Chocolate Raspberry Layer Bars

So, this was a pretty fun recipe just because it was so different, but I don't like coconut. =/ Quite unfortunate for me... Anyway, this is basically a graham cracker crust topped with semi-sweet chocolate chips, coconut, and sweetened condensed milk, which is then baked. When it cools you top it off with raspberry jam, walnuts (optional; I made 1/3 without nuts), and drizzles of semi-sweet and white chocolate. It makes for a pretty presentation! My parents went crazy over it.

I'll share some things I learned with this recipe. It calls for 1 and 2/3 cups of graham cracker crumbs but doesn't specify how one might go about crushing up graham crackers efficiently or how many graham crackers to use. Here's the route I took, and it was very effective: place several graham crackers in a gallon Ziploc bag and use a rolling pin to crush them up until it's nice and fine. In a box of graham crackers, I used one of the three packages in the box, plus 3 more graham crackers to get 1 and 2/3 cups.

Oh man, and the recipe called for 2 and 2/3 cup (or a 7-ounce bag) of flaked coconut. We had a 14-ounce bag on hand, and I made the mistake of packing the coconut while measuring it so I used at least 50% too much coconut. >_<

As for the seedless red raspberry jam... All I could find at the store was a 10-ounce jar, and it was called "spreadable fruit" rather than jam. The recipe calls for 1 cup of jam, and when I measured it out the entire jar came out to a little under 1 cup. It worked out fine, but it was a little difficult to spread it over the entire dessert.

Even though I don't like coconut, I'm obligated to try at least a bite of each recipe. There was plenty of chocolate and coconut, and the raspberry jam added a fruity sour-ish bite to it. Really, the way this recipe is put together it reminds me of pie in a bar-cookie form, since it has the graham cracker crust. If I liked coconut, I'm sure I'd like this recipe a lot better. I feel like it would be wrong to count the coconut against the recipe, so I'll say... 3 or 3 1/2 stars out of 5?

This concludes February! In March we'll have 6 more Toll House recipes, two of which involve a little alcohol (whoo~ xD). Haha.

Cheers!

~Jesia <3

Chocolate Cherry Thumbprints

This is a pretty interesting recipe. Sure, I've heard of the whole "thumbprint" cookie idea, but I've never tried it. I can't help but wonder why Toll House calls for both unsweetened cocoa powder and melted chocolate in the recipe though. Usually it's just one or the other. Ah well, surely they have their reasons, right? Also, there are oats in this recipe, but I'm guessing the oats help give the cookies some density and strength to hold the cherry on top. Again, we'll pretend these cookies are healthy since they involve oats and fruit. ;) I looove decorating with drizzle on top, and even though the recipe didn't specify to melt the chocolate in a Ziploc bag, cut a tiny hole in the corner, and pipe the chocolate on the cookies, that's the way I did it. I think it's just easier that way, rather than trying to use a spoon or knife to drizzle it on straight from the bowl. For me, at least, the chocolate tends to cool and drop in clumps rather than actually drizzling... So yeah, I recommend the Ziploc bag route. =)

I'm personally not a fan of cherries, but I tried one of these cookies anyway. It was just okay, I thought. I'd say... 2 out of 5 stars. It's a neat idea, and other people who like cherries really liked these, but it's just not my taste. They were fun to make though! You literally stick your thumb into balls of cookie dough and fill them with whatever it is you're using. ^_^ I'm looking forward to another thumbprint cookie recipe later in this book; they're chocolate cookies with peanut butter thumbprints.

Anyhow, only one more recipe for the month, and it's also fruity! The Chocolate Cherry Thumbprints are the beginning of the "Celebration Cookies" chapter. The next blog will be Chocolate Raspberry Layer Bars. It looks interesting!

Cheers!

~Jesia

Chocolate Butterscotch Cereal Bars

Originally I thought this recipe looked so easy that I considered doing it in the dorm this week. But I was wrong. Horribly wrong. I'm very glad I went ahead and did this at home instead. I guess it's not so much that it's a difficult recipe. It's just that I had some issues with equipment and lack of experience with candy-making. Yes, this recipe is more like candy-making than baking; I didn't even use the oven. I'll tell you what I did so you'll know how to avoid the same mistakes I made.

You start with a cup of sugar and a cup of light corn syrup in a pan and bring it to just a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. I stirred with a plastic spatula... Turned out that was a bad idea, because I saw a little swirl of blue in the mixture about halfway through. Yeah, the spatula head was blue... and yes, that means that a little bit of the spatula melted into the sugar mixture. Luckily I was able to get the piece of blue out and I switched to a spoon, first a plastic coated one then a metal one just to be safe. After taking the pan off the heat you mix in a cup of peanut butter - not really a problem. The problem was that the pan I used on the stovetop was way to small to fit six cups of Rice Krispies cereal in. I panicked a little, and my mom suggested a large glass measuring bowl (eight cups), but as I suspected it was also too small to stir the mixture up properly. So, she brought out a huge metal bowl, which was much easier. However, by this time the mixture has been cooling and hardening a little, so it was difficult to scrape it all out of the glass bowl and into the large metal one and then stir it. I thought at one point it was just not going to turn out, which is frustrating. But somehow I got it stirred up and into the 13" x 9" baking pan, which I ALMOST forgot to grease, and everything was A-okay. Last but not least, I melted the cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and the cup of butterscotch chips together and spread it over the top of the cereal mixture. I placed it in the fridge to cool, safe at last. The only other problem I had was cutting them into bars. It was difficult to cut, so I got really uneven lines. I don't know if cutting them into bars before putting it in the fridge would've helped, but it may have. I was just following the recipe.

So yeah. If you decide to try this recipe, here's some tips. Either use a huge pot to begin with so you can add the Rice Krispies to the sugar/corn syrup/peanut butter mixture directly, OR put the cereal in a humongous bowl and scrape the peanut butter mix from a smaller pan on top of the cereal and stir. I'd recommend getting everything measured, greased, and ready to go before ever putting the sugar and corn syrup on the stove, that way you can work quickly and stir the mixture up before it starts hardening. Also, don't be a dumbass like me and use a rubber or plastic utensil to stir the sugar mixture on the stove. That was fail on my part.

My dad really likes these bars, but I think they're just okay... Maybe I've just got some hard feelings because I had a difficult time though. =P Anyway, I'd say these are maybe a 3 out of 5 stars. I don't mean any disrespect, Toll House, but I must say I prefer original Rice Krispy treats to this recipe. As much as I love peanut butter, Rice Krispies, chocolate and butterscotch, this just didn't "wow" me. Oh well. There are lessons to be learned here. You can't win'em all.

Cheers!

~Jesia

Chunky Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

Sooo... I understand peanut butter and chocolate. That's a match made in heaven. But, who would've thought of peanut butter and chocolate with a hint of... cinnamon? Apparently, Toll House did. The name really describes it. As you can see in the picture, these cookies are chunky to the max: chock-full of chocolate chips and peanuts. To tell you the truth though, I was a little disappointed in this recipe. I love chocolate and I adore peanuts and peanut butter. I figured this would be a GREAT cookie recipe. Don't get me wrong; it's not bad at all. It's just not as good as I imagined. I think I prefer more peanut butter (there was only 1/2 cup in the recipe) and the cinnamon just didn't do anything for me. I'm sure it's purely a matter of personal taste.

I wonder if it would've been better to use honey-roasted peanuts. Those are really yummy and sweet. I used regular salted cocktail peanuts, since the recipe didn't specify what kind. It called for the nuts to be coarsely chopped, but I didn't feel like dealing with chopping up 1/2 cup-worth. I just made sure that they were all separated into halves before adding them to the dough. Besides chunky, the texture is slightly crisp. Yum. <3 I think they would have held together better had I chopped the peanuts like I was supposed to. The cookies tend to break off into chunks, probably because of the large pieces of peanut.

I'm having a difficult time deciding on a rating. I feel that they deserve a little better than a 3, but maybe not quite as much as a 3 1/2. It's just hard to say.

Not bad, Toll House, but you can do better!

Cheers!

~Jesia

Choc-Oat-Chip Cookies

I <3 oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and this is a good recipe for it. The nuts are optional, so I made some with and some without. My parents requested pecans, but it turned out both bags we had were no good. So I used walnuts instead. =p Anyway, not an usual recipe, except that much more brown sugar is used than white sugar. The ratio of the sugars helps determine the texture of your cookies. The recipe indicates different baking times for either soft or crisp cookies, but I'd reccommend checking them at the minimum time called for to prevent overbaking, even if you're like me and you prefer some crunch to your cookie.

These cookies are nice and chewy thanks to the oats and brown sugar. ^-^ I'd give them 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. They're not too sweet and just right in every way. Mmmm~~ <3 Since there's oatmeal in it, we can pretend that it's good for you. x3

Cheers!

~Jesia

Mini Morsel Meringue Cookies

If you like meringue, then these are pretty yummy and simple cookies. Only five ingredients - egg whites, salt, cream of tartar (NOT TARTAR SAUCE), sugar, and mini semi-sweet chocolate morsels. This was my first time baking meringue in a context other than on top of cream pies, so it was interesting.

Like I said, if you like meringue, these are pretty good cookies. It feels soft on the inside and yet somewhat firm on the outside, and when you chew it all up you get the really chewy part of the meringue left in your mouth (which I'm sure is purely caramelized sugar). I guess it's difficult to describe unless you've eaten meringue... I'd give this 3 out of 5. It isn't something I'd be apt to make often, because it's so unusual, but it is good. Another positive point is that they're simple (as long as you have an idea of how to make meringue and you follow the instructions) and not too sweet despite the cup of sugar and the mini morsels.

Word to the wise! Don't be like me and forget to grease the pan before baking these cookies. They're more difficult to take off the pan without destroying them. Also, when you do grease the pan, don't wait longer than a few minutes (maybe 5) to take them off. I found that if I left them sitting on the cookie sheet too long they were also difficult to scrape off. xP

Cheers!

~Jesia