Sugar Shock Friday: Chocolate Swoon Bars

I usually save the baking isle for last when I go grocery shopping. There's something about that isle that seems special and so I savor it. My gait becomes noticeably slower and what ever muzak might be playing becomes just a bit more singable. And if there are other shoppers in the isle, I feel a little territorial as though the isle is mine and only mine. These are all signs that I probably need an intervention.

Last Friday afternoon my new friend and fellow baker/food-pusher, Emily, made pound cake as a going away gift for a colleague. It was honestly one of the best I had ever had. It had such a classic "Sara Lee" pound-cake flavor, I almost didn't believe she had made it. When I asked her about the recipe she revealed to me how she used something called "vanilla butter nut extract" to make it. What was this? An extract I had never heard of? Could it be? Surely it had to be exotic and difficult to find. I mean, I had never heard of it or ever seen it in my baking isle! I was intrigued.
On the way home I stopped by the store to, you know, pick up something for dinner (wink, wink) and I headed straight for the extracts. To my surprise, in between "vanilla" and "almond" was a bottle of "vanilla butter nut", patiently waiting for me. I picked up the box to inspect it and found a very small recipe, in paragraph format written on the back. I knew immediately upon reading it that I'd be making it or at least a version of it within the few days. The recipe's first step involved a molten caramel which I had never seen before.

I LOVE how this recipe came out! While it was baking, layers formed inside the bar, creating a cookie crust, then a layer of chocolate brownie, and then a second layer of crust. I'm not sure how that happened but it's pretty neat! Plus, the flavor is really something to swoon over. Both my husband and son said "Awesome!" at the same time after they took a bite. I almost considered calling these "Awesome in Stereo" Bars!

Chocolate Swoon Bars

2 cups light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla butter nut extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 12 ounce bag milk chocolate chips
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 9"x13" baking pan and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and baking powder together and mix well with a fork. Set aside.

If you have a stand mixer, have the metal bowl and paddle attachment ready to go. If you're using a hand mixture, get your mixer ready to go. Set up a metal or glass head proof bowl and have a towel or over mit close by.

In another small bowl, mix the eggs and extract together as so as to break the yolks. Set aside.

In a medium sized saucepan, over medium heat, combine the brown sugar and butter together, stirring constantly until the mixture becomes very think and starts to bubble. Once it starts to bubble, continue stirring constantly, scrapping the sides and bottom of the pan for an additional three minutes or so. Do not increase the heat. (Note: you're not looking for a caramel here, but you want the mixture to almost be to the point where the sugar is dissolved, but not quite).

Remove the pan from the heat and continue to mix by hand for about a minute. Pour the hot mixture into the metal stand mixer bowl and mix on low speed for three minutes. Increase the speed to medium and mix for two minutes, stopping once a minute to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. By now the mixture should still be warm, but not molten.

Return the speed back to medium and slowly add the egg/extract mixture. Add a little at a time to avoid the egg scrambling. The batter should get very shiny and turn a pretty shade of light brown. Continue mixing until all the egg is incorporated. Be sure to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl.

Add the flour in two batches, mixing until it's just incorporated. Add the chocolate chips and mix for about 30 seconds on low until the chocolate is combined. The chocolate will melt and that's okay.

Pour the mixture into the prepared baking pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove it from the oven and scatter a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips on top. You may need to add more chocolate chips to fill in any bald areas.

Let cool completely and cut into bars.

Yield: I'll probably get about 40 bars about of this pan so it will feed a bunch of people, but a normal serving size would probably yield about 20 bars. It's all in how you cut them.
Would I Make This Again?Considering my husband and son's reaction, I don't think I'll have much of a choice. I loved seeing the smile on their faces :-) 4 out of 5 stars.

Breast Cancer 3-Day Bake Sale Cheesecake Pops

Today I donated cheesecake pops for a Breast Cancer 3-Day fundraiser bake sale. These were the same recipe that I used to make the Daring Baker's April Challenge, but I only made one-fifth of the recipe. I'm not sure how well they sold, but I think they came out pretty good.

The pan I used was an Wilton Easy Flex Bite Sized Silicone Square Mold. I found it in Joanne Fabrics, but you can also get it here too. There's also a flower shape, but I'm not sure how well that would work.

I used pink, white, and brown, which were cocoa-flavored, Candy Melts for the shell. Coincidentally, one-fifth of the recipe made exactly one pan or 24 squares. These are a fun way to jazz up a bake sale. If you'd like to donate to the 3 Day Walk, please click here.

Onto a completely different topic, look what I woke up to on Mother's Day morning!

My 12 year old son make me a kitty cat fruit cup - just look at those knife skills! And my precious hubby, who doesn't cook, made me an egg and toast. How lucky am I?!

Oh... and one more thing... I won the Precious Style's Cutest Cupcake Contest! This is the first contest I've ever won! Thank you to everyone that voted for me!

Daniel's Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

When you're selected as my "baking target" the first thing I do is ask you what you like and what you don't like. What usually follows is a meandering trail of back and forth questions and answers until I feel satisfied that I know your palette well enough to make you something you'll like. Once I have my completed dossier, I get to work sifting through my endless supply of "gotta-make" recipes, which is my favorite part. This part of the process can some times take longer to complete than actually making the treat!

When I asked Daniel what he wanted for his birthday he was very succinct about his baked-good preferences. He specifically mentioned carrot cake which immediately made me think of this recipe. Happy Birthday Daniel! I hope you had a great birthday!

Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from one found on Epicurious

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon good quality cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup fresh, coarsely grated carrots (2 medium)
1 scant cup pecans (3 oz), chopped (optional but note that if you omit them, you will end up with slightly less yield. The nuts really bulk up the batter.)
1/2 cup raisins (2 1/2 oz)

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 2 baking sheets or use a Silpat mat.

Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

Beat together butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in carrots, nuts, and raisins at low speed, then add flour mixture and beat until just combined.

Drop 1 tablespoons batter per cookie 2 inches apart on baking sheets and bake, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are lightly browned and springy to the touch, 10 to 12 minutes total. Cool cookies on sheets on racks 1 minute, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.

While cookies are baking, whip cream cheese and vanilla together until well combined. Add sugar and continue mixing until smooth.

Sandwich flat sides of cookies together with a generous tablespoon of cream cheese filling in between or just serve as singles. Garnish with a small fragment of nut on top.

A few tips when making these cookies:

1. Don't try to save time by buying baby pre-peeled carrots. Although they will save you some time, they will cost you in flavor.

2. Let them cool completely before enjoying. The flavor takes some time to develop and actually tastes a little bland when they are fresh from the oven. It's a bit strange, but the longer they sit the better they taste. If you need them for an event, I'd make them at least a day in advance.

3. Use a good quality, recently purchased cinnamon. My favorite is Vietnamese. It has a bold, yet sweet flavor that won't overwhelm. If your cinnamon has been in your cupboard for a few years, toss it or you'll be missing out.

4. Be sure to be generous with the frosting. Although the cookies aren't dry, they aren't super moist either so there needs to be an adequate cookie-to-frosting ratio. Pour it on a bit thick.

5. I have an old fashioned nut-mill (not sure if that's what you call it) that I used to cut the pecans I used. The nuts were cut rather small and I found that this really changed the texture of the cookie. I would recommend cutting the nuts up into larger chunks and maybe even toasting them before hand to get more nut flavor.

Yield: I made two batches and ended up with about 60 cookies. I "sandwiched" 20 of them together and decided to switch to singletons because I wanted the recipe to feed more people. I preferred the singleton because it had more frosting. Yum!
Would I Make This Again? If I would have written this blog post right after baking these, my rating would have been really low (see tip number 2, above) but the next morning when I tried one they were so much better! They just get better with age. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars

Yeah..... you know you want one...

.....awww yeah...

...Mmmmmmmmmmmmm....

That's right... there's three layers... graham cracker crust studded with mini milk chocolate chips...topped with a smooth and creamy cheesecake that been studded with buttery chocolate chip cookie dough baked right inside and finished with a ribbon of creamy semisweet milk chocolate drizzled over the top..... pure bliss!

While we waited patiently for a table at dinner last night my husband casually happens to mention that there will be a barbecue following our son's baseball game at the coaches house the next day. I immediately start firing off questions: "Do we have to bring anything. Did you volunteer a specific type of dish? What time is the event?" My husband realizes he made a bit of a misstep, not informing me of the event ahead of time. "I don't recall," he said, "I didn't memorize the email, but I'm sure you could bring a dessert." Well, duh!

Over dinner my husband, son, and I discuss a few options and eventually settled on me making another cake using melted ice cream, but flavored with Cherry Garcia. On the way home I stop at the store to pick up the ingredients but quickly get sidetracked when I walk past a display table filled with various cookbooks. Without hesitation I flip through The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook and land upon these bad-boys. I get so sucked in by this book that I have to take it over to the indoor furniture area to sit down and leaf through it. I was in a trance....


So many times I get suckered into buying cookbooks like this. You know the ones. They have gorgeous, dreamy pictures of each recipe, looking so beautiful, so unbelievably scrupulous, you just have to buy it. Only later you find out the recipes don't turn out right or the book is filled with too many that are unappealing and it just sits on the shelf, year after year. I decide to resist the urge to impulse shop and do a little experiment instead: I would test drive a recipe first! Brillant! I pull out my pad and paper and decide to copy (gasp! steal?) down the recipe. I decided then and there if the recipe came out, I'd buy the book. Guess what? I'm buying the book as soon as I'm done posting this entry! :-)

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars
by Elinor Klivans (author) & Kirsten Strecker (photographer)

Crust
1 & 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter a 9″-square baking pan. Line pan with parchment paper, leaving enough to extend over the sides. Butter the parchment paper.

Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter until crumbs are moistened. Stir in chocolate chips. Press crust mixture into bottom of pan. Bake for 6 minutes. Set pan on wire rack to cool.

Cookie Dough
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Using an electric mixer, mix butter, brown sugar, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract at medium speed until smooth. Decrease mixer speed to low and add flour. Mix just until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Set aside.

Filling
10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar just until smooth. Add egg and vanilla extract, beating just until blended. Pour batter into baked crust. Drop cookie dough by teaspoonfuls over the top of the filling.

Bake about 30-35 minutes, or until set. Transfer to wire rack.

For chocolate topping, melt 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips in a double boiler or in the microwave. (Tip: put the chocolate chips into a zipper bag and heat on 50% power for a few minutes. Cut the corner off the bag and squeeze the bag to make drizzling less messy). Use a teaspoon to drizzle chocolate over top of bars. Cool bars in pan completely, about an hour. (Stick the bars in the freezer for 5 minutes to set quickly if you're in a hurry).

Using the edges of the parchment paper, remove bars from pan. Cut into bars (clean the knife after each cut) and serve.

Yield: I was able to get 20 1"x 1" bars from my 9" pan
Would I Make This Again? These bars were a huge hit! Everyone loved them at the barbecue, adults and kids alike. My hubby and son, who are both connoisseurs of all things cheesecake, gave this recipe 4 out of 5 stars

Scott & Julia's Chocolate Chip Banana & Zucchini Bread

Wow, it's been a week. I don't want to get too deep into the details but let me just say that some tears have been shed. As I walked into work this morning, I had an incredible urge to bake as it always helps to calm and relax me. While other more hard-core people may turn to hard liquor, I get my fix mixing ingredients together in my stand mixer. Go figure.

Once I got settled at my desk, I immediately asked for suggestions to anyone that was within earshot. The first request I heard was banana bread, which was suggested by Scott. About the same time, I heard Julia (yes, there's two of us) ask for zucchini bread. Hmmm... banana bread and zucchini bread. Both have basically the same ingredients right? Maybe they could be put merged together?

After work I headed to the store to get zucchini and bananas -- but whoa there cowgirl! I couldn't use just any bananas, I needed brown, shunned, over ripe bananas and finding them was going to be a challenge. The first store I went to sometimes has older bananas available. Ugly ones with big brown age spots sold for mere pennies on the pound, but no such luck. All they had were pristine, yellow and green bananas with nary a freckle. What kind of grocery store was this?

I left and went to the grocery store that was up the street. The best I found was some very ripe plantains and for a brief moment I wondered if they would work. I regained my focus and went to the customer service counter where I was greeted promptly, "What can I do for you?". "Well," I said, "I would like some black, overripe bananas or yellow ones with a lot of brown spots. I don't see any available but I was wondering if maybe you have some in the back, perhaps in the trash." The employee just starred at me, perplexed. "I need to make banana bread," I quickly added. "Ohhhh!" the young lady said with a big smile, "Let's go check in the back!" She lead me though the big, black swinging doors to several waxed produce boxes filled to the top with rotting fruits and vegetables. On top of the one lay a single bunch of bananas. They were well on their way to being rotten but were still pretty yellow. She put them and another small, brownish bunch into a bag and told me they would only be ten cents a pound. Bonus!

I used a very promising and highly rated Banana Zucchini Bread recipe (courtesy of RecipeZaar) and decided I'd make it sans the nuts, per Scott's request. Instead, I added a cup of mini chocolate chips. To mash the bananas I used my newest kitchen tool, my super deluxe angled potato ricer. (Just as an aside, this old fashioned tool makes the most beautiful and healthful mashed potatoes I've ever made.) It did a great job of mashing the bananas into a big bowl of banana GOOdness.

Overall, I think this was a fair recipe. I'm curious though if I had older, less ripe bananas, if it would have been better. I'm hopeful that it sates both Scott and Julia's cravings.

Oh and I almost forgot! This is my 50th post! Yay!!!

Yield: 2 loaves
Would I Make This Again? I'm not sure yet. I think so. It tasted pretty good but it wasn't earth shattering or anything. It smelled really good while it baked and my husband liked it and he's not even a big banana bread fan. I think I'll wait and see what everyone says when they try it.

Update: Well, all of the bread disappeared and everyone had positive comments. Several people had seconds and even thirds. Scott said it was a 4 star and my boss said that she really loved it. However, I wasn't all that impressed by the recipe. It was fine, but nothing extraordinary. I think it would have been better with less chocolate and more banana flavor. I also would have replaced half the oil with a half a cup of apple sauce as the bread was a bit oily. If anyone out there has a banana bread recipe they love, please send it my way. I'd love to give banana bread another go.

My rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars.