Saturday, June 11, 2011

No Bake Chocolate Oat Bars

Ingredients:

* 1 cup butter
* 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 3 cups quick cooking oats
* 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
* 1/2 cup peanut butter


Directions

1. Grease a 9x9 inch square pan.
2. Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar and vanilla. Mix in the oats. Cook over low heat 2 to 3 minutes, or until ingredients are well blended. Press half of mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Reserve the other half for topping.
3. Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter in a small heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently until smooth. Pour the chocolate mixture over the crust in the pan, and spread evenly with a knife or the back of a spoon.
4. Crumble the remaining oat mixture over the chocolate layer, pressing in gently. Cover, and refrigerate 2 to 3 hours or overnight. Bring to room temperature before cutting into bars.

Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1/2 cup peanut butter
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
* 2 tablespoons water
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate
* 1 cup peanut butter chips
* 1/4 cup crushed toffee bits



Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the corn syrup, water, and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the peanut butter mixture. Fold in chocolate chunks. Drop by 1/4 cupfuls 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are golden. Allow cookies to cool for 1 minute on the cookie sheet before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Two-Bite Skor Brownies

Two Bite Skor Brownies

Makes appx 32 little mouthfulls

* 8 oz semi sweet chocolate
* 3/4 cup unsalted butter
* 2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/3 cup cocoa powder
* 2/3 cup all purpose flour
* 3.5 Skor candy bars

Preheat your oven to 350ºF, with your racks set in the center position.

Set a medium sized heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water, being sure that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water directly. Give a very rough chop to the chocolate and then put it into the warm bowl, stirring intermittently as it starts to melt. When the chocolate is about half melted, add in the butter and continue to stir this gently until it is completely melted, smooth and glossy. Take the chocolate off the heat and set it aside to cool for 5-10 minutes.

In the mean time, crack your eggs and yolk into a fairly large mixing bowl and add the vanilla, sugar and salt. Beat the mixture until it is slightly paler and smooth.
In the mean time, crack your eggs and yolk into a fairly large mixing bowl and add the vanilla, sugar and salt. Beat the mixture until it is slightly paler and smooth.Sift the flour into the bowl (or don’t sift it, because god knows I only sift when absolutely necessary and frankly, in this case, I don’t consider it to be a make-or-break) and gently stir until it is just combined using your wooden spoon. You don’t want to beat the mixture, or stir too agressively or for too long, because the flour will get all gluten-happy and make your brownies tough. We want nice, soft, fudgey brownies, not dense little chocolate bricks.Chop the Skor bar until it is in small bits. The largest should be no bigger than a fat chocolate chip. Generously grease 2 mini muffin trays. Try not to be shy about it, because delicious Skor brownie bites will be a wasted effort if the molten sugar means that they won’t un-mold.

Dollop about 2 tablespoons of the brownie mix into each unit, or until the batter comes about 3/4 of the way up the sides of the tin. Sprinkle the chopped chocolate bars evenly over top. Moisten your hands slightly and gently press the chocolate and toffee into the batter.
Bake the brownies for 12-15 minutes or until they are slightly puffed, set, and just starting to bubble on top. You don’t want to overcook the brownies or they will be less fudgy and more cakey. In my oven this only takes about 13-14 minutes, but you may need more or less depending on how accurate your temperature settings are (mine run cold when the temperature is low, and hot when the temperature is high, making it rather frustrating at times to get a reliable cooking time).

The only difficult thing about soft, fudgy brownies (particularly those that contain molten chocolate bars) is that it is almost impossible to do the “done” test with a toothpick. You can try, but don’t expect fabulous results. Use your common sense and good eye. If you can see tiny little holes, crinkly tops and puffiness that causes the brownies to ever so slightly pull away from the edges of the pan, you’ll be just fine.
Let the brownies cool completely in the tins. To un-mold the luscious little bites, gently run a very thin, sharp knife just along the outer rim and then ease the brownies out with your hands (if they’re high enough) or a small spoon. If your pans were greased well and the brownies are cooked and cooled, they’ll just pop right out like nobody’s business.

Pecan Tassies

Cream Cheese Pastry:

1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 ounces (170 grams) regular cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour

Pecan Filling:

3 large eggs
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 3/4 cups (370 grams) light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans


Cream Cheese Pastry: In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add the flour and beat until incorporated. Flatten the dough into a 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for about one hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Have ready two - 24 cup or four - 12 cup miniature muffin pans.

Remove the pastry from the refrigerator and pinch off one-quarter of the pastry. Return the remaining pastry to the refrigerator. On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry dough until about 1/8 inch thick and cut into rounds that are slightly larger than the muffin tins. Gently place the rounds into the muffin tins. Repeat with the rest of the pastry dough.

Pecan Filling: In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the eggs, butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt until well mixed. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of the filling into each of the pastry-lined muffin tins. Sprinkle each with some coarsely chopped pecans.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes, or until the pastry has nicely browned and the filling is set, yet still a little soft in the center. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool briefly before removing from tins. Pecan Tassies can be frozen.

Sharp Cheddar Dippers

****These are Drew's absolute favorite!! Whenever I make these I need to double the recipe and they still only last about 2 days!****

* 1/2 cup of soft sharp cheddar cheese (jar cheese works best)
* 3 tablespoons butter
* 3/4 cup of flour
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon paprika
* 1/4 teaspoon curry

Preheat oven to 400°. Cream together cheese and butter. Sift together remaining ingredients. Add sifted flour ingredients to cheese mixture, blend well.

Pinch off pieces of dough, then roll to form approximately 3/4-inch diameter cheese balls. Chill for 2 hours.

Place cheese balls on an un-greased cookie sheet. Bake about 10 minutes. Serve hot or cold. Yields about 24.

Fudge Puddles

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
* 1 egg
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
*
* 1 cup milk chocolate chips
* 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
* 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 3/4 cup pecan halves

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt.
3. Cream butter, peanut butter and white and brown sugars. Mix in egg and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir the flour mixture into creamed mixture. Shape the dough into 48 balls, 1 inch each. Place each ball in one compartment of a mini muffin tin.
4. For filling, put chocolate chips in a double boiler over simmering water. Stir in milk and vanilla, mix well.
5. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and immediately make wells in the center of each using a melon baller. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Then carefully remove to wire racks. Using a measuring cup fill each shell with the chocolate mixture. Top with a pecan half.

The Beginning...

I try to make food for Drew and his work buddies at least once a week and now when I don't they give Drew hell and ask him what he did to piss me off so they didn't get their weekly baking, lol. I have decided that since you all ask me so often for the recipes, I will post them on here immediately after making something. I hope you all might try some of my recipes and give me some feedback on what you thought of them!

Cheers!

Ashley