My Current Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe | Sunday Baking

 Hi lovely reader! Happy Fall! It's kind of hard to believe that October is here but I'm ready to embrace it. The mornings and evening have started to get cooler where I am, pumpkins are popping up in front of the stores, my Instagram feed is filling up with cosy recipes, and it's great! 

    Today I wanted to share what I can confidently say is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever made. My mom who is quite the cookie critic is also in agreement so you know it's good! I found this recipe on @smallkitchensweets Instagram and had to give it a try. His page is full of beautiful photos of delicious sweets and teasers of recipes to come on his website. (Spencer, if you ever read this, we want more!) He posted a week ago that he is working on a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe and I am praying that we get to see it because if it's anything like these chocolate chip cookies it will be AMAZING! 

As he notes on his blog, his NY Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe is inspired by the famous Levain Cookie. The one thing I did differently was that instead of making eight giant cookies, I kept mine on the smaller side while still following all of the steps and they turned out great! I will post the basics of the recipe below but I highly encourage you to check out his post on these cookies because it is full of great tips and tricks to get them to turn out perfectly.

INGREDIENTS:

• 226 grams / 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 150 grams / 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 100 grams / 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt + flaky salt for the top 
• 420 - 480 grams / 3 - 3 1/3 cup All Purpose flour *see tips in post
• 360 grams / 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
• 180 grams / 1 (ish) cup walnut halves *optional

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F / 200 C and place a rack in the middle of the oven. Remove butter from fridge. Allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, add slightly softened butter and sugars together. Cream ingredients for 1 minute on high speed. Scrape down the sides of your mixer.
3. With mixer on low speed, add eggs one at a time and mix until combined.
4. Turn the mixer off and add the 420 g of the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Pulse the mixer until just mixed.
5. Add chocolate chips and walnut halves if you are using them. If you decide not to add the walnuts, add more chocolate chips or add 40 grams of extra flour. If the chocolate chips don’t combine completely, knead the dough a slightly to incorporate.
6. Divide dough into 8 pieces, about 6 oz. each. If making smaller, adjust baking time accordingly. 
7. Roughly shape each piece of dough into a ball. They should be rustic looking, do not flatten! Place each ball of dough onto a sheet tray and transfer to the freezer. Freeze for about 30-45 minutes. They should be quite firm. You will bake the cookies from frozen!
8. Bake 6 cookies at a time for 13-15  minutes. Rotate the tray halfway through the bake . The cookies will be *quite* golden on the top and bottom but gooey on the inside. Don’t overbake, they will continue to cook on the tray.
9. If you want to add flaky salt to the top, now is the time! Sprinkle over the top right when they come out of the oven!
10. Let the cookies cool for 15 minutes before serving.

The actual best! Sharing is caring and I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did! Xx

Spooky Sweet Treats | Pumpkin Shaped Sugar Cookies

Hi lovely reader! Happy Hallo-weekend! Fall is in full swing here, the leaves have changed colors and the temperatures are starting to drop. I wore my first heavy coat today and am ready for sweater weather! Today I wanted to share a fun and festive treat with you that is a Halloween tradition for me. My mom and I have baked these cute pumpkin cookies for as long as I can remember. They are super simple, quick, and fun to decorate. Perfect for a last minute addition to an upcoming Halloween party or special treat for yourself or trick or treaters!

Note that this recipe makes vanilla sugar cookies, they are pumpkin shaped, not pumpkin flavored:)

You will need:
-1 cup of butter
-1 cup of sugar
-1 large egg
-2 teaspoons of baking powder
-1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
-3 cups of flower
-pumpkin mold tray or pumpkin shaped cookie cutters
-Orange food coloring (optional)
-Cooking spray
-Icing, sugar, or candy to decorate your pumpkins

First preheat your oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, cream your butter and sugar with an electric mixer and then beat in the vanilla. 

After that add the baking powder and then the flour, one cup at a time, mixing after each cup. Once you have added the flour, the dough will become stiff and is ready to be shaped into the molds or rolled out if you are using a cookie cutter. Be sure to grease your molds with cooking spray before placing the dough in them. You can also knead food coloring into your dough at this point if you want to make your pumpkins orange. 

Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes (mine tend to be done closer to 10 min), cool, and remove from the pan. Then repeat the process, being sure to grease your pans each time. 

After the cookies have completely cooled, you are ready to decorate. This year I used an orange icing pen for the eyes, nose, and mouth and then poured yellow sugar over them to give a glowing sparkly effect. I then used chocolate icing and green sugar for the stem.

Enjoy!

Do you have any favorite Halloween treats? Xx

All Things October | iPhone Snaps

Hi lovely reader! Here is a quick round-up of some of the things I got up to in the month of October!

Breakfast in bed. Tried the omelette in a mug "hack" and I must say I was quite impressed.

As seen on Instagram. Originally asked my Mom what she would caption this pic, her response, "I'm nuts about these boots"....clever lady she is.

Gameday. This was about 1/3 of the tailgating spread. Amazing.

Pumpkin carving is no joke. This guy gave me a workout!

Other little pumpkin friend. This one was my favorite. 

Prepping for all the trick-or-treaters! And saving some for later...

Ended October by celebrating my friends birthday on a rooftop. The weather was perfect and so were the cupcakes.

What did you do last month? Any impressive pumpkins or costumes??

Cheeky Quote Tuesday

Last week after I posted "Vienna Waits For You | Stressing About the Future" , I went to check my mail and found that I had received this card. It was a another great reminder of how everyone has their own specific journey in life and a personal path to get to where they are meant to be. As hard as it is at times, we truly mustn't compare our path to someone else's but do what we feel is right for us.

Favorite Fall Beauty Trends | Adore Me

Hi lovely reader! One thing I love about fall are the beauty trends. The lips shapes get darker, the eyeshadows get warmer, and berry toned everything fills the shelves. In celebration of all things fall beauty, Adore Me has launched a project themed around the oh so festive autumnal palettes of this year and their new October Showroom!

As I've said before, if what you've got on under your clothes coordinates with what you've got going on on the outside, you instantly feel like you've for something together for the day. For today's post I wanted to share my top 3 favorite makeup for fall in looks that I have seen lately on instagram, as well as various pieces from Adore Me that coordinate beautifully with each of the looks!

This year I am all about the satin finish bronze and copper colored eyeshadows. They can be layered and mixed, paired with a darker brown and smoked out for a more dramatic look or simply worn on their own for a daytime look. These warm shades have been my go to this month! I would say that these tones are pretty classic for fall so to go along with that, I think that the is "Matilda" pajama set from their sleepwear collection evokes just that. They are classic, simple, and oh so cozy!

Another eyeshadow and lipstick combo that I have seen a lot that I like is a simple barely there eyeshadow with maybe a touch of glitter and a strong lip. To me having a strong lip always gives me a boost of confidence and when I saw the Damariss bra and panty I immediately got that same vibe. I love the wine color as well as the flower embroidery details on the cups.

Speaking of lips, without a doubt, my favorite beauty trend for fall is a berry or burgundy lip! Again with a bold lip! Whenever I put on a good berry tone I instantly feel so autumnal. This Noreh Contour bra is the perfect shade for fall and I love the cut of this bra with the lace detail that carries down the sides!!

What are your favorite fall beauty trends this year?? Anyone you think particularly rocks a good autumnal look?

A Sleeping Sloth, a Statement Jacket, & a Sweet Care Package | iPhone Snaps

Hi lovely reader! I haven't shared some candid iPhone pics in a while, so I thought it was about time I change that! I love looking at these types of posts on other people's blogs because they're so casual and let's be honest, I'm also a little nosey, but hey you probably are too, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this! 

The cutest little sleeping sloth at the zoo. Slothes were definitely my favorite animal for some time when I was younger, not to the Kristen Bell extent though! (Just google "Kristen Bell sloth"...)

Agreed.

Would love a picture like this in my home in the future. 

I had seen commercials for these little squares and thought they looked intriguing! I went and bought the "Cranberry almond dark chocolate" flavor and it was very good! Only downfall I would say is that they are fairly high in sugar as far as it being a "healthy snack".

I have been wanting a "patched" jacket for the last two months after scrolling through all the Fashion Week street style pics filled with every themed and embellished type of jacket imaginable. So, when I saw this one I snatched it up. Look out for some OOTD's coming up featuring this jacket and most likely some adidas originals.

So Apple Pie filling, topped with crumbles, topped with caramel, topped with vanilla ice cream. No more needs to be said.....

New little cross body bag.

The sweetest care package from my church back home. Nothing like receiving an unexpected package!

Cheeky Quote Tuesday

@lucialitman

Cheeky Quote Tuesday

Everything October | iPhone Snaps

Hiya lovely reader! How has your October been? Mine has been autumnally festive and extremely busy. The leaves have changed, the days and nights are cooler, and my apartment is decked out with pumpkins and purple lights. Pumpkin spice cookies sit atop the counter and cozying up with a blanket at night has become a regular occurrence. Fall is here! 

First weekend of October = decoration shopping

Halloween snack cakes. My flatmate bought these and I hadn't had them in forever! Brought me back to grade school, where my best friend would have a snack cake for every single holiday. I was more of a "Cosmic Brownies" girl myself...

Omelette and toast on a Sunday morning. 

Hard at work on some art. I'm going to do a post on this coming up, but any guesses to who it may be?

Soaking up the sun and nice weather before it gets too cold, also loving my new backpack. 

Taking part in a lovely event for "Breast Cancer Awareness Month"

All the candy corn. I'm actually not a fan of candy corn or pumpkins but my flatmates are and I like how they look so...

Felt very autumnal in my army green sweater, skinny jeans, and brown chelsea boots. 

Cozy morning called for toast with peach jelly, quiche, and a movie.

What have you been doing this month? Anything autumnal? Xx

Think Pink: Breast Cancer Awareness Month

"Now, I wouldn't presume to tell a woman what a woman oughtta think, But tell her if she's gotta think: think pink—!" As Maggie Prescott said in "Funny Face", think pink! October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month but just because October is almost over, doesn't mean the awareness about it should go away.

 I wanted to start with some facts from a great website called "Worldwide Breast Cancer". Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide and is also the main cause of death from cancer among women globally. 

"However, one-third of these cancer deaths could be decreased if detected and treated early. In a worldwide context, this means nearly 400,000 lives could be saved every year." How amazing is this when you think about it! Although cancer is an extremely scary thing, precaution and screening can help to save lives. Think about this not only for yourself but for the people around you. Is there someone you know of who is at the age to get a mammogram but is putting it off? This is the case for so many people and those people need the encouragement and reassurance that the earlier they begin these screenings the better! I absolutely love the "worldwide breast cancer" website, and highly recommend taking a look at it! They grow through all the steps in a way that is understandable and innovative, a typical medical website this is not! 

October is such a great time to raise awareness though and to me it seems like now, more than ever, so many brands, companies, and teams are doing their part to raise money and awareness for such an important cause. Paul Mitchell is a great example, it's cheeky but it gets the point across:)

I can say from first hand experience that you never think your life will be affected in some way by breast cancer. You hear about it on the news or see people who are fighting it and who have passed and you feel sorry for them, but never imagine it will affect you. I thought like that for the longest time but I turned out to be wrong. I know someone who has lost their mom to breast cancer. It turned out that a few years later, my mom was diagnosed. At first I was in shock and a bit of denial at first but I was mainly just scared. During that time I learned that the only thing you can do it be positive and me and my family and friends were. She is now a survivor and I am extremely thankful. After that I feel like I take the idea of breast cancer more seriously and especially awareness about it. So when October comes around I always try to think of something I can do to help raise awareness. Whether it be wearing pink everyday (I haven't done this, but I have seen it done!), taking a picture of something pink everyday on instargram or just talking to friends and family about the cause. So many stores and restaurants participate, creating a great way to bring up the conversation about being checked out and such. So even though October is almost over, don't let the awareness stop being spread! Honor those who have passed, celebrate the survivors, and raise awareness!

I hope this post was helpful in some way! Please share this also! The more people who are aware the better! "Let's fight Breast Cancer, starting with you!" -Worldwide Breast Cancer