On a hot day, when Daddy is cleaning the cars and the boys are out to play – Mommy and the baby girl make sweet Butter Lemon Cupcakes. Sweet.
REAL Food Changes People. Something to chew on.
Archives for posts with tag: cream cheese
I am not a baker by trade, I find that there is too much precise measurement required – I am more of a barefoot in the fields, flowers in her hair type of kid. I cook with a free spirit and find it tough to adhere to the rigors of what it takes to be a great pastry or dessert chef. That said, when I find a dessert recipe that I can pull off successfully; I add it to the repertoire immediately.
Two recipes for the price of one blog post today – lucky you!
The first comes from my recent obsession over the Sheila’s Dream Bar available at Potbelly’s. I took those notes plus the recipe for Magic Cookie Bars – adjusted the ingredients to suit what I had in the pantry and voila! Dear husband wants the entire pan to himself, the kids cry when they find out I ate the last one and a co-worker says “I have found a substitute for sex!”
O_o
Yes. I dare you to make them. These things should come with a disclaimer, seriously.
Printable Version: Chocolate Pretzel Cookie Bars
2 cups of pretzel crumbs (quickly pulse pretzels in your food processor or crush them by hand, not too fine of a crumb – chunks are good. You can use crackers also, it all works)
1/4 cup of pretzel crumbs (for topping)
8 tbsp of salted butter
4 oz of sweetened condensed milk (half of a small can)
1/2 cup of nuts
1/4 cup of rolled oats
1/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1/2 cup of coconut flakes, unsweetened
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, melt the 8 tbsp of butter.
Into a 9×9 pan pour the pretzel crumbs, pour the melted butter over the crumbs and use a spoon to mix it well enough that all the crumbs have a bit of butter. Remove the 1/4 cup of crumbs that you will use to top the cookie bars. Set those crumbs aside.
Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the crumb/butter mixture.
On top of the crumb/butter/milk mixture sprinkle the chocolate chips, the nuts (I used slivered almonds), the coconut and the oats.
Finally, sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of buttered pretzel crumbs that was set aside on top of the crumb/milk/chocolate/nut/coconut mixture (looks like a cookie bar lasagna now).
**If you like your desserts really sweet you can pour some of the remaining condensed milk on top before you put the cookie bars in the oven.
Bake on 350 for 20 minutes — remove the pan from the oven and set aside to cool. Once the pan is at room temperature, I place it in the freezer for a few minutes, they’re even more amazing (to me) when they’re ice cold.
When you’re ready to serve: Cut into bars, and serve alone or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Makes about 24 bars, I think. I can never get a good count as they start to disappear as soon as they come out of the oven. Go figure.
These are great for lunch desserts, small and bite sized and totally out of this world. Definitely the talk of the lunchroom. You can sub ingredients to suit your family’s tastes – I will be trying a trail mix version of this with dried cranberries, and walnuts — look out for the 2.0 version of this one.
NEXT.
No Bake Cheesecake, Courtesy of Closet Cooking
Okay. Not only do I love this blog because it’s a Toronto blog and that happens to be my absolute favorite city in the world right now, but I also love this blog for it’s amazing recipes and beautiful pictures. Thanks Kevin – you’re doing a fabulous job!
Dear comedian husband and I took the kids to Larriland Farm last weekend to pick some of the August crops (Peaches, Blueberries, Leeks, Onions and Zucchini Flowers). I hadn’t made dessert in a few weeks, not since the Lemon Glazed Lemon Pound Cake (stop playing, I know – recipe coming soon) so I thought it was due time to pull out the sugar for another round in the kitchen. We all love cheesecake, and since this recipe would not have to involve an oven – it had my vote all the way.
I modified the crumb crust a bit and used crackers that I had on hand, with pecans, walnuts, butter and maple syrup. I did not combine the cream cheese mixture with the whipped cream and instead used a layering method – a layer of crumbs, a layer of cheesecake filling and a layer of cream, topped with fresh-picked Blueberries — this dessert surely has instantly become a summertime staple.
To note: I also made this cheesecake in a free form style, opting not to pull out the springform pans that I reserve for more formal occasions. I used 8 oz plastic round containers with lids, so that each cheesecake was its own portion – these go well into camp lunches and apparently midnight snacks (Dear husband).
This recipe is also really kid-friendly, get the team involved with this one – they’ll love being in charge and you’ll be free instead to supervise dessert assembly with your favorite summer beverage in hand. 
Maple Nut Crust
1 cup sweet cracker crumbs
3/4 cup pecans
3/4 cup walnuts
1 cup salted butter
4 tbsp real maple syrup
2 tbsp vanilla
Method:
In a small bowl, melt the butter and set aside. Pulse the crackers and nuts in your food processor. Pour your cracker nut crumb mixture into a large bowl. To this, add the vanilla and the melted butter. Stir these ingredients together, make sure that all of the ingredients are incorporated well. Press the mixture into the bottom of your portion containers (you can also use a standard 9×13 deep dish pan). Place your crumb crust into the refrigerator and chill for 10 minutes.
Cheesecake Filling
3 – 8 ounce packages cream cheese (room temperature)
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/8 cup lemon zest
1 tbsp of vanilla
3/4 cup sugar (you can use Organic, Raw, or Agave syrup)
2 cups heavy cream
Method:
Into a large bowl pour the heavy cream, beat with an electric hand blender until the cream forms stiff peaks (like this):
Set your whipped cream aside, in the refrigerator so it doesn’t fall. I don’t sweeten it because I think the cream cheese filling and the crust have enough sweeteners in them, it’s a nice light creamy compliment with just the fresh unsweetened whipped cream.
In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese, lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar and vanilla. Mix these ingredients with a hand whisk, or with an electric blender until smooth.
Remove your crumb crust from the refrigerator, spoon the cream cheese mixture on top of the crumb crust then top the cream cheese mixture with your whipped cream.
Finish your cheesecake with a sprinkle of blueberries, and refrigerate for another 10 minutes to allow the ingredients to set. Cut into squares or spoon portions out, serve with a sprig of lemon mint or all by its self. Yumsomuch either way.
Serves 7, or so.
Love this,
Nira
