Double Chocolate Heath Bar Cookies with Salted Caramel

This cookie is very multifaceted because not only does it have chocolate chips and cocoa powder but it has toffee/heath bars bits as well, not to mention the salted caramel drizzled on top! 

Baking is sort of an addiction of mine.  When I get hooked on the fact that I want to bake something it will most likely happen. I had several little bumps in the road while making these cookies like randomly having no baking soda and scootering down to my neighbors who graciously gave me some.  Of course I returned the favor by giving her a plate of cookies! Another was that I barely had any caramel so only about half of the cookies had it which is fine because it isn't totally necessary but gives it some extra oomph. 

This summer has been great so far, I have a perfect balance between baking, blogging, working, free time, time with friends and family, etc.  I am excited to hopefully start volunteering at an animal shelter sometime soon as well. 

If you have a history with me you know that I like Heath Bar, especially because my boyfriend gave me pounds of it 2 years ago... which is now almost gone, this is the last bag: 

I guess this is going to be good for me though because I will need to expand beyond the world of Heath bar deliciousness! Anyways hope you enjoy this recipe which was inspired by Center Cut Cook.

Ingredients:

This recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies. 

2 sticks of unsalted softened butter

1.5 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour

2/3 cups cocoa powder

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup heath bar bits

*Optional: salted caramel for topping

Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

2. With an electric mixer combine softened butter and sugar until it appears creamy. Add in eggs and vanilla and mix again until combined. 

3. In a large separate bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet with a spatula. 

4. Fold in the chocolate chips and toffee.

5. Roll the cookie dough into balls and space evenly apart on a baking sheet.  It is recommended to leave about 1.5-2 inches of space between each dough. 

6. Bake for about 8-10 minutes, remove from the oven, allow to cool a little on the sheet, and finally transfer onto a cooling rack. 

7. While they are cooling drizzle the salted caramel onto each cookie.  

Serve and enjoy!

Happy baking everyone!

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!

Brown Butter Chocolate Stuffed Heath Bar Cookies

So, these are the famous Brown Butter Chocolate Stuffed Heath Bar cookies from the blog, How Sweet It Is.  I've never even made brown butter before and I was successful on my first try!  Not too difficult... but worth it because it makes all the difference.  Not to mention that browning butter makes the kitchen smell like heaven.

From this picture you can clearly see that it really is "chocolate-stuffed" and it is ohhhh so good.  Yet another Heath Bar recipe! If you read my Yellow Heath Bar Cake Recipe you will see my rant about how I accumulated so much heath bar.  But you can never have enough, so it's definitely not a problem.

The countdown is officially on.  I have four days until I leave for Lewis & Clark College!  For those of you who don't know it is a small liberal arts school right outside of Portland, OR.  I am experiencing an entire slew of emotions: fright, excitement, nervousness, sadness, along with anything and everything else you could possibly imagine.  One of my biggest fears is that I won't be able to continue my baking!!  I am sure I will find a way though, because it's something I'm not sure I could live without.  I bought a hand mixer, a couple large bowls, and some of the other essentials.  There's also a baking club so thats something I will look further into.

Random fact: when I was halfway through making the cookies I realized I only had one egg, so I had to walk over to my friendly neighbors house at 9pm and ask for another egg!

And now I am ranting so you probably just want the recipe, am I right? Well, here you go.

Ingredients:

This recipe will make about 18-20 medium sized cookies

1.5 sticks or 12 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup of chopped Heath Bar or toffee bits

chocolate chunks (I chopped up a bar of Trader Joe's dark chocolate truffle, which not to mention is to die for)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Place the butter in a pan over medium heat.  Whisk until butter melts and continue to whisk until you start to see brown bits appearing at the bottom of the pan.  When this occurs, immediately remove it from heat and let cool for about 10 minutes. 

Once the butter has cooled, whisk in both sugars (brown and granulated) in a large bowl and mix until it is combined.  Do not expect it to be very smooth at first.  It will be grainy and crumbly.

Add egg and egg yolk.  Mix well and it should start to come together more.  Next, add vanilla and mix until well combined.

Combine dry ingredients in a separate medium sized bowl: flour, baking soda, and salt.

Place the dry ingredients into the large bowl with the wet mixture and mix until a dough forms (this may take a little bit of patience). 

Roll a little ball of cookie dough onto a pre-greased cookie sheet. 

Place a chunk (or 2 depending on your liking) of chocolate on top of the first piece of cookie dough.

Roll out another ball of cookie dough about the same size, place on top, and push down and seal the sides (not pictured) to flatten the cookie dough slightly so that it is able to bake more evenly. 

Bake in the oven at 325 for about 15-20 minutes.

Remove, and let cool off on a cooling rack for the desired amount of time. Enjoy!

I will definitely be making these again!  Cookies are always quick and easy, yet just as satisfying.  Thanks for the growing support and be sure to come check back in the next couple of days for something new! Always open for suggestions, recommendations, questions, etc.! 

Happy baking!

Yellow Heath Bar Cake

So let's just start from the beginning.  My boyfriend and I both worked at a self-serve frozen yogurt shop last year in Marin county (called Swirl) and my favorite topping was the chopped up Heath Bar.  Before he left for school last year he gave me several pounds, yes POUNDS, of Heath Bar and I still have so much left! He was able to get his hands on this massive load of Heath because the shop we worked at orders everything in bulk amounts.  So.... because of all this I use every excuse to make something with it because it's so delicious.

And there was another birthday in my family! My brother turned sweet sixteen and he also happens to be a Heath fan, I mean who isn't right?  The cake I made was a yellow cake with a chocolate cream cheese filling (with heath bar bits) and a pretty simple white frosting on the outside.

Ingredients:

This recipe will make about 12 servings.

For the Yellow Cake:

2 cups all purpose flour

1.5 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 cup milk

3 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

For Chocolate Cream Cheese Filling: 

1/8 cup butter

4 oz softened cream cheese

2 oz melted chocolate (I used semisweet but you can use whatever you want)

1.5 cups of powdered sugar (sifted)

1/6 cup of half-and-half

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cocoa powder (if desired)

For White Vanilla Frosting: 

1/2 cup plus about 2 tablespoons of butter

1.5 tsp vanilla

3 tbsp milk

3-4 cups powdered sugar (sifted)

pinch of salt

Directions:

Cake: 

Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare two 8-inch round cake pans by spraying with cooking spray and placing parchment paper in the bottom. 

Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) in a medium bowl. 

Combine sugar and butter in a mixer and beat until light and fluffy.  Then add eggs one at a time. 

Next, add flour mixture alternatively with the milk.  The final step is to add the vanilla.  

Separate the batter evenly into the 2 pans and bake for about 20-25 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before continuing. 

Chocolate Cream Cheese Filling:

Cream together softened butter and cream cheese in a mixer. 

Beat in melted chocolate, salt, powdered sugar, half-and-half, and vanilla.  At this point you should evaluate what you have and decide whether or not you want to add the cocoa powder or not.  The filling I ended up putting in the middle of the cake was without the cocoa, but I decided to make more for garnish and did add the cocoa and liked it much more (your call).

White Vanilla Frosting:

Beat together the butter, salt, and vanilla.  

Add the milk and the powdered sugar until you have reached a desired consistency (it may be a little bit more or a little bit less than what I have indicated). 

Putting It All Together!

First, put a layer of filling on the upside of one of the cooled round cakes.  Then sprinkle a hefty amount of Heath Bar on top of the filling and place second cake round on top.  

Next, coat the entire top and sides of the cake with the white vanilla frosting and place in the fridge to set for 10 minutes. 

Finally, decorate it however you want! I piped some extra chocolate cream cheese frosting around the base and the top, placed a circle of heath bar bits on the top, dyed some extra white frosting blue and wrote "Happy Birthday Willie" and also drew some bikes around the sides.  (My brother is a big downhill biker by the way).

It was a big hit for the teens and some of the parents that stopped by as well. Hope you try it out and if you have any questions, concerns, feedback that would be great! Happy baking!