Magic Blondies

I have found a new favorite recipe! Not just because it tastes great, but it is the perfect recipe to use up all the half bags of chocolate chips, craisins, coconut, nuts, or anything else you may have in your cabinets from a baking extravaganza around the holidays. These were so easy and delicious I actually made them two nights in a row. My roomies were quite dissappointed when I didn't bring any leftovers home from the ones I brought to the office so we made another batch that night. This recipe, of course, comes from Martha Stewart. I made them in a mini-muffin pan and it was the perfect size for the plethora of flavors.

Ingredients:
-2/3 cup sweetened flaked coconut
-2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
-2/3 cup chopped pecans (about 2 1/2 ounces)
-2/3 cup dried cherries or cranberries
-1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
-9 tablespoons (1 1/8 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
-1 cup packed light-brown sugar
-2 large eggs
-1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line a standard 24-cup mini muffin tin with paper liners; set aside. Stir together coconut, chocolate, pecans, and craisins in a medium bowl; set aside.

2.Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

3.Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla; mix until combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, and mix, scraping down sides of bowl, until well combined. Mix in 1 cup coconut mixture.

4.Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each about three-quarters full. Sprinkle remaining coconut mixture over tops. Bake blondies until a cake tester inserted into center comes out with a few crumbs but is not wet, about 15 minutes. Blondies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 2 days.

Chocolate Haystack Surprises

I have recently tread into the dangerous waters of co-workers expecting treats. I do love to bake and am happy to share with my work peeps, but I'm not quite sure how I feel about the random visits that are purely to check out if I'm harboring a baked good.....for now I'll just be flattered that people like my treats and keep my fingers crossed that they don't get angry when their blood sugar gets too low. I decided to whip up these chocolate haystacks last Friday to satisfy the sweet tooth's in my office and start everyone's weekends off right. There are a lot of things to choose from for the 'surprise' in the haystack, but this time I went for marshmallow's.....not only did I have some left over from the 'Disaster Bars', but I LOVE marshmallows! This is also a great summertime recipe since you don't have to turn on the oven. You will need some refrigerator space to cool the chocolate and 'set' the haystacks. I hope you enjoy my super technical 3 step recipe!

Ingredients:

-1- 12oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

-1/4 C butterscotch chips

- 1 C mini marshmallows

-7 C chow mein noodles

1. In a double boiler melt the chocolate chips and butterscotch chips over low heat.

2. Pour over chow mein noodles and marshmallows.

3. Scoop stacks onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets and cool.

Bethaney's Butterscotch Thins

Bridget and Bethaney are headed up to camp for the summer (as camp nurses, not campers) so I decided to give them a delicious send off. To start I made a caprese salad and cheated with a pre-made caesar salad. I did get a little fancy and made a chicken pesto pizza for the main course. Since no send off dinner is complete without dessert, I made Bethaney's favorite cookies from Baking Bites- butterscotch thins. The first time I made these it was almost a complete loss. Although the dough was delicious, they stuck to the wax paper I used and there seemed to be such a short window where they were the perfect consistency for transport to wire racks before sticking to the paper. I had to try this again since I have never seen Bethaney as upset as when she found out I threw out the cookie casualties that I couldn't get off the paper. I didn't change much this time around aside from using parchment paper instead of wax paper and that helped tremendously. Who knew they were so different? obviously not me. Lesson learned. As you can see from the photo, I still ended up with a lot of misshapen, not so pretty cookies, I can't help but wonder what the secret is to getting these to look as good as they taste. I tried baking them longer, letting them sit longer before transporting, using larger scoops of dough thinking if they were thicker maybe they wouldn't be so delicate, but none of those seem to be the trick. I think the next time I try to make them I might add a bit more flour. I don't think I'm selling these cookies all that well, but Bethaney has claimed that these cookies are her favorite dessert she has ever had and I have to agree that there is something so unexpectedly delicious about them. So, give 'em a try, and PLEASE let me know if you have any luck with creating pretty butterscotch thins.

butterscotch, toffee, name for favorite add-in, oatmeal cookies

I'm starting to get really excited any time I have an actual event to bake for. I think the initial appeal of having a baker around is wearing on my roommates and co-workers....we do have waistlines to watch afterall. Last night I went to see the Gipsy Kings with a group of friends/co-workers at Ravinia, so I of course offered to bring a dessert to share, along with the veggies and hummus, but I got too lazy to make home-made hummus, so nothing to blog about there. Oatmeal butterscotch cookies always tend to be a crowd pleaser, so I decided to make half the batch with butterscotch and then mix it up at make the other half with toffee chips. The butterscotch were the clear winner. I think I can improve upon the toffee by mixing in some chocolate chips too, they were good, not great and I just can't be going around passing out less than great baked goods. I find the recipe on the inside cover of quaker oats oatmeal to be the best, however, these cookies tend to spread a little too much for my liking so I might think of decreasing the butter by a bit the next time I make them.

Ingredients:
-1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
-1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-2 eggs
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1 teaspoon cinnamon
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-3 cups oats
-1 cup butterscotch, toffee, chocolate chips, raisins (whatever you think would be delicous)

Instructions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F
2. Beat together butter and sugars until creamy
3. Add eggs and vanilla
4. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well
5. Stir in oats and butterscotch until well combined
6. Drop rounded tablespoon fulls on ungreased cookie sheets
7. Bake 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown
8. Cool 1-2 minutes on cookie sheet; remove to wire rack