Hello Dolly Chocolate Bark

It's getting to be that time of year when I need to start planning and getting started on my Christmas baking. Every year I want to try my hand at something new and, for some reason, this year I have a small obsession with chocolate bark.

I blame Pinterest.

I recently joined and I've already pinned several things to my boards. One day, someone I follow posted a chocolate bark recipe, so I searched for more and, sometime later, I had decided I needed to create my own, a twist on one of my all-time favorite baked goods.

Growing up, my grandmother made Hello Dolly bars for Christmas every year. It was always a special thing she made when we would come and visit because it was my favorite.

Now, some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. But others are trying to figure out what a Hello Dolly bar is. Some people call it a seven layer bar. It has a graham cracker crust, then you sprinkle chocolate chips, walnuts, and sweetened coconut on top. Over all that you pour sweetened condensed milk and bake it.

So sweet, so good!

Some people use pecans instead of walnuts, others add butterscotch chips. But this is the recipe our family always used.

I have already created a Hello Dolly cupcake, it's a yellow graham cracker cake with walnuts and chocolate chips and a toasted coconut buttercream icing. So far, that is still my favorite recipe that I've created.

But how to turn this bar cookie into a candy?



It took only 5 ingredients:
White Chocolate Chips
Dark Chocolate Chips (you could use semi-sweet or even milk chocolate, but I wanted to cut into the sweetness of the white chocolate and other ingredients)
Graham Crack Crumbs
Chopped Walnuts
Toasted Coconut

First thing I did was take 1/2 cup of sweetened coconut flakes and spread it out on a cookie sheet. Toasting coconut is super easy. Put the cookie sheet into a preheated 350 degree oven and check every few minutes, stirring it with a wooden spoon. The stirring is very important for even toasting.



While the coconut is in the oven. Melt the white chocolate chips.



I put them in the microwave, stopping it every 20-30 seconds and stirring. White chocolate melts faster than chocolate, so keep an eye on it!

When it's melted and smooth, spread the white chocolate on a parchment sheet or Silpat lined cookie sheet.

Since I was making this up as I went along, I covered the white chocolate with 3/4 of a cup of graham cracker crumbs. That was too much, I'll explain why later. I would suggest using 1/4 to 1/2 cup of crumbs. Gently press the crumbs into the white chocolate and put it in the fridge to harden.



Around this time, my coconut was done and I pulled it out of the oven to cool.



Once the white chocolate is hardened, melt the dark chocolate.



Again, I microwaved it at 20-30 second intervals, stirring it each time I checked. When it was fully melted and smooth, I spread it over the white chocolate/graham cracker crumb layer.

I then sprinkled the 1/2 cup of toasted coconut and 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts.



Make sure to press the coconut and walnuts gently into the chocolate so they adhere.



Pop the sheet pan back into the fridge and wait for the chocolate to harden.

Now comes the fun part. When everything is hard, break the candy into various sized pieces.



Here is where I explain why 3/4 cup of graham crackers was too much. The dark chocolate couldn't stick to the white chocolate because the graham cracker layer was too thick, so when I broke it apart, several pieces separated between the layers.

That being said, it was still delicious! Take a small piece and pop it in your mouth and it has all the flavors of a Hello Dolly bar cookie!

Decadent Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

Today's my birthday. I won't tell you how old I am, that will just depress me. Instead, I'll pretend I'm still 25 and we'll all be happier.

Last week was my vacation, I took a week off from work to spend time with my brother and his family who were visiting from Illinois. We celebrated my birthday on Friday. Since it was my birthday, my father and my niece picked out a great cake from an Amish bakery. I was just happy I wasn't expected to bake my own birthday cake.

Knowing my love of Trader Joe's, my sister-in-law brought me a bag full of baking supplies from TJ's. They also got me the Star Wars Cupcake Stencils from Williams Sonoma, but that's for another post.

One of the items they brought were the wonderful Trader Joe's mini Peanut Butter Cups that I used in a previous post Trader Joe's and Peanut Butter Cup Brownies.



Unfortunately, chocolate peanut butter cups can't handle car rides half way across the country in July heat.



But we weren't going to give up on them. We tossed around ideas like chopping them up and using it as an ice cream topping. But, being me, I wanted to find a use for them in baking.

A couple weeks ago, I came up with Gooey Rolo Brownies and they ended up being very delicious and quite popular. So I decided to tweak the recipe a bit and create these Decadent Peanut Butter Cup brownies.

I used the same base brownie recipe from Hersheykitchen.com: Sensational Peppermint Pattie Brownies.

Instead of the Peppermint Patties, I used regular sized Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to layer in the middle of the brownies.



I wanted to use the regular PB cups because they're thinner and wider than the minis and I wanted to use them to cover more ground. It took 24 PB cups to create the middle layer.



I spread the rest of the batter on top of the peanut butter cups and baked the brownies for about 50 minutes.



While the brownies were baking, I took a fork to the melted mini peanut butter cups and broke them up into chunks.



I took the brownies out of the oven and sprinkled the mini PB cups all over the top and put them back into the oven for about 4 minutes.



The candy was melty and soft when I took them out.



I used an offset spatula to spread the melted PB cups all over the top.



These brownies were moist and had just the right amount of peanut butter to chocolate ratio.



I discovered that both the Gooey Rolo Brownies and the Decadent Peanut Butter Cup Brownies are even better the next day.

Gooey Rolo Brownies

I seem to be on a bit of a chocolate caramel kick at the moment. While working on the Chocolate Caramel Cookie Cups, I came up with the idea to do Rolo brownies.

Years ago, I made brownies with peppermint patties in the middle. I knew that was the recipe I wanted to tweak, so I did a little online searching and found Hershey's Sensational Peppermint Pattie Brownies. The brownies in this recipe are rich and dense, perfect for supporting the candy in the middle.

I gathered the ingredients, the only changes I made were replacing the peppermint patties with Rolos and using some homemade caramel sauce as a drizzle on top.



The brownies whipped up quickly. I poured half the batter into the 9x13x2 inch pan and then layered the Rolos. I lined them up, alternating right side up and upside down to get as many in as I could. I used two 12oz bags of Rolos with about 8 leftover.



I didn't go all the way to the edges with the candy because I wanted the brownies to fill in around the edges and keep the candy on the inside only.



I poured the rest of the batter on top and carefully spread it, trying to not move the Rolos around too much.



I baked them for 50 minutes. The recipe calls for 50-55 minutes, I always bake brownies a little less so they're soft and a bit fudgy.



There was homemade caramel left over from my last baking experiment and I heated it up until it was the right consistency. Then, using a fork, I drizzled the caramel over the brownies.



I thought that I was done, when I saw the last few Rolos left over. I came up with the idea of taking each candy and cutting it in 6 pieces.



While the brownies were still hot, I sprinkled the pieces of Rolo all over the top.



Because the brownies were hot, the candy melted a bit more into little rivers of caramel oozing out of the chocolate.



These amazing brownies came out as gooey, chocolatey, caramely bites of awesomeness!

I am now trying to come up with more recipes using Rolos. They melted beautifully and the possibilities are endless.

Cookie Experiment #3: Chocolate Caramel Cookie Cups

McDonalds has this limited release McFlurry out there right now made with Rolos. I've heard several people go on and on about how good it was and it got me thinking about what I could make with Rolos. My first thought was brownies, but I wanted more of a challenge. Don't get me wrong, I'm still thinking about those brownies...I'm thinking chocolate with a layer of mini Rolos in the middle and caramel on top.

Yeah, those will eventually get made.

Any way, I was driving back to work one night and I had a cookie brainstorm. If they turned out right, they would be more Twix-like than Rolo-like, but I had to make them.

These cookies, the Chocolate Caramel Cookie Cups, are a base of shortbread cookies filled with caramel and topped with whipped, dark chocolate ganache.

Only a handful of ingredients are needed. Sugar, flour, vanilla, butter, heavy whipping cream, and dark chocolate. Seriously, that is all you need to make these cookies.



I love shortbread cookies. They are so easy to make and so delicious.



Cream 2 cups of butter and 1 cup of sugar.



Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla and 4 cups of all-purpose flour. I used a a mini muffin pan and a heaping 1/2 Tablespoon of dough.



I balled up the dough and then used the back of the 1/2 Tablespoon to press the dough into the cup.



I baked the cookies for about 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees until they came out golden brown.



While the cookies were baking, I made the ganache. I've made ganache many times in the past and is super easy to make. I heated up 1 cup of heavy whipping cream to simmering and then poured it over 7 oz of dark chocolate.



After letting it sit for a minute, I mixed the chocolate and cream until it was all melted and combined. I covered it in plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming and let it come to room temperature before putting it into the fridge. Once it was cool, I put it in the stand mixer and whipped it up.

I also made caramel just as I had when I made Dark Chocolate Caramel Thumbprint Cookies.
I played around with it a bit because I wanted the caramel to be a thicker, so after making it, I put it back in a heavy pan over low heat, stirring it and adding sugar a Tablespoon at a time until it was the thickness I wanted.

When the cookies were done and cooled, the caramel was the correct thickness, and the ganache whipped and put in a piping bag, it was time to assemble.



I poured about a teaspoon of caramel in to the cookie cup and then topped it with a flourish of the ganache.



These cookies turned out delicious and decadent.



I plan on experimenting more. Next time I want to make them thumbprint cookies with a drizzle of milk chocolate over top.

Red, White and Blue Macarons

As I've said before, I work in the news industry, which means I work holidays. Because of this I usually try to make something special to take in on holidays. Last year, I made the Star Wars cookies. This year, since I am currently deep in my macaron obsession, I decided to make Red, White, and Blue macarons for Memorial Day.

I've been working on perfecting macarons for over a year now and there have been many failed attempts. I used books and I used recipes I found online, but it wasn't until I followed the steps in the book "Macarons: Authentic French Cookie Recipes from the Macaron Cafe" by Cecile Cannone, that I finally made macarons.



My first attempt were regular macarons, flavored only by the almond flour, with a whipped, dark chocolate ganache filling. They were fantastic.

I decided to make patriotic macarons for Memorial Day. Red, White and Blue...raspberry and blueberry cookies with vanilla buttercream icing in between.

Now, you'll notice that my macarons don't look exactly like the pictures in the book. I'm still working on perfecting these. They aren't as smoothly rounded as they should be and I think that's because I might whip the eggs a little longer than I'm supposed to. This makes the batter thicker and it doesn't settle like it should. But baking is sometimes a trial and error experiment. I've found that these macarons look better than the last ones I made and the next ones will look better than these. I also think I make the cookies too big. Next time, I'm going to use a smaller piping tip.

Even if they don't seem as smooth as they should, the consistency is just right. A crisp outer shell with a chewy, soft interior.

The first thing I do is trace circles onto the back of the parchment paper. This will act as a guide for piping the batter.



One of the great things about macarons is that they don't require a lot of ingredients.



I measured out the almond flour and powdered sugar. After doing some research online, I learned the best way to flavor the macarons is with crumbled, freeze dried berries.



I eyeballed it and put in what looked like enough raspberries and ran it through the food processor with the almond flour and sugar.



I then poured the room temperature ege whites into the mixer and set to whipping them with salt (I had the eggs out of the fridge for about 12 hours. Room temperature ingredients are very important in macarons).



After adding the superfine sugar, I colored the eggs with red, gel food coloring. Apparently the liquid food coloring should not be used to color macarons, the added moisture will affect the cookie.



The next step is to add the egg whites to the almond flour mixture and fold them together.



I then piped the batter onto the parchment paper.



The next step is very important, you have to let them sit for at least 15 minutes before putting them in to the oven. This is needed to create the "foot" of the macaron.

They bake up rather quickly, but have to rest on the parchment paper for 10 minutes before removing them.



After making all the raspberry cookies, I repeated the procedures with freeze dried blueberries and blue food coloring.



For the filling I used the trusty ol' Wilton buttercream recipe. I took one cookie, spread a small amount of icing on the flat edge and put another cookie on top.



They taste absolutely delicious. I love that the blueberry cookies remind me of Boo-berry cereal and makes me want to make even more of them.



I'm learning as I go along. Next time I won't whip the eggs as long and I'm going to pipe out smaller cookies. But the texture and the taste are perfect!