Pistachio Spread Butter Bars

This recipe includes one of those unusual items that I see at the store and know that I can use them in a recipe. I have a couple of spreads/preserves like this, and I have recipes for about 50% of the items. I was going to make one, but then their website wasn’t working. I had in mind a couple of recipes for the pistachio spread. Brownies with pistachio cream? That would be good, but I took this recipe, which had called for raspberry preserves and used the pistachio cream.

I was first thinking brownies as the pistachio spread was displayed near other “Dubai Chocolate” items. This spread is mainly pistachio. But does include kataifi, which are crunch pastry bits. I am not sure how something so small makes such a difference, but it does. The recipe I used had specified raspberry preserves, but since the recipe already included pistachios, using the pistachio spread seemed logical.

I had made a variation of these butter bars, which are shortbread bar cookies with some sort of filling. This is half a recipe, as I didn’t have enough flour to make a full batch. You bake half of the dough plain, then add the pistachio cream and the remaining dough with pistachios mixed in. These are certainly rich, so you will want to cut them into small pieces. These looked fabulous and tasted even better.

Pistachio Spread Butter Bars
1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt

1/2 cup pistachios, chopped
7-ounce jar pistachio spread with kataifi

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8” square pan with aluminum foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and powdered sugar for several minutes until fluffy. Add the vanilla and mix to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour and salt. Divide the dough into two halves.

Press half of the dough into the prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes. The base will start to look golden. Cool for 15 minutes before proceeding.

While the base is baking, mix the chopped pistachios into the other half of the dough. Refrigerate this dough until needed. 

Once the base has cooled for 15 minutes, top with the pistachio spread. With the remaining pistachio dough, crumble on top of the pistachio spread. Press down slightly. 

Bake for an additional 20-25 minutes, until the top is golden. Allow the bars to cool for at least an hour before removing them from the pan and cutting. 

Recipe based on the one from XO & so

Cornmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

You know that if I make any sort of chocolate chip cookie, there is likely a story behind it. It’s hard to find chocolate chip cookies that are different enough to post on the blog. I got a message from my husband saying that his coworker had a cookie recipe suggestion: these cornmeal chocolate chip cookies. I looked at the reddit post and the recipe was baked on a cookie from A Pinch of Yum. That’s a great blog so I thought I would give it a try.

Cornmeal is an interesting thing. It can be coarse or finely ground. I have course cornmeal that I have used when I made pizza, but I didn’t think it would work in this recipe. I do have other cornmeal, but I don’t think it was very fresh. I didn’t need very much, so I was happy that I was able to find finely-ground cornmeal in the bulk section of the local organic grocery. 

You do want to measure everything really accurately, and pay attention to the mixing times, as not over mixing is critical. This is a hands-on recipe, but the chips mixed in easily. The original recipe said you’d make 9 or 12 really big cookies. That seemed crazy big and I ended up making 16 cookies. I still think they are pretty big! The cornmeal is noticeable and gives the cookies a bit of a crunchy texture, but it isn’t too much. I wouldn’t normally look to reddit for recipes, but this one turned out very well!

Cornmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies 
½ cup butter
1/2 cup sugar 
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
3/4 cup flour 
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt 
3/4 cup chocolate chips

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

Microwave the butter until nearly melted, just under a minute. Transfer the (almost) melted butter to a large mixer bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar and mix in medium until creamy. Add the vanilla and egg and mix on low for about 15 seconds. It won’t likely be fully incorporated.

Add the flour, cornmeal, baking soda, and salt. Mix on low until crumbly. Remove from the mixer and press the crumbles together. Add the chips and mix them in by hand.

Shape into 1-3/4” balls and place 8 cookies on each baking sheet. 

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until they start to turn golden along the edges. The cookies will be puffy and look underbaked. They will firm up on the baking sheet as they start to cool. Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for at least 30 minutes. 

Recipe adapted from Pinch of Yum and reddit

Gluten Free Lemon Almond Cookies

I intend to do a lot more gluten free baking, but I find that I don’t go in that direction all that often. I find that most gluten free recipes call for gluten free replacement flour, and I do have some of that at home, but it isn’t my favorite. My husband says that gluten free flour adds a texture that  isn’t ideal. I don’t pick up on that quite in the same way, but I like recipes that use something in place of flour: in this case almond flour. I can also be almond paste or cocoa powder, really any number of options. 

I have almond flour at home already, so these were a good choice. I have tried to make my own almond flour by grinding different sorts of almonds, but that never is quite right. It works if I need a small amount, but not if it is the basis of the recipe. You can’t usually buy a super small package, so I should have plenty of almond flour for this recipe and the almond brownie I plan to make. 

I don’t often whip egg whites, but that was pretty easy. It takes a little time, but if you look away for a moment it can be too much! Be careful and watch those as you are working. I added the dry ingredients and the dough formed quickly. It wasn’t too sticky, so shaping the cookies wasn’t a big challenge. The first batch didn’t flatten much, so I flattened the second batch slightly. Both ways work- some are round and crinkly and others are flatter and crinkly! They are soft, but these are a lovely, easy gluten free cookie.

Gluten Free Lemon Almond Cookies
2 cups blanched almond flour
1 cup sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
Pinch of salt
2 large egg whites, room temperature
1 teaspoon lemon juice 
Powdered sugar

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, sugar, lemon zest, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl with the wire whip attachment, beat the egg whites until frothy, then increase the speed and beat until soft peaks for. Fold the almond flour mixture and lemon juice into the egg whites, creating a soft/sticky dough.

Shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls; as the dough is sticky, shaping the cookies with damp hands is helpful. Roll the balls in powdered sugar and place them on the prepared baking sheet. 

Bake for 15-17 minutes, until the edges begin to brown and crinkle. Cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. 

Recipe from Good for You Gluten Free

Muesli Cinnamon Chip Cookies

I was looking at the bounty of ingredients that I had in my kitchen, and I was wondering if I could use some of them in a recipe. I had made Muesli Cookies recently, but I still had quite a bit of muesli left. It worked so well to use the muesli in place of oats, and I wanted to try that in another recipe. I didn’t want a recipe with many extra flavors, but something that would pair with the extra dried fruits and nuts in the muesli.

I had bookmarked this recipe a bit ago, and it was perfect. I like to use cinnamon chips in many recipes, and I now get them from Nuts.com, which has smaller cinnamon chips. At first, I wasn’t sure about the smaller size, but after using them a couple of times I realized that the smaller chips get distributed throughout the dough better than the larger chips.

This is a fairly simple oat cookie with cinnamon chips, and I think they taste even better with the additional fruits and nuts that are in the muesli. You could certainly use oats, as the original recipe states, but this was a good opportunity to use something that I had on hand. I now need to find a couple of recipes to use the different spreads/preserves that I have picked up recently!

Muesli Cinnamon Chip Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
½ cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg + 1 yolk
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
1 ¾ cups flour 
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups muesli cereal (or oats)
1 ⅔ cups cinnamon chips 

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

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Beat on medium until light. Add the egg, yolk, and vanilla and mix again to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking soda, and salt. When the flour has almost mixed into the dough, remove the bowl from the mixer. Stir in the muesli and cinnamon chips with a spatula. 

Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, using about a tablespoon of dough for each cookie. 

Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the cookies are set and just begin to brown along the edges. Allow the cookies to set on the baking sheet for 10 minutes and then move them to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Recipe slightly adapted from This Delicious House

Butter Toffee Sugar Cookies

As fall slowly begins, I’m starting to find all these recipes that I want to make, now that the weather isn’t quite so warm. I had a big meeting at work and wanted to bring something. What to bring? I find that I often have the best success with things that are simple but tasty. These cookies came up and they were just what I was looking for. 

These cookies have a very rich dough- lots of butter and egg yolks! They are similar to a sugar cookie, but easier as you don’t have to roll them out. These call for toffee bits, which I have mentioned can be tricky to find. Stores usually stock one of the two versions: with or without chocolate. I tried one store and they didn’t have any! Thankfully the second store I went to had the non-chocolate toffee bits that I needed.

These came together in just a couple of minutes, which was exactly what I wanted. The original posted noted that the dough could be crumbly, but it wasn’t. Don’t worry about forming perfect rounds of dough, as they bake into nice, crinkly cookie rounds. While these cookies may be simple, they are super tasty. They are soft like a sugar cookie, but also very buttery. These are absolutely addictive, and it was good that I packed them away to take them to work or I would have kept eating them! 

Butter Toffee Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
1¼ cups sugar
3 egg yolks
1½ teaspoons vanilla 
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2½ cups flour
8 ounces toffee bits
Additional sugar

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

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Mix on medium until light. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and stir to combine. Add the baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix until incorporated. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour. The dough may be crumbly. Fold in the toffee bits with a spatula.

Shape the dough into 1-1/2” mounds. Place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 12-16 minutes, until golden brown along the edges. Remove the cookies from the oven and sprinkle with additional sugar. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from The Café Sucre Farine

Nutella Brownies

This is one of two recipes that I had planned to make this summer. It seems like I often switch what recipe I make at the last minute, so I wrote these out in the form that I use when I work in the kitchen. I figured this week was the week to make these Nutella Brownies. While these cookies contain a lot of ingredients (nearly a pound of butter, 4 eggs, chocolate, etc.) I knew that I had everything on hand.

The one thing I didn’t quite have was Nutella, which is quite ironic! I did have some certified gluten-free chocolate hazelnut/almond butter, and that was almost the same. Since I used the chocolate hazelnut/almond butter, I ended up using chopped, sliced almonds instead of hazelnuts, as they are easier to chop. 

Why I ended up making these when the house was so warm I don’t know, but I don’t have much choice in the summer. Thankfully bars aren’t too bad, as you don’t make repeated batches, and I melted the chocolate and butter in the microwave. These brownies are substantial! They are great brownies, but the Nutella flavor is very subtle, perhaps because of the chocolate hazelnut/almond butter I used. The shortbread base occasionally wants to separate from the brownie, but other than that, these brownies are lovely!

Nutella Brownies
2 cups flour

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, cut into small pieces

1 cup butter, cut in pieces
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1/4 cup Nutella
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup hazelnuts/almonds, chopped

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl (or food processor), combine the flour, brown sugar, and salt. Add the pieces of butter and cut in (or pulse in the food processor) until the mixture is crumbly. Press the mixture into the base of the prepared pan.

Bake the base for 20 minutes. Continue preparing the rest of the brownies while baking.

Bake the brownies: in a medium saucepan or a microwave-safe bowl, combine the butter and chopped chocolate. Heat on medium, or microwave in 30-second intervals, until the mixture is melted and smooth. Allow the mixture to cool.

Once cool, transfer the chocolate mixture to a large mixer bowl. Add the sugar to the mixer bowl and mix on medium until well combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing for one minute between each addition. Stir in the Nutella and vanilla. Add the flour and salt and stir on low. Fold in the chopped nuts with a spatula. Pour the brownie batter over the partially-baked base.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a thin knife inserted in the brownies comes out clean. Allow the brownies to cool before removing them from the pan and cutting into bars. 

Recipe from Bake or Break

Almond Toffee Bars

I have a couple of different ingredients on hand that I keep searching for the right recipe to use. One of those items is a box of graham crackers. I was going to make those into a component for a different recipe, but I ended up going the traditional route. I found these and figured I had everything I needed. These started out their life as Caramel Heavenlies, but that name just didn’t seem quite right, so I have renamed them as Almond Toffee Bars.

I honestly didn’t change much but the name. I didn’t have mini marshmallows, but I had regular-sized ones and a quick search said that I would need 16-20 regular sized marshmallows. They needed to be cut up, and marshmallows are about the stickiest thing you could imagine, so that was a process. And required a lot of hand washing to calm the stickiness.

The toffee in these bars comes from a syrup you make on the stove of butter, brown sugar, and spices. It’s pure hot liquid when you pour it onto the bars, but after baking becomes a lovely caramel. These looked scary when they came out of the oven, the marshmallows puffed up in a crazy way, but they were fine when the bars cooled. I forgot to line the pan so getting them out to cut took a feat of strength, but then they cut with little problem. These are sticky, but the graham cracker, toffee, and almond topping is very compelling.

Almond Toffee Bars
12 full graham crackers 
2 cups mini marshmallows 
3/4 cup butter 
3/4 cup packed brown sugar 
1 teaspoon cinnamon 
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1 cup shredded coconut 
1 cup sliced almonds 

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 10” x 15” pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Place the graham crackers in the base of the pan, making them fit as best you can. Top the graham crackers with mini marshmallows.

In a pan over medium heat, combine the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cook, stirring frequently, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is smooth, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour the butter mixture over the graham crackers and marshmallows.

Sprinkle the top with shredded coconut and sliced almonds. 

Bake for about 14 minutes, until the almonds are toasted. Cool completely before removing from the pan and cutting into diamonds or other bar shape.

Recipe from Num’s the Word