Category Archives: Bar cookies

Coconut Lemon Bars with Mimi!!!

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Ruthanne

Baking is so much more fun with a friend! Mimi came with the idea and the lemon juice- the rest is history!

INGREDIENTS:

Crust:

1/2 c. butter
1c. flour
1/4 c. powdered sugar
1/8t. lemon extract
1c. shredded coconut

Lemon topping:

2 eggs
1c. sugar
4 T. lemon juice
1/4 t. lemon extract
3T. flour
pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Using a fork, cut butter into flour and powdered sugar.
Add extract and blend well.
Press into a 9×9 pan.
Bake 10 minutes, add coconut over top, bake 10 more minutes.
Combine all of the topping ingredients.
When crust is done and still hot, pour topping over it and bake an additional 20 minutes.
Allow to cool to room temperature, cut and serve!

My thoughts: I’d never made lemon bars before tonight, so experimenting with these was a little challenging 🙂 They turned out wonderfully, but if you really like the creamy lemony part of bars you might want to double the topping. Had a fun night with Mimi though- even Casper enjoyed our cooking experiments!

Mimi with our coconut lemon bars!

Casper begging for lemon bars...

Lemon kisses!!!!!

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Posted in Bar cookies and tagged bar cookies, coconut, dessert, lemon. Bookmark the permalink.

Rocky Road Fudge Bars

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Ruthanne

These bar cookies are full of all your favorite Rocky Road ingredients with a twist– rice crispies and a thick Cream Cheese fudge. Easy and quick to make, this is sure to be one of your new go-to recipes!

INGREDIENTS:

8 oz. Philadelphia Cream Cheese
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
2c. mini marshmallows
2c. rice krispies
1c. dry roasted, salted peanuts
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
1/4c. powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Melt chocolate chips in microwave in 30 second increments, stirring well in between, until smooth.
Soften cream cheese in microwave until creamy and smooth.
Combine chocolate and cream cheese until well blended.
Take one cup of chocolate/cream cheese mixture out and set aside in a separate bowl.
To original mixture, add marshmallows, peanuts and rice krispies- stirring well to completely coat.
Press this mixture into a 9×9 pan that has been lined with foil.
To remaining bowl of chocolate and cream cheese, add peanut butter, mixing until smooth.
Add powdered sugar to desired consistency (should be thick yet still spreadable)
Spread this fudge layer over the top of the bars and freeze for 30 minutes.
Remove bars from the pan using the foil to lift out. Cut into squares and serve!

My thoughts: This was another recipe created for the RWOP website competition….no winning for me yet, but I’m going to keep trying! 🙂

It was inspired by bar cookies my grandmother used to make with me when I was little. Hers were called O’Henry Krispies and they were delicious! The addition of cream cheese gives these bars a rich and creamy feel. This is an incredibly easy dessert- but oh soooo yummy! Hope you enjoy them! r-

1 Comment

Posted in Bar cookies, Easy recipes and tagged bar cookies, chocolate, cookies, Cream Cheese, dessert, fudge, marshmallow, peanut butter, peanuts, rocky road. Bookmark the permalink.

Caramel Chip Bars!!!

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Ruthanne

These chewy cookie bars are packed with 4 types of chips and a thick layer of soft caramel- YUM!!!

INGREDIENTS:

1 box of yellow cake mix

1/3c. oil

2 eggs

1c. each of white chips, semi-sweet chips, milk chocolate chips and butterscotch chips

1/2 c. margarine

32 unwrapped caramels

1 (14oz.) can of sweetened condensed milk

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13pan. Combine cake mix, oil and eggs. Blend well and stir in all of the chips (mixture will be very thick). Press half of the mixture into bottom of pan (it will press into a very thin layer). Bake for 10 minutes.

While this is baking, in a medium saucepan, combine butter, caramels and condensed milk. Cook over low/medium heat until melted and smooth (stir constantly!) Spread caramel over partially baked cake mixture. Top with remaining cake/chip mixture (it will not completely cover, but you can press the mixture flat with your fingers and lay it in sections over the caramel. Bake and additional 25 to 30 minutes. Cool 20 minutes. Run knife around edges. Cool completely before cutting. Makes about 20 bars.

My thoughts: I’ve been making these bars for years and its fun to try them with different types of chips and flavors of cake mix. These were inspired by a recipe given to me by a friend of a friend. Her name is Lily and for years we called these Lily Bars in her honor :0) They have evolved into this recipe (my personal favorite combination of ingredients) –but next time I am adding some coconut! If you like experimenting with flavors, this is a perfect recipe for you! Another note: the caramel sauce used in this is SO good and wonderfully soft that I’ve incorporated it into many other desserts – so when you see this caramel appear in another post you’ll know– it all started here! Have fun with this one– I hope you enjoy it! -r