#79) Peanut Butter Blondies

This past summer has been quite important in my life - a perfect wedding day, an amazing honeymoon, a new SUV, and our first home.... Needless to say, with all the important things going on in our lives recently, my husband (oh that is so fun to say!) and I haven't had a lot of down time, and that means I haven't been in the kitchen a whole lot lately...

But, once we bought the house we decided we should make the kitchen somewhere we would go out of our way to spend time. How are we doing this? A new floor, a fresh coat of paint, and most importantly, a new stove... But not just any stove - this, my dear friends, is a CONVECTION OVEN! For those of you who are scratching your head and asking yourselves what on Earth I am talking about, let me tell you I was in the same state only a few months ago, until I started doing some reading about these amazing ovens. The fan in the back of the convection oven cirulates all the hot air in your oven so you get more even baking in less time. Still not convinved? What if I told you I baked 3 sheets of my chocolate chip cookies at one time and each sheet was perfectly baked to perfection? No burnt bottoms, no undercooked centres - just perfect crispy edges with chewy centres! Seriously, a baker's dream :)

Now on to the blondies - I cam back from our honeymoon in Quebec City with lots of neat ingredients to play with, but one of my favorite was the Belgian milk choclate chips I got at La Fudgerie. If you are ever in the area, it is well worth your time to stop in for a look. (The creme brulee fudge is out of this world!) So I toyed around with a couple of ides for these bad boys, but then decided it was about time for yet another peanut butter and chocolate combo. These bars are kind of like a peanut butter blondie dotted with creamy milk chocolate - are you drooling yet? I thought so!

Now I bet you wanna scroll down for the recipe, don't ya????

Well, I must confess that I have "misplaced" the scrap of paper this beauty was scribbled on, but I am sure all my wonderfully creative friends out there in cyberspace (yes, you!) can whip up something equally as good, or even better in fact!

Happy Baking :)

#72) Lovely Lemon Squares

Living alone has its pros and cons, but the severe lack of taste-testers has to be my biggest con.... However, my fiance was here for the weekend and we had some friends over for dinner - the perfect opportunity to try out a brand new recipe! I had never made lemon squares before and was really excited to try and recreate that creamy sweet and tart lemony filling my mom makes from that ever popular blue Shirff box (oh, you know the one!). It was pretty touch and go for a while - is the bottom supposed to be this crumbly? is it supposed to smell like egg? But in the end, once they had cooled, they were perfect! Just as good, or better, than that popular blue box HaHa!

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups flour

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tbsp lemon rind
1/2 cup lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp icing sugar

Steps

-Preheat oven to 325ºF.

-Beat together butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy.

-Add flour in 2 additions.

-Press into 13X9 pan (I used a glass to pat it in evenly).

-Bake for 35 minutes, until slightly golden. Let cool.

-Beat eggs with sugar until thick. Add lemon rind, juice, flour, and baking powder.

-Pour over baked bottom.

-Bake for 25-30 minutes, just until the centre is set. (The top will have a bubbly white crust, don't worry!)

-Let cool and slice. Dust with icing sugar.

#61) PB Brownie Bars

Ok, I have a couple of apologies to make:

1) I am sorry to those of you who have come here looking for those super-duper healthy sweet treats I keep promising to experiment, but the baking demands of my brother always include chocolate and peanut butter, and although I use light pb, it still isn't very healthy... I am sorry if you feel misled :(

2) Apology #2 is for my future actions - or lack thereof... I am heading back to university for the summer, but there is a considerable amount of moving involved for an extra bout of teaching practice and classes so I will not have my "own" kitchen for quite some time... Although I will try my best to get some sweet treats up here for all my lovers - I can't make any promises :(

Now that that's over on to better and chocolate-ier things :)

This bar is a new take on my brother's favorite treat - Peanut Butter Balls. The brownie bottom is, I hear, excellent, seeing as it isn't "safe" for me... and the peanut butter looks so ooey, gooey that it must be amazing :) Please give 'em a try and let me know what you think!

Brownie Bottom

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup chocolate (I used milk)
1 1/2 cups sugar
Dash salt
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup flour
2 tbsp cocoa

Steps
-Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 9x9 pyrex dish with foil and spray.
-Melt butter and chocolate together. Let cool slightly.
-Add sugar, salt, and vanilla. Mix until incorporated.
-Beat in eggs one at a time.
-Mix in flour and cocoa just until combined.
-Turn into dish and bake for 35-45 minutes, rotating halfway through.

Peanut Butter Filling

Ingredients
1 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup icing sugar
Dash salt
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

Step
-Beat together until well combined.

Chocolate Topping

Ingredients
1 cup chocolate (I used milk)
1/4 cup butter

Steps
-Melt together.
-Pour over cooled brownies and chill for at least 2 hours.

#39) Homemade Granola Bars

Wow! I made these little guys about an hour ago and we have the pan pretty much half gone already!!!

I have been wanting to make my own granola bars for some time now, mainly because I work at a school where nuts are not permitted, and it is quite difficult to find nut-free bars. Also, with the homemade version I know exactly what I am eating, and it doesn't involve any strange chemicals or weird preservatives :)

I found some homemade recipes for granola bars that involved sugar, but I decided the corn syrup was sweet enough, but if you are looking for an even sweeter treat, I would add about 1/3 cup brown sugar. As for the add-ins, I plan on trying raisins and cinnamon, maple syrup and banana, oh the list goes on - be as creative as you can be!

Ingredients

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup rice crispies (I used the Christmas ones, hence the green and red LOL)
2/3 cup coconut
2/3 cup chocolate chips (I used half white and half milk chocolate)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened (suggestions on how to lessen this amount?)
1/2 cup corn syrup (or honey if you prefer)
1 tsp vanilla

Steps (so simple!!!)

-Mix all ingredients together with your hands.
-Pour into a greased 9x13 pan and pat down.
-Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes.
-Let cool for 15 minutes before cutting into bars.

*Makes 16 bars