Tag Archives: shortbread crust

December 5, 2010 · 8:37 am

Twelve (More) Days of Christmas Cookies: Caramel Pecan Bars

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DAY 10: Rich and chewy caramel coated pecans on a shortbread crust. Drizzled with melted chocolate and sprinkled with just a bit of coarse sea salt. I was a little short on pecans, so I ended up using about one cup of chopped almonds and 2 1/2 cups pecans. Thanks to Alice at Savory Sweet Life for a great cookie bar! The original recipe has you dip half of each triangle into the melted chocolate. I tried this, but I was not very happy with the results, so I ended up drizzling the chocolate over most of them.

To easily drizzle chocolate: melt chocolate slowly in the microwave. Pour into a Ziploc bag. Use a toothpick or skewer to poke a hole in one corner. Squeeze gently over cookies.

Cut into 24 squares while in the pan.

Remove bars from pan and place on waxed paper.

Cut each square in half to make 48 triangles.

Drizzle with melted chocolate (I used bittersweet) and sprinkle lightly with coarse sea salt.

RECIPE:

Caramel Pecan Bars

Servings: 48
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Crust:
½ cup salted butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

Caramel Topping:
1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
½ cup water
1 Tbs vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream
3 ½ cups coarsely chopped toasted pecans
1 cup melted chocolate chips (semi-sweet or bittersweet)
coarse sea salt

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light. Add egg and vanilla and beat for one minute. Add baking powder and flour; mix well. Spray a 9×13” baking pan with non-stick spray. Press cookie dough mixture evenly throughout the bottom of the pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until the edges are just beginning to brown. Allow to cool.

For the topping, combine water, sugar, and corn syrup in a large sauce pan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar is completely dissolved. Continue to cook until mixture turns a dark amber color (like a dark honey); turn off heat, but leave pan on the burner. Carefully add vanilla and heavy cream, stirring until smooth. Add toasted pecans, stirring and coating everything. Spread caramel pecan mixture over the cookie crust evenly. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or until cold. Cut bars into small triangles.

Drizzle bars with melted chocolate (or dip half of each triangle into the melted chocolate). Sprinkle sparingly with coarse sea salt.

Makes 48 triangles.

Recipe from Savory Sweet Life

NoEmptyChairs.me

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS COOKIES (2010) RECAP:
DAY 1: Raspberry Crumb Bars
DAY 2: Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
DAY 3: Chocolate Nutella Cookies
DAY 4: Glazed Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
DAY 5: Almond Macaroon Brownies
DAY 6: Trail Mix Cookies
DAY 7: Cream Cheese Cut-Out Cookies
DAY 8: Chocolate Revel Bars
DAY 9: Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Cookies

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Tagged as baking, caramel, christmas, Christmas cookies, cookie bars, Cookies, cooking, dessert, drizzled chocolate, food, pecans, recipe, sea salt, shortbread crust, triangles, turtles

November 26, 2010 · 8:03 am

Twelve (More) Days of Christmas Cookies: Raspberry Crumb Bars

DAY 1: Welcome to the Second Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies! This year, I have twelve new cookie recipes to share, starting with this recipe for Raspberry Crumb Bars. They are a shortbread based cookie, which makes them pretty crumbly to eat, but I love the combination of raspberries and nuts. For the raspberry filling, I used a combination of homemade Red Raspberry and Black Raspberry Jams that I canned last summer.

The original recipe, from Family Fun magazine (printed below with a few adjustments), is baked in a 9” square pan, but I doubled the recipe and baked them in a rimmed 17×12” baking pan.

Visit: First Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies for a recap of the cookies from last year.

RECIPE:

Raspberry Crumb Bars

Servings: 32
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1 cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cup powdered sugar
½ tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup rolled oats
½ cup chopped walnuts
1 cup raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a 9-inch square pan with butter or cooking spray. (**See Note below for using larger baking pan)

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until well blended. Beat in vanilla. Add the flour and salt and beat just until the flour is incorporated. The dough will be crumbly. Press about two-thirds of the dough into the greased pan. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden.

While the shortbread cools slightly, mix the oats and nuts into the remaining one-third of the dough. The mixture will be very crumbly; it is easier to use your hands to mix the topping.

Spread the raspberry jam on the shortbread, then evenly cover the jam with the crumb topping. (TIP: for easy jam spreading, heat the jam slightly in the microwave; stir and pour over crust.)

Bake the bars for 20-25 mins, or until the topping is golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack for about 15-20 minutes. While the shortbread is still slightly warm, cut it into 16 squares, then cut each square in half diagonally. Once the triangles cool completely (they are very fragile while warm), lift them from the pan with a metal spatula.

Makes 32 triangles.

**NOTE: I doubled the recipe and baked them in a 17×12” rimmed baking sheet for 7-8 minutes for the crust, and then the whole bars for about 18 minutes. Using this sized pan makes for slightly thinner bars than the original recipe, which I liked. Yield: about 70 triangles.

Recipe adapted from Family Fun magazine

NoEmptyChairs.me

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Tagged as baking, bar cookies, christmas, Christmas cookies, Cookies, cooking, dessert, food, jam, raspberry, recipe, shortbread crust, streusel, triangles

August 7, 2010 · 7:51 am

Fruit Pizza

Summer is birthday season at our house. With one child’s birthday at the beginning of summer and then three more within four weeks of each other later in the summer , we have a lot of cake and sugar floating around our house. So I am grateful for Big J for going with a lighter dessert for his birthday yesterday. He usually goes for the more non-traditional birthday desserts. And with all of the fresh fruit available, I was really happy to make a Fruit Pizza.

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Eighteen Years! Eighteen years, in a land far, far away, my life changed forever. I can’t decide whether those 18 years have flown by, or that I’ve been a mom forever. Either way, it has been a wonderful journey. I love you J! It’s these coming years, as my babies slowly start leaving the nest that are making me nervous.

This Fruit Pizza has a shortbread crust, a thin layer of slightly sweetened cream cheese, luscious summer fruit, and a light glaze on top. The fruit I used, from the inside out: blueberries, mango, raspberries, kiwi and strawberries.

The glaze is made from any light-colored fruit juice (I used a peach-mango, which turned out great!), some sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice (to keep cut fruit from browning, especially if you are using bananas or peaches).

Pre-Glazed Fruit Pizza:

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RECIPE:

Fruit Pizza

Servings: 8-10
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Crust:

½ cup powdered sugar
1 ½ cups flour
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup butter, softened
½ tsp vanilla extract

Filling:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 Tbs powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Fruit (strawberries, blueberries, bananas, kiwi, mangos, peaches, grapes, pineapple, raspberries, etc.)

Glaze:
½ cup sugar
2 Tbs cornstarch or Clear Jel
2 tsp lemon juice
1 ½ cups clear fruit juice (apple, white grape, peach-mango,lemonade, etc)

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Crust: Using a pastry blender, mix ½ cup powdered sugar, flour, salt, butter, and ½ tsp vanilla. Press onto a pizza pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Cool completely.

Filling: Combine cream cheese, 2 Tbs powdered sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla. Spread over cooled crust. Arrange fruit on cream cheese layer.

Glaze: Combine sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and fruit juice in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved and mixture is thickened. Cool and spoon over fruit (all of the glaze may not be used). Chill. Slice into wedges to serve.

NoEmptyChairs.me

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Tagged as baking, birthdays, blueberry, cookie crust, cooking, cream cheese, dessert, dessert pizza, food, fruit, fruit juice, fruit pizza, fruit tart, glaze, kiwi, mango, pizza, raspberry, recipe, shortbread crust, strawberries