Lovin' From the Oven

Cranberry Bliss Bars

by 4 Comments




Now, for something that’s even prettier than these bars to look at.. crystallized ginger!:

just look at how the sugar sparkles..

but these don’t look too bad, either. 🙂


I have to say that as a blogger, there’s nothing more I love to do than to blog. I get to share a little snippet of my life by documenting it however I wish. All day, I think about what subject I can blog about next. What pictures can I post? How much posting is too much and how much is too little? What do my readers want to see?

So naturally, it only makes sense that I have so many side projects that I want to do. I want to have a blog for my scrapbooking, for my card making, for my photography, for my food, for my clothes, for my dog, for my silly family, for how my sister and I should have our own reality tv show, etc. Sometimes, I actually get enough motivation to start another blog (see HERE), but they’re never as successful as my main one (which is this one, of course!).

Which leads me to this… some of you may know that I had a style blog with my sister, but she never updated so I deleted it. For the past two days, I’ve been putting my efforts into a new blog, which I’m happy to introduce to you today. This is my very own personal style blog:
A Pile of Style
No more depending on anyone else to update.. just me (and my DB to take the photos)! So if you’re ever bored, feel free to venture over there. I know I won’t be able to update daily, but I hope to update just as much as I do here. Here’s to hoping!

These bars are supposed to be a knockoff of Starbuck’s Cranberry Bliss Bars, but I’ve actually never even tried theirs so I can’t compare. They were very flavorful and the frosting was light enough to not overwhelm the bar, but strong enough complement and tone down the ginger flavor. Next time I make them, I would definitely cut down the amount of ginger used. They’d be the perfect treat for Christmas, just look at how pretty they are! This recipe comes slightly adapted from the Wine Imbiber.

  • 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1–1/4 cups brown sugar, packed
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1–1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Dried Cranberries, minced
  • 1/4 cup plus 1/4–1/3 cup White Chocolate Chips
  • 1/4 cup Crystallized Ginger Slices, minced
  • 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1–1/2 cups powdered sugar
  1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly grease a 9×13 pan or line it with parchment paper for easy removal.
  2. Beat together the butter and sugar. Mix in the eggs and vanilla.
  3. Add the flour, ginger, and salt into the batter. Beat well. Lightly stir in the 1/4 cup cranberries, 1/4 cup chocolate chips and minced ginger.
  4. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 20-25 minutes, depending on your oven.
  5. Make the frosting by beating the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar and beat until you reach the desired consistency.
  6. Spread the frosting onto the cooled cake.
  7. Cut the frosted cake as desired into bars or triangles. Sprinkle the remaining minced cranberries and chocolate chips on the top.

Ask me anything on Formspring

White Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies with Dried Cranberries and Slivered Almonds

by 12 Comments






I had a weekend full of meat. Have I ever told you how my boyfriend doesn’t eat any vegetables? Like, zip. nada. zelch. He won’t touch anything that’s green, with spinach being the only exception. Even so, he’ll only eat like three bites of spinach and he’ll be done for the month. Our relationship works out perfectly because I eat all of his vegetables and he finishes all of my meat.

What’s even better is that he fits into my family perfectly. My dad made a comment to my older sister and me that we couldn’t find normal boyfriends.. we had to find ones with weird eating habits (joking, of course). But it worked out in the end because my older sister’s boyfriend is vegan. Everything he doesn’t eat, my boyfriend eats. Everything my boyfriend doesn’t eat, my sister’s boyfriend will eat. Put the two together and they can finish an entire plate. Works out perfectly, right?

These cookies have some great ingredients that work well together. They were crispy on the edges and the oats made it chewy on the inside. I just wish that they were turned out a bit thicker. A bit of tweaking and this recipe could do wonders. Recipe’s from Dash and Bella.

ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups white chocolate chips
3/4 cup dried sweetened cranberries
3/4 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
directions:
Place butter in the bowl of the electric mixture and allow to soften for a few hours if it’s not room temperature already.
Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a new bowl, mix together chocolate chips, dried cranberries, almonds, and oats. Set aside. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix with a whisk to make sure baking soda and salt are evenly distributed. Set aside.
Add both sugars to the butter and beat like crazy for a few minutes. Scrape down the sides. Add 1 egg. Mix for a few seconds. Scrape down the sides. Add the 2nd egg and mix for a few seconds. Scrape down the sides. Add the vanilla. Mix for about 3 seconds. Scrape down sides. Add 1/3 of the flour mixtures, mix for a few seconds, scrape down the sides. Add the 2nd 1/3 of the flour mixture, mix for a few seconds, scrape down the sides. Now add the final 1/3 of the flour mixture PLUS the chocolate chip/oat/cranberry/almond mixture. Mix briefly until flour is just incorporated. At this point all the chips, nuts, oats, and cranberries should be evenly distributed as well.
Use an ice cream scoop. Scoop out balls of dough (a bit bigger than a golf ball). Don’t flatten them. Keep them spherical. This way the center will stay gooey and the edges while the edges get crisp. Place a few inches apart on the cookie sheet. Bake in the middle rack of the oven.
Bake 10-12 minutes. But don’t go according to time. Instead, keep an eye on the cookies. When the center (quarter-sized) is still raw, take the cookies out. Leave them on the sheet pan for a few minutes. Move to a rack and let cool. Or just cool them on the cookie sheet.

Freeze balls of dough for up to 6 months in a ziploc bag. You can place the frozen cookie balls onto a cookie sheet and right into a preheated oven.


Ask me anything on Formspring

Day 8: White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

by 14 Comments




Eeeeek! 5 more days until Christmas (just in case you didn’t know already). Good thing I only have my boyfriend to shop for and that’s already been taken care of. Well, I also got my dad a Ronald Reagan bomber jacket from my work which he absolutely adores. I think it’s cute how much he loves his Ronald Reagan gear. I even bought him an air force one plane toy for him! He stared in awe at it for a solid minute and said that this was all he wanted for Christmas. How precious!

Day 8 of my twelve days of cookies: I adapted this recipe from allrecipes. I seriously love that website. You can find a recipe for ANYTHING and know that they’ve been tried and true. I tend to lean toward the recipes the have a lot more ratings, cause you know it’s gotta be good to have that many people try them out. Anyways, I took these to a dinner party and they raved about them! They were soft with the perfect amount of sweetness. The white chocolate balances out the cranberries nicely and it’d be a great addition to your Christmas cookie list!

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1 cup dried cranberries

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Combine the flour and baking soda; stir into the sugar mixture. Mix in the white chocolate chips and cranberries. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets.
  3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. For best results, take them out while they are still doughy. Allow cookies to cool for 1 minute on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Categories