Chocolate Chip Cookie Squares with Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting

All this week, I agonized over what to make for weekend treats. I didn't really feel like doing a lot of baking but I really wanted chocolate chip cookies. Who doesn't love them, right?

So, this morning, I took my $20 (that is all I allot for baking per week) and went to the store. I knew I already had most of what I would need to make basic stuff but, really, I was extremely lazy. So, I decided to just buy a roll of chocolate chip cookie dough ($3.25) and an 8 oz package of cream cheese ($1.75) and went home to figure something out.

I knew I wanted to make a cookie tart and needed some frosting. Because my mother was nice enough to buy a jar of Nutella the last time she was in the city, I knew I had to include it somehow. And so, my chocolate chip cookie tart was born!

Step One: Gather ingredients

You need one tube of chocolate chip cookie dough (or make your favorite recipe, if you are feeling up to it), 2 cups of powdered sugar, 1/2 stick of room temp. butter, 1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese and 1/2 cup of Nutella. Pre-heat your oven to 350.

Step Two: Release the dough

Cut the dough (make sure it's thawed!) out of the tube or, if you have made your dough, put it into whichever kind of baking dish you want. You can use an actual tart pan or, like me, use an 8x8 inch glass baking dish.

Step Three: Smooth out dough

Make sure the dough is evenly spread out in the pan. You can use your fingers or the bottom of a smooth glass in order to do so. Place inside the oven and bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until the cookie is done.

Step Four: Make the frosting

Just like when you're making normal butter cream frosting, cream together the powdered sugar, butter pieces and cream cheese. It's going to be THICK! To make sure it's thin enough to actually work with, pour in about a teaspoon of vanilla. Once it's incorporated, add in 1/3 of a cup of the Nutella. Beat it in the stand mixer, or with your handmixer, and then, using a spatula, manually fold in the remaining Nutella. Or, you can add more of it to fit your taste. Do NOT put it in the fridge. Leave it out because you will need it to stay at a nice spreading consistency.

Step Five: Let your cookie cool

 Once you pull it out of the oven, allow the cookie to cool for about half an hour.

Step Six: Spread on the frosting:

Evenly spread the frosting over your cookie base. Once you have that done to your liking, place in the fridge until you're ready to serve it or, at the very least, for one hour.

Step Seven: ENJOY!

I know I sure did!

Taking It and Making It Your Own

Why people decide to make baking things difficult is beyond me. They see a photo of something and automatically make themselves believe it's beyond their grasp to make it simply because it looks complicated.

I will now admit that, once, I was the same way. Changing my way of thinking was the best thing I have ever done where food is concerned. You can't look at something, decide it's too "hard" to make and then walk away from it wishing you could do it. Instead, you have to find a way to make IT work for YOU.

That is what I did today with these brownies.

People complain about boxed mixes way too much. What they don't understand is that, for the most part, everything in a mix is what you'd put into it yourself when you're baking from scratch. All the "added" things, well, have you looked at what's really in your all-purpose flour or even your confectioner's sugar? Yeah. The fact that there is a list of things in them isn't all that different, is it?

You have your basic Triple Chunk Brownie Mix.

You can get this at pretty much any grocery store in America and they are amazing on their own. But, what if you want to spruce things up a bit, make them more special?

Adding candy is a good way to do that. But, don't put it IN the mix, put it on TOP of it.

After a bit of debate over plain chocolate or something else, I picked up a bag of Ghirardelli milk chocolate caramel filled squares. Again, something you can find just about anywhere that sells candy. Don't believe me? I bought my bag at Dollar General for $3.50. The price might sound steep for a bag of only a few squares but they're worth it. An affordable luxury, if you will.

All I did was make the brownies according to the directions on the box and, as soon as they were out of the oven and still piping hot, placed rows of the unwrapped squares along the top so the chocolate would melt to the brownie, making sticking a fork through it much easier when you're ready to eat it.

With brownies, anything is possible! Just use your imagination. But, in case your imagination is lacking, here are a few ideas of the candies and such you can use to top your favorite brownies:

• Hershey's Cookies N Cream bars
• Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark
• Heath Bars
• Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
• Crushed chocolate Pocky sticks
• Flavored marshmallows (such as gingerbread)
• Cadbury Dairy Milk bars
• Almond Joy bars

(All photos used here are my own and have been watermarked as such.)