This post is sponsored by DOVE® Chocolate.

Valentine's Day is coming up and like I shared with you before we like to stay home on that special day. We cook dinner together and my favorite part is always dessert!

One of things that we are big on in our house is saying “I love you” but we also say “I love you” with chocolate! I'm sharing these amazing Chocolate Chunk Skillet Cookies with you that I made in mini cast iron skillets.

We all know it's important to show the ones you love right? But it's just as important to show yourself some love. I plan to do this this Valentine's Day with this skillet cookies recipe…and having a few bites! I'll even share some with Curtis!

First, I cut up the DOVE Milk Chocolate PROMISES into about 6 pieces each, this will be the chocolate chunks for the cookies.

I always love the quotes and sayings in the DOVE PROMISES!

I process the oats in a food processor. I love adding these to chocolate chunk/chip cookies. So good!

Then, I measure the dry ingredients out and mix together. Set aside.

Add butter and sugars to another mixing bowl. Use an electric hand mixer to cream the butter and both sugars.

Then, add the egg white and vanilla extract. Mix thoroughly.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet in two batches, carefully with a rubber spatula.

Then, gently fold in the DOVE Milk Chocolate PROMISES.

Split the dough in half between two seasoned 5-inch cast iron skillets.

Use an angled spatula to smooth out the dough and spread it across the skillet.

Bake for 12 minutes at 350 degrees.

Make sure you allow them to cool at least for 15 minutes and always be careful handling the skillets, they will be hot!

Serve the skillet cookies with vanilla ice cream and a couple more DOVE Milk Chocolate PROMISES on top!

Now it's your turn to tell me how you say “I love you” to yourself this Valentine's Day. Be sure to share with the hashtag #ChoosePleasure and share with @DoveChocolate’s new Instagram page!

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Chocolate Chunk Skillet Cookies Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 2 mini cookie skillets

Ingredients

• 1 cup chopped unwrapped DOVE® Milk Chocolate Hearts (about 20 pieces), (plus more for garnishing)
• 2 Tablespoons rolled oats
• 2/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• a pinch of ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter 1/2 stick, softened
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg white
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

• Cut up DOVE® Milk Chocolate Hearts into 6 or 8 pieces each.
• In a food processor, process 2 Tablespoons of rolled oats. Add to a mixing bowl with flour, baking soda, salt and ground cinnamon. Mix with a rubber spatula and set aside.
• Add butter and brown sugar to a medium-sized mixing bowl. Using an electric hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together, about 60 seconds. Add vanilla extract and the egg white. Mix thoroughly.
• In two batches, add the mixed flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Carefully fold in with the rubber spatula. Don’t overtax. Add the DOVE chocolate pieces and fold in until combined. Chill the dough for at least three hour. (The dough can be made ahead of time.)
• Add the cookie dough to two 5 or 6-inch seasoned cast iron skillets. Use an angled spatula sprayed with baking spray to spread the cookie dough so it’s evenly spread out and the top is smooth.
• Bake for 14 to 16 minutes at 350 degrees F, or until cookie dough is baked through to desired doneness. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack and allow to cool at least 15 minutes.
• Serve with ice cream and unwrapped DOVE Milk Chocolate Hearts on top.

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by DOVE Chocolate. All opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting brands that I work with, it allows me to keep doing what I love; sharing on The Little Kitchen.

The post Chocolate Chunk Skillet Cookies appeared first on The Little Kitchen.

Originally published on May 24, 2013, I updated this post to include step by step photos.

There are affiliate links in this post. I get commissions for purchases made through these types of links in this post. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Cookies! Okay, sooo I have an obsession with cookies and chocolate chip cookies. Each one I have made, I call them the best ever! Now everyone thinks I'm lying. I guess I have to say I have three favorite recipes. The recipe I'm sharing with you today is now in the top three too.

Have you stayed at a Doubletree Hotel before? They give you these fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies and they are heaven. I'm so happy to have found a recipe in my searches, so I can make them at home! And I have to say, these taste even better at home. Once you make them for family and friends, they will ADORE you!

I made these cookies for our food blogger bake sale this year! Huge thanks go out to all of the bloggers who participate this year: Katie’s Cucina (my co-organizer! here's her recap), Kokocooks, Forkful, Live Pretty, Simply Southern Baking and My Sweet Zepol. We raised almost $700 for Share our Strength! And huge thanks go out to the Winter Garden Harvest Festival — they let us combine our bake sale with their festival which was a blast!

There's our great group! What a lovely bunch of ladies!

First things first, pulse the oats in a food processor.

I usually will pulse at least 2 cups worth and store the rest in a jar in the pantry so I have some ready to go the next time I'm making these DoubleTree Hotel chocolate chip cookies again!

I measure out and mix the oats, flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together with a rubber spatula.

In another mixing bowl, add both sugars and the butter.

Cream them together, they will look like this.

Squeeze the lemon.

Add vanilla extract, lemon juice and eggs, mix until smooth.

Add the flour mixture in two batches.

And mix together until just combined. (Don't overmix.)

Add the chocolate chips and the chopped walnuts.

Again don't overmix the dough.

And then portion out the dough using a cookie scoop. I used to make them huge (like you see above) but I like my dough to go further and make even more cookies for sharing or for those late night cravings. So I use a medium sized cookie scoop now (1.5 tablespoons).

Portion the dough out because this makes your life easier. The dough has to chill and I hate trying to scoop out portions when the dough is rock solid from the refrigerator or the freezer. Chill the dough for a few hours and then bake to your heart's content!

And about this DoubleTree cookie recipe…please make them! I put a quick video together on how to make them too! Enjoy!

These chocolate chip cookies are to die for…they are my absolute favorite…I measure all cookies up to these ones!

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DoubleTree Cookie Recipe

Having made these cookies a bunch of times, my favorite semisweet chocolate chips for this recipe are Ghirardelli miniature ones.

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Servings 28 -30 large cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup unsalted butter two sticks, softened
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 large eggs
• 3 cups semi-sweet miniature chocolate chips you can use regular-sized chocolate chips instead
• 1 cup chopped walnuts optional

Instructions

• Pulse oats in a food processor until semi-fine or fine.
• In a small mixing bowl, add the oats, flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Mix thoroughly together with a rubbers spatula or wooden spoon.
• To a medium-sized mixing bowl, add butter, both sugars. Cream together using an electric hand mixer. Add vanilla extract, lemon juice and eggs. Mix until you have a smooth mixture. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bottom of the bowl with a spatula at least once.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix with a spatula, being careful not to overmix. Drop in the chocolate chips and walnuts and mix until both are evenly distributed throughout the cookie dough. Again, be careful not to overmix or they will have a cake-like texture.
• Using a large cookie scoop (3 tablespoons or you can use a medium-sized one to make even more cookies), scoop cookie dough onto a lined baking sheet. Freeze or refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 2 to 4 hours or overnight even.
• To bake: Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Place cookie dough portions onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat at least 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart. Bake for 13 to 14  minutes or until desired doneness (for smaller cookies, bake for 12 to 13 minutes).
• Allow to cool completely on a cooling rack if storing. Store in a sealed container with a slice of sandwich bread to ensure softness of cookies.

Notes

Tip:  Freezing your cookie dough for later, let's you have fresh baked cookies anytime you want them! Here are some tips on how to freeze cookie dough.

An update: I make these cookies ALL the time! I find that miniature chocolate chips work even better than regular-sized. And above is how I first freeze the dough right after making the cookie dough. Check out how to freeze cookie dough.

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The post DoubleTree Cookie Recipe appeared first on The Little Kitchen.

So I recently hosted bunko at my house. I'm in a Bunko group with eleven other ladies, we all take turns and host a different month. The hostess makes an entree and a few other dishes and the other ladies each bring a dish to share. My friend, Kim, brought a candy bar cookie pie…two actually. One made with sugar cookie dough and one made with chocolate chip cookie dough. I asked her how she made it, she said she saw a video on facebook…it's so funny because a couple of days later, I saw the video show up in my news feed.

She used store-bought ingredients and I decided to use what I have — for the candy bars, I had white chocolate peanut butter cups that I bought and had grand plans for…ok, not really, I wasn't sure what I was going to make until this idea popped into my head! I also LOVE Elise's peanut butter cookie recipe and that's the cookie dough I used for these pie bars…and used a square pan to make them pie bars.

I just love when a plan comes together so smoothly!

This is how I make the graham cracker crust by crushing graham crackers with a rolling pin.

And then mix in ground cinnamon and powdered sugar and then 10 tablespoons of butter. I know it's a lot…I actually used the same basic crust from this cheesecake recipe but I wasn't really thinking and put in 10 tablespoons of butter to melt.

It resulted in a more wet crust (hard to describe) and I LOVED IT.

Place in a prepped square pan and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Cut up the white chocolate peanut butter cups!

And then make the peanut butter cookie dough.

Almost done!

Spread half of the cookie dough over the crust.

And add half of the peanut butter cups and push them into the crust. Then repeat with the rest of the cookie dough and butter cups.

These are so good…I'm obsessed with them. Yes, I become easily obsessed but that's what happens. Next time, I'm trying them with chocolate peanut butter cups! Yeah!

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Peanut Butter Cookie Pie Bars Recipe

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Servings 16 bars

Ingredients

Graham Cracker Crust

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs about 13 graham crackers
• a pinch of ground cinnamon
• 1/4 powdered sugar
• 10 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Filling

• 1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter softened
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 24 miniature white chocolate Reese’s peanut butter cups unwrapped and cut in half

Instructions

• Line a 9-inch square pan with with two pieces of parchment paper going opposite ways so you’re creating a sling. Set aside.
• In a small mixing bowl, mix together graham cracker crumbs (I put graham crackers into a zippered plastic bag and use a rolling pin to make them into crumbs), ground cinnamon and powdered sugar. Add melted butter and mix thoroughly. Add crust to the lined square pan and push down with your fingers, as evenly as possible creating a crust. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for an hour.
• Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt with a rubber spatula in a small mixing bowl. In a medium sized mixing bowl, add sugars and butter and mix together thoroughly with the rubber spatula. Add peanut butter and mix again. Then, add the egg and make sure it’s mixed thoroughly.
• In two batches, add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and mix. Take the pie crust pan from the refrigerator. Place half of the cookie dough on the graham cracker crumb crust and spread evenly. Add half the butter cups and press in. Add the rest of the cookie dough and spread evenly (as best as possible). Then add the rest of the peanut butter cups and press them in.
• Place pan in the oven and bake at 350 degrees F for 22 to 24 minutes, until the cookie dough layer is fully baked. You don’t want to overbake or you won’t have soft pie bars. Allow to cool completely and then cut into bars. Save any leftovers in a seal container with a slice of bread to keep the bars soft.

The post Peanut Butter Cookie Pie Bars appeared first on The Little Kitchen.

Recently, we were invited by Princess Cruises on an Alaskan Cruise and I'm so excited to share with you, our adventures!

We had a blast, it was our first cruise. We met some wonderful people, saw some great sights and had a trip of a lifetime!

Quite literally, all of our surroundings in Alaska looked like a postcard…pictures took themselves. I remember, quite fondly, at our first port, in Ketchikan telling our tour guide that I was taking pictures of postcards. In awe, I'm so happy we got to go on this cruise to Inside Passage Alaska…making memories we will cherish for a lifetime.

We both absolutely loved this cheesecake…I ordered it every night we could in the dining room. I was so excited when I found it in the cookbook that they gave us, called Courses: A Culinary Journey. And I'm so happy we get to make it at home now!

I'm going to share with you five things I loved about our Alaskan Cruise…

1) The Desserts

They were amazing. Love love loved our desserts! This one was the Princess Love Boat Dream (chocolate mousse on a brownie!) and it was heart-shaped!

The wonderful cheesecake!

I also had desserts for breakfast every day…we loved the croissants. Curtis' favorite were the chocolate croissants while mine were the almond ones!

And this dreamy dessert was a chocolate raspberry mousse with vanilla creme brulee and crunchy shortbread.

And gelato 24/7!

Gelato makes me smile and reminds me of Italy!

2) Riding a Helicopter and Landing on a Glacier

Look at Curtis' face. Our first time on a helicopter and I just had to take a selfie!

Seriously, we rode a helicopter onto the Mendenhall glacier. What an amazing experience.

It was really cold. That's all I remember. I also remember being in awe of the young women who work on the glacier 12 hours a day, welcoming tour group after tour group and enthusiastically sharing all about the glacier.

And then we got to dine on amazing Alaskan salmon at the Salmon Bake!

3) Seeing a Glacier at Tracy Arm & a Blue Iceberg!

We were one of 170 who got to take part in the Tracy Arm Fjord cruising. Early early early in the morning, we piled on much smaller boats (than our cruise ship) and got to cruise up really close to the Sawyer Glacier.

I got to enjoy the cruise with these lovely ladies and their husbands!

And then we saw a blue iceberg. Our cruise boat captain commented on how she has lived Alaska all her life and this was the most beautiful iceberg she had seen in her life.

It looks like blue icy hot doesn't it? I know it looks almost unreal. It was beautiful seeing it in person.

We learned that the blue ice is the oldest, when it snows and gets cold, the ice compacts and when it's robbed of oxygen, it compacts even more and turns blue.

Seriously, glorious.

4) Ice Cream and Mini Golfing!

I know it was cold but it's never too cold for soft serve ice cream and sprinkles!

And mini gold…with Alaska in our sights…what a fun time and a beautiful sight!

5) Chef's Table Experience

Depending on the number of days, there might be only 1 or 2 chef's table experiences available. You have to book it as soon as you get on board otherwise it books up quickly.

The executive chef and the maitre'd treated us very well to many courses…

A beautiful roasted filet and in the background are mushroom-shapped potatoes. We loved this meal!

And the dessert was a hazelnut chocolate mousse with caramel on top with hazelnut macarons. Dreamyyyy!

And now I must turn your attention back to the cheesecake!

In the world of cheesecakes, it's a really easy recipe…it does take some time in between where you have to allow the cake to cool to room temperature (twice) so it's best to make this during the weekend.

I put the graham crackers in a zippered plastic bag and turn them into crumbs using a rolling pin.

I created a sling with the parchment paper in my 9-inch square baking dish.

All set!

Mix in the ground cinnamon and then the powdered sugar.

Add the melted butter and mix together.

Put into the bottom of the baking dish and use your fingers to pat down the crust.

I love that you don't have to bake this crust…it's much better this way!

Mix the filling.

And then pour over the crust.

And smooth the filling out with a spatula.

Mix the sour cream topping ingredients together.

Nice and smooth.

Smooth it out after pouring over the baked cheesecake filling.

Wash, hull and slice the strawberries.

Marinate the strawberries before blending in a blender.

Every time we make this cheesecake, we'll remember our Alaskan Cruise aboard the Princess Ruby!

And of course Alaska!

I know you'll love this cheesecake recipe! Excuse me while I go cut off another piece and have it for dinner!

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Classic Cheesecake with Strawberry Coulis Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Resting Time 4 hours hours

Total Time 4 hours hours 50 minutes minutes

Servings 1 9-inch square or round cheesecake

Ingredients

Graham Cracker Crust

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs about 13 graham crackers
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 powdered sugar
• 7 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted

Cheesecake Filling

• 4 8 ounce packages of cream cheese, room temperature
• 3 large eggs room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• pinch of salt

Sour Cream Topping

• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Strawberry Coulis

• 2 cups fresh sliced strawberries
• 3 Tablespoons orange liqueur
• 1 teaspoon freshly squeeze orange juice
• 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• fresh strawberries

Instructions

• Place graham cracker crumbs and ground cinnamon in a medium sized mixing bowl and mix together thoroughly with a rubber spatula. Add powdered sugar and mix thoroughly. Add melted butter and mix well.  Prepare a 9-inch round cake pan by cutting a round piece of parchment paper, grease the bottom of the pan and the sides with a nonstick baking spray. Place the parchment paper at the bottom of the pan. If using a 9-inch square pan, cut two long strips of parchment paper and place them in the bottom of the pan, creating a sling.
• Add the graham crack crumb crust to the bottom of the pan (over the parchment paper), use your fingers creating an even layer of crust across the bottom of the pan. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
• Heat the oven to 370 degrees F. Add cream cheese to a large mixing bowl. Using an electric hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add eggs and mix until smooth. Add sugar, lemon juice and salt and mix until well combined. Pour the cream cheese filling over the crust in to the pan. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes at 370 degrees F. The cheesecake will be slightly soft in the middle and should be hot all the way through. (If the cake splits, it is over baked).
• Remove the cake from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Allow to cool to room temperature, at least one hour.
• Add sour cream, sugar and lemon juice to a small glass mixing bowl. Mix together thoroughly with a spoon. Heat the oven to 425 degrees F. Spread the sour cream topping on top of the cheesecake and smooth with a spatula. Bake the cheesecake for another 6 to 8 minutes, just to set the sour cream topping. The cake should not brown at all.
• Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature, at least one hour and 15 to 30 minutes. Once it's room temperature, cover with plastic wrap and allow to chill for at least 2 hours (or overnight) in the refrigerator.
• Mix sliced strawberries, orange liqueur, orange juice and lemon juice in a glass bowl. Allow to marinate for 5 minutes and then add to a blender.
• Serve cheesecake sliced with the strawberry coulis and fresh strawberries.

Be sure to check out my five tips for cruising!

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Princess Cruises. I only share with you brands that I love and share with you my own opinions. There are affiliate links in this post.

The post Classic Cheesecake Recipe & 5 Things I loved about our Alaskan Cruise appeared first on The Little Kitchen.