Jolene's Recipe Journal

Now that Thanksgiving has passed I'm fully embracing winter flavors like gingerbread and peppermint mocha. I made these Lemon Filled Gingerbread Muffins from Taste of Home for this month's Muffin Monday! I always have great intentions on getting progress shots but this is it this time around. I used a medium cookie scoop for the batter then a small cookie scoop to add the lemon filling. I never get the yield that the recipe gives because I always add more batter per muffin.  For these I got an even dozen. I sprinkled the tops with some raw sugar before baking, I think they'd be kind of plain without it. I have a newer convection oven and it automatically adjusts the temperature when baking.  I baked mine at 375º for about 17 minutes. Be sure when you check for doneness you test in the muffin part, not the lemon filling. Thanks so much to Stacy for hosting #MuffinMonday and to all the other awesome bloggers who shared recipes today, be sure to go check out what they mad

I've been making this Original Nestle Toll House chocolate chip pie for almost two decades now. It started as a treat for my sister's birthday and after all this time, I've still not managed to get pictures through the bake up to the finished product in one shot. I also change up the methods and baking vessels depending on availability and other things.  Sometimes I use a deep dish pie crust that comes already in the metal tin.  Sometimes I use a glass or metal pie plate and the premade rolled crusts from the store.  I always leave out the nuts due to allergies and instead I crush up a cup of Rice Krispies cereal and add that with the chocolate chips.    I like to use silicone pie edge shields but you can do foil crimped around the edge.  You just don't want it touching the top of the cookie part because it will stick and then peel the beautiful browned top layer off when you remove it.   After I get the shield on I always sprinkle the top with some more chocolate chi