A few days ago I made caramel, chocolate, oatmeal bars. I’ll share the recipe this week. It’s a good one! Chocolate chips and caramel are sandwiched between an oatmeal crust and an oatmeal topping. The topping makes them rather crumbly. After cutting the bars into squares, I was left with a whole bunch of oatmeal cookie-ish crumbs. Normally, I’d eat the crumbs myself. I find it almost impossible to throw away dessert crumbs. Then, I’d feel guilty about wasting completely perfect crumbs… guilt over crumbs, I know. It’s that Catholic gene on my mom’s side that I seemed to have inherited, and even though I’ve never been in a Catholic church, the Catholic guilt still plagues me. But seriously, do I want to spend my calories on a bunch of cookie crumbs or the whole cookie bar? Then I had an idea of how to put the crumbs to better use without any residual guilt… oatmeal cookie martinis. I have a thing for creating cookie cocktails, but this was one I had never attempted. It’s another dessert cocktail that is a perfect grown-up treat as we ease into fall.

Bailey’s + Butterscotch Schnapps = BLISS!

I think the best part has to be the martini glass rim, dipped into caramel and coated with oatmeal crumbs. So, even if you’re not up for making homemade oatmeal cookies for the rimmer, pick a few up at the bakery, it takes this cocktail to a whole other level.

                                                                                                                                                               Cheers to a guilt-free week. May it be full of bliss!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Oatmeal Cookie Martini (grinandbakeit.com)

1 1/2 oz. Bailey’s

1 oz. Butterscotch Schnapps

1/2 oz. Cream

Splash of Goldschlager

caramel sauce

oatmeal cookies, crushed

Rim a martini glass in caramel sauce and coat with oatmeal cookie pieces. Chill until ready to serve. Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake, pour enjoy.

My very first blog post was for cake batter martinis. It remains one of my favorite martinis I’ve created over the past few years. I was super excited last week when I saw that Jessica of How Sweet it is revamped this martini adding two of my favorites liqueurs ~ Godiva white chocolate liqueur and a new fave, Pinnacle Whipped Cream vodka. Jessica’s adaptation is a great twist, and her photos are gorgeous! After trying Jessica’s recipe, I couldn’t remember exactly how the original tasted. I decided to do a little comparing (and yes it was an excuse to have two martinis ~ all in the name of blogging). The original recipe uses creme de cacao. This version replaces it with the white chocolate liqueur. To me, that was the greatest difference. The one with the creme de cacao has more of a milk chocolately taste to it. The whipped cream vodka also gives it a slightly different taste than the vanilla vodka. The overall flavors are very similar. This new and improved version is definitely worth shaking up, and since I’ve previously convinced you all to buy white chocolate liqueur and whipped cream vodka, you’re pretty much all set!

printable recipe

Cake Batter Martini Make-over (Recipe from How Sweet it is, original recipe here)

1 oz amaretto

1 1/2 oz. Godiva white chocolate liqueur

1 1/2 oz. Pinnacle whipped cream vodka

1 oz. cream

Rim a martini glass in frosting and cover in sprinkles. Chill until ready to serve. Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake, pour, enjoy!

Cheers to a great week ahead!

Anyone in need of a little chocolate? This candy bar martini is the perfect way to combat stress. With the school year approaching, I’m starting to stress myself out. I think that’s why I’m craving chocolate on a daily basis. I am a big fan of dessert martinis. Fall and winter seem to be the times I use Bailey’s, Butterscotch Schnapps, and Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur the most. These ingredients combined taste just like a Butterfinger bar.

BevMo is one of my favorite places to shop (it’s way up there with Nordstroms). I happen to live within walking distance to a BevMo, which is both good and dangerous at the same time. I love trying new spirits on the market, but I’m also careful to not spend a bunch of money on something I’ll only use in one cocktail. To be worthy of space in my liquor cabinet, its got to have multiple uses. All three of these liqueurs have been granted permanent space.

I know it’s a little early, but I think this Butterfinger martini is going to be part of our annual Halloween martini tasting this year. Right before Halloween all of our friends and neighbors come over to celebrate. Kids carve pumpkins. Dads oversee kids carving pumpkins, and moms drink martinis. It’s no surprise, this is one of my favorite events of the year. This Butterfinger martini is definitely party-worthy, but trust me, you don’t want to wait for Halloween to try it.

Butterfinger Martini

1 oz. Bailey’s Irish Cream

1 oz. Butterscotch Schnapps

1/2 oz.  Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur

1  1/2 oz.  milk

Hershey’s chocolate syrup

Butterfinger bar, chopped

Rim martini glass with chocolate syrup. Add Butterfinger pieces to coat rim. Chill. Pour ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice.  Shake, pour, enjoy!

My other favorite chocolate martinis:

Candy Bar-tini

Chocolate Milk-tini

Cadbury Caramel Cream Martini

Chocolate Covered Banana Martini

]]> http://grinandbakeit.com/butterfinger-martini-get-your-chocolate-fix/feed 4 http://grinandbakeit.com/peach-pie-martini-pass-the-whipped-cream-vodka-please http://grinandbakeit.com/peach-pie-martini-pass-the-whipped-cream-vodka-please#comments Mon, 18 Jul 2011 05:24:27 +0000 Kate http://grinandbakeit.com/?p=13758 Now this is my kind of pie! Did I talk you into picking up some whipped cream vodka with my last martini post? If not, this may be all the convincing you need. I’m not a big fan of pie, unless you add a crumbly cinnamon topping or a little cheesecake or ice cream in the middle, but then I’m not sure that technically even counts as pie. Just the fruit and crust are not really what I want to spend my calories on.  Dessert martinis, on the other hand, are worth the caloric sacrifice.

This is equally as yummy as the All Grown-up Orange Juice Martini with whipped cream vodka. There will definitely be more experimenting in the future. I’ve heard it’s even great with Diet Coke as a mixer… diet whipped cream cocktails, count me in!

Cheers to a great week! I’ll be busy getting ready for my 20th high school reunion next Saturday. It feels just like the pre-prom days minus the limo and the boyfriend (wonder if he’ll be there…hmmm).

Peach Pie Martini (Adapted from the Pinnacle website)

3 oz. peach juice

2 oz. whipped cream vodka

1 oz. peach schnapps

splash or two of cream

garnish with a sprinkle of nutmeg (optional)

Rim a martini glass with graham cracker crumbs and chill. Add ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake, pour, enjoy!

Here are a few more of my all-time favorite dessert martinis:

Sugar Cookie Martini

Carrot Cake Martini

Cake Batter Birthday-tini

I’m not going to go as far as to recommend doing shots of whipped cream vodka (unless you are under 30), but I do think this has a lot of potential with a variety of different mixers. Once you open the bottle, just inhale deeply for a few minutes. I’m not sure how they did that. The scent of whipped cream is heavenly. Unlike one of the product’s reviewers claim, this is not just vanilla vodka with a catchy label on it.

Mixed with orange juice and a little pineapple juice, this tastes exactly like an Orange Julius. It even gets a little frothy once shaken and poured. This is the kind of drink that begs you to sneak it into the community pool to enjoy while the kids are keeping themselves busy in the water (not that I would ever advocate sneaking adult beverages into community pools). But if you do, please do not pour this into a plastic red cup, that just screams, “Mom who drinks before 4PM,” and you don’t need that reputation, do you? Shake it up at home. Pour it into a clear plastic Starbucks cup, and I promise no one will even suspect (not that I’ve ever done this).

It’s still to be determined if whipped cream vodka will have a permanent place in my liquor cabinet. It could just be a summer fling. Time will tell. What I do know is more whipped cream cocktails are in our near future!

Here’s a ton of recipes with whipped cream vodka from Pinnacle’s website.

Cheers to my first full week of summer!

Have a great week everyone!

All-Grown-Up Orange Juice

6 oz. Orange juice (I used pulp-free)

2 oz. Pinnacle Whipped Cream Vodka

Splash of Pineapple juice

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake, pour, enjoy!