Rolo Brownies and Quick 4th of July Dessert Idea

Happy Fourth of July everyone!  I hope you are all enjoying your day with family and friends, eating lots of food and watching fireworks.  If you are going to a barbecue and you need something to bring, this is a great idea that can be made at the last minute.  


The second I saw these Rolo Brownies on My Baking Addiction, I knew I'd be making them at some point.  When it came time to pick what to make for a Fourth of July party, I thought these would be the perfect thing to bring.  They're pretty quick to throw together - it involves a short cut - a boxed mix, something I very rarely do! But it tastes like homemade.  If you're not a fan of boxed mix flavor, don't worry - neither am I, and these taste nothing like something you get from a box.  Plus, they're quite unique!  I doubt anyone else will be bringing Rolo-stuffed brownies to your barbecue.  


I've added the simplest, quickest Fourth of July decorating idea that will turn these brownies, or any brownie recipe for that matter, into a festive, Star-Spangled dessert.  :)  


Star Spangled Rolo Brownies from My Baking Addiction
Ingredients:
1 box chocolate fudge cake mix
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
5 packages Rolo (or 40 rolos) unwrapped
Peanut Butter Chips


Preheat to 350 F.  Lightly spray an 8 inch square baking pan with non-stick spray.  Line with 8 in Cake Pan Pre-Cut Parchment Square.  
In a large bowl, combine cake mix, evaporated milk, and melted butter until combined.  Divide the batter in half, set half aside.  With half of the batter, press into the bottom of the prepared pan in an even layer.  Bake for 8 minutes, then remove the pan from the oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
Arrange rolos over the surface of the brownies, close together.  Sprinkle peanut butter chips in all the spaces in between the rolos.  On another 8 in Cake Pan Parchment Square, pat the remaining brownie dough into an 8 inch square.  Turn the parchment over on top of the rolo layer, dough side down, and then peel the paper away.  Bake for another 20-25 minutes.
Let brownies cool completely before removing from the pan or cutting.  


Want the quickest, simplest way to decorate your dessert for 4th of July?  Take any white frosting, microwave for 10-15 seconds are stir until frosting is pourable.  Drizzle over the top of your dessert, and sprinkle with Red and Blue Star Shaped Sprinkles.  Voila!  I used this technique on the Rolo Brownies and on some Blondies I made.  

Recipe Card! Click to enlarge:

   

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.

Snickerdoodle Blondies

Pillsbury is accepting entries for their March 2012 Bake-off NOW!  Are you entering your favorite recipe?  The prizes are incredible, so you probably should!  How does 1st place - $1 million + $10,000 in GE Kitchen appliances sound?  And several $5,000 + $3,000 in GE appliances prizes?  Read more HERE.  100 finalists will go to Orlando to face off!  I know I'm devoting some of my spring break time to baking up and testing recipes!  


But for now I have another delicious recipe to share with you.  This one is not mine, it comes from one of my new fave blogs Bakergirl.  I've seen several Snickerdoodle Blondie recipes floating around the food blogger world for quite some time and have had many of them bookmarked for what seems like forever.  But some strange reason I've never made them.  It really is strange because we LOVE blondies and we LOVE all things cinnamon sugar here.  Just like the matcha shortbread cookies I kept pushing off and finally got around to baking, these Snickerdoodle Blondies were finally at the top of my To-Do list.  And thank goodness for that because these are absolutely perfect.  Soft and chewy on the inside, cinnamon-sugary crunch on top.  The most amazing combination of a snickerdoodle cookie and a vanilla blondie one could possibly imagine.  I'm saying all this and I haven't even tried one warm with vanilla ice cream on top yet!  These babies are a winner.  Don't forget to see our printable recipe card below!  Click the recipe card to open a larger printable version.  

Snickerdoodle Blondies adapted slightly from Bakergirl
Ingredients:
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups packed light brown sugar (approximately 430 grams)
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs, room temp
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
For the topping:
2 Tablespoon granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon


Directions:
Preheat to 350 F.  Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan and line with parchment paper.  Lightly grease the parchment.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sea salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
In a small bowl, combine the topping ingredients and set aside.
Put butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and turn on.  When butter has been beaten a bit, add in the brown sugar and mix until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Add the eggs in one at a time, making sure to beat well after each addition, wiping down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula if necessary.  Add in the vanilla and beat.
Slowly add the flour mixture with the mixer on low speed.  Beat just until combined, do not overbeat.
Transfer batter to the prepared pan.  Use offset spatula to smooth it.
Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar topping evenly over the surface.
Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until surface of blondies spring back when touched.
Allow to cool on a wire rack and enjoy!





Printable recipe card!

Blondies according to Dorie Greenspan... Chewy & Chunky

Though I do not own this book yet (YET), I have heard soooo many great things about Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. This past weekend, I got around to making her Chewy, Chunky Blondies (page 109) since we are real big blondie fans in this family. I prepared the recipe with only minor changes (I omitted the coconut and walnuts, and instead of her 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate chopped into chips, or 1 cup chocolate chips & 1 cup Heath Toffee Bits I did 3/4 C chocolate chips (mostly bittersweet with a handful of Hersheys Special Dark thrown in) and 1/2 C Peanut Butter Chips. Other than that, I stuck to her recipe so I won't post it here (But you can find it HERE and HERE).



These blondies came out very good. Good enough that I want to go out and buy the book now for the rest of the recipes. Though they were nothing extra-spectacular that makes them stand out from other blondie recipes I've prepared, I'd definitely make them again. They were a cinch to throw together, nice and sturdy and moist, and with some rich caramelly tones.



I want to take a poll... I'm considering making cupcakes for my wedding this October. I have about 75 - 90 guests, so I'd make around that many cupcakes, and I' get a mall 6 inch cake made professionally to use as the "cake cutting cake" that I put my cute little cake topper on. I'm not doing anything super fancy, just piping some frosting on and maybe throwing a gum paste flower on it (that I would purchase, not make). Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Some people say I can do it, others say I'm totally insane. Fellow bakers - what are your thoughts??? I'd love some insightful input and wisdom. :) Thanks!

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!)

Sea Salted Blondies

A little while back, I saw this post for Salted Blondies on one of my very favorite blogs, 3 B'S .... Baseball, Baking, & Books. I bookmarked it and KNEW I'd have to come back to it when I had time. Her inspiration came from The Delicious Life which was a Heath Bar version. I chose to make Ingrid of 3 B's Version: White Chocolate Chip and Macadamia Nut Blondies. Yummm.

Just as both bloggers claimed, this recipe was super easy. And it came out Super, Super Delicious. Mmm. On my way home from a meeting with my professor yesterday, Daniel called and said, "I think I may need my stomach pumped... I had too many blondies". Yes, they're that good. Dan and I agree that they're cookie-er tasting than other blondies I've made...if that makes any sense. The extra touch from the coarse sea salt really put these over the top. I used my favorite go-to sea salt: Diamond Crystal All Natural Coarse Sea Salt. I use it in every recipe in place of regular salt and it adds an extra dimension to all my creations.





Sea Salted Blondies, with Macadamia Nuts and White Chocolate Chips from 3 B's & The Delicious Life
Ingredients:
1 C A.P. Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/8 tsp Baking soda
A heaping 1/2 tsp of Diamond Crystal All Natural Coarse Sea Salt
1 C brown Sugar
1 stick butter, melted & slightly cooled
1 large egg, room temoerature
1/2 tsp Vanilla
3/4 C white chocolate chips
~1/4 C Chopped Macadamia nuts

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease an 8×8 baking pan, line it with parchment, and lightly grease the parchment.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate bowl, beat together the brown sugar and the melted butter. Add the egg and vanilla. Beat to combine.

Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Before completely combined, add the white chocolate chips and the nuts (reserving about a Tblspn of the nuts to sprinkle on top). Pour batter into pan and sprinkle with remaining nuts. Also sprinkle the batter with more coarse sea salt.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool for 10 minute and then remove the blondies using the parchment sling to allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Enjoy as is or warmed up with ice cream on top!

My First Fondant Cake!: Birthday Present Cake

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 3 is underway! Yesterday was Lesson #2 of Course 3 (Fondant and Tiered Cakes) and we got to Fondant our first cake! We were required to bring an iced/frosted 2 layer square cake. In class, we were to assemble it into a birthday present... and since Daniel's birthday is this Saturday, it was perfect! I made one that he would like: the bottom layer is a giant blondie, theres a layer of buttercream, and it's topped with his favorite white cake recipe. This was the end result. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job for my first one! I really like working with fondant and am excited to do more things with it in the future.

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.

Best Blondies!

It has been a while since I blogged last, eh? In fact, I made these blondies on Thanksgiving and I am only getting around to posting it now. Life has been busy! Yesterday was my last day of undergraduate classes ever. Scary. All I have is one day of "finals" (even though all I have to do is a 1 minute presentation and hand in a paper) and then walk across that stage in my cap and gown. It's happy and terrifying at the same time. I have been thrust into the real world! Ahh, all will fall into place (right??).

For Thanksgiving, I made blondies... A nice alternative to brownies which surprisingly few people have had the pleasure of enjoying. All I have to say is that this recipe was a huge hit, and may even be my new go-to blondie recipe... surpassing the last blondie recipe I made which I declared "the end all be all of blondies" at the time. I guess I lied! I made only slight changes to this recipe, below is my version. I used regular ol' brown sugars instead of the expensive muscovado, I omitted the toffee chips, only added un-toasted almonds to the top (which then toasted a bit in the oven) rather than in to the batter, and upped the baking time.

Best Blondies from Throwdown with Bobby Flay
Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/2 C all purpose flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 C light brown sugar
1/2 C dark brown sugar
2 Large Eggs
1 1/2 tsp madagascar vanilla
1 C Semi-Sweet chocolate Chips
~ 1/8 C slivered almonds
~ 1/8 Tsp cinnamon sugar

Directions:
Preheat over to 350 F. Non-stick spray a 9 x 9 pan, line with a parchment sling, and non-stick spray the parchment.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder 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. Fold in the chocolate chips (if your mixture is too hot at this point, the chips will melt and you'll have too-chocolatey blondies, rather than blondies with chocolate chips in it!). Transfer this mixture into the preprared 9 x 9. Sprinkle enough of the slivered almonds to the top of the batter to cover as much as you like... I only covered half of the blondies with almonds, as I was not sure if everyone liked almonds. Sprinkle a small bit of cinnamon sugar over the top of the batter for a subtle bit of extra yum.

Bake for 30 - 35 minutes (Mine took 33 minutes) or when a toothpick inserted comes out with only moist crumbs, no raw batter. Remove to wire rack to cool completely. Cut after cool.

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.

Blondies

Since our cinnamon bun recipe from King Arthur Flour's was such a hit, I thought I'd use one of their recipes for some blondies. Now I'm pretty confident that I'll keep continue using recipes from their site, because these were amazing. Besides..um... one trademark Stephanie screw-up, these were really simple and tasty.

What was that screw-up you ask?

Sadie eyeing up the waste.

This recipe calls for one pound of brown sugar, & 1/4 c granulated sugar but once we had got to the last step, ready to throw these babies in the oven, Dan saw the unopened box of brown sugar sitting on the table. OOPS! We tried to mix it in last minute, but started another batch at that moment just in case it didn't work (yes, we have two pounds of brown sugar in the pantry at all times). It was a good thing we made that bake-up batch because the 1st faulty batch never cooked. It stayed in the oven for over and hour and was still liquid when we finally decided to throw it away. At least we got a real good laugh out of it.

But as you can see, the second batch went just swimmingly:

They were moist, sweet, and perfect. Dan brought them into work, and they were a hugeee hit. I definitely recommend this recipe if you are craving blondies.

Blondie Bars from King Arthur Flour's Website.

1 1/3 sticks unsalted butter, melted
1 pound brown sugar, light or dark (we used light)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vinegar, white or cider
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon espresso powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 3/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
8 ounces chocolate chunks
2 cups coarsely chopped nuts (But we used 3/4 c mini reeses pieces)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan.

Combine the butter, sugars, salt, and vinegar, stirring to combine. If the mixture is super-hot from the melted butter, let it cool to lukewarm. Add the eggs, espresso powder, vanilla, and baking powder, beating well. Stir in the flour, mixing thoroughly, then the chocolate chunks and nuts.

Scoop the batter into the prepared pan, using your wet fingers to smooth the top. Bake the bars for about 38 minutes, until the top is golden and shiny, and the center is just barely baked through. Use the sharp tip of a knife to peek into the center; it should be very damp, but not unbaked. Yes, this puts a hole right in the center of the pan of bars; but you're going to cut them into squares anyway, and just assume the one with the hole will be yours—baker's privilege!

Remove the bars from the oven, and cool to lukewarm before cutting. A plastic knife will glide right through these sticky bars without tearing them. Serve with ice cream, if desired. To serve bars warm after they've cooled, reheat briefly in the microwave, or slip them into a toaster bag and pop into the toaster.

Yeahhh.... as usual...

How could we resist?