Caramel Butter Bars

You know, any cookie that calls for a pound of butter has to be good. I was browsing through the blogosphere and came across these bar cookies on the blog Taste and Tell. These had been made as a virtual housewarming gift for Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, whose blog I consistently drool over!

I figured for Halloween that these were somewhat similar to a candy bar with the nuts and caramel. I make a couple of things with caramels, but it’s always such a pain to unwrap all of those little caramels. I was at the store and ran across caramel bits, which were the same caramels, but unwrapped and in smaller bits so they were easier to melt down. What a great idea! Not having to unwrap caramels was such a time saver.

This recipe comes from Sticky, Chewy, Mess, Gooey, which has to be the best name for a cookbook ever. This cookie is from the gooey category. It wasn’t too messy coming together, and cutting wasn’t too bad either. In fact, these came out of the pan beautifully even though they were still a little warm.

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 Teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 bag (14 oz.) caramel candies, unwrapped
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 cup cashews

Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugars. Mix on medium speed until creamy. Add the vanilla and salt and beat until combined. Sift the flour into the butter mixture and beat on low speed until a smooth soft dough forms.

Press one-third of the dough evenly into the pan to form a bottom crust. Bake until firm and the edges are a pale golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool. (Refrigerate the remaining dough until firm, at least 30 minutes.)

While the bottom crust is baking and the remaining dough is chilling, make the caramel filling. Place the caramels in a small saucepan. Add the cream, vanilla, and salt. Het on medium low until caramels are melted and the mixture is smooth.

Sprinkle the cashews over the bottom crust. Pour the caramel filling over the cashews, using a small metal spatula to nudge the filling evenly over the crust. Remove the remaining chilled dough from the refrigerator and crumble it evenly over the caramel. (I didn’t use all of the remaining dough.) Return the pan to the oven and bake until the filling is bubbly and the crumbled shortbread topping is firm and lightly golden, about 30-45 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Recipe adapted from Taste and Tell who adapted the recipe from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Conner.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes

Clara of I Heart Food4Thought selected this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes. We were celebrating a birthday at work recently and this fit in perfectly. I wanted to try something a little different, so I decided to make the cupcakes as small squares instead.

I made the recipe by the book and the pans were about the same size so it made the same number as the original recipe. I baked them for a few minutes less than the recipe called for, about 18 minutes. I made a little more glaze because I wanted to completely cover the cakes if I could.

These were very chocolately and I probably could have taken them out of the oven about a minute sooner than I did. They taste a little different than a cupcake because they have edges, but they were very good. They were a big hit at the birthday celebration!

Pecan Tassies

These are a great party cookie: very portable and look fancy. They are basically miniature pecan pies, with a cream cheese pastry. You may need to make more of the egg/brown sugar filling, as I found that I was a little short of filling.

I had made these before, but this time the stuck to the pan. I don’t recall that ever happening before, but you never know! I think that I may have used too much of the egg filling, which seeped underneath the crust and caused it to stick. That would also explain why I didn't have enough of the egg/brown sugar mixture.

½ cup butter, room temperature

3 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup flour

1 egg

¾ cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon butter, room temperature

1teaspoon vanilla

Pinch of salt

½ cup chopped pecans

Make the dough: Combine the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Stir in the flour and refrigerate the dough about an hour.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix the egg, brown sugar, butter vanilla and salt in a small bowl. Set aside. Shape to dough into 24 balls. Place balls into miniature muffin cups. Press dough onto bottom and sides of each cup.

Spoon 1 teaspoon pecan in each cup and then fill with the egg mixture. Bake for 25 minutes or until filling is set.

Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (1981 edition)

TWD: Pumpkin Muffins

Kelly from Sounding My Barbaric Gulp! picked this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe: Pumpkin Muffins (see her blog for the complete recipe). Now, I’m not really a fan of pumpkin, but I like the spices that are usually paired with pumpkin so I decided that I would give these a try.

The original recipe called for golden raisins and nuts. I thought that I would try something different. I decided to use dried cranberries and white chocolate chips. Unfortunately, my supply of white chocolate chips was low so instead I used regular semi-sweet chips. Why do I always think that I have white chocolate chips?

I made 1-1/2 times the recipe, since I was planning on taking these to work and a dozen isn’t quite enough for the folks at work. This ended up making 2 dozen muffins, rather than the 18 that I was expecting, but that’s ok.

I only baked these 17 minutes, much less than the 25 minutes that the original recipe called for. I think I have regular size muffin pans, but maybe they are on the small side! They turned out well and although I don’t like pumpkin that much, these are very good. The chocolate chips were a fabulous addition. I think they make the muffin. The pumpkin is not very strong, which I’m ok with.

Nutella Cookies

I was looking for cookies to make and I came across the traditional peanut butter cookie. Those are good, but I wondered if I could make them with Nutella. This chocolate-hazelnut spread has the same consistency as peanut butter, so why wouldn’t it work? My husband and I were talking about it and I figured I would give it a try.

I took the recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours and made a couple of changes. I used Nutella instead of the peanut butter, I increased the salt since I wouldn’t be getting the salt from the peanut butter and I added a little bit of vegetable oil to the dough since the Nutella is a little less oily than peanut butter. The first batch I flattened the cookies like you would with a traditional peanut butter cookie, but the dough was a lot softer, so I decided to not flatten the second batch and they turned out great.

This made a lot of cookies (something like 7 dozen) which wasn’t a problem since they were SO GOOD that we couldn’t stop eating them. They are nice and crispy crunchy and have a great chocolate hazelnut flavor. The chocolate isn’t super pronounced, like it would be in a chocolate chip cookie, but it blends well with the hazelnut flavor. (Hmm, another chocolate hazelnut creation!) I’ve now made these a second time within a week, and I will certainly be making them again.

2-1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup Nutella

1 cup brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1-1/2 cups chopped, toasted hazelnuts

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

Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Put the butter in the bowl of a mixer and beat until smooth. Add the Nutella and beat until combined. Add the sugars and mix about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating one minute after each addition. Stir in the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Add the vegetable oil and the hazelnuts.

Drop by tablespoons (or a little smaller) onto the cookie sheet. Bake 12 minutes. Cookies will look a little undone. Cool for a couple minutes on the baking sheet and then remove to a wire rack to cool.

Adapted from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

TWD: Lenox Almond Cranberry Biscotti

Gretchen of Canela & Comino selected this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. I was excited to try this biscotti recipe. It had been a while since I had made biscotti and these looked really good. I read through the variations of this recipe and decided that I would add dried cranberries to the standard recipe. I soaked 1/3 cup of dried cranberries in Amaretto overnight to give them a little more flavor.

This recipe is a little different from others that I have tried in that they contain cornmeal. I think the cornmeal that I used was a little coarser than maybe I would have liked. It did add a nice crunch, but I’m not sure that I liked the texture in the end. It was ok, but I prefer some other biscotti that I have made in the past.

I changed the baking times a bit from what was listed in the original cookbook. You were supposed to bake the cookie logs for 15 minutes and then cut them and bake them for 15 more minutes. I checked the dough after the first 15 minutes, and it was really underdone. I let it bake about 5 more minutes and it had set up quite a bit. I let it cool and then sliced them up and baked another 15 minutes. They were still fairly soft, quite un-biscotti-like. I baked them 5 more minutes, then 5 more. I probably should have taken them out of the oven about 3 minutes earlier than I did. A couple of the biscotti got a bit too browned.

Frangelico Cheesecake with Espresso Whipped Cream

A friend of mine at work had a birthday recently, and I wanted to make something really special for her. I had sent myself this recipe for Bailey’s Chocolate Cheesecake quite some time ago and I’d never had occasion to make it. I thought that this would be a great birthday treat.

My kitchen is fairly well stocked with liqueurs that can be used in baking, but since my husband and I really don’t drink, I’m never sure if they are still good or not when I go to use them. Well, I guess the Irish Cream liqueur I had was quite old as it had solidified and turned quite nasty. I had a couple of other liqueurs on hand, so I ended up making this with Frangelico liqueur.

For such a fancy thing, the cheesecake wasn’t too had to put together. I made the cheesecake a day in advance, so it could refrigerate for about 24 hours. That made it very easy to remove from the pan. I added the espresso whipped cream after I had removed it from the pan.

This was a big hit at work! I liked it a lot, but I think I would leave the chocolate chips out. The cheesecake really didn’t need the chocolate; it had a great flavor all on its own.

2 cups graham cracker crumbs
¼ cup sugar
6 T. (3/4 stick) butter, melted

2 ¼ pounds cream cheese, room temperature
1 2/3 cups sugar

5 eggs, room temperature
1 cup Frangelico
1 T. vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chilled whipping cream
2 T. sugar
1 t. instant coffee powder

Preheat oven to 325F. Butter a 9” springform pan. Combine crumbs and sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir in better. Press mixture into bottom and 1” up sides of pan. Bake until light brown, about 7 minutes. Maintain oven temperature at 325F.

For filling: Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually mix in sugar. Beat eggs in one at a time. Blend in Frangelico and vanilla. Sprinkle half of chocolate chips over crust. Spoon in filling. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips. Bake cake until puffed, springy in center and golden brown, about 1 hour 20 minutes. Cool cake completely.

For cream:

Beat cream, sugar, and coffee powder until peaks form. Spread mixture over cooled cake.

Fudgy Almond Bars

I’m not sure where I got the cookbook that this recipe is from. It’s full of recipes from different companies. I’ve had the book for years, and with the chocolate-splattered end pages, you can immediately tell that it’s a book that I’ve used many times.

I had made this recipe before, but I hadn’t remembered how they turned out. I happened to have all the ingredients on hand, which I was a little surprised since I don’t typically use sweetened condensed milk. I have a few recipes that use the stuff and they are usually so sweet that I can hardly stand it. (And believe me, it has to be pretty sweet to be too sweet for me!)

These have a simple shortbread crust topped with an almond fudgy filling. They came together really quickly and looked great when they were finished baking. I forgot to add the ½ cup of hot water to the filling that the recipe called for, and maybe that made a difference. The filling didn’t seem too dry.

As soon as I started cutting the bars, I remembered that they hadn’t turned out that well last time. The shortbread crust doesn’t stay together, it just crumbles apart. Also the fudge part separated from the crust with the slightest of touch. They still taste good!

¾ cup + 1/3 cup butter, softened

¾ cup powdered sugar

1-1/2 cups flour

½ cup cocoa powder

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1-1/4 cups sliced almonds, toasted

2 eggs, beaten

½ teaspoon almond extract

Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine ¾ cup butter and powdered sugar. Mix until smooth. Add in the flour, stir until completely combined. Press the dough into an ungreased 9” x 13” pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.

While the crust is baking, melt the 1/3 cup butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Once the butter is melted, stir in the cocoa. Remove from the heat and stir in the sweetened condensed milk, almonds, eggs, almond extract and salt. Spread over baked crust.

Bake for 25 minutes or until set in the center. Chill thoroughly and then cut into bars.

Recipe from Favorite Brand Name Cookie Collection

Tuesdays with Dorie: Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake

Tammy of Wee Treats by Tammy (see her blog for the complete recipe) selected the Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. I have been looking to make this cake for a while so I was glad to have a chance to make it. I usually bake in the evenings and take things in to work the next day. This cake is one that suggests being served right away, so I had always passed it by when picking things to take in to share. This is such a festive looking cake!

I read through the recipe and realized that I would be making my own caramel. Ok, that was a new one for me. I was a little surprised that the recipe didn’t use a candy thermometer, but just eyeballed the sugar syrup by color. Hey, I was willing to give it a try. The cake came together really easily and then it was time to make the caramel.

I mixed the sugar, water and corn syrup together and brought it to a boil. The recipe said that it would take 10 or so minutes to get to a deep amber color. Mine after ten minutes was still as clear as it could be. So I set the timer for 5 more minutes. At that point it was lightly golden. Ok, 5 more minutes! After a total of 20 minutes, the sugar syrup did become deep amber in color. At this point, it was cooking very quickly and I think one more minute and it would have been burned. I tested the syrup on a plate as directed by the recipe.

I added the cream and butter, which makes this sugar syrup into caramel and it did spit and sputter just like the recipe said. I love Dorie’s recipes because you really know what to expect. For my first try at caramel, I was pleasantly surprised. I did learn a couple of things: don’t get the sugar syrup on your counter as it will immediately harden and then it will be really hard to clean up. Also, don’t touch the pan you are making the caramel in or you’ll get burned. (Just a tiny burn.) Finally, caramel is just sticky stuff all around, so you’ve been warned.

The brownie cake turned out excellent, and it would be a good base for any sort of topping. Mine sank quite a bit once I took it out of the oven, so that made topping it with the caramel-peanut mixture a bit tricky. I topped the cake with the caramel-peanut mixture, but all the caramel pooled in the middle of the cake. When I cut the cake, all the caramel pooled out. It was quite a sticky but wonderful mess!

And for those wondering…the caramel was still sufficiently soft the next day, so I think it would work to make it the night before.

Cake from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Apple Spice Cookie Bars

Katie from Good Things Catered (http://goodthingscatered.blogspot.com/) posted this recipe on her blog a few weeks ago. I like baking with apples in the fall and this looked like a winner. I have a bunch of food blogs bookmarked (so many that Firefox warns me that it may slow down my system when I open them all up!) and there are so many people out there making some great stuff. This is the first recipe that I have made after seeing it on someone’s blog.

I have a couple of apple recipes that I make in the fall. The one I had originally planned to make for this Friday was just a little too involved to tackle after a long day at work. I knew I had all the ingredients to make these bars, so I opted to make these instead.

These all have the right fall spices (I especially love the smell of freshly grated nutmeg) and smelled great when baking. I wanted to cut them right away, but I took the advice to let them cool first. I’m sure they would have fallen to pieces had I tried to cut them. I put them in the refrigerator to speed up the cooling process, but ended up letting them cool overnight. The cookies are quite soft and it was a little tricky removing the bars from the foil that had lined the baking pan.

These are really great. They remind me of an apple cake that my paternal grandmother used to make. That cake had nuts in it, but these cookies have a similar flavor and texture. They came together easily and they’re a great fall recipe.

2 c. plus 2 Tbsp flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
small pinch ground cloves
1/2 c. butter, melted
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 apples, cored and diced (a little less than 2 c.)
cinnamon sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 9x13 pan with foil and baking spray.

In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.
Whisk to combine well and set aside.

In a mixer bowl, combine sugars and butter and beat on medium high until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well to combine. Add vanilla extract and beat to combine.
Turn mixer on slow and fold in flour mixture a little at a time until just combined. Fold in apples.

Spread mixture evenly into prepared pan and sprinkle top generously with cinnamon sugar. Bake until cooked through, when top slightly bounces back to the touch, 30-35 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool completely before removing from cutting.