Lovin' From the Oven

Cheesecake Brownies

by 17 Comments


Talk about baking on a scorching day. 97 degrees.. Really, southern California?! We skipped spring and jumped right into summer. Don’t get me wrong, I love southern California weather… just not when I’m at my apartment with no AC and the sun beams down through our window all day. Total bust. While on my way back to my little sauna of an apartment today, I was stuck in horrible Westwood/LA traffic (isn’t LA the worst?!?) and watched beautiful baller cars pass me by. Then I got to thinking… what are my top 3 dream cars? All from different price ranges? After long deliberation, I compiled my list:

1.) Price Range $25,000-$35,000: Mazda RX-8; I’ve loved this car for basically as long as I can remember.. since about 9th grade when it made its first debut.
2.) Price Range $35,000-$45,000: Audi TT Roadster; no words needed.
3.) Price Range $45,000+: Nissan GTR; alright so maybe that’s a little more than 45K.. but hey, we can all dream, right?

What’s your list of top 3 cars that you long for?

Alright enough dreaming & wishing and back to reality.. When I make brownies, I always use my go-to recipe. I’ve used this one for about a year now and haven’t bothered finding a new one. Why change something that’s perfect? I use the same brownie base for all my brownies, and tweak it as necessary. Sometimes I add nuts, sometimes I add some mint extract and Andes chunks, sometimes I add chocolate chips, and sometimes I swirl it with a cheesecake batter. This time, I baked it in a glass 8″x8″ pan because I wanted my brownies to be fudge-like rather than crispy. When baking in a glass pan, you have to let them bake for about ten minutes longer, depending on your oven.

The brownie recipe that I used can be found at my previous post HERE, but I’ll repost it here with the modifications for cheesecake brownies.

  • 1 cup butter
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup AP flour
  • ½ cup cocoa
  • ½ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 8″x8″ pan. Melt butter in saucepan over low heat. Once melted remove from heat and add sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Blend together. In separate bowl, mix together flour, cocoa, and salt. Add dry mixture to the wet and mix well. Pour into greased pan.

For the cheesecake swirl:

  • 8 oz (1 package) cream cheese, softened
  • 1/4 cup sugar (you can use 1/3 cup if you want it sweeter)
  • 1 egg

Beat the cream cheese and sugar mixture together. Mix in the egg until creamy. Drop by dollups on top of the brownie batter and then swirl using a knife. Bake for 50-60 minutes (mine took about 65 minutes before being completely done).

Snickerdoodle Blondies

by 27 Comments


Hooray! Finally, finals are over and I have time to sleep during regular hours once again. I wrote a total of 51 pages in essays last week and am so glad it’s all over. I decided to celebrate and do what I haven’t been able to do all week.. Bake! Thank goodness I had a little bit of time to bake before I leave for Lake Tahoe tomorrow morning. I’m so excited to finally take a break from everything. Does anyone have experience with baking in high altitudes? Any tried and true recipes for the high elevation? I’d love to know!

I’ve seen this recipe floating around Tastespotting and Foodgawker for quite some time now and always wanted to try it. I mean, snickerdoodles into a bar? Genius! Everyone that has tried them raved about them on their blogs, so I knew I had to try it out. The result? Well, let’s just say it didn’t tickle my fancy as much as everyone else’s. Even with the ridiculous sweet tooth that I have, I just couldn’t handle the 2 cups of sugar plus some in this recipe. It was just way too sweet for me.. I think I’ll stick to my regular snickerdoodles. You can still give these bars a shot too, maybe you’ll rave about them just like everyone else.
I adapted the recipe from the crepes of wrath:
  • 2 2/3 cups AP flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 cups brown sugar
  • 1 cup softened butter
  • 2 eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp white sugar
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • a pinch turbinado sugar
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9×13 pan. Combine flour baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and set aside.
2.) In a large bowl, beat together butter and brown sugar for 3-5 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, and beat until smooth.
3.) Stir in the flour mixture until well blended. Spread evenly in prepared pan. Combine the granulated sugar, cinnamon, and turbinado sugar in a little bowl. Evenly sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over the top of the batter.
4.) Bake 25-30 minutes or until surface springs back when gently pressed. Cool before cutting. Makes 20-24 bars.

Day 11: S’mores Cookie Bars

by 148 Comments

Day 11 of my 12 Days of Cookies: Time for a little variation. Who says a cookie has to be round? These are probably on my list of top 3 things that I’ve EVER baked, believe it or not. They’re just that good. I mean, s’mores are delicious as is.. but baking them into a cookie bar? Absolutely genius. They are the best when warm, because everything inside it is still gooey and you really get the whole campfire feeling. You can microwave these for about 10-15 seconds prior to eating them so you melt the chocolate & warm the marshmallow. For those of you that don’t know what a s’more is, it’s basically a popular campfire treat that consists of a roasted marshmallow and a chunk of chocolate (usually Hershey’s) sandwiched between two pieces of graham cracker. The roasted marshmallow melts the chocolate when being sandwiched, and voila, you’ve got yourself one of the most delectable treats known to mankind. Seriously, I can’t even begin to tell you how good these are.

Print
Day 11: S’mores Cookie Bars

Yield: 16 bars

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)
  • 1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.
  3. Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over dough. 2 king-sized Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick. Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together).
  4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars.
https://lovintheoven.com/day-11-smores-cookie-bars/

Categories