Sugar Cookie Bars

It's that time of year again! It seems around every holiday, everyone goes sugar cookie crazy and makes dozens upon dozens of cut out cookies, shaped appropriately for the holiday, and then frosts them in bright colors appropriate to the season. Don't get me wrong, I love baking and decorating sugar cookies right along with the next person, but I just don't like the mess of cleanup that comes with it. Plus I have a short attention span, so after about two cookies, I'm done. So going through all the baking prep for cookie decorating is kind of a waste for me, and we don't typically have decorated sugar cookies for holiday's unless someone else makes them for us.

I've finally found a way that we can enjoy the frosting coated sugar cookie without all of the effort. The Sugar Cookie Bar. This is a very dense bar that is basically sugar cookie dough pressed into a pan, baked, cooled and frosted. I was pretty excited to find this recipe over at Real Mom Kitchen because I just knew that this way we wouldn't be shunned from the sugar-cookie-at-holiday-time club. We could still enjoy our sugar cookies (well. you know.) like the rest of society. Even though we should have learned by now that you're supposed to break the mold and not be like everyone else.  

Eh. I guess we are anyways. Not many people get excited over decorating their sugar cookie BARS each holiday. I sense a new holiday tradition coming on...

Ingredients...

...1 c. butter

...1 c. sugar

...2 eggs

...1 tsp. vanilla

...2 1/2 c. flour

...1/2 tsp. salt

...1/4 tsp. baking soda

 

Directions...

 

Place butter in a medium sized bowl. Place in microwave for 1 minute, to melt slightly. Add sugar and wisk together until creamed. Add eggs in one at a time, wisking between each to completely combine. Lastly, wisk in vanilla, set aside. In a large bowl, stir together flour, salt and baking soda. Pour in wet ingredients and stir until everything is well incorporated. Lightly press dough into a well greased 9x13 pan and bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Let cool before frosting.

Blonde Brownies

This is the recipe that made my decision final to stop substituting applesauce for butter. I realize it saves fat and all, but I never realized what an effect it had on some recipes (like this one). The applesauce flavor really stood out in this recipe, so do yourself a favor and just use butter. Forget trying to save calories. Your tastebuds will thank me. Your hips may not, but they say that thing called exercise is actually good for us anyways ;)

I love blonde brownies. Especially ones with some sort of chocolate or white chocoalte chip in them (which this recipe is unfortunately lacking). I had never even heard of a blonde brownie before I was in junior high/high school, and the first time that I had one I was in awe with the "white brownie". Not only because it wasn't, well, brown, but because it was so good!!

Sadly, this is only the second blonde brownie recipe that I have ever tried to make myself. The first was one that included chocoalte chips and it was absolutely divine. This one is just your run of the mill blonde brownie with nothing exciting added in. It was submitted to our local hometown church cookbook by an old family friend, and just goes to prove that sometimes those little ol' church ladies just have no imagination ;) So if you would like this a little less on the bland side and a little more on the, um, how do I say this, CHOCOLATE!! side, then by all means add away! Add chocolate chips, nuts, coconut...whatever you think would be a tasty little addition to this brownie. Even a frosting on top! Be daring...but I expect to see you at the gym bright and early tomorrow morning!

Ingredients...

...3/4 butter
...3 c. brown sugar
...1 1/2 tsp. salt
...3 tsp. baking powder
...2 1/4 c. flour
...1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Directions....

Mix together butter and eggs. Beat in sugars and then blend in the flour, baking powder and salt. Add in vanilla. Bake in a greased 9x13 pan at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

To see more great recipes, be sure to check out Mouthwatering Monday over at A Southern Fairytale!

Louise's Bars are Better Bars

Seriously. That's the name of these bars. Another hometown cookbook recipe find. Growing up, my mom made a bar that was pretty much these exact same ingredients...but not this exact same bar. I was a little disappointed when it came out not the bar I was thinking of. But none the less, this was a really good bar!

Plus, it's really fun to tell the people the bar's name...and then watch them stop mid bite as if digesting the information they've just been presented with.

Ingredients...

...1 c. flour
...1 c. oatmeal
...3/4 c. brown sugar
...1 stick butter
...1 can sweetened condensed milk
...1 pkg. chocolate chips

Combine flour, oatmeal, brown sugar and buter until well mixed. Reserve 1 cup and spread remaining mixture on bottom of 9x13 cake pan and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Pour can of sweetened condensed milk over the baked mixture, and then top with chocolate chips and remaining oatmeal mixture. Return to oven and bake an additional 15-20 minutes.

Rice Krispie Treats

Today kicks off my week of Thanksgiving recipes! Every day through Thanksgiving I will be sharing some of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes, including the turkey! Today's recipe is a pretty simple one, but what family get together doesn't include Rice Krispie treats?

Not that I really have to share this. It's one of those recipes that has been around for so long that it's probably engrained in all of your brains. Your kids ask for them and you can whip up a batch without a second look at some directions. But just in case there's the off chance that someone hasn't ever made these before, or they need a recipe to glance at, here it is. The Orginial Rice Krispie Treats recipe. Plus, it's the holiday season and all, and lots of people will be making these to share with family at get togethers...and maybe leave a plate out for Santa? Because, yes, there are Christmas sprinkles on it. I like to start celebrating early. I think Santa would be appreciative that I start planning for him early ;)

Ingredients...

...1 bag large marshmallows
...6 c. Rice Krispies cereal
...3 T. butter

Directions...

In a large bowl, melt butter and marshmallows in the microwave. Cook for 1 minute increments on high power until completely melted. Stir in Rice Krispies cereal and let cool slightly. Press into a 9x13 pan and let cool completely before cutting and serving.

To see other holiday dishes, check out The Ulitmate Recipe Swap over at Life as Mom!

S'mores Brownies

How about a fun recipe for today? If you are a true summer person who loves camping, and of course the S'mores and roasted marshmallows that comes with, then you will love this recipe! This is also a super easy recipe to make! I decided seeing that I have been getting gobs of super cheap marshmallows at Target lately, and have gobs of Halloween candy leftover from a CVS deal, that this would be an appropriate recipe to try right now!

Ingredients...

...graham crackers
...marshmallows (about a half bag of mini marshmallows)
...chocolate (you can use chips, chocolate bars, whatever you have on hand. I used about 4 fun sized Hershey's Bars with Almonds)
...Brownie Mix (I used a box because I wanted to get it used up, you can use homemade or whatever you please!)

Directions...

Grease a 9x13 pan and line the bottom with graham crackers. You will have to do some cracker breaking and cutting to get it all to fit well. Prepare brownies according to box/recipe instructions. Spread brownie batter over graham crackers (this proves to be a trick as the crackers move around quite a bit. Don't say I didn't warn you!). Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and layer marshmallows on top of brownies, and then sprinkle with crushed chocolate bars or chocolate chips. Place back in oven for an additional 3-5 minutes. Let cool before cutting/serving.

To see more great recipes, check out Mouthwatering Monday over at A Southern Fairytale!

Caramel Brownies

Chocolate and Caramel. Together. In a (semi)homebaked dish. It doesn't get much better than that! In my recent attempt to clean out the singles boxes of randomness from my pantry, I discovered I had two boxes of brownie mix. I typically make brownies from scratch, so I don't really know what I was thinking when I bought these. I do remember it involved a sale at Walgreens, but I also remember they weren't free or anything, so I don't know. But at any rate, they're in my pantry now, and since there was only two boxes to use up, they were added to the "must use soon" pile (by the way, by clearing out all the single boxes of randomness from my pantry, I have cleaned out an entire shelf to be devoted to stockpile! yay!). I originally wanted to make S'mores brownies with these...but I didn't have any graham crackers. So those will have to wait until another day. I decided to make up my own recipe with these, since I found a bag of caramels that I bought last weekend when I was cleaning out my freezer.

Ingredients...

...1 package of brownie mix (you can also make your own. I'm just trying to get all the random boxes of convenience food out of my pantry. You also need the ingredients in the recipe (or listed on the box), that is why I have eggs and yogurt (which I used in place of the oil called for) pictured)
...Individually wrapped caramels
...Caramel ice cream topping

Directions...

Mix brownie batter according to package (or recipe) directions. Stir in as many or as few unwrapped caramels as you wish. Pour into a 8x8 baking dish and bake according to directions on package (or in recipe). When the brownies are finished baking, allow to cool and then top with caramel ice cream topping before serving.

Scotcheroos

I have always been a pretty big fan of scotcheroos...they're just so yummy!

Ingredients...

...1 cup white sugar
...1 cup corn syrup
...1 cup peanut butter
...6 cups Rice Krispie cereal
...1 bag chocolate chips

Directions...

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar and corn syrup. Bring to a rapid boil. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter until smooth. Add to Rice Krispies in a large bowl and stirl until cereal is evenly coated. Spread into a greased 9x13 pan. In the microwave, melt chocolate chips until smooth. Spread over cereal mixture. Chill until chocolate is hardened.

My Thoughts...

This is another one of those great summer friendly recipes. No oven required, which means a great treat with minimal heat! Not only that, but these are addicting! Which is tasty for the tongue but really bad for my wasitline...30 Day Shred, here I come!

O'Henry Bars

You know those recipes that you grew up eating...but once you moved away from home for the first time, moved out on your owned and eventually got married, you kind of forgot about them? Yeah, this is one of those recipes. Both my grandma and my mom used to make these bars all of the time...and after rediscovering the recipe over the weekend in one of my grandma'a cookbooks I decided to make them...

The Ingredients...

...2 c. quick cooking oats
...1/2 c. white corn syrup
...3/4 c. margarine
...1 c. brown sugar
...1 (6 oz.) pkg. chocolate chips
...3/4 c. peanut butter

Directions...

Mix the first four ingredients and spread into greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350* for 12-15 minutes. Melt chocolate chips and peanut butter, spread over cooled "crust" mixture and cool. Cut into bars and serve!

My Thoughts....

Okay, first off, this isn't my picture. I borrowed it from Three Lab Bakery. But it is my recipe...I just forgot to take a picture of the finished product before they got all gobbled up! This is such a delicious recipe...and childhood memories of eating these at my grandma's house came flooding back with each bite. This is a simple, but delicious bar that you must try. Stat. So get to your kitchen and get mixing!

Apple...Brownies?

This is the story of two apples. Two lonely little apples that got left behind from the bunch because they were too mealy to eat but I just couldn't bear the thought of feeding them to the garbage disposal (mostly, because I don't have one. So I guess it was the garbage can that I couldn't bear the thought of.). I searched high and low for a recipe that called for a mere two apples. All I could find was recipes calling for 8 or more. Poor little guys. At this rate, the garbage can fate was looming nearer and nearer.

Until, a wonderful cook at AllRecipes answered my cry for help with these two little guys for a recipe for...are you ready for this...Apple Brownies.

Yes. Apple Brownies. I was a little leery, but upon reading the ingredients and directions discovered that this is no more than a lucious apple cake, so I'm not really sure where the "brownie" portion of the title comes in. So I went for it. And I must encourage you to do the same. Here is my interpretation of the recipe.

My Alliances...

...2 apples - peeled, cored & chopped
...1/2 cup butter, melted (or applesauce or plain yogurt if you want to do the healthy thing...)
...1 egg
...1 C sugar
...1 C flour
...1/2 t baking powder
...1/2 t baking soda
...1 t ground cinnamon
...1 t ground nutmeg
...1 t vanilla

The process...

Preaheat oven to 350* & grease a 9X9 dish. In a large bowl, beat together sugar, butter, egg & vanilla until fluffy. Fold in apples. Set aside. In another bowl, sift together flour, soda, powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir dry ingredients into wet mixture until just blended. Spread the batter evenly into the baking dish. Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

I also chose to frost mine. I used a half a can of Betty Crocker frosting (yes. canned. I wasn't in a "make the frosting from scratch" mood.) mixed with cinnamon and nutmeg. I didn't measure the spices into the frosting. I just added and tasted til it was right. And boy was it right!

The "brownies" in all of their deliciousness....

My thoughts...

YUUUUUUUMMMMMMMM!!!! These were a-maz-innnnnnnng! The spice to apple ratio was perfect, the moistness was out of this world, and the frosting really topped it off right! I can't wait to make this again, probably for a family gathering or something so I can share this love with others!