Raspberry Jam Bars

This is one of my favourite recipes that I've made so far. Originally posted on Facebook April 21, 2009

Chocolate Raspberry Layer Bars

Base:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup butter (margarine)

Filling
1/3 cup raspberry jam
1 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 package cream cheese
2 tbsp milk (or light cream)

Topping
1 cup chocolate chips
3 tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 375. Spray 9x9 baking pan with Pam (I don't own a 9x9 so I used an 8x8) Combine flour and icing sugar. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Press into pan. Bake for 15-18 min. Spread jam over warm crust. Melt white chocolate chips according to package directions (My package said microwave for 2 minutes but that burnt some of then so I think next time I would microwave them for 1 min, stir and then microwave for another 30s or so) Beat cream cheese and milk. Add in melted chocolate, beating until smooth. Spread mixture over jam. Chill for about an hour. Melt together chocolate chips and butter. Spread over filling. Chill until set. Allow to thaw a little before cutting.

These were pretty tasty. My brothers didn't really like them though. I took them to YA and they were a hit there.

Butter Tart and Magic Chocolate Toffee Bars

Originally posted April 30, 2009

I got this recipe for butter tart bars from a family friend. It's modified a little from her recipe so that it fits in a 9x13 pan.

Butter Tart Bars

Crust
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 + 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 cup flour

Topping
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 + 1/8 cup butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup raisins
1 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 pan. Mix together crust ingredients and press into pan. Bake for 20-25 min. Mix together eggs and brown sugar. Beat in the rest of the ingredients in order. Pour into crust and bake for another 30 min or so. It should be lightly brown and puffy all over. Cool and cut into squares.

These are tasty, although I think I still prefer butter tarts the original way. I used less raisins and more walnuts than the original recipe called for because I'm not a big fan of raisins. Also, you may have to fiddle with the cooking times a bit.

These are Magic Chocolate Toffee bars I made some modifications to the recipe so I'll post the original and then my changes at the bottom.

Magic Chocolate Toffee Bars

1 1/2 cups Chocolate Chips
3/4 cup flaked coconut
3/4 cup Toffee bits
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter (or margarine)
1 can sweetened condensed milk

My Modifications
Replace the coconut and almonds with about 1 cup of pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Spray 9x13 pan with PAM. Combine flour and sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly. Press firmly into pan. Bake for 12 min. While waiting, mix together all other ingredients (except for sweetened condensed milk) When the crust is done pour the condensed milk over the crust. Sprinkle with chocolate chip toffee nut mixture. Press down firmly. Bake for another 25-30 min. Cool and cut into bars.

These were so tasty my dad banned me from ever making them again.

Cajun Potato Wedges and Butter Tarts

Originally posted on Facebook May 11, 2009

Cajun Potato Wedges

4 potatoes, unpeeled
3 red onions, cut into wedges
1 lemon, cut into wedges
12 cloves of garlic
4 bay leaves
1/3 cup olive oil
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 F. Cut the potatoes into thick wedges. Parcook in salted boiling water for 3 min. Combine the potatoes, onions, lemon, garlic and bay leaves in a large roasting pan. In another bowl whisk together oil, lemon juice, tomato paste, paprika, oregano, thyme, cayenne and cumin. Pour over potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Roast for 30-40 min, turning frequently until potatoes are tender and have absorbed the liquid. Serve hot.

Okay, so not baking but I made them for my mom for Mother's Day. Everyone else liked them but I'm not big on spicy.

Butter Tarts

1/2 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts
Frozen tart shells (unsweetened)

Cream butter and sugar. Mix in eggs. Add other ingredients and mix well. Spoon into tart shells. Bake at 425 for 10 min and then reduce heat to 350 and bake for a few more minutes until pastry is lightly browned.

I may have posted this during the Christmas bake-a-thon but its worth posting again. And its one of my Mom's favourites.

Blueberry Muffins

Yesterday I made two different types of blueberry muffins, one from my muffin cookbook that my grandma gave me and another that was an adaptation of my mother's blueberry lemon cake.

Blueberry Muffins from the 'Mad about Muffins' cookbook

1/2 cup margarine, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
2 cups blueberries

Preheat oven to 375. Prepare 18 muffin cups. Cream together margarine and sugar. Beat in eggs. Add vanilla, baking powder and salt. Mix in the flour and milk gradually, alternating between the two. Stir in the blueberries. Spoon batter into muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Lemon Blueberry Cake - in cupcake form

3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 tbsp baking powder
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp lemon rind (about how much comes off one lemon)
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups blueberries

Glaze
2 tbsp lemon juice (about how much comes from juicing one lemon)
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 24 muffin cups. Beat butter until creamy. Beat in sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. In another bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Stir into the liquids alternately with milk. Stir in lemon rind and vanilla. Fold in blueberries. Spoon into muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes or so. While they are baking stir together lemon juice and sugar and let stand while the cupcakes bake. Spoon over warm cupcakes when they come out of the oven.

I took the cupcakes to work today and they went over quite well. Of course it took everyone most of the day to figure out who brought them. Apparently one of the guys tried to take credit for baking them, until his girlfriend pointed out that he probably doesn't even know how to turn on an oven. :P Finally someone figured it out at about two in the afternoon. So I heard people telling me how awesome they were both before and after they knew I'd made them. :D

"Red" Velvet Cupcakes and Homemade Pizza

I'd never heard of Red Velvet Cupcakes until I started baking and reading baking blogs and websites and stuff. Apparently they are a big deal in the American South. They sounded interesting, basically chocolate cupcakes dyed bright red. So I thought I'd give them a try. I found one of Allrecipes' top rated recipes to try.

4 tbsp cocoa
2 ounces of red food colouring (I have no idea how much this is, so I just dumped in everything I had)
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vinegar

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare muffin cups. Make a paste of the food colouring and cocoa. Combine buttermilk, salt and vanilla. Set aside. In another bowl mix together oil and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in cocoa mixture. Beat in the buttermilk mixture alternately with flour until just incorporated. Then mix together the baking soda and vinegar and gently fold into the batter. Spoon into muffin cups and bake 20 min or so.

Okay, well I should have known this recipe was going to turn out weird when I read that one of the steps involved recreating everyone's favourite first grade science experiment. I also didn't have near enough food colouring to use so they turned out as kind of brown-y, pink-y velvet cupcakes. But they were pretty tasty! Although one of my friends told me I was not allowed to call them Red Velvet Cupcakes, so we just started calling them The Special Surprise Cupcakes.

Then some friends and I made pizza for dinner.

Homemade Pizza

1 cup warm water
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 3/4 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp yeast

Add ingredients to bread machine in listed order. Set to 'Dough' Press start... wait 2 hours, you have pizza dough. Roll out onto greased pizza pan. Top with pizza sauce and your favourite toppings. Very tasty.

Buttermilk Pancakes with Cherry Sauce

Yesterday for breakfast my family made buttermilk pancakes with cherry sauce. Don't they look delicious, all that's missing is the whipped cream.

Buttermilk Pancakes

2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt

3 eggs
3 cups buttermilk
3 tbps oil or melted butter

Preheat pancake grill. Combine dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, whisk until well combined. Drop spoonfuls of batter onto pancake grill, cook one side until it begins to bubble then flip it over and cook until the other side is golden. Serve with syrup of cherry sauce.

Cherry Sauce

1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp corn starch
1/8 tsp cinnamon
2 cups sweet cherries, pitted and halved
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tsp grated orange zest

In a saucepan combine sugar, corn starch and cinnamon. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium heat and boil until thickened.

This was pretty good but the orange flavour overpowered the cherry. I think next time I make it I will omit the orange zest and cut down on the orange juice. It is pretty good though.

Toffee Bars and Sugar Cookies

I made these last week but I hadn't had a chance to download the pictures onto my computer yet. I had three bags of toffee bits in my baking cupboard so I figured I had to use them for something. So, I went to the manufacturers website for ideas and found this...

Rich Chocolate Cup Toffee Bars

2 1/3 cups flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup margarine
1 egg
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup nuts (I used pecans)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 package toffee bits

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9x13 pan. Combine flour and sugar. Cut in margarine. Add egg, mix well. Stir in 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips and all the nuts. Set aside 1 1/2 cups of this mixture. Press the rest of the mixture into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Pour sweetened condensed milk over the hot crust. Then sprinkle 1 cup of toffee bits over the sweetened condensed milk. Sprinkle the rest of the crust mixture and the rest of the chocolate chips over top. Bake for 25 - 30 min. When it comes out of the oven sprinkle the rest of the toffee bits over top. Cool completely before cutting.

Basically I've decided that when you combine chocolate, toffee and sweetened condensed milk you can't go wrong.

Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter (accept no substitutes)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, beat until light and fluffy. Combing flour, soda and cream of tartar. Gradually beat into butter mixture. Chill, roll out and cut into shapes. Bake 10-12 minutes (depending on thickness of cookies).

My dad and I usually make these for Valentines cookies. My friend and I made these last week to go along with a major baking project that was stopped short by a storm and power outage. No I'm not going to tell you what the project was I may try it again sometime. Anyway, these cookies are great, its an easy recipe to double or triple or whatever. I frosted them with the icing left over from the Pink lemonade cupcakes I made a while ago and it turns out great! Just as a note: Icing freezes really well and then you always have some in a pinch. :)