White Chocolate Cranberry Blondies with Almonds

Credit for this recipe goes to Recipe Girl.

I am guilty of being a Starbucks addict. Recovering, maybe, because I have forced myself to not stop there three or four times a week to buy coffee and/or a pastry, but every once in a while, I do find myself there, and probably once a day, I find myself wishing I was.

Especially around the holidays. They have exceptional seasonal drinks (like caramel brulee latte) and my favorite pastry... the Cranberry Bliss Bar.

I found a recipe that was described to rival those bars, so naturally... I had to make it. Today, I went and purchased the rest of the chocolate (because I didn't have enough, sad day), and came home and made these.

I just tried one. It's DELICIOUS. I added almonds to the top (which is not in the recipe) and a little orange extract to the chocolate drizzle for extra... flavor, I guess. Guh! I can't wait for my mom to try one (she's coming over to babysit in a while). I think she'll love them!

White Chocolate Cranberry Blondies:

Blondie Layer:

3/4 c. salted butter

1 1/2 c. light brown sugar

2 large eggs

3/4 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/4 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 c. dried cranberries

6 ounces white baking chocolate (I used Ghiradelli white chocolate chips (I bought one bag total)

Frosting:

1 pkg. cream cheese, softened

1 c. powdered sugar

6 oz. white baking chocolate, melted (see above) and halved

1/2 c. dried cranberries, chopped

1/4 c. cut almonds (I forget what the cut style is called, but they're slivered, sort of, but whole?)

1/8 tsp. orange extract (optional)

For Blondies:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Spray a 9x13 pan, or line it with parchment paper (that's what I did).
• In a medium bowl, melt butter, then stir in brown sugar. Let cool to room temperature and transfer to a larger bowl.
• Using a mixer, beat in eggs and vanilla. Then add dry ingredients.
• Stir in cranberries and chocolate (I used half a bag of the chips). The batter will be very thick, like clay, almost.
• Spread the batter into the pan.
• Bake 18-21 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not over bake.
• Cool on a wire rack.

For Frosting:

• In a medium bowl, use a mixer to beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until well-blended. Gradually add half of the melted white chocolate (so 1/4 bag melted chips), beat until blended.
• Frost blondies.
• Sprinkle with cranberries.
• Sprinkle with almonds.
• Melt the last portion of chocolate. I added 1/8 tsp. Orange Extract to it.
• Drizzle over the blondies. (Try not to make a giant mess... haha.)
• Cut the bars, and store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Of course, I ate one right away and then boasted to my mom via text message how delicious they are. Now, I should go put them in the fridge!

I have friends who work at Starbucks in various positions... and I hope they don't hate me for posting a "rip off" version of their pastry. Just sayin'.

Lasagna Cups

The credit for this recipe goes to Lauren's Latest.

On Sunday night, my cousin Tarah, and her wife, Kelsey, came over for round two of Hand & Feet with Jake & Nik. Before we played cards, Tarah and I made supper.

The menu: Lasagna Cups.

I am not going to type up the recipe because it's long and I'm a little pressed for time, so here's the link for it again.

They were delicious, for the most part. We didn't have zucchini to add to the sauce, and we didn't use onions because none of us appreciate them. We also didn't have two jumbo muffin tins, but this all fit into 12 regular sized ones just fine. My only complaint was that the noodles making the "cups" were pretty hard to cut and chew. Not sure if that was our fault, or just how it ends up. They were softer after sitting in an air-tight container in the fridge for leftovers.

It was dark in our kitchen, but here's our fresh out of the oven cups: