Chocolate Goodie Bars

So you like candy bars?  This is the recipe for you.  Hugely decadent and delightful.

The other day I was in a dilemma- an enjoyable dilemma, mind you- what to make for my husbands work party.  He asked and because I love him and I love to bake I said yes.  The great thing about baking for your husbands work (or your wife's as the case may be), is you do not have to eat it.  You can enjoy the baking experience and send on its merry way.  If you would like to keep one or two for pictures... well that's okay too!

You know me, I need to do this from scratch- so I did. And I know you- you want a quick and easy way... and certainly that is okay.  I offer two ways of doing this amazing recipe.

You can go the easy route here:

Chocolate Goodie Bars

Bottom Layer:
Box of your favorite brownies- not to drop names here because I am not getting paid for it anyway, bu my fave is Ghiardelli Brownies.

Middle Layer:
Tub 'o' frosting.

The top layer:

Top "candy" Layer

2 cups crisp rice cereal
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/3 cups (8 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
Make the brownies, let cool completely.
Frost the brownies- chocolate or vanilla - your choice
Refrigerate or if you so desire chill in the freezer for a while.
Make top layer and slather over top, smoothing it down evenly.

Done!

Chocolate Goodie bars

Brownie Bottom

recipe adapted from King Arthur's Recipes.
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa or Dutch-process cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 cups chocolate chips

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan

2) Crack the 4 eggs into a bowl, and beat them with the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla till smooth.

3) In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Or simply combine the butter and sugar, and heat, stirring, until the butter is melted. Continue to heat (or microwave) briefly, just until the mixture is hot (about 110°F to 120°F), but not bubbling; it'll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating the mixture to this point will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.

4) Add the hot butter/sugar mixture to the egg/cocoa mixture, stirring until smooth.

5) Add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth. Note: If you want the chips to remain intact in the baked brownies, rather than melting in, let the batter cool in the bowl for about 20 minutes before stirring in the chips.

6) Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9" x 13" pan.

7) Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack before cutting and serving. 

Frosting Layer

2 stick butter

3 cups of confectioners

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 tablespoon give or take of half and half or milk

Whip butter in a bowl for about three minutes.  Add in confectioners sugar with beaters on low.  (You dont want a face full of confectioners... or maybe you do...) Once incorporated, turn up the speed.  Add in vanilla then milk, little by little.  If you add too much, just balance it out with confectioners sugar.

You may not need all of it.  I went for a thinner coating of frosting.

Spread over cooled brownies.

Top "candy" Layer

2 cups crisp rice cereal
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/3 cups (8 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

Assembly:

Make the brownies, let cool completely.
Frost the brownies.
Refrigerate or if you so desire chill in the freezer for a while.
Make top layer and slather over top, smoothing it down evenly.

Chip Chip Candy

A week or so ago, I was at my friends house for our monthly meeting of four ladies. We have been meeting monthly for ... um, wow, has it been ten years? February 2001 was our first meeting. Dang... Well, anyway. My friend had made these great little candies. She wanted us to try them before she told us what was in them. We took a bite and swooned. Creaminess, a bit of peanut butter and crunch. Really nice crunch. Crisp, delicious and creamy all in one. Ah, and salty and chocolate all in one. She said they were formally known as PMS candy. Here's why. They are made with chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and potato chips. I am here to tell you they are really good.

Melt a bag of dark chocolate chips, a bag of peanut butter chips.
Meanwhile crush up about 3/4 of a bag of potato chips, the thin variety works really nicely here.
Stir in those crushed chips to the melted chips.  Spoon onto wax paper.  Chill and eat.  And chill... and eat.. and, well you know.

Sponge Candy

Many people have never heard of sponge candy. Some people know it by a different name: hokey pokey, puff candy, cinder toffee, sponge toffee, seafoam, honeycomb, or honeycomb toffee (according to this site). The confection is made with the following ingredients: corn syrup or molasses, brown sugar, baking soda, and vinegar.

The above candy is made by Platter's. You can find them here. I highly recommend them. I find their sponge candy and chocolate to be one of the best I have ever had. It's very creamy. When it is fresh it is a different texture than when it is stale. I love it both ways. Some people like their sponge candy to get stale. They like to crunch. This may be the same people who like their Peeps stale. (ahem, Rossie).

If you want to make it at home, here is a recipe.

To make sponge candy at home, heat one cup of brown sugar, one cup of corn syrup, and one tablespoon of white vinegar in a heavy saucepan over medium heat until the mixture reaches the brittle stage, around 300 degrees Fahrenheit (149 degrees Celsius). Remove the mixture from the heat, stir in a tablespoon of baking soda, and then pour it into a very well oiled pan to set. After the sponge candy has hardened, tip it out and crack it apart or cut it. Keep the candy wrapped in wax paper in an airtight container.

Peanut Butter Cups

I don't know what happened at Christmas time but I bought a ton of chocolate and chocolate chips. So here I am losing weight and chocolate is not really a big part of my life. What to do with all that chocolate? Easter is coming. I thought instead of spending a ton on Easter candy, why not make my own.

Peanut Butter Cups

2/3 cup Nilla Wafers crushed (or Graham Crackers)
1 1/4 cups peanut butter
1 cup confectioners sugar
3 cups chocolate, chopped

Combine crushed cookies with peanut butter. Blend in confectioners sugar. You should have a mixture that is almost like a smooth dough. If it seems dry, add a little more peanut butter.

Place half of chopped chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Heat in microwave for 45 seconds. Stir. Heat 45 seconds. Stir. Keep going until your chocolate is melted.

With a teaspoon place a small amount of chocolate into paper line mini muffin cups. Use the spoon to slather the chocolate up the sides of the cup. Let harden or place in refrigerator.

Spoon a small amount of the peanut mixture into the cup, leaving enough space to add the final layer of chocolate on top. Place in freezer, until hardened.

Heat remainder of chocolate in a bowl and cover the peanut mixture in the cups. Let harden, preferably in the refrigerator.

Aplets from Washington

So back in September when my blog had 100 posts, I decided to start a new feature. I have this old, old book of recipes that is called, America Cooks, by The Browns, published by Norton and Company, 1940. It is so old, in fact, that there are only 48 states represented in it. There are some very interesting recipes in the book, including squirrel recipes and such. Not that squirrel is a bad thing. I imagine that if meat was hard to come by I would start trapping squirrels and rabbits in my backyard. Well I would have to eat beans a lot more too! Which is not a bad thing.

In doing a search for the book, I found this link. I didnt know my book was worth so much. Too funny. That was published in 1948 and mine was published in 1940. I wonder if that makes it worth more? No matter, it's from my Mom, priceless!

The following recipe is for "Aplets" and it is from Washington.

APLETS
America Cooks, by The Browns

4 cups apple pulp
4 cups sugar
4 tablespoons gelatin
1 cup cold water
3 cups chopped nuts
1/4 teaspoon rose water

"Use Jonathan apples or Winesaps. Cut up and cook with sugar in as little water as possible. Drain and press through a sieve. Soften gelatin in water; add to apple pulp and mix thoroughly. Add nuts and rose water after mixture has partially cooled. Pour into buttered pans 3/4 inch thick. Let harden, cut in even pieces, and roll in powdered sugar.

Aplets are the most genial palate ticklers, that have come our way since the advent of fudge. They are done up commercially at the Liberty Orchards in the Wenatchee Valley."

My notes:

I used mac intosh apples.
I opted out of using nuts as I like the creamy smoothness of these confections.
I also did not press through a sieve, I used a ricer. A little messy but it managed to take out the fibers that were tough.

DARING BAKERS: Caramel Cake & Caramels

This month's challenge was a challenge because I waited until the busiest week to make them, Thanksgiving week. I put the challenge off for so long because everyone was saying how sweet they were! I am not really into heavily sugared sweets, not usually anyway. However, I knew my kids would like them. The idea of them reminded me of my favorite childhood sweet, butterscotch, Tasty Cakes! They were never available here in NY so we always bought them when visiting our relatives in Pennsylvania. Now, they are sold here. However, I no longer like them. Too sweet.

This challenge was sweet but they were so TASTEY. They had so much flavor. The frosting was so yummy with the browned butter whipped in. I highly recommend this cake as the "tastey-WOW" factor was so there!
I sprinkled some fleur de sel on mine. Oh so good!


The leading lady for this month's Daring Baker challenge is Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater (http://eggbeater.typepad.com/) and her signature caramel cake. We also had the option of doing, Alice Medrich’s Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels. Which I did an Espresso Caramel.

Helping her (http://culinarycuriosity.blogspot.com/) host this month are Alex (Brownie of the Blondie and Brownie duo: http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com/), Jenny of Foray into Food (http://forayintofood.blogspot.com/). And helping the Alternative bakers,Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go (http://glutenagogo.blogspot.com/).


CARAMEL CAKE WITH CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING
The Cake recipe comes from: author Shuna Fish Lydon’s with her recipe here at: (http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2006 … he-recipe/)

10 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 Cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 Cup Caramel Syrup (see recipe below)
2 each eggs, at room temperature
splash vanilla extract
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk, at room temperature


Preheat oven to 350F. Butter one tall (2 – 2.5 inch deep) 9-inch cake pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.

Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.

Sift flour and baking powder.

Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.}

Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Turn batter into prepared cake pan.

Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan. Set first timer for 30 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 15-20 minutes. Your own oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing it.

Cake will keep for three days outside of the refrigerator.

CARAMEL SYRUP

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup water (for "stopping" the caramelization process)

In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush. Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber.

When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back. One DB'er suggested covering the pot with a piece of tin foil that had a whole in it. I did that, pouring my water into that hole. It contained the splatter!

Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. {Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.}

Note: For safety reasons, have ready a bowl of ice water to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin.

CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING

12 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound confectioner’s sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons caramel syrup
Kosher or sea salt to taste

Cook butter until brown. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool.

Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, add confectioner's sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup. Repeat until mixture looks smooth and all confectioner's sugar has been incorporated. Add salt to taste.

Note: Caramelized butter frosting will keep in fridge for up to a month.
To smooth out from cold, microwave a bit, then mix with paddle attachment until smooth and light

(recipes above courtesy of Shuna Fish Lydon)

GOLDEN VANILLA AND ESPRESSO CARAMELS
- makes eighty-one 1-inch caramels -
adapted from Alice Medrich, PURE DESSERT

Ingredients
1 cup golden syrup
2 cups sugar
3/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoon instant espresso
1 1/2 teaspoons pure ground vanilla beans, purchased or ground in a coffee or spice grinders, or 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks, softened

Equipment
A 9-inch square baking pan
Candy thermometer

Procedure

Line the bottom and sides of the baking pan with aluminum foil and grease the foil. Combine the golden syrup, sugar, and salt in a heavy 3-quart saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, until the mixture begins to simmer around the edges. Wash the sugar and syrup from the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water. Cover and cook for about 3 minutes. (Meanwhile, rinse the spatula or spoon before using it again later.) Uncover the pan and wash down the sides once more. Attach the candy thermometer to the pan, without letting it touch the bottom of the pan, and cook, uncovered (without stirring) until the mixture reaches 305°F. Meanwhile, combine the cream and ground vanilla beans (not the extract) in a small saucepan and heat until tiny bubbles form around the edges of the pan. Turn off the heat and cover the pan to keep the cream hot.

When the sugar mixture reaches 305°F, turn off the heat and stir in the butter chunks. Gradually stir in the hot cream; it will bubble up and steam dramatically, so be careful. Turn the burner back on and adjust it so that the mixture boils energetically but not violently. Stir until any thickened syrup at the bottom of the pan is dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, to about 245°F. Then cook, stirring constantly, to 260°f for soft, chewy caramels or 265°F; for firmer chewy caramels.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract, if using it. Pour the caramel into the lined pan. Let set for 4 to 5 hours, or overnight until firm.

Lift the pan liner from the pan and invert the sheet of caramel onto a sheet of parchment paper. Peel off the liner. Cut the caramels with an oiled knife. Wrap each caramel individually in wax paper or cellophane.