100K Cookie Bars

 

I had the pleasure of dining with number one son and family on Saturday evening. We sat at a very large, lovely wrought iron table (that used to be mine, and that they have used more in their brief ownership than I ever did) on their wonderful deck, beneath the overhanging branches of a tree that gently swayed in the wind as we enjoyed my son’s incredibly delicious smoked barbecued meatloaf. I was tasked with bringing dessert, so I knew it had to be lacking nuts (my granddaughter, Gabby, is allergic to tree nuts), something chocolaty (because…of course!), and something that all would enjoy. This recipe absolutely did it! Everybody enjoyed it, and while I did store the bars in the refrigerator, they are wonderful at room temperature because the caramel becomes soft, smooth, and wonderfully delicious. I can’t imagine anyone not liking these crunchy, chewy, chocolaty cookie bars.

 

100K Cookie Bars

Base:
¾ c. unsalted butter, room temperature
½ c. granulated sugar
1 ½ c. flour
½ t. salt

Caramel layer:
6 T. unsalted butter
½ c. light brown sugar
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
2 T. light corn syrup
¼ t. salt

Topping
1 c. semisweet chocolate chips
¾ c. crispy rice cereal

 

Preheat the oven to 325° F. Line a 9” x 9” square metal pan with aluminum foil leaving a 2-inch overhang on either side.

In the work bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together until creamy, 2 - 3 minutes. Gradually add flour and salt, and mix until just combined and giving a crumbly appearance. Dump the mixture into the prepared pan, pressing it evenly into the bottom. Bake until the top is golden, 35 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly while you prepare the caramel layer.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, cook the butter and sugar together, stirring occasionally until the butter is melted. Slowly add the sweetened condensed milk and corn syrup; bring the mixture to a full boil. Stir continuously while cooking for 5 minutes, or until the mixture has turned amber in color and is thick enough to completely coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and stir in salt. Pour mixture over the shortbread layer, and set aside to cool completely.

When the caramel layer has set, melt chocolate chips in the microwave, for 1-1½ minutes, stirring at 30-second intervals until completely melted. Fold in rice cereal, and spread over the top of the cooled and set caramel layer. Allow to cool completely before gently lifting from the pan using the foil overhang, and cutting into bars.

Makes 36

 

 

Snickers Cookie Bars

I am nocturnal. I always have been. These days, despite copious amounts of coffee, I really don’t get going until midday. Deep into the night, when most of you are sleeping, I am engaged in my most productive thought. The other night, don’t ask me why, I started thinking about my number one son’s favorite cookie, based upon his favorite candy bar (Twix), wondering if I could make a cookie based upon my favorite candy bar, Snickers. The next morning I decided to put my plan into action, and it worked as beautifully as I had hoped! These are a bit of work, but well worth the effort. You may just want to make a double batch.

Snickers Cookie Bars

Bottom Layer

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

½ cup sugar

Middle Layer

½ cup (1 stick) butter

½ cup sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup dry roasted peanuts

Top Layer

1½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips 

1 teaspoon light corn syrup

½ cup (1 stick) butter, cut into 8 pieces

 

Preheat oven to 325° F. Line an 8” x 8” (or, for a thinner cookie layer, a 9” x 9”) baking pan with foil, leaving a 2” overhang on each end, to facilitate easy extraction from the pan.

To make the bottom layer: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In another bowl beat butter and sugar on medium speed until well creamy. With mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients and beat just until combined. Transfer to prepared pan and press into an even layer. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the crust is golden brown. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool completely.

To make the caramel layer: Combine the butter, sugar, corn syrup, and sweetened condensed milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir occasionally until the butter is melted. Increase the heat to medium-high, and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens and turns a light caramel color, about 10 minutes. Pour the caramel mixture over the cooled shortbread and spread in an even layer (You can tilt the pan to do this.). Sprinkle peanuts over the top and press down lightly. Allow to cool completely, then chill in the fridge until caramel sets.

To make the chocolate layer: Add the chocolate, corn syrup, and butter to a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until everything is melted and the mixture is smooth and glossy. Pour the chocolate over the chilled caramel/peanut layer, and spread into an even layer. Let the chocolate set completely before slicing and serving.

PRINT RECIPE

If you love the chocolate and peanut combination, but don’t want to go to all of the work, you may just want to try these Getting on My Last Nerve Chocolate Peanut Clusters.

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Salted Whiskey Caramel Sauce

Making homemade caramel sauce can put you on a bit of a slippery slope. If you're making it from scratch using butter, sugar, and heavy cream, you may find, as I do, that there is a fine line between a nice, beautiful, amber caramel sauce, and a bitter mess. If you don't cook it long enough, it's not going to be caramel; if you cook it too long, it's going to taste bitter. That's why, particularly during the busy holiday season, when I find myself pressed for time, the best way that I know of to make caramel sauce is simply using one can of Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk.

Continuing my week of partnering with Eagle, today's recipe couldn't be simpler, and is going to yield a lot of rewards. It's a Salted Whiskey Caramel Sauce, and it cooks while you get on with your day. It makes an excellent ice cream topping to be sure, but it also adds a lot to plain pound cake, makes a wonderful drizzle atop chocolate brownies, and is an excellent gift for a friend or hostess. If you want to make anything more festive this holiday season, cover it in caramel!

Salted Whiskey Caramel Sauce

1 (14 ounce) can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
1-1/2 tablespoons whiskey* (I used Jameson)
Pinch of sea salt

Preheat oven to 425° F. Poor sweetened condensed milk into a 9-inch glass pie plate. Cover tightly with foil. Please pie plate into a larger pan (I used a 10" x 10" square cake pan), and fill pan with a half an inch of water. Carefully place it into the oven, and bake for two hours. Remove from oven, carefully lift the foil-covered pie plate out of the pan, remove foil, and whisk in sea salt and whiskey, continuing to whisk until smooth and creamy. Allow to cool before serving. Store, covered, in the refrigerator.

*If you prefer a non-alcoholic version, you can use a teaspoon of whiskey liqueur essence.

PRINT RECIPE

Disclaimer: I received compensation from Eagle Brand Milk to create this post.

This post is linked to:

Celebrate Your Story

Inspire Me Tuesday

Reader Tip Tuesday

Tuesdays with a Twist

The Scoop

Dream, Create, Inspire

O My Heartsie Girls Wonderful Wednesday
 Homestead Wednesday

Wow Us Wednesday

Wine’d Down Wednesday

Happiness is Homemade Sunday

Dishing It & Digging It

Full Plate Thursday

Grace at Home

Friday at the Fire Station
Foodie Friday & Everything Else

Create, Bake, Grow and Gather

Weekend Inspiration Party
Share Your Style

Simple Saturday Blog Hop

A Bouquet of Talent

Paula's No Rules Weekend Blog Party

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Twix Truffle Brownies

When either of my boys celebrates a birthday I always allow them to select whatever they'd like for dinner or dessert and I make it for them. Sometimes this is a difficult decision because, over the years, a goodly amount of food has been consumed. Number one son celebrated a birthday in August. When I asked him what he wanted for dessert it took him a couple of days to reply. He finally decided, since he is his mother's son when it comes to loving Twix bars, that he would like these Salted Caramel Chocolate Shortbread Bars.  

At about the same time he was making his decision, I stumbled across this recipe on the Chef-in-Training blog. I asked my son if, perhaps, we could try these instead of the cookie version because I was intensely curious. I mean, look at them; four layers of yummy goodness.

When his adorable little family came for a mini celebration, we tried them. Thumbs up all around. I asked my son, which he preferred, the cookie version or the brownie version. He said he thinks there's a place for both. I agree. Give these a try, and imagine just how lovely they'd look with some candy corn or a pumpkin pressed down into the top. Fall is on the way!

Twix Truffle Brownies

Slightly adapted from Chef-in-Training

Brownies

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1⅓ cup flour

Shortbread Truffle Layer

1 (10 oz.) box Lorna Doone's Shortbread Cookies

6 oz. cream cheese, softened

½ cup sugar

Caramel Layer

14 oz. bag of caramel cubes, unwrapped

2 Tablespoons milk

Chocolate Layer

1½ cups milk chocolate chips

½ cup semi-sweet milk chocolate chips

1 Tablespoon shortening

Brownies

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Spray a 9 x 13-inch pan with cooking spray and then line with parchment paper, overlapping about an inch on each end. This allows for easy removal of the brownies from the pan, once cooled, making them a cinch to cut and serve.

Cream butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Add vanilla and eggs and mix well. Add salt, cocoa powder and flour; stir to combine. Do not over mix.

Pour into prepared pan.  Bake for 22-25 minutes.

Shortbread Truffle Layer

Place cookies in a food processor and pulse until they become a fine powder. Add cream cheese and sugar and pulse until mixture is well blended. Gently press shortbread truffle evenly over cooled brownies.

Caramel Layer

Place caramel cubes and milk in a medium microwave safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second increments until melted, stirring in between each increment until melted and smooth. (This took me a minute and a half.) Evenly pour over shortbread truffle layer, spreading to cover completely. Place in fridge to let it cool.

Chocolate Layer

Combine chocolate chips and shortening together in a medium microwave safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between each increment until melted and smooth. (This took me one minute.) Evenly spread over the top of cooled caramel layer. Let set up in fridge before cutting.*

*These need to be stored in the fridge and removed about fifteen minutes before serving. I didn't do this initially, and had a bit of a problem with chocolate slippage as you can see from the picture.

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Salted Caramel Chocolate Shortbread Bars

As much as I like cookies – they are, after all, my favorite dessert – I don’t particularly like making cookies.  All of that rolling, cutting, shaping, forming, icing, sprinkling, well, by the time the work is done I’m out of the mood.  So when I spotted this recipe for bar cookies that were supposed to be a better version of a Twix candy bar (another of my favorites), I had to make them.  I sent packages home with both of my sons who, with their wives, are more than happy to test recipes for me, and we all enjoyed these…A LOT.  They are easy enough to make, but take a bit of time waiting for each layer to cool before building the next one.  Trust me when I tell you that the time is well spent!

Salted Caramel Chocolate Shortbread Bars
Spotted at Tracey's Culinary Adventures

Shortbread
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar

Caramel 
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

Chocolate
8 oz chocolate, finely chopped (I used bittersweet) 
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
Fleur de sel for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line a 9x13-inch baking pan with parchment paper.

To make the shortbread layer: Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until well combined, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients and beat just until combined. Transfer the dough to the prepared pan and press into an even layer over the bottom (it'll be a fairly thin layer). Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool completely.

To make the caramel layer: Combine the butter, sugar, corn syrup and sweetened condensed milk in a medium saucepan. Set the pan over medium heat. Stir occasionally until the butter is melted. Increase the heat to medium-high, and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens and turns a light caramel color. This may take 10 minutes or more, so be patient. Pour the caramel mixture over the cooled shortbread and spread in an even layer. Allow to cool completely, then chill briefly (I stuck mine in the fridge overnight, but you just want to chill enough that it won't melt when you add the warm chocolate in the next step).

To make the chocolate layer: Add the chocolate, corn syrup, and butter to a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until everything is melted and the mixture is smooth and glossy. Pour the chocolate over the chilled caramel and spread into an even layer with an offset spatula. Let cool for a few minutes, then sprinkle the top with the fleur de sel (if using). Let the chocolate set completely before slicing and serving.

This post is linked to:

Sweets for a Saturday

Sugar and Spice

Celebrating National Caramel Day - April 5th

I have two things to share with you in honor of National Caramel Day, and isn't this just the best holiday to celebrate?!  First of all, a recipe for what sounds to be a delicious caramel pudding.  It's a recipe I haven't tried...yet! (but seriously, how could you possibly go wrong?), that is featured on a recipe postcard from my vast collection.

Next is a recipe from from the June 11, 2009 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that I have tried and is delicious!

Caramel Chocolate Bars = Layers of chewy deliciousness.


CARAMEL CHOCOLATE BARS

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing the baking pan 

3 tablespoons sugar 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour 

1 tablespoon unsalted butter 

1 tablespoon light brown sugar 

One 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

3 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) chocolate, coarsely chopped 

1/3 cup heavy or whipping cream

Arrange a rack at center position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch baking pan, then line it with a sheet of aluminum foil cut 8 inches wide and long enough to extend 3 to 4 inches over 2 sides of the pan. Butter the foil.

Crust: In a mixing bowl, cream butter with an electric mixer on medium speed, then beat in sugar and salt. Beat 1 to 2 minutes to blend well, then beat in the flour. Gather dough into a ball and place in mounds, about a teaspoon each, on the bottom of the pan. With your fingers, press to form a smooth, even layer. Prick the dough with the tines of a fork. Bake until just starting to color lightly, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove pan, but retain oven temperature.

Caramel layer: Place 1 tablespoon each butter and light brown sugar in a heavy, medium saucepan set over medium low heat. Stir constantly with a whisk until sugar has dissolved, about a minute. Add milk and salt and, whisking constantly, bring mixture to a slight simmer. Cook, whisking constantly and never letting mixture come to a boil, until it thickens and becomes a light caramel color, about 10 minutes. As milk cooks, it will caramelize lightly on the bottom of the pan, so you might see some flakes floating in the mixture. That's OK.

Pour caramel over pastry crust, smoothing into an even layer with a metal spatula or back of a knife. Return pan to oven and bake 10 minutes. Remove, and cool to room temperature.

Chocolate layer: Place chocolate and cream in a heavy medium saucepan set over medium low heat. Whisk constantly until mixture is smooth, about 2 minutes. Cool 5 minutes, then pour melted chocolate over cooled caramel layer and spread evenly with a metal spatula or table knife. Refrigerate until chocolate is set, 30 minutes or longer.

Run a sharp knife around inside edges of pan to loosen, then lift out pastry using the foil as an aid. Remove foil. Cut into 16 squares.

(Bars can be made 2 days ahead; store in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge.)

Serve chilled or at room temperature. Bars are good either way.

This is linked to:
 

Upside-Down Caramel-Apple Muffins Revisited

In all fairness to the New York Times recipe people, I gave their Upside-Down Caramel-Apple muffins another chance. It is, after all a new day, and miracles can often happen overnight. Flavors can mingle, textures can change, and moisture can be sucked out of the atmosphere to create a truly tender and flavorful muffin. So I cut one in half and tasted it. Eh. So-so. It does have flavor. Some flavor. Pleasant flavor, I suppose, but my main issue, I think, is with the rather dry and crumbly, esophagus-jamming texture. The other half I warmed in the microwave. I think (but am not positively sure) that the warmed version was better. But the fact of the matter is, I am still not comfortable eating something that has me mentally running through the steps on how to perform a self-inflicted Heimlich maneuver, so thumbs are still down on this one. The caramelized apples, however, are very good and would make an excellent ice cream topping, so my efforts were not all wasted.



My gut instinct is to just chuck these into the bin, but my husband (who has been known to save a half dozen corn niblets at the conclusion of a meal) has instilled in me some sort of food disposal guilt and while I’m not the obsessive saver that he is, I imagine these will take up space on the counter for the next couple of days or, more likely, end up in what I like to call Food Purgatory – the downstairs freezer where all things go and are never seen in the same way again. Which makes me wonder why it is that some people (yes, my husband again) can’t toss something initially, but can let it morph into some freezer burned petrifaction and then get rid of it. Something to ponder.

The New York Times Upside-Down Caramel-Apple Muffins



Pumpkin Wagon at the French Lick Resort and Spa in French Lick, IN



Like many women who’ve been married for a number of years, I enjoy my time alone.  My husband and I both work at home; I’m involved in artistic pursuits, and he’s involved in literary pursuits.  It works for us, we enjoy being together, but occasionally I want the kitchen to myself, so seized the moment when he left this afternoon, long list of errands in hand.  I wanted to try a recipe I’d found in the food section of the New York Times October 1^st edition.  The recipe, Upside-Down Caramel-Apple Muffins, just screamed “FALL” to me, and Libran girl that I am, I love absolutely everything about fall.  So despite the near 90-degree temperatures of the day I preheated the oven to 375°F and began.

I started making the apple mixture, lovingly peeling and coring my fresh-from-the-farm apples and slicing them into uniform quarter-inch slices.  Then I sautéed them with light brown sugar (I didn’t have dark, so added 1-1/2 teaspoons of molasses to compensate – ditto with the wet ingredients of the batter), butter, and a pinch of salt.  While this was cooking I prepared the muffin pan, toasted and chopped the nuts, and started assembling the ingredients for the batter.

Once the apples were soft, fragrant, and beautifully amber, I spooned equal portions into the bottom of each jumbo-size well, sprinkled on the nuts, and started mixing first the dry ingredients of the batter and then the liquid.  But wait!  There’s an error!  The liquid portion read ¼ cup (1 stick unsalted butter).  Now, I’m no math whiz, in fact, I consider myself a mathematical dyslexic since numbers and I just do NOT mix, but even I know that ¼ cup is ½ stick and not a whole one.  So I fired up the computer, located the recipe and, Oh HO!  There was a revision.  The new recipe called for 8 T. or 1 stick in the batter and, alas, the same amount for the apple mixture.

  

It was too late to make the changes in the apple mixture at this point.  As I said, it was already lining the bottom of each well in the greased muffin pan, but considering the amount of liquid that remained with the apples I thought it was probably fine as is.  No.  But we’ll get to that later.

As mentioned, I used a jumbo muffin pan instead of a 12-well muffin pan.  In my opinion the apple mixture wouldn’t have begun to fill twelve wells, secondly, come on, those 12-well pans are more like mini muffins.  I like a nice large muffin that I can split with my husband each morning over the paper and cups of freshly brewed coffee.  Did you ever try to split one of those small ones?  Crumbs!  You just get lumps and crumbs!

I baked the muffins for the required amount of time, tested with a toothpick, and then went 8 minutes longer to compensate for the larger pan.  Done.  The suggestion was to let them cool in the pan (for how many minutes, the recipe didn’t specify), then invert over a platter.  A platter?  Who has a platter handy?  Do people even have platters?  We have only one that I can think of and I only use it for Thanksgiving.  Suddenly I was struggling to try to remember where it was, if it was in a closet, or cabinet, packed in a box somewhere, or packed in a box and living in a storage unit about 3 miles from our home.  Then I looked into the hutch in the kitchen and there it was, humbly standing on edge behind the multi-colored Fiestaware dinner plates.  Okay, a platter. 

But this platter like all of them, presumably, has a bit of a raised edge.  I could just see the muffins falling out of the pan, hitting the rim, bouncing hither and yon, turning over onto their sides, topping pooling in the center, and everything just a sticky, runny, gloppy mess.  So I thought I’d just invert them onto a big piece of parchment paper that I’d spread out on the counter, and then use a knife to scrape up any of the caramel topping and let it drip down from the knife onto the muffin leaving a lovely caramel, professional-looking glazed topping.

While the muffins may have come beautifully out of the pan, the topping didn’t.  It stayed in the pan in pretty much the same formation as it went in.  It wasn’t runny or gooey, or anything at all even close to resembling mouth watering; what it was was thick and sticky.  I scraped it out with a spoon, tried to put it back into place, but it just didn’t have the appeal afterward to really make these at all appetizing for me.  The proof is in the pudding however, so since the advice was to eat them warm, I sliced one in two and took a bite.

A scene from the 1972 screwball comedy “What’s up Doc?” with Ryan O’Neal and Barbara Streisand came to mind. At the beginning of the film, Streisand, who’s doggedly pursuing O’Neal, find themselves on opposite sides of a display in a drugstore.  O’Neal (a musical archeologist) interested in checking the tonal quality of a large rock, painted with a rather garish scene of San Francisco, with a tuning fork, removes it from its place on the shelf revealing the smirking face of Streisand.  He explains that he’s in the drugstore looking for an aspirin.  She looks from the rock to him, back to the rock and says, “You’re going to need an awfully big glass of water to get that down.”  Get the picture (if you’ll pardon the pun)?  These were not good.  They were throat-stickingly dry and I feared failure of peristalsis trying to swallow the one bite that I took.  And it did take an awfully big glass of water to get it down.

If you’re intrepid and want to try the revised recipe and report back, I’d welcome hearing from you. You may just want to check the website once again to make sure there hasn't been yet another correction/revision. I do love muffins and the caramel-apple combination, so hope springs eternal that I’ll eventually find just right one, but this wasn’t it.