Millionaire Shortbread

Happy Fourth of July!

Here's to food and family and fireworks.

I actually made these a couple of weeks ago, and they were the first thing I brought in to work. Food is universal--everyone eats, and most people like sweets!--so it was a great way to meet more people and share something enjoyable in the middle of the work day.

Though I brought them in when I arrived that morning, I didn't announce their presence until 2 o'clock or so. You gotta wait until the hunger and fatigue strikes, then BAM! make some friends! They're a layer of shortbread, followed by a dulce de leche-like caramel filling, and a chocolate ganache on top.


Anyway, everyone raved. And people were super impressed with the diamond cutting pattern.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: it takes the same amount of effort as cutting regular squares.

But people think they're fancier. Just like spreading sauce artfully on a plate, or swirling frosting on a cake. Food psychology is almost as cool as food science!

Each layer is simple to make, so though there are three, there's not a ton of waiting between steps. The whole shebang took me about an hour, or a bit over. The original recipe calls for cooking the caramel to a precise temperature, but I did it by look and feel and it still turned out delicious. Make these...and revel in sinking your teeth into something decadent, sweet, and beautiful!

Millionaire Shortbread
Yield: as many diamonds as you can cut! (9x9 inch pan--I split between two smaller pans with similar area)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup dark brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
• 1 tablespoon ice water
• 1 egg yolk

• 1 (14-oz) can sweetened condensed milk
• ½ cup dark brown sugar
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons Lyle's Golden Syrup (or dark corn syrup, or honey, or agave...)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream

Method:

1. For the crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a 9x9 inch baking pan with slings of aluminum foil (greased) or parchment paper.
2. Whisk flour, brown sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a large bowl. Add butter, then cut in with a pastry cutter, two forks, two knives, or however your soul tells you is right. I like to grate frozen butter on the biggest holes of a box grater and then fluff everything together!
3. Add ice water and egg and mix with a fork until the dough starts to come together in clumps. Press into the pan and bake 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
4. While the shortbread is baking, get the caramel ingredients ready. Dump everything except the vanilla together in a medium saucepan. When the shortbread has about 5 minutes left, turn on the stove to medium heat and whisk while the sugar dissolves and the caramel cooks. Let it cook until the mixture starts to boil around the edges, then keep whisking constantly until the caramel is thick and browning (you'll feel it get thicker). Stir in vanilla extract, then pour over the shortbread.
5. Let the shortbread and caramel cool for about 15 minutes, then microwave the chocolate and cream together for 30 second bursts, until the chocolate is melted. Stir to combine, then spread over the caramel. 
6. Put the pan in the fridge to set, at least an hour, and then pull out by the foil sling and cut as desired (I suggest diamonds!). Serve and impress, eat and delight!
7. Store in the fridge for up to a week.

From Brown Eyed Baker

Cherry Chocolate Almond Cookie Bars

As the title states, these are bar cookies with cherries, chocolate, and almonds. A winning combination.

The base is a buttery shortbread with chopped dried cherries mixed into it. Then, when the bars come out of the oven, you immediately scatter chocolate chips over the hot cookie slab, wait a couple of minutes for them to melt, then spread to coat. A final shower of chopped, toasted almonds puts the cherry on top.

wait, but the cherry is on the bottom...

Anyway, the point is that these are dead simple, even though they look and taste fancy!

They also stay fresh, since they're just shortbread, for over a week in an airtight container, and are quite sturdy, so they would be a great cookie to send in the mail. I'm looking at you, holiday season!

[P.S. I burned some of the almonds I was toasting for these bars. wah wah. I also pretty majorly burned half of the granola I made earlier this week, so here's hoping I don't burn the next recipe (or undercook it, which I often seem to do too)...there's such a narrow window of success, and when it's not quite as obvious as a cake tester or browning, it's hard to know when something is done!]

This weekend is simply gorgeous in Chicago--sunny and warm with a cool breeze by the lake--so we went up to the Chicago Botanic Gardens on our bikes. It's so lovely there and they've got an amazing collection. I always love the rose garden, since the smells are as varied as the flowers themselves!

And a shout out to my mom, who is showing some of her plants at the Bromeliad show happening this weekend! If you're in the area and have some free time, I'd highly recommend going by and seeing the wonderful plants on show. They partner with the Cactus and Succulent society, so there is a lot to see, and all of them really unique!

Enjoy the day!

Cherry Chocolate Almond Cookie Bars

Yield: about 20 bars

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) flour
• 3/4 cup (5 1/2 ounces) superfine sugar, or sugar processed in a food processor for 30 seconds
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened, cut into half inch pieces
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 of an 8 ounce package) cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup dried cherries, chopped*
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups toasted, chopped almonds (or any other nut you like!)

Method: 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line an 18x12 inch rimmed baking sheet with parchment, or foil sprayed with nonstick spray.
2. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, briefly combine the flour, sugar, cherries, and salt at low speed, just to mix well. Add the butter one piece at a time with the mixer running, slowly incorporating it into the dry ingredients. Keep mixing until the dough holds together when squeezed and looks crumbly. 
3. Add vanilla and cream cheese and mix on low speed until the mixture just starts to come together in large clumps. Knead a few times in the bowl to finish mixing, then turn onto your prepared baking sheet and press into an even layer.
4. Bake bars for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately upon removing the pan from the oven, sprinkle with the chocolate chips and let sit for 3 minutes to let the chocolate melt. 
5. Spread the melted chocolate evenly over the surface of the bars, then top with the almonds (or nut of your choice). Let cool completely before cutting into diamonds.

Cookies keep well in an airtight container for a week or longer.

Adapted ever so slightly from Baking Illustrated.

*Buyer beware: Craisins has a cherry dried fruit product that would seem to be dried cherries, but it's actually dried cranberries flavored with cherry juice. The dried cherries I got were from Sunmaid, and there wasn't quite a full cup in the bag but it was totally fine!

Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

These are dreamy, creamy, crazy bars. Like lemon bars mashed up with cream cheese and lets throw some incredibly purple swirls from fresh blueberries in there.

Like portable blueberry lemonade flavored cheesecake.

If this looks orange to you, I promise you it's lemon. Also I'm obsessed with juice/zest bowls--they look like eggs!

It has all the good parts: graham cracker crust, 2 full packages of cream cheese, and two full lemons, juice and zest. Now, about the cream cheese: I love using neufchatel cheese, which is basically low-fat cream cheese, in these kinds of recipes. I believe you get more tangy cheese flavor, while helping to keep these...umm, I was going to say "more healthy," but I think "less unhealthy" makes more sense. And I always get the store brand.

Mostly I do it for the cheesiness, even though I have no idea if that's true. Neufchatel is sold the same way as cream cheese, in 8 ounce blocks. The Kitchn has a nice explanation of the difference here.

Also (BONUS), this recipe uses one food processor. Dump ingredients and go. wipe out. repeat.

Portable, not fussy or (too) messy, and big on flavor. Glorious, creamy, fruity and summery, these bars beg to be made.

Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars
Yield: 1 8x8 pan (I cut it into 9 generous pieces)

Ingredients:

• 9 graham crackers, broken into pieces
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• Pinch ground cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

• 16 ounces cream cheese or neufchatel (see note above), room temperature if possible
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• Zest and juice of 2 lemons
• 1½ cups fresh blueberries

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8x8-inch baking pan with parchment paper, letting excess hang over the sides of the pan. (or grease it, and then at the end you can just cut the bars out of the pan)
2. Make the Crust: In a food processor, process the graham crackers, sugar, and cinnamon until you have the texture of bread crumbs (do not cut your thumb on the blade reaching in to break up the crackers, like I did). Add the melted butter and pulse a couple of times to fully incorporate. Press the mixture into the lined baking pan and gently pat down evenly. Bake for 12 minutes, until golden. Set aside.
3. Make the Filling: Wipe out the food processor. Add the cream cheese, sugar, eggs, lemon zest and lemon juice. Process until well combined. (If your cream cheese is cold, process just cream cheese and sugar for a minute or so to soften it up before adding the liquidy eggs) It should have a smooth consistency. Pour the filling onto the crust and then sprinkle the blueberries over top. The blueberries will sink slightly, but should still be half exposed. As they bake, they will sink a little more and break down.
4. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until the center only slightly jiggles. Remove from the oven and cool completely to room temperature and then refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving. Once set, remove from pan using the parchment lining and slice.

Recipe from Brown Eyed Baker. This recipe is so perfect that I changed literally nothing.

Store-bought from Scratch

Happy Fourth of July!!

Our town has fireworks the third, and the neighboring towns do it the fourth...so we get double!! Everyone's got their favorite ones: I love the ones that branch and the ones that trickle down like weeping willows, other people flip for the ones that change colors or the smiley faces or the hearts. Either way, fireworks are special because you don't get to see them most of the year.

So few things are rare anymore, given the internet. You could watch someone's youtube video of fireworks, I guess. Knock yourself out. But it's not the same! You don't get the whole perspective of their huge-ness.

And it's pretty rare, as families get older and children move across the country, to see each other.

In person. Not skype or facetime or google hangout.

Celebrate the rare moments of life!

A bench scraper makes cutting brownies super easy!

For our Independence day gathering, I made homemade brownies and homemade ranch dressing.
Two things that yes you can get from a box/bottle, but that's not rare! That's what happens in real, everyday life. Today, you have time to throw some ingredients in a bowl and have it taste miles better than a corporate chemical concoction (which, by the way, is darn good).
Both of these are one bowl, one whisk commitments.

So don't be shy! They won't bite.

From ingredients you most likely have in your pantry, these come together in a snap.

For the ranch, sub in what you like! I tried to use yogurt in place of sour cream (which was fine) and mayo (since I don't like mayo but without it the dressing was too tart and watery, for my taste), but then decided to add a bit of mayo. Experiment, taste with some carrots as you go, and don't sweat it.

P.S. If we had had some cream cheese open, I'd have been all over putting some in the ranch. I think it would have been great! Alas, we didn't, but you might!

See that crackly coating?

Chewy Brownies


Ingredients:

1/3 cup (1 ounce) Dutch-processed cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder (optional but delicious)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water (boil, then measure)
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs plus 2 large yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups (17 1/2 ounces) sugar
1 3/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (or 6 ounces chocolate chips--that's 1 cup!)


Method:

1. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Make sling by folding 2 sheets of parchment paper so that they are as wide as 13 by 9-inch baking pan (one 13-inch sheet and one 9-inch sheet). Lay sheets in pan perpendicular to one another, with extra hanging over edges. Push parchment into corners and up sides of pan, smoothing flush to pan (it doesn't have to be perfect!) Spray with non-stick spray and set aside.
2. Whisk cocoa, espresso powder, if using, and boiling water together in large bowl until smooth. Add unsweetened chocolate and whisk until chocolate is melted. Whisk in oil and melted butter. (Mixture may look curdled.) Add eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla and continue to whisk until smooth and homogeneous. Whisk in sugar until fully incorporated. Add flour, salt and chocolate pieces, and mix into batter with rubber spatula until combined. 
3. Transfer batter to prepared pan spread batter into corners of pan and smooth surface. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of brownies comes our with few moist crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking. Transfer pan to wire rack and let cool for 1½ hours. If your pan is glass, take the sling out of the pan after 10 minutes of cooling, so the heat-retaining glass doesn't overcook them!
4. Remove sling from pan (if you haven't already), peel sides of sling down, cut and serve. A bench scraper cuts the brownies nicely, just press down, don't drag it through the brownies. Store in airtight container at room temp for 3 days, if they last that long.

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

Ranch Dip
Yield about 1 1/2 cups dip


Ingredients:
1 cup greek yogurt (or combo of mayo and sour cream)
Buttermilk (or milk) to desired consistency
about 1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (my favorite thing in the world)
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
Black pepper (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley (use fresh if possible)
1/2 teaspoon dried chives (ditto)
1/4 teaspoon dried dill (double ditto and a lot of alliteration)

Method:

Mix together the yogurt, buttermilk, and mayo first to the desired consistency, then add the rest of ingredients. Stir, taste, adjust, using what you have on hand!
Keep refrigerated and enjoy with everything!

Based off recipe from Serious Eats.

Pecan Bars

Easter is this weekend!

So I made Pecan Bars. Logical.

They have no coconut or hard boiled, white and yellow eggs. But they do have a heck of a lot of brown sugar, which makes just about everything good.

And pecans. ohhhh pecans. I just found out they don't taste like walnuts! They're totally buttery and sweet at the same time. Even raw! Raw walnuts just taste weird to me, but pecans are amazing.
New love.

The real reason I made these was that I thought I was going to make a box mix pecan bar. Then we opened the box and the filling was rock hard and stuck together.

Then of course, my dad and I super wanted pecan bars, so this recipe popped up on a quick google search and I didn't think much of it. It was such an impulsive dessert making. Not that I really had time to cook, but I just wanted to, you know? And they were fast enough it didn't make too big of a dent in my homework/letsberealsomeofthatisfacebookandfoodblog time.

The filling is sticky and sweet but easy to cut into pretty rectangles. The pecans are divine. It's in their blood. And the crust is like a sugar cookie, not shortbread. I like it better than some short crusts used in other custardy bars (lemon squares, I'm looking at you) because it holds its shape better and tastes good in a chewy kind of way.

Here's the recipe!

Pecan Bars


Ingredients:
1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup flour
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup  pecans

Method:

Cream butter and 1/2 cup light brown sugar. Work in 1 cup flour by hand until smooth (using your hands help, even though it gets sticky). Pat into 8“ or 9” greased pan with your knuckles. Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes, cool. Beat eggs, 1 cup brown sugar, vanilla, flour, baking powder, salt; stir in chopped nuts, spread evenly over baked crust. Bake 25 minutes or until brown and firm to touch (the middle might still jiggle a bit). Cool, cut into bars.

Recipe from TasteBook.