This post is sponsored by DOVE® Chocolate.

It's Thanksgiving week and it's always a time I use to reflect on what I'm grateful for.

I'm extremely grateful for my health, earlier this year I was really sick and ended up in the hospital. Now that I'm recovered, I'm extremely grateful for the care I received and am thankful for my health. It's so important to appreciate what you have…I know you know. It's so important and that's what makes a fulfilled life!

Last year, while I was traveling, I had these amazing chocolate blondies with walnuts in them…I filed this away telling myself, one day I have to come up with a recipe for my own version!

These DOVE Chocolate Promises…the milk chocolate ones are the best for this recipe! But if you prefer dark chocolate, you can use those instead!

I unwrap the chocolates and cut them into 6 or 8 pieces each.

It makes about one cup.

I also chop up the walnuts. Then, I measure out the dry ingredients in another bowl.

Beat one egg in another mixing bowl and add the brown sugar.

Mix in the melted butter and vanilla extract.

I mix in half of the flour mixture at a time. Don't over mix!

This is what the batter looks like…and we're almost done!

Add the chopped up DOVE Chocolate PROMISES and the walnuts.

Fold it in…

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spray an angled spatula (I cover the pan for easy clean-up and spray it with baking spray too; makes it really easy to remove the blondies from the pan after baking too).

Smooth out the top.

Before cutting the blondies up, make sure they are completely cool so you can get nice clean cuts. Of course, if you can't wait, that's okay too. But make sure to let them cool at least 15 to 20 minutes then.

You WILL love these! Serve them at Thanksgiving for a different treat. Put them into little baggies and give them out as favors. Your family and friends will thank you!

The holidays always bring us a tremendous amount of joy; the time we get to spend with family and friends, we treasure it. I would love to hear what you do to #ChoosePleasure, share with me in the comments below or on social media (make sure you tag me @thelittlekitchn).

I #ChoosePleasure by baking sweet treats for family and friends. I make sure to make cookie dough ahead of time and freeze it so it's quick and easy; all I have to do is bake them and it makes for a nice sweet treat for when they come to visit.

So tell me: how do you #ChoosePleasure to live life fully?

Print

Milk Chocolate Walnut Blondies Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 16 to 20 bars

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg beaten
• 3/4 cup 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup unwrapped & chopped DOVE® PROMISES® Silky Smooth Milk Chocolate about 18 pieces
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions

• Heat oven to 325 degrees F.
• Prep the chocolate and the walnuts. (I cut each of the DOVE® PROMISES® Silky Smooth Milk Chocolates into 6 or 8 pieces each.)
• Cover an 8-inch square pan in foil and spray generously with baking spray.
• In a medium-sized mixing bowl, add flour, baking soda and salt. Mix with a rubber spatula and set aside. In another mixing bowl, add egg and brown sugar. Using an electric hand mixer, cream the egg and sugar together. Add the melted butter and vanilla extract, mix well with the mixer.
• Add half of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix with the rubber spatula. Be careful not to over mix your batter. Add the remaining flour and repeat.
• Add the chopped DOVE® PROMISES® Silky Smooth Milk Chocolates and the walnuts, folding in with your rubber spatula, being careful to not over mix.
• Add the blondie batter the prepared pan. Smooth out the batter so it’s evenly distributed throughout the pan and smooth on top (I spray an angled spatula with baking spray and use the spatula to smooth the batter).
• Bake for 28 to 30 minutes. The top will be dry and flaky and when you insert a toothpick in the center, it should come out with flaky crumbs.
• Carefully remove (because it will be really hot) blondies while holding foil and place on a wire cooling rack to cool. For the best looking squares, allow to cool completely (at least 4 hours). If you can’t wait that long, allow them to cool at least 15 to 20 minutes before cutting into 16 to 20 squares.

Disclosure: This post is 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 Milk Chocolate Walnut Blondies 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!

Print

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.

Pin it for Later

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

Can we have a heart to heart now? It's the end of August which also means we're onto Labor Day weekend (here in the US). Where has the time gone? I'm not ready for the end of summer yet. See? I'm still making pesto with the basil from my kinda sorta pathetic herb garden. I'm actually going to need to cut my plant back more and make even more pesto. Into the freezer it will go!

I keep seeing posts on twitter and facebook about pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks. I'm not ready yet. I'm still into pesto and tomatoes. And I even have a couple of more pesto-related recipes to share with you next week. This Florida girl is holding onto summer as long as she can.

Have you ever made pesto before? Then, you know how easy it is. If you haven't, it's soooo easy, here's a video too! I used my KitchenAid 12-Cup food processor but I even tried it with my blender and it worked great!

Do you remember your first time eating pesto? Growing up, I'm first generation American, we had a lot of Vietnamese food at home so I don't remember having pesto pasta until I graduated high school. I received a scholarship from a really nice family who tragically lost their son his sophomore year of college in a drunk driving incident. The other car's driver was driving drunk and unfortunately Chad Bogan lost his life. The scholarship was named in his honor and I was honored to receive it. Chad's parents took me out to dinner because they wanted to meet me in person and to present me with the check for the scholarship. They took me to a really nice restaurant and I ordered pesto pasta. It was amazing and that started my love for pesto. It's amazing how some food memories are tied so deeply with a life moment, accomplishment or a memory…I wonder if that's the same for you? I remember that meal so well and the kindness and thoughtfulness that Chad's parents showed me. Their generosity in the midst of tragedy has stayed with me all of these years.

I only started to make my own pesto at home a couple of years ago and it's incredibly easy as long as you have plenty of fresh basil. Serve it over your favorite pasta (or even try homemade pasta) or make my pesto caprese fried wontons. Look out for more recipes coming at you soon made with pesto!

I used walnuts in my recipe because A. walnuts are less expensive than pine nuts and B. because we found out Curtis is allergic to pine nuts a few years ago.

Recipes you can try with pesto sauce!
Pesto Caprese Fried Wontons
Pesto Guacamole
Whole Wheat Rotini with Meyer Lemon and Arugula Pesto
Pesto Pasta Stuffed Tomatoes
Pesto Meatballs
Sundried Tomato Polenta Bites

Print

Basil Pesto with Walnuts Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 2 1/4 cups approx.

Ingredients

• 3 cups packed basil leaves
• 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese grated
• 1/2 cup walnuts chopped
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 2/3 cups olive oil

Instructions

• Add all ingredients except olive oil to a food processor. If you're using a blender, add the olive oil and then the other ingredients.
• While hitting the pulse button, stream in the olive oil until completely processed. Add more salt and pepper if needed. Store in the refrigerator or freezer. Add a layer of olive oil on top to prevent the pesto from browning.
• Add to your favorite pasta and serve with parmesan cheese.

Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post.

The post How to Make Pesto (Video) appeared first on The Little Kitchen.