumbs

4 tablespoons of melted butter

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

Generous pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For the cheesecake, in a standing mixer, using the paddle attachment on medium speed cream the cheese.

As the blocks blend together, add the Greek yogurt until combined.

Add eggs to the mix in three parts. Beat until smooth.

Add vanilla, salt and brown sugar and beat until all ingredients are incorporated.

Equally distribute the batter between the pre-baked crusts (see Crust recipe, below) in the muffin tin.

Return the tin to the oven for about 15-20 minutes.

Start checking in at the 15 minute mark. These little beauties should be very lightly browned around the top edge and the center should not really move (when you open the oven door, it will jostle the tin slightly- this is when you watch the center).

Once done, remove and allow them to cool completely before serving as-is or, if you plan on dressing them up for a night out on the town. Note that the centers will deflate a little bit once they're out of the oven and cooling. Do not be sad. This makes a perfect little crater to add toppings to.

For the crust, in a large bowl, combinegraham cracker crumbs, salt and brown sugar.

Drizzle the melted butter over the mix. Incorporate the butter into the mix by hand, clumping the mix as you go.

Line muffin tin with paper cupcake liners. Equally distribute the crust mix between your liners.

Pack crust mix along the bottom of the liners, using your thumb to really compact this buttery goodness down.

Bake crust in the oven for about 10 minutes.

The brown sugar in this recipe adds an extra "Mmmmm" kind of warmth from within. I might have mentioned already that these cheesecakes like to party. And, on a whim, I added some toppings that made them "MMMMMMM!!!!!" kind of good. Either of these options would be a nice way to impress your darlings too.

A caramel apple cheesecake, perhaps? Crunchy pecans, tart and crisp Granny Smith Apple chunks, with a velvety caramel sauce drizzled on top. Whipped cream on the side was important for me.

And then there was the Turtle cheesecake. Dark chocolate sauce, those crunchy pecans and gooey caramel sauce all over again. Note to myself: whipped cream could have been nice, but wasn't totally necessary.

So, anyway. I'll make these again. For sure.

I love ideas for other toppings, so, if you have some- share them with the rest of us in the comments below. I hope this recipe works out for someone else as well as it did for me.

Don't forget to follow along on Instagram: @livingthemaddash