Caramel-Filled Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy first of April, everyone! My mind is having a difficult time wrapping itself around the fact that my food blog is four years old. Sometimes at 2:18 am, when I can't sleep, and in between playing with my Monopoly app (Al cheats!), I find myself trying to come with a clever tagline. Everything that floats through my head sounds cheesy, or trite, or phony - like a too-much-makeup induced infomercial perma-grin. So, if it's all the same, I'll stick with my usual nonsensical style of food blogging.

It's a lot like me, this little blog - full of idiosyncrasies, random bouts of self-deprecation, and an innate ability to go from speaking with flowery words to tripping, gracelessly, over comma's and the phrase "super-*insert ambiguous adjective*."

But *cheers* to another four + years. And a huge Thank You - to everyone who visits (new and old!). And thank you to my fellow food bloggers too! You're an amazing group of beautiful people. (Even if I am, at times, super-jealous of your fancy cameras, product giveaways, and Anthropologie photo props.)  XO

Heartland Turtle Bars

Winter, in classic curmudgeonly style, refuses to relinquish it's icy grip and pass the seasonal crown over to reticent spring. Yet despite the frozen ground and breathy morning air, I am enjoying tiny prequels of what's to come - birds are singing at daybreak, the trees don't *feel* quite as stark as they did a month ago, and, joy of all joys, the sun is kind enough to emit a hazy light well past 4:30 pm! As a food blogger, longer days are as enticing as sweet cream butter on crusty farmer's bread.

Also, I am back in the kitchen - baking up quite a floury storm of bars, cookies, and brownies! It's strange, but I actually missed cleaning sinkfuls of bowls, measuring cups, and eggy whisks. {Don't tell my flustered future self I'm saying this, but right now, I'm kind of ok with not having a dishwasher. shhh} On second thought, maybe you should remind her...she's a bit fickle, that one.

Burnt Sugar Bundt Cake with Caramel-Rum Frosting

Today, from a distance, I saw you,
walking away, and without a sound
the glittering face of a glacier
slid into the sea. An ancient oak
fell in the Cumberlands, holding only
a handful of leaves, and an old woman
scattering corn to her chickens looked up
for an instant. At the other side
of the galaxy, a star thirty-five times
the size of our own sun exploded
and vanished, leaving a small green spot
on the astronomer’s retina
as he stood on the great open dome
of my heart with no one to tell. ~ Ted Kooser, After Years

Yesterday's heavy wet snowfall was a not-too-subtle reminder that winter is still around; stoic and seemingly immobile as ever. No worries, I'm house sitting in a lovely home with a gorgeous view of last night's storm and I have another pot of coffee brewing in the kitchen. I'm happy - slightly nostalgic (for...what?), but happy.

Also, I'm beginning to see what all the fuss is about when it comes to big bundt cakes.

Sweet & Salty Brownies

"An opaque, gentle, vulnerable day,
as if it had been making love all night,
a day when the past has no bitter taste,
when the future retreats without a fight…" ~Vera Pavlova,  If There Is Something To Desire

I used to loathe mid-January - with its stark, almost-industrial ambiance and icy fingers that reach through every exposed crack in my drafty house. Now, little by little, we are starting to develop a mutual respect for each other. It's a tentative relationship- we're still both tiptoeing on egg shells during my chilly morning showers and windy three blanket nights- but I think we are ready to sit down and have a cup of bittersweet snow tea.

January ignites my love for cosy comfort food- all things laden with butter, and cream, and salt, and yes, even chocolate. To return January's aloof favour, I promised to not complain about its frigidity- too much. And to bake decadent, dramatic brownies that are so sinfully rich, you have to squeeze your eyes shut *tightly now* whilst biting into one. 

Dark Chocolate & Walnut Caramel Tartlets

Happy Monday! And to my East coast friends who are about to ride out the Frankenstorm, please be careful. (And remember to stock up on the essentials...batteries, blankets, pet supplies, cookies, brownies, and rum!)

Can you believe that Halloween is this Wednesday already?! I love Halloween. I just wish that we could relish the autumn season a little bit longer instead of having to run face-first into a barrage of holiday paraphernalia. As soon as Halloween is over it's a crazy-mad race until the end of December.

I still want to be enveloped by shades of orange, and russet, and earthy browns. And I want to inhale the smoky scent of burning leaves, spiced apple cider, and warm cinnamon-sugar doughnuts. My finger-less Oliver Twist gloves are not ready for retirement. Nor is my desire to bake with pumpkin, and butterscotch, and caramel.

Yes, caramel is an ingredient for all seasons. But its sultry-burnt flavour will always procure swirling images of falling leaves and cadet blue skies tinged with a smoldering, hazy sun.

Caramel-Chocolate Apple Tart

Smitten taste buds are intoxicating.

I can't dig deep enough into my eclectic bag of vocabulary to find the words that will properly convey the jaw-dropping elation that your taste buds will encounter upon biting into this tart.

If you're familiar with the delirious, beautiful anxiety that's felt just before seeing someone you're madly in love with, it's kind of like that...only the epic story is unfolding inside your mouth.

And before you know it, the excitement, that giddy feeling of walking on clouds, has spread to your stomach and your hands and finally your toes. Chairs are no longer chairs, but dance partners. Dance partners who won't mind that you're waltzing around with a forkfull of sticky caramel tart. And you won't mind the sticky caramel that's falling on the newly-washed floor, because you'll be too busy listening to your humming taste buds.

You might even be convinced that it's May, and that the sunshine outside is hazy, not icy. And that the coloured leaves are just tree confetti, because the trees are so that You're happy.

Isn't being in love wonderful? Even if it's brief, and especially if it's a caramel-chocolate apple tart.

Antique Caramel Cake

Oh, my.

This cake.

*The* cake

Last year's birthday cake was a coconut ingénue, drifting on a fluffy white cloud. The cake before that was a high-heeled chocolate minx in fishnet stockings; sheer unadulterated decadence.

I wanted something in between. Something sweet enough to wear sprinkles, yet still corrupted and damaged + unafraid to indulge in a shower of sticky, salted caramel sauce.

Salted Caramel and Chocolate Chunk Bars

My neurotic need for cleanliness and making everything more difficult is in a constant battle with a free spirited-leave-the-dishes-in-the-sink-overnight...just this once, chaos monster. Things are much more relaxing when the latter wins, but sometimes over complicating things actually pays off.

This recipe would have been much easier if I had used a bag of caramels,  instead of making homemade caramel sauce. But there's just something so rewarding, so magic, so "chefy," about making caramel from scratch. Perfect caramel is mesmerizing. It makes you want to keep lifting it up with a whisk so you can watch it oooze, seductively, back into thick drops of deep amber deliciousness. *sigh**purr*

Pine Nut and Chocolate Caramel Squares

I love recipes that bridge the gap between the sweet and savory worlds. For the past few years, bacon has been the ambassador of the savories, and chocolate has carried the torch for sweets. I'll never forget my first experience with a dark chocolate and bacon bar...it was cosmic!

Walnut-Oat Caramel Shortbread

My convenient, digital kitchen scale rarely gets to play in the world of grams, so why start now? For this recipe, I dug out my mom's old-school kitchen scale. (The kind that has to be at eye-level in order to get an accurate read on the thin, wobbly needle.)

Triple Caramel Cupcakes

You know you've made something spectacular when the room, which had just been filled with a heated discussion over the predictability of all romantic comedies, suddenly becomes silent as people's mouths become filled with clouds of caramely goodness, and gradually, in between bites, you hear various reenactments of the infamous Meg Ryan scene from When Harry Met Sally.

Caramel Crumb Bars

It took me a while to come to realize admit but apparently I'm not a dyed in the wool chocolate lover. I prefer to enjoy my chocolate in cosy doses, instead of being overwhelmed by an elephantine amount all at once. This epiphany came as I was baking a birthday cake for my sister. She requested a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. And, whereas I'd normally be busting out my Rusted Root songs and dancing up a storm at having an excuse to bake a cake, I felt blasé about the project. I've been in denial all these years.

Looking back, I noticed that I rarely made a chocolate on chocolate cake. And wouldn't a true chocoholic be making chocolate cake at the drop of a hat, or the birthday of a cat? Whenever I've made cakes in the past, they have almost always had a yellow or white cake base. The whole chocolate on chocolate action is, dare I say, *almost* too much of a good thing. Although I'm no longer in the official chocolate-lovers club, I tip my bakers hat to its members and promise to leave a payment of the occasional double chocolate cookie, just so I can come in through the back entrance now and then.

Why on earth am I going on about all this for? Well, to counteract the explosion of chocolate that I just created, I needed something without chocolate. Unfortunately my go-to flavour sanctuary (aka lemon) had been wiped out after last week's puckery pie; I don't think I can look at another lemon yet without twitching. Naturally I was also out of peanut butter (the horror!). So what's third in line? Caramel!

Yay, caramel. When I first saw these bars on Beth's blog, Of Muses and Meringues, I knew I had to have them. It was one of those recipes that you know you're going to love before you've even read about them. Basically the name says it all. They're caramel +  they're bars. A spectacular fusion of salty-sweet-buttery deliciousness...the caramel is actually more of a wily, seductive dulce de leche.

Caramel Crumb Bars
(adapted from Of Muses and Meringues)

Crust ingredients
16 Tbsp ( that's 2 sticks) of unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Filling ingredients
4 Tablespoons (that's half a stick) of unsalted butter, cut into about 4 pieces
1 Tablespoon of light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of tightly packed, dark brown sugar
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened, condensed milk

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Move oven rack to the bottom third of the oven. Line a 9 x 13-inch pan with foil (leaving an overhand for easy removal.) Spray the foil with cooking spray. Set the pan aside.

Prepare the crust: In an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter with the sugar and salt until soft and light, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla.

With the mixer on low, add 2 1/4 cups of the flour, beating just until the dough is smooth and the flour has been absorbed, and stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl and the paddle as necessary.

Place 3/4 of the dough into the prepared pan, using the palm of your hand to press it down evenly. Refrigerate as you do the next step.

Using your fingertips, work the remaining 1/4 cup flour into the remaining dough to form loose crumbs. Set aside at room temperature.

Prepare the filling: In a medium saucepan, bring the butter, corn syrup, salt, brown sugar and condensed milk to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Allow the mixture to boil gently, stirring often, until it starts to thicken and darken slightly, about 8 – 10 minutes. Pour into a stainless steel bowl to cool for five minutes

Remove the dough-lined pan from the fridge and scrape the cooled filling onto the dough, spreading evenly. Scatter the crumb mixture on top.

Bake until the filling is bubbling gently and the dough is baked through, about 20-25minutes.

Cool in the pan until lukewarm. Using the foil overhand, carefully lift the dough out of the pan and onto a cutting board before it has cooled completely. Cut into 2-inch squares.

Toffee-Nut Bars

The comforting aroma of brown butter, especially during cold wintry days, is the culinary equivalent of your favourite over sized-sweater...the one that comes down to the knees and can be worn over leggings (mine is grey, and nubby, and super-warm.) When I'm freezing, I can't wait to throw it on, sit on the sofa, and curl my legs up into it. The scent of Brown butter makes me feel the same way.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Caramel Pumpkin Pie

Is there anything that the assertive, toffee-like flavour of caramel can't fix? Honestly, I don't think there is. Take, for example, this recipe. I've never been a huge pumpkin pie fan, yet every year I give it another chance in the hope that my taste buds have matured enough to find the secret pleasure that other people seem to find within it's soft, squashy confines.

Sweet and Salty Cake

Layer cakes hate me. They never fail to foil my attempts at symmetry. No matter how much pleading and 'nice talk' that occurs between the satanic cake pans and myself, they always end up throwing me under the bus at the last minute.

Salted Peanut Butter Caramel Twix™ Bars

Happy October! ☼ It's either good or terribly annoying that I've just learned how to play with the numeric pad and "Alt" button. Who knew it could do more than add accents and make ♥'s?

Salted Caramel Pecan Shortbread

Caramel, my warm and sometimes temperamental cold-weather-companion, has returned. And the reunion didn't require too much persuasion. A cool night, the slight chill carried on a breeze and the need to pull out my beloved grey cardigan.

Caramel Pecan Bars

I warned you about this caramel obsession. And I still can't quite explain the fascination. Maybe I just like to perform kitchen alchemy and watch the way white sugar transforms into a dark camel coloured creamy substance.

Salted Caramel Brownies

It's a sad day when one cannot find a stash of nuts in my cupboards. It could even be considered an omen, though I happened to love black cats, ravens, and walking under ladders to spite fate. The truth is my cash is wiped out.

Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart (TWD)

Carla, of the adorable blog Chocolate Moosey, chose the chocolate-crunched caramel tart for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. She has a some sinful looking rocky road brownies which I have added to my ever growing list of things to bake!