Nanaimo Bars

Most of you have probably never heard of these so called, Nanaimo bars, but now that you know what they are there is no turning back!  They are rich, creamy, and decadent... enough said!

Basically these consist of three different layers.  The bottom layer is mostly made up of coconut, graham cracker, pecans or almonds, and cocoa powder.  The middle layer is creamy made with heavy whipping cream, butter, pudding mix, and powdered sugar.  The top layer is the most simple but brings it to completion: chocolate and butter.  

When I was at school last semester my friends mom made some of these for him one day and I tried them.  I had never had them before and I really enjoyed them so I figured that once I got home I would try to make them myself.  With having no clue what they were made out of I referred to one of my favorite blogs, Cooking Classy, to begin my adventure. 

My mom called on my baking "expertise" to make something to bring to my brothers lacrosse banquet and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to give it a shot.  I had to hope that it would all work out because I did not have the time for it not to.  Luckily it did, and now I get to share it with you all!  Another awesome thing about this recipe is that you don't have to bake anything all you do is prepare it and its pretty much ready to eat!

Update: I am loving summer and can't get enough of this beautiful weather.  I am working 2 hostess jobs to make some money but I am trying to have a fare amount of relaxing as well.

Ingredients:

This recipe makes about a 9"x14" pan of bars. 

Base layer: 
1 cup diced salted butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
6 tbsp. cocoa powder
2 eggs, beaten
3 tsp. vanilla
3.5 cups graham cracker crumbs
1.5 cups shredded sweetened coconut
1 cup finely chopped almonds (or pecans)

Middle layer:
2/3 cup softened salted butter
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
4 tbsp. vanilla pudding mix 
4 cups powdered sugar

Top Layer: 
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
4 tbsp salted butter

Directions:

Base layer:
Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat.  Once melted, remove from heat and add in brown sugar and cocoa powder until fully combined. 
Continue whisking and while doing so, add in the 2 beaten eggs and combine. 
Return to heat for several minutes until it has thickened.  Stir in vanilla once removed from heat. 
Using a food processor, make the designated amount of finely chopped graham cracker, shredded coconut, and almonds.  I made all of these ingredients pretty fine but it is technically up to you if you want it to be more crunchy!  The picture below is the almonds. 

Once you have combined the graham cracker, coconut, and almonds in a large glass bowl, pour in the chocolate mixture and using a spatula mix until fully coated. 

Press this into a even layer in a pre-greased pan, cover, and place in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. 

For the middle layer:

Using an electric mixer combine butter, heavy whipping cream, and pudding mix for several minutes until smooth and creamy.  

Add in powdered sugar and beat slowly until fully incorporated. 

Spread mixture in an even layer over the base layer, cover, and freeze for 10-15 minutes. 

For the top layer: 

Melt chocolate chips and butter in a heatproof bowl either in 30 second intervals in the microwave (with stirring in between) or over a pot of boiling water. 

Spread this evenly over the preceding two layers of the bars, cover, and refrigerate until ready to eat!

These should definitely be cold right up until the time they are served or else they start to melt pretty quick!  Not the type of dessert that should be left out for awhile! 

These are a new, hip, modern dessert that will not disappoint.  Even my mom who hates shredded coconut liked them!  I hope you try these out and that you are having a great start to the new month of June! 

Happy baking!

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Banana Sandwiches

Hello again, friends of the baking community! It's been awhile, I know, and I wanted to give you an extra special gift for being patient! These are oatmeal peanut butter cookies, that happen to be gluten free, made into a sandwich that has pureed frozen banana in the center. 

I was not looking for a gluten free recipe but I came across this one which is lower in fat content and has no flour so I decided to try it out!  Be careful not to overcook these as they will get a weird consistency after cooling down but still yummy nonetheless. 

To update you on my life I have about one more week of classes, finals, and then I am finally headed home for a nice long summer which I am so excited about!  It has also been gorgeous weather in Portland, which is hard to believe, but it is so hard to sit inside and study when it is 75 degrees out!

My friends and I are huge Pinterest people and love to freeze pieces of frozen banana, throw them into the food processor or blender, and make it into a creamy ice cream that has just one ingredient: the bananas themselves! 

Beware: if cookies are just out of the oven they will be impossible to resist and sandwiches will be very messy.  So bring plenty of napkins. 

I used the peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies recipe from Ambitious Kitchen, which you guys should check out if you are interested. 

Ingredients:

This recipe makes 15-20 cookies.

1 cup creamy peanut butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1.5 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2/3 oats
1 tsp. baking soda
2/3 cup chocolate chips
2 sliced frozen bananas 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. In a small bowl combine oats and baking soda.
3. In a separate larger bowl mix together peanut butter, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla with an electric mixer.  Then, add the dry ingredients and chocolate chips and mix until combined.

4. Roll into 1.5 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet.  Press down lightly to flatten slightly before placing in the oven for 9-11 minutes.  Remove when the edges start to turn golden brown. 

5. While your cookies are baking, make the banana puree.  You should already have 2 frozen sliced bananas that have been in the freezer for at least 4 hours.  Place in a food processor and blend until creamy! 

   

6. Place between 2 cookies and INDULGE! 

These are not difficult at all so I hope you try it out and make again! Happy baking! 

Pumpkin Spiced Ginger Cheesecake Bars

Yes, another cheesecake item!  I'm not really even sure what to call them because they were baked in a 9 inch round pan and could easily be called a normal cheesecake, but on the other hand I kind of cut them into square shapes so I decided to call them bars but be what they will (aka delicious).

Let me just say that there was a lot of tampering and changing of things within this original recipe that I started with but they turned out great! 

I have been a bad blogger lately and I can totally put all of the blame on college!  I've never been so busy in my life and I couldn't even tell you what I've been up to.  Just constant class, homework, labs, meetings, meals, and the very minimal amount of relaxing time is spent catching up on my TV shows or sleeping.  So I know I apologize all the time, but I really am sorry and hope that this summer I can bring you all some smashing new recipes!

I have discovered that in the past year or so heavy dairy makes my digestive system hate me so I usually will buy 1/3 less fat cream cheese and avoid heavy cream but I decided to just go for it with this baby because it is just so much better when its legit cream cheese! 

This recipe I found on A Kitchen Addiction but definitely changed it up.  I did not add cardamom or pepper and instead of using gingersnaps (which I don't doubt would be yummy) I used Newman's Ginger-O's, which I have never had before and was quite pleased!

Ingredients: 

This recipe will make a 9" round pan.

2 cups crushed Ginger-O's
1/4 cup melted butter
16 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1.5 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (or mixture of nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon)
1.5 tsp. cinnamon
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree
3 eggs
2 tbsp milk

Directions:

Buy a box/package of Newman's Ginger-O's and using a food processor or man power crush them into small pieces but they should not be too fine.

             

Combine with melted butter and place this mixture into the base of a 9" round pan or a 9" square pan and bake for 8-10 minutes until it is turning brown.

In a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, both sugars, and flour until smooth.  Beat in pumpkin spice and cinnamon until well combined.  Remove half of this mixture and place it aside in a spare bowl. 

Add in pumpkin puree and eggs to the other half of the mixture in the mixing bowl.

Stir in milk into the other half of the cream cheese mixture that was set aside.

Pour pumpkin mixture on top of Ginger-O's crust and dollop the cream cheese/milk mixture over it.  Using a knife swirl them together to make a cool design. 

Bake for 30-45 minutes (depending on your oven but you want the center to be set).

Cool in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before consuming.

Enjoy! Happy Baking and Happy Spring!

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Heath Bar Cookies

It was a late night.  I could feel the need for baking rushing through my blood.  I spotted the Heath Bar bits in my freezer, the Quaker Oats staring me in the eye from the pantry, and the smooth peanut butter not far off.  The combination was meant to be! 

I quickly looked up some sort of recipe that I could go off of to get me started but exchanged the Heath Bar for the chocolate chips that were required in this recipe: Simply Scratch.

Right now I am sitting in my living room drowning in Kleenex and wishing that I could be going for a run in this beautiful California weather.  But I can't because I have one clogged ear, two runny nostrils, and a burning throat.  To top it off I was blessed with this state while on vacation in Cabo San Lucas with my mom!  I have to return to school in 2 or 3 days and really hope I am better because flying with this monster was no fun the first time around! 

Anyways... I would love to bake right now but everyone is afraid of me so sadly I guess that won't happen until I am healthy (it's probably for the best).  

So yes, these cookies were delicious and easy and fabulous and you must try them and I am sorry for my lack of imagination today as I am not feeling very zippy. 

Here we go:

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of Quaker oats

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 cup smooth peanut butter

3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

3/4 tsp. vanilla

1 cup Heath Bar bits (or more if you want)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl: oats, flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, and salt.

Combine butter, peanut butter, and sugars in an electric mixer and mix until fully incorporated (a few minutes).

Add eggs one at a time followed by the vanilla.

While mixing on low speed, slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix until combined.  

Stir in Heath Bar bits.

Form round spoonfuls of cookie dough onto a lined cookie sheet and place evenly apart, allowing room for expansion. 

Press lightly down on each ball of cookie dough to flatten slightly.

Bake for 10-13 minutes and remove from the oven to allow them to cool on a rack.

Enjoy with milk while warm and gooey! Happy Baking and next time you hear from me it will most likely be from Portlandia!

Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Cake

Salted caramel is the new thing.  I had never even tried it until a few months ago and it was amazing! My boyfriends birthday was on the 17th of October so I went to visit the weekend before and made him a cake of his choice.  He very cleverly came up with this on his own... and man it was good.

Sorry for the bad photo quality... I had to use my iPhone again because I was out of town.

This is a dark chocolate cake with salted caramel icing and a chocolate ganache filling/decoration.  I recommend you make the ganache first if you decide to use it because it takes a little while to firm up.

I did have some issues with the consistency of this frosting.  It took a lot of fooling around with and for some reason it just did not want to thicken up.  I'd recommend just being prepared to add a little bit of this and that to reach the consistency you want.  The chocolate cake recipe I used for this is literally the best one I have ever had and I'm not even a huge chocolate person.  I also cheated and got store bought caramel because I didn't have time to make it but if you want to make it yourself check out my Snickerdoodle Cupcake with Caramel Filling recipe. 

Here we are with the finished product (4 or so hours later).  He was a good sport and did his homework patiently waiting for me to perfect it.  

I also made this cake at his Kappa Sigma fraternity house so it was legitimately gone in less than 24 hours.  I know where to go if I ever need happy customers.

I was inspired by the blogs Use Real Butter and Cucina Nicolina for this recipe. 

Ingredients:

This recipe makes one 2-layer cake. 

For the dark chocolate cake: 

4 oz. dark chocolate chips

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

6 tbsp. cocoa powder

1 stick of softened unsalted butter

2.5 cups brown sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

3 eggs

1/2 cup of buttermilk

1.25 cups boiling water

For the salted caramel cream cheese frosting (be prepared to have extra): 

16 oz. cream cheese (I'd recommend full fat because it will be thicker)

1/4 cup unsalted butter

8 oz. salted caramel (this is about 1 cup of caramel and about 1-2 tsp. salt depending on how much you want)

4-5 cups powdered sugar

For the chocolate ganache:

4 oz. dark chocolate 

5 oz. heavy whipping cream

Directions:

For the dark chocolate cake:

Preheat the oven to 350.

Melt the chocolate and set aside. 

Combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. 

In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, combine brown sugar and butter.  Add the vanilla.  Then add the eggs one at a time.

Stir in the melted chocolate. 

Add half of the dry ingredients and combine.  Then add the buttermilk followed by the other half of the dry ingredients. 

Add the boiling water and mix well.  Do not worry about it's very thin consistency- that means you are doing it right!

Pour into two 9-inch cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes in the oven. When they are done, remove from the oven, and allow to cool completely. 

For the salted caramel cream cheese frosting:

Beat butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer until combined.

Mix in the salted caramel. 

Add the powdered sugar slowly until you reach a consistency you like.

Optional: add about 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream and beat on high speed for 3-5 minutes. 

Place in the refrigerator to let it firm up. 

For the chocolate ganache:

Place the heavy whipping cream on the stove until it reaches a simmer.  

Pour over the chocolate chips and let it sit for 30 seconds. 

Whisk to combine and let it sit until it thickens up.

Assembly: 

Pour a layer of thickened ganache and a thick layer of cream cheese frosting on the top of one of the cake rounds, which should be placed on a platter.  This will act at the filling between the two layers of cake.

Place the second cake round on top of the first.  Frost the top and sides of the cake with the cream cheese frosting and place in the refrigerator to let it firm up.

I drizzled some caramel over the top and also put some writing and decorations around the base of the cake with the extra chocolate ganache that I had.  

Have a great weekend everybody and Happy Baking!

Banana, Oatmeal, Chocolate Chunk, and Reeses Bars

Let me start by saying these were gone in 24 hours.  I do live in a dorm with tons of hungry teenagers, but still, they disappeared in the blink of an eye. 

It was hard to come up with a title for these.  Technically they were made in a 9x13 pan and should be called bars.  But they were moist and had a more fluffy texture so it was more like bread than a bar.  I guess it falls somewhere it between.  

There is a plethora of wonderful ingredients in here but some of them include: oats, overripe bananas, chopped Reeses, and chocolate chips.  Can't get much better than that can it? 

After it was done baking, I melted some chocolate chips with a few tablespoons of heavy whipping cream and drizzled it over the top.  A must do.  

I am on "Fall Break" right now, which is just a few days off of school and it is quite nice to have a mental break.  I'm at Willamette University right now visiting my boy, and it's his 20th birthday next week! Because I can't be here with him on his special day we are going to make a cake together and have a pre-birthday celebration.

Back to the recipe... I made this in between classes one day and it was really simple so if you are in a crunch it's a good one to do!  I had 2 seriously overripe bananas that I'd bought and was trying to figure out what to do with them (I hate wasting food).  Breakfast muffins?  Chocolate chip muffins?  Banana bread? Smoothie?

I finally arrived at this!

This recipe was inspired (but changed a bit) by the Bon Appetit cookbook.

This was the sad last piece left!

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup oats

1 tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 very ripe bananas

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2-1 cup chocolate chips

4-6 Reeses cups, chopped

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350. 

Take two bananas that look like this:

And turn them into this: 

Mush up thoroughly with a fork until you reach a smooth consistency. 

Blend the dry ingredients in a separate medium sized bowl: flour, oats, baking powder, and salt. 

In a large mixing bowl combine the butter and sugar with an electric mixer.

Then, add both eggs, one at a time.

Beat in the banana mush mixture, followed by the vanilla.

Stir the flour mixture slowly into the wet ingredients.

Stir in the chocolate chips and Reeses cups (determine the amount yourself based on how much chocolate you want).  

Pour the mixture into a pre-greased 9x13 baking pan.  

Bake until the top is golden brown at 350 for about 35-45 minutes. 

Once they have been removed from the oven allow to cool completely.

I took some chocolate chips (about 1/4 cup) and a few tablespoons of whipping cream to reach a thin consistency and drizzled it over the top for some added oomph. 

If you like bananas and chocolate I can guarantee you will LOVE these.   

Sidenote:

I am from San Francisco and am a huge Giants fan.  The NLDS can be summed up in one word: torture.  Not only are we the first National League team to come back and win the series from an 0-2 deficit.  The Cincinnati Reds had not been swept 3 games in a row at home all season.  Let's go Giants and let's continue to kick some butt in the NLCS. 

Happy Friday and Happy Baking!