Cherry cranberry bliss bars

I am a firm believer in the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."  Even it's broken English makes me want to change it from ain't broke to isn't broken, but the saying works so well that even I know not to mess with it.  Which brings me to these Cherry-Cranberry Bliss Bars.  I made the cranberry version a few years ago and they were fantastic.  I mean awesomely, perfectly, utterly fantastic.  So why change them?  They ain't broke.  So why try to fix them?

Truth be told, I didn't have to.  They're soooo good in their original form.  But I thought that maybe if I added some dried cherries, I might change up the flavor a little and get another sweet, slightly tart flavor mixed in.  They didn't disappoint!

Now, I'm going to be totally honest with you.  These are good, too.  Really good.  But they are as good as -- not better than -- than the original.  That doesn't mean that they aren't delicious, but is just saying that the original ones are absolutely delicious, and you don't have to change them if you don't want to.  Either version is delicious!  I personally loved the juicy cherry flavor from the dried cherries.

Cherry-Cranberry "Bliss" Bars
Adapted from this recipe

Ingredients:

For the Blondie Layer:

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) salted butter, cubed
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4-1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/4-1/3 cup dried cherries
6 ounces white baking chocolate, coarsely chopped

For the Frosting:

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
6 ounces white baking chocolate, melted, divided
1/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped
1/4 cup dried cherries, chopped

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Spray a 13x9-inch baking dish with nonstick spray.

Prepare the blondie layer:

Melt the butter in the microwave in a medium bowl .
Stir in the brown sugar
Pour into a large bowl and let it cool to room temperature.
Mix in the eggs and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
Gradually add the dry mixture to the butter mixture.

Stir in the cranberries, cherries, and chopped chocolate (I used white chocolate chips since I didn't feel like chopping the chocolate for the blondies).
Spread the blondie batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 18-21 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (do not overbake).
Cool completely on a wire rack.

Prepare the frosting:

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar with an electric mixer until well-blended.
Gradually add half of the melted white chocolate.
Beat until blended.

Frost the blondies.
Sprinkle with chopped cranberries and cherries.
Drizzle with the remaining melted white chocolate.
Cut into bars (squares, rectangles, or triangles....I also think circles would be cute, but probably too messy).

Store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Blueberry crumb pie

My aunt has hosted Thanksgiving every year for as long as I can remember.  Since I bake as often as I can, I offered to bake pies or any other dessert that she wanted.  Her requests were simple enough: blueberry crumb pie and apple pie.  I decided to spice up the apple pie a little bit this year (check back soon for that post), but decided that blueberry crumb pie didn't really need any tweaking.  So I went in search of a good blueberry crumb pie.

The winning recipe, from what I found, was one from Bon Appetit (which happens to be one of my favorite magazines.....ever!).  I only made one major change from the original recipe -- I used some frozen blueberries and some fresh blueberries.

Oh, and the most amazing part of this pie?  There is literally almost as much crumb topping as there are blueberries filling the pie!!  And everyone knows that the best part of any crumb pie is the crumb topping!

It even looks good BEFORE it was baked!!

So if you are in the need of a good blueberry crumb pie, run to the store now and buy the ingredients for this pie!!

Blueberry Crumb Pie

From Bon Appetit, who calls it a Crumble -- not Crumb -- Pie

Ingredients:

For the Crust:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour, plus more for rolling

1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into half inch cubes

1/2 tsp kosher salt

Ice water

For the Filling and Crumb Topping:

2/3 cup PLUS 3 Tbsp sugar

2 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch (I used 3 Tbsp, since I felt that the frozen blueberries were a bit more watery and I wanted a little extra thickening agent)

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

5 cups (1 pound 10 oz) fresh blueberries (I used 3 cups frozen and 2 cups fresh)

3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

3 Tbsp packed light brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

5 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted, and cooled slightly

Directions:

Pulse 1 1/4 cups flour, the butter, and 1/2 tsp salt in a food processor until it resembles coarse meal with some pea sized pieces remaining.

Drizzle 3 Tbsp ice water over mixture.

Pulse until moist clumps form.

Add more water by teaspoonfuls if mixture is dry.

Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface.

Divide into 4 equal pieces.

Working with 1 pieces at a time, use the heel of your hand to smear each piece of dough twice, in a forward motion, to distribute butter.

Gather all 4 dough pieces into a ball.

Flatten into a disk.

Wrap the disk in plastic wrap.

Chill dough until firm, at least 1 hour.

*dough can be made up to 2 days ahead.  If doing so, be sure to keep dough chilled.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to a 13" round.

Transfer to the pie dish.

Gently press dough onto the bottom and up the sides of the dish.

Fold overhand under and crimp edges decoratively.

Pierce the bottom of the crust in several places with a fork.

Chill until firm, about 30 minutes. 

Line a large baking sheet with foil and place it on the middle rack in the oven (don't skip this part....I missed the part about lining the pan with foil and my blueberry filling bubbled over and all over my pan).

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Line crust with parchment paper or foil and fill with pie weights (or dried beans).

Bake until the crust is set, about 20 minutes.

Carefully remove parchment paper and pie weights.

Bake until crust is pale golden, about 12 minutes longer.

Transfer crust to a wire rack.

Let cool.

Make the filling.

Whisk together 2/3 cups sugar, cornstarch, and lemon zest in a large bowl.

Add blueberries and lemon juice.

Toss gently to coat and evenly distribute.

Let filling stand, tossing occasionally, until berries release their juices, 20-30 minutes.

Make the crumb topping.

Whisk flour, remaining 3 Tbsp sugar, light brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl.

Add melted butter.

Mix topping with fingertips to blend.

Assemble the pie.

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Spoon blueberry filling into the crust.

Sprinkle the topping over the blueberry filling.

Bake pie until filling is bubbling and the topping is golden, about 1 hour and 15 minutes (Mine took just over an hour).

Cover with foil after 30 minutes if browning too fast.

Let pie cool on a wire rack.

*You can make this pie up to 8 hours ahead (I made mine closer to 20 hours ahead).  Let stand at room temperature.

Extra marshmallow-y Rice Krispie Treats

I've been on a mission to make a super marshmallow-y Rice Krispie Treat.  A few months ago, I attempted some, and they were good and marshmallow-y, but not as marshmallow-y as I had wanted.  I had heard about these super delicious Rice Krispie treats from this place called the Crispery, and when I saw a picture, I knew that that was what I wanted my super marshmallow-y Rice Krispie Treats to be like.  So I went back to the drawing board.

What I ended up doing might be considered a bit weird, but it's what I thought would make the most perfect super-duper extra marshmallow-y but still crispy Rice Krispie Treats. I made homemade marshmallow, and then when it was just freshly beaten, I added Rice Krispies.  Lots of them (about 8 cups).  I folded them in by hand.  Then, I poured them into the pan, filled it to the tippy-top (not my intention, but who would complain if they were served a 3" high Rice Krispie Treat), and smoothed them out.  Then I waited....and waited....and waited (this is the one place where these Rice Krispie Treats do not trump the good old fashioned ones -- those are ready immediately for consumption) for them to set.  And then I waited a little more*...

But, let me tell you.  They were worth the wait!!

*why, you may ask, did I wait a little more?  Because the homemade marshmallow is more moist than melted marshmallows, the Rice Krispies were a little soggy as soon as they set up.  No worries, waiting a little longer for them to dry a little, made them TOTALLY worth the wait!!

Extra Marshamallow-y Rice Krispie Treats
I used my plain vanilla marshmallow recipe for these

Ingredients:

1 cup water, divided

3 Tbsp. + 1 1/2 tsp. unflavored powdered gelatin (3 envelopes – envelope is 1/4 oz. each, for 3/4 oz. total)

2 cups granulated white sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 tsp. fine salt

2 Tbsp. pure vanilla or vanilla bean paste -- I might cut this down a little bit, maybe 1.5 Tbsp, if eating them plain.  If you're coating them with the coconut, I'd do either 1.5 or 2 Tbsp.

8 cups Rice Krispies cereal (you might need a little more)

Directions:

Spray a 9x13 inch baking pan with baking spray.

In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, pour in 1/2 cup of the water and sprinkle the gelatin over.

Let stand.

In a medium saucepan over high heat, stir together the sugar, corn syrup, salt and the remaining 1/2 cup of water.

Stir until sugar dissolves and mixture begins to boil.

Stop stirring and once mixture comes to a rolling boil, continue boiling for 1 minute.

Remove from the heat and pout into 2-cup glass measuring cup

The mixture is very, very, very hot.  Be extremely careful!

Turn the mixer to low and mix the gelatin a bit to loosen.
Very slowly and carefully add the hot sugar mixture by pouring it gently down the side of the bowl.
Continue to mix on low until all the sugar mixture is added.

Turn the mixer to high and whip the mixture for 10 to 12 minutes until the marshmallow batter almost triples in size and becomes very thick.
If you have a smaller mixer bowl, you may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl frequently to avoid the batter overflowing as it grows.
Stop the mixer, add the vanilla, and then whip briefly to combine.  When I added the vanilla, mine thinned out a bit.  Just an FYI.

Working quickly, fold in the Rice Krispies into the marshmallow mixture, 1-2 cups at a time.
Be sure that you get all the marshmallow at the bottom of the bowl.
If your mixer bowl is small, you may have to remove some of the coated Rice Krispies and put them in the pan, then add some more Rice Krispies in batches to the remaining (mostly marshmallow but some remaining Rice Krispie) mixture.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking pan (a silicone bowl scraper works like a charm for this) and use a spatula or bench scraper to spread the marshmallow evenly in the pan, pushing it down into the corners.
Mine literally came to the tippy top of the pan!
Work quickly, as the marshmallow becomes more difficult to manipulate as it begins to set.

Spray a sheet of plastic wrap liberally with cooking spray and lay it across the top of the marshmallow, sprayed side down.
Using you fingers, smooth the plastic wrap on top of the marshmallows a bit to seal it smoothly and tightly against the mixture.

Leave the marshmallow to set at room temperature for at least 3 hours or, even better, overnight.
The marshmallow will be too sticky and soft to cut if you try too soon.

When they are set, cut the Rice Krispie Treats.
Taste them, they're yummy....but the Rice Krispies themselves may be a little soft and not too crunchy.  But don't worry, they're still tasty, and we will remedy the slightly soggy Rice Krispies.

Put them on a baking sheet to dry slightly, rotating them so that the bottom side doesn't remain soggy.  It took about 3-4 hours for mine to be as crispy as I like.  I know it seems like a lot of time, but these are SO worth it!!

Pumpkin spice marshmallows

OK, I'm going to stop right now -- before I even get started -- and toot my own horn for just a second.  I know, I know, it's something I rarely (if ever) do.  But I had this idea for a delicious holiday marshmallow and I came up with a recipe and I just made them and they're awesome (yes, that was a run-on sentence, and yes, I'm sure my 3rd grade teacher would reprimand me for it, but it's just my overexcited way of "saying" it to you).

Back to the marshmallows.  I wanted to make a festive flavored marshmallow for the holiday season.  Pumpkin is, in my opinion, synonymous to everyone with Thanksgiving.  These pack a mild hint of pumpkininess with the perfect blend of spices -- hint of pumpkin pie flavor without being overpowering!  (I will spare you my normal diatribe about how I hate pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices because frankly it just works so darn well in these!)

And if you are a fan of the seasonal pumpkin spice latte from my favorite coffee chain, I suggest you try these in a cup of coffee and let me know how it tastes (I have yet to try this, I'm just saying I think it'll be good)...

So, let me just cut to the chase and share with recipe with you:

(FYI, I always have issues with cutting my marshmallows, since I end up with 20-25 super huge marshmallows.  Somehow this time I managed to do it just right....they're the perfect size!  And, I got 42 marshmallows!)

Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows

Ingredients:

For the marshmallows

1/2 cup water, plus more if needed (I used 1 Tbsp)
1/2 cup canned PURE pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

3 Tbsp. + 1 1/2 tsp. unflavored powdered gelatin (3 envelopes – envelope is 1/4 oz. each, for 3/4 oz. total)

2 cups granulated white sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 tsp. fine salt

1 tsp pure vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves (more to your taste, I'm personally not a huge fan)

For the coating

3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup corn starch
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

Spray a 9x9 or 7x11 inch baking pan and line with parchment paper (Recommendation: cut to fit flat on the bottom, with the edges of the paper over-hanging the sides. The ends are fine just sprayed.)

In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, pour the 1/2 cup of pumpkin and 1 Tbsp of water (add more if you need).
Mix a few times to allow them to mix.
Sprinkle the gelatin over the pumpkin and water mixture.

Let stand.

In a medium saucepan over high heat, stir together the sugar, corn syrup, salt and the 1/2 cup of water.

Stir until sugar dissolves and mixture begins to boil.

Stop stirring and once mixture comes to a rolling boil, continue boiling for 1 minute.

Remove from the heat.
Pour the mixture into a 2-cup glass measuring cup, to make it easier to pour into the mixer.  *The mixture is very, very, very hot.  Be extremely careful!*

Turn the mixer to low and mix the gelatin a bit to loosen.
Very slowly and carefully add the hot sugar mixture by pouring it gently down the side of the bowl.
Continue to mix on low until all the sugar mixture is added.

Turn the mixer to high and whip the mixture for 10 to 12 minutes until the marshmallow batter almost triples in size and becomes very thick and opaque.

While the mixer is going, mix the spices and vanilla in a small bowl into a paste.
Stop the mixer, add the vanilla and spice mixture, and then whip briefly to combine.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking pan (a silicone bowl scraper works like a charm for this) and use a spatula or bench scraper to spread the marshmallow evenly in the pan, pushing it down into the corners.
Work quickly, as the marshmallow becomes more difficult to work with as it begins to set.

Spray a sheet of plastic wrap really well with cooking spray and lay it across the top of the marshmallow, sprayed side down.
Smooth the plastic wrap on top of the marshmallows a bit to seal it smoothly and tightly against the mixture.

Leave the marshmallow to set at room temperature for at least 3 hours or, even better, overnight.
The marshmallow will be too sticky and soft to cut if you try too soon.

Meanwhile, mix the coating ingredients in a bowl.

When marshmallows are ready, grab the edges of the parchment and lift the marshmallows from the pan.
Remove the plastic wrap from the top and fold down the parchment on the sides.
Using a pizza cutter or a large knife, cut the slab into 1x1 inch squares.
Roll each of the freshly cut marshmallow squares in the coating mixture.
Put them on a baking sheet to dry slightly before packaging them up (about 30 – 45 minutes).

Shortbread sprinkle bites

Confession #1: I have been wanting to make this recipe since I pinned it on Pinterest over a year ago.  They just looked so cute and festive and fun.  Which brings me to confession #2...

Confession 2: I'm getting into the holiday spirit early.  I know, I know, it's not even Thanksgiving yet and I'm talking about a holiday cookie.  But truth be told, these cookies could be made for any holiday -- just change the color of the sprinkles.  It just to happens to be that earlier today when I was at the craft store, I bought red, white, and green nonpareils (and hence I had easy access to them.  So maybe I'm not getting into the holiday spirit as much as I had originally stated....).

But let's get back to these cookies themselves.  They're teeny, tiny, bite-sized 1/2-inch squares of pure buttery shortbread deliciousness, with a little extra crunch from the nonpareils!  The recipe makes at least 140 cookie bites...The only problem is that when they're this tiny and poppable, they likely won't last long!!

Shortbread Sprinkle Bites
Original recipe found here

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cold, and cut into pieces
1 Tbsp nonpareils or sprinkles or baking bits, I used a little extra for good measure

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325F.

In a food processor (using the knife blade), pulse flour and sugar until combined.
Add in butter and pulse until dough becomes together.
Place dough in a medium bowl.
Using your hands, gently knead in the nonpareils (or sprinkles or baking bits) until evenly blended and the dough forms a ball.

On a lightly floured piece of wax paper, pat the dough into an 8" x 5" rectangle.
Freeze for 15 minutes.
Cut the dough into 1/2-inch squares.

Place the squares on an ungreased large cookie sheet (I used parchment paper) 1/2 inch apart.  You might need two cookie sheets...

Bake the cookies 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom (mine baked for 15 minutes and were a little more than lightly brown).
Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

The recipe says to then repeat with remaining dough.  I think using two cookie sheets would negate the need to bake them twice.  But thats's just me and my practicality.

Store the cookies in a tightly covered container at room temperature up to one week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Triple peanut butter chewy dark chocolate cookies

The majority of my life is spent making rationale, logical, evidence-based decisions.  I do it in my work life, for sure.  And mostly in my personal life, too (there are a few -- a very, very few -- times when I throw caution to the wind and just "do" [which is usually followed by buyer's remorse, but nice new shoes....but I digress]).  Tonight, however, was not one of those nights.

I got out of work at a decent hour.  Met my sisters for dinner, and we were even able to move our plans earlier.  Took some food to go for B, ran an errand, and dropped the food off at his place (he's working on a huge project now, but I knew he needed to eat!).  Then I got home, a little after 9 p.m., and did I stop for a second and relax?  Nope.  Did I hop in the shower?  Nope (that was later on).  I made some cookie dough and baked some cookies!  Which normally wouldn't have been too insane, but I do have to be at work at 8 a.m. tomorrow and that does mean that I have to leave my apartment a little before 6:30 a.m.  But again, here I am going off on a tangent...

Let me tell you about these cookies.  I used the chewy dark chocolate cookie base from one of the most amazing cookies ever, these Chewy Chocolate Cookies with White Chocolate Chips.  But then I didn't stop there, I decided to mix things up a bit.  And thus the Triple Peanut Butter Chewy Dark Chocolate Cookies were born!  I added 3 different kinds of peanut butter goodness to these cookies: Reese's Pieces, Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, AND Peanut Butter Chips!  They were AMAZING!!

Triple Peanut Butter Chewy Dark Chocolate Cookies
Based on these amazing cookies

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cup Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder (I used Hershey's)
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup Reese's Pieces
1/2 cup mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (they come unwrapped in a bag)
1/2 cup peanut butter chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.
Grease cookie sheet (or line with parchment paper).

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition.
Add the salt and vanilla.

In another bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, and baking soda.
Gradually add to the butter mixture.
Fold in the peanut butter cups, pieces, and chips.
Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared sheets.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until fluffy but still soft.
Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Mint chocolate chip buttercream (on dark chocolate cupcakes)

Let's face it, I like to bake.  Sometimes, I bake things just to bake them, with no actual event to attend or people to serve it to.  Other times I find a reason to bake...and yet sometimes there's an event scheduled and a reason to bake and so I bake.  This was one of those times!

My parent's neighbor wrote a book and she threw a party for the book's launch (I was one of the fortunate people to have read it before it was released).  Naturally, I offered to bake.  Originally, I was going to go with a theme -- nail polish bottle cookies (the book is called "Mani-Pedi STAT") -- but then I found out that one of her friends had beat me to it and had already offered to make those.  So instead I went with mini cupcakes.  A variety of mini cupcakes, to be exact.

I had grand plans.  It's the overachiever in me.  I was going to make 5 different kinds of mini cupcakes -- seriously, have I mentioned how overzealous I am sometimes? -- but that fell by the wayside.  Instead, I simply went with dark chocolate mini cupcakes.  Then, I mixed them up with the icings.....Mint chocolate chip buttercream and Oreo icing.  For the Oreo cupcakes, click here for a link to the cupcakes, and here for a link to the icing.  But the new recipe was this heavenly mint chocolate chip buttercream!!  And it went oh-so-well with the dark chocolate cupcakes (same as the ones above for the Oreo cupcakes) I've been making a lot lately...they were simply amazing!!

Mint Chocolate Chip Buttercream
Icing is slightly adapted from this recipe
They go great on these dark chocolate cupcakes...

Ingredients:

3/4  cup butter, partially softened (preferable half salted and half unsalted -- I didn't have salted butter, so I just added a little pinch of salt)
1/2 tsp mint extract (I used peppermint, even though the original recipe said not too, so I just used less)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
Green food coloring (I used about 5 drops) -- color to your liking
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (The original recipe said to used finely chopped chocolate, which I might try next time, since it made the icing look more chocolate chippy [totally a real baking term, OK?])

Mini ice cream cones, for decoration.  I made mini cupcakes and the mini cones were just the right size, although I think I'd stick with mini cones even on full-sized cupcakes...

Directions:

In the bowl of an electric mixer using the paddle attachment, whip the butter on medium speed until it's light and fluffy.
Scrape down the sides and bottom often.
Blend in the extracts.
Add in the powdered sugar, first on low until it's incorporated.
Add the food coloring.
Increase mixer speed and beat until very light and fluffy; again continuing to scrape the bottom and the sides of the bowl.
Fold in chocolate chips.

Using a mini ice cream scooper or a cookie scoop (for mini cupcakes), scoop icing onto cupcakes.
(This got quite tiresome for me, so after a while, I piped it on with a large round piping tip, being sure to pile it on a little high, so that it still looked like a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream!)
Top each frosting scoop with an upside down mini ice cream cone.