My Recipe Reviews

Recipe Reviews, Recommendations, Tips and Musings. Thanks for visiting!

sweets

Texas Sheet Cake Cookies

by

 

What old (or current) church cookbook doesn’t have Texas Sheet Cake in it? None, absolutely none if you live in the South. Flip a few pages and you’ll also see Texas Sheet Cake Cookies lurking nearby.

Texas Sheet Cake Cookies

Texas Sheet Cake is a dense chocolate cake usually baked in a jelly roll pan or a cookie sheet with high sides. The cake comes out skinnier than a regular cake.

That’s so you can slather on the chocolate icing to be as thick as the cake, giving you an even, almost gooey layer of each.

These cookies are very similar to the cake, but the cookie part is chewy and rich and the icing isn’t quite as thick.

Texas Sheet Cake Cookies

The cookies need to be under baked a bit to get that chewy center. If you touch them and think they’re not quite done, they are.

The simple, rich chocolate icing is cooked on the stove top until it’s just the perfect consistency. Then it’s poured over the right-from-the-oven cookies – you want to make sure and ice them while they’re hot to get that crinkly icing.

Texas Sheet Cake Cookies

I made a little mistake and put too much salt in the first batch of Texas Sheet Cake Cookies, but the second batch was perfect! Chewy, moist chocolaty cookies with that distinct cooked chocolate icing.

And yes, we ate the salty ones. Waste not and all that.

Usually the cake and cookies are made with chopped pecans in the icing. If you want to do that, go right ahead. Remember that toasting the pecans first really brings out their flavor. I prefer them without pecans.

These cookies have simple ingredients that create an amazing cookie. Plus, it’s fun to spoon the chocolate icing over the warm cookies. Of course, it’s the most fun to share and eat them with friends and family.

Texas Sheet Cake Cookies

Texas Sheet Cake Cookies

Yield: 24 cookies
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 9 minutes
Total Time: 29 minutes

Chewy chocolate cookies with a crinkly chocolate icing. A take off on Texas Sheet Cake

Ingredients

  • 1/2 C butter, room temperature
  • 1/3 C granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/3 C all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1/4 C butter
  • 1 tbsp cocoa
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 1 1/4 C powdered sugar

Instructions

  1. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350°.
  2. Beat the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer until light in color and blended. Scrape down the sides as needed.
  3. Add the egg and vanilla to the butter mixture and mix. Add the baking powder and salt; mix.
  4. Add the flour, one-fourth cup at a time on low speed and mix. Again, scrape down sides as needed.
  5. In a small glass bowl, microwave the chocolate chips in 30 second increments, stirring between each session. Stir until smooth and add the melted chocolate to the cookie dough. Mix on medium-low until chocolate is incorporated. Dough will be rather thick.
  6. Roll about 2 teaspoons of dough in a ball and place on the cookie sheet (they don't spread very much when baked). Repeat until sheet is filled. Bake the cookies for 8-9 minutes and no longer - don't over bake them - they will be soft.
  7. Remove the cookies to a rack that has waxed paper under it to catch drips.
  8. While cookies are baking, make the chocolate icing. Use a small saucepan and combine the butter, cocoa powder and milk. Cook on medium-low until the butter is melted and whisk until butter is fully incorporated. Remove from the heat and whisk in the powdered sugar until completely smooth. Thin with 1/2 tsp of milk if it needs it - icing should be pourable.
  9. While the second batch of cookies is baking, spoon the icing over the first batch of hot cookies, covering completely. If the icing starts to be too thick, thin it out with a little milk and whisk until smooth again.
  10. Remove the second batch of cookies, place on the rack, and spoon the remaining icing over the remaining hot cookies. Allow the icing to set. Store in a sealed container for up to 3 days.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

Make sure the butter is at room temperature.

Again, don't over bake these cookies.  They should be very soft to the touch when you test them - don't bake over 9 minutes.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 24 Serving Size: 1 cookie
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 133Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 23mgSodium: 119mgCarbohydrates: 17gFiber: 0gSugar: 11gProtein: 1g

Nutrition Values are Approximate

© sblades
Category: Cookies

Ina Garten’s Lemon Bars

by

Ina Garten's Lemon Bars

As much as I love lemon bars, I’ve never made them before. Being under the shelter-in-home mandate (or is it stay-at-home?) is a great time to pull out those ‘to-do’ recipes and Ina Garten’s Lemon Bars have been on that list a long time. Besides, it delays my plans to clean out my office and junk room (which isn’t as much fun and has no tasty flavor).

I halved Ina’s recipe because Bret doesn’t enjoy lemon flavor like I do. Oh, and because it calls for 6 eggs and I don’t want to use all my eggs up in case I can’t get anymore.

Luckily, it’s easy to half and came out nicely. There’s a big lemon flavor and nice short-bready base. I didn’t bake my crust long enough, but the bars are terrific anyway.

Ina Garten's Lemon Bars

I didn’t get very good photos because I’d already dug into the bars to “test” them. These lemon bars are tangier than sweet, but that’s OK – they’re still terrific. I’ve made Ina’s lemon curd before and it’s a little smoother and sweeter than this filling. Next time a couple of more tablespoons of sugar will go into these bars or maybe smaller lemons would help. I had huge lemons.

Have a favorite lemon bar recipe? Send it to me and I’ll try it. I’d love to make the perfect lemon bars. Don’t get me wrong – these are really good, but it’ll be lots of fun (and tasty) to see if I can top them!

I’m posting the original Ina Garten’s Lemon Bars recipe below. If you want to half it, use an 8×8″ pan to bake them in.

Ina Garten's Lemon Bars

Ina Garten's Lemon Bars

Yield: 20 triangles
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Refrigerate: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

More lemony tangy than sweet, these are really good lemon bars with a nice crust.

Ingredients

  • For the Crust:
  • 1/2 lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 1/2 C granulated sugar
  • 2 C all-purpose flour
  • 1/8 tsp kosher salt
  • For the Filling:
  • 6 extra large eggs at room temperature
  • 3 C granulated sugar
  • 2 tbsp grated lemon zest (4 to 6 lemons)
  • 1 C freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 C all-purpose flour
  • confectioners' sugar, for dusting (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a 9x13" pan with aluminum foil long enough to extend over the edges so you can pull out the bars after they're baked. Spray the aluminum foil with baking spray.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, for the crust, cream the butter and sugar until light and blended. In a medium bowl, combine the flour and salt. With the mixer on low, add the flour slowly to the butter until just mixed. It's going to be a fairly dry dough, but add a teaspoon of water if it doesn't come together.
  3. Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and bring together until it forms a ball. Flatten the dough with floured hands and press it into the prepared pan, building up the edges to about 1/2 inch. Chill in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.
  4. Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes until very lightly browned. Let the pan cool on a wire rack. Leave the oven on.
  5. For the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Pour the lemon mixture over the crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature then cut into squares or triangles and dust with powdered sugar.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

I used salted butter in the crust and cut down the salt a little.

Note that she uses 6 extra-large eggs in this recipe.  Since I halved it and only had large eggs, I used 4 large eggs.

I had large lemons, so it only took 3 lemons for the zest. 

Please don't use bottled lemon juice for this - use the juice from the fresh lemons you just zested.

Mine took the entire 20 minutes for the crust to bake and the entire 35 minutes for them to bake.  The filling should be set when baked with an ever so slight wiggle to the middle of the bars.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 20 Serving Size: 1 bars
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 237Total Fat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 71mgSodium: 47mgCarbohydrates: 51gFiber: 1gSugar: 36gProtein: 4g

Nutrition Values are Approximate

© Ina Garten
Category: Bars

Dreamy Krispie Toffee Squares

by

Krispie Toffee Squares

These Dreamy Krispie Toffee Squares are from one of my favorite sweets cookbooks of all time – ‘500 Best Cookies, Bars & Squares’ by Esther Brody.

I think I paid five dollars at a used book store a long time ago and it’s been one of the best cookbooks in my collection. Everything I’ve made from it has been great and that’s hard to find in a cookbook!

Dreamy Krispie Toffee Squares (originally named Krispie Toffee Triangles) are no exception to the successes.

These dessert bars have three scrumptious layers, starting with a buttery brown sugar krispies crust. The middle layer is luscious creamy caramely-toffee (courtesy of the sweetened condensed milk) and the final layer is simply chocolate-covered krispies.

Krispie Toffee Squares

Pretty, simple, right? Well, yes it it simple. You bake the crust for 10-12 minutes, pour the filling over the top of the crust, and top it with the two-ingredient crunchy chocolate topping.

It does take time to firm up (about 3 hours in the refrigerator after put together), but the final result is absolutely, decadently eye-rolling.

Just an aside: I used chocolate sweetened condensed milk because that’s what I had in my cabinet. If you can get your hands on that flavor in your area, I highly recommend it!

Krispie Toffee Squares

I want to mention some of the other recipes from the cookbook that are posted in my blog, too. The Soft Cinnamon Roll Cookies are one of my most popular recipes (over 500,000 hits).

Also from this cookbook are the Cinnamon Honey Oatmeal Biscotti (one of my favorites) and the snickerdoodle-textured Soft Sugared Maple Cookies.

I’m definitely going to be choosing a couple of new holiday-oriented cookies for Thanksgiving and Christmas get togethers this year. It’s nice to be so confident in a cookbook that I can browse through it, point, and make a recipe that sounds good to me and comes out great!

Krispie Toffee Squares

I hope you’ll make these Dreamy Krispie Toffee Squares – I think you’ll love them. Just remember to cut them fairly small (about 1″ squares) because they’re veeeeerrrrry rich!

Krispie Toffee Squares

Dreamy Krispie Toffee Squares

Yield: 32 1-inch squares
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Inactive Time: 3 hours
Total Time: 3 hours 35 minutes

Outstanding, sweet, rich, crispy, chocolately, creamy - perfect! 

Ingredients

  • Base
  • 1/2 C all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/3 C butter, melted
  • 1/3 C packed brown sugar
  • 3/4 C crispy rice cereal
  • Filling
  • 1/2 C butter
  • 1 can (about 1 1/4 C) sweetened condensed milk
  • 1/2 C packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • Topping
  • 1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 1/4 C crispy rice cereal
  • 1/8 tsp kosher salt (not table salt)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°.  Line an 8-inch square pan with aluminum foil (longer at two ends to lift out after done) and lightly spray the bottom and sides.
  2. For the Base:  Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.  Make a well in the center and add the melted butter, brown sugar, and rice cereal.  Stir together until well combined.  Press into the prepared pan and bake for 10-11 minutes until very lightly browned.  Set pan on a rack to cool slightly while you're making the filling.
  3. For the Filling:  In a non-stick saucepan over low heat, stir together the butter, condensed milk and brown sugar until sugar feels dissolved. 
  4. Increase the heat to medium and bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and boil for about 5 minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.  Pour the filling over the crust and let sit for 20-30 minutes on the rack until the filling firms up a bit.
  5. For the Topping:  In a saucepan over low heat, melt the chocolate chips.  Stir in the cereal and stir together until well combined.  Spread evenly over the filling and slightly press with your fingertips to help adhere a little to the filling. 
  6. Sprinkle the kosher salt over the topping.  Cover the pan with aluminum foil and set in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours. When ready to serve, cut into 32, 1-inch squares.  
  7. Store in the refrigerator for 3-4 days if needed.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

I used chocolate sweetened condensed milk (which was awesome, by the way), but regular will be just as good.  That's what I had in the cabinet!

The last sprinkle of kosher salt (not regular table salt, please) is optional, but cuts the sweetness a little and gives the bars a little of that sweet-salty thing.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 32 Serving Size: 1 bar
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 91Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 13mgSodium: 73mgCarbohydrates: 10gFiber: 0gSugar: 7gProtein: 1g
© Esther Brody
Category: Candy