Lemon bars are one of my favorite bar cookies.  The zesty lemon, the buttery crust, the gooey center with the crunchy top covered in powdered sugar.  I love them, and I’m wishing right now I hadn’t sent so many of them up to Ben’s office!

I didn’t grease my pan because I figured there is so much butter in there, they won’t stick.  The crust didn’t, but some of the filling clung a bit to the sides of the pan.  You could spray the pan with cooking spray or grease it, but it wasn’t a disaster without doing so.  Do it if you’re worried about them sticking.

Mom’s Lemon Bars

Ingredients

Crust

• 2 sticks (1 cup) butter, slightly softened
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• zest of 1 lemon
• 5-6 teaspoons lemon juice, from about 1 large lemon

The cookbook itself is quite wonderful.  The photos are lovely and unique with a rustic appeal.  Beautiful antique plates, platters and serving dishes display the sweet offerings of this cookbook.  Wood grains, and all shades of brown dominate the color scheme with the occasional pop of color and accents of gold and silver.  The recipes are keeping with the feel of this book, which to me feels like the cooler days of autumn.  I can’t wait for it to be cool enough for me to make the whiskey pear tart!  It’s 102° at the moment…

The first recipe I tried was the Rosemary Apricot Bars.  I had one of these from the bakery when I was in Brooklyn last summer visiting my sister.  It was such a great combination of sweet and savory, crunchy and gooey, and totally delicious.  Mine did not quite measure up to the bakery standards, but they were good.  So good that my husband asked for seconds.  This is a rare occurrence, so I know this is a keeper recipe.

I made some mistakes with these bars.  The recipe calls for a 9 inch square pan.  I used an 8 inch, which made the bottom crust a bit too thick, and the topping a bit too thick, but the filling was just right.  I skimped by 1 tablespoon on the crumb topping because that’s all I had left after the 12 tablespoons in the crust.  As a result, a lot of the topping fell off the top of the bars when I cut them.  Don’t skimp on the butter.  My timing on putting these together was also a bit off, so the apricot filling ended up getting too thick and too reduced after sitting in a warm oven for almost 2 hours.  Why?  Well…

Our house is on the market, as of last week, but we hadn’t had any showings as of Sunday.  So yesterday I struggled with myself a bit.  Do I make these bars and risk a messy kitchen when someone wants to see the house at the last minute, or do I not make them and then regret it because no one came to look at the house anyway?  I made the decision to make them.  Having my house on the market shouldn’t mean sacrificing my freedom to baked goods, right?

I’d made all the parts of the recipe…crust chilling in the fridge, filling cooked and ready to be pureed, crumb topping mixed and in the fridge.  Dirty dishes all over the place.  Carson wakes up from his nap.  I get a call from the realtors office that someone wants to come see the house as soon as I’m ready.  I said 30 minutes and the frenzy begins to get things put away.  15 minutes later there’s a knock at the door.  The dog starts barking, so Carson starts crying, so I’m trying to keep the dog from attacking the realtor as I try to get to the door.  She apologized for being early, I asked for a few minutes to at least put my sweet guard dog in the back yard, I swept Carson up and we headed out to run an errand.  I was a sweaty mess and then realized that I was holding a baby who’s diaper was just about at its breaking point.  I was so tired.

I’d stashed the cooling apricots in the oven, which was warm from the beginning of a preheat, so when I get home the apricots were a seriously sticky and overly reduced mess.  I warmed them up again with a little water and then pureed them.  It worked out ok, given the circumstances.

Despite the craziness surrounding these they turned out well.  I might play around with them in a 9×13 to get a thinner crust.  I’ve learned a valuable lesson about using my kitchen and trying to sell my home.  They do not mix.  I think I will try to bake later in the evening instead of the middle of the afternoon to avoid the chaos I experienced yesterday.

Rosemary Apricot Bars

Courtesy of Baked Explorations

Ingredients

Rosemary Short Dough

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, minced
• 12 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

My sister worked at Half Price Books a couple years ago and got her hands on this neat cookbook from the Cook’s Country editors.  It contains recipes that have been around for a while that have been shared by home cooks.  Stories accompany each recipe telling who they came from, and how and where they originated.  The goal of this cookbook is to bring back recipes that are worth remembering.

This simple chocolate sheet cake is called “Scotch Cake” in the cookbook.  The note about this recipe says:

“The origin of the name of this simple sheet cake, with its unique pecan and coconut topping, was a mystery to Melinda and her mother, whose recipe card for it included a note that said: “I don’t understand the name of this cake.  I just call it my “boil it” cake”.”

I brought this cake to a potluck dinner, and it received a few compliments.  It’s a great potluck dessert because you can make it a day in advance and keep it in the fridge, it’s simple to prepare, you can take it in the pan and it cuts really nicely.  After being refrigerated the cake becomes almost fudgy and the coconut pecan icing gets that nice sugary crunch.  You know what I’m talking about.

Chocolate Snack Cake with Coconut Pecan Icing

From America’s Best Lost Recipes

Ingredients

Cake

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 sticks of butter
• 1 cup water
• 4 teaspoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

So, with some extra berries I decided to make the bars again with a thinner crust, and less filling.  Since I only had a small bag of frozen blackberries I used a combination of blackberries, blueberries and strawberries.  A total of 4 cups of any berries would do.  As with the Pastry Queen’s recipe, thaw and drain any frozen berries that you’re using.

I found these bars to be much easier to just pick up and eat.  There are tons of things you could do with these.  Use different combinations of berries, maybe use peaches, add some ground pecans, almonds or walnuts to the crust and/or crumb topping or even play with spices…cinnamon, nutmeg, cardomom.  Oh, the sweet and delicious possibilities!  I might try a small batch in an 8×8 pan so that I can try more of these variations without having too many extra goodies around the house.

I find these to be extra special served with a small (or maybe a rather large) scoop of Bluebell Homemade Vanilla ice cream.  Enjoy!

Mixed Berry Bars

Adapted from Rebecca Rather’s Blackberry Pie Bars

Ingredients

Crust and Topping

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) cold butter, cup into cubes
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream, regular or light
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup flour
• 4 cups berries (any combination you like, make sure to thaw and drain any frozen berries)

Directions

For the crust and topping:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9×13-inch baking pan.
2. Combine the flour,sugar and salt in a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process until fully combined. Add the butter to the flour mixture and process until the butter is evenly distributed,but the mixture is still crumbly.
3. Reserve 1 cup of the crumb mixture for the topping. Press the remaining crumbs into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake the crust for 12-15 minutes,or until it is golden brown. Cool for at least 10 minutes.

Filling:

1. Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl,
2. Add the sour cream, flour and salt. Gently fold in the berries.
3. Spoon the mixture evenly over the crust. Sprinkle the reserved crumbs evenly over the top.
4. Bake 50 minutes to 1 hour,or until the crust is lightly browned. Cool for at least 1 hour before cutting.

These bars require no mixing.  Just a little crushing of graham crackers, melting of butter and then layering of ingredients.  A mere 25 minutes in the oven and they’re done.  This is a great last minute dessert.  If you don’t have pecans, then you can use walnuts.  You could probably even use peanuts, honey roasted might just be amazing.  Yum.  If you don’t have chocolate chips you could use white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips or a combination.  You can also use margarine if you don’t have butter.  But who doesn’t have pounds of butter in their fridge at all times?  Crazy people.  That’s who.  Enjoy!

Hello Dolly Bars

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups crushed graham crackers
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 1/3 cup shredded coconut
• 1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

Directions

1. Pour melted butter in bottom of a 9×13 pan.
2. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over butter followed by pecans, chocolate chips and coconut.
3. Drizzle condensed milk evenly over everything.
4. Bake for 25 minutes @ 350°F.

Desserts with which you have a love-hate relationship are usually the best ones.  This brownie recipe will be one that I will make again.  Simple ingredients.  Easy preparation.  Sinfully good.  And while I ate more than one for dessert, a normal person with a healthy relationship with sweets really only needs one to be satisfied.

I found this recipe on Tasty Kitchen, the recipe sharing site from the Pioneer Woman.  Here is the link to the site.  I’ve enjoyed searching through all the recipes, but have yet to submit any of my own.  There are already so many recipes with a pretty great variety that I don’t know if I will.  One of the things I like about sites like these is that real people made the recipes and so they are usually pretty easy and tasty.  Thank you, Tasty Kitchen!

On the site these brownies are called “Are We in Heaven?  No…It’s Just the Brownies.” which is what made me take a second look at this recipe.  I thought it was funny.  Would I say that these brownies are like being in heaven?  No.  Nothing on this earth is going to be that good.  But they are incredibly good.

The brownie is fudgy.  The frosting is pretty sweet, so a thin layer is all you need.Frosted Cocoa Brownies

Ingredients

BROWNIES:

• 1 Cup Melted Butter
• 2 Cups Granulated Sugar
• 2 Teaspoons Vanilla
• 4 Eggs
• 1 Cup Flour
• 2/3 Cup Cocoa
• 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder

FROSTING:

• 6 Tablespoons Softened Butter
• 6 Tablespoon Cocoa
• 2 Tablespoons Light Corn Syrup
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
• 2 Cups Powdered Sugar
• 3-5 Tablespoons Milk

Preparation

BROWNIES:

1. Blend butter, sugar and vanilla. Add each egg one at a time just until incorporated.
2. Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder, then blend into butter mixture.
3. Spread into a greased 9×13 pan. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Cool completely.

FROSTING:

1. Cream the butter, cocoa, corn syrup and vanilla.
2. When mixed, add powdered sugar until blended.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of milk at a time until you reach the desired consistency.  Spread on brownies.

My mom makes the BEST lemon bars, but these were pretty good and different enough not to be a competitor.  My mom’s are super simple with a buttery crust topped with a tart lemon filling and dusted with powdered sugar.  In contrast, these bars have a crumbly almond and coconut topping that makes them a little special.

I found the recipe on allrecipes.com.  Here is the link.  The recipe calls for a jar of lemon curd, but I think you could easily use any lemon bar filling as a substitute.  This basic filling would be a good one.

Lemon Curd Bars

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 (10 ounce) jar lemon curd
• 2/3 cup flaked coconut
• 1/2 cup toasted and chopped almonds

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a large mixing bowl cream the butter. Add the flour, sugar and baking soda. Mix until the mixture forms coarse crumbs
3. Pat 2/3 of the mixture into the bottom of one 9×13 inch baking pan. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool slightly.
4. Spread the lemon curd over the baked layer. To the remaining 1/3 of crumb mixture add the coconut and the almonds. Sprinkle over the top of the lemon curd.
5. Lower oven temperature to 350 degrees F.  Bake bars for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

In order to use my natural peanut butter I just searched “desserts with natural peanut butter” in Google and after searching through a few cookie recipes I found this recipe on Joy the Baker.  Here is the link to the recipe.  I made minimal changes to the original.  Chunky instead of smooth peanut butter, regular brown sugar instead of dark, and semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate.

These taste like a dressed up Reese’s cup.  The peanut butter layer comes together easily in one pot.  The chocolate frosting is also incredibly simple to make and spreads nicely on the cooled bars.  This is an altogether simple and delicious bar that I will definitely be adding to my go-to recipe collection.  After frosting the bars I chilled them in the fridge which makes the quite easy to cut.  We ate them cold from the fridge and they were delicious, but letting them warm up a bit makes for a wonderful melt-in-your-mouth experience.  Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

Peanut Butter Layer

• 10 Tablespoons unsalted butter cut into 5 cubes
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup chunky natural peanut butter
• 2 eggs
• 2  teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325° F.  Grease a 9×13-inch pan.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and sugar together until the butter is just melted.  Remove from the burner and allow to cool for 5 minutes, then add the peanut butter.  Stir until incorporated.  Allow to cool for 5 minutes more, then whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract.
3. Whisk together salt, flour and baking powder.  Add dry ingredients all at once to the wet ingredients.  Stir until just incorporated.  Pour the thick batter into the prepared pan and smooth out.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the bars comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before frosting.

Milk Chocolate Frosting

• 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 – 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 Tablespoons milk
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter, cocoa powder and salt.
2. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar followed by 1 tablespoon milk.  Beat well.
3. Add another cup of powdered sugar, followed by 2 tablespoons of milk.
4. Melt milk chocolate chips in the microwave or in a double boiler.  Add melted and slightly cooked milk chocolate the frosting and beat to incorporate.
5. Add the final 1/2 cup of powdered sugar if you need a bit more thickness.
6. Spread evenly over peanut butter bars.

This recipe is from the McCormick website, and I did use mostly McCormick spices.  Here is the link.  My vanilla was from Belize (thanks, Kate!) and my cinnamon was….not really sure where this container of ground cinnamon came from now that I think about it.  Anyway, all the spices make this a dessert that makes your entire house smell delicious.  I might have said this before, but I love fall baking.  Instead of using caramels that require a lot of tedious unwrapping I used those caramel pieces that come with the wooden sticks for making caramel apples.  Something I just do not get.  Caramel apples.  Who really eats those things?  It seems like too much work.

My bars did not cut out very neatly.  I might have needed to bake them a little longer.  I also think it would help to press the crumb topping into the caramel layer so that the crumbs don’t fall off the bars when they’re cut.  Regardless of looks though, these are quite good.  Enjoy!Pumpkin Caramel Oat Bars

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 7 ounces (1/2 of 14-ounce package) caramels, unwrapped
• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix flour, oats, sugar, baking soda, salt and spices in large bowl. Add butter; stir until mixture is well blended and forms coarse crumbs.

2. Reserve 1/2 (about 2 1/4 cups) for the topping. Add pumpkin and vanilla to remaining mixture in bowl; stir until well blended. Press evenly into bottom of greased 13×9-inch baking pan. Set aside.

3. Microwave caramels and milk in medium microwavable bowl on HIGH 2 to 3 minutes or until caramels are completely melted, stirring after every minute. Let stand 1 minute. Pour over pumpkin mixture in pan, spreading to within 1/2-inch of edges. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.

4. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.

The ingredient list is short and sweet.  I haven’t personally made them but I think the directions are not too difficult, just a bit tedious.  I think there are some ways around some of the silly instructions, but I need to try this myself first to see.  The only problem Jackie has had is the bars sticking in the pan, even with a generous greasing and sugaring.  When I get around to making these, I’ll let you know if I discover a magical trick for that.

Make these, and make them tonight if possible.  I must warn you that if you are in the house by yourself with a pan of these you could make the mistake of eating the entire pan.  So either exercise some self control or make them and give most of them away.  Or you could do like I did, and just eat way too many of them.  These are delicious.  Thanks, Jackie!

Raspberry White Chocolate Almond Bars

AKA Razz-Ma-Tazz Bars from Nestle

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
• 2 cups white chocolate chips, divided
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam
• 1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and sugar 9-inch square baking pan.
2. Melt butter in medium, microwave-safe bowl on HIGH (100%) power for 1 minute; stir. Add 1 cup morsels; let stand. Do not stir.
3. Beat eggs in large mixer bowl until foamy. Add sugar; beat until light lemon colored, about 5 minutes. Stir in morsel-butter mixture. Add flour, salt and almond extract; mix at low speed until combined. Spread 2/3 of batter into prepared pan.
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until light golden brown around edges. Remove from oven to wire rack.
5. Heat jam in small, microwave-safe bowl on HIGH (100%) power for 30 seconds; stir. Spread jam over warm crust. Stir remaining morsels into remaining batter. Drop spoonfuls of batter over jam. Sprinkle with almonds.
6. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until edges are browned. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.