Salted Caramel Blondies

   First things first, sorry I did not have a new recipe for you guys last week. I have just been so dang busy! Also, it is difficult to bake in 100 degree heat, especially because the oven makes it even hotter! Well, today was a bit windy so I decided to do some baking, but then the heat picked up so I spent as little time in the kitchen as possible. Nonetheless, I still have a great recipe to share with you guys today!

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

   I am definitely liking my caramel this week!! Although this time, instead of Hershey's kisses, I used caramel topping. You know, the caramel stuff you put on top of ice cream to make some caramel sundaes? Yeah, that's what I used in this recipe, since I didn't have any caramel chips and heavy cream on hand. I have to admit, it still tasted pretty good though! I sold these bars at school for $1 apiece, and even the students enjoyed them! They may not look like much at first, but that first bite will take you to a whole new realm of flavor. The salt balances well with the chocolate and caramel, as long as you don't go too overboard on it.

   This recipe is adapted from Blahnik Baker, which takes absolutely amazing pictures and always  has good recipes to try! I discovered this site through Pinterest, and it is absolutely gorgeous. Maybe some day my blog will look as good as that, but that itself is its own dream. For now, focus on school! But I took this recipe and followed it pretty closely up until the caramel part. I used Caramel topping (Smackers brand) instead of the caramel chips and heavy cream. The end results look different, but they still taste amazing!

So I mixed the dough, then placed half of it in this Pam-sprayed 8x8 pan. Then I poured some of the Caramel topping on the top and spread it with a spatula. Make sure it is an even coat, but you can add as much or as little caramel as you want. After you are done pouring the caramel, sprinkle your salt over the top. Table salt works fine if you don't have sea salt for this part.

This is what my pan looked like after I placed the remainder of the cookie dough over the caramel. You can try to spread it around with a spatula,  not push down too hard or the caramel will integrate with the cookie dough. I also sprinkle this layer with salt, so that there will be the saltiness throughout each bar.

Just stick them in the oven for 30 minutes, and you're done! You can see that the caramel did integrate with the cookie dough a little bit, but that was probably because I put a lot of salt on it. Either way, they taste amazing and have a cool marble look to it. They are easiest to cut after a few hours when they have cooled a bit, or if you are super excited to eat them (as I was), then you just need to grad a fork, it's going to be goey!

Recipe:

Adapted from Blahnik Baker

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/8 cups Flour

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

3/4 cup Butter, melted and cooled

1 cup Light Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Sugar

1 large Egg, room temperature

1 large Egg Yolk, room temperature

2 teaspoons Vanilla

2 cups Chocolate Chips

Smackers Caramel Dessert Topping

Sea Salt, preferred, for sprinkling (table salt works fine too)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8x8 pan or line with parchment paper(leaving an overhang). If using parchment paper, spray that with nonstick spray as well.

2. In a large bowl, which together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

3. In another large bowl combine the butter with both sugars until combined. Add in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Slowly stir in the cry ingredients until just combined. The stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Pour half of the batter in your prepared pan. Cover with a layer of Caramel sauce, then sprinkle the salt over that. Then, drop the remaining cookie dough over the top of the caramel and smooth with a spatula. Sprinkle with salt again.

5. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a the edges are a light brown color and peel away from the sides of the pan. Cool completely before cutting.

Try this recipe? Tell me how it went down below in the comments!

Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies

   Fall is almost upon us! And with this new season comes the flood of pumpkin recipes, sweatshirts, and (yes) even yoga pants. This is definitely the best time of the year to bake since there are soo many different recipes, and baking is also the quickest way to warm up the house!!

   So with this fall season, I wanted to try some different recipes. And I have definitely had a hankering for caramel lately, so I visited Pinterest and found this Milky Way Salted Caramel Cookie recipe! So, of course, I was super excited and went down to the store to get some candy, and guess what. Guess what. They were completely out. All of Walmart was out of the Caramel Milky way, and I was thinking what now? Now I dont have a fancy smartphone so I couldn't just look for a recipe to create, and I really didn't want to go back to Walmart again, then BING! An Idea came to me! Why can't I buy Hershey's Caramel Kisses and bake them inside my Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe? So that is what I did, and here is my wonderful journey to a happy tummy!

Yay for Caramel Kisses!! I saw these candies and came up with the recipe immediately  And I sure was glad I did, they turned out amazing! So first this first is that you are going to want to create the basic chocolate chip cookie batter, which you can find here.

Then you will take the dough from the basic recipe and roll into little balls encasing the kisses. It is fairly easy to do, and if the dough isn't cooperating, just add some more flour to it. Not a lot, but enough to make the dough tangible. It always comes out different fr me, so there is definitely no set measurements for extra flour. Make sure they are covered all the way, although the tip can stick out a little bit, it isn't a big deal.

See! All closed into it's own little ball. Drop onto ungreased pans about 2 inches apart, they will spread but not too much. The more baking soda you put into the basic recipe, the more it will spread.

Then when they are all covered and ready to bake, stick them in the oven!! They bake for the same time as a normal chocolate chip recipe. And if you happen to look in the oven periodically and see that the cookie looks flat while the Hershey stands tall, don't worry; it will all even out in it's own time.

Recipe:

INGREDIENTS

Prepared cookie dough~ I use this recipe

1 package Caramel Hershey Kisses

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Take prepared cookie dough and roll in a ball, encasing the Caramel Kiss completely.

2. Drop onto un-greased cookie sheet, and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are a light brown.

That's It!

Try this recipe? Tell me how it went down below in the comments!

Easy Caramel Apples

   So, every once in a while Laurie will find a recipe on the internet that she wouldd like me to make. And, knowing that I love to try new things, I do it! laurie tends to see recipes that are trending on the internet, recipes I  see but give no thought to. I mean, Pinterest has a whole page dedicated to  this recipe, yet it is hard to actually find written directions on how to make caramel apple slices! And if you have yet to see this recipe, this is basically what it is, no directions or links at all:

   Yeah, annoying right? Almost as annoying as this keyboard(which lags, then makes my words run together. Which means I have to spend extra time going back and making sure everything looks okay). Anyways, the picture above shows that you hollow out your apples, melt down some caramel sauce, and pour it in your apples. What it doesn't say is: how long to melt the caramel, when to put it in the apples, and the fact that you have to refrigerate them first to set the melted caramel. I mean, how could you get all that from one picture? You can't.
 So, once again I created my own little recipe, one that does make sense! And it is only two steps! Too easy, right? They literally take 10 minutes to take(mostly coring the apples) and 20 minutes to set. And they taste sooooo good! I mean, if my dad is eating them they must be good(he never eats what I bake, so it makes me excited when he does)! And I only used two apples since there are three of us, but it is definitely enough!

First, carve your apples! You can use any type of apple you want, but I just used these green ones since that is what traditional caramel apples are made with! But, any kind will do. You can carve out as much or as little as you would like, it all depends on how you like your apple to caramel ratio.
   You can either eat the apples "innards" or get rid of them. At my house, the chickens get them! They eat a lot of apples in the fall too, when canning season comes along! Heck, even my dogs love apples and apple skins!!

   Next, you are going to want to fill your apples with caramel. I just used this caramel that I had leftover from a catering gig I had at the beginning of summer. I only had 1/2 the jar left, which barely filled my two apples. I would say that a full jar would probably give you 3-4 apples.
   Then you would just refrigerate the apples for 20 minutes. cut them into individual slices, and enjoy!

Recipe:

2 apples, cored but not peeled

8 oz Caramel sauce, any

1. Cut your apples in half and scoop out the middle. This can be done with a spoon.

2. Pour caramel into apple halves. Refrigerate for 20min-1hr or until caramel has set.

3. Slice and enjoy!

Try this recipe? tell me how it went below in the comments!