Lemon Squares

Here in Florida, summer has definitely arrived.  For a little while now it has been in the high 80's, sometimes breaking past the 90 mark.  So on top of new homemade ice cream recipes (at least one of which is coming soon) and other frozen treats to keep us cool, I have a feeling a bunch of citrus and lemony recipes will be on the way.  When it's hot out, there is something very refreshing about biting into a tangy, tart lemon dessert.  This is the first lemon recipe of the season, and it was a good one.  These bars were my first attempt at lemon squares and it was largely a success.  My only complaint is that it was a bit thin.  While we enjoyed it very very much, next time I might double the filling and 1.5x the crust... or just bake it in a smaller pan for a little extra height.  

Lemon Squares, adapted from Epicurious

Shortbread base:

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

Ingredients:

4 large eggs, room temp

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (strained, to eliminate seeds/pulp)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 recipe pre-baked shortbread base

Line a 9 x 13 inch pan (or smaller for thicker bars) with parchment paper.  Preheat oven to 350.

Cut butter into 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick slices.  Combine all ingredients in a food process with the dough blade, and process until mixture begins to form small lumps.  Use a spatula to wipe down sides of bowl when necessary.  

Break up the mixture into the prepared pan and press down evenly.  Bake in the middle of the oven until golden, about 20 minutes.

While shortbread is in the oven, prepare the lemon filling.

In a bowl, whisk the room temperature eggs and granulated sugar together until combined.  Then, stir in the lemon juice and flour.  Pour the lemon mixture over the hot shortbread.  Reduce oven to 300 and bake until set, approximately 30 minutes.

Cool completely in the pan and then chill.  When chilled, cut into squares.  Lemon squares keep, covered and chilled, about 3 days.  Serve topped with homemade whipped cream.

Snickerdoodle Blondies Revisited

Not too long ago I finally made a batch of Snickerdoodle Blondies and the result was perfect - just as I'd hoped it would be.  Who wouldn't love the combination of a moist vanilla blondie + a cinnamon sugary snickerdoodle cookie??  The entire 9 x 13 inch tray was quickly eaten up and enjoyed.  I wanted to make them again, but found myself dangerously low on cinnamon (how did THAT happen?!?).  Instead of making something else entirely as I was tempted to do, I decided to use a tried and true blondie recipe that makes a smaller batch (9 x 9 inch pan), and adapt it to be Snickerdoodley.  The result this time was also perfect... but I suppose it'd be hard to go wrong with a cinnamon sugar blondie.  If you find yourself needing a little slice of snickerdoodle heaven to plop some vanilla ice cream on and don't want to have an entire 9 x 13 inch pan lying around (because let's face it, the whole pan will be gone in a matter of  days  hours no matter how large the pan), then bake up a batch of these.  They're dense, fudgey and perfectly Snickerdoodley.  

If you decide to be generous enough to give these to friends, our new product can help you do that in a chic and heartfelt way.  Check out our "From the Kitchen Of" stickers in use.  In this case, I put the stickers on our Small Kraft Gable boxes and they are all ready to be given out to friends, neighbors, co-workers or party guests.  The stickers would also be cute on cellophane baggies filled with treats, mason jars, bakery style boxes and more.  Occasionally we like to leave desserts on family members' doorsteps as a surprise (ring and run! - we're weird that way), so these stickers are very handy for quickly packaging and letting recipients know where their gift came from.  How do you give your homemade desserts to family and friends?  

Snickerdoodle Blondies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/2 C all purpose flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 C light brown sugar
1/2 C dark brown sugar
2 Large Eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Cinnamon Sugar topping:

1 tsp cinnamon

1 heaping tablespoon sugar

Directions:
Preheat over to 350 F. Non-stick spray a 9 x 9 pan, and line with parchment.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Whisk to combine.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan. When melted completely, add the sugars and whisk until the sugar is fully melted (about 3 - 5 minutes). Transfer this butter mixture to a medium bowl and let cool slightly. Then, whisk in the eggs and then the vanilla just until incorporated. Add flour, mix until just incorporated, don't overmix. Transfer this mixture into the preprared 9 x 9. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the top of the batter.

Bake for 30 - 35 minutes or when a toothpick inserted comes out with only moist crumbs, no raw batter. Allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack.

Recipe Card!  Click to enlarge.

S'mores Cookies

S'mores are one of the best things about summer.  They're delicious with their melty chocolate and ooey gooey marshmallowy goodness.   But they're also tons of fun to make.  Who doesn't love toasting a marshmallow and sandwiching it with chocolate between two graham crackers?  Not very many people, I'd guess.  But for those days when lighting a fire and making a sticky mess just isn't convenient, these bar cookies come in a close second.  


S'mores Cookies, adapted from Always with Butter
Ingredients:

11 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar, packed

½ cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, room temp

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp sea salt

1 tsp cinnamon

2 ½ cups flour

chocolate chips*

1 cup mini marshmallows

2 – 3 regular sized hershey’s bars, broken into pieces*

1 package graham crackers, broken into squares

Directions:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon to combine. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter with both sugars until light and fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla.

Add flour mixture to the butter mixer and combine on low speed.

Fold in chips and marshmallows.  Chill dough in refrigerator for 1 hour to overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 F.
Line baking pans with parchment paper** Lay out graham crackers side by side on the pans as close as possible (they should be touching).

Place tablespoons of chilled dough on graham crackers about 1 – 1 ½ inches apart.  Press down slightly with fingertips.

Bake for 5 minutes then remove from oven to press Hershey’s bar pieces on to the top.

Bake for 5 – 7 more minutes or until dough is beginning to turn golden brown at the edges.  Remove to a wire rack to cool.

*Use chocolate chips to taste.  I only used about 1/3 cup in the dough because Hershey bar pieces were going to be placed on top and I didn’t want it to be too chocolatey.  If you’re a choc-a-holic, feel free to add more.  For hershey’s bars, I used about 2 ½ regular sized bars.  Again, if you’re a chocolate lover, use more.

**If you want thicker cookies, use less graham cracker-lined pans and put your cookie dough closer together.  For thinner cookies, spread out graham crackers and cookie dough across more baking pans.  I used 1 medium (10x15 inch) cookie pan, and 1 large (11x17 inch).

Recipe Card (click to enlarge):

PSST!  There's still time left to enter our Giveaway for a FREE Cupcake and Dessert Tower (valued at $54.89)!  

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Pecan Shortbread Crust and Key Lime Filling

Mmm cookies. I will never turn down an opportunity to make (or eat) a cookie. So I jumped at this week's Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe, chosen by Lara of The Lab: Pecan Shortbread Cookies. My boy isn't much of a fan of dry, crumbly shortbreadish cookies, so I took Nina's idea and ran with it - use it as a crust for a bar cookie! Good idea, Nina!

I prepared Melissa's recipe for Pecan Shortbread cookies exactly as the book stated, and spread it into the bottom of a prepared, greased and parchment-lined 8x8 pan. I baked it for about 20, 25 minutes until lightly golden. Then I let it cool completely while I prepared the filling.


We are big key lime fans in this house. And I've seen many recipes for Lemon and Lime bars and loved the idea but never got around to make them. So, I thought this was my opportunity! I used THIS recipe from Pat and Gina Neely for the lime filling. The Neelys' recipe was fo a 9 x 13 pan (which holds 12 ounces) and I was using a 8x8 (which holds 8 ounces) so I scaled down the recipe to use about 3/4 of the original recipe. Let me just tell you this was a bit of a disaster from the very beginning.

First, I make an ENORMOUS mistake. After I added all the ingredients, I saw the recipe said, "Pour the lime topping over the cooled crust." Well... my dough was SO THICK that it was practically busting my kitchenaid mixer open... definitely NOT pourable. It turns outttttttt, I had added 4.5 CUPS of flour, when the recipe really called for TABLESPOONS. Haha, OOPSSS. So I set aside my disaster dough for a while and re-zested limes, re-juiced limes, and re-made the filling. :) I poured it into the cooled pan and let it bake for 25 minutes. I removed it when the filling looked set.

I let it cool, like the recipe said, and then tried to cut it. It seems my filling never set up right... maybe I didn't bake it long enough? Or maybe I did something wrong? I'm not sure, but it OOZED out when I tried to cut it.
I wound up saving the dessert by transforming it into a refrigerated treat... it cut much easier and didn't ooze when it was chilled. And it still tasted quite good cold!








With the little bit of remaining Pecan Shortbread crust I had left over from making the bar cookie base, I made some regular ol' cookies the way The Sweet Melissa Baking Book said... only problem is it was wayyyy too crumbly. After baked and cooled, I could barely pick them up without them crumbling into a million pieces. Anyone else have this problem? Maybe this just wasn't my day in the kitchen. :)

So whatever happened to all the OOPS key lime dough? The one where I added CUPS instead of TABLESPOONS of flour? I had to at least try baking it before throwing it away! The result?

Little cookie-balls. They maintained their exact shape while baking. I rolled the balllies in confectioners sugar and let em finish cooling. They turned out kinda soft, kinda chewy and have just the right amount of tangy lime-ness. Not THE best cookies in the world, but not the worst either. :)

Today was just one of those days I needed to put the towel down and get out of the kitchen. Maybe its all the allergy medicine.

Anyway, have a HAPPY EASTER! I hope everyone else's baking went more smoothly than mine!! Check out the blogroll to see how everyone else fared with this week's recipe. And see Lara's blog for the recipe. Thanks for hosting, Lara!!

Rocky Ledge Bars

Unfortunately, there will be no Sweet Melissa Sundays for me today. I'm sorry! But I do have a recipe to share with you and it is pretty scrumptious. It's quick and easy, too - so if you forgot to get your Valentine something there's still time to whip up a batch, throw a bow on it, and pretend like you've been slaving away in the kitchen for them all morning.

What do you get when you combine a blondie, a s'more, peanut butter and nilla wafers?? Well... these Rocky Ledge Bars, based off of a Martha Stewart recipe. I scaled it back, made some substitutions, added some yummy things and left others out and ended up with this. These are a great use-whatever-you-have-on-hand kind of recipe...very substitution friendly.



Rocky Ledge Bars adapted from Martha Stewart
Ingredients:
1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup + 2 Tblspn all-purpose flour
1 1/8 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1.5 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup miniature marshmallows
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/4 cup crushed nilla wafer crumbs, and extra for dusting
cinnamon sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8x8 square baking pan and line with parchment.
Whisk together flour, nilla crumbs, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix butter and brown sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, and mix until combined. Add the flour mixture and stir until combined. Fold in 1/4 cup each of the marshmallows, chocolates, and peanut butter chips.
Spread batter in prepared pan. Sprinkle the remaining marshmallows, chocolates, peanut butter chips, and nilla crumbs on top. Sprinkle with powdered sugar to taste. Bake until golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.



(For SMS, visit Spike Bakes' Blog to see the recipe... They did Chocolate Mousse this week, mmmm!!!! And see how it came out for the bakers by checking out of the blogroll. Happy Valentine's Day... or Happy Anna Howard Shaw day!)

Oreo Cookie Cookies; Snickerdoodles; & Soft Sugar Cookies

If I didn't keep this blog, there would be no way I'd remember which recipes I've made. I wouldn't be able to re-make anything if it were a big hit because I wouldn't be able to find the recipe I made it from. I have about a gajillion bookmarked on the computer, and I'd never be able to remember which one it was. That was the original reason I started this blog - to keep track of all the things I've made - along with pictures to remind me, and a short little commentary about how it came out. Of course I have a few tried and true recipes that I have written on recipe cards, but even then, those sometimes get lost or dirty and the bloggy is a great fall back. In fact, I think I have temporarily misplaced my handwritten recipe card from a hundred years ago for one of my absolute favorite recipes, and if it weren't for me having posted it on the blog it might have been lost forever... which in this recipe's case would have been a great tragedy. Does anyone else out there rely on their blog in this way? That is one of my favorite things about having this little hobby. It's like a baking diary. It makes me feel a little bit organized, even though when it comes to making things in the kitchen, that really couldn't be farther from the truth :)

I made these cookies quite a few weeks ago (well before Christmas) so I am impressed with myself for not having lost the recipe by now! All of them were made from recipes by fellow bloggers. With each recipe, I put links to the lovely blog from which I borrowed the recipe. The first is Giant Oreo Cookie Cookies - using chopped up, ground oreo's as an ingredients. I found it on Sugar Cooking, and knew immediately I'd have to make it for us oreo lovers. One response to this cookie was, "Now this is a cookie!" These were a big hit... the oreo is a subtle but delicious addition to a great chocolate chip cookie recipe. The only real changes I made were the crush the cookies more finely than just rough chunks, reduce the amount of oreos, and lessen amount of chocolate chips.



Giant Oreo Cookie Cookies adapted from Sugar Cooking
the recipe states it makes about 20-30 cookies, but using 1/4 of dough, i only got about 12 - 14 of them!
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted, and set aside to cool slightly
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 cups semisweet chocolate chips
15 oreos, ground

Preheat to 325. Line cookie sheets with parchment.
Sift flour, baking soda and salt together and set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.
Add in the crushed oreos. Beat on low to incorporate.
Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
Bake for 14 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.


Close up! You can see the dark flecks of oreo - Yum...


The second cookie recipe is based on Snickerdoodle Blossoms from 3 B's, adapted from Keeper Worthy Recipes & Lick the Bowl Good.

I made them as cookies, on a cookie sheet instead of doing them in the muffin tins... but I wish I had done the muffin idea! This recipe was so good I will definitely try them again and make them into a cute mini muffin shape next time. I swapped out the hershey kisses and opted instead for Chocolate Covered Brownie Dough Bites...yummm. I used the brownie bites in some and made others just as plain ol' snickerdoodles. Mine baked out kind of flat... they spread a lot and flattened out. But they were still incredibly SOFT and delish. A definite would-make-again.



Snickerdoodle Not-So-Blossoms from Snickerdoodle Blossoms of 3 B's, adapted from Keeper Worthy Recipes & Lick the Bowl Good.
makes about 4 dozen
Ingredients:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, soft
1 egg, room temp
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
48 chocolate candies of your choice (chocolate kisses, chocolate covered brownie dough, etc)
For the cinnamon sugar:
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Preheat 375 F.
Combine 1/2 cup sugar, brown sugar and butter in large mixer bowl. Beat on medium until creamy. Add egg, vanilla and salt and beat until mixed. Reduce speed to low; add flour and baking soda. Beat until well mixed.

Refrigerate about 1 hour, or until firm enough to shape into 1 inch balls. Work fast before they get soft! Combine the 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Roll dough balls in cinnamon sugar.
Place 2 inches apart onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until very lightly golden brown. Immediately press 1 chocolate kiss in center of each cookie. (OOPS - I added my chocolate candy to the center of the cookie BEFORE baking. But I think either way they would have spread out flat.) Remove from cookie sheets; cool completely on a wire rack.

And FINALLY, the last cookie recipe is for Soft Sugar Cookies. These were by far the softest sugar cookies I have ever made. And possibly even my favorite sugar cookie I've ever prepared. They maintained their height nicely without spreading too much. My only beef is that the dough is thin and even after a little chilling (which the recipe doesn't call for) is hard to roll into a ball to roll in the sugar. But non-stick spraying a cookie scooper helped a lot with this process. I saw these on Delish Blog, which they adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, 2006. The only change I made was to add some turbinado sugar to the granulated sugar used for rolling the dough balls in for some extra crunch. They came out perfectly SUPER-SOFT on the inside, with a sugary crust on the outside. Definitely would make these again!!



Softest Sugar Cookies from Delish Blog, adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, 2006.
makes about 2 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temp
extra granulated sugar mixed with some turbinado sugar for rolling

Preheat to 350 F. Mixed 1/2 cup of the sugar with some turbinado sugar in a small bowl for coating. Set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together. Set aside. Beat butter and rest of the sugar (1 1/2 cups) together in a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla, then the eggs one at a time, until combined, only about 30 seconds. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the flour mixture until just combined. Chill the dough for about 30 minutes. Line cookie sheets with parchment. Using wet hands, roll 2 Tablespoons of dough into balls, then roll in sugar to coat. Place balls on sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. Very slightly flatten cookies with a flat surface (the bottom of a glass, measuring cup, spatula, etc).
Bake cookies until edges are set and just barely beginning to brown but the centers are still soft and puffy, about 10-12 minutes. To keep these soft, you DON'T want to overbake them! Leave cookies on baking sheet after removing from oven for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Nearly Perfect Brownies

No matter how many delicious brownie recipes I find, for some reason I'm always more than willing to try out new ones. Rather than stick with the tried and true, taste test approved brownies I've made in the past, I often find myself looking for new ones to experiment with. Sometimes the results are disappointing and I wish that I'd stuck with a personal favorite. But other times, such as this one, the new recipes produces some terrific results. I recently came across, "Better than Ultimate Brownies" on Gourmeted.com. What struck me was the photos - super fudgey, moist looking inside, while they still had those crisp tops - YUM. These "Better than Ultimate" brownies were adapted from the original recipe found here for "Ultimate Brownies" on about.com. I made a few more substitutions and changes to the recipe from Gourmeted, and have posted my changes below.



They came out great - exactly like they appeared in the picture. That perfect thin crust top, with a perfectly moist, fudgey center.
They were enjoyed by all at the New Year's Party. :)




Nearly Perfect Brownies! adapted from "Better than Ultimate Brownies" on Gourmeted.com
Ingredients:
4 (1) oz squares of unsweetened chocolate
3 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup unsalted butter
5 eggs
2 3/4 cups sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp sea salt

Grease one 9 x 13 pan. Line the bottom with parchment and lightly grease the parchment.
In a small saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate squares, chips, cocoa powder, and butter. Set aside after it has melted and combined.
Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla at high speed for 10 minutes. Put the guard on your stand mixer bowl - this gets splashy! Add the melted chocolate mixture, salt and flour and mix until just blended. Let the batter sit on the counter for 20 minutes before pouring into the greased pan (half way through this would be a good time to preheat the oven to 375). Let air bubbles escape by dropping the pan on to a counter a few times.
4.Bake for 30 minutes and test with a toothpick. If it comes out clean with only a few crumbs, remove to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before cutting.

Ducky Baby Shower Rainbow Cookie-Cake

So you all know of the famed Rainbow Cookies, right?
I've posted about them before because they are one of the family's all-time favorites...


Well, since they are an all-time fave, they were requested to be made into a dessert for Daniel's sister's baby shower. The theme of the party was Duckies! Instead of making them the traditional colors - red, green, yellow, I made it in baby colors (but since we don't know the gender yet, I used both blue AND pink).

Instead of the usual chocolate topping, I used blue candy melts to make it look like duckies in water... it achieved the look we were going for, though I must say, the cookies lacked that chocolately touch from the semi-sweet chocolate that was missing. But they were still good! Just not aaaas good.




We added the little decorative rocks to make it look like bubbles in the water.



Ehh, I'm not SO thrilled about how it came out. But the candy melts hardened VERY quickly, and I was very short on time. I wanted it to be cuter!

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Caramel Cashew Bars

The lovely Pamela of Cookies with Boys chose this week's Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe, Butterscotch Cashew Bars. It has a lovely buttery shortbready-ish crust which is smothered with gooey butterscotch, and topped with yummy cashews. Sounds like a winner to me!



Well... it all sounds great but the Butterscotch part. I've never been a big fan. So, besides quartering the recipe to make a smaller two-person-home sized portion, I changed the butterscotch part to caramel. And I used Sea Salted cashews. Mmm boy. The cookie-ish crust came together perfectly and easily, and baked up very nicely. For my gooey topping, I simply melted some caramel bits with a little smidge of water, and spread it on top of my baked and cooled crust. I sprinkled some Sea Salted Cashews on top, popped it back in the oven for a few minutes to melt it all together, and we were done. Very simple recipe, with delicious results. The crumbly buttery shortbread crust paired perfectly with the gooey caramel, and the sweetness from the caramel and crust was cut with the sea salt and crunch from the Cashews. This recipe was a serious winner in my book. Be sure to check out how the other SMS bakers did!

Malted Milk Blondies

When I saw these Malted Milk Blondies on Cookiemadness.net, one of my favorite blogs, I knew I had to make them. We loooove us some blondies. PLUS I have practically a whole container of malted milk powder left over from our Malted Milk Ice Cream. I wanted to make the full batch, so I went to the original source. The recipe is from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, a recipe book I have used before with great success. (sheesh, I think I went a little hyperlink crazy in this post). This time, I got similarly amazing results. These blondies are super soft-and-chewy, brown sugary, and delicious. I followed the recipe for the most part, the only changes being that I omitted the malted milk balls and nuts, and instead, put in 3/4 C of Chips (half semisweet chocolate chunks and half reese's peanut butter chips). With the end result, I wouldn't have changed a thing. Blondie Perfection! They were quite different from other Blondies we have made... more brown sugary and chewy, and less cakey. But still delicious! I really gotta go get this book.

Sugar Cookie Bars

Sometimes, simple is good. Sugar cookies are one of those things that don't need to be fancied up at all, they're tasty already - as they are - simple. I like this recipe because it's perfect for when you're too lazy to roll out dough and use cookie cutters.



Sugar Cookie Bars
Ingredients:
1 stick of butter, softened
1 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda

Preheat to 375. Sift together the flour, salt & baking soda to combine, and set aside. Spray a 9 x 13 cookie sheet (with raised sides) with non-stick spray. Put the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and turn on to cream the butter. Slowly add the sugar and mix until creamy, about two minutes. Add the eggs and mix to combine. Add vanilla. In three parts, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir just to combine, scraping the bowl in between additions. Spread the dough in the 9 x 13 pan. Bake for 14 - 19 minutes, or until it is slightly golden around the edges. Leave in pan to cool, on a wire rack. When completely cool, spread with about 1 cup of frosting (recipe below), or to taste. Wait until frosting has set a bit before cutting, at least a half hour.



Buttercream Frosting this recipe makes a lot more than you'll need for this, but it stores really well in the frig. I just make it in big batches and save it for future use.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 C solid white vegetable shortening
2 teaspoons clear vanilla extract
1/3 C + 2 tablespoons warm water
a 2 LB bag of confectioner's sugar

Add shortening to the electric mixer bowl and turn on to cream it. Add 1/2 the sugar and mix on low to combine (you'll certainly want your bowl's dust lid/shield thing on at this point!). Add the warm water and mix to a paste. Once it is creamed, add the rest of the sugar. Mix. Add the extract. Mix to combine completely, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Then, turn mixer to high and beat to about 8 minutes. Store in the frig for up to 8 - 12 weeks (seriously!).

The End All Be All of Blondies

I have found that photographs do not do blondies justice. Or brownies and other bar cookies for that matter. Maybe I just don't know how to photograph them, but their super satisfying delicious flavor does not come across in these photos at all and i have four different taste testers that can attest to this. This has been voted the hands down best blondie recipe ever. I know, quite a hefty statement, but its possible... these blondies might just be the one(s). Even Al Roker calls them "Platinum Blondies". Ok, that might be because of the light color, but I like the think that its named as such because of their equal in jewelry materials. Or the place they would come in in a competition. Because of the great reviews, I made the recipe word for word, besides the omission of pecans and substituting chocolate-caramel swirl chips for the white chocolate chips (and reducing the amount of them). I suppose you can use whatever chips you like, but with these, they were utter perfection.



Platinum Blondies from Food Network
Ingredients:
3/4 C + 2 Tblspn Packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 Tsp vanilla extract
1 stick butter, melted
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 Tsp baking soda
1/8 Tsp salt
1/2 C Nestle Swirled Morsels in chocolate/caramel

Non-stick spray an 8-inch square pan. Beat the sugar and egg together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and butter and beat to mix. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, & salt, and add to the butter mixture, beating until just incorporated. Do not overmix! By hand using a spoon, stir in the chips.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and use spatula to smooth the top. Bake for 22 to 30 minutes (mine were done at 22, before the 25-30 that the original recipe said), until the top is dry and golden and a knife inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached (not wet, but not perfectly dry). Remove the pan from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

To kick off baking in the new house...

No blogging as of late... life has been filled with moving, unpacking, buying furniture, trying to find things in boxes, and cramming for midterms and presentations. Whew! When I finally got a break from all the chaos, I made what has got to be one of the easiest recipes I have made to date. Owing to the fact that the pantry didn't have many of the baking basics yet, I had to search for very simple recipes (and since the pantry was lacking granulated sugar, it narrowed my recipe pool down quite a bit). I found this Paula Deen recipe and it seemed perfect. By the time I actually got around to baking, we had picked up some granulated sugar so I could have baked almost anything, but I stuck to this "Brown Sugar Chewies" recipe I had found because it looked so good.

I followed the recipe exactly and it was very easy to do. Everything came together really really quickly and you practically use only one bowl. The best thing about it was that after it came out of the oven it proved to be not only a cinch to make, but delicious.



I think mine were a little undercooked in the middle, even though I kept it in the oven 3 minutes longer than it said to... but they tasted juuuust right that way. They were chewy, a little gooey, and the outside was perfectly crumbly. They were good right away when still warm, and tasted great the day after and the day after that. Note to self: when lazy and craving something sweet - Will make again. More posts coming soon!

Lots of Christmas Baking

Finally getting to posting all the Christmas baking we did over the past few weeks. For Christmas Eve, we were at my Dad's house. One of his all time favorite desserts is Tiramisu, so I wanted to make that for him. But Daniel doesn't like traditional tiramisu with chocolate shavings/cocoa powder and espresso...and I didn't want to make two desserts for Christmas Eve. Luckily, I found a Giada De Laurentiis recipe that was the perfect solution. I just changed her raspberry version into a strawberry version and everyone was happy. I followed her recipe exactly, other than switching out strawberry jam and fresh strawberries for their raspberry counterparts.

Strawberry Tiramisu...


By icecreamb4dinner
Ladyfingers & Jam/Grand Marnier layers


By icecreamb4dinner
Creamy sugary mascarponey layer & fresh strawberries


Finished product, before confectioners sugar dusting.

The last and only other time I have made a recipe of Giada's, it turned out quite good, but it was a royal pain in the butt to make. Me and Daniel decided to make her recipe for Turkey Sausage Pizza Pockets but working with the dough was so difficult, we nearly killed each other. I attributed this to the prepackaged pizza dough, though, and gave her another shot. This recipe for Tiramisu came out so good, I think I'll keep her in mind for other recipes in the future.

Next up, for Christmas Day, I wanted to make these Austrian Shortbread cookies to bring to my grandmother's house. The only difference between the epicurious recipe and mind is that I used Self Rising flour (and left out the salt and baking powder the original recipe called for) and used Cherry preserves instead of Raspberry. The tough dough nearly burnt out the wee motor of my dad's hand mixer, and the process of hand grating all that frozen dough gave me, my sister, and Daniel's biceps a serious workout. I began to have my doubts that all this work would pay off, but the finished product was amazing. After it sat over night, everyone agreed it was great. I think next time I would put only half the confectioner's sugar on right after coming out of the oven (as the recipe says) and save the rest for after it has cooled completely, because the confectioner's sugar turned yellow from the heat and looked more like grated cheese than sugar. And I might take their suggestion and substitute 1 cup cocoa for 1 cup of the flour for chocolate shortbread.

Austrian Shortbread with Cherry Filling...

(Don't mind the unflattering pictures)




The Bake-A-Thon Continued as we prepared 2 bailey's cheesecakes: One for my dad to bring to work, and one to split between my Dad's family and my Mom's. I have no idea where I got this recipe from. I've had it for a while and I've gradually made changes to it since I started using it. But its a favorite recipe, and even people who don't like Baileys tend to like this cheesecake. This time, we used Caramel Bailey's instead of original, and I changed the crust a little bit.

Marble Bailey's Caramel Cheesecake with Hot Cocoa Nilla Wafer Crust...

Crust Ingredients:
Box of Nilla Wafers or graham crackers
1/2 stick of unsalted butter, melted
1/4 c sugar
1 packet hot cocoa.

Combine butter, sugar and hot cocoa mix. Stir in the nilla wafers or graham cracker crumbs. Press into the bottom of a greased & parchment-lined 9" springform pan. Bake 10 minutes at 350. Let cool and grease the sides of the pan.

Filling Ingredients:
3 8oz pkgs cream cheese, softened
3/4 C sugar
3 eggs
3/4 C bailey's caramel
2 Oz melted chocolate.

*Preheat to 450 and put in a shallow baking dish filled with water (prevent's cracking!)
*Beat cream cheese until smooth.
*Slowly beat in the sugar, then the eggs one at a time. Then Bailey's.
*Pour 1/3 of mixture into a bowl and stir in the melted chocolate.
*Pour most of the plain cream cheese mixture into the prepared pan.
*Drizzle with the chocolate cream cheese mixture.
*Pour the rest of the plain mixture on top.
*To make marble, take a knife and gently swirl.
*Bake 10 minutes at 450, then lower to 250 and bake for 55 min.
*Let cool all the way before putting in the frig.