Snickerdoodle Blondies

I have a thing for blondies.  It's recently acquired.  I don't think I had ever eaten a blondie before I tried this recipe.  Now, I'm hooked.  I've pinned so many blondie recipes, it's ridiculous.  I've made 3 batches of blondies in the last week alone.  So, get ready for lots of blondie posts! 

These blondies are my favorite of all the blondie recipes I've made so far.  I've made them several times for events and always get rave reviews.  I think every time I've made them, at least one person has asked for the recipe.  They are the perfect amount of cinamony deliciousness.  They are dense and very sweet, but the cinnamon cuts the sweetness so that it's not overpowering.  I love cinnamon flavored desserts in the fall and winter months, so I doubt I'll make these ones again until next fall, but they'll definitely be part of the fall/winter rotation.  They can be served as a dessert, but I also think they would make a great addition to a nice brunch.

These bars are very moist and keep well for about a week if stored in an airtight container.

Adapted from: Recipe Girl

What you need:
2 2/3 cups All Purpose Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 heaping teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
1 tsp Salt
2 cups Dark Brown Sugar, packed
1 cup Unsalted Butter, at room temperature 
2 Eggs
1 tbsp Vanilla Extract 
10 oz Cinnamon Chips

For the topping:
2 tbsp White Sugar
2 tsp Cinnamon
Pinch of Nutmeg

What you  do:

1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9 x 13 pan with nonstick spray. 

2.  In a medium sized bowl, stir together Flour, Baking Powder, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Cream of Tartar, and Salt.  Set to the side. 

3.  In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar.  Don't skimp on time here.  I let my Kitchenaid mixer cream the butter and brown sugar for about 5 minutes. 

4.  To the large bowl add the eggs, one at a time. 

5.  To the large bowl ad the vanilla.  Mix until smooth. 

6.  Mix the dry ingredients in to the wet ingredients. 

7.  Stir in the cinnamon chips.  (The batter will be very thick.  Stirring in the chips requires some work, but make sure you mix them in well.)

8. Transfer the dough to the 9 x 13 pan and use your hands to pat the dough down flat and evenly.

9.  Combine the Sugar, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg for the topping.  Sprinkle evenly on top of the dough.

10.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the surface of the blondies spring back when touched.  (I undercook mine by about a minute, just because I prefer the texture that way). 

11.  Let the blondies cool completely before cutting. 

Enjoy!

Pink Lemonade Dessert

It's been really hot around here.  Like, 115 degree heat index.  So, I wanted a dessert that was light and refreshing.  I found it.  This is it. It's really easy to make and perfect for the summertime heat.


Adapted from: Gourmet Kosher Cooking


Here's what I used for the crust:
2 Cups Graham Cracker crumbs
½ Cup Butter, melted
2 Tablespoons White Sugar
1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar


Here's what I did to make the crust:
1.  Preheated the oven to 350 Degrees.


2.  Combined the graham cracker crumbs and sugars. 


3.  Added the butter.  Mixed well until the graham crackers and sugar were well moistened.


4.  Pressed the graham cracker crumbs into the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan.


5.  Baked for 7 minutes.  Removed the pan from the oven and put on a cooling rack to cool.  While the crust was cooling, I made the filling.




Here's what I used for the filling:
8 Ounces Cream Cheese, softened
2 Small Packages of Instant Vanilla Pudding
1 (12 ounce) Can Frozen Pink Lemonade Concentrate, thawed
2 (8 ounce) Containers frozen Whipped Topping, thawed
Red Food Coloring, optional


Here's what I did to make the filling:
1.  Beat the cream cheese and pudding mix until light and fluffy.


2.  Added lemonade concentrate to the cream cheese.  Beat until mixed well.


3.  Folded in 2 heaping cups of the whipped topping.


4.  Added red food coloring until my mixture was the color pink I desired.


5.  Poured the lemonade mixture into the cooled graham cracker crust.


6.  "Iced" the pink lemonade with the remaining whipped topping.


7.  Refrigerated for at least 2 hours.


Enjoy!

S'Mores Bars

A few weeks ago my sweet tooth kicked into overdrive right before bed.  I had to have a s'more.  Now.  So, I pranced into the kitchen, prepared to make a microwave s'more.  Classy, I know. 

When I opened the freezer to pull out a chocolate bar, there were none.  I had seven chocolate bars in there.  SEVEN.  And they were all gone.  All. Seven. Of. Them.  I was not a happy camper. 

So, I had two choices.  I could be a big kid and run to the store and grab a chocolate bar to make my s'mores.  Or, I could pout.  So, I pouted my way right back to bed.  

I woke the next morning with s'mores on the brain.  And they stayed there all day.  Clearly, this was not going to go away until I did something about it.  I headed over to one of my favorite food blogs, The Girl Who Ate Everything, to see if she had any s'mores recipes I should try.  Of course she did.  She has everything.  But, just one s'mores treat wasn't enough for this girl.  Nuh uh.  Nope, I needed two.  So I made these S'mores Bars and I also made her S'mores Cookies.  I'll post that recipe later.  Here's the info on these delicious S'mores Bars:

Slightly adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything

Here's what I used:
 

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 king-sized Hershey's milk chocolate bars
1 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff (7 1/2 oz jar)

Here's what I did:

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees and sprayed an 8 inch square baking pan with cooking spray.

First I mixed together the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.  I set those dry ingredients to the side.  Next I creamed the butter and sugar together.  Then I beat in the egg and vanilla.  I slowly added the dry ingredients into the wet ones until everything was mixed well. 

I pressed about half of that dough into the bottom of my greased pan.  I broke up my chocolate bars into pieces that would fit into the pan and covered the bottom dough with chocolate (only one layer deep).  You could use more or less chocolate, depending on your tastes.  I thought this amount worked out just right for me.

 Then I spread the marshmallow fluff on top of the chocolate bars.  Finally, using parchment paper, I made a square out of the remaining dough that was roughly the size of my pan.  I transferred that square on top of the marshmallow fluff for the top layer.  

I baked the bars for about 35 minutes.  Don't let your crust get too brown or too well done.  This is what mine looked like fresh out of the oven:

You do want to let the bars cool before you cut them, but I think these bars and infinitely better if eaten warm.  So if they aren't still warm when you go to bite into them, toss them in the microwave for just a few seconds.  It's totally worth the wait.

The original recipe provided that this pan would make 16 bars.  I found these bars to be very rich and couldn't eat an entire bar if I only divided the pan into 16 pieces.  I ended up cutting mine into about 24 different bars.  Make your bars whatever size you prefer.

Enjoy!