Caramel Walnut Dream Bars

I am usually all about making cakes and cookies and other treats from scratch, but every once in a while I run across one of those recipes that combine using some kind of prepared mix with enough "scratch" ingredients that it seems just close enough, and this is the kind of recipe that can completely shock you (in the best possible way) with how good it is.  I'm talking Ridiculously Easy Peach Crumble.  I'm talking Butterfinger Cake.  And I'm talking these Caramel Walnut Dream Bars, which sucked me in on the basis of the title alone.  Caramel, Walnut and Dream all in the same title.  Oh yeah, I'm there.

As you can tell, this is a delectably sweet treat.  Sweet, sweet, sweet.  Want to know something else that is impossibly sweet?  (This has nothing to do with food in any way, so if you just want the recipe, feel free to skip on down to the bottom.  It's just too good a story to NOT tell, so I'm a-telling it.)

The teenager and her adorable boyfriend have been going out for a year now, which is like 50 years in teenage time.  And so the boyfriend brought her a t-shirt on which he had painted the words

Happy Anniversary

I Love You 

Emma

♥

She loved it, of course. Then he started pestering her to wash it. Wash it, wash it, wash it, said he. Tonight she finally did -- and most of the letters came off in the wash. Except for the ones P R O M and the question mark, which was part of the heart. She wrote the answer in herself once the shirt came out of the dryer.

Now if that isn't sweet, I just don't know what is!

Meanwhile, back at this sweet recipe, here's the scoop.  You make a base out of cake mix that has been moistened with butter and egg and press it into the bottom of a baking pan.  Then you mix up a topping of condensed milk, another egg, some vanilla, some chopped walnuts and some toffee bits, and pour that on top.  Bake, cool, cut 'em into squares, and give one to someone you have or would like to take to the prom. 

Sweet!!

Caramel Walnut Dream Bars, adapted from Anita's Recipes

• One box yellow cake mix (18.5 ounces)
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• One 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1/2 cup toffee bits (I used the Heath Bar, brand, usually found near the chocolate chips)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a 13"x9" pan with cooking spray; set aside.
2. To prepare base, combine cake mix, butter, and one egg in a mixing bowl. Mix until crumbly. Press mixture onto bottom of prepared pan; set aside.
3. In another mixing bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk, remaining egg, vanilla extract, walnuts, and toffee bits. Mix well. Pour over base in pan.
4. Bake for 35 minutes or until light brown on top.  Cool and cut into squares.

Print this!

Devil's Food Butterfinger Cake

Oh, this cake.

I'm kind of at a loss, and probably the best thing to say is simply the following:

1. Devil's food cake.

2. Caramel glazed poured OVER the devil's food cake. While it is still warm. After you have poked holes in it so that the caramel can soak deep into the warm cake.

3. Freshly whipped sweetened cream on the top of the cake.

4. Crushed Butterfinger bars sprinkled liberally over the cream topping. And I do mean liberally.

At this point you may need to breathe into a brown paper bag because of all the excitement. This recipe comes from a great new cookbook called SOUTHERN PLATE that holds a particular special place in my Southern husband's heart, for obvious reasons. I think you'll be able to see from this cover why he was very happy to see this particular book on the kitchen counter.

It's full of all sorts of great stuff, but the desserts are what really caught my eye. Many of them call for packaged ingredients like cake mix, which is just fine with me because they are combined in various ways that make me need to breathe into a brown paper bag. As a matter of fact, this particular recipe called for using Cool Whip instead of homemade whipped cream, and I'm sure that would have worked out just fine. I happened to have some cream in my fridge that needed to be used, but I am certainly no stranger to the wonders of cooking with Cool Whip.

Luckily for me, my house was full of teenagers the weekend I made this cake, or there is an extremely good chance that I would have just sat down with the entire cake and a fork. You have been warned...

Butterfinger Cake, from SOUTHERN PLATE

• 1 box devil's food cake mix
• 1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 12 ounce jar caramel topping
• 1 12 ounce container whipped topping (aka Cool Whip. Or make your own by whipping 1 cup heavy cream with 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla until soft peaks form.)
• 1-2 Butterfinger bars, crushed.

1. Prepare the cake according to package directions. Immediately after removing the cake from the oven, poke several holes in it with a fork or a skewer. Mix the condensed milk with the caramel topping and spread over the entire cake.

2. Cool cake completely, then spread the whipped topping over the top, and sprinkle the crushed Butterfinger over the topping.

3. Stand back!

Click here for printable recipe

Caramel French Toast

French toast is the teenager's all-time favorite, and I make it a LOT. I can almost make it in my sleep at this point, that's how often she comes into the kitchen with those puppy dog eyes and says, "Mommy, can you make me french toast?"



It's the "Mommy" part that just kills me. She's 17 and I still instinctively whip my head around whenever I hear a little voice call out "Mommy!!" in a crowded store.

Anyway. I thought I knew everything there was to know about french toast, but as it turns out, there was one vital trick I wasn't aware of, and that is that you can caramelize the outside of it with one very easy extra step. Yep, I said caramelize. Can you STAND it? All the creamy, comforting goodness of french toast, but with a thin, slightly crispy caramel coating on the outside.

Now, a few weeks ago I did a post on all fabulous Stonewall Kitchen goodies, and among other things I mentioned this stuff.

Which was the perfect accompaniment to caramel french toast. Although I wouldn't say no to good old Vermont maple syrup too. Drop some of the wonderful blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and/or strawberries that are springing up all around us right on top and you are in French Toast Heaven. The world's best breakfast, although to be totally honest with you, I made this for dinner. Breakfast for dinner. Does it get any better???

Caramel French Toast, from Bon Appetit

• 7 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 6 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 8 1-inch-thick slices French bread
• Powdered sugar
• Fresh blueberries and raspberries
• Your choice of syrup

• Mix butter and brown sugar in small bowl to blend.
  
• Whisk milk, eggs, vanilla, and spices in large bowl to blend, and soak the bread slices in the milk mixture until they are good and soaked, at least 5 minutes. 10 is even better.
  
• Melt 4 tablespoons brown sugar-butter mixture in large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium-high heat. (If you can't fit them all in one skillet then only use 2 tablespoons butter mixture and save some of the next batch.) Spread remaining butter mixture over bread. Add bread slices to each skillet, butter side UP. Cook until bottoms are deep brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn slices over. Cook until bottoms are deep brown, 3 to 4 minutes.
• Divide French toast among 4 plates. Sift powdered sugar over. Top with blueberries and raspberries; drizzle with syrup.

Click here for printable recipe

Chocolate Caramel Cookie Brittle

Still looking around for that perfect holiday gift? Well, look no further, this may be it! This is a simple and dramatic recipe for a cookie "brittle" that is different and delicious and very festive looking. You can make batch of it in no time, and if you have a nice glass cookie jar and some ribbon you are ready to rock.

Now get ready to be amazed...the secret ingredient in this one? Saltines. Yep, you read that right, good old boring saltines -- they transform into this exotic concoction like Clark Kent morphing into Superman. You line your favorite jelly roll pan with foil (I like the nonstick kind myself). Open a sleeve of saltines and lay them out on the foil in a single layer, with the sides touching. If you have an 11/17 inch pan they will fit perfectly.

Next take 2 sticks of butter and melt them in a saucepan over medium high heat. Pour in a cup of brown sugar and boil that sinful mixture for three minutes. It will look alarmingly dramatic, but don't worry, it's doing its job. After three minutes give it a good final stir and pour it over those saltines, making sure they are good and covered. Pop the pan into a 400 degree oven for 7 minutes. The butter and sugar will soak and cook into the saltines, coating them in caramel goodness.

After 7 minutes you take out the tray and put it on a cooling rack. Pour a 12 ounce bag of chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and nuke them for about 2-3 minutes until they turn into melted chocolate when you stir them. At this point pour the melted chocolate over the caramel saltines and spread that chocolatey goodness over the whole thing with a spatula until the entire layer is covered. Oh yes. Then put the whole thing into the fridge and chill it down until the whole thing is hardened together -- usually about an hour.

Now you have a mass of caramel chocolate heaven...break it into irregular pieces and sample one. The caramel is crunchy and sugary. The chocolate is, well, chocolate. The saltine has practically disintegrated into all of it, leaving only a tiny crunch on the inside with just a hint of salt.

Now if you can bear to give this deliciousness away, drop them into your pretty glass jar and wrap the ribbon around the jar. Holiday Gift Extraordinaire. Do I look out for you or what?!

Happy Merry Ho Ho Ho!

Click here for printable recipe

CHOCOLATE CARAMEL COOKIE BRITTLE

1 sleeve saltines

2 sticks butter

1 cup brown sugar

12 ounces chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Line 11-17 baking pan with foil.

3. Lay out all saltines in a single layer in pan, sides touching

4. Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add brown sugar and heat to boiling for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.

5. Pour butter/sugar mixture over saltines, making sure to cover all of them thoroughly.

6. Bake for 7 minutes.

7. Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips in microwave for 2-3 minutes until they are completely melted when you stir them. Spread them on top of the saltines, covering completely

8. Refrigerate until completely cooled and hardened. Break into pieces.

Caramel Apple Cake

Apples, cinnamon, walnuts, cake, caramel glaze. That's all I have to say, right? I have you at those four items and hello? This recipe certainly had ME at hello. I found it in the Costco Connection magazine, which just goes to show you that Costco does, indeed, have everything that anyone could possibly want, including a fabulous recipe for a rich, tender, sweet apple cake that will make your whole kitchen smell like a happy autumn day.

I should warn you that like most things associated with Costco, this is not only wonderful but, well, LARGE. Which is not at all a bad thing in terms of making friends...I sent the generous Southern husband into work with a lot of it the next day, and he said it was a big hit. The cake part is lovely -- moist and sweet and packed with apples. But let's face it...the captivating part of this particular baby is the caramel glaze. When you are done with the cake and it has cooled a bit, you make the glaze (out of butter and sugar and cream -- are you panting yet?)...but wait, it gets better. Before you pour the glaze over the cake, you take a skewer and you poke holes all over the top of the cake, so that when you pour the glaze over it, not only does it coat the top of the cake, but it also sinks down into the middle of the cake via all those little holes.

I know, it's almost too much to think about without fainting.

So there you go, from me and my friends at Costco (who in case you missed it the last hundred times I have mentioned it, sell the BEST shrimp I have ever tasted in my life. And please don't get me started on their chocolate chip cookies.) Caramel Apple Cake. Go make some.

CARAMEL APPLE CAKE, from Costco Connection magazine

Cake:

1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 eggs
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 Granny Smith apples, cored, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/4 cups chopped pecans or walnuts
2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla

Caramel Glaze:

4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 cup heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 325. Butter and flour a 13x9 inch pan.

2. Beat both sugars and oil in mixing bowl until well-blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

3. Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. Gradually add to sugar mixture until just blended. Stir in apples, nuts and vanilla and pour into pan.

4. Bake for 50-75 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan while making glaze.

5. Melt butter in saucepan over low heat. Stir in both sugars and salt and cook over medium low heat for 2 minutes. Add cream and boil for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly.

6. Poke holes in cake with skewer. Pour on the glaze. Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream if you like.

Click here for printable recipe.

Chocolate Caramel Oatmeal Bars

Last week when we were at our friends' lake house, the teenager NEEDED to use the internet, and asked for the password to get online. I don't remember the whole thing, but part of the password involved the word "cake." Which is just perfect, because my dear friend and I always have a very important meeting before our annual Labor Day trip to her beautiful house, during which we map out pretty much each and every thing we are planning to cook, from the moment we walk in the door to the moment we leave. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and dessert -- we cover the waterfront. The grilled pizza is essential (see earlier post for details). There are always pancakes and waffles on the breakfast menu, and there are always s'mores around the campfire.
But once those basics are covered, we can get creative, and as you might expect from her password, DESSERT is always an extremely important agenda item at our planning meeting. We originally discussed brownies for one of the desserts, but then I remembered this recipe for these babies, which are kind of a cross between brownies and oatmeal cookies. A soft layer of caramel and chocolate is held between two layers of oatmeal cookie dough, and the whole thing is cut into brownie-like squares. Rich and sweet and decadent, and you can still convince yourself that the oatmeal makes this a health food. That's my story and I'm sticking to it, and my Cake-Loving Friend will back me up on this. Because that's the kind of friends we are -- the devoted, loyal, dessert-enabling, kind. Right, C-L-F?

CHOCOLATE CARAMEL OATMEAL BARS, from Everyday Food

• Cooking spray
• 48 soft caramel-candy cubes
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 10 ounces (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9-by-13- inch baking pan with cooking spray. Line with a 9-by-21-inch sheet of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on each short side.

2. Put caramels and cream in a small saucepan; cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until caramels are melted, about 5 minutes. Let cool.

3. Stir together oats, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and the salt in a large bowl. Blend in butter with a fork or your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal; press half of mixture onto bottom of lined pan.

4. Bake until just set and starting to color around edges, about 20 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack 5 minutes.

5. Sprinkle crust with chocolate chips; drizzle with caramel mixture. Top with remaining crumb mixture. Bake until pale golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool completely in pan before cutting into squares.

Click here for Printable Recipe