Samoas Cookie Bars

Have you ever craved Girl Scout Cookies when it's NOT that time of year? Nope...neither have I! haha...but seriously, sometimes you just have a craving for one of those good old Samoa cookies that they sell. I knew when I found this recipe, that I would have to try them. It took me a long time to actually accomplish trying them, but I finally did it. Now it's taken me almost a month to get them onto this blog. Between working at my job, working out, and taking a Martial art a few nights a week, I am one busy gal! When I made these, I promised myself to only try one little bite and I actually succeeded. I took them to work and the students and staff gobbled them up fast enough that I didn't have to fight my temptations.
Woo Hoo!! Thank goodness, because if they hadn't, I am positive I could have consumed the entire pan all by myself. Yes...they are THAT good!

Recipe Source: http://bakingbites.com/2009/02/homemade-girl-scout-cookies-samoas-bars/

Makes 30 bars

For the cookie base:

1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla 

 2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt

Start by  making the cookie base. Preheat your oven to 350°
Spray a 9 x 13 pan with Pam or line with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, beat together sugar and butter, until light and fluffy.
Beat in egg and vanilla. Put your mixer on low speed and gradually beat in flour and salt until mixture is crumbly. It will probably look somewhat like wet sand.
Pour the crumbly dough mixture into your greased pan and press it all out into an even layer.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until it is set and the edges are lightly browned. Cool completely before before putting the topping on.

For the topping:
3 cups shredded, sweetened coconut

1 (12 oz) pkg of Kraft caramels
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp milk
10 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

 

Preheat the oven to 300°
Spread out the coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Toast the coconut for  20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until the coconut is a light golden color. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
Unwrap the caramels and place them in a large microwave safe bowl. Add the salt and the milk. Cook on high for 1 minute and stir. Cook 1 more minute and stir. Continue this process for 3-4 minutes until the caramel is all melted.
When the caramel is smooth, fold in the toasted coconut with a spatula.
Using a spoon, plop dollops of the topping all over the cookie base. Using a spatula, or the back of a spoon, spread the topping into an even layer. Let topping set until it is completely cooled.
When it's all cooled, cut into 30 bars with a large knife or a pizza cutter.
Once the bars are cut, melt the chocolate chips in a small bowl by heating on high for about 30 seconds and stirring. Then heat them 15 more seconds and stir. Continue until they are completely melted, but be sure to stir in between or they will scorch and burn.
Dip the bottom only, of each bar into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment or wax paper. Place the remaining chocolate  into a Ziploc baggie. Snip a small corner off with scissors and you can now drizzle the chocolate over the bars to finish them. .
Let chocolate completely set.
Store in an airtight container.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

I wish I could take credit for thinking these up but no such luck on my part. I almost wish I hadn't found this recipe as it could be a danger to my diet! These are the easiest bar cookies I can think of to make. My grand daughter even helped me make them. Oh and they are srumpdiddlyumptious. Yes that's a word! Just ask my 3 year old grand daughter. They taste a lot like Reese's peanut butter cups. Next time I will use milk chocolate on the top instead of semi sweet chocolate chips. I think that would make it taste like Reese's even more!

Recipe Source:
http://addapinch.com/cooking/2012/09/19/peanut-butter-bars-recipe/

Peanut Butter Bars:

1 cup butter, melted (2 sticks)

2 cups graham cracker crumbs (2 sleeves ground to a fine crumb)

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1½ cups peanut butter

 

 Chocolate Topping:

 

¼ cup peanut butter

2 cups chocolate chips

 

Combine first four ingredients in a large mixing bowl until well-combined and smooth. Spread evenly into a 9×13 baking dish.

 

Combine ingredients for the chocolate topping in a medium bowl. Melt in the microwave for 45 seconds to 1 minute, stirring at 30 second intervals. Remove from the microwave and stir until smooth. Spread on top of the peanut butter bar base and place in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Remove from the freezer and cut into individual bars. 

Fudgy Salty Peanut Butter Brownies

There is a show I just love to watch on TV called Dessert First with Ann Thornton. It's a great show and she makes so many wonderful desserts. This is a recipe from her show and it's really good. There is a deep chocolate flavor brownie with a peanut butter layer, chopped peanuts and a chocolate ganache layer on top. Decadent? Yes.....I ate one and that's all I could handle, but boy are they good!

Here is a link to the recipe site!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-thornton/fudgy-salty-peanut-butter-brownies-recipe/index.html

Apricot Almond Bars

Yesterday my sweet neighbor gave me some baby things for my grand daughter. As a way to say "thank you" I decided to bake these Apricot Almond Bars for her family. She always loves when I bring my baked goods to their house and I'm sure she will love these too!
These are very sweet bars and actually need to be cut very small as the richness of them can do you in :) The mixture of the apricot, almond and coconut blends perfectly well together. I'm sure you could make these with any type of fruit preserves that you would like, but I think the citrus and tang of the apricot blends best with the other tastes involved.

Base:
1 pkg yellow cake mix
1/2 cut butter, melted
1/2 cup finely chopped almonds
1 cup Apricot preserves

Filling:
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/3 cup Apricot preserves
1/2 cup coconut

Heat oven to 350. Grease a baking dish. (You can use the 13 X 9 size if you want thinner bars, mine were made in a 9 X 7 for thicker bars). In a mixing bowl, combine the cake mix and melted butter on low- med speed. Mix in the almonds. Reserve 1 cup of that mixture and set aside. Put the remaining mixture into the bottom of the well greased pan. Press it down evenly on the bottom of the pan. Carefully spread 1 cup of the apricot preserves over the mixture pressed into pan. (You might want to heat your preserves just a bit to make them easier to spread). In a small bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, salt, vanilla and egg until well blended. Mix in 1/3 cup preserves. Spread this mixture over the base in the prepared pan. Sprinkle 1 cup reserved base mixture over the top of the filling. Sprinkle coconut over the entire pan. Bake at 350 for 40 min. (longer if you are using a smaller pan for thicker bars. Just check with toothpick to make sure the inside is done)