espresso bars

What's not to love here people? I mean we have butter, we have sugar, we have espresso, we have dark chocolate, and we have a sugary milk glaze. Breakfast and coffee in a bar--I'm all set. Let's just open a cafe that sells these and those chocolate dipped levain bakery cookies (and some coffee too, I guess), fabulous right?
I can't claim fame to these little gems, but I can say they were tasty with a HUGE side of addictive. You will eat way more than one bar. I would like to experiment again with these with new flavors be it cinnamon, ginger and hazelnut--hazelnut has to be worked in here somehow along with a creamy cream cheese glaze.
The only thing, if I were to make this again, I would use shaved chocolate instead of chips or pulse the chips in the processor to make them teeny tiny. The flavor of chocolate goes very well with the Starbucks Via, but it needs to be in small-meldable (if that's a word) flavors. Please note my changes.

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espresso bars
adapted from With Love & Butter 
print recipe


To get really flat bars, I find it works best to smooth them over with an offset spatula, using gentle pressure, just after they come out of the oven and before you apply the glaze.

bars:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed (I used light brown)
1 TB espresso powder (I used 1 Starbuck’s Via)
1 ts vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour (I used 2 cups)
1/2 ts baking powder
1/2 ts salt
(I added 1 ts cinnamon)
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used 1 ½ cups)

glaze:
2 TB milk (I used half & half)
1 TB butter (I used 3 TB)
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 F with the rack at the middle level.
Mix the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
Line a 10×15 inch jelly roll pan with baking parchment or grease lightly.
Cream together the butter, brown sugar, instant coffee, and vanilla.
Blend in the flour mixture, until just combined, no overmixing. Then stir in the chocolate chips by hand. The mixture will be very crumbly, with barely enough dough to hold together the chocolate chips.
Use your fingers, palms, and heels of your hands to press the dough evenly into the pan. If necessary, cover the dough with wax or parchment paper and use a small rolling pin to flatten the lumps.
Bake 5 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake 5 to 10 minutes more or until the edges are just starting to brown (watch carefully). Cool in the pan 5 minutes before spreading with glaze.
For the glaze, put all the ingredients in a small saucepan on medium heat. Whisk until smooth and barely bubbly. Drizzle the glaze evenly over the bars and smooth out to the edges and corners with a rubber spatula.
Cool until the pan is just warm to the touch and cut into bars with a sharp knife.
Should make 28-32 bars.

morning glory whoopie pies w/ orange cream filling

I've always wanted to take my all time favorite muffin the morning glory and turn it into a whoopie pie. Finally, I've gotten around to it, and am starting to put a dent in my 'to create' or rather 'to test' recipe pile. The pile is huge and consuming my office--must get down in size!
Getting on to this little gem of a whoopie pie--it was AMAZING. Such great flavors and textures going on (I always say that don't I?). Well, you know by now I love lots of flavors and some textures going on in whatever I create. Originally I was going to use a plain old filling, but it just begged for an orange zest-like taste; a pineapple cream cheese filling would be awesome too, if you're ever so inclined.
These are incredibly easy to make. What makes them easy are those whoopie pie pans found at sur la table. If you don't have those you could use jumbo muffin pans, and don't fill them up to the top (maybe a 1/4 of the way?). Or use those mini cake pans or tart rings.

morning glory whoopie pie w/ orange cream cream filling:
use my recipe for morning glory muffins found here. bake in whoopie pie pans at 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes or until cake tester in middle comes out clean (cooking time varies depending on oven). let cakes cool completely. i went ahead and chilled mine in the fridge before filling; they are easier to handle when cold and firm.

orange cream cheese filling:
8 oz. of cream cheese, room temp
1/2 cup +/- of sifted confectioners sugar
1 ts +/- of orange zest
1 tiny splash of orange juice

beat all in a bowl with mixer or whisk until well combined. then spread on the whoopie pies. i like to chill them a while before serving. the center filling tastes better when it's chilled. should make about 5-6 big whoopie pies (depending what pan you use and/or how much batter you fill them up with.

banana shortbread

Banana shortbread. Why hasn't this been in bakery shops yet? Seriously a wonderful combo: butter, flour, sugar, and bananas. What's not to love?
I have been dying to create this for a while now. Easy to make, even easier to eat. This is a tad bit moister than most shortbreads, that's because of the bananas, but to be honest I liked it a bit moister. I think a pineapple shortbread might be in order next. What kind of kicked up shortbread would you like to see/try?
Note: these banana shortbread wedges are fabulous dipped in melted chocolate!

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banana shortbread
inspired from america’s test kitchen
print recipe

½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 ½ cups (7 ½ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ cup cornstarch
2/3 cups + 1 TB confectioners’ sugar
½ teaspoon table salt
2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, room temp
1 ½ bananas, wicked ripe, mashed w/ juice of ½ lemon

Pulse oats in spice grinder or blender until reduced to fine powder, about ten 5-second pulses (you should have ¼- to 1/3 cup oat flour).
In bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix oat flour, all-purpose flour, cornstarch, sugar, and salt at low speed until combined, about 5 seconds.
Add butter to dry ingredients, then add in the banana mixture, and continue to mix on low speed until dough just forms and pulls from sides of mixer wall, 5 to 10 minutes. (I chilled my dough overnight—I think it needs to be chilled at least 2-3 hours before using)
When ready to bake, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees.
Place closed collar of 9- to 9 ½-inch springform pan directly on parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet (do not use the springform pan bottom).
Press dough into collar in even ½-inch thick layer, smoothing top of dough with back of spoon.
Place 2-inch (oven safe) biscuit cutter in center of dough and cut out center. Place extruded round on side of rimmed baking sheet and replace cutter in center of dough. Open springform pan collar, but leave in place. (I did not open collar until see below).
Bake shortbread for 5 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 250 degrees. (release latch on the collar on springform pan, but don’t take off. Recipe by dawn finicane)
Continue to bake until edges turn pale golden, 10 to 15 minutes longer. Remove tray from oven; turn oven off.
Remove springform pan collar and cutter; score surface of shortbread into 16 even wedges, cutting halfway through shortbread.
Using wooden skewer, poke 10 holes into each wedge. Return shortbread to oven and prop door open with handle of wooden spoon, leaving 1-inch gap at top.
Allow shortbread to dry in turned-off oven until pale golden in center (shortbread will be firm but giving to touch when ready), about 1 hour.
Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool shortbread to room temperature, at least 2 hours. Cut shortbread at scored marks to separate and serve.

lox and glazed donut

Oh yes. Serious food cravings here. Stay with me, don't click away! I know this is odd, but you have to try this. This is the ultimate in salty and sweet. I know a lot of you are devoted foodies, and devoted foodies are open to new things. Right? Good.
And some of you may have already had this combo before and know exactly what I'm talking about.
Seriously good. Make sure you get the good kind of lox, ok? Oh and those krispy kreme donuts? Yeah, those are just PERFECT for this, especially when they are still warm.
I'm telling you....you have to try this.

sweet potato quesadillas w/ fig reduction, spicy corn relish and pecans

Aren't quesadillas fun? I mean you can literally put anything and everything in them. Not to mention the vast amount of cheeses out there that can be used in quesadillas is enormous. I have rarely used queso blanco cheese. Not because I don't like it, but because I haven't found what works good with it since it is a very mild cheese, almost like a mozzarella cheese. I just loved the layers of flavors in this sweet potato quesadilla. It has the sweet/saltiness of my fried sweet potatoes, the mildness of the cheese, the sweetness of the fig reduction and then some heat with the spicy corn relish. Of course I had to add my sweet & spicy pecans to it for extra crunch. I got those pecans (as everyone knows who follows me on Twitter) at Trader Joe's. It's gross really how much of those pecans I consume on a weekly basis. Have you tried them? Is there anyone out there that is addicted to them as I?
With these quesadillas, if I was to make them again I might go with a stronger tasting cheese next time, maybe a mild cheddar. Don't get me wrong these were good; I just love to always improve upon my creations the next time, then the next time, and so on.

Also, you may have noticed that my copyright logo/name are getting more bigger and/or prominent on my photos? This is because I have, again, been the victim of someone stealing my photos. But now they are cropping out the copyright stuff. This happened once before and I learned that I should put a visible copyright mark on them. I would hate to have to eventually make a visible watermark in the middle of the food photo. Why people steal others works and photos is beyond me.... If anyone can tell me how to add a visible watermark while retaining the quality of the photo I'm all ears.

Sweet potato quesadillas w/ fig reduction & spicy corn relish
print recipe

I used my sweet potato hash for the filling of this quesadilla.

Sweet potato hash
2-3 sweet potatoes, chopped into 1-inch cubes
EV olive oil
A few TB’s of butter
salt & pepper
caramelized onions
a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
couple dashes of Tabasco sauce

Caramelize some onions (about 1 giant sweet yellow onion) after it's done caramelizing add a few drops of the Worcestershire sauce, set aside.
Heat up same skillet with some EVOO and fry up the sweet potatoes until nice & crispy, season with salt and pepper. Towards the end of cooking add a few tablespoons of butter to the skillet to melt into the hash. Then add in a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, mix until combined. If you want a bit of heat like I do then add in some cayenne and/or Tabasco.

Use some of the hash place it the middle of a large tortilla, add a few chunks of queso blanco or queso fresco cheese, a few dashes of Tabasco (optional). Seal edges of tortilla with egg wash, fold over and seal and then fry up in a non-stick pan. The egg wash will seal up once it gets hot. Serve with fig reduction and/or spicy corn relish (see below).

Fig reduction
Is nothing more than this jam cooked over medium heat till it reduces and thickens a bit. If you’re not into making your own jam, then you can buy some premade and heat up. But I do suggest you try this fig jam recipe as it’s really good.

cinnamon fig jam
from eatingoutloud.com

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 lb. mission figs (about 10-12 figs)
1 3″ strip lemon zest
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 lemon juiced

Add water and sugar to a pan and place on a medium heat to dissolve.
Remove the stems from the figs and cut into quarters. Add to the sugar mixture along with lemon zest, cinnamon stick, and lemon juice. Bring the mix to a light simmer and leave the pan uncovered. Cook for about 1 hour or until the mix thickens. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

The spicy corn relish is from stonewall kitchen. I buy this stuff by the case -- it’s that good.