spicy pb cookies (flour less)

Have you ever made peanut butter cookies with peanut flour? I didn't either, and I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty peanut flour is. Actually I prefer it over regular flour for many baking items: cakes, cookies, muffins, etc.. But then I heard that Trader Joe's isn't making the peanut flour anymore? Is this true? That was a quick fad. I have to find another good source for peanut flour. Anyone have recommendations?
Warning: these pb cookies are GOOD. I made about 12 cookies, ate 6, then ate 3 more, then finally someone else finished them off--all in a matter of hours. You've been warned.



I'm sure you recognize these cookies from another post? The first time I made these cookies (almost flour less pb cookies, everyone raved about them and they became the hit of the web). Now with these cookies, they are completely flour less, so those with gluten allergies can rejoice. And if you don't like the heat in the cookies, you can easily swap out the cayenne for coriander. The addition of coriander is wonderful, like a small flavor boost, that makes people go "hmm, what is that taste...I can't quite put my finger on it but I love it". I've made them both ways: with heat and with coriander; can't decide which I prefer I as I love them both. The peanut flavor is so deep and intense with the peanut flour.









spicy peanut butter cookies (flourless)
print recipe

1 cup all-natural chunky or all natural smooth peanut butter (not oily pb)
¾ cup dark brown sugar
¼ granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temp
1 ts baking soda
3 TB peanut flour
¾ - 1 ts cayenne OR ¾ ts (more or less) coriander
1 ts sea salt
Bittersweet chocolate chips, about ½ cup, optional

Cook notes:
This recipe makes a small batch (about 12-15), if you want more, just double all the ingredients. Please use your own judgment when using the amount of cayenne or coriander. I used bittersweet chocolate, but you could use milk or semi-sweet—keep in mind, I felt the cookies tasted off using milk chocolate. The cookies have to sit in fridge for at least an hour to come together; don’t let them sit in fridge overnight as they become very dry. This is a dry cookie, and will a tiny bit hard to roll. Also they are delicate and tend to break apart if you make them big. So try not to make the dough balls bigger than a tablespoon size. Using chocolate is optional. If you do use the chocolate chips, keep in mind I found it easiest to make a well in the cookie dough ball, place in a couple chips, and when done baking, take a chop stick or other pointy tool to swirl around the warm chocolate chips.

In a small bowl add the peanut flour, baking soda, cayenne, and salt and mix, set aside.
In a small bowl crack egg open and beat.
In a mixer or by hand, combine peanut butter and sugars until well combined.
Add egg to the cookie mixture, mix well.
Add in the flour mixture, by sprinkling it over the cookie dough, not just depositing it in one large dump. Mix till just combined.

Cover bowl and let it sit in fridge for about an hour. Do not let this sit overnight as the dough becomes very dry!
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Roll into tablespoon (or smaller) sized balls and place on non-stick cookie sheets or greased cookie sheets. With your finger or end of spatula, make a small well in middle of cookie dough. This is where you will place a couple chocolate chips in. If you don’t want to add chocolate then just flatten dough ball a bit and using a fork make a cross-cross pattern, optional of course.

Bake for 10 minutes, until lightly browned. These cook up very fast, so I really wouldn’t go past the 10-12 minute mark.
Using the end of a chop stick or other fine pointy tip, swirl it around the chocolate chips to smooth out the warm chips. This should also get the chocolate a bit glossier too.
Cool on a baking sheet for a while.
The cookies are fragile and tend to break.
Should make about 12-15 cookies (small batch). If you want more, just double all the ingredients.

guest post: gooey chocolate chip sandwich bars w/ cranberry

I was delighted to have the creative genius Joanne of the wildly creative with healthy edge to it blog called 'eats well with others'. I am drawn to Joanne and her baking & cooking ways because she, unlike me, has a healthy edge (I need to get my baking-healthy edge on) . When this girl isn't creating amazing healthy yet definitely delish recipes in her nyc kitchen, you can find her exercising; well, exercising to the extremes honestly. I've lost count on how many marathons she's done. I was able to stop counting her marathons this past fall when ironically, she and I were both nursing knee injuries. Jokingly we would tease each other via twitter on who had the worst cabin fever since knee injuries take their own sweet time to heal. Oh did I mention she also is in the process of getting her MD/PhD? Yeah. The woman has crazy energy, and insane passion; I just love that about her!

A couple things I wanted to know:

You seem to have a mainly ‘healthy edge” to all your recipes, where or when did this start?
My family is the quintessential meat and potatoes family so I grew up on absolutely zero vegetables and lots of bread and cannoli. I started eating more healthy my junior year of college. I kind of woke up one day, realized just how overweight I was, and decided I was tired of being “the fat girl” among all my friends. Dining hall food isn’t the best for getting healthy and so I started to cook for myself. Since then, it’s pretty much been history. I fell in love with vegetables and, a year ago, stopped eating meat entirely. I still have a pretty intense sweet tooth so dessert will always be a part of my life, but I try to eat uber healthy the rest of the time to make up for it.

Do you plan out what you’re going to make? Or are they spur of the moment?

I am quite the stereotypical medical student in the sense that I am an organizational freak...however, I use those OCD tendencies to menu plan instead of study plan. It happens. Occasionally when I get a craving or inspiration hits, some spur of the moment cooking gets done, but most of the time there’s a plan and I follow it. Or sushi gets ordered.

When looking at recipes to try or create next, what sparks your interest most?

I definitely have certain flavor profiles that jump out at me. I love very bold, spicy food so anything Indian, Thai or Middle Eastern always appeals to me. I also have a strong and definite penchant for orange vegetables. If you show me a recipe with a sweet potato or winter squash in it, I am about 1000x more likely to make it. If it has celery...then there is no chance in hell it will come anywhere near my kitchen.

What country would you like to visit most for their food?

I would love to go to Thailand, Morocco or India. Although, my roommate just brought an intestinal parasite back with her from India (Giardia) and so my desire to go has declined a bit.

Are there any junk foods you love?

I’m a Reese’s-aholic. And a nutella-aholic. Although, I wouldn’t consider nutella a junk food. It’s more of a food group.

Favorite health foods?

Sweet potatoes, winter squash, and apples. I seriously eat an apple a day. Honeycrisp are my favorites!

What was your favorite food to write about?

I love writing about cupcakes. They’re my favorite thing to bake and one of my favorite things to eat. There are just so many cupcake/frosting/filling combinations and you really can’t go wrong with any of them.

Below is one of Joanne's recipes. For more info on her and her recipes check out her food blog: eats well with others.



My mom always used to tell me that you can catch more bees with honey than you can with vinegar.
It was her quaint way of saying, "I know you're thirteen and have an attitude problem, but if you want me to drive you to the mall then you really probably should take out the garbage. And do the dishes. And clean your room."



I just didn't get it though.
Why would anyone ever want to catch bees?
And given how much time my mother spent swatting at them all summer long, why weren't we dotting vinegar below our ears and on our wrists until we smelled like balsamic vinaigrette (yum) to try to keep them away?
She is such an enigma.



However. If she had said, you can make more friends when you sandwich fudge in-between two layers of chocolate chip peanut butter chip cranberry cookies than you can if you try to give them bran muffins?
That, I would have understood.



Nothing against bran muffins. But they don't say "love me always and forever" as much as gooey chocolate chip sandwich bars do. Truth. I speak it.



Gooey Chocolate Chip Sandwich Bars
adapted from Food and Wine
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Ingredients
• 2 cups AP flour
• 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup peanut butter chips
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking pan. Line the dish with parchment paper leaving 1-inch of overhang on either side.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the flour with the oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg, followed by the egg yolk and vanilla, scraping down the sides after each addition. Beat in the dry ingredients, then add 3/4 cup chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and dried cranberries until just incorporated. Set aside.
3. In a small saucepan, melt 2 cups chocolate chips in the sweetened condensed milk over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and thickened, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the vanilla and let cool to room temperature.
4. Press half the cookie dough into the prepared baking dish. Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the dough and spread evenly. Top with small dollops of the remaining cookie dough. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the top is lightly browned. Let cool completely before cutting.

coconut clusters

Do you have a favorite homemade candy shop? I do. It's gross really how much money I dropped at the last visit. And the people that work there 'almost' know me by name. Sad. Let's blame it on winter and winter time makes people eat more carbs. Sounds right. Stage Stop Candy in Dennisport, MA makes the best peanut butter logs and coconut clusters--oh of course many other things, but those two are the main reasons I go there (and the occasional sea salted Tahitian vanilla caramel).

One of these days I will do a post on them with photos so you can see how 'old school' it is. All old antique glass counters filled with homemade truffles, hand dipped cranberries, potato chips, smores, oh the loveliness. Granted their candy is homemade and thus a bit more expensive, so I had to find a way to make my own coconut clusters at home. (still working on the peanut butter logs--figuring out how to get the right butterfinger-like texture inside).

AND congrats to the winners of the Sweets on a Stick Cookbook giveaway. Tree #8, Janet Rudolph #59 and Cake Duchess #66. Please email me your address so we can get these books out to you. CONGRATS!

Also, Jen of Duluth, GA (#62) you were the winner of the Nescafe Piccolo Giveaway. You still haven't contacted me and only have a few more days left before I choose another winner on Monday Jan 9, 2012. Please email me ASAP Jen!

coconut clusters
print recipe

7 ounces of toasted coconut*
11.5 ounces of high quality milk chocolate (you could try dark chocolate)
A pinch or two of sea salt

Cook notes:
*Toast your coconut on a parchment lined baking sheet in a 250 degree oven for about 15-25 minutes. You will have to toss the coconut around on the baking sheet a couple times during cooking; this prevents uneven browning. You know the coconut is done when the coconut is a very light golden brown—this is when to take it out of the oven. The coconut gets dark fast! So watch it at the 15 minute mark.
I used mini cupcake pans to make even, round clusters. Use whatever mold you like, just make sure you use liners or non stick spray or even silicone molds since the chocolate might stick to the pan.
If it does stick all you need to do is put the pan in a larger pan of warm/hot water for a few seconds to a minute. This should loosen the bottom a bit and you will be able to lift them out. Do not let it sit in the water too long as they will melt. If you want to decorate tops of clusters with toasted coconut then save a little on the sides.

To make clusters, take cooled toasted coconut and mix with about 11.5 ounces of melted/tempered milk chocolate. Sprinkle a couple small pinches of sea salt. Mix well, then transfer to your molds. Push them down into molds to make even and get out the air. This would be the time to sprinkle the tops of the clusters with the saved toasted coconut, if desired. I did a few, not all. Let cool/harden at room temp then finish setting up in fridge.

Should make about 15 mini cupcake sized clusters. Stores for about a week in air-tight container.

quick and easy chocolate-gingerbread

As in very quick and easy. As in the fastest quick bread I've ever made 'quick & easy'.

I probably should have posted this a while back for the holiday season. And I think Trader Joe's will stop carrying this for the season soon.
But saw these photos sitting in the archives and said "why not post it--someone out there will dig it".
Remember what I did with the gingerbread mix last year? The gingerbread cupcakes with white chocolate ganache frosting? Tres fab.
Did you also know that I made a batch of waffles with this box mix too? Pretty good. No photos on that one. If you do try it, use fresh whipped cream, not syrup--you already knew that didn't you?

Easy peasy. Follow box directions, pour in 1/2 the batter into greased loaf pan, put down as much or as little chocolate as you like, then pour remaining batter on top and bake according to box directions.

quick and easy chocolate chip cookies

If you're like me you hate waiting for the butter to come to room temp to make chocolate chip cookies. You want them now, not in a few hours because by then the craving for the cookies will be gone--well, maybe for some of you.
So you turn to the melted butter version of chocolate chip cookies and turns out they always turn out to be flat: thin and crispy. Which is fine, but I don't always like thin & crispy. I lean more towards the side of thick and chewy with a nice crisp outside.
After a few experiments using a basic cookie recipe from america's test kitchen or cooks county whatever they call themselves today--I found a good one using melted butter that resulted in giant, thick, crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside chocolate chip cookies. It's really all about the right ratio of baking powder to flour to salt and butter. haha. But all that does make a difference if you break it down. Less flour less chewy, more butter more crisp/flakiness, and of course using good quality chocolate helps too as well as using the right kind of chocolate. If you used milk chocolate the cookie might be too sweet, so using a bittersweet won't overpower the chocolate thus making the dough flavor shine through. You all know this already..... just get to the cookie recipe already!


Use an ice cream scooper for all cookie doughs. Makes the cookies nice and round and even. Use any size really, just watch the baking times if you use smaller scoops.





Baking times matter! Of course this is dependent on various ovens, but keep an eye on your cookies after the 10 minute mark. They burn up fast.

quick & easy chocolate chip cookies
based on America’s Test Kitchen
print recipe

2 cups plus 2 TB all-purpose flour
1/2 ts baking soda
¾ TB baking powder
¾ ts sea salt
1 and ½ sticks (12 TB) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 yolk
2 ts pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Cook notes: make sure to let the melted butter cool a bit (about 15 minutes before using). When you are ready to use the butter give it a good stir to incorporate the butter solids and fats back together.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line about 4 cookie sheets with parchment paper. I found that using milk chocolate chips were just too sweet with this dough. Using bittersweet or semi was just right. Always make sure your baking soda and baking powder are fresh; when they go stale they result in thin tasteless cookies. I love to use ice cream scoopers to make the perfect, round size cookies. I adore large cookies so I used a regular sized ice cream scoop. If you want smaller size cookies, use a smaller ice cream scoop but remember to reduce the baking time a few less minutes!

Whisk all the dry ingredients together; set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, either by hand or using a mixer (I don’t have a mixer so I did this by hand) mix butter & sugars until thoroughly combined. Add in the egg and egg yolk and vanilla extract, mix well. Then add in the dry mixture, mix until just combined, do not overmix. Next FOLD in the chocolate chips (if you want to add in nuts go ahead—about 1 cup).

Using an ice cream scoop, and making sure to compact the dough in the scooper as much as possible, scoop out on baking sheets about 1 & ½ inches apart.
Bake about 11-14 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. You’ll know the cookies are done by light golden brown edges and slightly puffy middles. As soon as they turn golden brown, in a matter of minutes they turn dark, so take them out, plus they do continue to bake once out of the oven. Don’t try and take them off the cookie sheets, they will just break. Should make about 15-18 large, if using a smaller scoop then you’ll have a few more.

raspberry-chocolate blondies

Do I like blondies?

I do. They're ok. I mean I like the dough better than the cooked version really. Blondies (cooked) remind me of an over-floured chocolate chip cookie. And they are a bit boring. I try to jazz em up a bit from time to time. Truly I think the best way to dress up a butter-vanilla dough is with fruit and some sort of chocolate background. As it is raspberry and chocolate are an excellent combo to begin with; to then go and house them in a buttery, chewy house just makes it all the better--no brainer really.

So these are super easy to whip up. If you still have no clue what to give as a baked good to a friend or party, these might be the one? Plus it's different--different is good when you show up to a holiday party/dinner/function right?

raspberry chocolate blondies
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10 TB unsalted butter, room temp
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ts baking powder
3/4 ts salt
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 ts pure vanilla extract
1 pint raspberries
Not even a ½ cup melted milk or semi-sweet chocolate (8 ounces or less of chips, for drizzling)
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting, optional

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Grease up an 8-inch square baking pan with non-stick spray or butter or if you prefer using parchment paper then do so
In medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside.

In a glass or cup, mix the eggs and vanilla extract until combined.
In a large bowl mix the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; cream on medium speed until smooth and fluffy. Then add in eggs and vanilla mixing well.

Pour batter into prepared pan; spread with a rubber spatula or wet hands.

Place the raspberries on top of batter.

Bake in oven for about 25-35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into blondies comes out “almost” clean; okay to have a few bits of crumb on the cake tester. Cooking times vary depending on oven, so please check at 25 minute mark. Cool brownies at least an hour.
Melt the milk chocolate over a double boiler. Then drizzle over cooled brownies for decoration. Dust with confectioners' sugar before cutting into squares, optional.

PMS Christmas Bark: Part 1, 2, & 3

Jokingly on facebook I stated to my friends that years ago I created a Christmas bark that can easily be given as a gift and double as a PMS bark. The agreement was overwhelming by all my female friends; a bark made of salty, sweet, sticky, chewy and a hint of crispy--how could anyone, let alone a female disagree? I mean it covers all the four food groups that females tend to crave while going through PMS. Right?

Here is the PMS Christmas bark Part 1. Made of Cheez It's, chocolate Oreo's all nice and cozy warm in a base of thick white chocolate. Last year it's first appearance was resounding BUT this year people went crazy for it.



Part 2 was a whole other kind of creation made to satisfy those wanting milk chocolate instead of white chocolate.
So here is PMS Chrismtas Bark Part 2, or Cheez It Bark. Made with again Cheez It's with a hard caramel middle, covered in milk chocolate then a nice sprinkling of salty pecans.

And now we have a Part 3. The peanut butter and bacon chocolate bark. Bacon of course is a very important food group when creating a PMS bark? So why not.

Part 3 is very easy to make. Just roll out the dough onto a baking sheet. Originally this was done with cookies--my almost flourless peanut butter cookies with chocolate. This dough makes the perfect bark.



As soon as it comes out of the oven place cooked strips of bacon on the top. Gently pushing them in.



When the cookie layer has cooled then drizzle with bittersweet chocolate. You can use whatever chocolate you like; I found that bittersweet was just the right balance as the semi and milk chocolates were just too sweet and overpowered the bacon and peanut butter flavors. Can't have that can we?




peanut butter & bacon chocolate bark
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1 cup chunky or smooth peanut butter (natural peanut butter works best just not too oily)
¾ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
½ ts baking powder
1 ts baking soda
2 TB flour
1 ts sea salt

5-7 strips of cooked bacon, in strips or in small chunks
6-8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips

Cook notes: this dough cooks very fast. It may not look like its done at the 10 or 11 minute mark but it is. Since there is almost no flour in there it cooks very fast. The next time I make this I will drizzle way less chocolate. In my opinion I put too much chocolate on there and it drowned out the peanut butter flavor. I highly doubt this freezes well. Natural peanut butter is best for this, just not one that's too oily.

In a small bowl mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a mixer or by hand, combine peanut butter and sugars until well combined.
Crack egg open in a small bowl and beat. Add egg to the cookie mixture, mix well.
Next sprinkle the flour mixture over the cookie dough, not just depositing it in one large dump. Mix till combined. Cover bowl and let it sit in fridge for about an hour or more.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place a parchment sheet on jelly roll pan. Place dough on sheet and spread it out. It will not spread out the whole size of the jelly roll pan only about halfway
If dough is sticky, just wet your finger tips.

Bake for 10-11 minutes, until very lightly browned. As soon as you remove it from the oven, place the strips of bacon on top and gently push down/in. Let cool at least 2 hours at room temperature.
When cooled drizzle with the melted bittersweet chocolate. Let chocolate harden and slice into squares.

Makes about 12-15 bars depending on how you cut them.



And finally the winner of the Nescafe Dolce Piccolo giveaway is Jen of Duluth, GA who was the lucky number 62. Please contact me Jen with your mailing address. Congrats Jen!

cream cheese filled sugar cookie wedges

Ever get that impulse when visiting the "larger" grocery stores to stock up? Like stock up on stuff you really don't need and shouldn't buy? But you buy it anyways because IT'S ON SALE?

Yeah, me too. And then those things you bought sit in your cupboards and you haven't a clue what to do with them? Well, I found something to do with the 'instant' sugar cookie packs! And they don't taste that bad really, I doctored them up a bit to make them even more appealing and tasty. A nice addition of cream cheese, then a warm chocolate bath followed up with a nice coating of crushed candy canes--they tasted fabulous.

So if you have an upcoming holiday office party or casual cookie swap or like me, need to use up the sugar cookie packs that might be sitting in your cupboards. They were quite a hit here at home --very tasty. Serve with a tall glass of ice cold milk!

Easy peasy to do. Just bake the sugar cookie packs (2) in cake pans. Let cool.





Let them cool. Then spread a nice even layer of the cream cheese filling, being careful not to go to the edges. Place other sugar cookie cake on top and into fridge to set up for a bit.



When ready to start dipping, use a biscuit cutter and place in the middle of the sugar cookie cake. Push down all the way but don't remove--we want to use this as a guide for cutting even wedges. Cut like you would an old fashioned shortbread wheel.





Dip in melted semi sweet chocolate and garnish with crushed candy canes or whatever else you desire. (I tried using milk chocolate but it was just too sweet; the semi sweet tastes much better). Store in fridge.

cheese cream filled sugar cookie sandwich wedges
print recipe

Cook notes:
Feel free to use your favorite sugar cookie recipe for this. If you do decide to use your own sugar cookie mix make sure to make enough dough for two- 8 (or 9) inch cake pans.

Sugar cookie dough packs (2) or use your own favorite sugar cookie recipe

filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, room temp
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
Pinch of salt

garnish:
18 ounces semi sweet chocolate, melted
Crushed candy canes, optional but wonderful

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Prepare cookie mix according to directions, Instead of baking them on a pan we will use 2- 8 or 9 inch cake pans. Make sure to grease up the cake pans, really well as we do not want them to stick.
Bake at 350 for about 12-16 minutes or until edges are golden brown; center might still be somewhat soft. That’s ok as we will let this harden up in fridge. I like to think these sugar cookies taste a little better when they are soft, but if you like crunchy sugar cookies then by all means do what you like most.
Let these cool and meanwhile let’s make the cream cheese filling. Mix the cream cheese with about ¼ cup or so (taste test as you go to see if it needs more sugar). Mix well. Then spread a nice layer of the mixture on one of the giant sugar cookies (be careful not to go to the edges), place the other sugar cookie on top, cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for a couple hours or overnight.
When ready to dip in chocolate, take a biscuit cutter and place in the middle of the cake, pushing down, but do not take cutter out as this will help guide us in slicing them into wedges. You want to slice them into wedges like you would shortbread. You should get about 16-18 wedges depending on the size/width you slice them.
While you get your melting chocolate ready, place wedges back on cookie sheet and into fridge to chill them again.
Get your crushed candy canes ready and into a bowl for easy dipping.
Use whatever method you like best for dipping chocolate. (The semi sweet chocolate works best, the milk chocolate was just a bit too sweet). I used a double boiler for melting my chocolate as I have a few wedges to dip and want to keep the chocolate melted for a while.
Dip each wedge into the melted chocolate, then dip into crushed candy canes. I dipped the fuller/wider end of the wedge instead of the longer/skinnier end. If you’re not comfortable dipping then you can easily drizzle the wedges with chocolate. Place dipped wedges on parchment paper to set up.
Keep wedges in fridge until ready to serve. They don’t keep that long, maybe a couple days. I wouldn’t go past 3 days since there is cream cheese in there. Do they freeze well? I doubt it.
Makes about 16-18 wedges depending on how thick you cut them.

crunchy caramel bark

It's that time of year again where we all start making those delish homemade goodies to give away to friends, coworkers and family for the upcoming holiday.

Every year I get the same requests from the same people wanting my sweet & salty Cheez It bark. I beg them to let me give them something new and different and they always say NO. They explain to me that they patiently wait the entire year for that salty-sweet cheez it bark. OK, who can argue with that?

But this year, like every year I do like to try new things. With this turtle like bark, I've always wanted to take the famous "ghetto toffee" bark and put REAL CARAMEL inside of it. And boy sure glad I did. It gave it a rich, creamy inside--almost like a turtle candy. I did add a touch of salt to my homemade caramel so all the better.

Please don't get put off by the caramel making step, it's really not that hard and does not require a ton of time. You can easily make the caramel sauce a day ahead.

Trust me you will love this--it's really decadent and will be a present people will definitely remember you by. <----that's the best part isn't it? Yeah.

It's so easy to make, you'll see. First off make the caramel sauce, pour over a nice, even, all gaps covered, layer of Ritz crackers.

Put in fridge to set up/harden. Then put down a smooth layer of melted milk chocolate.

Let set up at room temp, then into to fridge to finish hardening.

Next we flip it over to give the other side a nice happy chocolate layer too.

(Once it's all harden it's very easy to flip over).

Don't forget to add the roasted pecans while the milk chocolate is still melted, this way the nuts will stick and stay.

Let harden in the fridge or room temp before cutting into squares. Use a sharp knife as it makes it a lot easier to slice right through the bark without all the caramel oozing out.

If you are curious about the infamous Cheez It Bark, click here

crunchy caramel bark
print recipe

caramel filling:
1/2 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1 & ½ TB light corn syrup
Giant pinch of sea salt, optional
1 cup heavy cream

In a sturdy/heavy medium size saucepan, over medium-high heat, heat up the water, corn syrup, sugar and salt. Stir a bit to make sure it’s combined-that's it no more stirring. You will cook this for at least 10 minutes (maybe longer) until it turns a nice golden brown. Once it starts to turn brown, do not leave the stove because it turns dark brown very fast. Swirl the pan, once or twice to confirm color is a nice golden brown, once it is, take off heat and add in the heavy cream. Let it bubble up and do its thing, then stir sauce with a heat proof spatula or whisk, and keep stirring till you get it combined and thickens a bit.
Put off to the side or in a heat-proof glass measuring cup (easy for pouring later) to let cool.
If all went well you should have a fairly thick, pourable caramel. Let this cool at least an hour before using.

bark:
2 sleeves of Ritz crackers (50 crackers? More or less)
1 cup of roasted pecans (I used roasted and salted pecans)
16 ounces of milk chocolate: melted in 2 batches; 8 ounces each (use a good quality chocolate, they melt better)

Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Lay down an even layer of Ritz crackers; add more crackers to cover up any gaps. All gaps need to be covered as the caramel will ooze out.
Take the cooled caramel and pour over the crackers. You probably won’t use all the caramel; I didn’t, so save the remainder for another use.
Place pan in fridge to chill and set up for at least 2 hours.
When set up melt about 8 ounces of chocolate in a double boiler, spread the chocolate over the cracker and caramel. Let cool and harden at room temp for about 20 minutes then into fridge for an hour.
Take out of fridge, and being careful, flip the mixture over exposing the other side. This side will now get covered in chocolate.
Melt the remaining milk chocolate, spread over the bark and then sprinkle on the roasted pecans. Push the pecans down into the chocolate a bit to make sure they stay.
Let this harden for at least a couple hours before slicing. Use a sharp knife to cut this so the caramel doesn’t ooze out.