7 Layer Cookie Bars

Hello again! I hope y'all enjoyed last week's decorating session, but this week we are going to be making a classic... 7 Layer Cookie Bars! I've been making this one with my mom since I was little and it is yummy! In the spirit of Mother's Day, I chose this dessert for our Recipe of the Week. This recipe can be found on the back of the Eaglebrand Sweetened Condensed Milk, but we'll go ahead and go over it all here--pictures included, as always :) Plus, there is a lot of variability in here so that you can choose how you want to make it...

You are going to need:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 1/2 cups smashed graham crackers
1 can sweetened condensed milk
6 oz chocolate chips (milk or dark)
6 oz butterscotch chips (can also use white chocolate, your choice)
1 1/3 cup shredded coconut
3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional... I don't use them in this recipe)

First, preheat the oven to 350*F.

If you haven't smashed the graham crackers the easiest way is to double ziplock bag it, and then whack it--great way to take out any frustrations or get the kids involved! Even Jace tried his hand at smashing it... Then dump the crumbs into the bottom of a 11x7 inch baking pan, preferably one with a lid, just in case you don't devour them on the first day. Melt the butter in the microwave and then pour it onto the crumbs. Stir the crumbs and butter really well until most of the crumbs are moist. Then spread it back out into an even layer across the bottom of the pan. These are your first two layers...

Whew, that was the hardest part! :)

Now, just pour the milk onto the crumb layer. You can use the back of a spoon to spread it, but I find it easiest just to pick up the pan and tilt it from side to side to spread it out nicely. Add the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and then coconut. You can mix these together or do them in layers, your choice. If you are using chopped nuts add them here as well. That was the other five layers...

Bake in the oven until the coconut is lightly toasted. My cookie bar was finished in 20 minutes...

Using a knife or spatula, loosen the sides of the cookie bar from the pan while it's still warm. Let cool and enjoy (or scrape it out in pieces while its warm)!

Next week's Recipe of the Week will be more challenging. We will be trying White Chocolate Pearls with an amaretto ganache center... mmmmMMMMmmmm... Here's a teaser pic :)

Cupcake TV Dinner

This Recipe of the Week is one of the most fun that I've done yet and it really revolves around decorating versus baking... So if you are into all those decorating shows, here is one that should be fun to try!!! We are going to be making a Cupcake "TV Dinner." No, it's not any healthier than a real tv dinner but it still tastes really yummy and is packed-full of calories that you really don't need (but eat anyway). Our tv dinner will consist of one chicken leg, mashed potatoes with butter and brown gravy, peas and carrots, and chocolate pudding with jimmies. Additionally, you will be using a modified cake box recipe, so if nothing else, you can use the cupcakes for something else...

Y'all will need the following items:

1 box cake mix (Yellow or White)
1 cup buttermilk OR 1 cup 2% or whole milk and 1 tbsp lemon juice
vegetable oil (as marked on box)
4 large eggs (instead of eggs on box)
aluminum muffin cups
aluminum muffin trays
white chocolate (Wilton's Candy Melts)
wax paper
plain or glazed doughnut holes (number depends on how many "chicken legs" you make)
1 cup cornflake crumbs
caramel sauce
orange and yellow starbursts
green round candy (m&m's or runts)
chocolate or rainbow jimmies
chocolate frosting
white frosting
green food coloring

To make the cupcakes, you're going to follow the instructions on your box except you will use the buttermilk instead of water and the 4 eggs instead of whatever is on the box. Then you will pour the cupcake mix into the freestanding aluminum cupcake tins. I prefer to use a ziplock baggie with a cut corner to put the mix into the tin simple because it's easier to control and less messy than pouring it. You want the tins to be about 2/3 of the way full, but don't over do it because these puff up quite nicely. Mine baked for about 18 minutes and were done.

While those are baking we are going to set everything up for decorating. You will need to cut up the orange starbursts into four pieces, sort the green candies out of the rest of the colors, color 1/4 of the white frosting green, crush the frosted flakes, and make the white chocolate bones. NOTE: I used the green pretzel m&m's but they were kind of big, so unless you really like them (like me!) use regular sized ones or runts...

To make the bones, first, either print the template provided below, or draw out a similar shape on wax paper. Then melt the chocolate according to your package's instructions. Move to a ziplock bag if you didn't melt it in the bag. Cut a small piece of the corner off and pipe the outline of the bone on the wax paper and then fill it in. The wax paper should be on a sheet pan, so that after you are done piping all the bones, you can lightly tap the pan against the counter to smooth out the chocolate. Refrigerate until we use them.

Once your cupcakes are cooled, decide how many of each serving you want to make. I put one of each in every tray; however, you can have two chicken legs per tray or maybe not... It's really up to you and how big your trays are.

To make the chicken legs, you will frost your cupcake with the vanilla frosting. You really want to use a fair amount to mound it up on top. Then lightly press a doughnut hole onto the frosting mound, slightly off center on the cupcake. Get some more frosting and spread it from the cupcake up onto the doughnut hole until it's completely covered. It's okay if the frosting isn't completely smooth because now we are going to coat the frosting in those cornflake crumbs. Roll your cupcakes really well in the crumbs.

Using a really sharp knife, gently cut a slice into the top part of the doughnut hole. You want the slice to be angled slightly so the white chocolate bone slides in at about 45*. The last picture shows the worst "chicken leg"... You really want the bone to be more on top of the doughnut hole and more cornflake crumbs. Be careful when cutting the doughnut hole because they will smoosh into the cupcake, roll if you push down to the side and be an all around a pain in the butt...

Repeat this process for all your cupcake chicken legs.

The mashed potatoes are pretty simple. Spread the vanilla frosting onto the top of your cupcake, mounding it the same way as we did on the chicken leg, although not quit as high. Then using a spoon, scoop out the top to make a well in the the center of the frosting.  Place the yellow starburst "butter" into the well at an angle. Place the cupcake into the tin prior to drizzling caramel in the well!! The sauce I used was naturally runny, but if you use the thicker brands, just heat it up for 2-4 seconds at a time in the microwave prior to adding it to the cupcake.

The peas and carrots are also really easy. Spread the green frosting onto your cupcake, and try to make it smooth---no need to mound the frosting. Then gently press the orange starburst "carrot" pieces and m&m peas onto the top of your cupcake. Place it in your tin with the other cupcakes.

For the pudding, you can either frost the cupcake with a knife, or put the chocolate frosting into a ziplock bag and pipe it into a spiral. I used a knife, but next time I would probably use a baggie. Then sprinkle it with your jimmies and add it to your tray.

And voila! You have a yummy Cupcake TV Dinner!

AMAZING Buttermilk Pie (piecrust too!)

This week we made Buttermilk Pie (a true Southern dessert) for our Recipe of the Week!!!

Here's a little fact: Buttermilk pie is a traditional custard-like pie of the southern US, and is especially well known in Texas. It is similar to, and sometimes confused with, chess pie, but it does not include cornmeal.

Anywho... Y'all are getting a two-for-one recipe because the pie crust is also homemade and soooooooo good; I promise! Let's get started!

Baker's Secret Pie Crust (courtesy of Carolealana) and Buttermilk Pie filling

Ingredients for the crust:

4 tbsp unsalted butter
5 tbsp shortening (preferably butter flavored)

3/4 cup cake flour*

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp white sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp baking powder

1 egg yolk
2 tsp distilled white vinegar
3 cubes of ice
1/2 cup cold water

*I don't have cake flour and it's slightly superfluous, so if you want to use all-purpose flour instead this is the conversion I found:

1 cup cake flour = 1 cup all-purpose flour minus 1 tbsp


Ingredients for the filling:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tbsp flour
3 eggs
1 pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

We'll make the pie crust first and then when it's moved to the freezer near the end, we'll start in on the filling... This whole process takes approximately 2-3 hours, 40 minutes of that the pie crust is "relaxing" in the fridge and about an hour of baking time, so there is some down time in it...

Ok, first we are going to take the butter and shortening and cut it into pieces on a plate. This will make it easier later on. The shortening doesn't really have to be that small because it will stay fairly soft, but the butter should be sliced into about 1/2 tbsp size portions.

Take the plate and stick it in the freezer for about 20 minutes. While that sets in the freezer, put the flour(s), sugar, salt and baking powder (not soda!!!) into the food processor. Pulse it for a few seconds until mixed.

Then, add half of the cold butter and half of the cold shortening to the dry ingredients in the food processor and pulse on/off for one minute. You'll need to scrape down the sides 2-3 times. Add the remainder of the butter and shortening and cut in very briefly with the food processor. There need to be pea-sized chunks so try not to over process it.

In a small bowl, add the egg yolk, vinegar, ice cubes and water together. Chill for five minutes. Meanwhile, move the mixture from the food processor to a mixing bowl. After the egg wash has chilled, sprinkle about 4-5 tbsp of it onto the butter/flour mixture. Do this a couple tablespoons at a time to prevent the dough from becoming overly wet. Also, mix the dough gently, so as not to over-mix. I used a plastic knife and just kept cutting through the dough until it was "mixed." Move the dough to a plastic bag and let it set in the refrigerator for five minutes. You can freeze it at this stage, but I can't tell you if the dough will be the same since I haven't done this...

Pull it out of the refrigerator and place it between two large pieces of plastic wrap. This will make for easier cleanup and transfer of the dough to the pie pan. Roll out the dough to a good sized circle 10-11 inches in diameter. Then peel of the top piece of plastic wrap, set the pie pan face down on the dough, and flip everything. You should be able to gently remove the other piece of plastic wrap from the "new" topside of the dough.

Let the piecrust sit in the refrigerator for 40 minutes to relax the gluten and reduce shrinkage. Then, move it to the freezer for the an additional 20 minutes. This is when we make the filling...


Pre-heat the oven to 400*F. Then cream the sugar and butter together until light. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add a decent pinch of salt, the buttermilk and the 3 tablespoons of flour...(I accidently added to much flour the first time I made this pie and ended up with paste; I had to restart the filling all over) ... Beat the batter until as smooth as possible. Pour the filling into your cold piecrust and place it in the oven... I used a 9" cake pan since I didn't have a pie pan and it came out the same...

After 10 minutes, reduce heat to 350*F and bake for an additional 50 minutes. The top will start to turn a golden brown around the 40 minute mark. You don't want it to overly brown on top, so once it gets to a good color, place a piece of tin foil over the top of your pie and continue to bake it. It's done when you can insert a knife into the pie and it comes out clean or you can give it a little giggle. It won't have the rolling batter effect if it's done; instead, it will remain pretty solid in a custard-y like way...

Let it cool and then you can enjoy it! I eat it once it's cooled all the way, but some people like it warmed---just personal preference I guess :) Have fun baking!!!




UPDATE: Well, the house thing kinda fell out of the sky and crashed at our feet... Long story short, our mortgage lender sent us a pre-approval that apparently he couldn't back up even though he reassured us for over a month that we were pre-approved and our chances were very high of having the loan go through. Then, five minutes before we sign the contract for the new house, our lender calls us up and tells us everything is a no-go. Not only could he not approve us for the amount that we had been pre- approved for, he could only approve us for a load that was $30K less than that amount!!! He said there had been a mistake in the numbers and he miscalculated, but "we should be happy that we found out prior to signing the contract." I was so angry! Since we own everything, we don't have credit AND you can pay all of your bills on time, and they will never send anything to the credit bureaus; miss one and they are all over reporting you---which is completely unfair...so we've never been late either... I understand that it might be difficult for us to get the mortgage we need, but don't tell me that you can do it, and then tell us something drastically different last minute. The house we are living in currently was supposed to be sold 5 days after the day we were supposed to sign the contract on our new house, and they were supposed to sell there house the week after they purchase our home... So this one mistake has caused problems for FOUR FAMILIES and lost us two contracts... Now we are just waiting for some time to elapse since our credit history is just too recent for us to have any scores.... which will most likely be in July. We are praying against all odds that the home is still there, waiting for us!

The silver lining is: Jace will be starting his credit history as early as possible. We will all go to the bank and get a loan with him and then pay it back, until he can get a credit card---which he will learn to monitor... until hopefully, he has better credit then we do! So I might as well mention it here: Yes, Mom, you can say "I told you soooo!"

On to a brighter note, Jace has learned to sign "more" and he does it all. the. time. He loves using it and being able to tell use he wants more of this or that. Besides more, he understands the signs for milk, stars (the baby cereal snacks), eat, pacifier (modified since it's so similiar to eat) and sleep. We are starting to work on bath, diaper, colors and different foods, but we'll see what he picks up next. It's nice that he can tell us what he wants instead of just crying...


Can't wait for the next Recipe of the Week!