Milky Way Blondies

These Blondies are.... Decadent. Divine. and Dangerous. ;) You won't want just one. And, as her recipe states, they're flexible with what you can put into them. I make a great caramelita. These kind of remind me of them except without the oatmeal. I also thought they'd be good using leftover Halloween candybars like in Heidi's candybar cookies. SO many possibilities with this blondie recipe. I had to include it on my blog for that reason. The purpose of my blog has *always* been to have it be an external recipe box of nearly all my favorite recipes.... whether they are tried-and-true recipes passed down within our own family, ones I've received from others and made my own, ones I tweaked to my preferences from other websites, or even recipes from other bloggers. I so appreciate good food and the time that goes into making a recipe. I always link back to the original recipe and indicate any changes made. With that in mind, here is the recipe for Milky Way Blondies!

2 cups brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups flour

1/2 cup Caramel Bits (or chop caramel squares into fourths)

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

15 Fun Size Milky Way Candy Bars, chopped 

I used my Bosch for this recipe with the paddles. If using an electric mixer, use a large bowl!

Cream brown sugar and butter. Add eggs and vanilla. Combine and then sift in flour, baking powder, and salt. I mix the flour in only until incorporated. You'll be mixing it more when you add the caramel bits, chocolate chips, and candy bars. I prefer not to overmix. Add in your bits, chips, and bars! 

Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking sprain over anyone... especially someone who LOVES chocolate and caramel! y. If desired, line the pan with parchment and spray with cooking spray. The original recipe calls for foil. Myself, I do not prefer foil when baking these kinds of things. I'm kind of a parchment gal. When using parchment, use one section going long ways in the pan and another section going the width of the pan. Leave some hanging over the edge on all sides. Just be sure to use spray! ;) Spread the blondie mixture into the pan and bake at 350 degrees for 22-24 minutes.  Err on the side of looking not done-ish on these. You don't want hard, dry blondies on the outer edge. Mine took about 23 minutes. But every oven is different. They will continue to cook and set up as they cool. Cool completely before cutting. I did these bars the night before like I do for my caramelitas and they were perfect to cut with a good, sharp knife. I cut them to get 15 bars. 

The result is a delectable dessert that will win over anyone.... especially someone that loves chocolate and caramel! ;)

Refer to original recipe for other mix in ideas.

Candy Bar Madness Chocolate Chip Cookies

AKA: Halloween Leftover Cookies

Every Halloween we have LOTS of candy that I prefer my kids not eat and rather not drag it out for a long time either... So one year I decided to sneak into their stash and get all the candy bars that I could find and create some cookies to use them up. :) They weren't too happy with me for stealing their candy without asking, but when they tried the cookies all was soon FORGIVEN! ;)
Now they go through and give me as much as they can part with to repeat the cookies every year.

Here is the basic recipe that I follow
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter (no margarine)
1 Tbsp. vanilla
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3 cups flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
3-4 cups of cut up candy bar mixture and some chocolate chips too :)

      

       **I put in m&ms, snickers, crunch bars, Hershey's chocolate bars, almond joy (all bars are cut up into small chunks).... the choice of what candy is yours :)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, combine sugars. Add in butter and cream together with the sugar. Add vanilla and eggs. Mix together.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt (I combine all of this in the sifter and then sift them). Add to the creamed mixture.
Mix well (the dough will be stiff). Add the chocolate chip, candy bar mixture. Mix well to make sure enough dough surrounds the added goodness!

Line the cookie sheets with parchment paper. Take a spoon full of dough and put it on the cookie sheet.
You should fit about 12 per sheet. (I roll mine into a ball then sort of squish it down a little but you could probably just put the spoon full directly on parchment)

Bake 10-12 minutes. Be sure not to over cook them or they will end up being hard discs LOL... they should look a little under done and almost getting golden on top  (but they will be golden on the bottoms)
Remove from oven and let set for a minute or two then remove the cookies and place on wire racks to cool . Enjoy!

Cinnamon and Sugar Pretzels

These are not a new concept. There's a ton of recipes out there for them. But they're fun, easy, and a nice sweet crunchy treat. Plus, I almost always have pretzels on hand so it makes a quick & fun treat to take around. And hence, they must have a home on my blog. :)

16 oz bag of pretzels (usually small twists, but big ones are fun, too)

2/3 cup canola oil

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

In a small bowl, mix oil, cinnamon, and sugar. Place pretzels in large bowl and pour mixture over top, stirring to coat evenly. Pour onto a cookie sheet and bake at 300 for 10 minutes. Remove and stir and cook an additional 10 minutes. Remove and stir again, then cook an additional 10 minutes. So there is 30 minutes total cooking time. Allow to cool, then store in a sealed container. Mine usually cool & go straight into little holiday cellophane bags for neighbors. :)

Note: when I made these to post, I was out of twisty pretzels and only had the snaps. I prefer to the twisty ones. The square ones are a lot of pretzel and (to me) didn't taste quite as good. I thought they had a slight burnt taste to them because there's so much more pretzel to them. They were okay, but the others have turned out better for me. So I prefer the twisty ones to the squares. Just my opinion.

Rolo Pretzel Turtles

My kids LOVED helping with this recipe. It was super easy and they taste great.

I'm not going to lie. This isn't a new concept. The recipe is all over the internet and on the back of the Rolo bag. But, since I use this blog as my portable recipe box, it needs to be on here!

Pretzels (we used the Snyders snaps, they are square and not butter flavored)

1 bag of Rolos, unwrapped

Pecan halves (or you can use almonds, cashews, red & green m&ms)

Recipe makes about 50 turtles, depending on how many Rolos are in the bag.

First, you need to toast the pecans. At 350, toast the pecans on a cookie sheet for 4 minutes. Stir them around and toast another 4 minutes.

Meanwhile, place all the pretzels -salt side down is my preference (it's prettier)- on a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Kids loved this part, too. Then place all the Rolos, fat side down, in the center of each pretzel. Bake at 350 for 3 minutes. Remove and immediately place a pecan in the center and press down gently. Not too hard or the caramel oozes out. If you don't like pecans, use an M&M, almond, cashew, even Reese's pieces candy. Let cool.

Cookie Dough Topping

In efforts to find something sweet that didn't contain eggs, I remembered my Carmelita recipe. (I am nursing my baby and for some reason or another, if I eat anything with egg in it, he vomits.) I made a batch of Carmelitas without chocolate and fell in love. I decided to make another batch a few days later but kept eating the "dough." After keeping it in the fridge, it solidified into beautiful little crumbles. It was destined to become cookie dough topping for ice cream! And it was a match made in heaven! The great thing about this cookie dough is that it doesn't contain egg and it can be versatile for what you'd like to add to it. Mini chocolate chips, raisins, dash of cinnamon, and/or nuts.

Full batch (makes quite a bit)

Half batch in italics

1 1/2 cups oatmeal - 3/4 cup

1 1/2 cups flour - 3/4 cup

1 1/4 cups brown sugar - 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp

3/4 tsp soda - 1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp

1/4 tsp salt - 1/8 tsp

3/4 tsp vanilla - 1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp

2 cubes butter (no substitutes) - 1 cube

Add all dry ingredients and mix with spoon. Add vanilla and butter. Mix well. I do this with a pair of plastic gloves (meant for handling food). It just works better. (A half batch is pictured.)Put in a ziploc bag and let it refrigerate for several hours. You can separate this into different bowls and put in the extras (chocolate chips, etc) so that you have different choices. But plain is really good, too.
Crumble it up and put it on your desired flavor of ice cream!Super simple but it adds such great taste to your ice cream. I like it plain or on ice cream or on yogurt. It is loaded with butter (but what great tasting recipe isn't?) but it's not like you're sitting and eating the whole batch. ;) Not that I have done that or anything! ;)

Keep any remaining topping (if there is any!) stored in ziploc bag(s) in the fridge.

Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

Disclaimer: I know I've previously posted a recipe with this same title. In practically EVERY case, I have made every recipe on this site. On occasion, I get one from someone and assume it is good. I received this recipe and it wasn't exactly as I would have liked or imagined. I have a wonderful peanut butter ball recipe (which came from my mother-in-law) that I use for making Christmas candy each year. So I put it to use and the result was fabulous. For that reason, I am reposting this as my own version.... which I of course feel is much better. The peanut butter is extremely smooth and super delicious!

Makes about 60 bites or so depending on the size you roll the balls.

Filling ingredients:

2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
3 tbsp softened butter (not margarine)

Waffle shaped pretzels (squares or rounds)

Melting chocolate

Directions:

Put filling ingredients in a bowl and mix until well combined and smooth. (Sorry about the picture. Had to use an old camera for it since my other one was charging!)

The result will be a semi-stiff, but still soft dough. Should not stick to your hands. If it does, add a tiny bit of powdered sugar. (Again, sorry for the bad picture.)Roll into balls. Not too big. About 3/4 of an inch or a little less. (Yeah, battery finally charged! Boy there is sure a difference.)Put between pretzels to make a sandwich.Put in freezer for about an hour or until firm.

Get chocolate ready for dipping.

Dip each "bite" only half way into the chocolate and set on wax paper to set up. Keep in fridge until ready to serve.

I think these would be fun to dip in white chocolate colored for the holidays. There are many possibilities!

Nutter Butter Reindeer

I was going to post this on Monday, but I couldn't wait. They're too much fun!

These turned out absolutely adorable. We made them for a cub scout activity along with the Candy Corn Turkey Treats. No two reindeer or turkeys turned out the same. Each had their own little personality. I think the reindeer would be fun to take to neighbors (with kids) for Christmas treats or just make for fun as a family night activity.

Nutter Butter cookies (head)
small pretzels (antlers)
red m&m's (nose)
mini chocolate chips (eyes)
Chocolate frosting

Carefully eat the bottom part of the pretzel. Or if you'd rather use the whole pretzel, go ahead and leave it whole. If you're really careful, you can use the little round piece as a mouth under the red nose! Spread just enough frosting on top of Nutter Butter to hold the pretzel antlers in place. Use a small amount of frosting to place the chocolate chip eyes and the m&m nose in place.

These were super simple to make. Even my 6 year old and 4 year old could do it. The boys in my scout group got pretty creative with theirs, biting the pretzels into funny pieces for the antlers and putting the spare pretzel parts in crazy places. No matter the age, they all enjoyed making them as well as eating them!

Candy Corn Turkey Treats

I'll be the first to admit this isn't the cutest picture. I just couldn't get a cute one. But these little turkeys are great fun! We made these for a cub scout activity and the boys really enjoyed it. We made them along with Nutter Butter Reindeer. I'll be posting it soon.

Ritz crackers (body)
Hershey kisses (head & neck)
Chocolate frosting
Candy Corn (feathers, gobbler, & beak)

Make your frosting (or buy it). Spread a layer of chocolate over Ritz cracker. Press 5 candy corns into the top, making sure the fat part is at the top (like a feather). I prefer the darker candy corns (with the brown and orange), but the store I went to didn't have them. I think it would be fun to actually alternate the two kinds of candy corn, too. Press one Hershey kiss into the bottom part of the turkey for the body and then, with a tiny bit of frosting on the bottom, stick one more candy corn on top of the Hershey kiss to make the gobbler and beak.

Feast on a sweet treat!!!

Caramels

from the Lion House Cookbook

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup Karo Syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk
Dash of salt
Nuts (optional)

Combine ingredients in heavy pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with wooden spoon. Keep at rolling boil and cook until it reaches soft ball stage. Pour into buttered pan. Cool then cut into squares and wrap each piece in waxed paper. We like to make the waxed paper pieces big enough to twist the sides so they look nice.

Makes about 75 pieces of candy.

Note: For extra fun, divide the caramel and add nuts. Once cooled, chill in fridge and then roll in melting chocolate. Great for Christmas or Valentine's treats for the neighbors.

Candy Bar Balls

I made caramel popcorn today and decided to take a bit of the caramel and make a treat for myself. And I came up with something yummy and fun. I listed the caramel I used but I think the caramel from the Lion House Recipe would be even better.....
Caramel:
Use this recipe below or for another option, click here.
1 cube butter
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup Karo Syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Filling:
Nuts
or anything else you think would taste good with caramel and chocolate!

Coating:
melting chocolate

In a saucepan, over medium heat, cook all ingredients, stirring constantly, until it reaches softball stage. Remove from heat. You can either use half of it for caramel corn or you can make a really BIG batch of turtles.

Have your desired nuts (or other filling) in a medium-sized bowl. I chose to use chopped almonds because that is what I had on hand. However you could use anything. Stir in amount of desired caramel to the consistency that you'd like. You don't want it overly gooey, but you want enough that it is caramel-y. Let set up for a bit so that it is easier to handle.

Once set up, make balls and set them on waxed paper. Chill in freezer for a few minutes while you melt the chocolate. I use the melting chocolate that is are the discs... not the big bars.

Remove balls from freezer and roll carefully in chocolate and set on waxed paper.

Let chocolate set up and then enjoy!!!

Oreo Balls

from Kristin and Amanda

1 whole package of Oreos, crushed
1 package of cream cheese, softened

Mix together and roll into balls. Let cool in refrigerator until balls are chilled. Or for faster chilling, place in freezer for about 15 minutes.

Roll in white melted white almond bark chocolate, or for extra richness melted regular almond bark chocolate. Place on waxed paper to cool. If you want, after the first chocolate is set, decorate tops of balls as desired with different colored chocolate.

Peanut Butter Balls

from Gayleen (my mother-in-law!)

2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
3 tbsp softened butter (not margarine)

With electric mixer, mix well. (Sorry for the two pics below... they were take with my old camera -while my other camera's battery was charging- and so they didn't turn out too great.... hence the reason I have a new camera!)Roll into balls.Refrigerate for several hours. Long enough that balls are completely cold and will make chocolate set up quickly when dipped.Roll balls in melting chocolate (not melted chocolate chips). I use a fork to roll the ball around and then tap the excess on the side of the bowl. Set the balls on cookie sheets covered with waxed paper.Let cool and enjoy some homemade peanut butter cups.