Tag Archives: chocolate

Chewy Chocolate Almond Bars

A bar cookie with chocolate and toffee? Hmm…okay! I got this recipe for Chewy Chocolate Almond Bars when I ended up scooping up a bag of Heath English Milk Chocolate Toffee Bits in my baking aisle madness, loading bag after bag of different flavored chips into my cart only to realize after I got home that I didn’t have a recipe planned for these (in addition to a bag of white chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips which still sit sad and lonely on my kitchen counter). So I went scouring Hershey’s website looking for something that stopped me in my tracks and I found these. Really, it was the almonds that sold me. And the chocolate. And the toffee.

A simple chocolate shortbread dough is the base of these bar cookies which is baked slightly and then covered with a bubbly hot mixture of milk chocolate toffee bits, light corn syrup and sliced almonds. Back into the oven it goes where the toffee mixture gets even more ooey and gooey and when it comes out of the oven bubbling like lava, you are left saying “ahhh…look at that”. The hard part is waiting and waiting and waiting for these cookies to cool COMPLETELY to cut them into perfect squares. The chewy topping is the winner here and shortbread base sort of disappears under the gooey madness on top. If you like toffee, these should be a homerun for you.

The ingredients:

Beat butter and sugar until thoroughly blended. Stir together flour and cocoa; beat into butter mixture.

Press dough evenly into a greased 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Bake in a 350°F oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until edges are set.

Meanwhile, combine toffee bits and corn syrup in medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until toffee is melted (about 15 minutes).

Stir in 3/4 cup almonds.

Spread toffee mixture to within 1/4-inch of edges of crust. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup almonds.

Bake an additional 15 minutes or until bubbly. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

Cut into bars.

Additions: None

Omissions: None

Substitutions: None

Overall Rating: Like It

Source: Hershey’s Kitchens website

Chunk Wild Cookies

December 17, 2012
Shannon
0 comments
chocolate, cookies, dessert, nuts, oatmeal, peanut butter

It’s cookie week! Christmas is just about a week away and we all want cookies for Christmas, right? I can’t tell you how many people I talked to the last couple of days who spent their weekend doing the same as me – mixing, stirring, dropping, baking, cooling, cutting and eating cookie after cookie. My entire dining room table is right now filled with plates of cookies, tins of cookies, boxes of cookies and there are even some cookies in my refrigerator. This first cookie I’m sharing with you, Chunk Wild Cookies, I first made around Thanksgiving and loved them so much, I made a whole other batch again on Saturday.

Oatmeal and white chocolate chips are blended until ground and mixed into the batter giving every bite a white chocolate-oatmeal undertone. The addition of peanut butter chips, semisweet chocolate chips, and walnuts make these cookies even more decadent. If your preference is oatmeal cookies, peanut butter cookies or chocolate-chip cookies you’ll probably like these which are a combination of all three. Just be warned, the dough is thick so be prepared to use some elbow grease mixing in all those chips and it makes A LOT. I used a cookie dough scoop and it made about 4 dozen decent sized cookies. Make them smaller and the dough will easily give you 5 dozen. But don’t worry…these are soo good, they’ll all get eaten.

Just a warning – NONE of the cookies I post this week are healthy or lowfat…sorry!

The ingredients:

Beat together the butter, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

Using a blender or food processor, process the oats with the white chocolate until the oats are finely ground, and the chocolate is mostly ground; a few small chunks are OK.

Add the oats and flour to the butter mixture, then stir in the peanut butter chips, chocolate chips, and chopped walnuts.

Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls, 2″ apart, onto the prepared baking sheets.

Bake the cookies in a 375°F heated oven for about 12 minutes, until they’re just set.

Additions: None

Omissions: None

Substitutions: None

Overall Rating: Love It

Source: King Arthur Flour website

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

As I’m sure you’ve heard, the northeast is getting pummeled by Hurricane Sandy right now. This is the second hurricane that has hit the Philadelphia area in a little more than a year and for those of us not used to it, it is two too many. As I write this, I still have power but considering I lost power for days last year with Hurricane Irene, I’m fully expecting to lose power again. I’m a little more prepared this year though: I’ve loaded my kitchen table with my emergency necessities (which you can see here – and yes, that includes bourbon) and I have a flashlight this time which will prevent me from using my iPhone to see in the dark (and hopefully reduce my risk of dropping said iPhone into the toilet à la last year). Because losing power is inevitable, I had to make food this past weekend that wouldn’t require refrigeration. Which means I’ll be eating these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins for days.

Canned pumpkin and mini chocolate chips are mixed into a simple muffin batter to create a moist, light, flavorful treat. These muffins have a lot of butter and sugar so they are not low-fat but given my circumstances of enduring the hurricane, I’ve got more to worry about right now than calories. The recipe calls for 3 to 4 cups of flour but I only used 3 cups and it was plenty. This batter is thick and makes puffy muffins like the kind you see in bakeries – yum. I used mini chocolate chips which I’ve come to love more than regular chocolate chips. These muffins are really, really good. I just hope I’m not sick of them by Wednesday.

The ingredients:

Blend the pumpkin, brown sugar, butter, and eggs in a large bowl mix until creamy.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour through nutmeg). Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until combined when batter is moist and thick.