(Sweet and Salty) Peanut Butterscotch Krispie Bars

An oldie but goodie.

Old as in I first found this recipe when I was in middle school (circa 1999/"...Baby One More Time"/"Mambo No. 5" era).  Good as in...well...they're really, really good. 

I have absolutely loved to bake for as long as I can remember (and I have a serious sweet tooth to boot!).  When I was first starting to dabble in the world of  chocolate and cookies, my Grandma Min gave me a little recipe box in the shape of an oven and made of cross-stitched plastic canvas (along the lines of this!) and I've kept that little box ever since, using it to hold the recipes I tore out of my mom's monthly Bon Appetit and Southern Living catalogs and cut off the sides of various cereal boxes during my teen years.  

So on a recent afternoon I came across this Kellogg's notecard as I was thumbing through the cabinet that holds my cookbooks and that crafty little oven.  It didn't call for the sweet and salty snack mix, of course, but we had a bag in the pantry so I threw some in.  It was a smart addition too, adding various bits of crunch from mini cookies and chopped peanuts and occasional pieces of candy-coated chocolate.  Feel free to leave the mix out though, or you can opt to toss in one of Kellogg's '99 suggested add-ins*. 

*These were available in stores in '99 and are still available today.  Kellogg's suggests to add one of the following with the cereal: 1/2 cup mini marshmallows, 1 cup peanuts, 1 cup raisins, or 1 cup coconut.

I suggest you do it up Ricky Martin style by livin' la vida loca and toss in a bit of each.  

(Sweet and Salty) Peanut Butterscotch Krispie Bars

Makes one 8x8-inch pan

1 cup butterscotch morsels

1/2 cup peanut butter

3 cups rice krispies

2/3 cup M&M Sweet and Salty Snack mix (optional)

In 3-quart saucepan, combine butterscotch morsels and peanut butter.  Cook over low heat, stirring constantly (you must stir constantly otherwise it will burn!), until smooth.  Remove from heat.  Stir in rice krispies, mixing until well combined.  Fold in snack mix, if using.

Press mixture into a lightly greased 8x8-inch pan.  Let sit for an hour or until firm before cutting into squares.

Toasted Coconut M&M Skillet Cookie

I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking you're going to just tra-la-la over my little commentary and jump straight to the recipe.  I've got you alllll figured out.  Oh, but I do it too.  Because let's face it...you follow a food blog for, well...the food.   You could care less about what happens inbetween the picture and the ingredients.  Ditto.  In fact, I very very rarely read a full blog post on any blog I follow (yes, guilty as charged).   So today I'm letting you off the hook.  All you're getting is a recipe.  No blahblahblah on my end.  Enjoy!

Toasted Coconut M&M Skillet Cookie

Makes 1 (8-inch) skillet (I purchased a small skillet too now!  Double the recipe for 10-12 inch skillet!)

3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg yolk (or white!  Just use half an egg)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1/4 cup mini m&m's

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Lay coconut on a baking sheet, making sure they are in a single layer.  Bake for approximately 10 minutes, checking periodically, until lightly browned.  Be very careful not to burn!  Remove from oven and let cool.

Increase oven temperature to 350 degrees.  Cream together the butter and sugars.  Beat in the egg yolk and vanilla.  Combine the flours, soda, and salt and stir into creamed mixture.  Fold in toasted coconut.

Pour batter into greased 8-inch cast iron skillet and sprinkle with mini m&m's.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until center is slightly set. 

Chelsea Original :)

Leftover Halloween Candy Cakey Brownies

Whatchya gonna do with all that junk...

Yes, I'm joining in on the plethora of halloween candy recipes flooding cooking blogs everywhere.  Please don't hate me.  If it's any consolation, I had the idea of these brownies before checking my e-mail on Thursday and seeing my inbox full of leftover halloween this and leftover halloween that.  Really, I did.  But after sinking my teeth into one of these bad boys there was no denying it- I had to share, regardless of the blogosphere overload. 

Now I'll be honest, we actually didn't buy any halloween candy for the little ones this year.  I learned my lesson last year after I anxiously prepared and ran off to the store, bought four big bags of candy, and we had no more than ten kids ring our doorbell that night.  Big. Fat. Bummer.  Apparently all the kids choose to go to the "good" neighborhoods.  Whatever.  More candy for me.  So this year we were the grumpy house.  The party poopers.  The house with the lights turned out and no one home :(

But that doesn't mean we don't already keep a stash of sweet stuff on hand at all times- thus allowing me to whip up a batch of my go-to brownie recipe studded with some candy of choice (this round I used chopped up peanut butter snickers, reese's, cookies and cream hershey's, and 100 grand).  For some crazy reason you can't really see all the little chunks of candy studded throughout as a lot of it sort of just melted its way into the bar during baking but let me tell you...you can definitely taste it- a touch of pb here, a hint of caramel there...a very sweet brownie. 

Leftover Halloween Candy Cakey Brownies

Makes one 8x8-inch pan

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Candy of choice, chopped (as much or as little as you'd like)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Melt butter and chocolate chips in small glass bowl (I used a liquid 2-cup glass pyrex) in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring with a wisk, until melted and well-blended.

In medium size bowl, using the same wisk, stir together eggs, vanilla, and brown sugar until mixed.  Stir in chocolate mixture.  Wisk in flour, baking powder, and salt until just combined.  Fold in candy pieces.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs. 

Chelsea Original :) 

(not sure of the origin of the brownie recipe- I have it scratched down on a little piece of paper)

Strawberry Cookies and Cream Frozen Yogurt

I have ice cream every night.





Every. Single. Night.

But this isn't news to you.  I mentioned before how I like to have a little stash of frozen treats on hand at all times.  A coconut popsicle one night, a strawberry vanilla ice cream sandwich the next, a bowl of red velvet blue bell after that.  You get the picture.  (Yes, these are the current goodies that reside in my freezer).

This little fetish is nothing new, however.  Ever since I was a little girl I would cherish my nightly bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream after dinner.  That was the stuff.  (And it still is pretty awesome- Nathan will occasionally surprise me with a cone when I get home from work).  I would meticulously pick out all of the cookie dough chunks and eat the ice cream first, saving a milky pile of little chocolate chip balls until the very end- kinda like I find myself doing with this fro yo: picking out the chunks and eating them piece by piece.  Maybe it's a subconscious desire to be nine years old again, wearing my silky purple pajamas from Limited Too while sitting on the floor of my parents bedroom watching Nick At Nite.  Or maybe it's just an excuse to play with my food...

Either way, it's refreshing and wonderful and would be equally delicious using chopped golden oreos or graham cracker chunks.  Get on it.

Strawberry Cookies and Cream Frozen Yogurt

1 cup chopped strawberries

1/3 cup sugar

2 cups plain yogurt

1 kingsize Cookies and Cream Hershey's bar, chopped

Place the strawberries and sugar in a blender or food processor.  Pulse until smooth.

Combine yogurt and strawberry mixture in canister of ice cream maker.  Freeze according to manufacturers' directions.  (The chopped candy will go in near the end of the mixing process!)

Chelsea Original :)

  

Butterfinger Brownies

I was barely able to post this recipe.  No, it was not out of hesitation because it wasn't very good.  Quite the opposite actually.  We ate through this pan of brownies so fast I almost didn't get a picture!  What a tragedy that would have been as these MUST be shared.  They are rich and fudgy and may even be the best brownie I have ever had (and I have had some pretty awesome brownies in my day). 

Butterfingers easily rank in my top three candy bars so these screamed my name when I came across the recipe a couple of months ago.  Who can resist that flaky, crispy, crunchy, peanut-buttery goodness?  Not I.  And when combined with the dense chocolate-y goodness of a brownie...pure heaven.  Plus a little added bonus: not nearly as much sticks to your teeth when consumed in baked form :)

Butterfinger Brownies

Make one 8x8 inch pan

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 Butterfinger candy bars, regular size

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8x8-inch pan.  Set aside.
Melt chocolate in glass bowl in the microwave- short bursts of 30 seconds; stir after each burst and remove from microwave when melted and smooth. Set aside to cool slightly
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the butter, peanut butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and whisk those in too. Stir in the melted chocolate. Stir in the flour. Stir in one bar of chopped butterfingers.
Spread batter into prepared pan. Top with second bar of butterfinger chunks.
Bake 25 (mine were done in 25) to 35 minutes. Watch closely and remove from oven when toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely.

Adapted from Recipe Girl.