What an amazing week!! Our littles were on spring break for the past two weeks, and while I would like to say that we had a
restful relaxing couple of weeks, the total chaos that we did have was a ton of fun!
The girls Irish danced in twelve shows over the course of last week and although we had a wig catasrophe, both girls had a ball
dancing their Irish hearts out for people.
This week at work we had our annual Bake Off. Each of the participating bakers had to bring in their favorite recipe, with servings
for 100 people, plus 3 judges. I decided to make these yummy cookies I found on Pinterest. I cut them in half so that the
public would each get a serving, and then brought full sized cookies for the judges. I ended up making the recipe 3 times to have
enough for all the servings I needed, plus a tray for our house!!
Although I didn't win (that honour went to a ridiculously amazing cheesecake) I got a ton of positive feedback on the cookies I brought!
Twix Shortbread Cookies
Recipe adapted from here
Ingredients
2/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
Toppings:
3/4 cup caramel sauce
6 ounces chocolate wafers, melted
Instructions
To make the cookie layer, preheat the oven to 375F. In the bowl of your mixer, combine 2/3 cup butter, sugar, egg yolks and vanilla.
Combine ingredients until the butter is creamy, scraping the edges of the bowl. Add the flour and mix at low speed until well combined.
Cover and refrigerate dough for an hour, until firm.
Shape the dough into 1" balls. Place dough 2" apart on cookie sheets. Make an indentation in the cookie balls with the back of a wooden
spoon. Bake 8-10 minutes until the edges are start to golden.
Remove from the oven and place cookie sheets on a wire rack to cool completely.
After the cookies have had a chance to cool completely. Put the caramel sauce into a piping bag and lightly pipe caramel into
the indentations. While the caramel is settling into the indentations, melt the chocolate wafers using a double boiler.
Using a fork, drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookies. Refrigerate for ten minutes, to allow the chocolate to harden over the cookies.
I hope you enjoy this recipe! I know that the cookies I tried to keep at our house were gone in about ten minutes!!
Hello my friends!! Today I have a super amazing, ridiculously easy and crazy delicious recipe to share with you! About a year ago I was home in the afternoon and caught an episode of Steven and Chris. For those of you who don't watch, Steven and Chris is a Canadian talk show that focuses on lifestyle, home decor and cooking. It's quite entertaining and the hosts always make me laugh.
On the particular day that I was watching, the hosts had a baker on the show who has a downtown Vancouver bakery called Butter Baked Goods and she was making a glorious looking recipe called the Dunbar. It was a combination of cookie, chocolate, caramel and deliciousness. I was running out the door as the recipe was being presented, so I pvr'd the episode and finally watched it months later.
Fast forward to May and our social committee at work was having a bake off. Participants were asked to bring 100 mini servings of a baked item and they would be served and judged by the people who came to try the baked goods. I can't remember how I placed at the bake off, but my Dunbar's were all gone and I had a ton of people asking me to share the recipe.
The best part about this recipe (I think) is that instead of needing heavy cream and melting caramels, I was able to use a jar of caramel sauce! I found the one I used at Target for only $3.99. The original recipe calls for dulce de leche, but this sauce does the same thing and the recipe turned out fantastic!
I finally made these again over Christmas for a friend's pajama party and actually remembered to take photos so I could share them with all of you!! I hope you enjoy these as much as I did!!
The Dunbar
Original Recipe from Butter Baked Goods
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/4 large-flake rolled oats
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup pecans, lightly chopped
3/4 cup caramel sauce or dulce de leche
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9x9 square pan with parchment paper. Trust me, don't skip this step, or you will never get your delicious treat out of your pan! And get a piping bag, the kind that you would normally use to ice cupcakes. This isn't totally necessary but will definitely make your life (and caramel application) much much easier.
Cream together butter and sugar, making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure it's all incorporated. Mix in the dry ingredients until well combined. Divide the dough in two and press the first half of the mixture into your parchment lined pan. Sprinkle the chocolate chips and pecans over the cookie dough.
Put the caramel sauce into the piping bag. Pipe the caramel sauce over the chocolate chips and pecans. You could try to use a spoon and just scoop it onto the chocolate chips, but from experience, it is gloopy and hard to spread evenly. Take the second half of the cookie dough mixture and sprinkle it over top of the chocolate chip/pecan/caramel mixture. Lightly press down over the caramel mixture.
Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until golden brown. When it's done, allow to cool in the pan before using the parchment paper edges to lift it out of the pan. Use a long, sharp knife to cut into bars. Make sure to keep the ones at the very edge of the pan for yourself! That part is my favorite!
Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope I have inspired you a little today!
It was my mom's birthday yesterday and we had a glorious brunch at my brother's house for my mom on Monday. I was in charge of toast, fruit salad and dessert!
Since we were having brunch I didn't want to do a regular cake. I also had some salted caramels from Costco on hand that I wanted to find a way to incorporate into our dessert. The caramels on their own were a little too salty to just eat on their own, but I knew I'd be able to find a way to bake them into deliciousness.
I melted down the caramels with a little butter and milk into a chocolatey, caramelly sauce that was the perfect topping for this light, fluffy cake.
Chocolate Caramel Streusel Cake
Recipe almost exactly from LandOLakes.com
Ingredients
Streusel
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup pecans
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp melted butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Cake
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup Butter, softened
2 Eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup light sour cream
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Topping
14 Salted caramels (I used the ones from Costco, but regular Kraft caramels would work just fine)
2 tsp butter
2 tbsp milk
Instructions
Heat oven to 350F. Combine all streusel ingredients in small bowl; set aside.
Combine sugar and butter in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add eggs; continue beating, scraping bowl often, until well mixed. Add all remaining cake ingredients. Continue beating until well mixed.
Spoon half of batter into greased and floured 9-inch springform pan. Sprinkle half of streusel mixture over batter in pan. Spoon remaining batter over streusel; top with remaining streusel. Bake 45-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Run knife along sides of pan to loosen edge. Remove side of pan. Cool at least 30 minutes.
Just before serving, combine caramels, milk and butter in saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until caramels are completely melted (5 to 8 minutes). Cool slightly; drizzle warm caramel over cake.
I am going to try to
link this recipe up to Serenity Now, Delightful Order, A Bowl Full of
Lemons and Doodles and Stitches linky parties!
