Cheesecake Blondies

I have been baking for more than a decade now. I have made more than my share of blondies and brownies. This is the best of the lot. If I tell you that this tastes like out of this world, I am not exaggerating. Try it yourself if you don't believe me.

One Year Back -  Coconut bars, Tutti Fruity Muffins
Two Years Back - Cake Decorating Basics Part - 9
Three Years Back - Cake Decorating Basics Part - 3
Adapted from - Simply Recipes
Ingredients: 
Cream Cheese - 8 Oz block (I used 1/3 fat) - softened
Oil - 1/3 cup (Or use melted butter 1/2 cup)
Sugar - 1 cup
Egg - 1 large (Ener-G egg replacer works fine)
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Baking Soda - 1/8 tsp
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Optional (I used):
Macadamia nuts - chopped and measured 1/2 cup (Could use walnuts or omit)
White chocolate chips - 1/2 cup (You could use semi sweet or milk chocolate chips)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 8" square pan or line with parchment paper. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, beat sugar, oil and cream cheese till creamy. Add egg, vanilla and beat till everything is mixed well. Add the dry ingredients in one go and continue to beat. When the beater starts resisting, switch to spatula and add the chocolate chips and macadamia nuts and fold. Pour into the prepared pan. This is very sticky and thick dough. Smooth the top with spatula. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until the top looks pale golden with brown spots here and there. It will also start to pull from the sides of the pan. Check with the toothpick and if very few crumbs come attached to it when you insert it in the center, they are done. Do not over bake them. Cool in the pan on the wire rack and slice when completely cool.

Notes:
After slicing and seeing how thick they are, I can say you can use 9 " square pan to get a little thinner blondies.  In that case, bake few minutes less.
Check out what my friends are baking -  Preethi, Veena, Priya, Srivalli,  Sumana and Jayasri.
 

Enjoy.

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Coconut bars

Show me a single South Indian who does not like Coconut Burfi or coconut fudge. I bet there they are rare. The moment I saw these bars on the KAF web site, I knew I would love them. You could use cardamom in place of vanilla to get the same flavor as the traditional coconut burfi.

One year back - Cake Decorating Basics Part - 9
Two years back - Cake Decorating Basics Part - 3
Adapted from - King Arthur Flour
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1 1/4 cups
Sugar - 3/4 cup (See Notes)
Light Corn syrup  - 1 TBSP
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Coconut oil - 1/3 cup (Or canola oil)
Flaked coconut - 1 1/2 cups (I used sweetened)
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Baking powder - 3/4 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly grease a 9 X 13" pan with vegetable oil spray. In a bowl, whisk together oil, vanilla, corn syrup. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together the remaining dry ingredients. Pour the wet into dry and mix. It will be crumbly. Dump the crumbly mixture on to the pan and press them firmly. Firmer you press, better looking your bars will be when they come out of the oven. Bake for 15 - 18 minutes or until lightly browned at the edges.
Original recipe had the chocolate topping on to this crust. I didn't use that part.

Notes:
You could use just 1/2 cup sugar if you are using sweetened flaked coconut. If you like a little chewier bar, try baking in a 9" or 8" square pan. These are crispy and almost crumbly bars.

25 days of the Bake-A-Thon are done. 6 more to go.  My fellow bloggers doing this are - Preethi, Veena, Priya. 
Linking it up to Kid's delight - Vegan and egg less bakes hosted by Priya, started by Srivalli. 

Enjoy.

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Chocolate Gingerbread Bars

Today is Day 11 of my month long Bake-A-Thon. This recipe is perfect for the holidays. Even though it is full of spices, there is a very nice balance of chocolate and spices.

One year back - Eggless Almond Date Cake

Two years back - Money Saving tips on food
Adapted from - Martha Stewart (barely)
Ingredients:
Butter - 4 TBSP melted and cooled (1/2 a stick) plus more for the pan
Unsweetened Cocoa - 1/4 cup plus more for the pan (Use natural cocoa)
All purpose flour - 3/4 cup (spooned and leveled)
Ground ginger - 1 tsp
Ground Cinnamon - 1/2 tsp
Ground Cloves - 1/4 tsp
Ground nutmeg - 1/8 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Dark Brown Sugar - 1/2 cup packed
Unsulfured molasses - 1/4 cup
Egg - 1 large
Sour cream - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Semi sweet chocolate chips - 1/2 cup (I used mini ones)
Confectioner's sugar - for dusting (optional)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter a 8" square pan and dust with unsweetened cocoa. Or line with parchment paper. In a bowl, beat the melted butter, brown sugar, molasses, egg and sour cream. In another bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, salt, all the spices, baking soda. Add the dry mixture to wet and stir till nicely combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour into the prepared pan. This batter is very thick and you will have to push it to cover the entire pan. Bake for 28 - 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on the wire rack. When completely cool, dust with powdered sugar or even frost it with cream cheese frosting if you want to go overboard. Makes generous 9 bars or 16 medium sized ones.

Today is day 11 of the Bake-A-Thon.  My fellow bloggers doing this are - Preethi, Veena, Priya.
Enjoy.

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Chocolate Butterscotch Bars (Using cake mix)

Have you ever had a feeling you are so busy that you don't have time to sit down even for a moment? That happens a lot to me. Combine that with few requests from kids and a slight case of OCD, you will be living my life for a day. I woke up yesterday and when I was passing by the window, felt a draft. Started checking and sure enough, there was cold air coming through the window. I had to go in to work, so whatever was needed, it had to wait till I got back. On the way back, I stopped at home depot and bought all the supplies needed to weather shield the windows. If you are wondering about me at this moment, yes, I am a big handy woman when it comes to fixing stuff. I come home and I did know that I had to bake some kind of cookies for my kid to take to school today, but started with the window project anyway (see, I told you OCD). By the way draft was only from two windows, but I had to weather shield all of them (God only knows why - I blame it on OCD). It took me 2 hours to weather shield 12 windows. I still have 5 more windows to work on, but I stopped to make dinner and bake these bars. This recipe is a life saver when all you have is 5 minutes to spare. That and of course, a pantry with ingredients needed for this.

One year back - Dry Fruit Yeast Bread/Cake
Two years back - Green mango Gojju

Ingredients:
Chocolate Cake mix - 1 box (I used betty crocker brand)
Eggs - 2 large
Sugar - 1/3 cup
Butter - 1 stick or 1/2 cup melted and cooled (You could use oil instead)
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Butterscotch chips - 1 cup

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray a 13 X 9 pan with vegetable oil spray. Set aside. In a bowl, mix melted butter or oil with eggs, sugar and vanilla. Dump the cake mix and stir. It will be really thick. Stir in the butterscotch chips. Dump into the prepared pan and push to cover the entire pan. Smooth with the spatula. Bake for 28 - 30 minutes or until you see few cracks on the top and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on the wire rack and cut when completely cool. You get 35 medium sized bars or 24 large bars.

Today is day 9 of the Bake-A-Thon. Tell me if you are enjoying this or getting tired of seeing all baked goodies. My fellow bloggers doing this are - Susan, Preethi, Veena, Priya.

Enjoy.

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Vegan Carrot Oat Bars

When I announced this 'Bake-A-Thon', why didn't any of you warn me about how tough this will be? I don't really know what I was thinking. You see, I have so many baking books that my problem is to settle on what to bake next. And knowing the way I am, I will get some idea when I look at something and start something else. There was a carrot walnut bar recipe in one of the better homes and garden book that I have. I thought of making that but ended up changing so much that it became my recipe. If you like carrot cake, this is for you. If you don't like granola bars because they are a bit hard, you might like them. Throw in about a cup of raisins if you like them. By the way, if you want to see a recipe here on this blog, drop in a line. I might get ideas from your request.

One year back - Eggless Almond Date Cake
Two years back - Coconut Almond Cookies
Ingredients:(Makes generous 24 bars or medium sized 35 bars)
All purpose Flour - 1 1/2 cups (You could use whole wheat flour instead)
Rolled Oats - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Carrots grated - 2 cups
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 tsp
Flax Meal - 2 TBSP
Warm water - 6 TBSP
Oil - 2/3 cup

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 13 X 9 pan with vegetable oil spray. In a bowl, whisk together flax meal and warm water. Set aside for 5 minutes. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar, oats, cinnamon. When the flax and water mixture has thickened, beat it with a whisk and add oil to it continuing to beat. Pour the wet mixture to dry and stir. Fold in the grated carrots. It will loosen up a bit after you add carrots. Pour into the prepared pan and push to cover the entire pan. Smooth the top with the spatula. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. I was using a new pan which doesn't conduct heat very well and it took me almost 35 minutes. Check at 25 minutes. Cool in the pan on the rack and slice when completely cool. These make healthy snacks that are great as a 'on the go' snack bars.

Today is day 7 of the bake-a-thon. Do drop in and check out what my Bake-A-Thon buddies are baking in their kitchens -  Susan, Preethi, Veena, Priya. Linking it up to Kid's delight - Vegan and egg less bakes hosted by Priya, started by Srivalli.

Enjoy.

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

In India, there is a beans called 'Avarekayi' (in kannada) that is in season during the month of January. I think this grows only in southern parts of India. People make breakfast out of it, lunch, snacks, dinner continuously since you cannot really get it after the season is over. Pumpkins here everywhere remind me of the same. At least you can use canned pumpkins all through the year and that is something to consider.
I have baked almost all the baked items using pumpkin - from bread to cake to cookies. Only thing that I have not baked is a pumpkin pie since no one is fond of that at home. Here is another addition to that pumpkin list - Pumpkin Bars with chocolate chips. They make a great snack. Not too sweet and not too rich either.

One year back - Two Cake Recipes, Apples to Applesauce to Applebutter
Two years back - Mango Mini Muffins
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/8 tsp or a big pinch
Oil - 1/4 Cup
Egg -1 large
Sour cream or yogurt - 1/2 cup
Pumpkin Puree - 1/2 cup
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Chocolate chips - 1/2 cup (I used mini)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F (325 F in my case since I was using a glass pan). Spray a 7 X 11 (See Notes) pan with vegetable oil spray. In a bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking soda. In another bowl, whisk together oil, sugar, egg, sour cream and pumpkin puree. Add vanilla and whisk again. Add the wet ingredients to dry and stir until mixed well. Stir in the chocolate chips. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool on the rack in the pan and cut when completely cool.

Notes:
You can use a 8 X 8 pan too. Might have to bake the bars couple of minutes more. If you use 9 X 9, that works too. Makes not so big 24 bars but you can cut them into generous 16 or 18 pieces.

Enjoy.

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Vegan Fruity Oaty Bars

Do you like Granola bars? But feel they are a bit hard? Then these bars are for you. These are chewy, has good whole grains and is loaded with dried fruits.
They are so nice that even people with teeth problems had no problems eating them. And these make perfect snack in your kid's lunch box.

One Year back -  Blonde Brownies
Adapted from - Vegan cookies invade your cookie jar
Ingredients:
Rolled Oats - 3 cups
Whole Wheat flour - 1 cup
Barley flour - 1/2 cup (Or use more whole wheat flour)
Wheat Germ - 1/2 cup
Cinnamon - 1 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Fruit juice - 1/2 cup (You could use orange or pineapple or apple juice)
Ground Flax seeds - 3 TBSP
Canola Oil - 1/2 cup
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Agave nectar - 2/3 cup (Or use honey for a non vegan version)
Maple Syrup - 1/4 cup
Flax seeds - 1/2 cup (I used golden roasted flax seeds)
Dried cranberries - 1/2 cup
Raisins - 1 cup (Or a combination of dried fruits)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 13 X 9 pan with vegetable oil spray. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add dried fruits to it and toss. In another bowl, whisk together oil, fruit juice, maple syrup and agave nectar. Add vanilla and mix. Pour the wet ingredients to dry and mix with a spatula. Pour it on to the prepared pan and press down firmly. Bake for 26 - 28 minutes. Cool in the pan on the wire rack. Slice when completely cool.  Store in an air tight container and use within 4 days.

Notes:
Since these bars are chewy, I am sure if you use applesauce in place of oil, they will be fine. You can they get fat free oat bars.

Enjoy.

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Applesauce Brownies

What makes brownies so famous?
Is it the richness? Or is it because they are so gooey?
Lot of butter, eggs and sugar and very less flour is the formula for a nice brownie. Right?
May be not. This recipe doesn't have too many eggs or fat. But equally good. Want to see how it is done? Read on..

One year back - Cumin Onion Bread sticks
Adapted from - Mott's Applesauce Recipe Collection
Ingredients:
Sugar - 1 cup
Vegetable or Canola Oil - 1/3 cup (Original recipe had 1/2 cup butter)
Eggs - 2 large
Applesauce - 1 cup (Unsweetened. Decrease sugar by 1/4 cup if using sweetened)
Vanilla - 1 tsp
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Unsweetened natural cocoa - 1/4 cup (Dutch process will work fine too)
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Chopped nuts - 1/2 cup (I used toffee bits) - optional

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 9" square pan or an equivalent (11 X 7 is same as 9" square). Set aside. In a bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, eggs and applesauce till all are combined. Add vanilla and whisk one more time. Dump the dry ingredients into wet and whisk to combine. Stir in the nuts if using or chocolate chips or toffee bits. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until the sides have started pulling away from the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with either no crumbs or very few. Cool in the pan on the rack and slice when completely cool. Dust with confectioner's sugar if desired.

Enjoy. Pin It

Peanut Butter bars with toffee bits

This is the third peanutbutter based bar cookie I am posting. There is something about peanut butter and chocolate or toffee bits in this recipe. I was flipping through the book - Creative cooking - the costco way and the picture of these bars drew my attention. I changed quite a bit and made these bars. These are a bit crumbly and that is what makes them so delicious.

One year back - Vegan Whole wheat bread, Zucchini Kootu
Ingredients:
Adapted from the book - Creative Cooking - the Costco way
(Makes 24 big pieces or 35 small pieces)
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Quick cooking oats - 1 cup not instant
Sugar - 1 cup (Can use half brown sugar and half white sugar. Increase this if you are using natural peanut butter.)
Canola oil - 1/2 cup
Smooth peanut butter - 1/3 cup
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp (Increase it if you are using natural peanut butter)
Egg - 1 large
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Toffee bits - 1 cup (heathbar bits - you can use chocolate chips instead)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 13 X 9 glass pan with vegetable oil spray. Set aside. In a bowl, whisk together flour, oats, salt and baking soda. In another bowl beat oil, peanut butter and sugar till well combined. Add the egg and beat. Add vanilla and with mixer at low speed, add the dry ingredients. It will get hard to beat towards the end. Turn it off and using a spatula, fold the ingredients till all of them come together. Fold in the toffee bits and dump into the prepared pan. This dough is very crumbly. Push it to spread to the entire pan. Bake for 20 - 24 minutes or till light brown on the top. Cool completely on the wire rack. Slice when completely cool.

To make it eggless:
Use ener-G replacer in place of 1 egg. Or since peanut butter already makes these bars nutty, use flax egg. It will come out beautifully. Or better still use 1/4 cup mashed banana to make it peanut butter banana bars.

Enjoy. Pin It

Whole Wheat Almond Shortbread

Do you believe in the saying 'Marriages are made in Heaven!!'? I can't say I do. But, having said that, I do believe that some marriages are definitely made in heaven. I say this to those marriages wherein the husband and wife are so much in love, have respect for each other and it is so much fun for others to just watch them. I know of such a couple. No, they are not my parents. And no they are not my in-laws either. They are my friend's parents. It is such a pleasure to see that couple who are  in 70s, that it brings happiness to just see them.

Don't panic, I am not changing the topic of this blog from food to something else. I wrote the above lines to say that there are two ingredients that are made for each other as well food wise. They are butter and sugar. Just mix them and either cook, or bake and just eat as it is. You cannot go wrong with this combination. Ever. That is one of the reason why shortbread cookies have their own place in the baked goodies section. It is just a mixture of butter, sugar and flour baked till done. No big deal there. But can this no big deal take you to virtual heaven? oh yes. (That is foodie in me talking. Don't take it literally.)

I did some modifications by cutting down the fat and using almond butter as part of fat which, is a good fat. You can use all butter and omit almond extract or you could use vanilla instead of almond extract if you wish.

One Year Back - Multigrain Banana Bread
Adapted widely from - Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook
Ingredients:
Whole Wheat flour - 1 3/4 cups
Wheat germ - 1/4 cup (Or Wheat bran)
Light Brown Sugar - Packed 1/2 cup
Butter - 1/2 cup or 1 stick at room temperature (Or use margarine for a lower saturated fat)
Almond butter - 1/2 cup (I used homemade)
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Almond Extract - 1 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 325 F. In a bowl, combine almond butter, butter or margarine and beat till creamy. Add brown sugar and continue to beat till creamy. Add salt, almond extract and slowly start adding flour and wheat germ. Keep beating till the whole mixture comes together like wet sand. It won't be like cookie dough. It will be more like crumble mixture. Lightly grease a 8" square pan (Or a 9" square pan or 10" spring form or a tart pan). Pat the dough into the pan and press firmly. Place in the oven and turn down the temperature to 300 F. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and using a bench scraper, score the cookie in the pan into 4 by 4 rows and columns. Or even 5 by 5 if you want the pieces small. Take a fork and poke through each piece if desired. Put it back in the oven and bake for another 15 minutes or till lightly brown. Cool on the wire rack completely. Loosen the edges with a knife and when you turn it out, the whole thing will pop out. Separate and store in an air tight container for up to 1 week.

Original recipe had part whole wheat and part all purpose flour. Use all purpose flour if you wish. It also had all butter. I used part almond butter.

Enjoy. Pin It

Cashew Brownies

People run marathons and some walk them. I definitely cannot run a marathon, but certain can walk one. Since I am into blogging, I joined a group of fellow bloggers who are on a 'Blogging Marathon' for a week. When I came to know about this on Srivalli's blog, I thought 'Why Not?'. I blog atleast 4 days a week anyway. Stretching it to 7 days for one week is not a big deal. She had set up some themes and the toughest part of it is to stick to the theme for one full week. I have chosen 'Sweets'. You will be seeing a lot of cakes, cookies and other sweet stuff. It is not that I don't know or like to make Indian sweets. It is easier for me to get rid of all the high calorific baked goods than the Indian sweets among neighbors and my kids' school staff.

One year back - Rieska
Adapted from here.
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Granulated sugar - 1 cup
Butter - 1/2 stick or 4 TBSP
Unsweetened cocoa - 1/3 cup
Eggs - 2 large
Cashews - chopped coarsely 1 cup
Vanilla extract - 2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 300 F. Grease a 8 inch square pan. It is better to line it with parchment paper. I didn't and it was not easy to get perfect squares. Set aside. In a microwave safe bowl, take the butter and melt it. When completely melted, add cocoa powder, sugar to it and combine. Add eggs to the same bowl and whisk till everything is blended well. Add vanilla, flour, salt and stir gently. Add in the cashews reserving couple of TBSP for topping. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle the reserved cashew pieces. Bake for 28 - 30 minutes (I checked at 30 minutes and I could've taken it out in 28 minutes) or till the brownie looks set. Do not over bake this. Cool on the wire rack in the pan. Cut into squares when completely cool. You can serve them warm but the pieces won't come out clean.

Check out all these fellow bloggers who are participating in this 7 day marathon - Srivalli, Azeema, Bhagi,  Gayathri Anand, Gayathri Kumar, Harini, Jay, Kamalika, Meena, Mina, Padma, Pavani,  PJ, Priya Mahadevan, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu, Rujuta, Santosh, Saraswathi, Savitha, Shanavi, Smitha, Sowmya, Suma, Usha, Veena.

Sending this to 'Sweet as Sugar Cookies'



Enjoy. Pin It

Gingerbread Biscotti

It is that time of the year when gifts are given to many people. As I said before that I prefer to give something useful and meaningful as a gift. And that combined with a tight budget leads to one thing - baked goodies. If you want to give some meaningful gift, it will cost more than a few dollars and that times the number of teachers times the number of kids, it does add up.
For some reason I went and bought nice things this year to give to my kids' teachers. I packed them, tied the festive ribbon and thought this is it. At the nth moment, I decided to make something along with the gift. Yes, I never said I am a sane person. So, go ahead and call me crazy.

I made the Cake Mix Blondies but used butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips, then I made brown sugar cookies which, I haven't blogged yet. Then I made these gingerbread biscottis. I have to give cookie platters to some more people for which, I am planning on baking more stuff, but for the teachers' gift, these three were made. This one is a nice recipe. Not difficult at all. I did not make any big changes in the recipe except cutting down on spices. I didn't want the spices to be so strong that people won't be able to enjoy them.

Adapted from allrecipes.
It is suppose to make 48 biscotti but I made them so long, I only got about 40.
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 3 1/4 cups
Sugar - 1 cup
Molasses - 1/4 cup
Egg - 3 large
Oil - 1/3 cup
Baking Powder - 1 TBSP
Dry Ginger powder - 1 TBSP
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 TBSP
Cloves powder - 1 tsp
Nutmeg powder - 1/4 tsp

Method:
In a bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients. Flour, sugar, baking powder, spices. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In another bowl, mix all the wet ingredients. Whisk together till eggs are incorporated with oil and molasses. Pour the wet mixture to dry and mix. Dough will be very crumbly. You will have to mix the dough with your hands. Don't try to add more liquid. It will come together when you bake it.
Divide the dough into two parts. Make a log and flatten it to 1/2" thickness.

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes rotating the pan half way. Take it out and let it cool. Turn down the oven to 325 F. When the biscotti loaves are cool enough, take a strong knife (not serrated) and slice them diagonally leaving your weight on the knife to slice without crumbling the biscotti. If it is crumbling, give it a few more minutes of cooling time and try again. Place the biscottis cut side down on a baking sheet (You will need two baking sheets now) and bake for 8 - 10 minutes on each side or till they are dry. Make sure you don't dry them too much since they harden quite a bit after cooling. Remember to rotate the pans halfway. Cool completely on the wire rack.

Serve with a cup of spiced tea and you are in heaven. These are crisp but not very hard. You could make them harder if you like them. Bake for longer after slicing them.
Enjoy. Pin It

Peanut Butter Blondies

Like most of the people who are interested in cooking/baking/food, I look up different things online. It doesn't mean that I will make everything (I probably would if I could find people to eat it). I was looking at some books on amazon and I saw Dorie Greenspan's  'Baking From My home to Yours' book. I wish I could buy that but I cannot justify spending to add one more book to my cook book collection. It had some preview in which, I found the recipe for peanut butter blondies. And since I am always trying to finish up the peanut butter jar in our house, I tried it. My kids and my husband loved it. I have followed the recipe exactly except for not using cinnamon and increasing the vanilla.

Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Light brown sugar - 3/4 cup packed
Butter - 5 TBSP softened
Eggs - 2 large at room temperature
Peanut butter - 1/2 cup (I used smooth not natural)
Vanilla - 2 tsp
Milk chocolate chips - 1 cup
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp

Method:
Grease and line a 9" square pan with parchment paper. I used a 7 X 11 pan since the perimeter of them are the same. Grease the top of the parchment paper and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 F. In a bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda. Set aside.

In a larger bowl, cream butter and peanut butter till creamy. Add sugars and continue to beat for 2 minutes. Slowly add the eggs one at a time and beat till everything is creamy. Add vanilla and add the dry ingredients slowly with mixer on a very slow speed. Do not over beat. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour the batter in to the prepared pan. You will have to push the batter to cover the pan. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the blondies are a deep golden in color.

The original recipe says to bake between 40 - 50 minutes. I checked at 30 minutes and then baked for an additional 10 minutes. I could have taken it out at 35 minutes to get a little softer blondies. The edges were a bit firm. But the pieces from the center were very nice textured and soft. So, keep an eye on the blondies starting from 35 minutes. Cool on the rack and cut when completely cool. You could cut them into decent sized 24 pieces or small 35 pieces if you use a 7 X 11 pan. Since this is such a rich dessert, I prefer them smaller.

You could use mini chocolate chips instead of regular sized chips. I am sure this would come out very good if almond butter is used in place of peanut butter. You will have to increase the sugar in that case though since almond butter is sugar free.

Enjoy!! Pin It

Peanut butter Chocolate Chip Oat Bars

Thank you all for reading what I write here. And a special thanks to those people who leave a comment. It means a lot to me. And another note of thanks to those people who send me emails asking questions about recipes, requesting recipes and now about some organizational tips. I will slowly catch up with requests one by one.

I made these bars as snacks for my kids. This has a lot of oats, whole wheat flour and not too much of fat. The original recipe had 1/2 cup butter and I wanted to use up the peanut butter which, hardly anyone eats at my place. Sometimes I wonder why I buy them in the first place. Anyway, these bars turned out to be great.

Adapted from here.
Ingredients:
Peanut Butter - 1/4 cup (measured in dry measuring cup)
Vegetable Oil - 1/4 cup
Eggs - 2 large
Light Brown Sugar - 3/4 cup
Whole Wheat flour - 1 cup
Rolled Oats - 1 1/2 cups
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Milk - 1/4 cup
Semi Sweet Chocolate chips - 1 cup
Vanilla - 1 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray a 8" or 9" square pan with vegetable oil spray. In a bowl, combine peanut butter, oil, brown sugar well. Crack two eggs and add it to the bowl. Beat well till everything is mixed well. Add milk, vanilla and stir. In another bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking powder, salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to wet and fold. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour it on to the prepared pan. Smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes. If you use a 9 " square pan, it would be better to check around 28 minutes. I used an 8 " square pan and it took 33 minutes to bake. Cool in the pan on a wire rack. When completely cool, cut into squares. I made 16 squares out of this pan.

Notes:
Needless to say, you could use your choice of chips and nuts in this. Instead of using peanut butter, use regular butter or replace with oil. I would say this can be made into eggless/ vegan version very easily using flax eggs or ener-G egg replacer.

Counting Calories:

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Blonde Brownies

I had house full of relatives this weekend. We were totally 10 adults and 8 kids living under the same roof for 3 days. It was a lot of work but, was fun too. Just before they were scheduled to arrive, my husband says "Why don't you make blondies that my brother's son liked so much". I look at him, look at the clock and go to pantry to pull the ingredients. I had only 5 minutes to spare and I decided to make  the cake mix blondies. Preheat the oven, gather ingredients, mix them together and pat them into the pan. Oven will be ready by then, bake for 30 minutes. It can't be any faster or easier.

Long story short, kids loved them as usual and when they left, there wasn't many left for my kids who love them so much. So, I made another batch, but did it from scratch. My husband said it tastes better than the cake mix blondies. But, I still am going to use that recipe when I am short of time.

Adapted from here.
Ingredients:
Sifted all purpose flour - 2 cups
Packed brown sugar - 2 cups
Eggs - 2
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Butter - 10 TBSP melted
Semi sweet chocolate chips - 1 1/2 cups (1 cup would be just enough too)
Vanilla - 1 TBSP

Method:
In a bowl, whisk together all purpose flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 13 X 9 pan with vegetable oil spray. In another bowl, whisk together melted butter and brown sugar till well mixed. Crack two eggs and beat them in. Add vanilla, stir. Slowly start adding the dry mixture to the wet mixture. Change to a rubber or wooden spatula and stir until combined. Add the chocolate chips and stir further. Pour on to the prepared pan. Push the dough so that it is covering the whole pan. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes. Top will be golden brown. It took 30 minutes for me, but you can check at 25 minutes. Cool in the pan completely. Slice when cool. Technically this gives you 24 pieces, but I always make them smaller so that the kids don't waste. I got 35 pieces out of it.

You could halve the ingredients and bake in a 8 X 8 for thick blondies or use 9 X 9 for average thickness blondies. In that case, bake for 20 - 25 minutes.This stays fresh at room temperature for 1 week. If storing for longer duration, wrap well and freeze.

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Magic of Cake Mix

There is a proverb in Kannada which goes like 'Hosadaralli Agasa Etthi Etthi Ogeda'  meaning 'Washer man washes clothes with all his energy when he is new to his trade'. In a broader view, it means that when something is new, we tend to do it with full enthusiasm till it loses its freshness/novelty.

Two years back, when my older one finished first year of pre-school, at the end of the year, I made a big cake big enough to feed about 50 people (entire staff) and I even made it as a theme of her class. This being the last year for her in that school, I wanted to make something which says 'Good Bye' to that school (she'll start kindergarten this fall in another school). I had plans of making something big, but had neither energy nor time to spend on this project.

I had mentioned in one of my earlier post that I keep 'Cake-Mix' on hand for such times. In one hour - I baked the blondies and brownies together at the same time and when they were baking, made the dough and got the cookie trays ready to go in. I made three different kinds of bars/cookies and sent it to the school with my daughter. Don't you think something is better than nothing? These are adapted from various recipes from the 'Cake Mix Doctor' book which I gave away some time back.

Cake Mix Blondies:
Yield: 24 big blondies or 35 medium sized ones.
Ingredients:

• 1 Package yellow cake mix (which already has pudding in it. Recipe says to use plain, but we cannot get plain ones now) I used Betty crocker brand
• 2 Large Eggs
• 8 TBSP butter melted - 1 stick
• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1 tsp vanilla (my addition)

Method: (What I did)
In a microwave safe bowl, melt the butter. Preheat the oven to 350 F. When the butter is cooled to room temperature, add 2 eggs and whisk with a whisk. Add vanilla. Dump the cake mix into the bowl and mix with a spatula. Dough will be very thick. Add the chocolate chips and mix. Dump into an non greased 13 X 9 aluminum pan and spread out the dough evenly. You might want to smooth the top. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or till done. Transfer to wire rack to cool. When cool, cut into pieces.

Cake Mix Brownies:
Yield: 24 big brownies or 35 medium sized ones. 

Ingredients:

• 1 package devil's food cake mix with pudding - I used pillsburry
• 4 TBSP butter melted
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp almond extract - my addition
• 1 1/4 cup white chocolate chips (recipe had 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips and 3/4 cup walnuts. My kid's school is nut free so I just increased the chocolate chips a little)

Method: (What I did)

Grease an aluminum 13 X 9 pan and dust with flour. Set aside. In a microwave safe bowl, melt the butter. Preheat the oven to 350 F. When the butter is cooled to room temperature, add egg and milk and whisk with a whisk. Add vanilla, almond extract. Dump the cake mix into the bowl and mix with a spatula. Dough will be very thick. Add the chocolate chips and mix. Dump into the prepared pan and spread out the dough evenly. You might want to smooth the top. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or till done. Transfer to wire rack to cool. When cool, cut into pieces.

I am sending the blondies and brownies to 'Sugar High Fridays Bar None' hosted by Susan which was started by  Jennifer.

Cake Mix Spice Cookies:
Yield: 48 small cookies or 40 medium ones or 24 huge cookies. (Vary baking time accordingly) 

Ingredients:

• 1 package spice cake mix with pudding
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 tsp powdered cinnamon

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. In a bowl, combine eggs, oil. Whisk together. Add the cake mix, cinnamon and mix. Dough will be very thick. Add raisins and mix. This can make 4 dozen small cookies. I got only 40 cookies. Use tsp or TBSP to drop the dough on to cookie sheet. These don't spread, so you can crowd the cookie sheet. I made mine into balls and placed on the sheet. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes or till the bottom has just started to brown. Don't over bake them. Cool on the wire rack. Transfer to an air tight container when completely cool.
This recipe had applesauce in it. I didn't want to open the big bottle just for using 1/2 cup so I increased the egg by one and kept the other ingredients same. I baked for 12 minutes, but if I had used applesauce, I probably needed 2 more minutes of baking time. Don't forget to rotate the pans at half time.

I am sending all these three goodies to Suma's 'Baking from the Book' an event started by me.

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Vegan Rice crispy Treats

I have been making these as snacks for my kids for about 3 + years now. When I first wanted to make it, when I googled for the recipe, most of them had marshmallows which I do not use. There is an exception to this which you'll know soon. I make a lot of variations, (be sure to read the end of this post for those details) but the best that my kids love is without adding any extra nuts or fruits. When I started making these, I used to use stove top method, but now just use microwave to make the syrup part of this.

Ingredients:
Rice crisp cereal - 8 cups (Any brand will do)
Light Brown sugar - 3/4 cup
Light Corn syrup - 1 cup
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Peanut Butter - 1/2 cup (I used regular peanut butter which has sugar in it)

Method:
Take a large bowl and spray the whole bowl with vegetable oil spray. Spray a 13 X 9 pan, measuring cup, a spatula with oil spray. Measure 8 cups of rice crisp cereal into the prepared bowl. In a glass measuring cup, measure 1 cup of corn syrup. To that add the brown sugar and peanut butter and microwave for 2 minutes. Stir and microwave for one more minute. It'll start bubbling over. Stir completely to incorporate all the peanut butter and make sure brown sugar is melted. Add vanilla and pour this into the bowl and stir well. Pour the mixture into the prepare pan. Now is the fun part. Wet your hands slightly and start pressing the mixture firmly into the pan evenly. If it starts sticking to your fingers, wet it again. Or you could lay a parchment paper on the top and press on that. Leave it alone for an hour. Cut into pieces when completely cool and set. I cut into 7 X 5 rows and columns to get 35 medium size pieces. You can just do 24 big pieces if you like. Store in an airtight container for up to a week. It never lasts more than 3 days at my place. If you think this is too much, half the ingredients and make it in an 8 X 8 pan. Don't forget to read the variations at the end..

Variations:

1. You can omit the peanut butter if you don't like it. Increase the brown sugar to 1 cup and reduce the cereal by 1 cup.
2. You can add up to 1 cup of toasted nuts or dry fruits or chocolate chips, butterscotch chips.
3. Try with other nut butters and if you are using natural no sugar added, increase the sugar.
4. For an Indian taste, add roasted peanuts, raisins, dry coconut and add cardamom powder in the place of vanilla.
5. Another indian flavor is to add toasted cashews and raisins with dry coconut and toasted sesame seeds. Don't forget cardamom.

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