white chocolate cranberry bars

Starbucks has a cookie that they only carry at Christmas called the Cranberry Bliss Bar. I love it, but I don't love paying $3.50 for one bar! So I have come up with a recipe that I think is a pretty good version of the Starbucks bar. It's basically a soft vanilla cookie base with layers of white chocolate, cranberries, and white chocolate drizzled on top. This recipe makes a nice big pan and they freeze really well too.

Please excuse the poor quality of my photos...I'm not a great photographer to begin with and then I had to take these at night in low light.

White Chocolate Cranberry Bars

Base:
2/3 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla


Topping:
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup white chocolate chips (or 2 squares white baking chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter a 9x13 inch pan and line with parchment paper, leaving some paper hanging over the edges. This makes it a lot easier to lift the bars out of the pan and slice them later. Set the prepared pan aside.


In a medium to large sized pot, melt the butter and brown sugar together. Remove from heat and let it cool a little. Beat in the vanilla and then the eggs. Add the flour, baking powder, and baking soda and beat just until combined. Pour into the pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle the white chocolate chips and cranberries on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes or till golden and set. Don't overbake - you want these to be chewy like brownies. Let the cookie base cool completely before you do the next step.


Make the vanilla buttercream: In a bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add the powdered sugar alternately with the milk, starting and ending with the sugar. Beat in the vanilla. Spread the frosting over the cooled cookie base. 

Sprinkle with dried cranberries and lightly press them into the frosting. 

Melt the white chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave, taking it out to stir it about every 30 seconds, until it's melted. White chocolate burns very easily and quickly, so keep a close eye on it. 

Put the melted chocolate into a small ziploc bag; close the bag, snip off one corner, and drizzle it over the bars. If you happen to have a pastry bag, you could use that to drizzle the chocolate. 

Slice into squares. Sometimes I cut these into large squares and then diagonally into triangles because that's how Starbucks cuts theirs. The shape won't affect the taste one bit. ;-)


How to cut neat bars/squares: People have asked me how I cut things into neat little squares, so here's my method in case you'd like to know. I always use parchment paper to line the pan, even if the recipe calls for greasing the pan. I leave extra paper hanging over two sides of the pan. If the squares are really gooey and soft, refrigerate the whole pan until they're firm. Then I use the parchment paper to lift the whole thing out of the pan and put it onto a cutting board. I take a large knife, run it under hot water and wipe it dry with a paper towel; then use the hot knife to cut the squares. Try not to saw back and forth, just press the knife down firmly in one motion. If the knife gets covered in sticky crumbs, just run it under hot water and wipe dry every now and then.

doughnuts

I recently bought a doughnut pan and it is so awesome! And fun! These doughnuts are baked, not fried, which is great because who wants to deal with a big pot of hot oil for frying doughnuts at home? Not me.

I made one batch of batter and ended up with three variations of doughnuts: chocolate glazed, powdered sugar, and cranberry pecan. The chocolate glazed doughnuts were most popular by far.

Baked Doughnuts (basic recipe)

2 cups cake flour
3/4 sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp melted butter


Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg and salt.With a wire whisk, add the buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter. Don't overmix the batter; beat only until combined. Fill the cavities in the doughnut pan about 2/3 full. Bake about 8 minutes until they rise and turn light golden. Let the doughnuts cool in the pan for a few minutes, then flip them out onto a rack to cool completely.


Chocolate Glaze:
In a glass bowl, melt 1/2 cup chocolate chips, 2 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp corn syrup in the microwave. Stir often to prevent the chocolate from burning, until it's melted and smooth. Add a tsp of hot water if the glaze is too thick. Immediately glaze the doughnuts by dipping them in the warm glaze. 


Other ideas:
- Melt 2 tbsp butter in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix 2 tbsp sugar with 1 tbsp cinnamon. Dip doughnuts in the melted butter, then roll in sugar until completely coated.
- Put some icing sugar into a Ziploc bag; add doughnut, shake to coat. Repeat with remaining doughnuts (works best if you do them one at a time).

chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake

This coffee cake is moist, rich, and layered with cinnamon, sugar and chocolate. It's my go-to coffee cake recipe. Don't be intimidated by the idea of separating the eggs and whipping the whites. It's worth it.

I wanted to take more pictures but - happily - it's already gone!

Chocolate Sour Cream Coffee Cake
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Cake:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 large eggs, separated

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 cups sour cream

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

Filling and Topping:

2 cups chocolate chips

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-x-13-inch baking pan and line with some parchment paper to help prevent it from sticking (I always do this, even with a nonstick pan).

In a large bowl, cream butter sugar with an electric mixer. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Mix in sour cream and then dry ingredients into butter mixture until the batter is smooth and very thick.

In a medium bowl, beat eggs whites until stiff, then fold into batter.

In a small dish, stir the sugar and cinnamon for filling and topping.

To assemble:

Spread half the cake batter in the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle with half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Sprinkle 1 cup of chocolate chips over the sugar. Using a large spoon, add the rest of the cake batter over the filling in spoonfuls. Gently spread the batter, smoothing it out in an even layer so it covers the chocolate chips. Sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon-sugar and chocolate chips on top. Very gently press the chocolate chips a bit into the batter with the palm of your hand. You don't want to submerge them - just help them stick to the top of the cake.

Bake for about 45 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. It will puff up quite a bit as it bakes but sink back down as it cools. Let cake cool completely before slicing.

flourless apple crisp

Hello...how about another low sugar, no flour recipe? Can you tell I'm avoiding sugar and flour? Try this, it's good. 

Flourless Apple Crisp

Topping:
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup cold butter, cubed

Filling:
6-7 Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together topping ingredients, except butter. Add butter and use a pastry blender or just your fingers to blend until mixture is crumbly. Put this in the fridge while you prepare the filling.


Peel, core and thinly slice the apples. I use an apple peeler for this; I don't actually use too many gadgets in the kitchen, but I do love my apple peeler. When the apples are all ready, toss with the cornstarch, Splenda, and cinnamon.


Put the apples into a lightly buttered casserole dish and sprinkle the oat and flax mixture on top. Bake for about 45 minutes or till the apples are fork tender. Tastes best eaten warm...with a scoop of toffee ice cream on top, if you like. (Who doesn't?)

muffin in a minute

Hi! I've started this blog as a way of sharing recipes with friends and family. Hope you like it. :)

 Muffin In A Minute

If you are avoiding flour but still want something that has the texture of a bread or muffin, this is a great, quick recipe. It's not very sweet as it's written, but you could add more sweetness if you like. I often make this for breakfast or a mid-morning snack.

1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 tsp baking powder
1-2 tsp sugar or 1 tsp Splenda (I usually use 1 tsp  Splenda-brown sugar blend)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1 tsp butter
 about 1 tbsp dried fruit/nuts (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a 1-cup glass dish or coffee cup. I recommend placing the bowl on a small plate before putting it in the microwave, just in case it overflows slightly (it's happened to me).  Cook for 1 minute in the microwave. Turn out onto a plate. Slice and eat it plain or spread with butter, cream cheese or jam.