quarter pound oatmeal-raisin cookies

Remember my obsession with Levain Bakery cookies? How I made the chocolate chip cookies and the double chocolate cookies? Both quarter pound cookies? Well, I made an oatmeal-raisin version.
I know this is isn't very valentine's day'ish. But I didn't make anything for VD. Shame shame. But I know there are a lot of you out there that love Levain Cookies as much as I do so this is just like a present--in a baker sort of way. No?

quarter pound oatmeal-raisin cookies
(loosely based on the levain bakery cc cookies)
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8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted Irish butter, cold & grated (you can use whatever butter you like)
4 ounces cream cheese, room temp
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 ts vanilla
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 ¾ cup rolled oats
3/4 ts sea salt
1 and ¼ ts baking powder
1/2 ts baking soda
1 cup walnuts
1 cup raisins

If using dough right away, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. (It’s best to chill, though; I chilled overnight)
(keep in mind this is a very dry dough, and will be hard to mix once you put the raisins & nuts in; I used my hands). See also notes on cooking times below.
In a mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter, cream cheese, and both sugars just until creamy. Don’t overbeat. Add the egg and vanilla and beat just until incorporated.
Stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; add in the oats and mix. Then add the dry to the wet batters. When thoroughly mixed, stir in raisins and walnuts.
Divide dough into 12 big 4 oz lumps. Mold into golfballs; do not press flat! Keep them as balls on the cookie sheets. Bake on ungreased cookies sheets (one sheet at a time). (I chilled my dough balls BEFORE baking)
Bake times (how I’ve done it the past few times; pick one if you dare):
Put the cookies in a 375 degree oven and set timer for 8 minutes. When timer rings, without opening oven or removing cookies, reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for another 8-10 minutes or until cookies appear set.
OR I did mine at 375 degrees for about 21 - 23 minutes or until done. (Mine were done in 21 minutes).
Also if you have a convection your cooking time will go down a couple minutes.
Makes 12 (mine made 13)

almond joy bites w/ cookie crust

So you've heard this story before....love those almond joys BUT they need to be 'kicked up'. Me and my endless task(s) of making candies, cookies, cakes, muffins, etc... better is a never ending journey people. But have no fear I will prevail and continue on--just for you. :-)
This was on the 'to create' list for some time now: "kick up the infamous almond joy". I can now cross that off the list. Need I say these are just fabulous? They are. They are also very very rich. And I must warn you a little hard to handle; the crumbles fall apart in this shape. So if you were to make these, consider doing so in a tart pan instead. It'll work a lot easier for handling.

**Side note: a lot of you have asked why the copyright stamp on all the photos? It ruins the photos to see wording on there. I agree! But I have so much photo theft that I have to put it on there. I wish people would make their own photos and stop using mine, but that doesn't happen. So sadly I have to put these watermarks on there. I hate it too, trust me.
A wonderful friend of mine Deb from tasteandtellblog.com did a fun little interview on me and my blog. Come check it out here.

almond joy bites with cookie crust
print recipe

Filling:
9-10 ounces sweetened coconut
14 ounces of condensed milk

Cookie crust:
10 ounce pack of Lorna Doone cookies (or any other thick butter shortbread cookie is fine), crushed fine
1 stick of butter, melted
Pinch of salt

Coating:
High quality dark chocolate

Garnish:
Smokey/salty almonds

Combine coconut with condensed milk until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and set in fridge.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter and in a bowl combine it with the crushed cookies and salt. Mix well and pour into greased muffin cups or tart pan (with removable bottom).
Bake the crust for about 10 – 15 minutes or until set. Don’t let it brown! Let cool completely.
When cooled fill cups with a nice size scoop of the coconut mixture; making sure to NOT let the mixture touch the sides of the pan. We want the chocolate to drip down the sides (see photo). Cover muffin pan with parchment paper and let set up in fridge for at least a couple hours.
Melt the dark chocolate in a double boiler. Remove coconut bites from muffin pan, and set on wire rack to pour chocolate over. Or you could leave them in the cups and pour chocolate into cups. They should release out fine (I don’t know as I used the wire racks to cover in chocolate). Top with smokey almonds. Let set before devouring.

Notes: you could use a tart pan instead of muffin cups. Make sure to grease your pans well. I don’t know if milk chocolate would work in this. And remember the cookie crust is delicate, so use the coconut as your base when ready to drizzle with chocolate.

2011 superbowl munchies!

Who is having a superbowl party? Tell me your address so I can show up and eat. I will bring whatever you want. I want to watch football this year. No I don't do I? I'm just there for the food man. It's all about the food. I just want to eat, and Superbowl day is a darn good excuse to pig out silly. Get your stretchy pants on and eat baby.
Well, if you still need some ideas on what to make AND want some easy recipes, I think I can help you. I've put together a few of the good munchies that are easy to create. If I had to choose: artichoke bread with hummus, pimento cheeseburgers, cheesy tater tots (those were gone in minutes so make a ton), and those fudge puddles. Seriously.

clockwise: meatloaf bread, artichoke bread, cheesy tater tots, and sweet potato quesadillas with fig reduction & corn relish.

left to right: espresso cream cheese brownies with salty shortbread crumbs, peanut butter fudge puddles, coconut cream cheese cookies.

clockwise: cheesy reuben calzone, reuben dip, frito salad, buffalo chicken chili with blue cheese drizzle.

left to right: devils food cupcakes with salty mascarpone frosting, pumpkin spice cookie bark, peanut butter and chocolate chunk cookies

left to right: pimento cheeseburger with tomato-balsamic reduction, ham and cheese sliders

browned butter soda bread

I like soda bread, I do, but not as much as the average person might? I find it a little bland, I know it's supposed to be bland by nature; a perfect vehicle rather for warm salty butter, jam or even ham. I just kicked up this soda bread up by adding in a bit of sugar and some browned butter to the top of it halfway thru baking. One could easily argue that I took the classic white soda bread paired it with the Irish version minus the caraway seeds and raisins, AND also a mixing of the browned butter soda bread minus the rosemary. Finding a happy middle in there somewhere. If you'd like a little history on the various types of soda breads and how they came about click here at epicurious. It's quite a good read and it tells you why you need to score a cross on the top of the bread before baking. What's your favorite soda bread(s)?





browned butter soda bread
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3 cups white all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 TB of baking soda
1 ts baking powder
1 ts cream of tartar
¼ cup of superfine sugar*
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 and ½ cups buttermilk, room temp

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease up a regular loaf pan with olive oil.
Sift all of the dry ingredients, (not the oatmeal), into a large mixing bowl. Next add in the oatmeal and mix. Add in (slowly) the buttermilk. Mix with your hands until you have a very loose dough. I gave it about 4-6 turns. You do not want to overmix as you will start the gluten process and this will give you a dense loaf. No kneading! Recipe from dawn finicane of vanillasugarblog.com Put dough into greased loaf pan. Push batter down gently into the corners. Then score a cross on the top. You’re going to cook this loaf for about 45 minutes or until a cake tester in middle comes out clean. But halfway thru baking you pour on the browned butter.

browned butter:
6 TB unsalted butter cut into TB chunks. Place in med-heat saucepan. Watch until butter is browned, has brown specks on bottom all the while whisking while it’s browning away. Just when it turns golden brown and has a nutty aroma – it’s done. Take off heat. Let cool a bit then pour on load halfway thru cooking. Ok to poke a few small tiny tiny holes in bread to let butter slide in there nice and happy.
*Note: if you don’t have superfine sugar, just run regular white sugar thru a food processer until fine.

chocolate-peanut butter bars w/ bbq pretzels

Girl have you lost your mind?
No I haven't lost my mind...yet.
Yes, I have cabin fever; a bad case of it actually. And yes, these taste friggin amazing.
Does it sound gross? Of course it does! If it didn't then why on earth would I make it?
I used those Snyder-that-can-crack-your-teeth-pretzels. Hubby asked me to buy them for him, I did, they sat there for a couple days. Afraid I would eat them in one sitting during one of our many thousand snowstorms we've had already, I went ahead and used them so I wouldn't eat them, but then ate them anyways because they are in another form now. Makes sense right?

This recipe sounds gross and all, but in all honesty its not. You don't taste the bbq.
What you taste is the twang of the pretzels that pairs very well with the pb and chocolate. I think you could use any pretzel you like, but I doubt ranch flavored would work well.
I did NOT write this recipe down, but I think I remembered everything as I happily went along.
With that said, PLEASE taste-test as you go along just in case I did forget something.

chocolate-pb bars w/ bbq pretzels
print recipe

¼ cup light brown sugar {packed}
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1 and ¾ cups creamy peanut butter
A pinch of salt
A handful of salted cocktail peanuts to add into batter, optional
10 ounces high quality milk chocolate chips PLUS ¼ cup, divided
8 ounces high quality bittersweet chocolate chips
About 2 – 3 TB of butter for melting chocolates

For pretzels:
About 2 - 3 cups crushed Snyders BBQ pretzels, loosely crushed we want semi-big chunks (I cannot remember if it was 2 or 3 cups, sorry)
About ½ stick or ¼ cup of butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Grease up an 8 by 8 inch brownie pan (I used non stick spray). Melt the other half stick of butter for the pretzels in a pan. In a bowl mix the melted butter and pretzels. Press them evenly into the prepared brownie pan. Bake in preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until set. Do NOT let this brown!
Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle on the ¼ cup of milk chocolates; let them melt on their own then take a spatula and spread as evenly as you can without moving the pretzels. Let cool and harden.
Combine the brown sugar, confectioners' sugar, 1/2 room temp butter, peanut butter, and pinch of salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Blend until smooth. If you want to add in cocktail peanuts, this would be the time.
Dump the mixture out into the cooled pan & press it down, making it an even as possible.
Melt the chocolates & 2 TB of butter in a double boiler, or in a heat-proof bowl set over simmering water. Stir occasionally to combine and get nice and glossy.
Spread the melted chocolate over the peanut butter base & smooth out the surface. I like to let my pan sit at room temp for about an hour, then put in fridge to finish hardening. Once chocolate is set. Simply run a slim/skinny knife around edges to loosen. Invert the pan onto large plate/platter. You can either serve this pretzel side up or down.
You will need a very sharp knife to cut through the hard chocolate. Be careful.