Blog Archives

Salted Caramel Blondies

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I’ve been on a chocolate and caramel kick recently so I jumped at the opportunity to make Emily’s, of Life on Food, Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars for this month’s Secret Recipe Club reveal. I had a huge block of chocolate and an extra jar of fleur de sel caramel sauce that was itching to be used up so it was just meant to be.

The hardest part about these bars is pressing the cookie dough-like filling into all of the crevices of the pan. I found that if I took balls of dough and didn’t press too hard, I was able to fill most of the spots in one round. That being said, this was a super easy and great recipe. Everyone in my office loved them, marketed as Salted Caramel Blondies.

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Chocolate Caramel Chip Cookies

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Back in April last year, I checked a big item off my to-do list and finally made my own caramels. I took these caramels one step further and chopped them into chip-sized pieces and added them to a new chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I am always a fan of salty and sweet combined, and the mixture of the small chips and chunks of high quality chocolate mixed with the gooey-ness of my handmade caramels made these the perfect snack. The hidden nuts in the mix add another layer of dimension that most people won’t be able to put their finger on.

Cookies & Creme No-Bake Cheesecake

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This past Valentine’s Day we decided to stay in and have a decadent meal of Roasted Lamb. We wanted something easy after a more complicated meal but still wanted a treat to end the night.

This no-bake cookies and creme cheesescake really hit the spot. I originally had thought it would taste better with a cookie crust, but the graham crackers kept the cheesecake from getting too sweet.

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We used the forks from our wedding and I was finally able to try my hand at a true cheesecake because my aunt gifted me a great springform pan for Christmas. I made the mistake of drizzling the chocolate topping on before popping the the cake out of the pan so it stuck a bit, but still tasted great.

Topped with chocolate covered espresso beans and served chilled, this cheesecake is light and creamy but rich enough to celebrate a special occasion.

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Crackle Top Ginger Molasses Cookies

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Nothing reminds me of the holidays more than spiced cookies. For this special Secret Recipe Club Cookie Carnival round-up for the winter, I was paired up with Cindy from Hun… What’s for Dinner?, a stay at home to 2 children. It was pretty much a no brainer when I saw her recipe for Ginger Molasses Cookies, a perfect way to take the edge off on a chilly day. My favorite way to eat these cookies are after they’ve been warmed over the a cup of tea — soft and chewy center with crispier outer edges.

These cookies bake uniformly and are pretty to look at with the crackly tops. Since we like our cookies on the softer side, we baked them for only 10 minutes and set them to cool on parchment paper. The molasses in these cookies keeps them soft for days after baking. My husband baked these for me one evening and I brought them into work 4 or 5 days later and they were still very soft and flavorful. This is also the first cookie I’ve heard of that used oil instead of butter; how these would bake into cookies seemed like a mystery to me.

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Black Tea Banana Bread

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For this month’s Secret Recipe Club, I had the pleasure of being assigned Ros’ blog, The More Than Occasional Baker. Now, this is my kind of blog! I have a major sweet tooth and prefer baking over cooking. Unfortunately, this made it extremely difficult to choose which recipe I wanted to make since everything looked good to me.

I was choosing between Pineapple Tarts, Earl Grey Tea Cookies, Bananas Foster Crepe Cake, Ginger & Chocolate Oat Cookies, Pistachio, Yogurt, and Elderflower Cake, No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites, Homemade Vanilla Marshmallows, Madelines, White Chocolate & Macadamia Cookies, and Earl Grey Tea Banana Bread.

In the end, I went with whatever recipe I had the most ingredients for. I didn’t have any more Earl Grey tea on hand since we used it all up making Lavender Earl Grey Truffles for Christmas a while ago, but thankfully my friend Stephanie had just gifted me with a whole box of Thai Black Tea that I swapped in.

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To continue the Thai-tea theme, I drizzled some thinned out condensed milk on top. The cake was quite dense, which I think was a result of the containers I baked them in (I had this issue with some zucchini bread I baked in these containers) as well as the fact that I just mashed the bananas instead of mushing them to a pulp and substituted yogurt for the sour cream. I also used some of the wet tea leaves to use in the bread itself since I liked the color and texture contrast.

Check out the other Secret Recipe Clubbers below, or head on over to The More Than Occasional Baker to see what she’s whipped up recently!

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