Aunt Geri's Magic Cookie Bar

 

I was fortunate enough to visit Nick's Aunt while we were traveling and even luckier to be invited to dinner!  She made delicious cornbread, homemade mac and cheese, and dessert was a plate of homemade shortbread and these Magic Cookie Bars (which I couldn't get enough of).  I enjoyed them so much that I ate 2 and happily said "yes!" to taking 3 more with me for breakfast (Note: NOT a healthy breakfast) the next day.

There are several things I can never resist and chocolate and condensed milk being two of them.    This recipe combines both in the best possible way....it adds a butter graham cracker crust, pecans and coconut into the mix to become the most addictive square that goes perfectly with a cup of tea or coffee.  Aunt Geri sent me the recipe soon afterwards and I was glad to find out they are surprisingly easy to make.  This is definitely dangerous for my waistline.  :-D

Aunt Geri's Magic Cookie Bar

Makes One 12 x 9 cookie sheet, about 24 bars.

approx prep time: 20 min

approx cook time: 20-25 min

INGREDIENTS: 

2 cups graham wafer crumbs (I used a food processor)
3/4 cups  (175 ml) melted butter
1 can (300 ml) regular or low fat Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups (375 ml) of chopped pecans, semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups (375 ml) of semi-sweet chocolate chips (I prefer PC decadent chocolate chip brand)
1 1/2 cups (375 ml) of flaked coconut

HOW TO MAKE IT:

- Preheat oven to 350 F (180 Celsius ).
-Combine graham cracker crumbs with the melted butter.
- Press the mixture evenly over parchment lined 13 X 9 inch (3.5 L) baking pan
- Pour Eagle brand evenly over crumbs.
- Sprinkle with pecans, chocolate chips and coconut. press down firmly.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned.
- Cool thoroughly (and I'm seriously about this as I usually don't have the patience, it cuts and comes out of the pan a lot cleaner if you wait) and cut into approximate 24 bars or 2 inch squares for bite size..
- Store loosely covered at room temperature or put in fridge or the freezer for later.  It's best the 2nd day, but I like to eat them warm and gooey.  :-)

I'm linking up with:

Jam Filled Butter Cookies made with Egg Yolks

 

The holiday season is among us, and what better to celebrate then to make lots of delicious and not diet friendly treats!  I've been doing a lot of holiday baking lately, and while making french macarons (recipe that I will post later), there's always the problem with leftover egg yolks.  What do I do with them?  I had the option of turning them into creme brulee but I wanted something where I could make lots of them and that everyone could enjoy without feeling too much guilt.  

What did I come up with?  

Jam filled butter cookies made with egg yolks.

They were bite size, easy to make, keeps well for up to one week, a great way to use up leftover jam in the fridge, and accomplished my main goal, which was not to let egg yolks go to waste.

Jam Filled Butter Cookies

Makes 88 bite-sized cookies

approx prep time: 30 min

approx cook time: 10 mins (per batch)

 INGREDIENTS:

- 1.5 cups of softened room temperature butter
- 1 cup of white sugar

- 4 large egg yolks

- 2.5 cups of flour

- 1/2 teaspoon of salt

- 4 teaspoons of vanilla extract

- 1 cup of fruit jam with the large pieces of fruit mashed into small bits.

HOW TO MAKE IT:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C)

- In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, and white sugar.

- Add in egg yolks, salt and vanilla extract and mix together. 

- Mix in flour a little bit at a time until a soft dough forms. 

- Refrigerate for 15 to 20 minutes until dough is firm enough to work with. 

- Roll dough into 1 inch balls.   

- Place balls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. 

- Use your finger (I prefer the index finger knuckle) or an instrument of similar size to make a well in the center of each cookie. 

- Spoon fruit preserve into a ziplock bag (I prefer a medium sized ziplock freezer bag as it is thicker and easier to handle).  Cut a small hole in the corner of the bag.

- Pipe or Fill the hole with 1/2 teaspoon of jam.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown on the bottom. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.

- Store in room temperature in an airtight container for up to one week.

White and Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies

My friend Melly first made these insanely awesome cookies back in the day when I lived close to her place.  She use to feed me about 3x a week.  She'd only bake with the best ingredients, so when it came to cookies, it HAD to be white chocolate Tolberones and Dark Lindt.  Now that I'm spoiled, I refuse to make cookies with any thing else.  If there was cocoa powder in the recipe, it had to be Valrhona brand (at $14.50 a 250g box, it was pricey)...and she makes the meanest chocolate bundt cake around, but that's another story for another time.  In any case, stock up on Toblerones and Lindt right after Christmas.

These are definitely one of the more chocolate infused cookies out there.  Nick loves cookies.  I love chocolate. The cookie dough is really just a vehicle to hold on to the chocolate.  I usually make them in large batches and freeze most of them so that Nick and bake up fresh cookies whenever he wants.

The ingredients

Cookie crumble batter

Close up of raw cookie crumble

Raw cookie dough ready for the freezer

Freshly baked cookies

White and Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies

makes approximately 62 cookies

approx prep time: 45min

approx cook time: 10min

Ingredients:

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour loosely packed

1 tablespoon of cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

1 1/4 cups white sugar

1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

250g of chopped Lindt bittersweet dark chocolate
200g of chopped white chocolate Toberlone

How to:

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Sift together the all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking powder and baking soda; set aside.

2) In a large bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth.

3) Beat in the eggs and vanilla, until well blended. Gradually stir in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chunks by hand using a wooden spoon.

4) Mold cookies into 2 inch rounds.  At this point, you can either bake them or freeze them.  As you can see, I've frozen all of mine on a baking sheet lined with parchment before bagging into freezer bags.

5)  If baking:  Place each cookie dough round 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

6) Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges are light brown. Let cookies cool on the baking sheet before removing to wire racks to cool completely.  If baking from frozen, it 10-12 minutes depending on cookie size and oven variances (it takes 11 minutes in my oven).  Don't over bake, or they won't be soft and chewy.

Modified from original recipe here.