Do you like peanut butter? Do you like chocolate? Do you like rice crispy bars? If your answers are “yes,” then you have to make these bars. I purchased this awesome cookbook earlier this summer and it’s now one of my favorites. I highly recommend getting yourself a copy of the book. I think these bars turned out pretty awesome. I sent half these bars home with Sara Beth (SB and Marc, if you’re reading this, I hope you liked them!)
Peanut Butter Crispy Bars Makes 9, from the Baked cookbook
For the crispy crust:
1 3/4 cups rice krispies
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
3 tablespoons melted butter
For the peanut butter layer:
5 oz milk chocolate, chopped
1 cup creamy peanut butter
For the chocolate layer:
3 oz dark chocolate
1/2 teaspoon light corn syrup
4 tablespoons butter
Crust:
Spray a 8×8 inch baking pan with cooking spray. Put the cereal in a bowl and set aside. In a small saucepan, stir together 1/4 cup water, the sugar, and corn syrup. Cook over medium-high heat until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage (235 degrees – use a candy thermometer). Remove from heat, stir in the butter and pour over cereal. Quickly stir together and press into the prepared pan.
Peanut butter layer:
Over a double boiler (place a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water) melt the chocolate and peanut butter together until smooth. Pour over the crust. Put into the refrigerator until firm.
Chocolate layer:
Again over a double boiler, melt the chocolate, corn syrup, and butter, stirring until smooth. Pour over the peanut butter layer.
Place the bars in the refrigerator until the chocolate layer hardens. You may have to let them come to room temperature so that you can cut them into squares and serve.
This is my mother-in-law, Kathy’s recipe for apple crisp. John loves her recipe best, since he doesn’t like apple crisp with oats in the topping. I think the topping is the secret to why it’s so good! All the brown sugar melts and becomes all caramelized. (I wanted to say caramelly, but I don’t think that’s a word!) Serve with ice cream – I recommend Haagen Dazs vanilla, which is my favorite. This recipe works great cut in half or fourths for a quick dessert for a few people.
Apple Crisp Adapted slightly from my mother-in-law, Kathy
6 cups apples, peeled and chopped
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/8 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
A pinch each of nutmeg, cardamom, and cloves
Topping:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
Combine apples, lemon juice, flour, sugar, and spices. Put in greased 9×13 baking dish.
Mix the remaining ingredients using a pastry blender or your fingers, mixing until crumbs form. Spread over apples. A few nuts may be added if desired. Bake for approximately 1 hour at 350 degrees, or until the top is crispy and golden brown and the apples are soft.
My friend Rachel and I spent an afternoon at the apple orchard and baking apple goodies. Rachel is an amazing cook and an awesome friend. We stopped over to her parents’ house (her mom Lois is also a great cook) to pick up an apple peeler-corer-slicer that came in handy for all those apples we had to prep! (Oh, and we got some free lunch out of the visit.) We made quite a mess of my tidy kitchen, but no worries, it’s all tidy again!
Here’s some pictures to document our accomplishments…
Applesauce – super easy to make from scratch
Apple Pie - look at that PERFECT crust Rachel made – amazing!
And Apple Muffins – these got taken to work for my co-workers
I’d love to hear what are you doing to enjoy all the awesome flavors of Fall!
When the weather turns cold, I crave comfort foods. How about you? Here’s the perfect thing to satisfy your cravings. Watch out – I cut this recipe in half and it still made way too much! I’ll link to the original recipe in case you want to feed a crowd, but if you’re cooking for fewer than 6 people, I’ve halved the recipe for you. The key to a smooth cheese sauce is warming the milk before making the sauce (thanks, Martha, for the tip!).
Macaroni & Cheese Adapted from Martha Stewart, Feeds about 6
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 1.5 qt casserole dish with cooking spray and set aside. Melt one tablespoon of butter in a small dish and add the bread crumbs and stir to coat. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan, heat the milk over medium heat (stir occasionally). Heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour, stir and cook for one minute. Slowly pour in the warm milk, and whisk constantly. Continue to cook and the mixture should bubble and become thick. Remove from heat and add the cheese, reserving 1/4 cup. Stir until the cheese is melted. Set aside.
Cook the pasta to al dente, then drain and mix with the cheese sauce. Pour into the prepared casserole dish. Top with the remaining cheese and the breadcrumbs. Bake at 375 degrees until warm throughout and bubbly, about 20-30 minutes. The top should be nice and golden brown. Serve with a salad or broccoli.
Snickerdoodles are my dad’s favorite cookie. Have you ever wondered where the name “snickerdoodles” came from? Well, I looked it up in order to enlighten you, but it turns out there are a bunch of theories of where the name comes from so unfortunately I won’t be able to pass any useless knowledge on to you today.
These cookies are fairly simple to make and I’m sharing my mom’s recipe with you today. One of the great things about these cookies is that you probably have all these ingredients in your pantry (although I did not have shortening because I don’t use that much for baking).
Snickerdoodles Makes about 2 dozen
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
For topping:
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Directions:
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix butter, shortening, sugar, and eggs. In a separate bowl, mix flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and then mix until combined. Shape into balls using a tablespoon or small ice cream scoop. Roll in the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Place on cookie sheets and bake 10-12 minutes.
Have I mentioned you NEED one of these? This small ice cream scooper is probably one of my favorite gifts ever! It helps ensure your cookies are evenly sized which makes them look nice and pretty.
Here’s what they look like before they are baked… Ok, you also NEED a Silpat. It’s a silcone-coated baking sheet which helps things not stick to your pans. Another one of my favorite things!
Do you use your crock pot much? I rarely use mine. John will sometimes use it to keep chili warm (he makes the best chili!!) but we don’t use it much for meals. I don’t often make recipes more than once because I like to keep trying new ones – but this is one that I thought was worth making a second time! Basically you just throw everything in the crock pot in the morning and then when you get home you have an awesome meal to eat with no prep work!
Tex-Mex Chicken Chili Serves 4, adapted from Martha Stewart
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 jar mild or medium salsa
2 tablespoons chopped chilies (from a can, in adobo sauce)
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup chicken stock
1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 small red onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
Stir together the beans, salsa, chilies, flour, and chicken stock in your crock pot. Place chicken on top, season with salt and pepper. Scatter onion and bell pepper on top. Cook on low for 8 hours. (Don’t open the lid or stir) Take out the chicken, and shred (using 2 forks) if desired, then return the chicken to the pot. Serve in bowls, topped with a little sour cream on top and corn muffins on the side. Enjoy this perfect dish for a chilly fall day!
I used some of the veggies to make potato leek soup and a zucchini and goat cheese pizza. For dessert I made apple dumplings, but they turned out looking more like “apple blobs” due to my horrible puff pastry skills. They were good though – it’s hard to go wrong with puff pastry, cinnamon, apples, and vanilla ice cream! Sorry there are no pictures this time!
Here’s a good recipe for taking advantage of all the delicious peaches that are in season right now! I was craving some kind of peach dessert and this one definitely satisfied the craving.
2 peaches, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
10 blackberries
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup oats
3/8 cup flour
3/8 cup light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cardamom
Pinch of nutmeg
4.5 tablespoons cold butter, cubed
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix the peaches and blackberries in a small bowl with the granulated sugar. Evenly distribute the fruit mixture into two ramekins or small baking dishes. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and cut the butter into the mixture using a pastry blender or your fingers. Top the fruit with the topping. Bake for about 25 minutes, until top is golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Note: I made this rhubarb-strawberry crumble earlier this summer that called for turbinado sugar (sugar in the raw) in the topping. I like the crunchy texture this adds, so I added about 1/2 teaspoon to the tops of these desserts before baking. If you have turbinado sugar laying around, I’d highly recommend adding it.
When I saw this recipe on the cover of the September issue of Bon Appetit, I knew it was something I had to try. It’s a great way to use up all the rosemary growing in my herb garden (well more like an herb box) and garlic I picked up at the farmer’s market last week.
Al mattone means “with a brick” and is an old Italian technique for grilling. I had also recently seen this blog post for Chicken Under a Brick. This method is typically done on the grill, but the Bon Appetit article gave instructions for baking the chicken in the oven. This is preferable to me, since I tend to burn things on the grill while somehow managing to not cook them through.
So, after work today I went to Menards and bought myself a brick, wrapped it in foil, and proceeded to butterfly my chicken. That was not a pleasant experience, especially since all my knives are in desperate need of sharpening. Nonetheless, everything turned out pretty well, although when we cut into the chicken we discovered it probably needed another five or so minutes in the oven. But, I’m resourceful so I just threw the pieces in a skillet over medium heat for a few minutes until cooked through. The meat was pretty flavorful and tender. I’d make it again. I served it with roasted veggies and corn on the cob.
I’ve linked to two recipes for Chicken al Mattone above, so I will refrain from typing it out for you.
The other day, I was attempting to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies from my Martha Stewart’s New Classics cookbook when the chocolate chip cookie EPIC FAIL happened. It was a hot day and this recipe calls for melting the butter, then adding the sugar. I think the temperature of the butter was just too high (even though I refrigerated the dough before baking the cookies off) and they spread out way too much. They tasted fine, but definitely resemble cow pies. How, you ask, do I know what cow pie looks like? Well, I grew up next to a farm! Now how’s that for appetizing?
