Rolo Cheesecake Bars

I have a friend that is completely addicted to everything Rolo and you really can't blame him with all of that chocolatly and caramelly goodness. One example on this addiction is the fact that if you were to look in his freezer at any given time you would find about a half a dozen containers of Rolo ice cream. When I came across these Rolo cheesecke bars on Bakers Royale a while ago I thought of my friend and pinned the recipe to make the next time we met up. I recently got the chance to make the Rolo cheesecake bars for my friend and they were a huge success with him and everyone else that tried them! These Rolo cheesecake bars are decadently good with a graham cracker crumb crust and a cheesecake layer sweetened in part with caramel sauce that is stuffed with mini Rolos and finally topped with a chocolate layer that has a caramel wave pattern. The only problem that I have now is that every time I meetup with my friend, he asks me where his Rolo cheesecake bars are.

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Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

These caramel apple cheesecake bars made their way around the food blogging sphere not to long ago and they certainly caught my attention! Even just by reading the title, they sound amazing but that is just the start! If you dig a little deeper you will see that they start with a base of butter shortbread which is topped with the cheesecake followed by the apples and then a layer of rolled oat crumbs only finally be topped with the caramel sauce. These bars are like combining shortbread, cheesecake, apple crisp and caramel sauce all into one truly spectacular treat!

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Cranberry Turtle Bars

I am a huge fan of chocolate turtles! It is really difficult to resist those tiny turtles made with caramel and pecans all wrapped up in chocolate and during the holidays I often go through a few boxes of them. When I came across this recipe for cranberry turtle bars on No Fear Entertaining last year I knew that I would have to make them! You really can't go wrong with buttery shortbread topped with caramel, pecans and chocolate and I was really intrigued by the idea of throwing those tart little cranberries into the mix as well. Unfortunately I misplaced the bookmark and did not end up finding it until there were no cranberries left and I have been patiently awaiting their return. Now that the cranberries are back I finally got the chance to make them and they were well worth the wait!

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Apricot White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Blondies

Despite making the apricot and ginger muffins and snacking on the apricots I still had some left by the end of the week and I knew exactly what I wanted to use them in. Not too long ago I came across a post titled 'White Chocolate Apricot and Macadamia Nut Blondies' on Chef Wannabe and I thought to myself, Blondies would be good with white chocolate and dried apricots. Then I scrolled down a bit and saw that they in fact used fresh apricots and I was immediately sold. The sliced fresh apricots had worked so well in the muffins and I knew that they would be amazing in blondies!

Blondie recipes are really easy with the base recipe consisting of butter, sugar, eggs and flour. Don't let that fool you though as blondies, like brownies, have that melt in you mouth texture that is like a cross between a moist cake and fudge. From there you can add pretty much any flavours that you want and the apricot, white chocolate and macadamia nut flavour combination in these blondies is definitely a winner! My mind is just racing with the possibilities now. How about fresh blueberry and pecan blondies next?

Note: These blondies turned out a little dark because I use a dark brown sugar but you can use a lighter brown sugar or even white sugar if you prefer a lighter colour to your blondies.

Apricot White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Blondies

(makes 9+ servings)
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup macadamia nuts (coarsely chopped)
4 ounces white chocolate (coarsely chopped)
4 apricots (pitted and sliced)

Directions:
1. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in the eggs one at a time and continue beating until fluffy.
3. Mix the flour in followed by the nuts and chocolate.
4. Pour the batter into a greased 8 inch square baking pan.
5. Top with sliced apricots.
6. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until a toothpick pushed into the center comes out clean, about 30-40 minutes.

Similar Recipes:
White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Cookies
Green Tea White Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies
Mayan Orange Brownies
Apricot and Ginger Muffins
Pumpkin White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Cookies

Blueberry Crumb Bars with Lemon Cream Filling

When I came across this recipe for blueberry streusel bars with lemon cream filling on The Recipe Girl I added it to my meal plan right away. With blueberries, lemon, crumbs and cream, how can you go wrong? I really like the blueberry and lemon combo and this sounded like a nice take on it. When I looked at the recipe for the cream layer I noticed that it looked a lot like the recipe for key lime pie filling only with lemon so I knew that it was going to be really good. The recipe for the actual bars also looked very similar to the recipe that I use for crumb bars. So we basically have blueberry crumb bars with a lemon key lime pie filling! It just keeps getting better and better. I modified the recipe a bit by reducing the the amount so that it would fit into my 8 inch square baking dish and I replaced some of the flour with whole wheat flour to make it a bit healthier. The bars were really easy to make and they turned out so well! The blueberry and lemon cream combo was amazingly good and the sweet crumb topping finished off the bars perfectly. Tip: For crumb bars like these you want to make sure that you press the bottom layer into the dish well so that the bars hold together.

Blueberry Crumb Bars with Lemon Cream Filling

(makes 9+ bars)
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsalted butter (melted)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg (separated)
3/4 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 cups blueberries

Directions:
1. Mix the butter, flours, rolled oats, sugar, salt and baking powder in a large bowl until it forms crumbs.
2. Set 1 cup of the mixture aside for the topping.
3. Mix the egg white into the mixture.
4. Press the mixture into the bottom of a greased 8 inch square baking pan.
5. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 10 minutes.
6. Meanwhile mix the egg yolk into the sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice and zest and let it sit.
7. Spread the blueberries out over the bottom crust and top with the lemon mixture.
8. Bake until the lemon mixture forms a shiny skin, about 7-8 minutes.
9. Sprinkle on the reserved crumbs.
10. Bake until the top is golden brown and the sides are bubbling, about 20-25 minutes.

Similar Recipes:
Blueberry Crumb Coffeecake
Blueberry Maple Oatmeal Muffins with Pecan Streusel
Blueberry Oatmeal Pancakes
Strawberry Oatmeal Crumble Bars
Blueberry Buckle
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

Date Crumb Bars

I am not really sure why, but I seem to have been amassing quite the collection of dates. I guess that every time I saw them on sale I picked some more up but I was not using them quickly enough. One of the reasons that I was collecting the dates was because they are naturally sweet and I enjoy baking with them, often replacing some of the sweetener with some dates. One of the dishes on the top of my to try list with dates was date crumb bars. The crumb bars are basically a filling, in this case dates, sandwiched between two layers of crumbs. Given that I was just thinking of dates as being naturally sweet, I decided to use very little sweetener in the date mixture and go with something natural like honey. The crumbs are made from flour, sugar, butter and rolled oats. Of course I took the opportunity to use a little whole wheat flour in the crumb mixture to make these bars just a little bit healthier. The date crumb bars were nice and easy to make and they turned out great! The last time that I made crumb bars they did not hold together too well so this time I made sure to pack the bottom layer of crumbs in really well and this time they held together nicely. The date and honey mixture was amazing! It was sweet without being too sweet and nice and moist and helped to hold the bars together. Now I am looking forward to making more things with all of the dates that I still have left!

Date Crumb Bars

(makes 9+ servings)
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pound dates (pitted and chopped)
1/4 cup honey
1 cup water
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter (melted)

Directions:
1. Bring the dates, honey, water and butter to a boil, remove from the heat and let sit until they cool down to room temperature.
2. Puree until smooth.
3. Mix the rolled oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a bowl.
4. Stir in the butter until it forms crumbs.
5. Press half of the crumb mixture into the bottom of a greased 8 inch square baking pan.
6. Spread the date mixture on and top with the remaining crumbs.
7. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 25 minutes.

Similar Recipes:
Blueberry Crumb Bars with Lemon Cream Filling
Strawberry Oatmeal Crumble Bars
Medjool Date Pecan Pie

Meyer Lemon Bars

Not to long ago I got the chance to use key limes for the first time and I used them to make a key lime pie. This weekend I stumbled across meyer lemons for the first time and I grabbed some right away. I had been hearing about meyer lemons for a long time and I had been wanting to try them. A meyer lemon is a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange which sounded like a great combination. I really like using lemons in desserts and one of my favorites is the simple lemon bar. A lemon bar is a bar with a shortbread crust and a layer of lemon custard topped with icing sugar. I was thinking that meyer lemon bars be would be the perfect place to start enjoying my meyer lemons. I used a pretty standard recipe for the lemon bars that I found of Joy of Baking and I just substituted the lemon juice and zest for meyer lemon juice and zest. They meyer lemon bars were nice and simple to make though I did run into one small snag; I had some trouble getting the bars out of the baking pan. No worries though, the crumbled lemon bars were still great! I really enjoyed the meyer lemon bars and the meyer lemon flavour was a nice change from ordinary lemons. I am still surprised that something so naturally tart as a lemon can become so magically good in sweet dessert like this. The next time I make these lemon bars I think I might double the recipe for the lemon filling to get even more lemony goodness in each bite. For now, I still have a few meyer lemon left to enjoy.

Meyer Lemon Bars

(makes 16+ servings)
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
1/4 cup confectioners sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs (room temperature)
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
confectioners sugar

Directions:
1. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl.
2. Mix in the flour and salt until it comes together.
3. Press it down into a greased 8 inch square baking pan.
4. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
5. Beat the eggs and sugar until smooth.
6. Mix in the lemon juice and zest.
7. Mix in the flour.
8. Pour the mixture onto the crust.
9. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until set, about 20 minutes.
10. Let cool and sprinkle with confectioners sugar.

Similar Recipes:
Key Lime Pie
Lemon Meringue Pie
Cranberry Turtle Bars
Lime Meltaways
Orange Cookies Dipped in Chocolate

Nanaimo Bars

Another one of my favorite holiday treats are nanaimo bars. Nanaimo bars are another Canadian dessert and they consist of a chocolate and coconut wafer layer topped by a a layer custard butter icing and a layer chocolate. I really like the chocolate, coconut and custard combo and these chilled treats are always welcome. I had not had a nanaimo bar in a long time and I thought that it would be great to make my own this year. Since this was my first time making nanaimo bars I decided to stick with the standard recipe that seems to be everywhere on the web. As I was making the bars I was thinking that it would be nice to try tweaking the flavours in the different layers and I was thinking about mint in particular; though I will save that for another time. Because there are three layers that each required time to chill before the next layer can be added these bars take a bit of time to make. Despite the time needed they are super easy to make and well worth the effort. The nanaimo bars turned out great, just like I remembered them. I like to eat the nanaimo bars chilled, directly from the fridge but, they are also really good at room temperature. These bars also freeze well so you can make them ahead of time and store them until needed. I like to keep them in the freezer and pull one out at a time to snack on whenever I feel like one.

Ingredients:

Base
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
5 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 egg (lightly beaten)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup walnuts (chopped)

Filling
1/3 cup butter (room temperature)
3 tablespoon custard powder (or vanilla pudding powder)
1/4 cup milk
3 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar)

Topping
8 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 tablespoon butter

Directions:

Base
1. Melt the butter in a sauce pan.
2. Stir in the sugar and cocoa powder until smooth.
3. Whisk in the egg and vanilla extract and remove from heat.
4. Stir in the graham cracker crumbs, coconut and walnuts.
5. Press into a greased 8 inch square pan and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Filling
1. Cream the butter.
2. Beat in the custard powder and milk.
3. Beat in the sugar slowly.
4. Spread over the the base layer and chill in the fridge until it sets.

Topping
1. Melt the chocolate and butter in a pan and stir until smooth.
2. Spread over the filling layer and chill in a fridge until the chocolate begins to harden.
3. Score the chocolate where you will cut it into bars and chill in the fridge.
4. Before the chocolate hardens, cut into bars. (Use an hot knife and wipe clean after each cut.)

Similar Recipes:
Rolo Cheesecake Bars

Strawberry Oatmeal Crumble Bars

I had seen a few recipes for berry oatmeal bars such as this recipe for strawberry oatmeal bars that looked really good. The strawberry and rhubarb jam was calling to me and I could not resist using it along with some fresh strawberries in some oatmeal bars. The strawberry and rhubarb oatmeal crumble bars were really easy to make and taste great! The only problem that I had was that the bars crumbled easily and did not come out of the pan looking much like bars. Though I did not realize it before making it, the oatmeal crumble recipe was really similar to the topping that I often use on my crumbles and crisps. In fact the strawberry and rhubarb oatmeal crumble bars tasted almost exactly like a strawberry and rhubarb crumble only with a higher ratio of crumble to filling. I think I might have to try one warm with some vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter (melted)
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup pecans (chopped)
1/4 cup of strawberry rhubarb jam or strawberry jam
1/2 pound strawberries (sliced)

Directions:
1. Mix the butter into the brown sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, rolled oats and pecans until it resembles a coarse meal.
2. Press 2/3 of the mixture into the bottom of an 8x8 inch baking pan.
3. Spread the jam on top.
4. Place the strawberries on the jam.
5. Crumble the remaining oat mixture on top.
6. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Similar Recipes:
Strawberry and Rhubarb Crumble
Date Crumb Bars
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Blueberry Crumb Bars with Lemon Cream Filling

Green Tea White Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies with Chocolate Ganache

This months Sugar High Friday theme is sweets with an Asian twist. I could could not resist participating with a theme like this. I really enjoy using Asian ingredients like matcha (powdered green tea), azuki beans, black sesame seeds, in sweets. I particularly like the matcha and white chocolate combo. Recently I have not been able to get the images of these chocolate mascarpone brownies out of my head. They just looks so dense and moist and chocolaty and good. I thought that a matcha and white chocolate version would be really nice. (I am not really sure if they were still brownies at this point or if they become blondies or something else...) I decided to go with a straight dark chocolate ganache to contrast the flavours a bit but I was thinking of that a white chocolate and green tea ganache would also be nice.

The only changes that I made to the recipe were replacing the dark chocolate with white chocolate and replacing the cocoa powder with matcha. I was not sure how much matcha to use so I started with one tablespoon. The batter looked nice and dark green and I could really taste the green tea so I stopped there. The matcha white chocolate mascarpone brownies came together easily and tasted really good. They were nice and dense and moist and fudge like in texture. Matcha is slightly bitter and it tempered the sweetness of the white chocolate and the brownie had the perfect amount of sweetness. Unfortunately the nice dark green colour faded with baking and the green tea flavour was not strong enough to stand up to the chocolate ganache topping. The next time I make these, and I will be making them again, I will use two tablespoons of matcha and I will either use a thinner layer of chocolate ganache or skip the ganache entirely. Of course the the rich, dense brownies went well with a glass of milk or a cup of green tea.

Green Tea White Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter
3 ounces white chocolate (chopped)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon matcha (green tea powder)
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese (softened)
3 large eggs (room temperature)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler.
2. Mix in the sugar and matcha.
3. Beat in the mascarpone, eggs and vanilla.
4. Fold in the flour and salt.
5. Pour the batter into a greased 8x8 inch baking pan.
6. Bake in a preheated 325F oven until a toothpick poked into the middle comes out clean, about 55-60 minutes.

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons heavy cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 ounces dark chocolate (chopped)

Directions:
1. Heat the cream and butter in a small sauce pan until just before it boils.
2. Pour the cream and butter over the chocolate in a bowl.
3. Stir until smooth.

Pour the ganache over the brownies and wait until it is firm before cutting.



Similar Recipes:
Green Tea Macarons
Green Tea and White Chocolate Opera Cake
Green Tea and White Chocolate Ice Cream
Mayan Orange Brownies
Apricot White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Blondies

Take a look at the Sugar High Friday: Asian Sweet Invasion roundup at La Petite Boulangette.

Mayan Orange Brownies

A few months ago I was introduced to the world of chocolate bars. I was really impressed with Green and Black's Maya Gold chocolate bar. I remember thinking, how could I use this in my cooking, it might be nice in brownies... This weekend, spurred on by the BrownieBabe of the Month food blogging event, I finally got around to trying.

Having never made brownies before, I searched the web for a brownie recipe. I found a recipe for what I would call the "standard" brownie with cocoa recipe but I could not find what looked like a standard for a dark chocolate brownie recipe. The recipes for dark chocolate brownies varied wildly in the amount chocolate. They called for anywhere between 3 ounces and 9 ounces of dark chocolate... In the end, I had 2 bars of Maya Gold so that is what I used. I used the standard brownie with cocoa recipe and replaced the cocoa with the Maya Gold chocolate. I also added some orange zest and juice. I melted one of the chocolate bars and chopped up the other and mixed it in as chunks.

The brownies turned out pretty good. I could not resist trying one while they were still cooling and the chunks of chocolate had turned into little pockets of gooey chocolate. Even after they cooled down they were nice and fluffy and literally melted in my mouth. I will be making these again.

One unfortunate side effect is that I am now out of Maya Gold chocolate bars and I will have to go and get some more.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 Green and Blacks Maya Gold chocolate bar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 Green and Blacks Maya Gold chocolate bar (chopped into chunks)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan.
3. Melt the butter and the Maya Gold chocolate bar in a sauce pan and remove from heat and let cool.
4. Stir in the sugar, eggs, vanilla, orange juice and orange zest.
5. Mix in the flour, salt, and baking powder.
6. Stir in the chunked Maya Gold chocolate bar.
7. Spread batter into prepared pan.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes.

You can use a toothpick to see when they are done. They are done when a toothpick poked in the middle of the brownies comes out clean.

Similar Recipes:
Green Tea White Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies with Chocolate Ganache Frosting
Apricot White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Blondies
Orange Cookies Dipped in Chocolate
Orange Chocolate Cream Cheese Mousse

Take a look at the BrownieBabe of the Month roundup at Once Upon a Tart.