Oatmeal Bars with Chocolate Icing

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Very Disappointing Oatmeal Bars with Chocolate IcingI got back into town early and decided to bake. But I didn’t want to scoop cookies or frost cupcakes so I decided upon a nice and easy bar cookie. I simply Googled “oatmeal bars” and came up with this one.

These are okay. Nothing special and a little boring. I probably won’t be making them again.

Ingredients
1 cup butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
6 ounces milk chocolate bars or morsels
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preparation
Cream 1 cup butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks. Add flour and rolled oats and mix well. Spread in a greased and floured 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.

Melt chocolate bars or morsels with the 2 tablespoons of butter. Spread over cooled cookie layer; sprinkle with chopped nuts. Cut into 1 1/2-inch squares.

Makes 48 cookies.

Notes: I omitted the nuts. Also, I used my hands to spread the batter into the baking pan–it was really thin.

Recipe from about.com.

Apples and Honey

I probably won’t be trying any new recipes again until after the high holidays, so I wanted to wish my fellow Jewish readers a happy, healthy, and sweet new year. Shana tova!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

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A soft peanut butter cookie with a miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup inside. These are delicious and so simple to make. I’m mailing them to my sister in New York, so let’s hope they don’t melt or get squished.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
If you can’t eat peanut butter cookies, use your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and a Hershey’s Kiss instead.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
40 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped

Preparation

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
  2. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
  3. Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy.
  4. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk. Add the flour mixture; mix well.
  5. Shape into 40 balls and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.
  6. Bake at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball. Cool and carefully remove from pan.

Makes 40 cookies.

Notes: I use a small cookie scoop to measure the dough. Also, I put the muffin tins in the fridge for about 10 minutes after I push the peanut butter cups into the cookie; this way they cool faster and the chocolate doesn’t melt.

Recipe from All Recipes.

Printable Recipes

I installed a plugin that should allow you to print recipes by clicking on Print This Post at the bottom of each post. Of course, this was so simple to install that I’m pretty sure it won’t work properly. And unfortunately, I don’t have a printer at home to test it out tonight. So, if anyone happens to try it, let me know how it works.

Update: I noticed that the Print This Post link is only available when looking at posts on the main page. It won’t work if you get to the post via the archives or categories. I’ll look into this.

Buttermilk Cupcakes with Praline Icing

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Buttermilk Cupcakes with Praline IcingI was so looking forward to these, but they didn’t exactly come out right. The cake ended up slightly undercooked, and the frosting was just an all-around mess, setting the second I turned the mixer off. By the time I put the frosting on the spatula, it was already too hard to spread. I ended up going back to the mixer and adding a bit of milk each time I frosted about four cupcakes, just so I could get it temporarily back to spreading consistency.

I may try these again, but will definitely add milk while mixing the frosting.

Cake Ingredients
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
1 egg white
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup low-fat buttermilk

Cake Preparation
Preheat oven to 350F. Line 18 muffin cups (you’ll probably need two trays) with cupcake wrappers.

Combine the sugar and butter in a large bowl, and cream together with an elextric mixer until light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes. Beat in the eggs and egg white, one at a time, followed by the vanilla.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Add the 1/3 of the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and stir well, followed by 1/2 of the buttermilk. Add in another third of the flour mixture, followed by the rest of the buttermilk and the last of the flour. Stir only until no streaks of flour remain.

Divide the batter evenly into the prepared pans, smoothing the surface with a spatula. Bake at 350° for 18-22 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed.

Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.

Frosting Ingredients
1 cup brown sugar, packed (light, dark or golden)
6 tbsp low-fat milk
1 tbsp corn syrup (light or dark)
1 tsp butter
dash of salt (1/8 tsp or so)
2 cups powdered sugar

Frosting Preparation
Combine the brown sugar, milk, corn syrup, butter and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce heat, and simmer for 5-6 minutes. Pour syrup mixture into a large bowl and let stand for about one minute. Add powdered sugar and the vanilla, then beat with a mixer at medium/high speed until smooth. Cool for 2-3 minutes (icing will be thin but thickens as it cools) before frosting, mixing for a few more seconds with the mixer to smooth it out.

Frost cupcakes and let them stand at room temperature until ready to serve so the frosting can set.

Makes 18 cupcakes.

Recipe from Bakingsheet.

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