Mississippi Mud Bars

I think I have about a dozen different Mississippi Mud Recipes saved to my computer. I don't think one of those recipes is similar to the next one, so I honestly don't know what the 'true' Mississippi Mud Bar recipe is. All I know is these are good. Quite good really and really worth making again.

When I made these, I didn't have pecans and as an afterthought I added chopped cashews to the top, but the frosting had kind of set and so I had to squish them down to keep them from rolling away, so it's best to put them between the marshmallow and frosting so they stay in place.

Recipe from Real Mom Kitchen.

Ingredients

1 C. Butter
1/2 C. Semisweet Chocolate Chips
2 C. Sugar
1 1/2 C. Flour
1/2 C. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
4 Eggs
1 Tsp. Vanilla
3/4 Tsp. Salt

1 Bag (10.5oz) Mini Marshmallows

1 C. chopped pecans (optional), or any other desired nuts

Frosting:
1/4 C. Butter
2 1/2 Tbsp. Unsweetened Cocoa
2 1/2 Tbsp. Milk
2 C. Icing Sugar
1/2 Tsp. Vanilla

Directions

~Preheat oven to 350 F

~Melt butter and chocolate chips in a large pot over low heat, stirring until smooth

~Remove from heat and add in sugar, flour, cocoa, eggs, vanilla and salt. Stir to combine

~Pour batter into a greased 9x13 pan

~Bake for 20 minutes

~Remove from oven and sprinkle marshmallows over and return to bake for 5 minutes until marshmallows have puffed

~Remove from oven and sprinkle with nuts if desired

~In a large saucepan, combine butter, cocoa and milk, and heat until combined

~Beat in icing sugar and vanilla until smooth

~Spoon into a piping bag or freezer bag (snipping the corner) and pipe over bars (while marshmallows are still warm (but not right out of the oven, wait approximately 10 minutes)

~Cut into squares

Enjoy!

Truffles

Recipe from Anna Olson, Food Network.

So did I tell you about the time my guard dog failed to guard and my chocolates were stolen by a horrible thief?

Nope, well here it is.

Fridge space is very very hard to come by at my house. When Christmas rolls around you are taking your life in your hands to open the fridge and freezer door. Make sure your feet are way back or they could get squished by some falling container. So we have to resort to putting things in coolers in the garage. If we're lucky enough it's cool enough to put things out on our deck where we have a glass table. After Christmas dinner this table can be entirely filled with platters of food. If it snows we've been known to put milk jugs, juice cartons and beer bottles into the snow to cool.

Our typical winter temperature are usually around 5 Celsius and rain, but we can get a cold spell for a week or two a year where we get -10 Celsius and snow. We hope for around Christmas time we don't get a Pineapple Express that brings us 10-15 Celsius temps because then our natural refrigerator is not possible and we have to fight with coolers in the garage.

So anyway, the first time I made these we were having one of those cold spells. I made the chocolates and put the cookie sheets out on the outside table and covered them with towels to keep any bugs off them. While our house backs onto the forest, we've never had any animals up on our deck, as it's a second story deck and they'd have to climb a flight of stairs. Simply put, we'd never had a problem leaving food outside.

We went to bed that night and woke up the following morning to see that the towels had blown off the cookie sheets. When we went outside we saw that the truffles were no longer lined up in neat rows on the sheets, but instead were all scattered like they'd been blown around. Upon closer inspection we realized that chocolates were missing.

We'd had many days of heavy frost in a row and it looked like a light dusting of snow had laid on the deck and when we walked over to the stairs we could see little foot prints tracking up and down the stairs.

Yup, a racoon walked up the stairs, stole my truffles, walked back down and then turned around and did it all again. Or at least that's what their tracks say.

Now we keep everything on the chest freezers in the garage when the weather turns cool enough to keep things cool.

The first time I made, I could not get these to roll. The original recipe called for 1 to 1 heavy cream to chocolate, but they would not harden enough for me to roll. I just picked them up in my hand and got an instant pool of chocolate mush. I ended up rolling them standing outside in -10 Celsius weather trying to not let them warm up. Then the racoon happened so I had to make them again.

Second time I decided to reduce the cream, realizing that the chocolate was the only thing hardening, so I needed to have more of that than 1:1. If you used bittersweet chocolate like the recipe originally called for, I'm sure the 1:1 ratio would work because bittersweet chocolate is harder.

Third time I did these, I did some reading I changed up the method again to be what I've listed here.

The first time I made these the racoon happened.
The second time I made these I had dipping chocolate that I've always used but the quality of it had really decreased and the inside of the truffles tastes so good and of a high quality and the outside was just not good.
Now I use good chocolate outside and it makes all the difference.
Technically truffles don't need to be dipped, but I find that these become way too soft if you don't and just become a pool of mush. I've rolled them in cocoa instead, but cocoa is so bitter on it's own and it really doesn't work. I'd recommend mixing the cocoa with powdered sugar if you're rolling instead of dipping. But I like to dip because you can decorate them differently with different toppings / designs so you can identify what each flavour is.

How I flavour mine / mark them:

Orange extract with grated orange zest sprinkled on top right after dipping
Frangelico Liqueur with coconut sprinkled on top right after dipping
Vanilla extract with a dab of white chocolate on top of milk dipped chocolates

I really want to try a raspberry flavoured one next.

But flavouring isn't essential and you could just leave them as is. The flavour isn't overpowering though, so it doesn't take away from the chocolate flavour. The vanilla is pretty mild and I found that I really couldn't differentiate between the vanilla flavoured and the unflavoured ones.

Try this link for some hints on flavouring truffles.

The easiest method I've come up with through a lot of trial and error to dip chocolate is to place each chocolate individually into a bowl of melted chocolate and scoop from underneath with a carving fork (one with two long prongs). The chocolate perches on top and the space between the two prongs allows excess chocolate to drain away with a bit of a tap on the edge of the bowl. I then transfer to fork to the cookie sheet and using a toothpick (or the long metal toothpicks we have for sealing up a turkey / checking cakes to see if they're cooked) scoop from underneath the truffle and ease it off the fork. This gets the most undisturbed sides and tops of the truffles, so no holes or scuffs on the sides like have happened with other methods for me.

I really see why chocolate shops charge $1 per truffle. These take an incredible amount of time to make and using good ingredients is pricy. Ingredients along cost me probably $0.30 a truffle if not more and that was with watching for chocolate to go on sale. So it's cheaper than buying truffles at a specialty shop, but the time might make it not such a good deal. Then again, I'd never go out and buy 5 1/2 dozen specialty truffles to give away because of price, so I feel like it's a good return for these to give as gifts. I also made little boxes to put these in with Xmas wrapping paper, and then little mini Xmas muffin cup liners to place each individual chocolate in.

Makes 5 1/2 Dozen Truffles

Ingredients

1 3/4 C. Heavy Cream

16 oz. Semi-Sweet Chocolate (I use 2 boxes, Baker's Semi-Sweet Chocolate)

1 Tbsp. Liqueur or Extract (Optional)

~Orange

~Raspberry

~Vanilla

~Hazelnut

Good quality chocolate for dipping.

Directions

~Chop chocolate finely and place into large bowl

~Bring cream to a simmer, while being careful not to burn.

~Pour over shaved chocolate.

~With a spatula, mix together. It takes a bit, but continue to mix. Chocolate will begin to melt and eventually cream and chocolate will combine together into a smooth ganache.

~If flavouring, divide equally into separate bowls. A whole batch of this needs 1 tbsp of flavouring. So 3 bowls would each need 1 tsp of flavouring

~Cover with plastic wrap and chill

~Once chilled, bring one bowl at a time out of fridge and using two spoons, scoop out a small dollop of ganache and form into a rough ball shape and place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. Work quickly so it doesn't warm up.

~If you have a second person, they can roll the rough balls into formed balls with a quick roll of their hands, making sure to limit the time in your hands. If working alone, place tray back into the fridge and chill before rolling into formed balls.

~Repeat with remaining bowls of ganache

~Place finished truffle balls on cookie sheets into freezer and freeze through.

~Melt dipping chocolate and bring out truffles in small batches to dip.

~Dip and place onto fresh waxed paper lined cookie sheets. Cool in fridge to set.

Truffles should be stored in refrigerator and can be eaten chilled or brought to room temperature before serving.

They do freeze and taste good frozen, but you don't get the creamy / gooey effect when biting into them, and they have a habit of sweating upon thawing which sometimes occurs and sometimes doesn't and it really has seemed to depend on the type of chocolate / humidity levels at the time. So test before relaying on them to look perfect out of the freezer. 

Enjoy!!

Chocolate (Truffle) Stuffed Strawberries

Well, I feel like a broken record saying this yet again, but our oven broke AGAIN! They are just such useless junk. In under a year and a half, we've had SIX ovens rotate through our kitchen (and four dishwashers but that's a story for another day). Anyway, in between number five which was the one we'd had for maybe 16-17 months (and it never worked properly from day one, I might add), and it blowing up, and number six (the loaner from the appliance store while they put on every imaginable brake so they could delay fixing the oven for the 3rd time), I had to take something for a potluck. Unfortunately, unlike the last stretch of 5-6 months without an oven, it was just that, no oven. We still had a functioning stove top. This time however it fried everything and nothing would work. So long story short, I guess technically now we've had seven ovens move into the kitchen (they finally fixed ours and it's back) and these strawberries are amazing. Which is really all anybody cares about right?

I was originally going to do chocolate dipped strawberries. Then I saw a Pinterest post on how they did reverse chocolate strawberries, where they filled the inside with the chocolate. One thing lead to another and I eventually saw truffle stuffed strawberries on some google treasure hunt. So I used my go-to truffle / ganache recipe that I discovered last Xmas (I don't think I've posted it yet but that's probably because there is most definitely a story to go with that one, and I've been lacking enough time lately to do it justice). Until that time however, the recipe is a slight modification on Anna Olson's Truffles.

Standing each berry up in a plastic wrap lined egg carton was the easiest way to fill these when the ganache was still liquidy. Just spoon it into a piping bag and pipe away. Once it's set though, we just took a spoon and scooped out the hardened truffle and crammed it in (with force) into the hollowed out berry. This way wasn't as pretty, but by that point it was my leftovers and I wasn't presenting them to anybody but myself.

One warning, I made these the night before and then day of had them sit out of the fridge for a couple of hours in a fairly warm room. The juice from the strawberries and the cream created a brown juice that pooled in the bottom of the egg cartons and while they hadn't turned or tasted off in any way, it just wasn't as pretty looking.

On a side note, to provide some contrast I also had some raspberries. In the centre of each one I'd inserted a single chocolate chip upside down (pointed side sticking into the berry) and they looked lke mini versions of these strawberries.

Ingredients

8 oz. Semi-Sweet Chocolate

3/4 C. + 2 Tbsp. (Total 7/8 C.) Heavy Cream
1/2 Tbsp. Vanilla
4 Doz. Strawberries (medium-large), washed and hulled

Directions

~Finely chop chocolate and place in a medium glass bowl

~Heat cream until it just begins to boil.

~Pour cream over chocolate and stir until it melts and is combined

~Allow to cool slightly, while you hull and wash the strawberries

~Line egg cartons with plastic wrap

~Pat strawberries dry and place one in each hole in the egg carton

~Using a piping bag, pipe ganache into each strawberry

~Place in fridge to set

Enjoy!

The Brownie Recipe - Chewy, Ooey, Gooey

Sorry, no picture for this one (is one really needed for a brownie anyway? We all know exactly what they look like, or rather, what they are supposed to look like). By the time I realized that this was the exact recipe I was looking for to call my best brownie recipe, the brownie was no longer worthy of being photographed. I mean, I guess I could go and snap a picture right now of the one remaining corner piece, but I think that saying that there is only one piece remaining says a lot more than a picture ever would.

I just wanted a basic brownie recipe. Was that too much to ask for? One that was gooey and fudgey and had very little flour and cakeyness to it. I also didn't want to add anything to it to make it gooey, like marshmallows. I just wanted a brownie. Well I found it!

I looked through the dozens and dozens of brownie recipes I have saved, to come to two conclusions. 1) 99% of the brownie recipes I have saved, all have something special done to them. Oreos, s'mores, rocky road, nutella, etc., and 2) the two recipes that were just plain old brownies, happened to be the exact same recipe. So armed with the knowledge that at least two people found this recipe to be worthwhile and posted it, I set out to make them, and I'm glad I did. It was so good. Like make your teeth hurt sweet, which is absolutely perfect.

I did change up the sugars a bit, like a lot of the reviewers commented they did. Instead of using 3 C. of white sugar, I did half and half of brown and white. I'm sure it would be great any way, but I know this way was delicious.

Recipe from All Recipes

Ingredients

1 C. Butter, melted

1 1/2 C. Sugar

1 1/2 C. Brown Sugar

4 Tsp. Vanilla

4 Eggs

1 1/2 C. Flour

1 C. Cocoa

1 Tsp. Salt

1 C. Chocolate Chips

Directions

~Preheat oven to 350 F and grease a 9x13 pan

~Combine butter, sugars and vanilla and whisk to combine. Add in eggs and whisk until incorporated

~Stir together flour, cocoa and salt in a separate bowl.

~Add dry into wet and stir until mixed.

~Stir in chocolate chips

~Spread into pan

~Bake for 30 minutes

Enjoy

Pudding Cookies

This is another one of those recipes I have copied down from two different spots at two different times and go back to find out they are the same recipe.

I double this recipe and so that means you use two packages of pudding. The recipe calls for vanilla, but I usually don't have two of the same flavours on hand at the same time. So I have ended up making vanilla-lemon one time, and vanilla-chocolate another. Both good, but I think I'll stick with the vanilla-lemon or vanilla-vanilla combo, just because the cookies are supposed to be chocolate chip cookies with a kick. As soon as you add the chocolate pudding, it makes them look like you've added cocoa to them, and in my eyes, that's a totally different cookie.

It's taken me awhile to type this up, and I'm realizing I didn't mark down how many cookies this made (it was a lot) or how much chocolate chips I added. Oops. The original recipe calls for a 12 oz bag of chips, so I'll just put that, but because I scoop from the Costco size box, I always measure in cups not bags. So I'm guessing it was somewhere between 1 and 2 cups, but that's completely dependent on chocolate preference, etc. Just do what you want. I'm also realizing that there is no salt in this recipe. Which is really strange. Hmm

Recipe from Kraft Foods

Ingredients

1 C. Butter

3/4 C. Brown Sugar

1/4 C. White Sugar

1 Pkg. (4 serving size) Instant Vanilla Pudding

1 Tsp. Vanilla

2 Eggs

2 1/4 C. Flour

1 Tsp. Baking Soda

1 12 oz Bag Chocolate Chips

Directions

~Preheat oven to 375 F

~Cream together butter and sugars.

~Add in pudding and vanilla, then the eggs.

~Mix in the flour and baking soda

~Stir in the chips

~Drop onto cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

~Cool on rack.

Enjoy

Uber Thick & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I think I have done it! I have finally tracked down the best chewy chocolate chip cookie out there. They look beautiful, they are thick (there is a trick I've never tried before and it worked perfectly) and they have almost too much chocolate in them. I did say almost.

This recipe utilizes cornstarch, which is something I have tried before and it does make them chewier. Up until today, I thought that this recipe was my favourite chocolate chip cookie. When I actually compare the recipe it is pretty much identical except for a few small tweaks. I guess I know what ratio of ingredients I like in my cookies. One of these being, I like more brown sugar to white sugar as it gives it a fuller flavour in my eyes.

But, this wasn't the only thing different than other cookies out there. It used melted butter and an extra egg yolk which is new to me for cookie recipes. I was very intrigued from the very beginning when I saw this recipe and knew I had to give it a go.

All that aside, what is even more great is that they turned out to be really thick and they were dense and almost cakey. I followed the instructions that said to roll the dough into balls and make them slightly taller than they are wide. So when they bake they stay thick. I rolled the dough into a ball in my hands and then just gave the ball a quick one sided roll between my hands again to form it into more of a cylinder. I then placed it on the cookie sheet and pushed it down a bit from the top so it would have a flat bottom and not roll onto its side during transportation over to the oven. It worked beautifully. I made these a second time though and just rolled them into a normal ball, and the cookies still turned out incredibly thick as well, they just didn't have that little extra oomph. So either way really works.

The only thing I did differently from the original recipe is, like always, I increased the amount of vanilla.

One mistake I did make was on my 3rd cookie sheet I put in the oven (I had made a double batch) I had two extra cookie dough balls. Not wanting to deal with having to clean up one of my already used sheets for just 2 cookies I decided to rearrange and try to cram these extras onto the sheet. Unfortunately, my 3rd cookie sheet is the smaller of them all and it was already crammed to begin with. When I pulled them out of the oven it looked like I had make chocolate chip cookie monkey bread. It all tasted the same, but as a warning, because these are rolled taller, they appear like you can squish them onto a cookie sheet because they don't take up as much of a footprint when unbaked. Just remember that they do spread (even though they still are thick), so watch for that.

Warning, if you like crunchy, well baked cookies stay away. You've been warned.

This amazing recipe is from Sally's Baking Addiction.

Makes 2 1/2-3 dozen cookies

Ingredients

2 1/4 C. Flour

1 Tsp. Baking Soda

1 1/2 Tsp. Cornstarch

1/2 Tsp. Salt

3/4 C. Butter, melted

3/4 C. Brown Sugar, loosely packed

1/2 C. White Sugar

1 Egg + 1 Egg Yolk

2 1/4 Tsp. Vanilla

1 C. Chocolate Chips

Directions

~Combine dry ingredients (flour, soda, cornstarch & salt) in a medium bowl. Toss to combine.

~In a large bowl whisk together butter and sugars until the sugars have dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined.

~Pour dry ingredients into wet and mix by hand.

~Add chocolate chips and mix in.

~Refrigerate for a couple of hours (I ran out of time and they sat over night in the fridge).

~Preheat oven to 325 F.

~Roll dough into balls and then shape into taller cylinders so they are taller than they are wide. Place on cookie sheet.

~Bake for 8-10 minutes or until they just begin the turn golden around the edges. Centre will still be soft and unbaked.

Enjoy

Gooey S'more Brownies-1st Blogiversary!

I'm back! It felt good to be back in the kitchen after 7 weeks away. Now I can say I was in Europe, and let me tell you, there is two very important things the Europeans don't do well, Brownies & Chocolate Chip Cookies. They have biscuits, and the one brownie I had (no it wasn't in Amsterdam) was supposed to be the 'to die for brownie' but it really wasn't. Kinda disappointing considering I thought I had hit the jackpot when I found it on my Birthday and opted for it over a slice of cake. I made it home and my first day I avoided the kitchen, not because I wanted to, but because I had a lot of stuff to do. Day two though and I was back. I was just going to make some Toll House Cookies, because they had really turned out well the last time I made them in the new oven. But then I started thinking about Brownies, and there really wasn't any further internal debating needed. So S'more Brownies it was because I miraculously had all the specialty ingredients needed and they weren't even old and stale.

But now I'm posting this to you on my one year Blogiversary. Which is pretty cool. If you want the whole sentimental spiel about me and blogging you should check out my 100th post. I really don't have anything else to say that I didn't say there. Especially because I've been out of the loop for awhile now.

They tasted amazing. I would not recommend removing them from the pan though until they are absolutely cooled. The bottom layer even slightly warm was just a mush of brownie pudding. But oh so tasty brownie pudding. I really liked my silicone baking dish for this one though. Because of the marshmallows in it and all the sugars, I figure it might be a bit tricky to get the edge pieces out of a glass dish.

The marshmallows did amazing things. Only in a few places are there still marshmallows left in marshmallow form as you know it. Everywhere else they simply melted into the brownie batter, making a chewy brownie with a really crisp top. One thing I may consider next time is to layer Brownie, Marshmallow, Graham Cracker, Brownie instead of doing Brownie, Graham Cracker, Marshmallow, Brownie. My original thought was that it'll be a lot easier to spread this thick brownie batter on the top layer over smooth graham crackers, than it would be to try and completely cover marshmallows that just want to jump around. I know it'll change the texture of the brownie layers though because the marshmallows would then melt over the bottom brownie layer, instead of under the top layer (the graham crackers softened up perfectly, but never dissolved. They created a border between the two brownie layers). I'm definitely going to have to try this other way and let you know what method I prefer. I have a feeling that it'll make for a completely different textured brownie.

Wow, that was easy. I've been blogging ever night about my trip on a different blog and I've been typing it up on my phone because I didn't take my laptop with me. This post came together so quickly being able to type with a full keyboard. Plus, I've been home for 3 days now and I still can't get over how big my laptop screen feels.

Recipe adapted from The Royal Cook & The Big Green Bowl.

Makes 10x10 pan

Ingredients

1/2 C. Whole Wheat Flour

1/2 C. All Purpose Flour

2/3 C. Cocoa 

1/2 Tsp. Salt

1 C. Butter, melted

2 C. Sugar

3 Eggs

1 1/2 Tsp. Vanilla

1 C. Chocolate Chips (I used mini ones)

2 C. Mini Marshmallows

14 Graham Crackers (14 Canadian ones, they are different than the American, but you can sub the American in just fine, except the number I'm calling for won't be the same)

Directions

~Preheat oven to 350 F.

~In a medium bowl combine flours, cocoa and salt.

~In a large microwave safe bowl melt butter. Stir in sugars.

~Add in Eggs and Vanilla. Stir.

~Pour dry ingredients into wet and stir by hand until just combined.

~Stir in chocolate chips.

~Spread half of the brownie batter into a greased pan (I used a 10x10 silicone dish).

~Top with a layer of (whole, not crushed) graham crackers, followed by the mini marshmallows.

~Spread the remaining brownie batter overtop the marshmallows and carefully try to spread it out and cover all the marshmallows.

~Bake for 26-28 minutes or until top is crispy and centre still feels soft.

~Cool completely (very important, trust me) before slicing and removing from pan.

Enjoy

Creamy Peppermint Hot Chocolate (Minus the Cream)

I had to think of something last minute to post here. The reason being was I didn't get to say goodbye in my last post. So goodbye.

Okay, so you probably want a little more than that. Well, I'm going on an adventure and am going to be away from this blog for a bit. I'll be back though. I promise.

Anyway, this drink. It does have alcohol in it, and a type of alcohol I bought because I had to try it but was very sceptical about it. Turns out it really really works (for some things). I'm talking about whipped cream vodka (cake batter is the next one on the list to try). It took me a bit to find something I would want to drink with whipped cream flavouring in it but I can now say it is very good for two things: creamsicle screwdrivers (just your typical vodka and orange with an added creamyness to it) and hot chocolate.

With the hot chocolate I do find you have to balance the alcohols out. I love peppermint hot chocolates but the peppermint schnapps makes the drinks taste more bitter (and I like a sweeter, creamier, milk chocolate hot chocolate), and the whipped cream vodka on its own makes the hot chocolate excessively sweet. So do a 1:1 ratio of the two and it perfectly balances the drink out. The amount of each that I use doesn't make a strong drink, it just adds a hint of flavour. So if you want it stronger feel free to increase the quantities. What I really like about the vodka is that it makes my hot chocolates seem thicker and creamier (it's the word of the day) without having to make it with milk. This was a really good thing when I was limiting the amount of dairy I was consuming. Up until figuring this out I would rather have no hot chocolate than one made with water. But make it with water and add in this vodka and it's all good. Really.

So how do you make this wonderful thing I'm bragging about.

Ingredient

3/4 C. Boiling Water

1 Pkg. Hot Chocolate Mix

1/2 oz Whipped Cream Vodka

1/2 oz Peppermint Schnapps

*Optional* Whipped Cream

Directions

~Boil the water and pour into a mug.

~Stir in hot chocolate mix until dissolved.

~Mix in alcohols and stir.

~Top with whipped cream if desired.

Enjoy

Toll House Cookies

This was my go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies from the very beginning. I guess you could say it was where my love of baking really began. I'd spent a lot of time leafing through our cookie cookbook searching for the next great thing to make (if only I had known about food blogs then), but I always seemed to find my way back to page 92, nine times out of ten. Even though I haven't made these in probably a year, I did not forget page 92 when I opened up the book this time. I made this recipe for years almost exclusively before I ever knew what a food blog was. Then I kinda got bored of it (too much of a good thing) and started to search elsewhere for a good recipe. Until discovering food blogs I never found one that I liked as much. Since beginning this blog (and getting my KA mixer) I haven't made these cookies. I made other ones and a few recipes I swore hands down were better. More flavour, more chewy, you get the picture. Well I take it all back. Ever since getting our new oven, the two recipes that as of late I would say were the best cookies really haven't been cooking up well. So I decided to go back to my good old faithful Toll House recipe, a recipe I have yet to make in my mixer. Actually I think I tried making this in my first mixer (the one that broke and was way, way, way too small for me), but I don't count that because the mixer didn't get to work it's magic on the ingredients. But my new mixer...I'll say it again, you never know what creaming butter and sugar truly means until you make cookies in a stand mixer. The hand held mixer just doesn't even come close.

So back to the results of the cookies. They were amazing. I ate some warm and they were the gooiest things I'd ever eaten, they fell apart in my hands. But the dough before baking was amazing. It was silky and light and fluffy (basically whipped is the word to describe it), instead of thick and chunky like my other recipes have been, probably due to their being quite a bit more butter and eggs in this recipe than others (and you bake at 375 vs. 350 so really it is a significant difference from other recipes). So the end result was that these cookies probably tasted close to the same as the recipe I remembered but the texture was so much better. I feel like I've found a whole new cookie recipe. The only think about these cookies was they went pretty flat and almost concave (something I've never really experience with this recipe or other cookie recipes seeing as I usually opt for a chewy and thick cookie recipe), and typically I associate flat cookies with crispy cookies. But as long as you watch your baking time (for my liking, 8 minutes and not a second more was perfect), these cookies are anything but crispy. When the family bit into the first cookie it was asked what recipe it was. When I responded they said they could tell. I guess there's nothing like the original chocolate chip cookie recipe.

One final interesting thing. I was just searching this recipe online (as I got my copy from one of the only recipe books I refer back to time and time again), and found that I really cut back on the chocolate. The recipe in my book is identical to the one on the Nestle website, except mine calls for 1 pkg of Nestle chips and the web version calls for 2 cups. I didn't really know how many cups was in a package so I started by the half cup full and counted up and it looked good at 1 1/2 cups. But I can see why they called for 2. Some of my cookies were amazingly chocolate-filled and others had very little (simply because I had made a double batch and my mixer was pretty close to capacity and wasn't distributing the chocolate quite as well as it should have), so take your pick on the amount of chocolate. 1 1/2 may be enough if you're just making a single batch and you can mix the chocolate in evenly.

Recipe is the Original Nestle Toll House Recipe, from Cookies! A Cookie Lover's Collection.

Makes 4 1/2 dozen medium-large cookies (it's a much larger recipe than other recipes out there).

Can you tell how light and fluffy it is?

Ingredients

1 C. Butter, softened

3/4 C. White Sugar

3/4 C. Brown Sugar

1 Tsp. Vanilla

2 Eggs

2 1/4 C. Flour

1 Tsp. Baking Soda

1 Tsp. Salt

1 1/2 - 2 C. Chocolate Chips

1 C. Chopped Nuts (optional - I've never put these in)

Directions

~Preheat oven to 375

~In a large mixing bowl cream butter, sugars and vanilla. Add in the egg and mix.
~Mix in flour, soda and salt until light and fluffy.
~Stir in chips and nuts if desired.
~Using two spoons, scoop onto cookie sheets (handle as little as possible with your hands, it doesn't matter what the dough looks like on the pan - it doesn't have to be a perfectly shaped ball)
~Bake for 8-9 minutes or until edges are golden and centre still is white and soft.

Enjoy (warm)!

Fudge Brownie Ripple Ice Cream - 100th Post!!

My 100th Post!!

I remember when I couldn't believe I had two pages of posts. With seven entries displaying per page, it was a big deal for me to have to click to see older posts. I didn't know how I was going to do it then, and I still really don't know how I'm doing it now. All I know is that my motives haven't really changed. 100 posts in and I'm not trying to get everyone and their dog reading my blog. A few people are great, but I really don't want to dedicate the time to having thousands of hits a week. I'm happy with the pictures I have, they show what the dish is. Sure they aren't the prettiest or have the best lighting or whatever but they do the job. At the end of the day I enjoy it. I have fun making new things and searching for new recipes, and I realize I have a lot to say about the adventures that go into making each dish. This blog has done it's job though as it is a place to store things I have made and my notes on what worked and what didn't and I can honestly say that I enjoy referencing back to a recipe that is written up by me. It follows a procedure for how my brain works and my kitchen and equipment operate. And really, that's enough for me.

Now I know it's kinda cold out for ice cream (but we are going through a pretty mild spell here), but one of the ladies I work with just got back from Hawaii and she kept raving about these milkshakes she had that she was sure were made with homemade ice cream, etc. So I left work and headed to the store to buy cream. I was making ice cream in February, even if I had to eat it wrapped in a blanket. The plan started out with making brownie batter ice cream, but as I was sitting in the grocery store parking lot on my phone trying to find a recipe I knew I had seen before, I decided to go in a different direction because I have to be honest, I'm not much of a chocolate ice cream fan. It's kinda like blueberries and strawberries. I love the real thing, but don't you dare put them as an ice cream base.

Ice cream is a fair bit of work and it takes a bit of time but it's fun to make. The only problem is that there is two smells guaranteed to turn my stomach and that is warm milk and eggs cooking. Unfortunately, those two smells combined don't make it smell any better and it took a long time for the custard to cook so I was all too familiar with the smells. It amazes me though that something that smells so bad (in my opinion) while it's cooking can taste so amazing after it cools. It's magic.

The fudge sauce is not as bitter as the chocolate sauce I made recently which is a good thing in my eyes.

Fudge Ripple recipe is displayed on epicurous.com, but is actually from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop. 

Ingredients

Fudge Ripple
1/2 C. Sugar
6 Tbsp. Cocoa
1/3 C. Light Corn Syrup
1/2 C. Water
1/2 Tsp. Vanilla

1 Batch Vanilla Ice Cream
2 1/2 C. Brownies, cubed & frozen

Directions

Fudge Ripple

~In a small saucepan mix sugar and cocoa. Add in corn syrup and water and heat until it reaches a boil, stirring constantly.

~Allow it to bubble and thicken for about a minute then remove from heat and add vanilla. Stir.

~Place in fridge to cool completely before adding to ice cream.

Ice Cream
~Make ice cream custard, when cool freeze in ice cream maker

Ice Cream Assembly

~In container place a layer of vanilla ice cream. Top with a generous drizzle of fudge (don't mix it in).

~Place layer of ice cream on top. Topped with brownie cubes.

~Repeat layers until you run out of ingredients.

~Finish the top with a drizzle of fudge and gently swirl it in to the top layer of ice cream.

~Sprinkle the edges with some crumbled bits of brownie.

~Place ice cream in freezer to set.

Enjoy

Chocolate Malt Chocolate Chip Cookies

Well, I can finally check one thing off of my 'must-do' baking list. The list that narrows down my recipe file from about 1100 recipes to about 20 things. Why are these cookies so special, you might ask, well I can't honestly say. They are just different and I wanted to give it a go.

The only problem with these (and what took me so long to check off such a simple recipe from this list) was that malt powder contains milk ingredients. I can't make a cookie in our house that contains milk and not have some of another dairy free option available. But, every time I would make a normal chocolate chip cookie and then think I'll make these malted ones a few days later and have some overlap, well I turn around and the regular cookies are gone. Kinda like the last batch I made. The one who doesn't like chocolate or sweet things made the bag of them disappear. Hmm. He must have had some help.

Anyway, I've finally gotten around to them and I'm typing this up while the cookies are baking and so I don't know exactly what the finished product tastes like, but let me tell you the dough tasted pretty good. It was definitely different tasting than regular chocolate chip cookies. It had a lot more flavours to it and the malt made it taste nutty, so fingers crossed for the actual cookies. One thing though is that any cookie that seems to use shortening always bakes up very well.

So the final verdict on these is that they are pretty good (not my all time favourite, but definitely still worth eating) and don't taste too strongly of malt. A flavour that I had never tried up until buying the powder for this recipe and I was shocked to discover what it actually tasted like. Let me tell you, malted milk is not a hit in our house. But, these cookies don't taste like straight malt, they just taste good. So if you are looking for a strong malt presence I would suggest adding some more malt. I'm going to stick with it just how it is though, as it creates a very unique flavour.

Cookie recipe from Taste of Home.

Makes 5 dozen cookies

Ingredients

1 C. Golden Shortening

1 1/4 C. Brown Sugar

1/2 C. Malted Milk Powder

2 Tbsp. Chocolate Syrup

1 Tbsp. Vanilla

1 Egg

2 C. Flour

1 Tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 Tsp. Salt

1 C. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1/2 C. Milk Chocolate Chunks

Directions

~Preheat oven to 375 F

~In large mixing bowl cream together shortening and sugar. Add in the malt powder, chocolate syrup and vanilla, and cream.

~Add egg and mix well.

~Combine flour, soda and salt and mix in with wet ingredients.

~Stir in chocolate.

~Roll into balls and place on cookie sheets

~Bake for 9-11 minutes.

Enjoy

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

This was so incredibly easy to make I can't believe that Nesquik is still even made. Like seriously people, try this yourself. You'll actually know what ingredients are in it and let me tell you, it's a very short list. I had to make this because a recipe I was planning on making (stay tuned for it) called for a couple of tablespoons of chocolate syrup. Well, I wanted to make this recipe now, not in a few hours, not tomorrow, you get my gist right? Plus, I didn't want to go spend $5 on a bottle of chocolate syrup that would then be placed in the cupboard and never used again. I guess I could have pulled out the last bottle that we bought that is still sitting in the cupboard. The only thing is, I can guarantee you that it is way, way, way too old to be consumed. I personally know it hasn't been used in at least three years and it probably sat in there for as many years before that. I know the expiry date has scratched off the lid it's so old. So why do we keep it you might be asking? Well, when I finish typing this up I think I'll march my way over to the pantry and get rid of it. Sounds like a plan.

Anyway, this is a little bitter as far as my likings go. If I were to be making this for an ice cream topping, etc. I probably would be increasing the sugar a little bit. But then again, I always have found chocolate syrup to be a bit bitterer than I like. So I guess this is pretty normal then. The one thing I do like about this recipe is that it can easily be scaled. The recipe I'm going to share makes about 1 1/2 C. of sauce. But because I only needed a couple of tablespoons, I easily was able to make only 1/3 of the recipe, and I didn't have to fiddle around with odd measurements. It just divided perfectly.

Recipe from Kitchen Treaty, who adapted from The Washington Post.

Makes 1 1/2 C.

Ingredients

1 C. Cocoa Powder

1 C. Sugar

1 C. Water

1/4 Tsp. Salt

1 Tbsp. Vanilla

Directions

~In a small saucepan combine cocoa and sugar and whisk to combine.

~Add in water and on medium-high heat bring to a boil, whisking constantly.

~Once on the boil, continue to stir for 3 minutes or until sauce thickens (it will thicken more once cooled).

~Stir in the salt.

~Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.

~Allow to cool for it to thicken fully.

Enjoy and stay tuned for a recipe that you can use this sauce in.

Apple Pie Muffins with Chocolate Streusel

I decided to forgo making this as a loaf, and instead made it into muffins because they bake a lot quicker and you don't have to worry about cutting them, etc. They smell (and taste) like apple cider actually and the top is very good. I used mac apples and so they just sort of melted away into the muffin itself. Next time I may change it up a little and use some granny smith's because I like the tang of a green apple, and being a harder apple they'll probably leave some chunks once baked.

The one thing about this recipe that caught me off guard was that it required you to use an electric mixer. Not that I'm complaining at all, I love any excuse to use my KA, but it was actually a first for me, having to use a mixer for muffins I mean. Every other recipe I've used has called for either melted butter or oil and so no need to cream the butter like this one did.

I would recommend using a darker chocolate chip for this recipe. As much as I love milk chocolate in baking, I think the semi sweet chocolate paired well with the other flavours in this recipe. Also, I found the amount of streusel that is made is a bit too much for 12 muffins, but better a little too much than not enough right?

This recipe was adapted from Dinners, Dishes & Desserts who adapted from Mommy's Kitchen who originally got it from BHG Best Comfort Food Magazine. Whew, that's quite the reference there!

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

Streusel

1/3 C. Flour

1/3 C. Brown Sugar

1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon

Pinch of Nutmeg

3 Tbsp. Butter

3/4 C. Semi Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips

Muffins

1/2 C. Butter, softened

1/2 C. Sugar

1/2 C. Brown Sugar

1/3 C. Buttermilk

2 Tsp. Baking Powder

2 Eggs

1 Tsp. Vanilla

1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon

1/8 Tsp. All Spice

1/8 Tsp. Nutmeg

Pinch Ginger

1/2 Tsp. Salt

1 C. Whole Wheat Flour

1 C. All Purpose Flour

2 C. Apples, peeled & diced (2 medium apples)

1/3 C. Semi Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips

Directions

Streusel

~Combine all ingredients except the chocolate and mix with your fingers until it resembles a course meal (looks like sand).

~Add in the chocolate chips and mix to combine.

~Set aside

Muffins

~Preheat oven to 400 F

~In large mixing bowl cream butter and sugars until dissolved.

~Add in buttermilk and baking powder. Mix

~Mix in eggs & vanilla.

~Add spices, salt & flours and stir just until combined.

~Fold in the apples and the chocolate chips

~Spoon batter into greased (or lined) muffin tins

~Top generously with streusel topping.

~Bake for 5 minutes at 400 F, then decrease temperature to 350 F and bake for an additional 20 minutes.

Enjoy

Chocolate Spoons

Okay, now these were fun to make and even funner to give. Plus, I'm excited to make them again, but to use marshmallows instead of spoons. One of the people I gave these to got so excited and kept repeating over and over again that we should put a patent on the idea because they were awesome. I think I broke his heart when I told him that we couldn't get rich off of them because it wasn't my idea and a lot of people had done this before me.

Anyway, if you are one of the people that hasn't done this before, let me share the concept with you. It's very simple, relatively inexpensive and did I mention it's fun?

To make these, all you need is plastic spoons and dipping chocolate (and it helps if you have something to stick the dipped spoons into to hold them while they set, instead of having to hold them like I did for quite awhile before I stuck them in the cups to hold them as you can see).

~Melt your milk chocolate and dip each spoon into it. Tap off the excess and if you've got any lumps or creases on it, tapping will help smooth those out as well. Set them aside to harden.

~After the chocolate has set, dip the spoons again, repeating the last step.

~When the chocolate has set, melt the white chocolate and drizzle it over the back of the spoons. Allow to harden.

~Wrap each spoon up in plastic wrap and tie with a ribbon.

See, simple right?

Now all they (or you) have to do is place the spoon into your hot coffee or hot chocolate and stir. Or, I've got this desire to eat ice cream with one of these, it wouldn't melt on the ice cream, but if you held it in your mouth long enough with each bite...

Gift in a Jar - Fudgy Brownie

Here begins my slew of post-Christmas posts, for stuff that should have been posted pre-Christmas. But, pre-Christmas was really busy and I was sick for quite awhile, so you're getting them now...for next year.

This brownie tasted pretty good when I tried it out. The only complaint I had was that it made a very, very thin layer in the pan. So, I cut back the amount of chocolate pieces in it and double the mix amount so it will now fill up the 1 quart jar perfectly. The only thing is, because I actually only made a quarter of the amount listed below (I halved the original recipe and made it in a loaf pan to see what type of volume you would get), which means my baking time is going to be different from the listed baking time. So I've just copied over the original recipe's time and you'll have to just add a bit of time as you go if needed.

Recipe from Kicked-Up-Cookie-Recipes

Makes 24 Brownies

Ingredients

2 C. White Sugar

1 C. Cocoa Powder

1 1/3 C. Flour

1/2 Tsp. Salt

1 C. Chocolate Chips

Directions

~Layer all the ingredients in the order listed in a 1 quart jar.

~Attach tag with these instructions:

What You'll Need

1 Jar Fudgy Brownie Mix

1 C. Butter, melted

4 Eggs

2 Tsp. Vanilla

To Make

Preheat oven to 350 F

Mix contents of jar, butter, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and mix to combine.

Spread batter into a greased 8x8 baking dish.

Bake for 27-32 minutes or until edges begin to pull away from pan.

Cool before cutting into squares.

Enjoy

Buck Eyes

I know everyone makes these, and everyone has their own special way about going about making them, so ignore this if you are stuck in your ways and consider this a post just for myself as the hard copy of this recipe seems to like to disappear on us and it would be great to have an electronic copy for myself.

The recipe I'm listing is already a doubled recipe. Do not double it again. I repeat, DO NOT! It won't fit in your mixing bowl, even your 5 quart, professional class bowl. I learned the hard way and ended up with 160 Buck Eyes, which took forever to roll and even longer to dip.

This recipe is my Mom's and my Grandma's. I don't know who passed it to who, and were it originated from before that.

Makes 6 1/2 Dozen

See I said I made a lot!

Ingredients

1/2 C. Butter

4 C. Icing Sugar

2 1/2 C. Peanut Butter

1 C. Rice Krispies

1 lb Milk Dipping Chocolate

White Dipping Chocolate

Directions

~In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and then add the sugar and peanut butter and mix until combined.

~Add in the Rice Krispies and process briefly to distribute them

~Roll into balls and place on a waxed paper lined cookie sheet.

~Melt the milk chocolate in a microwave safe dish and dip each peanut butter ball and place back on the waxed paper.

~When chocolate has set, melt the white chocolate and drizzle over top (helps to hide the imperfections in the milk chocolate)

Enjoy

Orange & Almond Brownie Batter Truffles

Every Christmas it seems I crave good truffles. For a long time, I wanted to make a vanilla truffle, but a few attempts later, I think I've given up because I can't for the life of me find a decent recipe. The thing is, every year we make Buck Eyes, and they always look so amazing and professionally done sitting there on the platter. The only problem is I'm not a peanut butter fan, so even though they look amazing, they don't taste amazing to me. So that brings me to the non-peanut butter truffle hunt. Because I want something pretty and professional looking for myself too.

Now, I found this recipe over at Confessions of a Cookbook Queen and put my own little spin on it. It originally called for the truffles to be dipped in almond bark, but as I was not running to the store and only making these because I had a little bit of time to kill and all the other ingredients in my panty, I decided to forgo the almond bark. Instead I just used regular dipping chocolate and added a bit of almond extract into the truffle. Then, that got me thinking. I'd just reached past the orange extract, something I don't normally use often and I love orange truffles so it was an easy 2+2=yummy truffles. Anyway, I just had a dribble left in the bottle, so I used 1 tsp. of the orange extract. Next time if I had a bit more I might increase to 1 1/4 tsp just for good measures. I was going to try that this go, but replace the extra little bit with a bit of orange liqueur, but what do you know, we're all out of that too. Surprise, surprise. Maybe next time a hint of peppermint would bring on the holiday spirit also.

One important thing to remember if you decide to make multiple batches / flavours of these truffles is that once they are dipped you need to put some sort of marking on the outside of them so you know which flavour is which. Get creative, but try to keep things consistent from batch to batch, year to year ie. we always use a white chocolate drizzle on our Buck Eyes.

Some suggestions for the garnish:
~Orange zest (I used this for the orange flavour)
~Chocolate sprinkles
~White chocolate drizzle (I use this for buck eyes)
~A white chocolate dot
~A sprinkle of coconut
~A sprinkle of ground almond powder (I use this for the almond flavour)

One of the greatest things about this recipe is that they were so incredibly easy. No oven, no double-boiler, not stove-top cooking, and all the ingredients will be in your pantry if you ever do even the most basic of baking. Feel free to dabble around in the flavour combinations, or if you just like plain, just use 2 tsp of vanilla as the flavouring.

Makes 2 1/2 Dozen

Almond Truffles

Orange Truffles

Ingredients

Almond Truffles

1/2 C. Cocoa Powder

1 C. Sugar

1/2 C. Flour

2 Tsp. Vanilla

1/4 Tsp. Almond Extract

1/2 C. Butter, melted

Milk Chocolate Dipping Chocolate

Garnish

Orange Truffles

1/2 C. Cocoa Powder

1 C. Sugar

1/2 C. Flour

1 Tsp. Vanilla

1 1/4 Tsp. Orange Extract

1/2 C. Butter, melted

Milk Chocolate Dipping Chocolate

Garnish

Directions

~In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients.

~In a microwave safe dish, melt butter. Mix in extracts.

~Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix to combine.

~Roll batter into bite size balls and place on a wax paper lined tray.

~Melt chocolate and dip truffles into chocolate and garnish right away (unless garnishing with the melted white chocolate. You'll have to wait for the milk chocolate layer to set first.)

~Place back on the wax paper lined tray and refrigerate to set.

Enjoy

Snowballs (No-Bake)

Welcome to Part II of my Xmas baking. These are an absolute favourite of mine either fresh or straight out of the freezer. Either way they are probably my top Christmas treat. As proof of this statement I'm going to let you in on a little secret...I tripled this batch...and this is only one of the many recipes I plan to make for Xmas, and I don't have a lot of people to feed.

This recipe was my Grandma's recipe. It is one of the few recipes of hers that we actually have. Unfortunately, most of them she just kept in her head and never wrote down. I guess it's a good one to have: chocolate, butter and sugar, what more could we ask for? These are very similar to most no-bake cookies / hot rods in their ingredients list, but they taste nothing, I repeat, NOTHING like the typical no-bake cookie. These are amazing and they have a unique flavour all to themselves, that no other no-bake cookie can compare to in my eyes.

Makes 3 1/2 dozen chocolate drops

Ingredients

Bowl #1

3 C. Rolled Oats

1 C. Coconut (flaked)

Bowl #2

1/2 C. Butter

1/2 C. Milk

2 C. Sugar

6 Tbsp. Cocoa

1/2 Tsp. Vanilla

~1 C. Medium or Fine Coconut (additional)

Directions

~Heat the contents of Bowl #2 and stir to combine.

~Add to Bowl #1 and mix.

~Cool for about half an hour and then roll into balls

~In a ziplock bag, toss the additional coconut with the balls (do this as soon as you roll each one, otherwise they will cool too much and the coconut will not stick).

~Allow to finish cooling on a tray before storing.

~Can be stored at room temperature or in the freezer (and can be served at room temperature or frozen).

Enjoy

Nanaimo Bars (no-bake)

Ucluelet, Tsawwassen, Esquimalt, Cowichan, Squamish, Sechelt, Qualicum, Haida Gwaii, Zeballos, Sointula, Nootka and Naniamo. Yes, these are actually words, even though my spell check disagrees with me (saying only two of them are spelt correctly). But, they are not just words, they are places. You probably can probably only pronounce one of them though, maybe not even that. But I'm pretty positive though that even if you can't pronounce it (or spell it), you will still recognize it. Yes, I'm talking about Nanaimo, as in the Nanaimo Bar, Nanaimo. While I'm not from Nanaimo I do live not too far from it, and from all the other places I listed as well.

But this post isn't going to be a lesson about small-town BC, no it's about a custurdy, chocolatey, goodness. The recipe that I'm sharing is my Mom's recipe. I have no idea if it's the 'actual' recipe or not. If you go to the City of Naniamo's website, they have a whole page dedicated to one of my favourite treats, but they too don't know the exact origin of it and are asking anyone to come forward that does. This recipe is very close to the recipe that they do have posted on their site. It is the recipe that was decided on by the city as 'the best' Nanaimo Bar recipe. There are several slight variations on this recipe, and then some more extreme ones.

The butterscotch flavour is one of those extreme variations that I am not a fan of. So, that is why I'm making this square now, when I used to be able to get a perfectly good tray of them for relatively cheap at the grocery store.

For most of my life, we never made Nanaimo Bar at home. The local grocery stores made a large tray of it for a good price, and Costco had it on even better. Well, just over 5 years ago, the go-to grocery store closed, and we started buying the bar at other places. For awhile it was good, then I started tasting hints of butterscotch. Well, at first everyone didn't believe me, but eventually people agreed that these other bars weren't as good. But it still wasn't worth making it ourselves because it wasn't all that bad, and the price was still good. Well, we hadn't bought it in awhile and we bought a tray about a month ago. I've never seen Nanaimo Bar hang around for long in our house and usually I devour it myself. I had half a piece and thought I had just wasted my nighty dessert allowance on something that was absolutely flavourless. It was awful, so I decided that this was too simple of a thing to make to warrant buying it's now disgusting store bought variety (unfortunately, I think this is one of the last good home made tasting things that has gone the way of over processed crap (excuse my french). Now it's just another package of Chips Ahoy or Peak Freans or Deep and Delicious Cakes in the grocery aisles.

I'm going to share the single batch version of this recipe, which is to be made in a 7"x11" pan (who has one of those right?). Anyway, I doubled it and thought I could just get away with having a thick batch in a 9"x13" pan, but as I'm realizing now, I usually double an 8"x8" to get a thick 9"x13", that explains why I had way, way too much. Sorry, just typing with my train of thought there. So, what I ended up with was 1 - 9"x9" (square silicone dish) & 1 - 8"x8" tray that were the perfect thickness, as a doubled batch. Or just go with the single and have a thick 8"x8" or scrounge up the mysterious 7"x11" pan. Whew, enough with the numbers now. So, I present to you the first Xmas baking of the season, duh duh duuuhhhh!!!!

Makes: 25 squares

Ingredients

Base Layer

1/2 C. Butter

1/4 C. Sugar

5 Tbsp. Cocoa

1 Egg, beaten

1 Tsp. Vanilla

2 C. Graham Wafer Crumbs

1 C. Coconut ( I used flaked, if you don't want the base as chunky, use medium)

1/2 C. Nuts (I used 2 Tbsp. Ground Almond Powder instead)

Middle Layer

1/4 C. Butter

3 Tbsp. Milk

2 C. Sifted Icing Sugar

2 Tbsp. Custard Powder

2 Tsp. Vanilla

Top Layer

1 C. Chocolate

4 Tsp. Butter

Directions

Base Layer

~Melt the first 3 ingredients in a large saucepan.

~Add egg and vanilla and whisk to help prevent the eggs from forming chunks as you heat the eggs.

~Add in the last 3 items

~Spread in a greased 7"x11" pan, pack it down firmly and put in the fridge to set, while you prepare the next layer

Middle Layer

~Combine all the ingredients in mixer bowl and beat (with paddle attachment on speed 2), until combined and fluffy (I tried to do this by hand and it felt like I was trying to mix cement by hand, so use the mixer please).

~Spread over Base Layer and place in freezer until solid (otherwise the top layer will just mix into the middle layer)

Top Layer

~In a microwave safe dish, melt chocolate and butter together.

~Spoon mixture over the Middle Layer and working quickly as the frozen layers will cause the chocolate to harden, smooth the chocolate.

~With a knife, run tracks through the chocolate where you'll want to cut the squares. This prevents the top layer from cracking when you cut it (or at least helps prevent it)

~When chocolate has hardened, cut into squares.

Enjoy

The Inside-Out S'more Bars

Now to most of you, these may not look inside-out, but to me they do. Let me explain. My Mom makes a s'more square that is basically the same as Rice Krispie square, just with Golden Grahams. So she melts the marshmallows and stirs in the chocolate chips and cereal. The reason I don't make that type of square is because I really struggle timing it right. I either end up with marshmallow goop that is cooled too much and so nothing will mix into it, or too hot and so the chocolate melts and instead of having chocolate chips, you get a gooey chocolate flavoured marshmallow mess. So, this recipe is a lot safer for me (but I'd still like to share the recipe for her S'more Square, I'll just snap a picture of it one day when she makes it to show you). It's safer because you have melted chocolate and whole marshmallows (instead of melted marshmallows and whole chocolate chips - see, inside-out) and marshmallows need a lot more heat to melt than chocolate does (or so I've experienced).

This recipe was adapted from the Nestle Toll House recipe.

Makes 16 Squares

Ingredients

1/2 C. Milk

1 Tsp. Vanilla

1 3/4 C. Milk Chocolate Chips

3 1/4 C. Mini Marshmallows

1 1/2 C. Golden Grahams (or graham crackers cut into bite size pieces), 

Directions

~In a large microwave safe dish heat milk and vanilla until almost boiling (~2 minutes)

~Stir in the chocolate chips and return to microwave until fully melted (~30 sec)

~Make sure there is no lumps in the mixture and everything is thoroughly mixed, then set it aside to cool for ~5 minutes, or long enough so the marshmallows won't melt.

~Add in the marshmallows and stir to evenly coat.

~Mix in the graham crackers / cereal.

~Spoon into a greased 8x8 pan and cool in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.

~When set, cut into squares. 

~Can be stored at room temperature.

Enjoy