Crana-cinna-berry bars

I saw this recipe on another food blog recently and it looked so yummy.  I love baking, but I'm not to a point yet where I'm creating my own recipes.  I just copy from others.  Maybe down the road I'll be a little braver.  What intrigued me most about this recipe was that it called for cinnamon chips.  I didn't even know such a thing existed!  What I also liked about this is that you don't have to mix anything together.  It's all layers.  I did recently receive a brand new Bosch mixer as a wedding gift.  Forget the fact that I got married 2 years ago.  I would gladly receive anything Bosch any day.  My parents had offered to get me a Bosch mixer for a wedding present, but after my husband and I got married, our first two dwellings did not have the counter or cupboard space for such a mixer.  I had to move to Idaho to get that mixer.  Why did I bring up the mixer? Oh yeah, because I just said that you didn't need to mix anything together.  I would have gladly gotten out my new mixer to mix though.  

What I did have to do was take advantage of my lil' Miss Z catching her zzzzz's to get all the ingredients ready.  I'm really a fan of having everything measured out before I begin cooking/baking.  That way I can just dump things in.  It makes it especially easier if I've got a little girl hanging on my leg.  I had to do a little grinding of nuts (pecans) and graham crackers, but everything else was a breeze.

 Ingredients: butter, graham cracker crumbs, sweetened condensed milk, shredded coconut, cinnamon chips, white chocolate chips, chopped pecans, dried cranberries

 Once lil' Miss Z did wake up, this is how she helped Mommy bake.

 And then my husband came home and had fun with the graham cracker crumbs.

 Melt the butter, pour it in the bottom of a 9X13 pan and then press the graham cracker crumbs on top of it.  I should have pressed mine a little more firmly because they were pretty messy coming out of the pan.

 Pour the sweetened condensed milk on top of that.  Ya know, I've noticed that in our culture, we really only use sweetened condensed milk for baking.  In other countries, they put it on fruit, shaved ice, lots of yummy things.  We need to branch out.

 And then you layer the cinnamon chips, white chocolate chips, pecans, coconut, and cranberries.

 Bake in a 350 oven for 25-30 minutes and then let it cool completely before cutting.  I baked mine for 25 minutes and the only complaint I have is that the edges got real hard.  I don't know how to keep that from happening.  I think it's the milk seeping its way to the top.  It's a beast to try to get out of the pan too.  As I type this, my pan is soaking so that I can get the remnants of that crusted-on milk out.

I actually feel a tiny bit healthy eating these.  Probably because of the nuts and the fruit.  Sweetened condensed milk, white chocolate and butter generally don't have that effect on me.

Crana-cinna-berry bars

(from Our Best Bites)

1/2 c real butter, melted

1 and 1/2 c graham cracker crumbs (it's 10 crackers, or one whole cellophane wrapped package)

1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk

1 1/4 c shredded coconut

1 c cinnamon chips

1 c white chocolate chips

1/2 c chopped pecans

1/2 c dried cranberries (try to get fresher ones - mine were a little old and the baking made them even chewier)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Pour butter into a 9X13" pan and spread with a spatula to cover the entire bottom of the pan.  Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over butter and spread into an even layer.  Press down gently, but firmly, with your fingertips.  Pour the sweetened condensed milk evenly over the crumbs.  Continue to layer each of the following: cinnamon chips, white chocolate chips, coconut, pecans, and cranberries.  Press down gently with fingertips over the entire pan.  

Bake for 25-30 minutes until slightly golden on top.  Let bars cool completely before cutting.  

Diamond's Nutty Chocolate Caramel Bars

The other day, I was getting some water out of our water filter, and was thinking about how long it'd been since I'd posted a recipe on this blog.  I don't currently have a set schedule to post on here and basically just post whenever I'm feeling creative in the kitchen.  As I stood drinking my water, I noticed that next to the water filter was a bag of Diamond walnuts.  They had been in our freezer for the longest time and I finally had to take them out to make room for food that actually needs to be frozen, you know, like ice cream.  On the back of the bag I saw a couple recipes.  The bag itself was about half empty and so had been rolled down and clothes pinned (yep, no actual food bag clips for us) to ensure freshness.  Well, one of the recipes caught my eye (words like chocolate and caramel tend to stick out to me), and I unrolled the rest of the bag to see what this recipe was all about.  I'm normally not a fan of nuts in my desserts, but I decided to test this recipe out.  Yummy is all I have to say.

Begin by combining flour, oats, brown sugar, soda and salt.  I almost forgot to add the salt.  I thought this first mixture looked a bit like horse feed.  Don't worry, it gets better.

 Then you add melted butter to it.  Now it really looks like horse feed.

 That mixture gets pressed into an ungreased 9X13 pan and baked for 15 minutes.  While that was baking, I prepared the next ingredients: chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, a cup of the above crumb mixture and caramel sauce.

 Notice the color of the caramel sauce in the above picture.  Now look at it below.  No, that's not a camera or lighting problem.  You add 1/3 cup of flour to the caramel sauce.  My caramel sauce (which was really a butterscotch/caramel sauce), had been in the fridge, so I nuked it about 30 seconds to get it to a runnier consistency.

 When the crust comes out of the oven, you sprinkle the chocolate chips and the walnuts over it.

 Then the caramel sauce.

 Then the rest of the crumb mixture.

 Throw it back in the oven for 20-25 minutes and you get this.  I deem this a healthy dessert because 1) it's got oats in it and 2) it's got nuts in it.  So feel good about yourself when you eat it.  Have it for breakfast!  Have it for dinner!  Most of all, enjoy it!

Diamond's Nutty Chocolate Caramel Bars
(Makes 2 and 1/2 dozen bars)  <---Really, that depends on how big/small you cut the pieces.

2 and 1/3 c. flour, divided
2 c. old fashioned oats
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. melted butter
2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 and 1/2 c. Diamond walnuts, chopped
1 c. (12.25 oz. jar) caramel ice cream topping

Combine 2 cups flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.  Add butter; stir until all ingredients are moistened.  Reserve 1 cup crumb mixture; press remaining mixture into bottom of ungreased 9X13 inch baking pan.  Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.  Remove from oven; sprinkle with morsels and walnuts.  Combine caramel topping and remaining 1/3 cup flour in small bowl; drizzle over base.  Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.  Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes more or until browned.  Cool in pan.  Cut as big of pieces as you want.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

These cookies have long time been one of my absolute favorites, yet I can't believe that I'd never made them before.  In my hometown, there is a fabulous cookie place called The Cookie Tree.  They make those big soft cookies that I can never seem to duplicate at home.  My favorite from The Cookie Tree was the chocolate crinkle w/no nuts.  I'm not a fan of nuts in baked goods.  They're delicious by themselves, but I just don't care for them in my delectable foods.  The Cookie Tree also has this promotion where if you get pictures of their cookies in far away places and then submit that picture to them, you get a dozen free cookies.  My mom sent me a dozen of these chocolate crinkle cookies to me while I was serving a mission for my church in Taiwan.  Then when she came to visit me at the end of my mission, she brought another dozen.  I know we got pictures of them in Taiwan, but I don't know that we ever submitted those pictures.  Too late?  Mom!  Get on it!

Anyhow, on with the recipe.  I got the recipe for these chocolate crinkles here.  Be careful though because the recipe listed at that site is for 6 dozen cookies.  Ok, maybe "be careful" is the wrong phrase. I mean, who wouldn't want 6 dozen of these cookies?  I decided to halve the recipe.  I knew that having that many cookies around here could be dangerous.  Halving the recipe should have left me with 3 dozen cookies, right?  Somehow I barely got 2 dozen.  And this is not the type of cookie dough I am likely to snack on either.  Maybe I made them too big.  Here it goes:

Cream together the following:

1/2 c. cocoa powder

1 c. sugar

1/4 c. oil

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

It will look like what you see below.  And yes, I do all this by hand.  We're supposed to get a Bosch soon.

And then add in the following:

1 c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

(The recipe at Allrecipes.com suggests mixing the dry ingredients together first before adding them to the wet ingredients.  That's not something I do.  You may do as you wish.)

 After you mix in the dry stuff, you'll get a consistency almost like thick cake batter.  Really thick cake batter.

Usually when I bake or cook, I've got my little daughter hanging on my leg.  I decided to give her some toys to play with while I did this recipe and it kept her entertained for a good little bit.

Then you chill the dough for a good 4 hours.  I transferred the dough to a smaller bowl so it wouldn't take up as much room in my fridge.  I ended up chilling the dough for 24 hours too.  By the time the initial 4 hours was up, it was late and I was too tired.

 After a good chill, the dough is harder and moldable with your hands.  Take spoonfuls of the dough, roll them in balls and then in powdered sugar.  

 Place on a lined cookie sheet.

 Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350.  

 Cookies as far as the eye can see!  Yummy!

Ok, so here's the recipe again, not all broken up by pictures:

Cream together:
1/2 c. cocoa powder
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. oil
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Add in:
1 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Chill dough for at least 4 hours in the fridge.  After done chilling, preheat oven to 350.  Roll dough into balls and then in powdered sugar.  Place on a lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.

We're taking a road trip this weekend so I'm excited to have these with us!  Enjoy!  Oh, and choc it up!

My Chocolate Chip Cookies

I thought it appropriate that the first official recipe I post on this blog is my very favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I have been making these cookies since I was about 10 years old and have the recipe memorized so I can't even tell you where I first got it.  Growing up, Sundays were a day for me to bake.  It took me awhile before I perfected this recipe, as I always seemed to put too many chocolate chips in.  Yeah, big problem, I know.  One tradition I did have when making this cookie dough at home was that I would bring my mom a spoonful of the finished dough, you know, quality check.  Whenever I'm at home visiting now, if I make cookie dough, she still holds the honor of having the first bite.  I've shared this recipe with countless friends, yet whenever I make these cookies, I'm reminded of my friend Alicia.  She loves, no LOVES, this cookie dough.  Many a weekend we've spent together with cookie dough and The Princess Bride or Grease.  She had a cabin that we would frequent over the summers and somehow, hmmmm, yes, somehow we always had the necessary ingredients for these cookies.  Nothing like cookie dough in the woods to bring it all together.

The fantastic thing about this recipe, aside from how both the dough and the finished product taste, is how simple the recipe is.  I've seen various other chocolate chip cookie recipes that have all sorts of different measurements for the sugar and the flour, etc.  This recipes is mainly whole cups and teaspoons.  Please observe*.

1 cup sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Cream the above ingredients and then add:

3 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt (could you imagine what a whole teaspoon would do?)

Mix in the dry ingredients until almost all mixed. 

And then you add the chocolate chips, 1 and 1/2 cups.  That's the trick to this recipe.

Also, I've always kept my chocolate chips in the freezer and I think adding cold chocolate chips enhances the cookie dough.

Mix all those chocolatey nuggets of goodness in and be sure that all the dry ingredients have been thoroughly mixed with the wet ingredients.

Bake at 325 for 12-15 minutes.  I prefer my cookies a little on the underdone side while my husband likes them a little more crispy.  Find what you like and go with it.  Most of all, please enjoy the homemade goodness.

* Someday I may be able to set this up so that you can click a link and print the recipe, but for now, you'll just have to copy and paste, or memorize.  Good luck!

Introduction

I am a chocolate lover, through and through.  There's never been a time in my life when I haven't loved chocolate.  There have been certain types of chocolates that I haven't liked (Taiwan, for example, doesn't have good chocolate; Germany does).  This blog is dedicated to chocolate.  I hope you can find something on here that you like so that you, too, can expand your world of chocolate.