Peanut Butter Nanaimo Bars

My oven is still out of service, but the good news is that the part is in and the repairman will come on Saturday to fix it! I’m very excited to have my oven back; it’s been challenging trying to find recipes that are either no bake or came be baked in the smaller microwave/convection oven. This week I opted to make a no bake cookie and whenever I think about no bake cookies, I usually turn to Nanaimo Bars. I’ve made a couple of variations, and this week I went with a classic combination: chocolate and peanut butter.

The filling is where these bars can really vary. The base is usually the same: graham cracker crumbs, chocolate, coconut, and nuts. I didn’t have very much coconut on hand, so I added more nuts. I used pecans here, although I ideally I would use peanuts, but I didn’t have those on hand. Just use whatever is most convenient for you.

These have a couple of steps, and you need to chill the bars between each layer, but just for a few minutes. I started these somewhat later in the evening, but I still got them done in no time. Waiting for the chocolate to set is the most time consuming, and cutting the bars when the chocolate is just right is tricky, as chocolate can go from too soft to too set in minutes it seems! I let me bars set about 30 minutes and that seemed to work. The flavors in these bars are fabulous! You can’t go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter.

Peanut Butter Nanaimo Bars

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup sugar

5 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

2 tablespoons custard powder

¼ cup milk

½ cup peanut butter

2 cups powdered sugar

6 ounces semisweet chocolate

2 tablespoons shortening

Line a 9” square pan with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in the sugar and cocoa, until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and stir to combine. Remove from the heat. Stir in the graham cracker crumbs, coconut and pecans. Press into the bottom of the prepared pan; chill until set, about 20 minutes.

Make the filling: in a large mixer bowl combine the butter, custard powder, milk, and peanut butter. Beat on medium until combined. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the powdered sugar, beating until smooth. Spread the filling over the chilled base. Refrigerate until set.

Make the topping: in the top of a double boiler or in the microwave, melt together chocolate and shortening. Spread the chocolate on top of the bars. Refrigerate the bars until the chocolate is partially set. Cut the bars before the chocolate completely hardens; then refrigerate until fully set.

Recipe from Food.com

Nutella Hot Chocolate with Hazelnut Whipped Cream

I’m happy to participating in another recipe swap. This is a blogger’s choice swap so I was assigned the blog The Dinner Pages and I got to pick any recipe I wanted. I love the concept of her blog, making recipes from the cookbooks she owns. I have a lot of cookbooks but more often than not, I don’t use them. I should really challenge myself to use my cookbooks more frequently. As always, thanks to Sarah from A Taste of Home Cooking for hosting the blog swaps.

I had picked a different recipe to make for the swap. For the blog swaps it is fun to pick recipes that are outside what I typically make. I had planned a dinner recipe, Cottage Pie, but I needed to use the oven and my oven was not working! I decided to try another recipe and make the original one at another time. I asked my husband what recipe I should make, and of all the things on the blog, he chose this recipe for Nutella hot chocolate. We had all the ingredients, so why not?

This is probable the fasted recipe I have ever made, but we really loved this hot chocolate. We decided to add some hazelnut liqueur to the hot chocolate, but that’s not necessary. The flavor of the Nutella shines through so well. I also used hazelnut liqueur in the whipped cream or use hazelnut extract (just 1/8 teaspoon). This was a really nice afternoon treat on a very rainy northwest afternoon. Thanks for the recipe!

Nutella Hot Chocolate with Hazelnut Whipped Cream

2 cups milk

1/4 cup Nutella

1 tablespoon hazelnut liqueur (optional)

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon hazelnut liqueur

1/8 teaspoon vanilla

1-1/2 teaspoons powdered sugar

Make the hot chocolate: In a small saucepan, combine the milk and Nutella. Heat on medium heat, whisking occasionally, until warmed through. Remove from the heat, and if desired, whisk in the hazelnut liqueur.

Make the whipped cream: in a large mixer bowl, combine the heavy cream, hazelnut liqueur, vanilla and powdered sugar. Beat on high speed until stiff peaks form.

Divide the hot chocolate between two coffee cups and top with whipped cream.

Recipe from The Dinner Pages

An InLinkz Link-up

Buttermilk Scones

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is Buttermilk Scones. It seems like the last few months the Tuesdays with Dorie recipes have been dishes that take a really long time to make. I was thrilled to make scones this time, because the come together very quickly and bake up in just a few minutes. I have made a number of difference scones, and I like scones a lot. Mine never rise quite as high as I hope, but that’s ok. You can get the recipe for these scones with a quick search of the web. Make sure you check out the Tuesdays with Dorie site to see how the other TWD bakers did this week.

My oven is still not working, but the part to fix it is on its way! I baked these in my microwave/convection oven, which is a bit different than a traditional oven. My oven has a quick cook feature where you say the type of food and then it calculates the weight of the food and sets the time for you. It’s very interesting! These baked for a lot longer than you would bake them in the traditional oven, but it works out.  It didn’t have a scone setting, but it did have a setting for homemade biscuits and that worked just fine. 

I find that if I try to cut in the butter by hand, I overwork the dough. I used the food processor to cut in the butter and then transferred the mixture to a bowl to proceed. I just patted the dough out in circles rather than rolling. Using a rolling pin on scones seems like overkill. These smelled great while baking and they taste great too. I served them with butter and jam. They have a slightly crispy exterior and are soft in the middle, very nice. While I will be glad to get my oven back working, it’s been fun seeing what I can do with my alternate oven.

Recipe from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan, page 210

Cinnamon Chip Refrigerator Cookies

Well, it was adventures in baking this week for me! I had found this recipe around Christmas; it was in one of those Christmas cookie recipe books that you can buy at the grocery store during the holidays. This was from a book that my parents had bought. This recipe sounded great and I really like cinnamon chips. I took a photo of the recipe but I don’t remember the title of the recipe book. Bad for me, especially since I’m a librarian and I know better than that!

I made the cookie dough one night since the dough needed to chill for at least 8 hours. The night I made the dough, I turned the oven on to make dinner, and it didn’t heat up! After some investigation my husband discovered that one of the wires connected to the igniter had burnt up. It must have happened when I cleaned the oven recently. Well, at least I have a microwave oven/convection oven so I decided to use that.

The convection oven took a bit to get used to; my first batch baked FOREVER! I then tried the speed cook, which had a setting for refrigerated cookies, and that worked a lot better. I could only bake 6 cookies at a time though, so baking the cookies ended up being and all evening affair. In the end, they turned out. I did have to take them out of the oven when they looked quite under done, but they finished cooking and set as they cooled. They don’t brown quite as much as a regular oven, but not too bad. These cookies are crisp, like shortbread, but with wonderful cinnamon flavor and the buttery flavor of toasted pecans.

Cinnamon Chip Refrigerator Cookies

1 cup butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 cups flour

10 ounces cinnamon chips

1 cup chopped pecans, toasted.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter until creamy. With the mixer running on medium, gradually add the sugar, beat until well combined. Add in the eggs and vanilla and stir until incorporated. With the mixer running on low, add the flour gradually. Once the flour disappears into the dough, stir in the cinnamon chips and pecans.

Divide the dough into thirds. Shape each piece of dough into a log about 12” long, making sure that each log is about the same diameter. Wrap each log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours. The dough can also be frozen for up to 3 months.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Remove the plastic wrap from the logs and slice into ½” slices. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 13-15 minutes, until lightly golden along the edges. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from a Christmas cookie recipe booklet

Winter Citrus Cake

I while ago, I was looking for cakes to make and my husband emailed me about a dozen different recipes. I haven’t fully looked at all the recipes, but there are quite a few good ones in the batch he sent! I was looking for what cake to make to celebrate the birthdays at work this month and I thought this winter citrus cake sounded great. Sometimes it’s nice to take a cake that’s not quite so sweet and covered with frosting.

This cake takes advantage of citrus fruits that are available this time of year: Meyer lemons and clementines/mandarin oranges. My store didn’t have Meyer lemons, so I just used small lemons. If you can’t find mandarin oranges, or don’t want to buy a giant box of them, you could substitute any type of orange. I also used a combination of mascarpone cheese and sour cream in place of the Greek yogurt; I’m trying to clean out my refrigerator!

This cake came together fast. It baked fairly quickly, and you have to watch the baking time as it can vary depending on the size of the pan you used and how juicy your lemons and mandarins are. I baked mine for 40 minutes and it seemed done. It was fairly soft when I took it out of the pan, so I knew that the cake won’t be dry. This cake was just superb. The citrus flavors were so refreshing on a grey winter day. I’m so glad I made this!

Winter Citrus Cake

3/4 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

Juice and zest from 2 small lemons

Juice and zest from 2 mandarin oranges

1 cup flour

1/2 cup almond flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

2/3 cup plain Greek yogurt

Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8” or 9”springform pan with cooking spray and line the bottom of the pan with a circle of waxed paper. Spray the paper with cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for a minute after each addition. Stir in the lemon and orange zest and the juices; the batter will look lumpy.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer running on low, add half of the flour mixture to the batter. Add yogurt and continue mixing. Add remaining flour mixture and stir just to combine. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for about 35-45 minutes, until a thin knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Your baking time will vary depending on the size of your springform pan.

Allow to cool on a wire rack. Remove the cake from the pan and dust the top with powdered sugar.

Recipe from Off the (Meat) Hook