Oreo Rolo Magic Cookie Bars

Oreo Rolo Magic Cookie Bars - made May 31, 2013, original recipe

Magic Cookie Bars are like the stir-fry of desserts.  When you want to use up random ingredients in your fridge, you throw together a quick stir-fry: veggies before they spoil, the leftover chicken and/or beef from last weekend's barbecue, cubes of tofu before the use-by date.  Same with magic cookie bars.  I had some pecans I had already toasted from another recipe, Rolos I bought on sale after Christmas, Oreos I bought to bake with rather than eat straight out of the package, a few spoonfuls of salted caramel, and half a can of sweetened condensed milk from a prior recipe.  So voila, the Oreo Rolo Magic Cookie Bars were born.

As with a stir-fry, magic cookie bars are actually pretty forgiving and flexible with the add-ins.  The only "must haves" for me are a crust, coconut and sweetened condensed milk for the topping.  Everything else is whatever you want to use up.  In this case, I processed Oreos into crumbs and added melted butter to make a crust for the bottom layer.  Baked that for 10 minutes to firm it up a little so it wouldn't be too soggy (can't have a soggy crust) then layered on my add-ins: the last of the salted caramel so I could recycle the jar it came in, the chopped up Rolos for more caramel goodness, the toasted pecans for crunch, coconut (I love coconut and it wouldn't be a magic cookie bar without it), chocolate chips, and the last of the sweetened condensed milk.

End result was delicious goodness.  Double bonus that I used up some random ingredients and that this was super easy to make.  I know I say that a lot but seriously, they're the easiest things to make.  Very little mixing and it's hard to overbake these because the coconut signals when they're done - golden brown in spots but not uniformly brown all over. The measurements below are approximations.  Feel free to experiment on your own.  I was originally going to melt peanut butter into the caramel and add chopped up Snickers instead of Rolos but it turns out I was out of Snickers.  I must've used them all up in other recipes.  But it's not a bad idea for a future magic cookie bar creation.

1 cup crushed Oreos, finely processed into crumbs in a food processor
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup Rolos, chopped
1/3 cup toasted pecans, roughly chopped
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup coconut
1/2 can (7 ounces) sweetened condensed milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8 baking pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Combine crushed Oreos and melted butter.  Press in an even layer in pan and bake for 10 minutes.
3. Take pan out of oven and spread caramel evenly over hot crust.  Sprinkle with chopped Rolos, pecans, coconut and chocolate chips.  Cover evenly with sweetened condensed milk.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until coconut is golden in patches and the edges of the bar cookies are brown.

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake - made May 28, 2013 from Two Peas and Their Pod

I was disappointed in the Brown Butter Blondies so I felt I had to redeem myself with something else.  I still had frosting leftover from the Texas Vanilla Cake so I tried out this recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod.  Oh my.  I'm glad I did because this one definitely turned out and made up for the blondies several times over.

Considering there isn't that much cocoa in the recipe, this still made for a nice chocolate-y cake, not too dark but perfectly complemented by the sweetness of the icing.  The texture was also really good, nice and cakey, not too dense but not too light.  For once I didn't underbake it either....although don't think I didn't get twitchy to take it out 5 minutes before I actually did.  But I'm glad I waited because the texture was just cakey-moist chocolate goodness.

1 cup unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used Scharffenberger unsweetened cocoa)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream (or Greek yogurt)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the chocolate glaze (I used the glaze from the Texas Vanilla Cake):
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons corn syrup (or agave nectar)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 10 or 12-cup Bundt pan and set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, combine the butter, cocoa powder, salt, and water and place over medium heat. Cook, stirring, just until melted and combined. Remove from the heat and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and baking soda. Add half of the melted butter mixture and whisk until completely blended. The mixture will be thick. Add the remaining butter mixture and whisk until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking until completely blended. Whisk in the sour cream (or Greek yogurt) and the vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth.
4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then invert onto a rack. Let cool completely before glazing.
5. While the cake is cooling, make the chocolate glaze. Place the chopped chocolate and corn syrup (or agave) in a medium bowl and set aside. Combine the heavy cream and sugar in a small saucepan and put over medium heat. Stir until the cream is hot and the sugar is dissolved. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and whisk until smooth.
6. Generously drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake, allowing it to drip down the sides. Cut into pieces and serve.

Brown Butter Blondies

Brown Butter Blondies - made May 27, 2013, recipe adapted from Great Cookies by Carole Walter

I had tried this recipe before but I had made so many modifications to it that I really couldn't judge the original recipe by itself.  So it was time to make it for real.  Although I confess, I did make a couple of tiny modifications to it.  For one thing, I decided to brown 1/2 the butter instead of barely melting it like the original recipe called for.  And I omitted the nuts of course.  Plus I used milk chocolate chips instead of semisweet.  Oh and I made it in a 9 x 13 pan instead of a jelly roll pan.  But hey, other than that, it's the original recipe :).

I'd like to say all my modifications made for a fantastic result.  However, I proved my own theory that it isn't just about the ingredients or mixing it all together.  It's also about the baking time in the oven and unfortunately, I left these in there a trifle too long.  It's hard to tell from the pictures because they look moist enough.  But to my finicky taste buds, these would've been better if they had been more underbaked.  Truthfully, I hadn't expected them to bake so fast since I was putting them in a smaller pan than the original recipe had called for.  My mistake.  I brought them into work anyway although I was sorely tempted to leave them in the communal kitchen on a different floor so no one would know on my floor that I had made "sub-par" bar cookies.

My coworkers thought I was being silly ("no, don't give them to someone else!") and I got a couple of eye rolls as other people thought these were fine but no, sorry, these didn't live up to my standards.  I will have to make them again at some point and this time (under)bake them properly.

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, spooned in and leveled

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, divided

¾ cup lightly packed light brown sugar

¾ cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

5 ounces high-quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, such as Lindt Bittersweet, cut into ¼-inch dice

1.     Position the shelf in the center of the oven.  Heat the oven to 350˚F.  Line a 9 x 13" baking pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.

2.     Strain together the flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

3.     In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt and brown ½ cup (1 stick) of the butter over medium-low heat, stirring constantly so it doesn't burn, until it emits a nutty fragrance and butter solids are golden brown.  Remove from the heat and add the brown sugar, mixing well.  Cool to tepid.

4.     In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the remaining ½ cup (1 stick) of butter on medium speed.  Add the granulated sugar in a steady stream and mix until lightened in color.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Blend in the tepid melted butter and brown sugar.   Beat on medium speed until thick and creamy, about 1 minute, scraping down the side of the bowl as needed.  Beat in the vanilla.

5.     Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in two additions, mixing only to combine.  Remove the bowl from the machine and, using a large wooden spoon or rubber spatula, fold in ¾ cup of the chopped walnuts and all of the diced chocolate.  Scrape the batter into the pan, using the back of a large spoon to spread it evenly.  Sprinkle with the remaining walnuts.

6.     Bake for 28 to 30 minutes (check them at 20 minutes!), or until the top is golden brown and the edges just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.  Do not overbake.  Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack.  Let stand 1 hour, then cut into 1 ¾” x 2 ½” bars.

Storage: Store in an airtight container layered between sheets of wax paper for up to 5 days.  The blondies may be frozen.

Texas Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Texas Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Frosting - made May 25, 2013 from Brown Sugar

Thanks to pinterest, the most viewed recipe on my blog by a wide margin is Texas Fudge Cake.  It must've struck some popular pinners and spread accordingly from there (ah, the power of social media).  And it IS a pretty good recipe.  But get your pinning fingers ready because if that was a good chocolate cake recipe, this is an excellent vanilla cake recipe.  In fact, I'll even go so far as to say it's the best vanilla cake I've made so far.  (Let's mull on that for a moment, considering how many cakes I've made over the baking years.) I loved everything about it: taste, texture and ease of preparation.  I don't know where either name came from but if there's any truth in the names' origins, then they really know how to make cake in Texas.

If you don't like chocolate, you can make a vanilla frosting for it or leave it unfrosted as it's good enough to stand on its own without frosting.  It might be a simple cake but that makes it even better because it doesn't rely on fancy add-ins to be a delicious cake.  Sometimes simple is best.

ETA: Forgot a  couple of baking notes. The frosting recipe makes a lot for a 9 x 13 pan as the original recipe called for baking in a jelly roll pan which has a larger surface area for the frosting to cover.  But I don't like my cakes to be too thin so I baked this in a smaller pan. I only used half the frosting for this recipe as I don't like a lot of frosting so you'll notice in the picture that it's a thinner frosting layer.  I reserved the remaining frosting for a different recipe (to go up in a few days).  So if you don't like a lot of frosting either, you might just want to make a half recipe.

1 cup milk
2 sticks butter (1 cup)
2 cups all-purpose flour 
2 cups sugar 
2 eggs, beaten 
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (optional)

Frosting 
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons butter, cut into chunks
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large saucepan, bring butter and milk just to a boil. Set aside to cool slightly.
3. Combine flour, sugar and eggs.  Temper in the milk mixture, adding slowly and whisking smooth. Add sour cream, salt, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste is using.
4. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
5. For frosting, 10 minutes before the cake is done, in a large saucepan over medium heat,whisk the sugar and cocoa powder.  Whisk in the milk, butter and corn syrup.  Stir until well blended.  Remove from heat and add powdered sugar, one cup at a time.  Add vanilla extract and blend until smooth; spread over warm cake. Cool completely.

Crockpot Chocolate Lava Cake

Crockpot Chocolate Lava Cake - made May 25, 2013 from My Recipe Roundup

Ever since I made the Crockpot French Toast, I've been intrigued by the idea of being able to make desserts in my slow cooker.  That opens up a whole new realm of possibilities. I went with this chocolate lava cake from My Recipe Roundup that I found on pinterest as I'm ever on the lookout for a good lava cake.  This was really more like the Black and White Pudding Cake I'd made before than the traditional lava cake that's usually baked in individual portions with a molten center.  The basic principles are the same as the pudding cake: cake batter, sprinkle sugar-cocoa over it, cover with boiling water and let bake.  Or slow cook.  I've also seen something like this called a chocolate cobbler.

Regardless of what you call it, this was pretty good.  The cake baked to rise to the top but when you spoon into it, the "chocolate lava" is lurking just beneath to make a very rich concoction.  It's not meant to be neatly served.  It's just meant to be homey decadence.  Spoon into (small) dessert dishes, be generous with pouring the chocolate lava on top of the cake, and serve warm with ice cream.  And yes, it IS possible to overcook this.  If you cook it too long, the cake portion won't be as fluffy and while there's enough "lava" to keep it from being dry, it'll have a more dense texture if left in the slow cooker for too long.  This makes a lot of servings so you may want to try it out when you have a large group of people over.  And plenty of ice cream.

2 cups brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Fudge Topping
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups boiling water

1. For the cake: Mix together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Stir in milk, melted butter and vanilla until combined. Spread the batter over the bottom of a large crock pot.
2. For the fudge topping: Mix together the brown sugar and cocoa. Sprinkle mixture over the cake batter.
3. Pour the boiling water over the top. DO NOT STIR! Cover and cook on High for 2 - 2 1/2 hours.
4. Turn off heat, and remove lid. Let sit 20-30 minutes before serving, so its still warm but won't burn your mouth.

Top Favorite: Alton Brown's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Alton Brown's Chocolate Chip Cookies - made May 20, 2013 from Kitchen and Trial Error

This is my other top favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies and also went into the goodie bags I brought to my work conference last week.  Not much more to say about them other than they're made especially good when you use high quality milk chocolate chunks for them.  The brown butter adds a nice flavor to the cookie and the bread flour makes them chewy.  But no matter how good your ingredients are and how faithfully you follow the instructions for mixing them together, if you overbake them, they still won't be as good as they should be.

I've mentioned repeatedly that the most common mistake I see people make with cookies is they overbake them.  Overbaking means baking until the middles are puffy and brown.  You want to bake cookies only until the edges are golden brown and the middles are just barely past the stage of looking shiny or raw.  Once you take them out of the oven, the middles will sink - they're supposed to.  When they're completely cool, they'll be moist.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet, milk or white chocolate chips or any combination (your choice)

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat and keep stirring/cooking until butter has turned brown and has a nutty fragrance.  Pour in a large mixing bowl (or bowl of your stand mixer) and set aside to cool to lukewarm.
2. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, salt, and baking soda together. Set aside.
3. Add the sugar and brown sugar to the melted butter and cream on medium speed, about 2 minutes. Add the egg, yolk, milk, and vanilla extract and mix until combined.
4. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Portion into cookie dough balls using an ice cream scoop and chill the dough balls at least two hours or overnight.
6. When your dough is chilled, preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
7. Place dough balls on the cookie sheet, leaving ample room between them, as they spread while baking.
8. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a rack to cool. Store in an airtight container.

Top Favorite: Butter Toffee Crunch Shortbread

Butter Toffee Crunch Shortbread - made (again) May 20, 2013 from In the Sweet Kitchen by Regan Daley

Happy Memorial Day and a heartfelt thank you to all the men and women who serve their country so faithfully and the families who support and sacrifice right along with them.  We couldn't do what we do and be who we are without your service - thank you!

I love shortbread.  It falls into the category of I don't bake or buy it very often because I would want to eat more of it than I should so it's easier not to have it on hand in the first place (Sun Chips, Doritos and French fries fall into this category as well).  But every once in awhile it's a nice treat.  And if I'm going to indulge in shortbread, this is my favorite one.

I was at my company conference last week and, prior to meeting up with my colleagues, asked if they had any special requests for me to bring.  I typically make the offer, "just look through my blog and let me know if there's anything on there you want me to make".  Of course, there are some limitations - pies, anything with ice cream or mousse, lava cakes, etc aren't practical for me to pack up and travel with. And I had used up all of my overripe bananas on the Banana Bread Brownies so anything with banana was out as I didn't have enough time to let bananas ripen.  But I was pleasantly surprised by the request for this shortbread since it gave me an excuse to make it again.

The challenge with this shortbread is you'll want to take it out too soon.  Don't.  Because if you do, it won't have the "snap" of good shortbread and instead will be too chewy because it hasn't baked long enough.  It looks done in my oven at 45 minutes.  That's when I get twitchy and want to take it out because it's already brown all over and I don't want it to burn.  My underbaking tendencies are not well served with shortbread.  But it has a much better texture when it's baked for long enough so I managed to keep myself from taking it out until it had been in there for at least 55 minutes

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup rice flour or substitute cornstarch if rice flour is unavailable
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups (¾lb) fresh unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tablespoons fruit sugar or superfine sugar
6 tablespoons tightly packed light brown sugar
¾ cup miniature butterscotch chips
¾ cup English toffee pieces (available in the baking sections of most supermarkets)

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a 9 x 13" baking pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Sift the all-purpose flour and rice flours together with the salt and set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until very smooth. Gradually add the sugars and cream the mixture until it is very light and fluffy. Transfer the creamed butter-sugar mixture to a large mixing bowl. Add the flour mixture, about ½ cup at a time, fully incorporating each addition before adding the next. Use your fingers to knead the final portion of dry ingredients into the dough, keeping your palms off the dough as much as possible, so the warmth doesn’t turn the butter oily. When the last of the flour is fully blended, add the butterscotch and toffee bits and knead them into the dough until they are evenly distributed.
4. Press the dough firmly into the prepared pan and use the back of a metal spoon to smooth the surface. Prick the dough all over with a fork and set the pan in the center of the oven. Bake the shortbread for about 45 minutes, then prick the dough again to release any trapped air. Return the pan to the oven for another 15 or 30 minutes, or until the edges are light golden brown, and the center feels just firm to the touch.
5. The shortbread will set to a very firm biscuit as it cools, so it must be cut while it is still warm. Cool the pan on a wire rack for 7 or 8 minutes, then run a sharp paring knife around the outside of the dough to loosen the edges. Make two long cuts in the shortbread, dividing it evenly into three rectangles, each cut beginning and ending at a short side of the pan. Cutting from long side to long side, cut the rectangles into about ¾-inch wide fingers, wiping the knife on a clean towel between each cut, as it gets sticky and can pull and tear the cooling shortbread.
6. Leave the fingers to cool completely in the pan, then re-cut and transfer them to airtight tins.

These are the goodie bags I brought to the conference with me