Pecan Chocolate Chunk Bars

It's been a while since I've posted, and I have a myriad of lame excuses so we can skip them for now. Basically, life is grand and I'm happy to finally have time to share recipes I've been stock piling for some time!

This recipe was recommended by a friend and to be honest it was more like a command than a recommendation. Each time we spoke after she shared the recipe she'd ask if I'd made the recipe, and at the time I was thinking, I'll get to it! Yeesh! It's a bar recipe, no big deal.  Ha. No big deal? More like stop everything you're doing and make this bar right now deal.

Original recipe here.

Makes 30ish bars (depends how generous you're cuts are)

Ingredients
Crust:

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into 1/2 pieces
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

Filling:

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup golden corn syrup
• 3/4 sugar
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 package large chocolate chips/chunks (just shy of 2 cups)
• 1 1/2 cup pecan halves

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 9x13" pan with parchment paper and set it aside.
2. Blend the flour, butter and sugar in a medium bowl with a pastry cutter or forks, until you have a crumbly mixture. Press it into the prepare pan and bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden.
3. Beat the eggs, corn syrup, sugar, butter, and vanilla until combined, then stir in the chocolate and pecans. Pour the filling over the crust, then bake for 25-30 minutes.  
4. Let the bars cool in the pan for about 20 minutes, then use the overhang of the parchment to lift the bars out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into bars and eat your heart out.

Double Chocolate Cookies

I always make room in my life for chocolate, and since it's Superbowl Sunday I decided to whip up a batch of cookies to bring along.   Baking is not like cooking, you can't "fake it 'til you make it", so after a bit of searching in my cookbooks and online, I decided to try Martha Stewart's Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies.

Imagine the best chocolate chip cookie and the best brownie you've ever had, combine the two, and that's what these cookies are like. What more can a girl ask for?

These cookies are super rich and indulgent, so prepare to share with others unless you want to go into a chocolate coma.Which, I mean, is totally your choice.

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces semi-sweet bakers chocolate
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips (you can use semi-sweet, milk, or even white chocolate if you prefer)
• 1 stick butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Prepare two baking sheets by lining with parchment paper, set aside. 
2. Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. 
3. Melt the butter and chocolate in a double-boiler until smooth. Pour the melted chocolate into a large bowl, then mix in the sugar and eggs until combined. Mix in the dry ingredients you prepared earlier. Fold in the chocolate chips. 
4. Use a tablespoon to scoop golf ball-sized amounts of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the dough about 2 inches apart. Bake in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes. The cookies will look very soft, just slightly beginning to crack when you remove them from the oven. You'll probably even think, no these aren't done! Ignore your reaction, transfer the parchment to a wire rack and let the cookies cool at least 10 minutes before handling. 

Chocolate Covered Pretzels with Toffee Pieces

Contributing to a bake sale is a fun excuse to try out new treats that we don't normally make at home. I really love sweet and salty foods, especially in desserts, and chocolate-covered pretzels are one of the best examples of that combo. Plus, they look adorable and that's how you first snag customers at a bake sale!

This week my boyfriend's work was hosting a holiday bake sale so I made a batch of these pretzels for him to bring along.  This bake sale treat is quite inexpensive to make, less than $15 for all the ingredients and you can purchase little bags and ribbons from most dollar stores or craft supply stores for a relatively low price. We ended up with over 100 pretzels plus all the broke bits that I mixed into the leftover chocolate and toffee bits at the end, so it was pretty successful in my book.

Of course, as with many of the recipes I share, you can put your own spin on this treat (such as crushed peppermint candies, sprinkles, or toasted coconut) if you're not a fan of toffee. 

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of pretzels
• 3 cups dark chocolate chips (2 packages)
• 1 1/2 cups toffee pieces (I used 1 package of Skor bits)

Equipment: parchment paper

Directions:

1. Prepare the toffee bits by placing them in a small bowl for easy access later. 
2. Pour the chocolate into a double boiler and melt until smooth. If you do not have a double boiler place a bowl filled with the chips over a pot of shallow, slowly simmering water. You do not want the bowl to be touching the water, it needs to rest above it so the steam will gently melt the chocolate (this way you won't risk burning your chocolate). Please check first to make sure the bowl fits snugly on top of the pan as you do not want any large space between the bowl and the pan. 
3. One at a time, dip a pretzel into the chocolate, shake lightly to let excess chocolate drizzle off, then place on a sheet of parchment. Sprinkle with toffee bits, then repeat for remaining pretzels. (This can be made more efficient by working with someone and having one person be the dipper and the other working to sprinkle toffee). 
4. Let the pretzels cool to room temperature until no longer glossy and chocolate has set, approximately 2 hours. Gently pull the pretzels off the parchment and separate into bags for the bake sale (or into a large tupperware container). Store sealed at room temperature.

Helpful hint:  I hand dipped each pretzel to ensure that they would remain intact and because I also liked the exposed pretzel for easy no-melt handling later on. If you're pressed for time and not concerned about having bits and pieces rather than separate full pretzels you can cut down on the work by gently mixing the pretzels straight into the chocolate. Then use a spoon to spread the pretzels out on a large span of parchment, sprinkle the toffee bits on top and let it cool like that. It won't be as pretty but it will still be delicious!

Chocolate Pecan Pie

I have been trying a few new pie recipes this year, and yesterday I made a Chocolate Pecan Pie that I will definitely be making again soon. Chocolate is something that I will never tire of, and this pie has only made it easier to love that cocoa goodness. I based this recipe off Martha Stewart's Chocolate Pecan Pie with only a few tweaks (more vanilla and pecans, and I swapped the light corn syrup for golden). To be honest, I was about to make a pie with a hybrid of recipe tips from online, then I found the Martha Stewart pie and it was exactly what I was trying to make, so, thanks Martha!

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces of dark chocolate
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups golden/dark con syrup
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups pecan halves
• 1 recipe of basic pie crust for 9" pie plate (see links below for recipes)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Place the rack on the lowest shelf in the oven.
2. In a double boiler melt the chocolate until smooth, then set aside. How do you do that? Place a heat-proof bowl over a smaller pot of water (the bowl should not touch the water, simply sit above it), put the chocolate in the bowl, then turn on the heat to simmer the water in the pot. The heat will melt the chocolate slowly so you don't have to worry about burnt chocolate.
3. In a large bowl add the eggs and beat them lightly. Mix in the corn syrup, vanilla, and salt. Then slowly fold in the melted chocolate. 
4. Pour the chocolate mixture into the prepared pie crust, then place the pecans on top. They will remain floating on the top layer, so feel free to get artsy with this part! 
5. Place the pie plate on a rimmed baking sheet, then transfer the sheet and pie into the oven. Bake for 60 minutes, or until the filling jiggles only slightly when the pie plate is nudged. (Martha Stewart's recipe quoted 50-60 min, but I found mine took closer to 65, so keep an eye on your pie).

Let the pie cool on a wire rack for at least 4 hours. Serve room temperature or chilled with vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

Pie crust recipes:
Martha Stewart's Basic Pie Crust
Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pie Crust

Upside-Down Chocolate Pudding Cake

I grew up on all sorts of variations of this yummy and easy dessert, and each one has been delicious... In May I went to the Times Colonist book fare in Victoria, and I nabbed quite a few old-school cookbooks.

One of these was a 1972 Betty Crocker cookbook, and in the middle of the pudding section I came across yet another variation of the pudding cake I love, titled "Hot Fudge Pudding Cake". This version had less cocoa than I was used to and it asked for shortening instead of butter... oh, the good old days of shortening-only baking and cooking. I can't remember the last time I saw something on a modern food blog or cookbook from the last ten years that called for shortening and didn't add a blurb to justify it or offer a substitution... After poking around online, I found an updated Betty Crocker version of the recipe that is almost identical to the one I have written down in my recipe binder. Of course. My secret family recipe is actually Betty Crocker. That's always a fun realization.

This upside-down pudding cake is glorious because as it bakes, it becomes 2 layers of chocolaty  goodness: pudding and cake. And it's extremely easy to prepare. And extremely easy to devour in one sitting.



Ingredients:

Cake

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tablespoon melted butter
• 1 tablespoon vanilla

Pudding

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/3 cup boiling water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. In a bowl mix all of the dry cake ingredients, then add the butter, vanilla, and milk. Mix until combined and spread into a 8x8 or 9x9 pan. 
2. In a separate bowl, mix the first two pudding ingredients. Sprinkle the sugar mix over the batter in the pan, then pour the boiling water on top. Bake immediately for 40-50 minutes, until cake is set and not jiggly. Serve hot. 

Enjoy! 

PS - You can serve this pudding cake with ice cream or, my favorite, a few spoonfuls of dulce de leche!