Salted Toffee Chocolate Squares

 Craving something salty?  Craving something sweet?  I've got the treat for you!

Salted Toffee Chocolate Squares

source: Everyday Food by Martha Stewart, adapted by Amy's New Kitchen
serves 12

Ingredients:

• 13 graham crackers
• 1 bag (8 oz) toffee bits
• 1 1/2 cups almonds, toasted & coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 tsp coarse salt

Preheat oven to 350º. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Crush graham crackers and place in an even layer on the bottom of sheet. Sprinkle toffee bits and almonds over graham crackers.


In a small saucepan, bring sugar and butter to a boil over medium-high. Reduce heat and cook at a rapid simmer, swirling pan occasionally, until mixture is syrupy, ~2 minutes. Immediately pour evenly over graham crackers. Bake until sugar topping is bubbling, ~12 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle chocolate chips and salt over graham crackers. 


With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut into 2-inch squares. Let cool completely on sheet on a wire rack. (Store in an airtight container, up to 1 week.)  

The original recipe calls for the graham crackers to be placed whole on the bottom of the cookie sheet.  The way I did it, they make a nice graham cracker crust and once cooled, the foil peels away easily to perfectly cut squares.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

You know how some recipes just bring you back to your childhood? This is one of those for me. This recipe is from a bag of Baker's chocolate chips from more than, oh 25+ years ago. It might still be the same recipe on today's bags, but I'm sure it has changed over the years. This particular one though-is the one my mom always made.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

recipe from Baker's Chocolate

Ingredients:
1 cup softened shortening
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp water
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup chopped nuts (I omitted this.  We never put nuts in our CC cookies.)
1 package chocolate baking chips

Beat shortening, sugars, vanilla, water, and eggs until light and fluffy.  Mix flour with soda and salt in separate bowl; blend into shortening mixture.  Stir in nuts (optional) and chips.  Drop 2 inches apart from teaspoon onto greased baking sheets.  Bake at 375° for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

These cookies are the best because they are slightly crunchy on the outside yet soft in the middle.   That is the key to a good chocolate chip cookie, in my opinion.  They never last long in our house.

Caramel Apple Pecan Pie

I made this for our Thanksgiving dessert solely because caramel apples remind me of fall.  But this would be good any time of the year.  It's such a fun twist on your average apple pie and was really easy to make.  Plus, it looks fancy!

I found this recipe here at Good Morning America.  I didn't even know they had recipes at good ol' GMA, but I will make sure to check there more often because this pie was mouth-watering delicious! 

Caramel Apple Pecan Pie
Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

7 cups tart apples, sliced and peeled

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup pecans, chopped

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed

3 tablespoons sugar

4-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, ground

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup caramel ice-cream topping, room temperature

 2 pastry shells, unbaked (9 inches) 

3 tablespoons butter, melted

For Streusel Topping:

3/4 cup flour, all-purpose

2/3 cup pecans, chopped

1/4 cup sugar

6 tablespoons butter, cold

1/4 cup caramel ice-cream topping, room temperature

 

In a large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice and vanilla.

Combine the pecans, sugars, cinnamon and cornstarch; add to apple mixture and toss to coat.

Pour caramel topping over bottom of pastry shell; top with apple mixture (shell will be full). Drizzle with butter.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, pecans and sugar. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over filling.

Bake at 350° for 55-65 minutes or until filling is bubbly and topping is browned.  Immediately drizzle with caramel topping. Cool on a wire rack.

This recipe says it makes one pie......but when I made it-I had enough of everything for 2!  BONUS!  :)  So I made 2 pies, and was really glad I did because I've never seen so many people eat that much pie in my life.  This recipe is definitely a winner.

See?  Here is my brother resource guarding to prove it......

Margarita Cupcakes

As soon as I heard there was such a thing as Margarita Cupcakes, I wanted one.  And since we were going to a fajita and margarita party this weekend it was a great excuse to make them! 

This task took me 2 tries to get it right.  I had originally tried to make a recipe that I found on a blog that was from scratch, but it just didn't turn out.....right.  The cupcakes didn't rise quite normally and they dropped in the middle while cooling.  Thankfully I had a backup recipe that involved a cake mix, and that worked beautifully!  One of my new favorite blogs, Homemade By Holman, had this recipe along with a cream cheese icing recipe and they did not disappoint!! 

Margarita Cupcakes
Recipe from Homemade by Holman, (slightly adapted by Amy's New Kitchen for high altitude)
Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients for Cupcakes:

1 box white cake mix

1 cup margarita mix

1/4 cup tequila

1 Tbsp orange juice

3 large egg whites

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

3 Tbsp flour
Zest of 1 lime

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 muffin tins with 24 liners.  There is no need to spray the liners-the cupckes don't stick to the liners.  Mix margarita mix, tequila, and OJ in a separate bowl.  Add cake mix to your stand mixer bowl, along with the egg whites, oil, flour and margarita/tequila/oj mixture.  Beat on low until all ingredients are blended together, then continue to mix on medium-high for 2 more minutes until mixture thickens slightly.  Add lime zest and mix on medium approx 10 seconds.

 

Spoon batter into muffin liners, filling each 1/2-2/3 full.  Make sure there is an even amount in each liner.  Bake for 20 minutes, rotating pans halfway through cooking.  When a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean-they're done!  Remove from oven and let cool approx 5 minutes in the pan then remove. 

 

 

Cream Cheese Icing

Recipe from Homemade by Holman
Yield: enough icing for 24 cupcakes
 
Ingredients for Icing:
8 oz block of cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
Lime juice of 1 lime (from the zested lime from your cupcakes)
4 cups powdered sugar
4 drops green food coloring
Sprinkles, lime zest, lime wedges for decoration


Beat cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed until mixture is smooth and fluffy.  Add lime juice and beat until combined.  Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, until fully incorporated each time.  Add food coloring one drop at a time until the icing is the color you prefer.  Pipe or spread icing onto fully cooled cupcakes and top with sprinkles, lime wedges, or lime zest.  *Refrigerate cupcakes in an air-tight container if not serving immediately and bring to room temperature a couple hours prior to serving.
 

 
I knew these were going to be a big hit when Jeff tried the first one and gobbled it down.  Then he says-that is my new favorite cupcake!!  He loved that there was an actual 'flavor' to these cupcakes instead of another chocolate, vanilla or yellow cupcake....boring!
 
I also loved this recipe because I went out and bought a piping bag and tips-and we had lots of fun making these cupcakes cute.  I am no expert cupcake decorator though.  I guess I will have to make more cupcakes until I improve.  ;)

Tropical Fruit Sundaes

While flipping through my newest issue of Food and Wine magazine I found a picture and recipe that looked absolutely delicious!  I didn't have an Easter dessert yet - it seemed like a sign.

Tropical Fruit Sundaes
Originally by: Food and Wine; mildly adapted by Amy's New Kitchen
Serves 12


Ingredients:
2 cups Heavy Cream
1 cup Milk
1/3 cup Ginger- peeled and finely grated
6 1/2 Tbsp sugar
3 1/2 tsp powdered gelatin-from 2 envelopes  (I used raspberry for added color)
9 oz Mascarpone Cheese
1 cup Dried Unsweetened Coconut Flakes
1 Pineapple- peeled, cored and diced
2 large Mangoes- peeled, pitted and diced
1/2 cup Light Brown Sugar
1 tsp Lime Zest
1/4 cup Lime Juice
2 pints raspberries (I used sliced strawberries instead)
2 pints Vanilla Ice Cream
Whipped Topping


In a large saucepan combine the cream and milk with the freshly grated ginger and bring to a simmer.  Remove from the burner, cover and let stand 30 minutes.


Strain the cream into a bowl.  Return the cream to the saucepan and again bring to a simmer.  Remove from the burner and whisk in the sugar and gelatin.  Let the cream cool to room temp, then whisk in the mascarpone cheese.  Spoon the mousse into 12 glasses or bowls and refrigerate to set.  (Approx 60-90 minutes)


Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spread the coconut flakes in a pie plate and toast 3 minutes or until golden.  Let cool.  (I couldn't find the dried coconut so we used sweetened coconut and skipped this step.)


In a large bowl toss the pineapple and mangoes with the brown sugar, lime juice and lime zest.  Scoop 2 scoops of ice cream into each bowl, spray some whipped topping and top with the pineapple mango mixture and raspberries. (Or in my case-strawberries.)  Garnish with the toasted coconut and serve with shortbread cookies.

This is such a colorful dish and serves up beautifully in a clear bowl.  The original recipe is heavy on the ginger, so next time I will use 1/3 cup instead of 1/2 cup, which I have already changed in the recipe above.  The mango was a nice little treat for the beginning of spring.  I would highly recommend this delicious dessert.