Magic Turtle Bars

These days I'm looking for quick recipes for delicious treats that I can make either while Logan sleeps or while he "helps" me when I wear him in the kitchen. Magic bars definitely fit the description because they are basically just piles of tasty goodies layered on top of one another and baked to perfection. Very easy to do, even when your littlest kitchen helper falls asleep on you while you explain the merits of semi sweet versus dark chocolate chips. And this turtle candy inspired version of a magic bar live up to the hype. They are amazing--dark chocolate, caramel and pecans are an irresistible combination. The chocolate gets slightly melted, the caramel is gooey and the nuts offer a perfect salty crunch. Plus the texture of these bars is like a party for your mouth. Based on how quickly these vanished from our counter (and the fact that I had to package some up to give away), these are a huge hit.

Caramel Apple Cake

We are loving apple season right now. Beautiful, delicious, fresh apples have been abundant lately--one of my most favorite things about New England. We've been buying tons from the farm stand and last weekend went to the orchard to get them fresh off the tree. There's just something about eating an apple right off the tree while walking in the orchard that makes it taste that much better. Of course, with the abundance of apples, we've been eating a few a day (each!) but I've had my eye on some recipes as well. I'm not a huge baked fruit fan--like pies--but there are some recipes I can get behind, one of which is the awesome Caramel Apple Cake. That just sounds like fall, right? And I got to tell you, it's delicious. The cake is tender and full of flavor, with shredded apples throughout, a nice brown sugar boost and then topped with a caramel sauce drizzle, it doesn't need anything else. Well, maybe to be served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yeah, that happened. And it was a very good thing. I'm so glad that I got to make this recipe for this month's Secret Recipe Club!

Rolo Stuffed Chocolate Muffins

Well, color me mortified. Seriously, I don't have a recipe for the crow I'm currently eating. After writing up the post below and completely enjoying my April Foodie Pen Pal, Ashley, my diminished computer skills (i.e.: my ability to remember to hit the publish button) followed by an illness that kept me either in bed or lying on the bathroom floor, thus away from blog maintenance meant I missed Wednesday's Foodie Pen Pal reveal day.  And for this, I'm sorry. Please take a look below at the wonderful box I received from Ashley at Happy, Pretty, Sweet and these fun muffins I sent her. I'm so sorry if you felt neglected, Ashley! Meanwhile, I'm going to see if I have any ketchup to choke down this crow.

I could quite literally eat chocolate all day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Except I do need actual nutrition. So I make real food and enjoy that. But if I can make chocolate flavored real food, then that's a major score. Of course that means I love these muffins. Delicious, tender, chocolatey muffins with a surprise inside of slightly gooey caramel thanks to Rolo minis. Perfect for breakfast or a lovely afternoon snack. And definitely perfect for a chocoholic, like me. And my Foodie Pen Pal.

Caramel Stuffed Pumpkin Cookies

You know how I love to make tiny little two bite cookies? Well, these suckers are big.  Huge, even. A big ol' soft pumpkin cookie, stuffed with caramel and then rolled in cinnamon sugar because, well, why not?  The cookies are a wonderful way to tuck in the caramel--perfectly pumpkin flavored with a little spice and sweetness.  The caramel is a nice surprise, offering a creamy center wonderfully matched to the pumpkin and spice.  You might want to keep all these to yourself, but wouldn't it be better to share?  I mean, this is the season of giving.  So I decide the best way to share these cookies would be through the 3rd Annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Exchange. Like last year (with these) and the year before (with these), I shared a dozen of these cookies with each of three different food bloggers and in return, I received three lovely packages, each containing a dozen cookies from three other food bloggers

Loaded Caramel and Chocolate Monster Bars

Monster bars are what you make when you find a bunch of half used bags of yummy mix-ins in your pantry.  I feel compelled to make them every once and a while so that I don't feel guilty for buying new bags of mix-ins.  Plus, they taste delicious.  Any cookie base will do and then just go to town combining as many of those leftover handfuls of this and that--caramel bits, leftover Twix eggs from Easter (I'll admit--those things must have been hiding from me), milk chocolate chips, Hershey's Cookies and Creme Drops, and fudge brownie goldfish graham crackers.  Yes, that will do for a full on chocolate and caramel experience.

Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sweet, salty, soft cookies that just make me smile.  Bits of caramel, chocolate chips and big salty pretzel pieces are packed into these soft and chewy cookies for an amazing combo of salty and sweet, and a twist on the traditional chocolate chip cookie.  I'm always up for an easy drop cookie and these are delicious.   In fact, these are so good, they are likely going to end up in the Christmas cookie tins this year.  I'd been wanting to make them for a while and finally was convinced to do so when I got my September Foodie Pen Pal match who was clamoring for something sweet and salty.

Carrot Cake Mix Cookies

Time for cookies!  Soft chewy cookies with lots of flavor--not just a not to carrot cake, but also white chocolate chips as a nod to the traditional cream cheese frosting on carrot cake and an added sweetness from caramel bits.  These cookies are yummy and fun and so easy to make.  They would be a lovely after school treat or for a bake sale or some other fall gathering.  Carrot cake tends to be a big deal in the spring, but these cookies definitely have a place as a fall treat.  And I just hope my Foodie Pen Pal enjoyed them too.

Take 5 Brownies

You know I love a treat that packs a ton of flavor into one convenient package.  And the Take 5 candy bar is one of those that jams together all kinds of stuff--chocolate, peanut butter, pretzels, peanuts and caramel.  So take all of that and jam it into a fudgy brownie and now you're talking all kinds of amazing.  A chewy brownie with an awesome combination of salty (pretzels, peanut butter and peanuts) and sweet (chocolate and caramel), these are by far one of my new favorites.  I made these to take to a friend's house when he invited Dave and I over for dinner.  I love making desserts for Ben because he literally loves everything I make.  He's a cooks favorite taste tester and I know it's not out of obligation because he's not married to me.  When I showed up with him and told him what I brought he actually asked if we should just skip dinner and have dessert.  I like that kind of thinking.

Samoa Cookie Bars

It's Girl Scout cookie season again, and while I still haven't been asked by any Girl Scouts if I'd like to buy them, I may not need them for my Samoa fix this year.  While you know coconut isn't my first love, Samoas have always been one of my most favorite Girl Scout cookies (right up there with Thin Mints).  Coconut wrapped in caramel topping a shortbread cookie and drizzled with dark chocolate is a decadent and delicious treat.   And baked up into these bars, this version is a nice replica.  Even though these bars don't have chocolate on the bottom, the extra drizzle on top maintains the chocolate to coconut/caramel to shortbread ratio.  If those purple boxes of cookies are calling your name every time you see a Girl Scout, do yourself a favor and make these bars.  Compare and you'll see these are just as good as their namesake--and you can make them year round.

Snickers Cupcakes

Hungry? Hungry for chocolate?  Maybe some peanuts and caramel?  Well grab a huge glass of milk and let's get to town.  Dave looked at these and said they looked intense.  I responded, "Eh, we've got milk," because these cupcakes are rich, delicious and might just be my favorite new cupcake.  The rich, chocolate cupcake is stuffed with chunks of Snickers candy bars and caramel, topped with a creamy caramel buttercream and more chunks of Snickers.  Heaven.  You need these.  They might just change your life.  Or just put you in a nice sugar coma for an afternoon.  Either would be good.

Salted Caramel Pretzel Bark

This is a story about eating your stress.  A couple of weeks ago, my dear friends Rachel and John moved into their first home (yay!).  A delightful but stressful experience in general, this particular move was compounded by the fact that the in-laws decided to "help."  And while good intentions always come from the heart, they sometimes are not thought through to an extent allowing the recipients of those good intentions to truly appreciate the gesture.  Such as the in-laws deciding that they would come to the house before the movers came in that afternoon and start painting.  Let me repeat: putting in fresh paint, on walls, before and while the movers bring large boxes and miscellaneous furniture into the house on an already stress-filled day.  Dave and I had already invited Rachel and John to our house for dinner that night, thinking they'd want to get away from the boxes and mess, and in all likelihood, a kitchen unequipped to make ramen noodles let alone anything else until said boxes and mess were unpacked and put away.  So when Rachel burst through our doors venting about their overly-stressed day, before she even finished talking, I went to the fridge and pulled out a giant bowl of this delicious, satisfying, sweet, salty, crunchy bark that seemed to let the stress just melt away.  Yes, this bark has healing powers.  Or it's at least good enough to make you forget about your troubles, at least for a few hours.

Trail Mix Rice Krispies Treats with Salted Caramel Swirl

It was bound to happen, huh?  Eventually I would get on the salted caramel kick (just in time for some new trend to hit the foodie blog world).  It's not that I resisted on purpose, I just haven't had salted caramel that made the craze make sense to me.  Dave and I visited Portland earlier this summer and I had a cupcake supposedly topped with salted caramel buttercream frosting.  I was less than impressed.  It barely tasted like caramel, let alone a heavenly salted version.  And I've just always had other things I wanted to try.  Not that it doesn't sound like a good idea--gooey salty and sweet treats--and I've certainly pinned, marked, and otherwise saved my fair share of salted caramel concoctions.  And now, I've got to make them because these treats are a perfect ambassador for the trend.  First off, it's a Rice Krispies treat, which gets lots of love from me to begin with.  And the caramel just makes them that much gooier (wow, I didn't actually think that was a word, but spell check is unfazed).  Add in the sweet and salty trail mix from M&M's that I didn't even know existed, which in and of itself is a perfect treat, and there's double deliciousness in the form of my favorite candy.  Plus, this salted caramel shines perfectly against the sweet and salty trail mix and the crunch of the cereal provides the perfect canvas for all that's going on here.  Simply put: yum.

My friend Mere had a birthday last month, but a couple weeks before her birthday, I was going to meet up with her before she caught a flight from Boston after spending a week on a business trip in Vermont.  So I decided a little early birthday baking never hurt anyone and took to searching for something portable for the plane and a little different.  I looked through some of my pins and some of my favorite blogs and noticed this amazing recipe from Shelly at Cookies & Cups and thought, "where has my grocery store been hiding that trail mix?", printed the recipe and hit the store on my way home.

Caramel Apple Cookies

I love finding different desserts and treats transformed into cookies.  Maybe one day I'll be as creative as the people who come up with these ideas, but until then, I'll just follow their lead.  These are very yummy.  An excellent alternative to the difficult to eat and always too big caramel apple, you get a little bit of caramel and apple in each bite.  It's a sweet cookie with a soft texture (from the apple) and I love the fine oatmeal addition to the dough.  The caramel, though messy, in conjunction with the ground oatmeal create an interesting flavor combo in the cookie as well.  They spread a lot on the pan when baking, so be careful not to put them too close together.

Now, before I fall off my soapbox, I'd like to remind you that there many more varieties of apples than just Granny Smith and McIntosh.  Granny Smith are great, but they aren't the only baking apple out there.  One of the great things about going to an orchard is learning about all the different kinds of apples available, how they are best used and the subtle differences in their taste and texture.  The recipe came from Katie Goodman via craftzine and she suggested using Granny Smith apples, which are a lovely option and yes are the traditional apple for a caramel apple on a stick.  However, when I was at the orchard, I came across some beautiful Empire apples which are also a hearty baking apple, a little less tart and full of flavor.  So I opted to use those in this recipe and I'm very pleased with the results.  Don't be afraid to supplement with something different--just make sure you have a sturdy baking apple, not something that will turn to mush when baked.

Turtle Cookie Cups

These are amazingly good.  (So good I apparently forgot to take a display photo.)  Another very simple recipe using a prepackaged mix to have a great dessert or treat, plus it's a candy-cookie combo, so I know it's a winner.  I took these to work for a meeting and everyone loved them.  They are very chocolatey so be warned, but they certainly live up to their name with the caramel and pecan cutting through with a sweet/salty flavor.

Again, from the Betty Crocker website, these were easy to prepare and because I'm obsessive, I actually have all the ingredients in the house on a regular basis.  You could experiment with different candies and nuts, but just be warned--then they won't be turtles. 

Turtle Cookie Cup

Ingredients

1 pouch (17.5 ounces) Betty Crocker double chocolate chunk cookie mix
3 Tablespoons oil (as called for on package)
1 Tablespoon water (as called for on package)
1 egg (as called for on package)
36 chocolate covered caramel candies, unwrapped
36 pecan halves

In a medium bowl, mix together cookie mix, oil, water and egg until all is moistened and you have a soft dough.

Grease the cups of a mini muffin tin (mine holds 24, so I worked in batches).  Using a small cookie scoop, scoop dough into each muffin cup.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 8-9 minutes.  Remove from oven and press a chocolate covered caramel into the center of each cookie cup.  I found that pushing them in upside down gave me more of the effect I wanted.

Top with a pecan half.

Cool in pan for a few minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

Makes 36 cookie cups.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

Monkey Bread

"Monkey's make good bread," said Dave.

Can't really get a much better description than that, huh?  Add to that, like the scones, Dave had never heard of or had monkey bread before.  Honestly, I'm not sure if I've had it--if so, it's been a long time and I'd never made it.  But last week I got several emails with recipes for monkey bread, so I figured it was an omen and time to give it a try. 

So easy.  This recipe came from Betty Crocker and used a prepared mix that I happened to have on hand, which is why I chose this version of the recipe.  And while it would seem the gooeyness comes from a similar process last week's Almond Toffee Bars, since these remained gooey and not brittle, the texture and taste were different, resulting in a very yummy snack/breakfast/dessert.  We may or may not have just eaten this standing over the counter and pulling off pieces of bread while the dog sat at our feet anxiously waiting for nuggets to fall.

Monkey Bread

Ingredients

3 cups Biquick mix
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

Note: Penzey's Baking Spice is pictured, but I ended up not using it. I thought I would add it to the batter and didn't.  Next time I would add a teaspoon to the batter to give the bread another level of flavor throughout.

In a large bowl, stir Bisquick, 2 Tablespoons sugar, 1/4 cup melted butter, milk, vanilla and eggs until a soft dough forms.

Turn dough out onto a flexible cutting mat and divide in to 24 pieces.  Don't worry if they aren't exactly even.

In a small bowl combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon.

Spray a fluted pan with cooking spray and set aside.  Note: I used a silicone pan and still sprayed it, just in case.  A little extra spray won't hurt anything in this situation.  Also, note that my pan has a design to it.  For this recipe, it doesn't really matter if it's flat sided or not because the bread will make it's own shape.

Roll dough pieces into balls and then roll in cinnamon sugar mixture.

Scatter the coated balls in the prepared pan.  Sprinkle remaining cinnamon sugar on top of the dough in the pan.

In a medium saucepan, melt 1 cup of butter, then stir in brown sugar and heat to boiling, stirring constantly.

Boil for 2 minutes and remove from heat.

Pour  caramel mixture over dough balls in pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.  Let cool in pan for 3-5 minutes and then turn out onto a plate.

Cool 10 minutes and serve warm.


Makes 1 loaf.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

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Rolo Pillows

Another candy and cookie combo--the way life should be.  I got this recipe from my sister but I have no idea where she got it.  I don't care, however, since these are so super yummy.  I actually had her make a bunch for the cookie table at my wedding, they are that good.  I do make mine a little smaller than she does, and I'm ok with that.

The cookie is rich and chewy, just shy of being brownie-like.  And then you get a gooey, delicious hit from the caramel.  These cookies are extra amazing when they are still warm from the oven and the caramel just oozes out.  I suggest a big glass of milk and a snuggly blanket to enjoy these appropriately.

Rolo Pillows

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup cocoa powder
6 dozen Rolo candies, unwrapped
colored sugar for rolling (red and white sprinkling sugar is pictured, but I changed my mind and went green after the dough was made)

Beat butter until creamy, then gradually add sugars, beating well.  Scrape the sides of the bowl as necessary to ensure sugars and butter are incorporated.  Add eggs and vanilla, and beat until combined.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and cocoa powder.  Gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing until well combined.  Cover and chill for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Divide dough into four parts.  Working with one part at a time, leave the rest in the refrigerator.  Roll dough into 1 inch balls--approximately 12-16 balls per part.  Flatten ball slightly and press one Rolo into dough, wrapping dough around candy completely and rolling into a ball.

 

 

Dip one side of ball into sugar and place sugar side up on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet, approximately 2 inches apart.

Bake 8 minutes.  Turn baking sheet 180 degrees halfway through. If using more than one sheet at a time, rotate positions in the oven for more even baking.  Cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes, then move to complete cooling on rack.

Makes 5 1/2 dozen.
(Oh, you have leftover Rolos?  Hmm, let me know how you get rid of those.)

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess