Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Blondies {Pass the Cookbook Club}

It's the last Thursday in July which means it's time for another installment of Pass the Cook Book Club!

This month, the cookbook of choice was Barefoot Contessa Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust by Ina Garten. I love Ina (who doesn't right?) and as an avid Food Network fan, I was introduced to her early in my culinary journey. One of my earliest successful chocolate cake recipes is from Ina's archive and it's still my go-to for a moist chocolate cake.

So I was very excited about this month's choice and went straight for the dessert option (duh!) on the list of three recipes (Chocolate Chunk Blondies, Easy Gazpacho & Goat Cheese Croutons & Foolproof Ribs with BBQ sauce).

I made the chocolate chunk blondie recipe two ways. First in its original state with chocolate chunks and it was glorious. But the second time, I adapted the recipe to include Reese's peanut butter cups instead of chocolate chunks and because I have been on a brown butter kick lately (see brown butter week here, here and here), I browned the butter as well to enhance the flavor.

All I can say is, these blondies are the BOMB!! They are moist, crunchy and addicting. The loaded peanut butter chunks were a great addition and they added extra moisture to the bars. In addition, the brown butter caramelized the flavors and I loved it! You need to try them...ASAP seriously!! As always, any recipe from Ina is amazing and this book is already waiting in my cart for my next amazon order.


Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Blondies
Adapted from "Foolproof: Recipes You can Trust" Ina Garten

Ingredients:
½ lb. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, browned and cooled at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
½ cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 extra large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. Kosher salt
1 ½ cups chopped walnuts
1 lb. Reese's peanut butter chocolate chunks

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 9 x 11 x 2-inch baking pan.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on high speed for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well, scraping down the bowl after each addition. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer still on low, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Fold in the walnuts and chocolate chunks with a rubber spatula.
Spread the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Don’t overbake! The toothpick may have melted chocolate on it but shouldn’t have wet batter. Cool completely in the pan and cut into 12 bars.

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Please take a minute to look at all the other recipes from club members!

Brown Butter Peanut Butter Paisley Brownies {Brown Butter Week}

Have you ever browned butter? I'm sure the answer is YES for most of you foodies but for the rest of you who have not, then let me tell you, you are missing out on a secret ingredient. I was in the same boat until a few weeks ago when I decided to give it a try while trying a new cookie recipe and I was pleasantly surprised. 

 
So what is brown butter you ask? It is simply cooking butter beyond it's melting point to where the milk solids brown and you cook away most of the water. But you see, browning your butter enriches its flavor and gives it a rich caramelizing nutty flavor that takes any recipe that calls for butter up a notch. And in the past two weeks since my discovery of this secret ingredient, I've tried brown butter in everything from these brownies to pan seared scallops. Obsessed much?? I know, that's why I decided to have a brown butter dedicated week on the blog!! So let's start off with these peanut butter paisley (wanna-be) brownies.

Peanut butter fans, you will love this. It is a double peanut butter chocolate brownie!! I found the recipe on the back of the Reese's peanut butter chips label and I had to try it again with brown butter. Of course, I think it is much better with brown butter because there is an added nutty flavor to the peanut butter and chocolate medley. I think you would love this combination of flavors. The brownies also have soft centers as you bite into the chocolate layer but as usual my favorite part is the crunchy edge :)

Here are a few tutorials on how to brown butter. It is very easy and all you need is 5 minutes. So go brown some butter today! And please come back during the week for more brown butter recipes :)

theKitchn: How to brown butter 
Simply Recipes: How to Brown Butter
How Sweet it Is: Step-by Step pictorial instructions

Brown Butter Peanut Butter Paisley Brownies
Yield: About 20 brownies

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, browned and cooled to room temperature
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups peanut butter chips
1/2 cup chocolate chips, melted and cooled

Directions:
To brown butter: Cut butter into pieces and melt in a saucepan over medium heat. Start to whisk constantly once the butter starts to foam. When the butter starts turning brown, fragrant and you see brown bits at the bottom of the pan, remove from heat. Transfer to a mixing bowl and allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and peanut butter until combined. Add the sugars and beat well. Add the eggs, one at a time and beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla.

Add the flour mixture into the peanut butter mixture and mix until well combined. Stir in the peanut butter chips.

Spread half of the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Spoon the melted chocolate over the top and spread evenly. Using a cookie scoop, add the rest of the batter on top. Spread the batter evenly with a spatula and then swirl with a metal spatula or knife for marbled effect.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the top is lightly browned. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Cut into squares and serve.

Adapted from: The back of Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Before we get to these amazing salted caramel chocolate chip cookie bars, I have a housekeeping item to address. At the end of last week,  I received a few emails from readers that were unable to access the recipe for these strawberry lemonade cupcakes. After several Google searches, I found out that internet explorer users sometimes can't see text after page breaks in blogger. So it's been a long frustrating weekend of emailing back and forth with my website designer (who is the best ever!) and it seems as if the issue has been resolved after re-installing my template. However, if you are still having trouble getting to any recipe, please let me know or consider using another browser. Thank you!!

But enough of my woes, let's talk about these salted caramel chocolate chip cookie bars. Or ooey-gooey bars of goodness as I call them. The softest chocolate chip cookie is sandwiched with melted salted caramel that oozes out of every side. Goodness!

They are also very easy to make. Simply make the best chocolate chip cookie dough, spread half at the bottom of an 8'x 8' baking pan, pour lots of caramel on, sprinkle with some sea salt and top with the rest of the cookie dough. Easy enough right? The soft cookies and warm caramel make this a delicious treat with the perfect combination of sweet and salty. You need to try it and if you love chocolate and caramel, you will LOVE this!

Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars

Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

Ingredients:
2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 large egg yolk, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips
6 ounces caramel candy squares, unwrapped
3 tablespoons heavy cream
Sea salt, for sprinkling over caramel and bars

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 8' X 8' baking pan with parchment paper (or foil) leaving overhang. Spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.
3. In the bowl of your stand mixer (or medium bowl), beat the melted butter and sugars together until combined. Add in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix on low, just until combined about 1 minute. Then stir in the chocolate chips for additional one minute.
4. Combine the caramels and heavy cream in a medium microwave safe bowl and melt in a microwave. Stir every 30 seconds until caramels are melted. This will take about 2 minutes, depending on your microwave.
5. Add half of the cookie dough to the prepared pan. Press gently and smooth the top with a spatula. Drizzle/pour the hot caramel sauce over the cookie dough and sprinkle with sea salt. Using a small cookie scoop or a tablespoon, drop spoonfuls of cookie dough over the caramel. Spread the dough with a spatula until the caramel is covered. Sprinkle again with sea salt.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top of the bars are light golden brown and the edges start to pull away from the pan. Cool bars on a wire rack to room temperature. Cut bars into squares and serve.

Enjoy!!!

Chewy Toffee Bars

Nostalgia hit last week and I found myself thinking about my childhood and missing home. It's been so long since I've been home and had food from my mom's kitchen. This led me to thinking about (and missing) my dad, who would always bring home toffee after work and it was just the best treat ever!

To be honest, I have never been a 'sweet' kind of girl. I don't know why because my little sister is a chocolate magnet and yet we grew up in the same house. But for some reason, toffee is different. It was my go-to candy growing up.

 
Toffee, most commonly called English toffee in the US, has just the perfect amount of sweetness without being overly sweet. I've not had one in a very very long time and I was prepared to fix that.

So when I saw these chewy toffee bars in this month's Food Network Magazine, I knew I had to make them. Finding the toffee was the most difficult part of the recipe; I spent hours looking down candy aisles at different grocery stores. In the end, I found chopped pieces at a local frozen yogurt dessert bar (totally not kidding).

The recipe is pretty straightforward and it took only 20 minutes to assemble the ingredients, mix and get them into the oven. The resulting brownie-like bar was chewy, crunchy, perfectly sweet, and brought back to so many happy memories!