Chocolate Chip Cookie Mud Hen Bars

These mud hen bars are the FIRST thing I baked for the blog in my kitchen!

Isn't that crazy? I feel like it makes 'em super special.

You know what else makes these mud hen bars special? How much better the photos are when you compare them to the last mud hen bars I made (go ahead. Click the link. Take a look. Laugh at my atrocious pictures. Then come back here to continue reading and get the ooey gooey recipe.)

Now that we've all had a good laugh. Let's discuss THESE mud hen bars. They're not your typical MHB (got tired of typing out that whole, long, random name. Yeah, I've no clue where the name "mud hen bar" came from). Most MHB's have a sugar cookie base topped with choc chips and marshmallows and  a brown sugar meringue. And like...they're ok. But-I'm not in love with sugar cookies (notice how I have no recipes for them in the archives?) so it makes sense that it wouldn't really speak to me.

But these are CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE MHB's and...um...I sort of loooove CCC's!

Ooooh these bars are crazy goooey and brown sugar-y wonderful! That meringue on top is all crackly and wonderful-mmmmm. Now, mine might have been a little extra gooey beeeecause....I underbaked 'em a bit. 

Oops.

It's cool though! A yummy gooey cookie bar is a win, regardless!

Mint Cocoa Brownies

Poor Michael. I feel bad for him.

He never got to eat these brownies.

You see, these brownies were another thing I made in the time after he left for Ohio, but while I was still in NY. They were a "I have a bag of mint chocolate kisses in the freezer. I should use them up," sort of solution. I used my favorite simple brownie recipe (only uses cocoa powder but somehow they're so dense and chocolatey!), threw in some crushed mint chocolates and -TA DAAAA!

I gave some of these lovelies as gifts to my food blogger friends at my farewell dinner. I think they were worthy of such talented ladies.

And....I know it's summertime buuut....these would be pretty neat for the holidays.

BUT IT IS SUMMER-so you know what you should do??? Make these brownies and then top them with mint chocolate chip ice cream. WHA-BAM!

amazingness.

Chocolate and mint are such a delicious combo, and I feel like it makes you feel cooled down on a warm summer day. Especially if you freeze these beauties. Which you can totally do. They get almost fudge-like when frozen. It's pretty bangerang.*

*psst...didja click the link? Didja watch the youtube clip? Do you love Hook as much as I do? :P

Key Lime Pie Bars-Guest Post with That Skinny Chick Can Bake

Hihihiiiii again, my lovely friends! Mmmmmm guess what? That's right-another guest post!! I really am SO grateful to all the ladies who have been helping me out-all these posts are making it so much easier for me to transition to my new home, driving, new work, wedding planning, etc.! Today's post is from the lovely Liz of That Skinny Chick Can Bake! Guys-CAN.SHE.BAKE! OMGEEEE! I wish she was my mom sometimes-partly for the thin genes (her blog name is not lying) and partly so she can make me all the goodies she feeds her actual kids! (sorry mom-I love you. I do. I just also love Liz.) There aren't enough words for the awesomeness, so really, all you have to do is gaze at the beautiful pictures and dream of the food. Then make it. Yes.

  

I am delighted to be guest posting for my adorable friend, Kayle today. She is a constant source of inspiration for me with her dreamy sweets and treats. We both obviously have that sweet tooth that needs continual feeding. While Kayle is busy unpacking, settling in her new locale and new house, AND wedding planning, I saved a yummy dessert to share with all you Cooking Actress fans. My hubby loves his lemon desserts, but gives lime the cold shoulder. Can you believe that??? I adore Key lime pie…with its tart and creamy filling in a sweet graham cracker crust. But I cannot make a whole pie for myself, can I? Nope, I'd never get my pants zipped if I did! I hosted book club last month and made these delectable Key Lime Pie Bars for my friends. Citrusy squares topped with a dollop of whipped cream and a slice of lime. SO darned tasty!!! Thank goodness I had guests to help me eat them. Key lime bars are such a cinch to make. Combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted buter and pat onto the bottom of a baking dish and pop in the oven till lightly browned. Mix egg yolks, lime zest, lime juice and sweetened condensed milk, pour over the crust and bake again till the filling is set. See? Easy as can be! I hope you'll give these babies a try.  

   

Kayle, I hope you're getting settled and adjusted to your new home. I'm certain all your mixing bowls and measuring spoons have been unpacked and the baking will commence very soon. Thanks so much for welcoming me to your blog today. For those fans of The Cooking Actress who haven't visited my blog before, here are all my social media sites. Thanks so much! (Kayle here: GO FOLLOW LIZ! YOU'LL LOVE HER, I mean...you obviously already do. So go on and follow awayyyy!):

Blog: http://www.thatskinnychickcanbake.com/

G+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/116213594518847001708/posts

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatSkinnyChick

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThatSkinnyChickCanBake

Instagram: http://instagram.com/thatskinnychickcanbake..

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/lizzydo/

Tart Lemon Bars-Guest Post with Confessions of a Baking Queen

Hello my friends! I have ANOTHER fabulous guest poster for you todayyy and you are in for a treat! Her name is Elizabeth and she is a BAKING QUEEN! Seriously...I go to her site and I am GUARANTEED to drool. And get extremely hungry. But I love her so I keep on going back and going gagaaaaaa. She's so pretty and so fun and so adorable and her food is soooooo ahhhmazing...!!!

Oh and-you guys remember Hayley? Hayley and Elizabeth are like buds and Hayley and I are buds and I just feel like the 3 of us would be the bestest of friends if we could all 3 just get together. So...yeah. Needs to happen. We're all fabulous and young and bake yummy things!

Anyway. I'll let Elizabeth take it from here:

Hey y'all its Elizabeth here from Confessions of a Baking Queen! This is my first guest post evvvvvvvah so be gentle with me here. I was so happy to help the beautiful Kayle as she embarks on this huge move, I have lived in the same house my whole life so moving just sounds too cray cray for me!! I have done tons of traveling and that packing is hard enough for me. And then the thought of moving out of state and then moving out of the city, ugh that just sounds dreadful. But I am sure your move will go tots smooth Kayle :)

Speaking of traveling I  got back from Australia a few weeks ago. While I was there I was hit with a craving for lemon bars, yet some how I never came across one. So naturally as soon as I got home Lemon Bars were the first thing I made. I was going to make Raspberry Lemon Bars, which I probably will do one day but I went with a Tart Lemon Bar instead. Be sure to check out my blog for some berry lemon bars soon.

I am happy to say these were a huge hit with my family and co workers. In fact, I thought I lost these photos so my sister was over joyed because that meant I was going to re make the recipe right away, but I found the photos ;) She was bummed, but I am sure it wont be long until these bars are made again...

Thanks for having me Kayle, good luck with the move .. and then the wedding!!! XOXO

Decadent Brownies

Erm...I hope you're not fasting today (or that you didn't give up chocolate/sweets for Lent) because...

OH MY GOSH.

These. brownies. are the DEFINITION of decadent. So rich, so gooey, so RIDICULOUSLY chocolatey. I mean....20 oz. of chocolate (and 4 eggs, and 2 sticks of butter...) in ONE BROWNIE RECIPE! whaaaa??! Who does that!? Me. I did that.

I love rich, decadent desserts. You know this. So, when I saw a brownie recipe called "decadent brownies" and saw the supreme fudginess that is them, I knew these needed to be made! However....this recipe sat in my recipe file (yepp I have a word document full of recipes I wish to make...it's like over 300 pages long...eeesh) for years. So long, in fact, that the original blog I found it on? Gone. Nowhere to be found.

Super sad because I want to give credit to the creator of these amazing brownies!

Now, that said, I totally had to re-work this recipe quite a bit. The directions were sort of all over the place and vague but I figured it out and tweaked and came up with the lusciousness you see before you. These brownies are just...like...when you take a bite of them it's just soft chocolateyness. I couldn't think if the correct word to describe their texture...but...melt in your mouth comes to mind. (And when cold/frozen the texture is VERY similar to fudge.) If I drank milk....these would require a glass. But, my constitution is totally ok with all the richness so I'm cool. Even Michael liked them and you know how he can be with desserts that aren't to his "refreshing" liking. But no one can resist these brownies.

NO ONE. So don't even bother trying. Just give in.

Give in to the browniiiieeees....

Brown Butter Gooey S'mores Bars

 Ugh. It's like...officially fall and stuff.

I feel like a toddler throwing a tantrum, "I DON'T WANNA I DON'T WANNA I DOOON'T WAAANNNAAA NOOOOO" but I just...I just want summer to stay a bit longer. So, I'm going to just be in denial (much like a child thinking if they cover their eyes you can't see them) and have s'mores bars and pretend it's still summer. *le sigh* 

Seriously, though, I just love s'mores. Just thinking of them makes me happy. Literally, in the days prior to baking these I was just giddy at the thought. Michael had a sore throat and had read marshmallows helped...so he asked me to go buy marshmallows. And I was STOKED! Buying marshmallows means I'll have to use up whatever is leftover (which in this case meant the whole bag, minus 2), which means I have a valid reason to make some S'MORES DESSERTS! Yessss!

These are so good that, after a tiny bite of 5 day old bar, my cousin Emily said, "It's a good thing you're not my girlfriend because you'd definitely make me fat." (this was in reference to Michael's earlier claim of getting fat-which he's not, for the record) I'll take that praise.

Now, I browned the butter in the super soft, chewy blondie base for these s'mores bars (because if I see melted butter, I'm gonna brown it) BUT you can totally skip that step. Honestly, you could barely detect a difference: there are pretty much more mix ins (graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows) than batter, so they definitely are the prevailing flavors. Regardless, you end up with wonderful soft cookies loaded with DELICIOUS pieces of graham cracker (prob. my fave part, I highly recommend homemade graham crackers), marshmallows that are gooey and have been toasted to a pretty golden brown in the oven, and gorgeous chunks of oozing chocolate. Oh and you just mix em up in one bowl-minimal dishes and no mixer needed, just a whisk and spatula!

S'mores are heaven. And they (almost) can make me forget that it's fall.

Brown Butter Nutella Swirled Peanut Butter Chip Blondies (with Sea Salt)

Oh, hi, I'm Kayle....I like to over-complicate things.

• I have folders and files and tiny little details figured out for my wedding....and I'm not actually engaged yet.
• In that same vein...I will literally stress about and plan out things for a theoretical future that's not quite here yet.
• I have to explain my very specific orders to those poor waiters and waitresses at restaurants.
• Also...can I have water with no lemon?
• I see a recipe for something that's super easy, and I go "...but what if I made everything from scratch?"
• I see a recipe that already seems like it could have everything you could possible want and then I go..."maybe I'll brown the butter and put sea salt on top."

You know what? I sort of love my brain.

Sooo yeah....let's face it: if I see a recipe with melted butter....I'm gonna brown it. That's practically a given. And I might be an eensy weensy obsessed with putting gorgeous big flakes of salt on top of sweet things. GUYS-it's just sooo gooood!! Do not knock it 'til you try it-it seriously just balances the sweetness in just the right way.

Oh and I maybe used homemade nutella to "swirl" on top. Note the quotation marks because um...homemade nutella doesn't swirl too well....it's too thick. So these maybe aren't as pretty as they could be. But ya know what? I don't care because they taste FANTASTIC!

To sum up: a delicious, chewy, blondie base (with no white sugar, only beautiful beautiful brown sugar), made with browned butter. Then some chocolate and peanut butter chips are mixed in. Then ya put some nutella on top. Bake em up, sprinkle on some salt, and there you have it: a super complicated recipe.

But here's the secret: not complicated. This whole thing is mixed up in one bowl (ok...not counting the pan you brown the butter in), whisked together (no mixer!), and made and baked in like 30 minutes. So uh...yeah...turns out this is SUPER quick and simple. 

And obviously out of this world yummy, packed with all your favorite things.

You like my brain now, too, huh?

Butterfinger Fudge Cookie Bars

So, the school season is upon us. I know many of you are either in school, or have children in school, so your whole lives are totally different right now than they were a month ago. It's so crazy for me to realize it's been 4 years since I started a new school year. 6 years since high school. Gah! I feel old. But I still have very distinct memories from those school years. Here are some things I learned: 

• Don't bring baloney and peanut butter sandwiches to school. It's weird and the other kids WILL mock you.  
• If you do something consistently, that will become your thing and reflect on you. My hair was oftentimes in a ponytail so I was told that I was essentially Patty from Grease. Because she always had a ponytail.
• Some kids will eat paper...and somehow that will be viewed as OK and cool.
• Popular groups form earlier than you may think. 3rd grade for my school-and it was a like, conscious effort. While it formed I asked if I could be in it and was told, no, because I had a Barbie lunchbox.
• Girl Scouts are fun. If you're a girl, JOIN! They're especially fun if your mom is a troop leader.
• Even though you may not be able to tell it at the time, some of these friends you have, you may end up like...adoring in the future. One of my main grade school friends who, I thought, was drifting away from me and thought she was too cool, and then transferred to a different high school. I thought that was the end for us. But then she moved to NYC and now we're really close and we have tons of fun getting all nostalgic about the old days. A ton of my mom's close friends she's known since grade school too. Craziness.
• Treats in lunchboxes=best part of the day.

Now, I don't have any little ones BUT I do have a boyfriend whose lunch I pack for him to take to work. And he so rarely makes a specific request for treats. But after I shared a photo on my facebook page of these bars from Shugary Sweets, he texted me saying "Can we please have those?" Of course we can honey. Next trip to the grocery store I got some butterfingers and then voila! Whipped these beauties up!

And then they went in the lunch.

I mean...these were also totally gobbled up at home. By me. As per usual. One thing that isn't very normal for me is-I think these tasted much better chilled. Yeah. I know. Crazy! But seriously, pop these in your fridge. You'll thank me later.

So, what are we working with here?

We have a thick, chewy, peanut butter cookie base, topped with ooey gooey chocolate fudge, and then a wonderful top crust of Butterfinger candy bars. MMMmmm!! I don't know about you guys but I LOVE Butterfingers. I mean they're pb and chocolate. I remember being obsessed with them when I was young and constantly picking em out of my teeth...tell me you don't know what I'm talking about :P.

WORTH IT.

Avocado Brownies with @ZulkaSugar

Alright guys! Today is the last day of my little unofficial Zulka Pure Cane Sugar week! If you wanna read more about it, check out Monday's post. Essentially, I've just been posting healthier sweets made with the pure, unprocessed deliciousness of morena sugar.

So, I'm always semi-suspicious when I see a recipe for like brownies or some such with something weird and healthy in place of, say, butter. But when I saw the photos from the post featuring these avocado brownies, and read the author's passion over how delicious they were I figured-why not?

Um, well, they weren't bad.

They were um...kind of gummy in texture? And you were aware of something different in the flavor.

This doesn't mean that you won't necessarily like them-you may. I didn't mind them, they were kinda just like "eh" to me. I tried to pawn some off on one of the kids I babysit, but her family were not big fans (so then I had to redeem myself by bringing them these cookies the next week. They were much happier.)

The moral of the story is-avocado is not a miraculous replacement for butter or oil. But it's something to try.

Olive Oil Brownies

The gooeyness level of these brownies is pretty killer, huh?

You're probably ready to break out your fat pants.

But hey hey hey! Don't be so hasty. You don't...necessarily...need those. These aren't...that...bad!

These brownies are made with whole wheat flour AND have no butter in them. Nada. Only...

olive oil.

I know! It's like...whaaa??!

Now, I'm Italian. I adore olive oil. Once, my freshman year of high school (before my first high school dance, in fact) I was challenged to an Italian-off:whoever drank the most straight olive oil won.

I was the victor.

But...you know...olive oil tends to stay on the savory side of my life. I've heard of like..olive oil ice cream. And I've been intrigued by it. But...just hadn't happened.

And then I met a chocolatey brownie recipe that I just couldn't say no to.

So. I made em. And they were gooey, so full of chocolate, and very yummy.

Buuut...

I could tell there was olive oil in them. It wasn't unpleasant it was just like "I wish they tasted like this instead".

That said-the flavor was far less noticeable leftover. And again-they were pretty darn tasty, regardless.

And less bad for you. Which is always a plus.

And I'm pretty sure Michael never knew these had olive oil in 'em.

What can I say? It never came up.

Oh and also...throw some salt on top of these brownies. 

Do yourself a favor.

Big Cocoa Brownies (aka Iocane-Dusted Brownies of Unusual Size) #SundaySupper Movie Inspired Recipes, "The Princess Bride"

...chocolate makes it go down easier.

Who am I? Why am I quoting The Princess Bride?

Let me 'splain.

No, there is too much. Let me sum up:

The Princess Bride is my absolute FAVORITE movie-OF ALL TIME. (If you are not familiar with it, you're going to be quite confused, as I will be quoting in frequently. My apologies.) I stumbled upon it one day when I was 14, was intrigued by the title, watched it-and I.WAS.HOOKED! I literally watched it approx. 5 times a day for 2 weeks (then I had to return it to the library...but my mom bought it for me shortly after because she was tired of my whining). And, I was delighted to find out once we started dating, it is Michael's favorite movie too!  He (lucky duck) actually was raised with this movie, it's one of his family's favorites, as well. We own two copies-mine is the "Buttercup Edition" and his is the "20th Anniversary edition". PLUS-our wedding song (you know...for our first dance) is going to be "Storybook Love", which is the movie's theme (and also our ring-tones for each other).

The Princess Bride was severely underrated when it came out-but, obviously, has a HUGE cult following. It has everything! "Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles..."

Romance: "This is true love-you think this happens every day?"

Drama: "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die."

Comedy: "Stop that rhyming now, I mean it!" "Anybody want a peanut?"

I've actually posted these before, but when I saw this week's #SundaySupper was movie inspired recipes, I had to revisit! The amazing: Iocane-Dusted Brownies of Unusual Size.

"What you do not smell is called Iocane powder. It is odorless, tasteless,dissolves instantly in liquid..." 

These have "Iocane powder" dusted on them--AKA, powdered sugar. That's not enough of a theme though! What else can we do with brownies to bring in The Princess Bride?

"..what about the R.O.U.S.'s?"

"Rodents of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist."

Of course! BROWNIES of Unusual Size...because...you know...no one likes rats, but EVERYONE likes brownies! So that is what I did-and let me tell you, these were GREAT! Not only are the HUGE and pretty because of that "Iocane" dusting, but also they are so fudgey and dense and delicious. And, an added bonus, if you are not a "princess bride" and short on funds, this recipe is great because the only chocolate it uses is cocoa powder-none of that super expensive fancy chocolate. I advise that you immediately make these, grab your significant other, your best friend, or just your wonderful self, sit down and watch The Princess Bride while eating these huge, decadent, Iocane dusted, Brownies of Unusual Size.

Idle Hand Bars

Sometimes I sit here, staring at a blog post and...

I can't think of a thing to say.

Like....

nothing.

And I don't want to be a boring blogger who's just like "Look, food. Here's the recipe. The end."

I wanna be like the cool ones who have paragraphs and paragraphs of great stories and hilarious tales and just awesome things to say. I just...for the life of me...

can't think of anything cool to say.

DRAGONS!

DINOSAURS!

DRAGONS ARE TECHNICALLY DINOSAURS BECAUSE THE MYTHS CAME FROM PEOPLE SEEING DINOSAUR BONES! 

Um...that's kind of cool. Unrelated to anything but...yeah...I guess that'll do...

Ok, now let's chat about these bars.

Did you know that I smelled spring yesterday?

Scoff all you want, my nose is never wrong. I can smell it coming. Sure, it's still chilly out, I didn't say it was here I said it is coming. 

Anywho, what does my nose's uncanny ability to predict spring have to do with anything? Well, with spring comes warmth. And one of the few downfalls of warmth/heat is that it can be a bit...overwhelming...to bake in it. These "idle hand bars" (don't ask me about the name, I have no clue...perhaps if your hands are "idle" you should busy them by making these?) are going to be perfect for just such occasions. Yes, you do need to use your stove, but otherwise these are a total no-bake wonder! AND you store them in the fridge, so no worries about any food melt-age either. AND...umm...these are gonna be great for all the picnics and barbecues and the like. Sure to be a hit. 

You have this amazing sweet, salty, crunchy base, then a rich peanut butter-y filling, topped with the goodness of chocolate and a nice salty surprise on top. These are crazy addictive, so, consider yourself warned.

Gooey Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Bars (gluten free, dairy free, low fat)

Ok ok! I know, this is crazy! I post on Mondays, not Tuesdays. But, this week is a little different. 

Today I'm participating in a very special cause.

Today we are joining together to help raise awareness for Heart Disease. Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic lost her Mom to heart disease when her mother was 47, and Kim was 15. Each year on the day her Mom passed she shares stories and photos of her Mom. This year she joined forces with Jen of Juanita's Cocina, whose life was also touched by heart disease when her stepfather had a heart attack. Jen's stepfather is alive and well more than a decade later, and for that, Jen is thankful every day. The ladies got in touch with other bloggers to ask them to share their own stories about how heart disease has touched their lives. So today we share stories and recipes from our hearts to yours, in memory and honour of Momzie, Kim's Mom. We hope you will share your stories with us today as well.

I was so honored when I was approached about participating-my heart totally goes out to Kim today, I can't even wrap my head around life without my mom, and to all of you who have lost loved ones to heart disease. I knew that I had to be a part of this. Heart problems run in my mom's side of the family-some of my great-grandparents passed from heart attacks or other heart problems, my mom has had many cousins with heart problems (including an especially tragic story of her cousin who was extremely healthy, a pilot, and unexpectedly died of a heart attack at, like, 30), and one of my uncles has had heart surgery (triple bypass?). But, the most close to home, for me, is my grandfather, my mom's dad. He is the only one of my grandparents that has passed, and he'd had health problems for my entire life. Various factors led to his passing, but the earliest issues that I can recall him having were with his heart. When I was little my grandpa had a heart attack, and subsequently open heart surgery (I thought he had a bypass of some kind too, my mom can't remember and thinks it may have just been splints). It was especially scary for me as a young child, and I recall it being fairly touch and go for awhile. My mom is mostly fine, but she does have slightly high cholesterol and blood pressure. There's not a lot of health problems that run in my family, but I have always known that this was it: the thing for me to keep an eye on for myself and my family-I need to take care of this little hummingbird heart of mine. And so do we all.

Hearts are kind of amazing, right? They have such a big important job-it's the least we can do to just take care of the ole ticker.

One part of being heart healthy is eating right. I realize that eating healthy and my blog don't exactly go hand in hand but...they don't not go together either, you know? I even had that post with a round up of the healthiest recipes from the blog. Now, in some ways eating healthy for dinner and breakfast and for all the meals isn't that hard-throw in some veggies, don't smother everything in butter, voila! But...we still need to have dessert you guys. Dessert makes life worth living. So I am here to give you a delicious, decadent, fabulously addictive dessert that you will LOVE, and your body will love it too :).

First of all, omg this recipe is simple. You mix everything up in 1 bowl, then bake it all up in a dish. Easy peesy-cookie bars are awesome like that. These are easy transportable, so it's super simple to bake some of these up and share the goodness with loved ones or at some kind of event! I've already told you they're delicious-rich, gooey, the perfect balance of peanut butter and chocolate and sweet and that awesome heartiness you get from oats.

And you're wondering-but how are these healthy? These babies are gluten free (so long as your oats are gluten free). They have no butter (all the "fat" comes from the peanut butter and moisture from the applesauce) and only have egg whites (no yolks)-so they're dairy free, and low fat, and I assume low cholesterol (admittedly, that's not my area of expertise). And we all know dark chocolate is like...practically as good for you as broccoli*.

*(except not really)

Anyway, if you are being good boys and girls and being healthy and taking care of yourselves-you deserve some of these bars. And you like...won't even be being bad. Health food should always taste so good ;).

Browned Butter Brownies

Hi, my name is Kayle.

I'd like to introduce myself.

I love chocolate.

I also loved browned butter.

In case you didn't know.

You guys...these are the best brownies I've ever made.
Possibly that I've ever eaten.

They are so chocolatey and dense and rich and fudgy. They have the wonderful crackly top we all love.

And um...browned butter. Super subtle but it adds such a delicious element.

Michael went gaga for these too. We both were absolutely smitten with these wonderful brownies.

I think you just might be too.

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownies

You like chocolate, yes?

Obviously you do-because we all know that is like...70% of what ends up on this blog.

Do you also like peanut butter?

Chances are good you like that too.

What about cookie dough?

C'mon....who doesn't like cookie dough? Am I right?

Even if you think you don't like some of those things, these brownies may change your mind. I fed some to a friend of Michael's (who was being a sweetie and fixing my computer), and he is not a pb fan, but he LOVED these brownies. Like-went crazy for them. Told Michael he'd better marry me. He also was sad after he was done eating it. We've all been there.

Now...these brownies will cause you to have to do a lot of dishes. And they're super rich. And probably (definitely) not good for you. But they are SO worth it! It's like...a fudgy brownie + peanut butter cookie dough + thick, delicious chocolate ganache=YUM. (It actually tastes fairly similar to a certain Buckeye Cake.) I needed to use some of the peanut butter I had laying around the house (PB Crave, specifically), so for the peanut butter cookie dough I actually used PB Crave Cookie Nookie--so the cookie dough factor was amped up. But you can totally use whatever peanut butter you like. If you have some cool flavored pb's this is a super fun way to experiment with diff. combinations.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

I've sort of decided to have a theme for this week: Healthier Comfort Food!

 Some of our favorite guilty pleasures, made slightly less guilty!

Monday we had a homemade, preservative + corn syrup free chocolate syrup. Today I'm going to share a classic childhood treat-chocolate chip cookie bars! BUT made with whole wheat and no butter (just canola oil)!

Boozy Brownies

I've previously mentioned that for my "survival job" I am a promotional model-and I largely do liquor promotions. For once, I brought my work home with me. One day I was doing a tasting for the, newly released, Patron XO Cafe Dark Cocoa Coffee Liqueur with dark chocolate and made with Patron Silver tequila. As I was giving recommendations to consumers for what they could use the liqueur for, I had an epiphany! 

Brownies.

I had seen a million chocolate recipes (cake, brownies, etc.) that had some coffee added, just to intensify the chocolate flavor. And I knew I'd seen brownie recipes with liquor in them before. So, I decided, then and there, I was going to make brownies using Patron XO Cafe Dark Cocoa.

I told everyone I spoke with that day. They were all very jealous. They wanted me to bring them those brownies.

If I have any leftovers from my tasting (unless there's a lot left), I'm able to bring the alcohol home with me. I usually don't-I don't drink, so why bother? But this time I made an exception. That night, I looked and found the recipe I wanted to use and adapt (I knew there would be no recipe specifically for this, as it was a brand new drink). The next day-I made these brownies. They are super gooey, quite sweet, and there's just a little something extra given to them by the XO Cafe Dark Cocoa. You can use any liqueur you fancy in these, have fun with it! Try not to eat the brownie batter, though, you won't be able to stop, and then you'll be drunk. And I assume baking + drunk do not mix well.