All Recipes

Diner-Style Pancakes Recipe

Perfectly light, fluffy, and HUGE Diner Style Pancakes

We looooooooooooooove pancakes in this house. Like… love love. It’s not a special occasion food for us at all. It’s more like a Monday through Saturday food (because Sundays I usually try and do something a little extra special… you know.. like cereal or something 😉 .

Every morning I ask Emma what she wants for breakfast.

Every morning she says, “pan-pakes, please.”

And everrrrrrrrrrry morning I think, ooooh yeah, pancakes do sound good!

Perfectly light, fluffy, and HUGE Diner Style Pancakes

Which is why we have pancakes pretty much every day of the week for breakfast. Sometimes we take a little bit of a healthier route and make skinny funfetti pancakes or  oatmeal pancakes or even these paleo banana pancakes.

But sometimes we get really wild, toss caution to the wind, and decide to make these gigantic, bigger-than-face-sized, diner-style pancakes smothered in butter and syrup. With chocolate milk on the side. Because, duh.

Perfectly light, fluffy, and HUGE Diner Style Pancakeshttps://staging.somethingswanky.com/oatmeal-chocolate-chip-buttermilk-pancakes/

For those of you who aren’t quite as… er.. experienced… in the world of diner-style pancakes as I am, here’s what makes a diner-style pancake different than just regular old pancakes:

Cinnamon Toast Pancake Bread

Cinnamon Toast Pancake Bread Recipe

Everything you love about a pancake in quick bread form – A moist, tender bread with lots of cinnamon-y goodness, hints of maple flavor, and a cinnamon sugar coating,  – all topped off with a generous sprinkle powdered sugar. Yum!

Cinnamon Toast Pancake Bread

Hi to all you awesome Something Swanky readers! I’m Emily and I blog over on Layers of Happiness where I share lots of delicious eats and treats with my mom. I am super excited to get the opportunity to share some delicious baked treats with all of you fun food-loving friends. Today I am sharing a super comforting and delicious Cinnamon Toast Pancake Bread with you.

This bread seriously blew me away with how yummy it was. It tastes just like the super pillow-y thick, soft pancakes you’ve always dreamed of and more. Hints of maple and cinnamon, and a cinnamon sugar coating. This is what all pancakes should taste like.

And because it’s a quick bread, it can easily be made ahead of time and eaten up throughout the week on-the-go. Say what?! Pancakes on a weekday morning. Yes way. And the best part is this bread comes together in about 10 minutes (maybe 5 if you are cool like that) with no mixer required. Long live easy recipes!!

Cinnamon Toast Pancake Bread

Homemade French Bread Recipe

Homemade French Bread is surprisingly easy to make! And there's nothing quite like a warm loaf fresh out of the oven.

Oh, you guys.

This bread.

It’s really a must-have staple recipe in every home cook’s repertoire. And once you go homemade, you’ll never want to go back to that store-bought bagged loaf again. Because nothing in the world compares with a hot, steamy, crusty loaf of soft french bread coming out of your oven.

Homemade French Bread is surprisingly easy to make! And there's nothing quite like a warm loaf fresh out of the oven.

And the best part? It’s absolutely fool-proof. I swear it.

Even for those of you with a yeast-bread-making phobia, I promise that you can make this bread. The very hardest part of the entire bread-making process is the 50 minutes you’ll spend letting it rise and then kneading it down.

WAIT!

I know. Seeing “50 minutes” anywhere in a recipe usually has me running for the door too. But really, it’s not so bad here. Let me explain…

These Nutella Brownies are insanely rich and fudge-y. And, duh, Nutella!

Nutella Brownies Recipe

These Nutella Brownies are insanely rich and fudge-y. And, duh, Nutella!

It’s official. I am obsessed with these Nutella Brownies.

Seriously. These are the deepest, darkest, richest, most fudgiest brownies I have ever eaten.

When I eat a brownie, I do not, under any circumstances, want to be eating chocolate CAKE. I want crinkly crispy tops, crunch edges, and a layer of straight up fudge in the middle. To me, that’s a brownie done right. And these brownies meet all the criteria to qualify for the Brownie Hall of Fame.

These Nutella Brownies are insanely rich and fudge-y. And, duh, Nutella!

Maple Almond Butter Recipe

Maple Almond Butter is incredibly easy to make at home!

My husband and I are obsessed with Maple Almond Butter. O-B-S-E-S-S-E-D.

Our favorite is spreading it on apples, but really it’s amazing on anything. It’s smooth and creamy with a hint of sweet maple– seriously perfection in a jar.

And best of all: it’s super easy to make at home!

Maple Almond Butter is incredibly easy to make at home!

Honestly, I could (and do) just eat it by the spoonful.

Here’s the run down on making this jar of creamy goodness: you’ll need 2 cups of whole almonds. Toast them in the oven for a little under 15 minutes. Toss those into a food processor with a few other simple ingredients (sugar, salt, maple extract, a little bit of oil) and give it a whirl! Depending on your food processor, it will take anywhere from about 3 to 10 minutes for beautifully dreamy and smooth Maple Almond Butter!

And I promise: you’ll love this homemade version infinitely more than anything that you can buy in the stores. Guaranteed.

Super soft chocolate chip cookies that everybody will love!

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Super soft chocolate chip cookies that everybody will love!

Welcome to recipe post number TWELVE in this Chocolate Chip Cookie Experiment. Admittedly, the experiment is going a little slower than expected since it’s really turned into more of an every-other-week thing rather than a weekly thing. But, no complaints here! Chocolate chip cookies are my personal favorite dessert after all, so I don’t mind dragging it out a bit 😉

For those of you who are just tuning in… I’m on a quest to find the most perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe ever– even if it takes me a year’s worth of experimenting! So far, my favorites have been:

DoubleTree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookies– these have been my husband’s favorites too. They are chock full of chips, oats, and walnuts. But my favorite part about these cookies is that the oats and walnuts are not overly detectable. They are blended and chopped very finely, so that they just add a lot of girth to each bite rather than chunks. Love, love, LOVE!

NY Times Quintessential Chocolate Chip Cookies– these are another family favorite. You get a big mouthful of chocolate in every bite of these, which makes them absolutely to die for!

AllRecipes.com #1 CCC– I loved the simplicity of these cookies. It’s basically the same recipe I’ve been using for years, and there’s a reason I’ve held on to it for so long– it’s a good, solid, basic recipe with very little fuss and a lot of great taste.

Super soft chocolate chip cookies that everybody will love!

I enjoyed the recipe from AllRecipes.com so much, that I decided I’d try a recipe from another user-submission-based site: Food.com. While this recipe didn’t have as many reviews as the one from AllRecipes, it did have a 100% positive rating with TONS of comments from people who tried and loved the recipe.

AllRecipes.com top rated Chocolate Chip Cookies. This recipe has 4 1/2 stars out of 5 with over 6K reviewers, so you know it's got to be good :)

AllRecipes.com #1 Chocolate Chip Cookies

AllRecipes.com top rated Chocolate Chip Cookies. This recipe has 4 1/2 stars out of 5 with over 6K reviewers, so you know it's got to be good :)

For those of you who are new to Something Swanky (or maybe you’ve just missed these posts), I’m working on a Chocolate Chip Cookie Experiment that basically boils down to me trying as many chocolate chip cookie recipes as I can get my hands on (I’m shooting for 52, 1 recipe per week for a year)! And then, of course, culminating the experiment with an ultimate chocolate chip cookie recipe to top all others… at least that’s the idea 😉

If you’d like to see all the other recipes I’ve tried so far, click here.

Today’s recipe comes from Allrecipes.com. For years before Pinterest and before I started blogging, Allrecipes.com was my go-to for recipes. I always liked that you could check out ratings and reviews from other people who had tried the recipe.

Of course, these days, I typically search Pinterest or a reliable blog for a recipe instead. But I’ll still glance through allrecipes.com from time to time. I think those recipes that have a 4-5 star rating with tons of reviewers are almost always worth taking the time to check out, and I definitely thought it would be worthwhile to include their top-rated Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe in my experiment.

AllRecipes.com top rated Chocolate Chip Cookies. This recipe has 4 1/2 stars out of 5 with over 6K reviewers, so you know it's got to be good :)

I was pretty pleased to find that this recipe closely resembles my current go-to recipe that I’ve used for years, right down to dissolving the baking soda before mixing. I really, really liked these. I felt like the buttery/salty flavors were perfectly in tune with the rest of the cookie flavors, and the texture was just right too– soft and chewy (maybe even slightly underbaked) in the middle, with a good crunch at the edges.

With a 4.5 star rating out of over 6.5K reviews, I’d say this cookie is well-deserving of it’s rank!

These baked chocolate cake donuts are so easy to make and incredibly delicious with absolutely no frying involved.

Baked Chocolate Cake Donuts Recipe

These baked chocolate cake donuts are so easy to make and incredibly delicious with absolutely no frying involved.

I have a soft spot in my heart for donuts. I think everybody does, right? They’re like the ultimate comfort any-day-food/special occasion treat/amazing food perfection.

My very very favorite donut is a glazed chocolate cake donut. As much as I love a good, yeasty pastry– nothing hits the spot quite like a dense-yet-fluffy cake donut covered in a sweet glaze. It’s my number one pick every time.

These baked chocolate cake donuts are so easy to make and incredibly delicious with absolutely no frying involved.

I consider myself overly-qualified to judge a good chocolate cake donut (considering my ongoing 28-year obsession with them), and let me tell you: this homemade baked version is something to write home about.

Biscoff Chocolate Chip Cookies

Biscoff Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Biscoff Chocolate Chip Cookies

As you may know, chocolate chip cookies are my very favorite dessert of all time. As evidenced by my quest for the most perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe…

Given my more-than-slight obsession with all things CCC, I was incredibly excited to try out this recipe for Biscoff Chocolate Chip Cookies for a couple of reasons. First… Biscoff. That’s enough in itself to be excited over! But also– I’m excited because this recipe comes from the first cookbook of a good friend of mine here in the blogging world: The Biscoff Cookie & Spread Cookbook by Katrina Bahl (In Katrina’s Kitchen).

Biscoff Chocolate Chip Cookies

And let me tell you folks, there doesn’t seem to be a bad recipe in this book. It has literally taken me weeeeeeeeeeks to decide which recipe I wanted to make share with you guys. The Double Chocolate Biscoff Bread, Biscoff Sheet Cake, and Biscoff Cinnamon Rolls were all heavy contenders. And then my husband and I went back and forth over the Biscoff Cloud Cookies and the Biscoff Chocolate Chip Cookies forever– it all looks amazing!

I finally made the executive decision on the chocolate chip cookies, figuring they’re a perfect addition to my Chocolate Chip Cookie Experiment anyway.

It was good decision making on my part. Biscoff and chocolate chip cookies definitely belong together.

Party Popcorn: Quick Marshmallow Mix Popcorn Recipe

Party Popcorn, by Ashton Swank

Yay! It’s time for the last Party Popcorn recipe post before the big giveaway!! (and just in the nick-of-time, I might add)

The big giveaway is going down tomorrow at 7am EST, so don’t miss it! But for now… one more recipe. And it just happens to be one of my very favorites (and one of the simplest)! It’s a beautiful harmony of my very favorite popcorn mix-ins: butter, marshmallows, M&Ms, and cashews. Seriously buttery, sweet and salty goodness that you won’t be able to stop snacking on.

QuickMarshmallowMix

Photography by: Jason Wyche

To celebrate the marshmallows in this yummy mixture, I’ll be giving away this sweet Marshmallow candle tomorrow along with 4 other really awesome prizes, and you’re not going to want to miss a single one!

If you want to check out some of the other recipes in this Party Popcorn series, click here. And if you want to check out ALL of the recipes in my cookbook, Party Popcorn, you can purchase Party Popcorn on Amazon, IndieBound, and at Barnes & Noble.

Browned Butter gives these chewy chocolate chip cookies a rich toffee flavor. Delicious!

America’s Test Kitchen Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Browned Butter gives these chewy chocolate chip cookies a rich toffee flavor. Delicious!

With the craziness of the holiday season, I definitely dropped the ball on The Chocolate Chip Cookie Experiment for a few weeks. But you can dry your tears, I’m back to the grind and bringing you another famous chocolate chip cookie recipe today!

Just a reminder– I’m attempting to find 52 different chocolate chips cookie recipes (theoretically, a year’s worth of recipes if I did one per week) and test them all out to find either the best chocolate chip cookie recipe already in existence, OR to use this experience to take the things I learned and loved about each of my favorite recipes and turn them into one super cookie!

Browned Butter gives these chewy chocolate chip cookies a rich toffee flavor. Delicious!

Today’s test subject: American’s Test  Kitchen Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Basically, the unique thing about these cookies is the use of browned butter. Browning the butter creates a deep, toffee-like flavor that I really liked and definitely sets these apart from other CC cookies I’ve tried.