sweet and salty butterscotch bars

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Sweet and Salty Butterscotch Bars

As my blog is titled, I am an experimental baker. I could probably find a version of what I would like to make somewhere on the web, but who's to say their recipe is better than something I could come up with, and who has the time for endless web searches anyway? I sure don't. Plus, its more fun to come up with something on my own. So thats what this recipe is. It is a creation which I threw together and may or may not be very similar to something someone else has made. I have no idea however since I didn't go searching the web for something like this.

Anyway, I wanted to make something, and I was too lazy to go out in the cold and wind and rain to get other ingredients. That limited me to what I had on hand. which was quite a bit to be honest, but again.. I was feeling lazy. So I wanted something relatively simple. I ended up going with bars because everyone loves bars, and because you make one batch and you're done. Easy!

Note that when making these you want the cookie base to cook through without over baking but it still needs to be firm enough to be the base for the bars. this is a fine line, but use your best judgement. this is one of the few times i'd say to error on the side of over baking because if you under bake the bars, those in the middle will end up doughy and not be able to be picked up or support the next layer. which ends up being very upsetting. and then you're left with a bunch of bars that can't be picked up properly from the pan and require a fork just to get them out of the pan, so then you just start eating bites of the bars with a fork, and then you eat the whole pan. Then you're fat, you have no bars, and you are still upset they didn't turn out. I have obviously been through this before; take my advice and bake them a few more minutes if you're unsure if they are done.

Ingredients:
1 box double chocolate chunk cookie mix. (I used a chocolate cookie with chocolate chunks in it)
-all ingredients required for that particular mix
1 large jar jet puff marshmallow creme
1 bag butterscotch chips
about 24 pretzels (I used squares, but circles would work)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (or whatever your particular mix says to use)
2. line a 9x13 inch baking dish with parchment paper. press the cookie mix into the bottom of the pan until even. note: the layer will appear very thin. trust me-it will rise when it bakes and it will be ok. it gets better. trust. bake the cookie layer about 20-25 minutes or until the edges pull away from the side of the dish and the middle is soft set and a tooth pick comes out clean.
3. Allow the cookie layer to cool; while that cools, warm (do not melt) the marshmallow creme. spread the creme over the cookie layer.
4. In a separate dish, microwave the butterscotch chips for 45 seconds, stir, and then repeat microwaving for 15 seconds and stirring until all chips are melted. pour melted butterscotch chips over the marshmallow layer.
5. Press a pretzel on top of what would be an individual bar (i.e. 4 rows with 6 pretzels each). you could also use chopped up pretzels on top and have a more liberal amount of pretzels.
6. Cool bars in the refrigerator. Cut into individual squares.

Enjoy!

Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who doesn't love a good chocolate chip cookie? I am constantly on the search for good cookie recipes. Cookies in general are great. They are shareable, convenient, fun, delicious, and the dough usually is pretty good too. I will say that I have made some bad chocolate chip cookies in my day. It drives me nuts when the dough is really thin and the cookie spreads so much that the cookie is a flattened translucent looking patty. I am also so inconsolably upset when that happens. This recipe does NOT do that. and it makes a pretty good cookie.


Original Recipe: http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2008/06/21/thick-and-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Ingredients:
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons  flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1 1/2 cups semisweet or milk chocolate chips. milk chocolate chips will result in a sweeter cookie overall. 

Directions: 

1. preheat oven to 325 degrees. line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

2. Mix dry ingredients expect sugar together- baking soda, salt, flour

3. Mix wet ingredients-butter, egg, vanilla, etc with sugars. beat with a hand mixer until mixed. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. 

4. Stir in chocolate chips of your choice. 

5. Form 1.5 inch balls of dough. place on pan evenly and bake for 15-20 minutes. DO NOT OVER BAKE! 

The trick to a chewy cookie- which is my favorite kind, is to take them out when the edges brown and the middle is sort of soft set. Take the cookies out when you see this and then allow the cookies to sit on the baking sheet for a few minutes after removal from the oven so that the bottoms can continue to cook enough to create a cookie that is solid enough to be picked up but that won't be hard all the way through. 

Note that this recipe doubles well- thats what I did. and if you double the recipe, you're able to freeze extra dough and then thaw and bake it later...OR eat it in ice cream.. I'm not judging. 

Enjoy!

Caramel Apple Cider Cookies

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Caramel Apple Cider Cookies

I have been working. A lot. This is my excuse for not blogging my baking lately. I have been baking but I have been so wound up in getting my baked goods out of the house -so I don't stuff my face with them, that I havent done adequate blogging. Not a good excuse- but the truth.


So anyway, when I finally got around to baking and even better- actually blogging about it this was the result: deliciousness. I wanted to make something "autumnal" cause well.. it's autumn. I love the fall. The smells, the flavors, the scarfs and football. Really and truely, the only thing I dislike about the fall is that it means winter is that much closer. I'm a summer baby, and me and winter are not on good terms. Never have been, never will be. The fall however is a perfect time to embrace the chill and the flavors of the season. In this case, its apples. Apple cider is warm and comforting and a classic.

These cookies are really simple to make but are packed with fall flavor. Feel free to play around with the amount of cinnamon, cider mix, caramel, really its up to you. Enjoy the season, enjoy the apples and enjoy the cookies!

Original Recipe: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2011/11/caramel-apple-cider-cookies.html

Ingredients:
1 cup crisco (butter flavor) - or you can use 1 cup of butter (2 sticks)
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (7.4 oz) box Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink Mix (10 packets)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 (14 ounce) bag of Kraft chewy caramels (I didnt need all of them)

Directions:
1. preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Beat together crisco, sugar, eggs, salt, vanilla, and stir in the 10 packets of cider mix.
3. Add in the remaining ingredients- not the caramel though!
4. Once ingredients are well mixed, take 1" balls of the dough and form into "patty" shape. Place an unwrapped caramel in the middle and wrap the dough around the caramel on all sides. An alternative method is to form a ball with the dough and press your thumb into the dough  making a large hole, and placing the caramel inside and then enclosing the dough around the caramel. Either method will yield the same results. Essentially you want to get the caramel in the middle of a ball of dough. The balls of dough will appear large, but do not spread much.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. smaller cookies with less dough will need less time than this. I dont recommend using too much dough or you will end up with a cookie that has caramel in the middle but a lot of excess 'cookie' around the edges and will get bites without caramel stuffing. ya know what I'm saying? If you use too much dough, you'll know what I'm saying. Bake the cookies until the edges begin to brown. the middles may look slightly undone. These cookies do not brown very much so a brown cookie is a burnt cookie.
6. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet in order to ensure that the bottom is not too soft and you won't lose your chunk of caramel. --this is when using enough dough comes in handy: using too LITTLE dough can result in the caramel 'leaking through' the dough and onto your baking sheet.
7. Allow cookies to complete cooling on wax paper or cooling rack.

These are awesome as is, or you can really make them visually appealing by melting caramel over the tops (or dipping the bottoms ?!), or sprinkling with cinnamon (although they have quite a bit of flavor).

Hopefully you enjoy the season as much as I do.


Enjoy!!