Swirled Rhubarb Bars

My husband and I recently visited our local farmer’s market. We are typically there for just a short time, as we pretty much know what we are looking for. In this case, it was good that our trip was short, as just as we made it back to the car, it started pouring. We were certainly fortunate to miss the rain, and we had found the items we were looking for, so all was good.

The main thing I wanted to get was rhubarb; I had found a recipe last year, but it was too late to find rhubarb. I wasn’t going to miss it this year! We did purchase rhubarb, but we had also bought some different jams, including rhubarb jam. Since the first part of this recipe was to make rhubarb jam, I made a crumble with the rhubarb and used the jam for these bars.

With the premade jam, these bars came together quickly. They take a while to bake, but your time in the kitchen isn’t long. I will say that the bars had more swirls before I baked them, but it evens out some in the oven. These cut beautifully and have that wonderful tang that you get with rhubarb. I wasn’t sure about including the white chocolate, but they add a little bite of sweetness. 

Swirled Rhubarb Bars
1 1/3 cups (284g) packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
10 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups (180g) flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup white chocolate, chips or chopped
About 3/4 cup rhubarb jam

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8" square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine the brown sugar, salt, and vanilla. Melt the butter in the microwave (or in a small pan over low heat) and pour over the brown sugar mixture. Whisk for about a minute; the mixture will lighten and become thicker. Add the eggs and whisk until combined. 

In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. Stir into the mixture, and when the flour almost disappears into the batter, add the white chocolate and stir to incorporate.

Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Drop teaspoonfuls of rhubarb jam on top of the batter. Use a small knife to swirl the jam into the bars.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, until set and a thin knife inserted into the center comes out almost clean. Allow the bars to cool completely before cutting into squares.

Recipe from King Arthur Baking

Peach Cobbler Cookies

I came across these cookies and thought that they were so different. It can be very difficult to bake with fresh fruit, as they can make things soggy. I have noticed that so many recipes now call for freeze-dried fruits, which removes the liquid but keeps the fruit’s flavor. That is a good option, and freeze-dried fruit is easier to find at the store than it used to be. But sometimes you just want to use real peaches.

Peaches in the western part of Washington state vary a lot. I worried that the ones I bought were a little hard, but they were perfect and juicy when I chopped them up. I got sticky peach juice everywhere, but I knew the flavor would be good. There is also the option of adding peach flavoring, but I left that out. If you happen to use it, add it in with the vanilla.

The other change I made was the size of the cookies- the original recipe made 8 giant cookies and baked them at a higher temperature. I knew I would make smaller cookies, and I reduced the oven temperature to 375 degrees. That worked, but you do have to watch the baking time since ovens vary a lot. These have a great peach and cinnamon flavor. They were certainly something different and perfect for when the weather has started to improve.

Peach Cobbler Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cornstarch
3 1/2 cups flour
1 cup oats
1 cup cinnamon chips
1 cup finely chopped peaches (1-2 peaches) 

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter on medium until light. Add the sugar and brown sugar and mix for three minutes until well combined. Add the vanilla and eggs and mix on medium until evenly distributed. If the dough looks slightly curdled, it will come together after adding the other ingredients. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the cinnamon, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, and flour. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture to the dough. When the flour almost disappears, add the oats and cinnamon chips, stirring on low to incorporate. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the chopped peaches with a spatula. 

Shape the dough into 1-1/2” balls and place on the prepared baking sheet. Flatten the cookies with the palm of your hand.

Bake for 10-14 minutes, until browned on the bottom. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Baking with Blondie

Candy Cookies with Maple

One of my favorite candy companies is https://www.purdys.com/ Purdys Chocolates, and using a hedgehog as their mascot makes me like them even more! The biggest issue is that they are in Canada, and I am not. I try to get there when I can, and they do ship to the states, but it’s not the easiest candy to acquire. I follow them on social media and they recently posted a cookie recipe that called for two of their chocolates: Sweet Georgia Browns and their Blond Maple Bar. While I hope to get to Canada this summer, I needed to figure out how to make them sooner.

Since I had weights, I knew I could find something. I went to the Puyallup Farmer’s Market and bought chocolate caramel clusters from Amy’s Decadent Chocolates. At home I had picked up some chocolate/caramel smores square, since I had never seen such a thing before. While not a maple candy bar, it would work. They very subtle maple flavor was still there with the presence of maple syrup.

Different stages of chilling is a critical part of this recipe. Once you have chopped up the candy, refrigerate it so it’s cold. This was especially critical since the chocolate/caramel square got caramel everywhere! I made the dough and then chilled it again. I ended up with lovely, puffy cookies, with few blowouts from melting chocolates. The cookies are soft and cakey, with a subtle maple flavor. I need to check out what other recipes Purdys has!

Candy Cookies with Maple
85 grams Purdys Maple Candy Bar, chopped
2 chocolate caramel clusters (34 grams each), chopped
½ cup butter, melted
¼ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup maple syrup
1 egg
1-1/2 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

Chop the Maple Candy bar and the chocolate caramel clusters into pieces. Put the chocolates on a plate and refrigerate while you make the dough.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the melted butter, brown sugar, and maple syrup. Mix on medium until the mixture comes together. Add the egg and stir to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the chilled chopped chocolate with a spatula.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape the dough into 24 balls, each weighing about 30 grams. Place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 9-13 minutes, until the cookies are puffy and golden brown around the edges. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Recipe from Purdys Chocolate

Butter Toffee Cookies

My husband often orders things from nuts.com but I don’t know what he has ordered, so it’s a surprise for me. In the most recent order, there were a couple of varieties of mixed nuts, including some that were coated with butter toffee. I knew right away that they would be great in a recipe. I chose this one, since I liked the flour and oats combination. If you don’t have these specific nuts, you could always use honey roasted peanuts or something similar.

We had also recently visited the Farmer’s Market and picked up some honey. We got two varieties, a mellow variety and then coriander honey. I have used coriander in cooking, but I wasn’t sure what the honey would taste like. My husband said it was noticeable, but it didn’t really taste like coriander since it is from the plant. I didn’t use the coriander honey here, as I didn’t want any potential flavor conflicts.

This makes for a fairly large batch of cookies. With a good quantity of flour and oats, I made about 60 cookies. Because the cookies contain honey, which burns easily, you need to be careful that they aren’t in the oven too long. I tried for 8 minutes, then added one minute at a time. 11 minutes worked for me, and the cookies still looked a little under done when I took them out of the oven. Thankfully they set as they cooled so I think that was the right amount of time. You are left with a soft, every so slightly sticky cookie, with lovely oat and nut flavors.

Butter Toffee Cookies
2-1/4 cups flour
2-1/2 cups oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup  butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup butter toffee mixed nuts
Additional nuts

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

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl beat the butter and brown sugar on medium for 3 minutes, until light. Stir in the honey. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour/oat mixture. Fold in the butter toffee nuts.

Using a medium cookie scoop, place 12 rounds on each baking sheet. If desired, top each cookie with a butter toffee nut.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until beginning to brown. The cookies may look undercooked, but they will set as they cool. Allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Wanna Come With?

Cinnamon Toast Bars

Cinnamon toast: the food of choice for when you aren’t feeling great! I have some fond memories of cinnamon toast, although I couldn’t really tell you how often I had it when I was growing up. I do recall that if your tummy wasn’t feeling great, it was the standard. I don’t think I have had cinnamon toast in ages, but it remains a good memory.

This bar cookie version was just too good to pass up! When I find a recipe, I always check my blog to make sure I haven’t made it previously (which is important since my blog has over 1400 posts). This was such a favorite from growing up that I was sure I had made something similar, but I had not!

Initially the recipe called for large quantities of the ingredients, but that was double this recipe, for a 13” x 18” pan. I halved everything and made it in my 9” x 13” and it was perfect- even the baking times. These have a cake-like base and then the lovely cinnamon sugar topping. The cooled quickly and cut beautifully! They look great with the cinnamon sugar topping, but it’s the flavor that makes these a winner. They are so good!

Cinnamon Toast Bars
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
2 cups flour
1 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons salt
1 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

10 tablespoons butter, melted
2/3 cups sugar
2-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Heat the oven to 250 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” with foil and spray the foil with nonstick spray.

Melt the butter; set aside to allow it to cool while you make the bars. In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt; stir to mix evenly. With the mixer running on low, stir in the melted butter, milk, and vanilla. Spread the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 23 minutes.

During the last five minutes of the baking time, prepare the topping. Melt the butter in a large measuring cup. Once the butter is melted, whisk in the sugar and cinnamon, until the mixture is smooth. If the mixture sits for any length of time, give it another whisk, as you want the mixture to be smooth when you add it to the bars.

When the bars come out of the oven, immediately pour the butter/cinnamon sugar mixture over the bars, slowly starting at the edges and then gradually working towards the center of the pan. If you need to even out the topping at all, you can do so using the back of a spoon.

Bake for an additional 8 minutes. The topping will be bubbling when you take the bars out of the oven. Cool before cutting into bars.

Recipe from Barefeet in the Kitchen

Lemon Crunch Oreo Cookies

I was looking around for cookies to make with our sunnier weather and I came across a couple of variations of this Lemon Crunch Cookie. The recipes vary a little bit, but most are flavored with lemon and white chocolate chips, then include chopped vanilla or lemon Oreos. That couldn’t possibly be bad, right? I picked this recipe and thought it would be great. I figured I might change the ratio of white chocolate chips and Oreos, but that’s not too significant.

This is a pudding cookie, which means you add pudding mix to the dough. The original recipe calls for lemon pudding, but there was a note in the recipe that lemon flavor may be difficult to find. That was true in my case, and I ended up using vanilla pudding mix and added the zest of a lemon. I guess I never look too closely at the variety of puddings available for purchase, but I suppose they are somewhat interchangeable.

This dough comes together easily, and I ended up using about a cup of white chocolate chips and 14 of the Lemon Oreo thins. I don’t know if they make non-thin lemon Oreos, but these were pretty good and I am happy to report that there are lemon Oreos left over for eating. The dough is soft and sticky, but that isn’t uncommon for a puddling cookie. These cookies browned quickly, so you do have to watch the timing, Other than that, they are a lovely cookie that makes a generous amount.

Lemon Crunch Oreo Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
3 ounce instant lemon pudding mix
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
14 lemon lemon Oreos, chopped
1 cup white chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Mix on medium until
incorporated. Add the pudding mix, salt, and eggs and stir again to combine. Stir in the vanilla. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour and baking soda, mixing until the dough forms. Fold in the chopped cookies and white chocolate chips.

Shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls and place on the prepared baking sheet. Press additional chopped lemon Oreos to the top of the cookies if desired.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until lightly browned along the edges. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Shugary Sweets

NY Crumb Cake Cookies

My weird week has continued, and the cookies I had planned to bake made a larger batch. I had planned to take them to work, but that wasn’t happening. I searched for a recipe that was fairly small and I came across this recipe. I chose it for a couple of reasons; I love crumb cake, and in a cookie form? That sounds great! Also, Jessie Moore (CakeSpy) used to have a shop in Seattle that I visited. I have a number of things she created, including an illustration of a library staffed with cupcake librarians. Yes, I am a librarian!

The original recipe made two dozen, but I made a half batch and got exactly 12 cookies, which was fine. I made the dough and then refrigerated the cookies for about 15 minutes. I usually have little issue making streusel by hand, but it’s warm in the kitchen and I ended up using my pastry cutter. Did you know that a pastry cutter with wire is old fashioned and made for cutting lard, but modern ones with flat metal strips are best for butter. Who knew?

You will have more streusel than you need, but I think things like streusel and frosting are always best to have more than you need. Some of the streusel did get on the baking sheet, but that was ok. I had a few bits stick to the baked cookies, but I just brushed them off. These are so tasty, my husband, who did live in New Jersey, approved. He also made the little plate in the picture at the pottery class we recently attended. Isn’t it lovely?

NY Crumb Cake Cookies
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
¼ cup butter, cut into pieces
Powdered sugar

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

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, add the butter and beat about a minute until creamy. Add the brown sugar and mix again until fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture, mixing until the dough forms.

Shape the dough into 24 balls, and place on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten the dough balls slightly with the palm of your hand. Place the cookies into the refrigerator while you prepare the crumb topping.

In a medium bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, and salt; stir to combine. Add the pieces of butter and using your hands or a pastry blender, mix the topping until it resembles streusel.

Sprinkle some of the streusel topping on each cookie, pressing the topping firmly onto the cookies. Some streusel will fall onto the baking sheet; that’s ok.

Bake for 8-11 minutes, until the cookies are lightly browned and set. Allow to cool on the baking sheet before sprinkling with powdered sugar.

Recipe from Jessie Unicorn Moore