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'.

Birthday Cake Chocolate Bark

Credit for this recipe goes to How Sweet it Is.

When we were preparing for Spencer's birthday party, I came upon this recipe for cake batter chocolate bark. It looked delicious, but I ran out of time and energy to complete it for his birthday party. So, I put it off a few days, or weeks, or something, until I eventually got up the will to try to make it.

It was pretty simple. And it is pretty delicious. Though, I must warn you, it's super sweet. To combat the sweetness, I used dark chocolate with sea salt. It helped a bit!

I divided the recipe in half, knowing full well I could not eat an entire batch. I also used some different chocolates and more cake mix than her recipe calls for. But, like I said, it tasted delicious.

Here's how I did mine...

Birthday Cake Chocolate Bark:

3.5 oz dark chocolate with sea salt (I used Godiva)

7 oz. white chocolate (I used Lindt Vanilla Bean (I think it was Lindt))

2 T. yellow cake mix

sprinkles

• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Melt dark chocolate in the microwave or double broiler. (I did mine in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until melted.) Pour onto baking sheet and smooth it with a spatula.
• Freeze for 20 minutes.
• Melt white chocolate as you did the dark chocolate.
• Slowly whisk in the cake mix, stirring until smooth. Let it sit for about 2 minutes (until slightly thick).
• Remove baking sheet from the freezer and immediately pour the white chocolate over it. Spread it evenly and add your sprinkles to the top.
• Freeze for 20 minutes (or two days, if you're me and forgot...)
• Once it's set, break it into chunks and taste!
• Store it in the fridge.

Ours has been in the fridge for about two weeks and is still pretty dang tasty. I know, two weeks sounds gross, but I promise, it's not. :)

Birthday Cake Rice Crispy Treats

Credit goes to How Sweet it Is.

For Spencer's first birthday this year, he had... wait for it.... 4 parties. Yeah, I know. But, there was a reason to each. The first was at daycare on his birthday. The second wasn't "really" a party, and it was on his birthday, with his uncle, his BFF, and my cousin. The third was the day after his birthday, with his dad, his uncle, and his BFF (because his dad had to work all day on his actual birthday). The fourth was the Sunday following his birthday, with a lot of his family and friends.

Anyway, I didn't want to "over-birthday-cake" the poor little guy, so he had a birthday muffin, a birthday cookie, birthday cake rice crispy treat, and birthday cupcakes (in that order).

These were delicious. So, I'll share.

Birthday Cake Rice Crispy Bars:

3 T. butter

10 oz. mini marshmallows (one bag, generally)

1/4 c. yellow cake mix (I used nearly 1/3 cup)

6 c. crispy rice cereal

sprinkles (as many as you want, really)

• Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat and add marshmallows.

• Stir them until they melt.

• Add cake mix gradually, stirring to combine it.

• Stir in cereal and some sprinkles (or dump the marshmallow mix over cereal in a separate bowl) until it's all gooey and sticky and completely mixed. Try not to eat it all in the process (I tried to eat some, and uh, it's still really hot...).

• Press into a baking dish (I used a 9x13 inch pan, I believe) and top with more sprinkles!

• Let sit about half an hour before cutting.

• Eat away. But try to share. That's the nice thing to do.

Red Velvet Brownies with White Chocolate Buttercream

Greetings!

I know, I know, yet another recipe and cooking blog. It's true, there's a bajillion out there.

I can't claim to be a culinary master. Sometimes, I screw up recipes. Not often, but it's been done. (Ask my best friend, Michelle, about our high school cooking days. We once made "butter soup" instead of eclairs, and a giant, watery, sugar cookie, for example.) I don't create a lot of my own recipes. I often don't measure spices, flavorings, or add-ins and just dump until I think it looks or tastes good. But, I do occasionally find myself wanting to cook or bake. I often tell the world about about on Facebook, and people sometimes ask me for recipes. So... here they will be. Recipes others have created and a few "recipes" that I create myself.

I will give credit when credit is due, to the best of my capabilities.

If photos happen to be included, they'll be my own. Please don't take them.

Enjoy!

-Nik

Credit goes to How Sweet it Is.

I found this recipe on pinterest. I will admit, I am addicted to pinterest, especially because it works SO well to organize recipes (I am a visual person, so I love being able to see a picture of the food and my comment under it).

I jumped at the chance to create them. In fact, I text my husband who was out and about in town and asked him to purchase what supplies I didn't already have. He's a dear and obliged me.

Red Velvet Brownies:

1/2 c. butter (room temperature)
1 1/2 c. sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/4 c. flour

1/4 tsp. salt

3 T. cocoa powder

2 T. red food coloring (if you want them red, otherwise, it's unnecessary (*and I didn't use the full amount when I did it)

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (Fahrenheit, because I'm in the USA and have no idea what that would be in Celsius).

• Butter and flour an 8x8 inch pan. I didn't have a baking pan, so I used a glass casserole dish, and it worked out just fine.

• In a medium-ish sized bowl, combine the cocoa powder, food coloring, and vanilla to make a paste. (Mine was more... chunky and not all wet than a paste, and I am not certain that you need to do this at all, actually... so if you don't, just add them all separately at the end.)

• In a mixer (or another bowl with a hand mixer, that's what I did) cream the butter with the sugar until fluffy (that's such a funny visual, I imagine it to be fuzzy and standing straight up, but you know what it means, I think). Add eggs and the remaining vanilla.

• On medium speed, add the colored paste.

• Beat until completely red (or just mixed, if you aren't using the food coloring).

• Add the flour and salt.

• Bake 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool. You'll burn your mouth otherwise, and not be able to fully enjoy their deliciousness later.

White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:

1 stick butter (room temperature)

2 1/2 c. powdered sugar

1-2 T. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

4 oz. whilte chocolate (melted, I used... Godiva, or Lindt, I forget, in bar form)

• Cream butter until fluffy. Add vanilla.

• Slowly add 1/2 c. powdered sugar, on low speed.

• Add melted chocolate and beat until completely mixed.

• Add 1 tsp. milk at a time, and mix until desired consistency.

Unless you want an extremely generous amount of frosting on your cooled brownies, you'll have extra. Store it in the fridge for later!

I ended up making the brownies twice, because they were so tasty. I was out of red coloring the second time, so I used blue. They looked green. They were tasty, still, but... funky looking.