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Eat to the Beat! Blondies

By Love & Flour in Cookies 5 Comments Tags: ,

SAM 4381 Edited Eat to the Beat! Blondies

When I first learned Elly Says Opa was hosting an Eat to the Beat event to celebrate her blog’s 5th anniversary (Five years!  The past five months have been hard, let alone five years!), I put out a call for ideas.  My friend Melina is a music lover, and I couldn’t wait to get her suggestion because I knew it would be something really unique. Melina wrote, “You could make blondies for Blondie’s Rapture, and put rum in them or something.”

I was disappointed. Even I had thought of blondies.  Then I considered, “You could…put rum in them or something.”  And I was proud.

Still not 100 percent convinced, I decided to put the idea on the shelf for a while, though not before googling Rapture‘s lyrics. The word “eat” shows up in the song 11 times.  The items being eaten?  Cars, bars, guitars, and one head. So, the blondies idea didn’t stay on the shelf for long. And really, a blondie suggestion from Melina is fitting.

SAM 4412 Edited Eat to the Beat! Blondies

Melina and I grew up in the same small town (or the country outside that small town), and by the time high school rolled around, we lived only a mile away from one another. We were never close friends in high school, simply by the nature of our different interests (she was a cheerleader, I played sports), but college erased those differences.  We became great friends in college, even living as roommates for a couple of years, and we remain great friends to this day.

One evening we were both involved in the same event at school, and she offered to drive me into town.  When I got in the car, Blondie was playing in the tape deck.  I remember this only because we had a conversation about the music.  I don’t remember the details, but if I was a betting woman, I’d say the song playing was Heart of Glass.

SAM 4409 Edited e1321148670905 Eat to the Beat! Blondies

Though these Coffee Blondies do not contain rum, they do contain Kahlua.  If you prefer not to engage in boozy baking, milk is a perfectly acceptable substitution. I also used a half cup of white chocolate chips and a half cup of butterscotch chips in the batter for a rich blondie treat.  Enjoy!

He’s gonna eat ‘em all
Rapture, be pure

‘Cause the man from Mars stopped eatin’ cars and eatin’ bars
And now he only eats guitars, get up!

-Blondie

SAM 4388 Edited Eat to the Beat! Blondies

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Coffee Blondies
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
 

Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon milk or Kahlua
  • 1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • ¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, melted
  • 2 cups brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup chocolate, white chocolate, or butterscotch chips

Instructions
  1. Heat the milk or Kahula until very warm, about 30 seconds in a microwave.
  2. Stir the instant coffee powder and vanilla into the warm liquid and set aside to cool.
  3. Combine the melted butter and brown sugar in a mixing bowl, then beat in the eggs and the cooled coffee mixture.
  4. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and slowly add to the mixing bowl.
  5. Mix until well incorporated, then fold in one cup of chips in the flavor of your choice.
  6. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until the blondies are a golden brown.

 

It’s Hip to be Square: Ricotta Cheese and Dried Fruit Bar Cookies

By Love & Flour in Cookies 2 Comments Tags: , ,

SAM 2831 Edited Its Hip to be Square: Ricotta Cheese and Dried Fruit Bar Cookies

When I was considering what to do with all of the peaches I had a couple of weeks ago, I came across a recipe for Creamy Fig and Peach Squares in Catherine Atkinson’s 500 Cookies, Biscuits and Bakes.  Since the recipe called for dried, rather than fresh, peaches, I filed it away in my mind for future use.

The recipe also called for ricotta cheese, and since I had some leftover ricotta cheese after the peach pizza, I figured the time was right to bake these creamy squares.  Instead of dried peaches and figs, I used a mixture of dried fruits (Sunmaid’s Fruit Bits) that included not only peaches but also purple raisins, golden raisins, apples, apricots plums and cherries.  In place of the mint called for in the recipe, I used ginger and cinnamon.

SAM 2825 Edited Its Hip to be Square: Ricotta Cheese and Dried Fruit Bar Cookies

I realize it is the Sunday before Labor Day, not Memorial Day, but my Grandmother Spicer has been on my mind.  She passed away just over a year ago, and I still think of her often.  I think she would have liked this recipe, mostly because of the dried apricots.  Two foods are forever linked to her in my mind: lemon meringue pie and dried apricots rolled in sugar.  There always seemed to be a bowl of the latter in her kitchen.  You’d grab two or three slices, thinking that would be a nice little bite of something, and before you knew it, the entire bowl was empty.  Those suckers were dangerous!

SAM 2816 Edited Its Hip to be Square: Ricotta Cheese and Dried Fruit Bar Cookies

I baked these creamy squares last night before I went to bed, and of course I took a sample bite while they were just out of the oven and still warm.  This morning, I ate one for breakfast as I sipped my coffee, and I found they tasted even better.  It must be the ginger and the cinnamon, but they almost tasted a bit like pumpkin pie.  The creamy, sweet filling is perfectly matched to the plain, flaky crust.  These squares only take about 10 minutes to assemble and bake in 30 minutes, so they are a super-easy dessert or snack to bake.  Try them!

SAM 2827 Edited Its Hip to be Square: Ricotta Cheese and Dried Fruit Bar Cookies

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Ricotta Cheese and Dried Fruit Squares
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
 

Ingredients
  • 1½ cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup butter (1 stick), softened
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 1½ cups ricotta cheese
  • 1½ cups dried fruit
  • ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ginger

Instructions
  1. Place the flour and butter in a medium bowl, and use your fingers to press the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
  2. Add the egg and the water until a soft dough forms.
  3. Press half of the dough into the bottom of a greased 8 inch x 8 inch baking dish.
  4. In a large bowl, mix the ricotta cheese, dried fruit, ½ cup of the sugar, cinnamon, and ginger together.
  5. Spoon the ricotta cheese and fruit mixture over the bottom layer of crust.
  6. Press the remaining half of the dough onto the top of the filling.
  7. Sprinkle the top layer of crust with the remaining sugar and use a fork to gently poke holes across the crust.
  8. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 30 minutes or until the top crust is slightly golden.

Notes
Double the recipe and then bake in a 13 inch x 9 inch jelly roll pan.

 

Root Beer Float Brownies

By Love & Flour in Cookies 2 Comments Tags: ,

SAM 2161 Edited Root Beer Float Brownies

Happy National Root Beer Float Day!

I would imagine I had my first root beer float at the A&W in Frankfort, Michigan during a family vacation many years ago, but I can’t say for sure.  I can say I preferred the Faygo “red pop” floats my Grandma Mary L. would make for us during the summer much more than I enjoyed the root beer versions.  Grandma Mary B. would likely disagree with my tastes, as she took up the habit of enjoying one root beer float a day until she no longer could.

I knew I would make some sort of root beer inspired dessert today in honor of National Root Beer Float Day, I just didn’t know what kind of dessert until I came across a recipe for root beer brownies on the Cookies & Cups blog.

SAM 2173 Edited Root Beer Float Brownies

I was skeptical the root beer taste would come through all the chocolate in a brownie, but it really does!  These brownies are fudgey, gooey bites of chocolate-root beer deliciousness, though I do wonder if they cross the line into the overly “rich, gooey, and chocolatey” category Kristin so lovely described for us earlier this week.

To give the brownies an added twist, I topped the brownies with a marshmallow, chocolate and pretzel concoction.  My mother sometimes covers brownies with a similar topping, though she adds peanut butter and puffed rice cereal in place of pretzels.  I have no idea where she first saw the recipe for her topping, but it is quite good.

Pour yourself a tall glass of root beer ( but it’s Saturday, so omitting the root sounds good too), and enjoy a sweet.

SAM 2159 Edited Root Beer Float Brownies

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Root Beer Float Brownies with Chocolate, Marshmallow & Pretzel Topping
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
 

Ingredients
  • ⅓ cup all purpose flour
  • ¼ cup cocoa powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided
  • 4 Tablespoons butter, divided
  • 2 eggs
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • ½ cup root beer, plus 2 tablespoons
  • 2 cups marshmallows
  • 1 cup crushed pretzels

Instructions
  1. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
  2. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the 1 cup of the chocolate chips and two tablespoons of the butter. Stir frequently to ensure the chocolate does not burn.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs and the sugars until well combined.
  4. Add the melted chocolate and vanilla while continuing to mix.
  5. Slowly add the flour mixture and root beer in two alternating additions. Mix until combined; the batter will be thin.
  6. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8 x 8 inch baking dish.
  7. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with only a few crumbs.
  8. Sprinkle marshmallows onto the tops of the brownies and place back in the oven approximately 3 minutes until the marshmallows have puffed and melted.
  9. While the marshmallows melt, again melt the remaining 1 cup of chocolate chips, two tablespoons of butter, and two tablespoons of root beer in a small saucepan over low heat.
  10. When melted, add pretzels to saucepan and stir to coat.
  11. Remove the brownies from the oven, and pour the chocolate mixture over the brownies.
  12. Allow to cool to room temperature, then place in refrigerator to set.

 

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