Auntie Anne's Pretzel Copy Cat recipe! (A Pin a Day #6)

You know what I love about going to the mall? Hint: It's not the parking lot situation.

It's the food court. And even more so, it's the soft hot, freshly baked pretzels, with butter and salt and even though they run you like freaking $4 each, I don't think I can turn one down if I tried.

I figured there had to be a recipe on Pinterest of a tired and true Mall style pretzel shop pretzel, and after sorting through a page or 2 of results, I decided on the Copy Cat version of an Auntie Anne's Pretzel, because good old Auntie Anne is who I was trying to be today.

I had promised Audrey that we would make cinnamon pretzels when I picked her up from day care on Friday, I figured we could make them together and then blog about them. We had a fun day of learning about yeast, and how dough rises and what makes the dough feel so soft and spongy when we roll it out. I think the recipe below is pretty spot on in taste to a mall style pretzel, but we obviously do not have the skill that goes into rolling out and twisting the dough into the famous Auntie Anne's shape. Instead of being big, and thin, ours were more thick and chubby, but they tasted delicious just the same.



 

Homemade Cheez-its!

My family is OBSESSED with cheese crackers. Nary a box makes it out of our house alive or survives for more than a day or two. My step daughter Audrey always asks if she can "have a snack", and her choice du jour is always a cheese cracker. Not only are store bought cheese crackers expensive, but they are LOADED with extra salt and preservatives. I don't know about you, but I've been trying to eliminate those from our lives for a long time. I found a recipe that not only is easy to make, but so closely resembles the look and taste of the ubiquitous cheese cracker that even Charlie was convinced. Special thanks to The Frugal Girls for this tasty recipe!

Homemade, customizable cheese crackers!

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

Crunchy on the outside, gooey in the center.

I love cookies, it's a well known fact that chocolate chip cookies are the end all to be all of cookies. Don't try to contest this, you will not win. I have, over the years, made countless batches of cookies, with almost as many different recipes. It's also a well known fact, just like pizza and sex, that even a bad cookie is still pretty good. But the art of making a perfect cookie is often lost in translation, but we'll get to that in a bit.

I found this recipe online whilst looking for the holy grail of chocolate chip cookies to make for Charlie and his work buddies. I wanted to be the one that all those hungry construction workers begged to make "those amazing cookies" so I really needed a good recipe, cuz let's face it, hungry men aren't that picky. I can't tell you how I found this recipe, because simply put, I don't remember, but I bet it went along the lines of me googling "the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever". What I found was this...

FATCAKES! #1 Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

So for Christmas, Charlie got me a bunch of cupcake cookbooks, and then almost immediately requested a recipe, Snickerdoodle Cupcakes. He's a HUGE Snickerdoodle fan, and I'm a HUGE cupcake fan, so I thought I would start off the new year, and my new FATCAKES! series with Snickerdoodle.

Charlie calls me "Fatcakes" cuz I love to quote a line from iCarly (yes, shut up, sometimes I watch Nickelodeon. Don't judge me.) that Sam says, "Mama knows her Fat Cakes", anyway, it stuck.

Anyway, the FATCAKES series will be a big project for me this year in I hope to go through the entire cupcake recipe books I have a make as many as I can in 365 days. Keep checking up on me and my progress!

SNICKERDOODLE CUPCAKES

These pretty little cupcakes taste EXACTLY like the cookie and are surprisingly easy to make. Makes 28.

You will need:
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2c. cake flour* (NOT self rising)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 sticks butter, room temp
1 3/4 c. sugar
4 large eggs, room temp
2 tsp pure vanilla extract (you all know how I feel about this one)
1 1/4 c. milk

*If you don't have cake flour, or are hard pressed and can't find it, you can use all-purpose flour and substitute out one tablespoon of flour for one tablespoon of corn starch.

Preheat the oven to 350* and line your cupcake pans with papers. Sift together the flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. If you have a sifter, awesome! If not you can use a sieve to sift, or mix well using a fork.

Using an electric mixer, or your handy dandy Kitchen Aid, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy on a medium high speed. If your butter has not come to room temperature, you can cut it up into small cubes, this helps break it down a bit.

Add each egg, one at a time until well incorporated. Beat in vanilla and reduce to a low speed. Add flour and milk by alternating in batches (flour 3, milk 2).

Divide batter into your cupcake pans, until about 3/4 full. I find it easier to scrape down he bowl and transfer the batter into a large plastic or pastry bag and pipe it into the liners. This helps with control and allows for less spills and drips.

Bake cupcakes for about 20 minutes, or until a cake tester (toothpicks or raw spaghetti noodles work well) inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cupcakes cook on a wire rack.

Frost cupcakes with 7 minutes frosting, and dust with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar to make them look perfectly adorable.