As 2013 draws to a close, I want to thank everyone who reads my blog and visits my site.
Averie Cooks wouldn’t exist without readers, and I am so very, very thankful and grateful for you. Whether you read my posts in stealth or you leave comments, I am appreciative. Thank you for your pins, tweets, shares, and for your support and loyalty.
It makes my day when I wake up to your comments saying you’ve tried a recipe, you loved it, it made you look like a star among your family, friends, and co-workers, and that you’re head-over-heels with what you made. Thank you for trying my recipes, for buying the ingredients, making it, trusting that it will work, and then coming back to tell me about it. That’s truly the best part of blogging.
Some recipes are more popular than others, and I’m highlighting the 10 most popular according to my Google Analytics’ top landing pages. The first slot is people who land on my homepage without landing on a specific post.
Noteworthy is that many recipes from 2009-2012 were in the top 25, but for this post, I’m only including recipes that were made in 2013. I had to go down to #23, just to get the 10 most popular from this year.
Recipes that were made earlier in the year do have an advantage to gain more popularity, and notably, the majority of the top 10 were made January through March.
1. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies – These are some of my favorite cookies on my blog, and I wish I would have put them in my cookbook, Peanut Butter Comfort, but there’s a similar recipe, minus the chocolate, in the book. I attribute the popularity due to the peanut butter and chocolate combo, the photography, and the tagline on Pinterest, “Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies (GF) – The BEST PB Cookies I’ve ever had. There’s NO Flour, NO Butter, and NO White sugar used! Soft, chewy & oozing with dark chocolate. Crazy good!”
2. Softbatch Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies – The cookies became a Pinterest hit and I think the tagline and melty chocolate did the trick. “Softbatch Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies – Move over butter. Cream cheese makes these cookies thick & super soft!”
3. Soft Batch Dark Brown Sugar Coconut Oil Cookies – The Pinterest text says it all, “Soft Batch Dark Brown Sugar Coconut Oil Cookies – NO butter, NO white sugar. Made with coconut oil. So soft that they’re bendable!” So true and one of my favorite cookies on my site. I adore these cookies.
4. Skinny Caramel Frappuccino – “Skinny Caramel Frappuccino (GF) – Just like Starbucks except only 50 calories per serving! Sweet, creamy, easy & guilt-free!” I posted this in June and I think the warm weather, and because everyone likes healthier and cheaper alternatives to storebought, contributed to the popularity.
5. Loaded M&M Oreo Cookie Bars – I think the photography helped these bars take off. I loved every picture in the post (almost never happens) and apparently others did too.
6. Thick and Soft Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies (GF) – I don’t know why these became as popular as they did. They don’t seem that ‘special’ to me, but I make so many cookies, and am a very tough critic. I attribute it to, “Thick & Soft Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies (GF) NO butter, NO white sugar, & NO flour used. Soft, moist, rich & boldly chocolaty. Almost like brownies!”
7. Overnight Buttermilk Soft and Fluffy Cinnamon Rolls – Better than any other rolls I’ve ever had, including Cinnabon. In general, I think people love cinnamon roll pictures and recipes. They’re soft, fluffy, and pure comfort food. These have a make-ahead/overnight option built in. “Overnight Buttermilk Soft & Fluffy Cinnamon Rolls- The best cinnamon rolls I’ve ever had! And no need to get up at 5am to start them!”
8. Soft and Puffy Peanut Butter Coconut Oil Cookies – I believe coconut oil is gaining popularity among mainstream Americans, and this recipe and recipe #3 help validate that point. “Soft & Puffy Peanut Butter Coconut Oil Cookies – Soft, light, puffy, & very peanut buttery. NO Butter & NO White Sugar used!”
9. Nutella-Swirled Peanut Butter Chip Blondies – I made these when I was in Aruba in August and cried after the photo shoot because I thought the pictures just looked like a hot, melted mess. I felt like I just wasted precious vacation time baking, doing dishes, staging, styling, and taking food pictures when all I wanted to be doing was be at the pool with my daughter. I was so close to not posting these, but I literally had no backup recipes, and the thought of re-doing the photos was never going to happen. So I went ahead and posted them, and within a day, I knew I had a hit on my hands. Go figure. “Nutella-Swirled Peanut Butter Chip Blondies – One bowl, no mixer, soft & gooey. Peanut Butter & Nutella is always a win!”
10. Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Dough Crumble Bars – These are some of the my favorite bars on my site. “Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Dough Crumble Bars – Fast, easy & worth every last minute of cardio you’ll need to do. Soft, chewy, rich & gooey!”
It’s interesting that 5 of the 10 most popular recipes include peanut butter. I guess that my cookbook with 100 peanut butter recipes was right on the money.
6 of the 10 include chocolate. Not shocking.
Any tagline in which I say something to the effect of, “NO Butter & NO White Sugar used!” or use “Skinny” tends to get a lot of attention. The downfall is that I get a zillion comments from people telling me that brown sugar is really just white sugar with molasses added. I try to explain that I am not making a health claim, but rather a taste claim; brown sugar has a different taste, but people become highly irate when it comes to sugar claims, so I measured my words a bit more carefully the second half of 2013.
I have my own set of favorite recipes. It’s really hard to narrow them down because I post between 20 and 25 new recipes per month, every month, so that’s closing in on 300 recipes last year.
I really do love all the ones that made the top 10 list, especially Peanut Butter Cookies #1 and #8, the Softbatch Coconut Oil Dark Brown Sugar Cookies, the Nutella Blondies, and, Cinnamon Rolls, and the PB Cup Bars.
But if I close my eyes, and say, quick, what do you love, a few that come to mind as My Favorites of 2013 include:
Chewy Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cereal Bars (No-Bake, Vegan, GF) – Everything I want in a bar. Chewy, gooey, dense, peanut butter, chocolate, fast, easy. I remake this bar, and versions on the theme, all the time on my blog and in my cookbook.
Soft and Chewy Gingerbread Molasses Chocolate Chip Bars – Dense, bold, gingerbread fudge-like. You have to love big, bold, powerful molasses and ginger flavors to enjoy these, along with a love of uber-rich desserts and a penchant for dark chocolate, but if all those things are a yes, you will love these. I love molasses yearround and plan to make these in July.
Blueberry Muffin and Buttermilk Pancakes Cake – “Soft, fluffy & tastes like a big buttermilk pancake that ran into a blueberry muffin on the way to the oven! Easy, one-bowl, no-mixer recipe”. I love this cake base so much that I adapted it for many other cakes, including Peaches and Cream Fluffy Muffin Cake, Peanut Butter-Swirled Strawberry Cake, Cream Cheese-Swirled Cherry and Mixed Berries Cake, and Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Bliss Cake. Rich, fluffy, flavorful, one-bowl, not fussy, and makes a modest 8×8-inch cake.
Another cake/muffin base that served me well is this (vegan) pumpkin base. From it, I made Soft Vegan Pumpkin Cake with Pumpkin Spice Buttercream Frosting
Soft Vegan Pumpkin Bread with Brown Sugar Streusel Crust
and Vegan Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins. If you like pumpkin, this base recipe, which just happens to be vegan but you’ll never miss one bit of flavor, is the best base for soft, rich, flavorful muffins, quickbreads, and cakes that I’ve ever tried, and I’ve made a whole lot of pumpkin stuff. I have news in 2014 to let you know about. Stay tuned.
Lofthouse-Style Soft Peanut Butter Chip Sugar Cookies with Peanut Butter Frosting – Just like the real Lofthouse cookies, but with peanut butter! They’re perhaps my favorite cookie on my blog, tied with the others previously mentioned. Soft, light yet dense, extremely satisfying, and one of the best things that’s ever come out of my kitchen. I really wish I had thought of these when I was still writing Peanut Butter Comfort. They are without a doubt cookbook-worthy and would have gone on the cover!
What was one of the best things you made in 2013?
If you made anything from my blog in 2013, I’d love to hear what it was and what you thought of it!
I just started to get a couple emails and comments from people saying they liked my recipes and it really is awesome. It’s hard to blog when you feel like no one’s reading the posts or baking the recipes. Those lofthouse pb cookies are on my to do list so I’m glad they made your favorites!
Congrats – such a great feeling isn’t it! :)
What an incredible list, Averie. It amazes me how many recipes you turn out every single day that are well written, well tested and just delicious. It is know wonder that your recipes are huge hits with everyone. You have a great mix of indulgent, quick, easy, healthy, gluten free and even vegan! It really is incredible and so inspiring! Thanks for sharing your recipes and knowledge with us every single day!
And Happy New Year!
What an awesome compliment, Tieghan! Thanks! You know as well as anyone what it’s like to just handle the photography aspect, which is as important if not more, than the recipes in this digital age! Thank you for being a loyal friend and always being a huge supporter! xo :)
I am a HUGE fan of your blog! It is my go-to whenever I need to make a dessert. From this list, I have made the Loaded M&M Oreo Cookie Bars and the Gingerbread Molasses Chocolate Chip Bars (which I plan to blog about soon!). Both amazing. What I love about your recipes is that more often than not, I already have all the ingredients and you can usually make the recipe with only one bowl. I can’t wait to see what is to come. Happy Holidays!
“already have all the ingredients and you can usually make the recipe with only one bowl.” <--- those are both big goals for my recipes, no fuss, easy, have on hand, not a million dishes. Glad you feel they deliver! And so happy you've tried so many of my recipes, Cassie! Thanks! And that you tried those Gingerbread/Mol Bars! They're a huge fave of mine & I hope you loved them as much as I did!
Yep . . . I’m pretty sure I want to devour each and every one of these.
These last two posts have been so great, Averie! It must be so fun and such an extreme form of satisfaction for you to go back and see all the things you’ve made and what others have enjoyed. I love this kind of thing for myself, so I imagine it is for you too.
The gorgeous photos, the detailed posts, all of it – GREAT!!
Glad you’ve enjoyed and I have had fun thinking about them and reflecting on them all. Each and every recipe, I can tell you exactly how the photo shoot went, exactly how it tasted, what was going on in my life at the time, various little side details about the recipe; so it’s fun to see something I made in say March and be like, oh I made that in my old house, it was cloudy, Skylar had a little bday party to go to that day and I brought the rest to the party, etc. Funny how recipes can be such a powerful marker in time!
What an amazingly tasty year!
My favorite cookies would have to be your black and white cookies they were amazing!!! I am shock they didn’t make the list. Happy New Year Averie..
They were made in the fall of the year so unfortunately, they didn’t have the headstart that some of the 1st/2nd qtr recipes did, otherwise, yes, they would have made it. One of the limitations of statistics is that fall/winter recipes get shortchanged statistically! But glad you love those cookies!
I literally had to stop at each one of these because they are ALL so jaw-droppingly gorgeous and amazing. What a fantastic representation of all your hard work and incredible recipes from the past year. You’re just TOO awesome Averie! Happy New Years!
Thanks for the pin to the bhg board just now, too! And thanks for all the compliments, Trish! Have a wonderful 2014! :)
I was thinking of doing a year’s-best list for my own blogs, and yours is the only site I’ve seen with one where there’s a preview (the first sentence or two) of each post. Can you tell me how you did that? Thanks.
In your wordpress compose screen you just insert a page break where ever you want it. Easy!
I just discovered your blog this year Averie and I love it! Thanks for writing it :D
Thanks for finding me, Kerry!
Amazing list, Averie! I can’t choose which recipe of yours would be my favorite to drool over but I may have to agree with the masses here – those M&M Oreo Cookie bars steal my heart! They’re the perfect fun, festive sweet treat. And so simple to make! I hope you and the fam had a very merry Christmas!
PS: not surprised about all the peanut butter & chocolate on this list either.. ;)
I don’t do chicken and other than my random savory posts with cheese (chicken & cheese always seem so popular with people) so on my site, they have to settle for peanut butter and chocolate :)
I hope you had a wonderful holiday, too, Sally!!! xoxo
Averie, Averie, Averie!
Your site is one of my best finds of 2013. I have recommended it to many friends–you have a mix of decadent-but-doable recipes that I love. It’s funny–the recipes I have tried didn’t make your top 25 of 2013 so maybe I like the less-conventional recipes??? I’m not sure if all of these are 2013, but the blueberry coffeecake with raspberry jam swirls really stands out in my mind, as does the no-rise breadsticks and the no-yeast-bread-in-a-skillet recipe. Yum. Thank you for developing delicious recipes, giving understandable and humorous step-by-step instructions, and continue doing what you’ve been doing. Clearly it’s working!
decadent-but-doable recipes <--- thank you, I try for that! In my cookbooks and blog, that is my goal! Glad it's being conveyed! I love love love the coffeecake you're talking about. For ease and because it makes a slightly smaller coffeecake, the blueberry one (and variations I mentioned) I make more frequently, but love the cake you're talking about, so so much! And the no-rise breadsticks and practical recipes like skillet bread, yes, I love those too! They don't get as high of views b/c they're not a 'fantasy' for people like drippy chocolate is, but I get more comments from people who actually MAKE those recipes, not just stare at the fantasy :) Reality/making it vs. fantasy/drooling are different and I'm glad you're a maker, not just a looker/drooler :)
Oh, I look and drool, too, but I love to bake–I just don’t want it to be an all-day process–and your recipes are quick, easy, with ingredients I have on hand–hurray! Two others that I love but didn’t make your “popularity list” are the banana/blueberry/oatmeal microwave cake and the no-bake bar cookies with peanut butter/rice krispies/raisins/chocolate chips. Ya know, I tend to make things seasonally, so in the summer when I didn’t want to run my oven, the microwave recipes were my go-to.
Holy cow lady! Everything on your site is amazing! I think everything is my favorite!
Loved our short but sweet (and finally it happened) meetup in Vegas! Can’t wait til the next time! xoxo
Ooey, gooey, peanut butter goodness! I can see why all of these are at the top of the list! I wish I had one of everything here right now to sample…I guess it’s better for my pants that I don’t though. Awesome list of treats Averie!!!!
LOL on your pants comment. As a dessert blogger, I know you know how tricky it can be sometimes! I loved your list too. Tons of PB, choc, and banana stuff – PERFECT! So glad we finally got to meet this year, too!
All you’re making are so gooey delicious. We love it! Please continue sharing your delicious creations in the coming year. You’ve been a source of great inspiration to me and my friends. Congrats, Averie!
What a lovely comment, Ela, and thanks for saying hi and LMK that I’m inspiring you. That’s wonderful to hear and thank you!
Thank YOU Averie!! You’re been such an inspiration to me this year. I look forward to another year full of your amazing recipes. I don’t know how you do what you do, but thank you..thank you.
Todd that’s amazing that I inspire you because honestly your recipes are so creative, your photography is so good, that I go to your site and am inspired by you! Have a wonderful 2014!! :)