Browned Butter & Candied Bacon Cereal Bars

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Browned Butter & Candied Bacon Cereal Bars

Mostly this recipe intrigued me. I saw it and wondered how bacon would taste in a cereal bar; would it be bacony? or salty? Honestly, they are neither. Imagine a cereal bar, but a little nuttier tasting, a little more caramel flavored, less sugary. The bacon adds a bit of warmth and sweetness to the bar without it being too sugary. The bacon is candied so it isn't salty like bacon typically is.

The original can be found at:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/community/blogs/viewblog/andiblog/2010/7/19/twin-cities-bacon-takedown


Ingredients:


1 lb bacon
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter (no substitutions)
1 1/2 bags (10 oz each) marshmallows
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon coarse Kosher salt
6 cups rice Chex® cereal
6 cups corn Chex® cereal

Directions:


1. Heat oven to 400°F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper or foil. Place bacon on pan in single layer. Sprinkle with half of the brown sugar. Bake 9 to 11 minutes until the sugar is dissolved. Turn bacon over, sprinkle with remaining brown sugar. Bake an additional 10 minutes or until bacon is crisp and sugar is melted. Allow bacon to cool, and then chop finely. if you didnt bake your bacon long enough it may be a little sticky, and that's ok, just be sure that it is chopped well. it may take some time. 


2. In large saucepan melt butter on medium heat, stirring frequently until it turns golden brown and begins to smell nutty. if you are prone to burning your butter rather than browning it- which is very easy to do- just add the marshmallows while the butter is melted. As the marshmallows melt, the butter is likely to brown some on its own anyway. 


3. Add in marshmallows, stir until melted. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla, salt and finely chopped candied bacon until well mixed. Gently stir in cereal, until well coated.


4. Pour Mixture into 13x9-inch glass baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Wet your hands slightly with water or butter and press the mixture evenly into the pan. Cool completely. Cut into Squares.


Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip S'more Cookie Bars

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Chocolate Chip S'more Cookie Bars

Chocolate chips are a classic. S'mores are a classic. Combine the two, and you have created a masterpiece that satisfies that craving for home baked goodness. Admittedly, I cheated a little and used a packaged cookie mix. I know, I know, they are not that good and all that. But, I wanted to bake and I'm all about convenience. So, essentially you're going to layer cookie dough, then s'more ingredients, then cookie dough.

Ingredients:
1 Package premade chocolate chip cookie dough (either the break and bake, or a pouch mix, whatever you prefer- Or feel free to use your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe)
15 large marshmellows
10 graham crackers
5 hershey's chocolate bars- optional. I omitted these because I was trying to curb the sweetness because I was making this for someone without much of a sweet tooth. however.. I think they would be WAY better with this ingredient. If you're on the fence about using it, I say use the chocolate! You can never have too much for my taste.

Directions:

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees. line an 8 x 8 baking dish with parchment paper.
2. Mix your prepackaged dough according to the directions, or make your recipe. If you are using premade dough, you dont need to do anything.
3. when you have your dough, take half (enough for 12-15 cookies) and line the bottom of your lined baking dish with it. it will be thin and difficult to spread. Remember that cookies inflate when baked so the layer won't be as thin in the final product as it is when it's still dough.
4. layer the graham crackers on top of the dough, do not break them unless you need to do so to make them fit.
5. using a microwave safe dish, put your marshmallows in the microwave for about 45 seconds or until they have puffed up and are able to be stirred into a cream. (you could probably use marshmallow creme for this as well, but I have not tried it)
6. spread the melted marshmallows onto the graham cracker layer.
7. layer the chocolate bars on top of the marshmallows.
8. layer another layer graham crackers on top of the chocolate.
9. finally, spread the remaining chocolate chip cookie dough over the top of the grahams. This makes for a very thick looking bar, but they bake down a bit.
10. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes or until the top is golden brown and soft set.
11. allow to cool completely, and then cut.

Enjoy!

Double Chocolate Caramel Mocha Bread

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Double Chocolate Caramel Mocha Bread

Original Recipe: http://www.shugarysweets.com/2012/06/triple-chocolate-caramel-butterscotch.html

This bread is rich, indulgent, and decadent. The best part is, its also easy! I love butterscotch as much as the next person, but the deep dark chocolate flavor of the bread is so reminiscent of a mocha- which I LOVE- that I  went the coffee route because coffee and chocolate are the loves of my life. 

Ingredients: 

3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup boiling water - I microwaved the water for a few minutes for the same effect
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup milk chocolate morsels
Milk chocolate morsels/ semi sweet/ dark chocolate/white - enough to cover the top of the loaf (about 1 cup depending on how packed you like it)

 1 Duncan Hines frosting creations frosting starter + one packet mocha flavoring (for duncan hines frosting) + one packet caramel flavoring (for duncan hines frosting)

Directions: 
1. In mixing bowl beat butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in eggs. Beat in vanilla, greek yogurt and water. Slowly add flour, cocoa, and baking soda. Mix completely. stir in 1 cup milk chocolate morsels.

2.Grease the loaf pan, or if you prefer, you can make cupcakes with this as well. I did 3 mini loaves. Pour batter into pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for 60-65 minutes. If you're doing this in cupcakes or something other than a single loaf pan be sure to check the bread after about 45 minutes, less for cupcakes. poking the center of the bread (or cupcakes) with a tooth pick will tell you when they are done. The tooth pick should come out clean. 

3.Allow to cool in loaf pan about 10 minutes. Remove to wire rack and cool COMPLETELY.

4. Mix flavor packets into frosting starter, and spread over loaves or cupcakes. Press the remaining chocolate chips (of whatever flavor you decided- I did milk chocolate) onto the frosting. Store in air tight container. 

Enjoy!

Carrot Cake Scones

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Carrot Cake Scones

Adapted from: http://www.thekitchenmagpie.com/carrot-cake-scones

Typically scones are dry, these however are not. They are moist just like carrot cake would be, so if you're looking for a more traditional scone, these may not be what you're looking for. That being said, they are very good, lots of flavor, and convenient.

Also, this is one of those recipes where you need to read through it first. I made the mistake of not doing that, and adding baking powder at the wrong spot and ended up having to play around and kinda guess how to remedy the mistake. It worked out pretty good, and I fully advocate experimenting in cooking and baking- obviously, but it needs to be more of an educated guess as to how it will all work out. So in the original recipe, you have to add the Baking Soda to the greek yogurt and have it "poof" or fluff up. I added to the dry ingredients. stupid. But then I also added it to the greek yogurt so it went poof. Baking soda is meant to make the thinks you bake get more airy, so I knew having extra would allow me to add more wet ingredients, or heavy ingredients. I love a very carrot-y flavor, so I added an extra 1/4 cup of carrots, and 2 Tbs honey to the original recipe and they turned out very moist and delicious. The take home message though is read through recipes prior to diving head first into it.

Ingredients: 

1 cup of Greek yogurt
1 tsp baking soda (into greek yogurt) + 1 tsp into dry ingredients
4 cups of flour
1 cup of white sugar
1 cup of raisins- optional, I used chocolate covered raisins and they were good too
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup of cold margarine or butter
1 egg
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves


Directions: 


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or cooking spray.
2. Mix together all dry ingredients, including spices, flour, sugar, baking powder and 1 tsp of baking soda.
3. Cut in the cold butter- make sure it is cold- into the dry ingredients. Do this by slicing the butter in small chunks into the dry ingredients.
4. in separate bowl mix together the 1 cup of greek yogurt with the other tsp of baking soda, and stir so that it beings to 'poof'. Next beat the egg and add it to the greek yogurt. Add the Mixture to the dry ingredients, and then add the honey. 
5. mix dough. This will be tough, so I just used my hands, since the dough is pretty thick. Refrigerate the dough for about 30 mins to 1 hour. This part isn't totally necessary, but I think it helps the scones to hold their crisp clean edges when baking. 
6. cut the dough into 3 large sections, pat each third into a large ball and flatten into a pancake like shape, and cut each round into 6 pieces. Place the pieces on the baking sheet and bake for approximately 20 minutes. 
7. allow to cool completely (i'm impatient and didn't and my frosting melted) and then frost or ice. Cream cheese frosting goes very well with these, or if your not a frosting person, sprinkling with cinnamon sugar about 3 minutes before coming out of the oven would be good too. 

Makes 18 large scones. 


Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Bars

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Bars

Adapted from: http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookie-bars/f58c8757-c29d-4344-8848-3279a98fa06b/

There is really no other reason for making these other than that they are classic flavors and easy to make, and I was way over due to make something. This week has been crazy, and these were the quick and easy solution to my long week.

Ingredients:

1 package refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough (makes 24 cookies)
1 Cup creamy Peanut Butter
1/2 Cup cream cheese frosting
1 Tbs oil (I used Olive because I had it on hand, but vegetable works great too)
1 bag milk chocolate chips
sprinkles

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Press cookie dough into bottom of pan, and bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. note: when pressing dough into pan, the layer will seem very thin, but the cookies will get much thicker as they bake. If however you want a thicker bar, use an 8 x 8 inch pan.
2. While the cookie layer cools, mix peanut butter, frosting, and oil in a bowl. Spread the peanut butter mixture over the warm cookie layer. This may be difficult, and using a little oil on your hands will help you to press the peanut butter layer down, without getting all over your hands. Spread evenly.
3. Pour chocolate chips into microwave safe dish, and melt in microwave on high for 45 seconds, and then 10 seconds after that as needed. Be sure to stir the chips every 15 seconds or so, and do no burn them by over microwaving them. Pour the melted chocolate over the peanut butter layer and spread evenly.
4. Sprinkle with candy coated chips, sprinkles, peanuts, etc, as desired for decoration.
5. Chill bars in refrigerator and when completely cooled (about 1.5 hours) cut into squares.

Enjoy!

Raw Energy Bars

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Raw Energy Bars

Lately the weather has been ridiculously warm, so turning on the oven was completely out of the question. So, I started looking into 'no bake' recipes. And seeing as how spring is here and summer is just around the corner I decided to go with something with a healthy spin. I wanted to use what I had on hand and while I had peanut butter, I left it out of this recipe because I wanted something fruitier, and also because peanut butter has begun to steal the spotlight of this blog. So anyway, I came up with these energy bars that have protein, fiber and are pretty healthy. Yay!

Keep in mind that you can play around with this, since they are "no bake", consistency is the only thing your going for here and there's no fussing with the oven or baking soda, or anything like that. If you like peanut butter, add some! just be sure to add more dry ingredients accordingly.

Ingredients:

2 scoops chocolate protein powder
1.2 cup splenda
1.5 cups lightly crushed fiber one original cereal ( subbing in a flavored kinda like the caramel squares or something might also be good- or whatever cereal you have on hand )
1.5 cups oats
3/4 cup ground flax
2 tbs reduced fat milk
8 Prunes
1 large very ripe banana

potential Add ins: peanuts, raisins, wheat germ, nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips, cocoa powder

Directions:

1. In a small food processor or blender puree prunes, banana, milk, and then add in protein powder until evenly mixed.
2. Transfer mix to a medium sized bowl and add in the dry ingredients and stir until evenly distributed. Note that the mix will be very thick.
3. Line a 8 x8 pan with wax paper and dump mix into the pan. spread evenly (or if you prefer, roll into small balls)
4. Refrigerate the bars and cut after they have hardened some (about 1 hour). Store in the refrigerator up to a week.

Note that if you add cocoa powder as an add in, you may want to cut down on the amount of other dry ingredients slightly. Also add cocoa at the same time as protein powder to ensure even distribution.

Nutritional info per bar (with out add-ins, using 8 x8 pan and cutting into 16 bars):
95 calories
2 grams fat
18.5 grams carbs
5 grams fiber
5 grams protein
4 grams sugar

Stuffed Double Peanut Butter Cookies

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Stuffed Double Peanut Butter Cookies

So this is the original oatmeal peanut butter cookie recipe i used:

http://mandysrecipebox.blogspot.com/2012/03/peanut-butter-oatmeal-cookies.html

I had a ton of peanut butter and since my sister has a cold, i wanted to make her something to cheer her up. unfortunately she is too congested to have any sense of taste, however I can verify that the cookies are AMAZING.

They are peanut butter oatmeal cookies.. stuffed with peanut butter filling. if it isn't already obvious, I love peanut butter.

for the oatmeal peanut butter cookies:

1/3 c. peanut butter 

3/4 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp.  salt

1/2 c. white sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar, packed

1/2 c. butter, room temp

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 large egg

3/4 c. quick oats

for the peanut butter filling:

1/2 c. powdered sugar

1/2 c. peanut butter

directions:

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. combine all dry ingredients for the oatmeal peanut butter cookie dough and then add in wet, creaming in butter and peanut butter. 

3. in a separate bowl combine the powdered sugar and the peanut butter for the filling. form peanut butter stuffing mix into 1/2 inch balls. 

3. taking approximately 1 inch balls of oatmeal cookie dough, flatten the dough and place the stuffing in the center of the cookie dough 'patty'. then wrap the dough around the ball of peanut butter stuffing. The finished balls of dough with stuffing inside will be large, and will spread when they bake so only bake about 8 at a time to make sure there's enough room on the pan. 

4. bake cookies for 12-15 minutes or until cookies are golden brown and center is semi-set. let cool completely and store in airtight container for up to a week (but they wont last that long).

Enjoy!