cookie butter crunch bars (no bake!)

No Friday links this week, I am so strapped for time these days, but ohhh my do I have a yummy substitute for you: cookie butter crunch bars!
No oven was used to make these luscious little gems.
So so easy to make!
To be honest, I didn't think they would taste this good.
I've never been a real fan of the "no bake bars"--I know I know.
But they were always just too sweet, too gooey--not my cup of tea.
So I moved things around a bit to make them less sweet, more crunch....

In the photo it looks like they are gooey and soft, but no no they are crisp and crunchy
(although if you keep them at room temp during the summer
they will get soft).

Literally one bowl easy to make, and then cover it in white chocolate.



Don't you love easy recipes that totally look gourmet?
Me too.






cookie butter crunch bars (no bake)
recipe vanillasugarblog.com
print recipe

1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
2 cups rough/crushed graham cracker crumbs* (I used cinnamon flavored)
1 cup cookie butter
1 cup unsalted butter, melted
3/4 ts sea salt

topping:
about 8-10 ounces of white chocolate, melted
couple TB of cookie butter for swirling in the white chocolate

cook notes:
* crush up the graham crackers with a little bit of rough chop still left in there. No need to go to
a fine powder. We want crunch!
You can easily use peanut butter, just use less salt as well, about 1/2 ts.
If you do use peanut butter, maybe use dark chocolate as a topping?

Grease up an 8 or 9-inch pan.
Combine all ingredients (except the topping ingredients) in a bowl and mix well.
Pour into pan, spread mixture into corners, making sure to push down and make flat.
Cover the top of mixture with plastic wrap, making sure to get all corners covered.
Place in fridge for at least an hour.
If you wrapped the top really well, I'm certain this would be fine
When ready to use/make the topping, melt the white chocolate over a double boiler or whatever
method you prefer.
I placed the melted white chocolate on the top, spread it around, then added in a couple clumps
of cookie butter and swirled it in for a nice visual.
You don't have to add in the extra cookie butter.
Let the chocolate topping harden, or put it back in fridge to finish setting up.
Using a sharp knife, slice into squares.
It's best to keep this cold; does not do well at room temp in the summer.
Makes about 12-15 small bars, depending on how you slice them.

salted chocolate-chocolate chip cookies

I'm such a fan of jacques torres infamous chocolate chip cookie recipe.
It's such a great recipe. The perfect chocolate chip cookie in my cookie-eating opinion.
It has the perfect blend of buttery cookie to chocolate, and the marinating of the cookie dough--love that idea of the dough getting a nice gentle sour taste to it--almost like a good sourdough.
I've made so many wonderful creations with his base chocolate chip cookie recipe:
cc cookies bars stuffed w/ peanut butter;
stuffed with potato chips;
stuffed with nutella;
and made into a pie stuffed with graham.

And now I've taken that recipe and created a double chocolate version.
I've always wanted to do this, but was worried about it being too cakey or not enough crisp.
Plus I wanted a buttery chocolate cookie base, not an overpowering chocolate cookie base.
So I'm fairly certain I achieved a nice chocolate cookie base balance.
I did the marinate with these cookies as you do with the regular cookie base.
I let the cookie dough sit in the fridge for two days covered well.

Keep the cookie dough as cold as possible--it helps to ensure less spreading when baking.

I used a medium ice cream scoop for scooping out dough.


Don't forget to salt the tops with sea salt!

They are very fragile fresh out of the oven, so let them sit and cool a bit before devouring.



They look gooey, but they're not that gooey, more like chewy middle, with warm chocolate chunks and a slight outer crisp. Perfect!

salted chocolate-chocolate chip cookies
base cookie recipe by Jacques Torres
print recipe

2 cups minus 2 TB cake flour
1 2/3 cups minus 2 TB bread flour
5 TB cocoa powder
1 ¼ ts baking soda
1 ½ ts baking powder
1 ½ ts coarse salt
22 TB unsalted butter, room temp
1 ¼ cups light brown sugar, NOT packed (loose)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 ts natural vanilla extract
6-7 ounces of bittersweet chocolate chips
6-7 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips
Sea salt for the tops of cookie dough balls

cook notes:
Do not use dutch process cocoa powder.  I know it seems like a lot of salt in this recipe, but it’s not. We are using a lot of chocolate and the salt will balance itself out perfectly.  Please use (as Jacques Torres recommends) high quality chocolate chips or chunks in this recipe. Ghiradelli is what I use.  Please wrap the dough very well when getting ready to chill overnight; it’s very important to NOT let any air get inside the cookie dough. Cookie doughs with cocoa powder tend to dry out faster.  When ready to bake, let dough sit a bit at room temperature (15 minutes) to make it easier for scooping out.  It’s hard to tell when the cookies are done, so look for non-jiggly middles, firm outer edges.

Sift flours, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.
Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds.
Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them.
Press plastic wrap against dough, and cover well; we don’t want this dough drying out.  Refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.
Using a medium ice cream scoop, scoop out mounds of dough and place onto parchment lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart.
Sprinkle cookie dough balls lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes.
Let cookies cool before removing to wire racks to cool.
Makes about 36 cookies

friday links

Sometimes I have recipes that never make it to the blog.
Photos are horrid or the food is hard to photograph, but the recipe came out great.
I hate to waste the post, so I thought I'd share them on the friday links.
This one is mississippi mud cake. Truly delicious recipe, just hard to photograph when it's fresh out
of the oven.  Should have let it cool down a bit.
With this recipe I added on crushed Oreo's to the top.

This little guy was so unusual I just had to get a photo of him.
He's also quite big.

My eyes get so dry in the summer heat, this Evian mist really helps (just blink and spray).
If you have sensitive eyes do just a little.
I'm loving this new fragrance from marc jacobs.

Summer has gone by so fast. It's already August--I wish summer would slow down a bit.

From coast guard beach at Nauset Light on cape cod.
The cam from coast guard beach, cape cod.
Want to see how the traffic is on the cape?
Sagamore Bridge cam
Other cape cod cams

around the web:

why potassium is good for us (good in-depth article)
how does food affect your mood?
best ways to get rid of fruit flies
frozen pineapple daiquiris
coconut cream pie
bacon cannoli!
14 inspirational books
learn more about the bubonic plague
bill smith's atlantic beach pie
simple crafts to do with the kids
common sense exercises to help with belly fat
how nutrition affects your feet
johnny cakes
the sea chair (I love this video and concept)
homeless dog hits the adoption jackpot!
banana cream cheesecake pie
pineapple-coconut water drink (heavenly!)
best foods for diabetics
DIY italian ice
"marry me" cookies
bacon wrapped tater tot bombs
new treatment for depression shows immediate results
a diary of tomatoes
cold summer borscht
rhubarb cheesecake with vanilla bean
man heals stage 3 colon cancer with raw food diet
how safe is our food? top 10 contaminates
photographers headless hoax
a french facial at home?
the most nutrient-dense foods
now the ice cubes from Walmart don't melt in the sun? what?
80 odd years of happy
mother shamed on beach because of stretch marks
13 things not to order at a restaurant
help for halting autism symptoms
sweet peach iced tea popsicles




Have a wonderful weekend!

coffee-oreo ice cream (no cook/no churn)

Whipping up a batch of your favorite ice in less than 5 minutes when it's 90 degrees out with 100% humidity is just priceless.
Why is it when it gets that humid I lose my appetite?
Do you?  And then hours later when it cools down a bit, I get hungry?
I wonder why that is?
Coffee-oreo ice cream is one of my weaknesses.
But what troubles me is some ice cream joints 'barely' put any oreo's in there?
What's up with that?
I like my crushed oreo cookie to ice cream ration to be at least 40/60, with minimal chunks and the occasional giant chunk (or 5 in the mix).
I mean who doesn't look for the giant chunk of frozen oreo cookie when eating their ice cream?
Oh yeah me! Some days I scoop out the whole Ben & Jerry's mint oreo ice cream pint JUST to find a the giant chunk of cookie! Sad right?

Speaking of Ben & Jerry's have you seen the prices?  Ouch. AND I see less and less stuff in their ice cream--if anyone was not going to be part of the 'cutting back/scaling back' I would have thought it was good ole Ben or Jerry.
So let's make our own, it's just as tasty, and far cheaper, plus you control the amount of cookie chunks you want in there.

You don't need an ice cream maker for this recipe!
Just a good bowl that stands up to freezing well.
I prefer thick glass for freezing ice cream.
I just don't like using metal when freezing ice cream--that metallic taste.


Just mix everything right in the bowl, stir, add in chopped oreo's, and freeze!


To jimmy or not to jimmy?


coffee-oreo ice cream (no cook/no churn)
print recipe

1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1 pint + ½ pint of heavy cream, cold
1 pint whipping cream, cold
1 Starbuck Via* (or 1-2 TB of high quality espresso powder)
giant pinch of sea salt
3/4 - 1 cup of rough chop oreo's (any vanilla or chocolate)

cook notes:
*the Starbuck Via's are pretty strong, so you really only need one, unless you're using a low/blonde roast one.  For this recipe I used the Pike Place Via--just the right amount of bold.
when you've mixed all the ingredients, do a quick taste-test and see if it needs more espresso.
If you're using an espresso powder start off adding a little then work your way up.
If you can get a hold of the Via's please use them for this recipe.  Does this work in an ice cream machine?  Yes. Just add in the chopped cookies at the last 3-4 minutes of churning.  I added in a lot of chopped oreo's, if you don't like a lot, then add in less.

In a medium bowl, mix all the ingredients until all is dissolved.
Make sure the condensed milk is well mixed in and doesn't just sink to the bottom.
Do a taste-test and see how you like it.
Pour into a freeze-safe glass or other bowl that has a tight fitting cover.  Place the chopped oreo's on top, don't push down, just let them stay on top; some will sink to bottom, some won't.
I used a large glass bowl that has a tight fitting lid.
Let freeze for 2-3 hours.
Makes about 1 & ½ pints, roughly?

friday links

Happy Friday!


So this little nugget of goodness made the most popular rounds on my Instagram account.
It was really good.  Coffee-Oreo ice cream with extra jimmies.
That photo is like 3D.


Umm, speaking of ice cream  Hello Haagen Daz!
Please send this to me!


And for a healthier choice to ice cream, try this Coconut Bliss dark chocolate bars.
I had no idea they were that good; tastes like a fudgesicle only better. And way less fat, without
sacrificing taste.


Did I ever tell you how much I love the owner of the cape cod dairy queen?
I know you've seen me post his other messages.


Sometimes living on cape cod does have it's perks.
This guy here is a 2.5 pounder and he was delish!


That cocktail sauce will put hair on your chest!
Seafood from Cape Fish & Lobster.


My mimosa tree is blooming!
During Hurricane Sandy I lost half the tree and didn't think he would make it,
but so far he's bouncing back ok. Not perfectly and it's still half a tree but I just
can't cut him down at this point.


It was national hot dog day. Did you celebrate?  LOL
Here is my version of quick & easy cheese corn dogs.
I used Trader Joe's cornbread mix as the batter, and added some cheese to it.
Came out perfectly.  Super crispy.
Make sure to pick up Trader Joe's corn relish to serve with these.


My peanut butter-fudge puddle cookies were very popular this week.
Were you guys craving them?


My morning glory muffins were also one of the most D/L recipes of the week.

around the web:

DIY fondant lobster cake topper
chocolate donuts with chocolate glaze
dog almost passes out from overwhelming joy (SO cute!)
deadly plague spreading in colorado
four seasons bora bora is my #1 item on my bucket list
maine wild blueberry pie recipe (can someone please get me some Maine wild blueberries?
They make the best blueberry pies ever!)
4 ways to preserve blueberries 
(also, on my Facebook page, we talked about freezing blueberries,
best tips, etc...and I received some of the best tips from my readers.
So thank you...all for that! I love talking to you all!)
greenheads: the beast of the northern wild
man has eaten pizza everyday for 25 years
DIY butterfly feeder
confronting others: for their sake or yours?
how to repair your cracked iphone
how to make a chocolate chip cookie for one
tell me more about chia seeds?
lois lee's icebox pickles
DIY fondant lobster tutorial (cute)
homemade fiddle stix & magic shell
diet & activities to help prevent aging
awkward pregnancy photos of all time (yikes)
tropical ice cream terrine
DIY homemade butter in 4 easy steps
how to get rid of wrinkles without an iron
10 ways to beat menopausal belly fat
roundup of summer salsa's from Whole Foods
great summary of the best & worst coconut waters
I LOVE this Whole30 as the best nutritional plan
sensible exercises/yoga poses for the belly
is it ok to use sprouted garlic?
telemarketer pesticide
11 fool proof steps for perfect salsa verde
9 signs you need more fat
horace & the rough stuff fellowship (wonderful video of Iceland via mountain bike travels)
the best & worst sleeping positions
doctor's secret weapon against back pain (LOVE this!)
elderberry sauce recipe (I've never had elderberries, have you?)
emotion tracking calendar to track how good or bad your month went
tolerating what you hate
I'm feeling lucky! Lucky numbers for a healthier life.
a yearning for the wild
best sources of iodine
rainbow cookie cake
wonderful shortcut on tempering chocolate (from America's Test Kitchen)
apricot & cherry tart w/ marzipan topping



Have a wonderful weekend!