Chocolate & Butterscotch Chip Bars

These babies are just as tasty as they sound & are much easier to make than chocolate chip cookies.  You gotta love a recipe that doesn't call for any planning like taking out the butter to soften.

Chocolate & Butterscotch Chip Bars, slightly adapted from King Arthur's Flour

Ingredients:

2/3 cup unsalted butter
2 cups + 2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
2 3/4 cups flour
3 large eggs, room temp
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder, optional
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste 
1/4 teaspoon vanilla butter & nut flavor
3 cups of any type of "chips" and/or nuts (I used butterscotch & semi-sweet)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan. 

Melt the butter in a large bowl & stir in the brown sugar. Add the vanilla & flavoring, stirring until well combined. Allow the mixture to cool slightly (so that the eggs do not cook once added).  While the butter mixture cools whisk together flour, baking powder, espresso powder, & salt in a medium bowl.  Once the butter mixture is cooled add the eggs one at a time.  Beat well after each addition & scrape down the sides as needed. Next add in the flour mixture stirring until just combined.  Stir in the chips or other additions of your choice. Pour the batter into your prepared pan, spreading it to the edges with a wet spatula (or your wet fingers) & smoothing out the top.

Bake the bars for 30 to 32 minutes, until they've risen, and their top is shiny and golden. Bake for the shorter amount of time in a darker pan; the longer time in a light/shiny pan. A cake tester inserted into the center won't come out clean; in fact, the center of the very middle of the pan may look quite molten when you dig into it. So long as no wet batter is showing farther out towards the edges the bars are done. (Do not over bake!) As the bars cool the center will solidify. 
Remove the bars from the oven, and use a heatproof spatula to press down the risen edges; this will make bars with flat, rather than humped tops. Let the bars cool completely before cutting; overnight is best. Once bars are cool, wrap airtight. Store wrapped bars @ room temperature for a couple of days.

Lesson #127

Okay, folks today’s lesson is #127.  When you are getting all of your ingredients prepped and ready for a recipe put up the unnecessary ones.  Why?  So that smaller ingredients like 2 tsps of vanilla don’t get hidden behind your giant canister of flour.

The answer is yes.  Yes, I did forget to add in the 2 tsps of vanilla called for in my recipe.  Yes, the bars were still good but you (I)could tell there was something missing. Or that they needed something more.  With that thought in mind I sprinkled some coarse sea salt on top.  It helped but they still weren’t “right”.   I didn’t take any photos but my final solution was to top the bars with vanilla ice cream and some salted caramel sauce.    Better!

Today’s lesson was brought to you by me but the recipe was brought to you by Lori from Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness.  For those of you that haven’t met Lori I suggest you hop on over, grab this recipe, and take a look around.  Lori is as real as it gets.  I’m in awe of all that she makes.  I admit I’m picky and don’t know if I would like it all but I like that she isn’t afraid to try new things.  When I think of daring, I think of Lori!

Cooking with Alicia & Annie: Marshmallow Brownies

Yup, I just entered another blogging event!  Getting crazy, I tell ya. 

Amanda from Amanda’s Cooking mentioned to me a few months ago (yeah, I know) in an email  that I might like to check out a blogging event called Cooking with Alicia & Annie.  I panicked at first but after looking at the blog page for it and checking out some of the recipes I realized that I could do this.  For those of you that haven’t participated you should check it out. I don’t think there’s an “easier” blogging event out there. They have something for everyone with a TON of recipes to chose from, both savory and sweet.  I, of course, went for the sweet.  :)  Oh, before I forget…you can win prizes!  Pretty cool! You pick  a recipe from Alicia’s or Annie’s site, make it,  blog about it, and then you get a chance to win a prize. Easy, right?!

I’m laughing right now….you know why?  Because those of you who have been reading my blog for a while are, I’m sure, NOT surprised by my choice in recipes. Bars and blondies, no big surprise there, right?  :) Don’t be fooled by that title while Alicia calls these Marshmallow Brownies they are NOT brownies.  I’m unofficially renaming them Marshmallow Goldies.

The recipe called for chocolate chips which might have helped the brownie cause but I left ‘em out.  Besides leaving out the chocolate chips I also tossed out the nuts and used coarse sea salt. (‘member this post?)  Thinking back I should have upped the salt and sprinkled some on top.  While these won’t usurp snickerdoodle blondies from their prime spot at the top they are worth giving a try!

Marshmallow Brownies/Goldies

1/2 cup butterscotch pieces

1/4 cup butter or margarine (go w/butter)

3/4 cup flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt (coarse sea salt)

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

1 cup miniature marshmallows

1 cup chocolate chips (I omitted)

1/4 cup chopped nuts (I omitted)

Instructions

Grease bottom and sides of 9-inch square baking pan. In a 3-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat, melt butterscotch chips and butter, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; cool to lukewarm. Add flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla and egg; mix well. Fold in miniature marshmallows, chocolate chips and nuts just until combined, about 5 strokes. Spread in prepared pan. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Do not overbake! Center will be jiggly but becomes firm upon cooling.

 

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