Butterscotch Bonanza Bars

When you have a 10 year old boy asking you for a recipe because he liked it, you KNOW you have a winner, right?! That's just the case with this recipe. Within 2 hours, the entire pan was gone!

I love to read murder mysteries with recipes. Diane Mott Davidson is a good author and my other favorite is Joanne Fluke. This recipe comes from Joanne Fluke's book DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE MURDER. I have already baked two recipes and they're both pretty good. This one is my fave of the two. They are soooooo super easy to stir up and they are loved by the boys of the house! Enjoy!


Butterscotch Bonanza Bars

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium bowl, melt 1 stick of butter.

Stir in 2 cups light brown sugar until well mixed.

Sprinkle 2 tsp baking POWDER and 1 tsp salt over this and then stir until well mixed.

Add two beaten eggs. Stir well.

Stir in 1 tsp vanilla.

Add flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until you have added 1 1/2 cups.

Stir in 2 cups of (any combination) semi-sweet chocolate chips, butterscotch chips. white chocolate chips, or milk chocolate chips. ( I use 1 cup white and 1 cup SS)

Spread into a greased and floured 9x13 pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Cool completely before serving. Cut into 40 bars. (I don't usually get that many...I think I get about 30)

Frosted Rhubarb Cookies

I know! Right?! Totally yummy rhubarb in a cookie! Don't have much time right now, but know that these do freeze well so you can make a ton of them and pop them in the freezer. How easy is that?! Enjoy!

1 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups diced fresh rhubarb

3/4 cup flaked coconut

In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening and brown sugar. Beat in eggs. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture.

Stir in rhubarb and coconut. Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Top with Brown Butter Icing found here or even a cream cheese icing would be good!

Lemon Biscotti

About 2 years ago, the church we were attending had a "Ladies Tea" social event. There were all kinds of yummy treats to go with the tea, too. It was a really nice night to socialize and it was NOT for the kids, so I got to go alone which was also super nice! One of the yummy treats that we had that night was Lemon Biscotti. It was AWESOME. The hostess, Dagney, was kind enough to share the recipe with me...and it's been in an e-mail folder ever since. It happened to come up in a convo the other day again and I thought it'd be nice to try and make it. It sounded easy enough. So I did and it was wonderful, just like I remembered. YAY! I love when that happens!

Friday, Tim had a bake sale at school he wanted to take something for so he had me whip up another batch. They didn't really sell. Apparently no one knew what they were. So one lady tried them and then bought a bunch. Then she told another lady about them and she bought the rest! I guess they had to know what they were, then everyone loved them!

Here's the recipe. Enjoy!

Lemon Biscotti

2 3/4 cup ap flour

1 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp lemon rind
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice, divided
1 tbsp lemon extract
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 large eggs

2/3 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, and baking powder. In another bowl, combine lemon rind, 1 tbsp lemon juice, lemon extract, oil and eggs. Whisk until well combined and add to flour mixture, stirring until well combined. (I start with the whisk and then finish it with my hands) It will be dry and crumbly. Turn dough out on a LIGHTLY floured surface and knead lightly 7-8 times.

Divide dough in half. Shape each portion into a log about 8 inches long. Flatten each log to a 1 inch thickness. Transfer to parchment lined (or sprayed) baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer dough to cooling rack. Reduce oven temp to 325. Cool for 10 minutes. Slice diagonally into 1/2 inch wide pieces. You should be able to get 10-15 pieces from each log of dough. Place pieces, cut side down, back on the baking sheets and bake for 10 minutes. Turn cookies over and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to cooling racks to cool completely before proceeding.

To make the drizzle, stir together the powdered sugar and 1 tbsp remaining lemon juice. Add more juice a little at a time to get the drizzle to the consistency that you want. Drizzle over cooled biscotti and let it dry completely before putting away.

Lime Cookies

I made these cookies this morning. They have a really fresh taste. The lime really pops. I've used the recipe exactly as written on allrecipes, so here it is for you. I baked for a slightly less amount of time so that the cookies still had a bit of chewy left to them.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon lime zest
• 3 tablespoons lime juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 2 large baking sheets. Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in a bowl; set aside. Stir together 1/3 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon in a separate bowl and set aside.
2. Cream together the butter, 1 cup sugar, and lime zest in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the lime juice, then the flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time. Form the dough into walnut-sized balls, and roll in the spiced sugar mixture. Arrange onto prepared baking sheets 1 inch apart. Flatten the balls slightly using a decorative cookie stamp or the bottom of a glass.
3. Bake the cookies in the preheated oven until the edges of the cookies turn golden brown, 13 to 16 minutes. Cool the cookies on wire racks, then store in an airtight container up to 1 week.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Remember last week I made chocolate chip cookies that tasted good, but really flattened out on me? My friend, Erin, posted that she had a great recipe for them and she posted it! I made them today and it's my new GO TO recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies! Thanks, Erin!! And one batch isn't nearly enough, so better make it a double :)

Here's the recipe:

"The" Chocolate Chip Cookie
2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
3/4 c. unsalted butter
1 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar
1 T. vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt, set aside.

In medium bowl, cream together melted butter, sugars until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix sifted ingredients until well blended.

Bake for 15-17 minutes until edges are lightly toasted.

Cookies!

Today Tim had to take a plate of cookies with him to work. Every month or so a different department at his school is supposed to treat the other teachers, but they haven't done it since he's been there, so this month there are 3 departments working together on it. I didn't know that until AFTER I already baked cookies. So, I thought it was just him and the other teacher so I made 2 batches, one with chocolate and one without. So, he took both batches, anyway. The chocolate chip ones that I made were good, but they really flattened out....too much for my taste. I won't be making that recipe again, but from the same book, I got this recipe for Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Frosting. Tim didn't get to try them last night because I was up until 11pm making them. Apparently they were good because he woke me up to tell me they were "terrible" (He thinks that telling me they are terrible will make me make them again since I RARELY ever make the same recipe twice...) Well, I have to agree, they are pretty darn good! I love the brown butter frosting....it's caramely in flavor and the color is GORGEOUS! They are a fussy cookie to make, but COMPLETELY worth it!! Enjoy!!

Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

2 3/4 c ap flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp coarse salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/4 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg (fresh ground if you can)
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 c) unsalted butter (I used salted and cut down on the salt above to compensate), softened
2 1/4 c packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 c (14 oz) canned pumpkin (NOT pie filling!)
3/4 c evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375. Whisk together: flour, baking soda and powder, salt cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Set aside.

Cream butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer (here's when I really LOVE my KitchenAid!). Mix in eggs. Reduce spead to low and add pumpkin, evaporated milk and vanilla. Mix until well blended. Add flour mixture and mix until combined. This mixture will be rather soft.

Use a pastry bag and a #12 (or similar) tip to pipe circles 1 1/2 inches around and 1 inch apart on a parchment lined or greased cookie sheet. Bake for 5 minutes, rotate pan and bake another 5-7 minutes or until tops spring back. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Icing
4 c powdered sugar
1 1/4 sticks (10 tbsp) unsalted butter
1/4 c plus 1 tbsp evaporated milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Put powdered sugar in the bowl you want to mix in. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, swirling occasionally, until browned, about 3 minutes. Pour into the powdered sugar and scrape the browned bits from the pan into the frosting. Add evaporated milk and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Frost each cookie with approx 1 tsp of frosting. Allow to set before stacking. Can be stored in an airtight container at room temp for 3 days. (Like they'd last that long!) Makes approx 6 dozen

Rolled Out Brownie Cookies

As if the name isn't enough! Riley and I were cruising the blog-o-sphere this morning and ran into this picture. So he thought we should make them. To get the recipe we had to go here. Totally worth it! I think I rolled them too thin, but once I got the timing right they were pretty good, even if we did accidentally O.D. on the cocoa. Enjoy!

Here's the recipe copy and pasted here for you:

Brownie Roll-Out Cookies*
Recipe from Deb’s mom

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup lightly salted butter, softened (Deb note: I don’t really see “lightly salted” much these days, so I used one stick salted, one stick unsalted)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa (I used the “good” stuff–Droste or Galler–but I can assure you that my mother only used Hershey’s growing up, so your choice)

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Whisk dry flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.

Roll out cookie dough on floured counter. Cut into desired shapes, brushing extra deposits of flour off the top. (It does disappear once baked, though, so don’t overly fret if they go into the oven looking white.) Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8 to 11 minutes (the former for 1/8-inch thick cookies, the latter for 1/4-inch cookies) until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed. (Note from me: 4 minutes was long enough)

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

* According to my mother’s recipe, they’re called chocolate sugar cookies but I do not feel that it does them justice.

**I've been playing with my camera the past few days, so that kind of explains the picture being taken outdoors....

Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies

Another blog I read, A Thousand Words, had a link to her new food blog, Jen's Bistro. On there the other day was a fabulous sounding recipe, Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies. Well, I love chocolate and I love mint, so thought I'd give them a try. After Riley and I cleaned up our mess from the sugar cookies, we made these. They are super simple since they start with a mix. OMG! Can you believe it?! I used a cake mix! AGHHHH!!!! lol! Anyway,


1 package Devil's Food Cake Mix
Mint chocolate (I used Andes Mint baking chips, mint 3 Musketeers would work, too)
2 eggs
1/2 C oil
1 C chocolate chips or chopped chocolate (I used Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips)

Mix the cake mix, eggs and oil together. The batter will be really thick - I had to add a tablespoon of water to get it to mix together properly. Stir in the chocolate chips. Use two spoons to scoop lumps of the batter onto cookie sheet.



Bake at 350 F for about 7-8 minutes. The cookies will be soft and puffy when you remove them from the oven. Make sure you have your mint chocolate ready.

Once cookies come out of the oven place mint chocolate on each cookie, pressing it on slightly. (I just spooned some baking chips on using the spoon to press lightly) After a few minutes the chocolate will begin to melt. Swirl the melted chocolate lightly with something (I used a toothpick) and let cool. I warn you that it will be hard to let them cool! Riley and I put them in our outdoor refrigerator (AKA our garage) to cool for a bit, then brought them in to finish cooling on the cooling racks. We had to try a warmish gooey one. They are WAYYYYYYYY yummy! I'm pretty sure it's my new favorite cookie!


EDITED TO ADD: After they cooled, the mint got hard (I figured it would), so something like a mint 3 Musketeers would be good so it stays soft and gooey. Either way, they are AWESOME!