Butterscotch Cream Cheese Bars

Wellll... the recipe itself is interesting enough, but I feel that these bars lack in the taste area. Even though you melt butterscotch and butter together and add 2 cups each of graham cracker crumbs and nuts (to make the crust and the topping), you really can't taste the butterscotch. The ingredient I tasted most was the nuts, and since I don't like them I'm not fond of this particular recipe. The cream cheese filling was very basic - a pound of cream cheese, a little sugar and flour and a few eggs, plus a couple tablespoons of lemon juice. Why the lemon juice? I don't know, but I'm guessing the acidity of the juice does something to the cream cheese mixture.

One technical problem I had was with finding a pan that was the right size. This recipe called for a 10"x15" jelly-roll pan. At first, I thought I had used a very small pan the last time a recipe called for this, but after I pressed the crust into it (thankfully, I used aluminum foil), I realized there was no way the pan was deep enough to hold the crust and the cream cheese mix and topping. So, I put down some foil on a larger cookie sheet (a little bigger than 10"x15", but hey, it was the closest thing I had) and pressed the crust into it. That worked out muuuuch better. It isn't a difficult recipe. You just have to be patient when melting the butterscotch and crushing up the graham crackers and such.

Another small issue I had was with cutting the bars. The recipe says you can cut them into diamonds or squares; for something different and to follow the recipe more closely, I wanted to try the diamond shape. The book describes how to do it, but since it was my first time trying it I got a lot of variation in size. One thing I do recommend though is using foil on the pan. That makes it so much easier to lift the bars out, and after cutting you can just pick them up and peel the foil off the bottom. The foil works very well.

As far as taste, I'd give this recipe a 2 out of 5... I just wasn't impressed. Like I said, I couldn't taste the butterscotch, which I think is a darn shame. Butterscotch is tasty, but only if you can actually taste it.

Well, that's it until I get back from Japan. So far I've completed 31 recipes, and I have 38 more to do before the year is out. Wish me luck! <3

Cheers!

~Jesia

Chocolate Mint Brownie Cookies

I had to make a couple of small modifications when making this recipe. For one thing, I didn't quite have 3/4 of a cup of nuts (almost!) and didn't feel like opening a whole new bag; and for another, Toll House doesn't make the mint chocolate chips anymore. The closest thing you can get is the "dark chocolate and mint" chips during the holidays (they're dark chocolate chips mixed with green mint chips). Luckily, I was able to snag a couple bags after the last holiday season for 50 cents apiece and they're good until September.

The recipe calls for melting half of the chips and adding it to the batter and then just adding the rest of the chips along with the nuts at the end. The cookies themselves turned out a little odd, I thought. They didn't quite look like the picture in the cookbook; while I realize the real thing often differs slightly from the pictures, it appeared as though the texture was different (or maybe I'm just imagining things). The batter was extremely gooey and sticky, and the cookies spread and became crackled on top. The bottoms also weren't smooth, and if you leave the cookies a little too long on the pan then they're more difficult to scrape off.

They're pretty soft and chewy, and the mint chocolate flavor isn't particularly overwhelming. In fact, the mint flavor actually lingers on the palate a little, and it feels sort of refreshing. I didn't like the nuts in this recipe (besides the fact that I don't like tree nuts anyway); I don't see how nuts and mint chocolate go together, but that's just me... Overall, this is a pretty good recipe (I LOVE mint chocolate), but it wasn't as chocolatey as I would've liked. I suppose the flavor was a little too mild for my personal tastes... Anyway, I guess I'll never know how it would've turned out had I been able to get a hold of the original mint chocolate chips that were discontinued. I'd give this recipe 3 1/2 out of 5.

One more recipe this month! It involves butterscotch and cream cheese.

Cheers!

~Jesia

Island Cookies

This is a reasonably simple recipe. The work is in the prep - chopping nuts (I used macadamias) and toasting coconut (toasting it is optional). Like before with the peanuts, I microwaved the macadamia nuts, but then I used an off-brand Slap-Chop type device instead of a chef's knife (it's called a "Euro Chop," lol). I looked up online how to toast coconut, and apparently there are a couple different ways. I chose the oven: 325 degrees, spreading the flaked coconut in a thin layer on a cookie sheet, and baking for ten minutes. Halfway through I took the cookie sheet out and used a spatula to move the coconut around. For less prep work, you can skip toasting the coconut and buy pre-chopped nuts (macadamia or walnuts, though I couldn't find any pre-chopped macadamias). I decided on macadamias for something different, and also it seemed more appropriate for a tropical-type cookie.

These cookies are exceptionally sweet with the milk chocolate chips and coconut. While I'm not fond of the coconut and nuts, they're good cookies. I'd give them about a 3 1/2 out of 5.

We're halfway through May. Cheers!

~Jesia

Double Chocolate Dream Cookies

My assistant Lucas came over to help me make this recipe. It's a standard chocolate cookie with chocolate chips, but what makes them interesting is that they don't spread much in the oven. Instead, they puff up a little. I'll quote my dad, who compared them to "little brownies." They were especially good right off the pan when they were still warm and the chocolate was gooey and melted. <3 Mmmm... This recipe came just in time for Mother's Day, since my mom looooves chocolate. ^-^ I'd give this recipe 4 1/2 out of 5. You defintely need a glass of milk to help wash these down.

Cheers!

~Jesia

White Chip Orange Cookies

So, before this recipe I have never had any reason to "zest" any kind of fruit. This is just another example of how this project is teaching me things along the way. =) It was kind of frustrating because you have to grate a lot of peel before there's enough of it to fall off the grater. I actually ended up using my fingers on the inside of the grater to pull the zest out (had to be careful not to grate my hand o_o). While the recipe called for 2-3 teaspoons of zest, I didn't actually measure it. I just kept grating until it looked like enough. I had read online beforehand that it's imperative to not grate down to the "pith" of the orange (the white part of the peel), because it's more sour. So I was pretty cautious in my grating, perhaps a little too much so. The cookies turned out great, but I think they could've used just a little more orange zest. Oh, and as far as texture these are amazingly soft cookies, but at the same time they're not incredibly delicate. Very nice.

These were a big hit with my family. ^_^ A couple of them mistook the cookies for white chip macadamia nut, since they're white with white chips, but everyone was intrigued by the orange flavor. I'd give this at least a 4 out of 5. It's definitely different.

Do you know about those "chocolate oranges"? It's a ball of chocolate cut into slices, wrapped in foil to look like an orange. You pick it up and smack it against a table, unwrap it, and the slices that make up the ball fall away from each other. It's usually milk or dark chocolate with orange flavoring, and it's DELICIOUS. So, I can't help but wonder if, instead of white chips, milk or semi-sweet or dark chocolate would be even tastier. I guess I'll just have to try it sometime. =P

Cheers!

~Jesia

Chocolate Peanut Cookies

Mmmm, chocolate and peanuts = yum. Melted semi-sweet chocolate mixed into the batter makes it chocolatey, and honey-roasted peanuts are an amazing compliment. These cookies are surprisingly soft and not too rich. I went ahead and chopped up the peanuts the night before to save time this morning when I baked. I microwaved the peanuts in a bowl for 20 seconds and chopped them with a chef's knife. It took a while, and a few rounds of microwaving, but it worked. I also put the chopped nuts in a strainer to strain out all the peanut "dust." It was probably a good thing I did, because I chopped too much anyway. =P

I'd give these a 4 out of 5. My dad also loves chocolate and peanuts, and he says this might be his favorite cookie recipe yet. =) Hooray!

Cheers!

~Jesia