Olympic Gold Medal Brownie Batter Hand Pies

I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July! We had a relaxing, easy day filled with swimming, barbecue, and guacamole. And a delish new drink I can't wait to share with you soon!

America's birthday might be over...but the Olympics are around the corner! Now, I'm not a sports person. You know that. But I love the summer Olympics.

When I was a kid, Nadia was my favorite movie everrrr. Like, I watched it constantly. I practically had it memorized.

All of my friends loved it too. At least, I thought they did, because I made them watch it with me.

One of my favorite playtime activities was spreading out a blue tarp on my front lawn and practicing the floor routine. I would become Nadia...except that all I could do was a cartwheel.

I seem to remember making my friends wear their bathing suits while doing all of this play.

Which may have made them hate me...since our front lawn was literally at the busiest four-way stop in town.

Gymnastics used to be the only sport I thought was worth it's weight in Olympic gold. Now, as an adult, I appreciate more of the sports.

Like swimming. For the eye candy, of course.

Duh.

When thinking of an Olympic themed treat, my mind of course went to the gold medal; the symbol of success at the Games.

{Okay, side note: I will also never hear "The Games" and think of the Olympics anymore...am I right?}

And hand pies go so well with medals. I mean, they're round. Super perfect fit!

I was going to fill them with lemon curd or pie filling. Then I saw this post by Hayley and was intrigued. And then of course, there was brownie batter week...and my mind was made up.

The medals needed a strap, of course. I used Air Heads to mold some. You can use any colors...but I thought red and blue would be perfect.

You know, to root for America. But if you're, say, Canadian...you could just use red.

Just watching the gymnastic trials has gotten me in the mood. I wish I could set up a tarp and pretend to be Nadia.

But then I'd probably break something.

Instead I'll just sit and eat gold medals.

Way easier.

This post is proudly a part of the Olympic Party Roundup by Miss Candiquik!

Olympic Gold Medal Brownie Batter Hand Pies

by Crazy for Crust

Ingredients

• 1 cup brownie mix (dry)
• 1 tablspoon water
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 box refrigerated pie crust (2 crusts)
• Cherry and Blue Raspberry Airheads (from a pack of mini Airheads)
• 1 package CandiQuik Candy Coating
• Edible gold spray

Instructions

To Make Hand Pies:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Unroll pie crusts and cut small circles, re-rolling pie crust as necessary. (Depending in the size of cookie cutter, you will get about 24 circles per crust.)
2. Mix brownie mix, water, and oil. Spoon ½ teaspoon of mix on 24 circles. Wet the edges of the pie crust and top with remaining circles. Pinch closed with the tines of a fork.
3. Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet for about 8-10 minutes. Cool completely.
4. To make the medals: Once hand pies are cool, melt your CandiQuik according to package directions. Dip each hand pie in the melts, covering completely. Tap off excess and place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. Chill or freeze to harden. Once the candy is hardened, spray with edible gold spray. Chill to dry.

To make necklace:

1. Cut each Airhead into three strips. (If you are using regular sized Airheads, cut them in half first, so you get six strips.)
2. Heat one red and one blue strip in the microwave for 5 seconds. While warm, roll/stretch them to the desired length.
3. Overlap the two colors slightly and roll with a rolling pin to seal them together. Repeat with two more strips and then press the two strips together to make a necklace.
4. Place a small spoonful of white candy melts on the end of the necklace. Press a hand pie to the melted candy and hold until it sticks. Let dry before serving. Keep chilled, or they will stick.

**Other Hand Pie ideas: pie filling, cookie dough, lemon curd, chocolate chips, peanut butter, Nutella…

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How about you? Will you be watching the Olympics?

I link up to all of these fabulous parties each week!

Chef in Training, Trick or Treat Tuesday, Cast Party Wednesday, Sweet Treats Thursday, Chic-and-Crafty, Tastetastic Thursday, Sweet Tooth Friday, I'm Lovin' it Fridays, Sweets for a Saturday, A Well-Seasoned Life, Strut your Stuff Saturday, Weekend Wrap Up Party, Weekend Potluck, and all of these too!

ICEE Cupcakes {and other fun Softball treats}

Softball season is officially over. It's kind of sad, really, because Jordan loved it so much.

I will not miss having to get dinner ready for her at 4:00 and packing it up in a cooler for Mel and I. Nor will I miss the post-school night-game whining.

I will miss watching Jordan learn how to catch. And watching her hit, without a tee, for entire games.

Last weekend I volunteered to host the end-of-the-year softball party. For 12 first-graders, their parents, and siblings.

Yes, I'm certifiably insane.

But I love doing it. Even when I was going crazy on Friday trying to get the house clean and do last minute prep and make eight dozen mini cupcakes, when I was growling "why do I do this???" at my husband, I still was having fun.

For the cupcakes, I decided to go with a "softball snack shack" theme. You know, that crap you buy while you're bored out of your mind watching your kid play. Popcorn, hot cocoa, Icees, candy.

I made mini cupcakes out of two box mixes, one yellow cake and one chocolate. FYI, that makes a lot of minis. I had no idea how many it would make. Be prepared. Probably 3-4 dozen per box.

{Just because I majored in math, you didn't expect me just know that a mix making 24 regular sized cupcakes would make a whole lot of mini ones, right?}

I made one large batch of homemade buttercream and divided it into four portions to make the four flavors of cupcake.

These ICEE cupcakes were the biggest hit. The frosting is made with cherry jell-o. Joan at Chocolate, Chocolate, and More used Jell-O in cupcakes awhile back and when brainstorming ideas, I came up with these.


~Read More~

Softball Cookies

{Or Baseball Cookies. If you have boys. But then you might want to leave them white. Or dye them blue. Unless your son really likes pink.}

So...remember how much I was dreading softball?

It wasn't so bad. {Yes, I'm eating my crowe and liking it thankyouverymuch.}

One caveat thought...I think I didn't mind it so much because half our season got rained out. If that didn't happen? This would be a totally different post.

Jordan loves softball. She's gotten so much better. She's great at throwing, can hit the ball when she remembers to lift her bat up (something, btw, I am NOT ALLOWED to remind her during games under strict penalty of death by no cookies). Catching...well, she'll get there.

She especially loves how she can sit in the dugout for half the game, and the other half she can dance hip-hop at right pitcher.

And she loves snack. Probably because of the snack bar. They have icees. And soft pretzels (which I, ahem, may have eaten one or ten times).

What I looked forward to during the season?

My snack day. (I know, that's the day most people dread. I'm weird.)

And of course, my snack day was the same day as the teacher luncheon, volunteer tea, and a school night. So I needed something fast, easy, and feezable so I could make it ahead of time.

These are all three of those things.

Enter my Whoopie Pie Deep Dish Cookie Pan.

Seriously, this recipe is even easier than the Deep Dish Thin Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies I made. No chopping of anything. Just press the dough, add some chocolate chips, and bake.

Easy-peasy.

Of course, I also made labels. Because obviously, I have "too much time on my hands" as so many other moms like to tell me.

{We won't go into how I feel about THAT comment.}

I made my own sugar cookie dough for this, because we had a peanut allergy on our team and I was worried about processed foods. But, by all means, use a tube of cookie dough. Dye it your favorite color, and add chocolate chips.

Easiest. Recipe. Ever.

Enjoy!

~Read More~

Soccer Crispy Treats

I am not a sports minded person. Not at all. I never played soccer as a kid. I was more into picking flowers than playing outfield during PE. In fact, I loved the rain back then, because rain meant all the PE classes would play "basketball" in the gym and I could hide out undetected.

However, despite my aversion to sweat and the outdoors, we (along with 99% of other families) enrolled Jordan in soccer. I think she enjoys it. Here is how she plays defense:

I guess the music in her head is louder than her coach yelling "WATCH THE BALL JORDAN!"

She loves the social aspect of sports more than the actual sport itself.

What do I love about soccer season? Snack day. Where most parents shudder at the thought of bringing snacks for the team, I love it. Before the season even starts I'm thinking about what I should make.

These Soccer Crispy Treats were inspired by these adorable treats by Cookies and Cups. The soccer balls are sugar cookies with royal icing. I used a black food writer to make the soccer markings. (Yes, I apparently have way too much time on my hands.)

The one problem with making such cute treats for the soccer stars of tomorrow? They could care less how they look. They barely look at them as they scarf them down in their post-game hunger. But it's the thought that counts, right?

Soccer Crispy Treats

Crispy Treats recipe from the back of the box.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter

1 bag (about 40 large) marshmallows

5 cups crispy rice cereal
1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles

1 tube sugar cookie dough

½ cup chocolate chips

Royal Icing

Black food writer

2 round cookie cutters, one larger than the other

Directions:

1.       Make your rice crispy treats by melting the butter and marshmallows in the microwave on high for two minutes, stirring after one minute. Stir in the crispy rice cereal and sprinkles and press into a 9x13” baking dish that has been lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray. Let cool completely.

2.       Once cooled, remove crispy treats from pan and discard foil. Using a large round cookie cutter, cut circles out of the cooled crispy treats. One 9x13” pan will make about 8-10 rounds, depending on size.

3.       Roll out your sugar cookie dough and cut circles that are a little smaller than the size of your crispy treats. Bake according to package directions. Cool and frost with royal icing.

4.       Using a black food writer, draw soccer ball markings on the sugar cookies. Start with a pentagon in the center of the cookie. Draw a black line from each point of the pentagon to the outside of the cookie. Each line should start a new pentagon, etc.

5.       Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Attach the cookies to the crispy treats with a small dab of melted chocolate. Let harden before serving.

Yield: 8-10 crispy treats. If you need more than that, double the amount of ingredients for the crispy treats. There will be enough sugar cookie dough in one tube for at least 20 round cookies.

This recipe may be linked with:

Monday: Mingle Monday (Add a Pinch), Joy of Desserts. Tuesday: 2 Maids a Baking (2 Maids a Milking), Tea Party Tuesdays (Sweetology), Mushki Loves My Stuff (Mushki Loves), Totally Tasty Tuesdays (Mandy's Recipe Box), Talent Show Tuesday (Chef in Training). Wednesday: Cast Party Wednesday, Made It On Monday (Lark's Country Heart), This Chick Cooks.  Thursday: Sweet Treats Thursday (Something Swanky), Chic-and-Crafty (Frugal Girls), Turning the Table Thursdays (Around My Family Table), Tasty Thursday (The How-To Mommy). Friday: Sweet Tooth Friday (Alli-n-son), I'm Lovin' it Fridays (TidyMom), Friday Favorites (Simply Sweet Home). Saturday: Sweets for a Saturday (Sweet as Sugar Cookies), Seasonal Inspiration (Crumbs and Chaos). Sunday: A Well-Seasoned Life,Sharing Sundays (Everyday Sisters), Fall Crawl (The Artsy Girl Connection), Fall Craft Challenge (One Artsy Mama)