Reese's Cheesecake Bars

Oooooooh boy.

Do I have a recipe for you!

I've been absent a lot lately and the food-related posts have seriously been lacking, but now I'm back with a BANG!

Feast your eyes on these babies:

Hello, beautiful. Get in my mouth.

Reese's Cheesecake Bars.

Yes. You read that right. Reeses + cheesecake. Two of my favorite things, and hopefully two of your favorite things too.

If not, you're weird. (sorry)


My only complaint is WHY THE #$%^ DIDN'T I MAKE THESE SOONER?!?

In case you can't tell already, these are amazingly delicious. Probably going to make a batch of these as often as I possibly can (which if I want to still fit in my jeans is not that often).

I hope you enjoy these as much as we did!


Reese's Peanut Butter Cheesecake Bars
source: The Sweets Life

Ingredients:
Crust-
-7 whole graham crackers, broken into small pieces
-6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted & cooled
-3 tbsp brown sugar
-2 tbsp all-purpose flour
-1/8 tsp salt

Filling-
-2 packages cream cheese, softened (I used reduced-fat cream cheese)
-2/3 cup granulated sugar
-2 eggs
-1/4 cup sour cream (I subbed 0% greek yogurt)
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1 bag mini Reese's peanut butter cups, chopped

-1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325F. Line an 8-in pan with aluminum foil, leaving a 3-4 inch overhang on each side. Grease foil.
2. Make graham cracker crust by adding crackers to food processor and pulsing until fine. Add butter, brown sugar, flour, and salt. Pulse until mixture is combined. Press into the bottom of the baking dish.
3. Bake crust for 12-15 minutes until browning. Cool for at least 30 minutes.
4. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Slowly add sugar, beating well. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in sour cream (or greek yogurt) and vanilla extract until fully combined.
5. After chopping Reese's peanut butter cups, set aside approximately 1/2 cup for later. Stir the remaining chopped candies into the cream cheese batter.
6. Pour batter into baking pan, spreading evenly over crust. Bake at 325F for 35-40 minutes (rotate halfway through), until the edges are set and middle still jiggles slightly.
7. Cool cheesecake for 2 hours. Cover and refrigerate 3-24 hours.
8. Remove from fridge and using the foil overhang, remove bars from pan. Melt chocolate in the microwave (stirring every 15 seconds). Drizzle chocolate over bars and top with remaining chopped Reese's cups. Cut into squares and enjoy!

**Ashley's Notes: I had to speed this process along because I made these just a few hours before I wanted to eat them, so there was no time for 24 hours of chilling. Instead, I pulled the cheesecake out of the oven and let it cool at room temp for about 1 hour. Then I put the cheesecake into the freezer for about 2 hours (just enough to thoroughly chill but not freeze them). They still turned out great so if you're in a pinch, you can do it the faster way!

Another note, don't freak out if your cheesecake cracks as it cools. This happens. And you're just going to cover it with chocolate and Reese's anyway so it doesn't matter!

Lemon Curd Cupcakes

I'm way behind on posting about these, since I made them way back for an Easter celebration. Oopsie!

These cupcakes were the perfect, lemony spring treat! The cake was light and fluffy and the frosting was cool and creamy. They were a HUGE hit a the Easter party I went to. One guest even commented that these were the best cupcakes she had EVER eaten!!

I made both regular size cupcakes AND mini cupcakes, because this recipe made a TON of cupcakes! I was not prepared for that. I had cupcakes coming out of my ears!


I topped some of them with bunny Peeps and the rest I just garnished with extra lemon curd.

By the way, this was my first time ever making lemon curd and it was SUPER easy and delicious! The lemon curd alone would be worth making, if the cupcakes aren't really your thing or you don't have time to make the whole thing.


One complaint I have with these cupcakes was that this recipe was very labor intensive. I know I say that a lot (I guess I'm just lazy), but I really mean it this time. Making these created about a bajillion dirty dishes and took me a good 3 hours from start to finish.

That being said, I would still say these were worth it for a special occasion since they were such a big hit!

Lemon Curd Cupcakes

Source: yourhomebasedmom.com

Lemon Cake:

3 C flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 C unsalted butter (room temperature)

2 C sugar

4 eggs (separated)

1 C milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon extract

zest of two lemons

Mix together flour, baking powder and salt.

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time. Mix well. Alternately add in flour mixture and milk. Beginning and ending with flour. Add in vanilla and lemon and lemon zest.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Add egg whites into batter, folding gently.

Place into cupcake liners. Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool. Use half of lemon curd recipe to fill the cupcakes either with a squeeze bottle or by cutting a small hole in the middle of the cupcake and filling with lemon curd.

Lemon Curd:

2 lemons

4 egg yolks

3/4 C sugar

4 Tbsp butter, cold

Zest the lemons. Juice the lemons. In a bowl mix together the egg yolks and sugar until smooth. Stir in lemon juice and zest.

In a saucepan, over medium heat, bring to a simmer. Continue cooking, stirring constantly until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Stir in the butter 1 Tbsp at a time. Cover lemon curd with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled and thickened.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese, softened

1 C sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 C whipping cream

Half of the above lemon curd recipe above.

In a small bowl beat whipping cream until stiff. In another bowl, mix together the cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla. Add in lemon curd. Beat until smooth. Fold in whipped cream.

**Note: Be sure you refrigerate these cupcakes if you're going to store them for any amount of time, since there is cream cheese in the frosting.

Pretzel Rolls

When I was in a sorority in college, the most popular night to eat dinner at the Theta house was on Pretzel Sandwiches night. Basically, it was just ham & cheese sandwiches served on homemade pretzel rolls and they were TO DIE FOR!

I have always had a fond memory of those sandwiches and really wanted to try to recreate them sometime. So when I saw this how-to for Pretzel Rolls on Tasty Kitchen, I knew I was destined to make them.
I'm not going to lie, these were a bit of a pain to make. Lots of steps were involved, but they did turn out pretty good. They weren't perfect, but they were good! I was imagining a more light and fluffy roll like the pretzel rolls from my college days, but these turned out dense and chewy (I guess more like a real soft pretzel?). I'm not sure if that was a result of me doing something wrong, or if that was the way they were meant to be.

Here are some pictures of the various steps.

Letting the dough rise.

I put the dough in our sunroom for a nice, warm place to rise.

Cutting the dough into small pieces for the dough balls. I made both a larger size and a smaller size.

After the dough was rolled into balls, you let it rise again.

Then you drop the balls into a boiling pot of water for 30 seconds on each side.

After baking the dough balls, they come out golden brown.

And of course I had to immediately taste one with mustard (my favorite pretzel topping)!

Dense and chewy.

Like I said, I'm not 100% satisfied with the way these turned out, but that probably has more to do with the fact that I had such high expectations and preset ideas of what they should be like.

My husband, who has no fond memories of pretzel rolls at the Theta house, thought they were AWESOME and requested that I make them often. I took that as a good sign.


I made these pretty much exactly as the recipe described (other than using kosher salt instead of pretzel salt), so rather than posting it here I'll just link to it since I made no major changes.

The Recipe: Pretzel Rolls

Let me know if you make these how they turn out! And if you have a recipe for Pretzel Rolls that results in light & fluffy rolls, please share!

Double Chocolate Caramel Cookies

I've been bad.

Very bad.

I had a bag of these begging to be used:

And a dinner party to go to tonight so I decided to bake something to bring to the party.

Double Chocolate Caramel Cookies. Ohhhh baby. Yum.

These remind me of a treat that my mom used to make all the time affectionately known as "hiphugger brownies". They were chocolatey, melty, caramely brownies and called "hiphuggers" for obvious reasons. These are the cookie version of those indulgent brownies.

Double Chocolate Caramel Cookies

Source: Rookie Cookie

makes 64 small cookies

2 cups flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup caramel bits or chopped up caramel squares
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Set oven to 350°F.

Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar. Add eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. Stir in caramel bits and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or just until set. Cool on the pan for 10 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

I actually did the calorie count on these, just because I was curious, and was surprised to find out that 2 cookies was only 184 calories. I guess I expected them to be much worse than that. (Granted, I did make the cookies pretty small, but still!)

184 calories per two cookies means....I'll have six. :)

Someone was hoping for me to drop some cookies on the floor so she could partake:

But I'm saving them for myself. Oh and I might share some with the people at the dinner party tonight.

Maybe.

Blogworthy

I haven't had much that I deemed blogworthy going on in my life since I got back from Seattle. Just your typical work, sleep, repeat cycle with not a lot of blogworthy cooking or eating going on.

Well, that is, except for the fried oreos that we devoured while at the fair last weekend.

Those were most definitely blogworthy, but unfortunately also undocumented. :(

And then there are the Iced Pumpkin Cookies that I made for a party earlier today.

Cakey, soft, sweet but not-too-sweet, positively delightful.

And lucky for you, those cookies WERE documented:

And they were quite a hit at the party, so I guess I'm not the only one who thinks these are blogworthy.

I need to remember to make these more often.

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Source: Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.

3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.

4. To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.

Peachy Keen

We're still working through our box of {delicious!} Fredricksburg peaches and loving every minute of it! In an effort to go through a couple of them that were about to be overripe, I decided to bake something with them.

I remembered a recipe I saw recently on How Sweet It Is {a blog I just recently found and LOVE} for Peach Pie Muffins. They sure looked delicious but the best part about the recipe is that they were healthified...no butter or oil at all!

Yesssss....that means I can eat 6 at a time and not feel guilty!

Wait...forget I just said that. I'll distract you by showing you this:

Don't mind my electric blue nail polish! I know it's hard to focus on anything else but try to focus on the muffin deliciousness.

{Side Note: Electric blue nail polish: Appropriate or inappropriate for a casual marketing office? Today at work I felt a little like the rebellious gothic kid in junior high....but I kind of liked it.}

Anyway, back to the muffins!
See those gorgeous yellow chunks? That would be fresh peach chunks nestled in cakey muffinness...uh YUM!

Here are some photos of the process:

Adding the peaches to the batter

All mixed up

Droppin' spoonfuls of batter into muffin tins {Droppin' it like it's hot}

All baked up!

Peach Pie Muffins

Source: How Sweet It Is

{My changes in red}

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce {I added a couple more tablespoons...see below for explanation}

1/2 cup vanilla greek yogurt {I added a couple more tablespoons}

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups chopped, fresh peaches

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place muffin cups in muffin tins.

Mix sugar, applesauce, yogurt and egg until creamy. Add vanilla. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir until completely smooth. Fold in peaches. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins. Top with course sugar - Dangit! I forgot to do this!.

Bake for 15-20 minutes {I baked for 22 minutes because mine were still undercooked after 20 minutes}, until toothpick poked in center muffin comes out clean.

My only problem with the recipe was that I mixed up the batter and it was wayyyyyy too thick for muffin batter. It was practically like cookie dough thick! I don't know why that happened but I ended up adding a couple more tablespoons each of yogurt and applesauce to thin it out. This resulted in a super moist dough...almost too moist {if there is such a thing} but they still tasted and looked great so I didn't care!

UPDATE: Upon further inspection, I realized that the reason why my batter was heavier/thicker is because I ignored the part of the recipe where it said to use pastry flour. I just used straight up whole wheat flour. Oooops!

So I guess the moral of the story is that you can use normal whole wheat flour in this recipe but you will need to thin it out with extra yogurt and applesauce. :)