Picture Perfect Cooking

There seems to have been a lot of recipe talk about browned butter in the last couple of months.  I have seen multiple recipes and decided to give one a try.  I made this for our chili/soup/game night back in November for one of the desserts and it was a HUGE hit! 

These bars are rich and moist!  Our guests kept going back for them again and again so this recipe is definitely a keeper.  I found it on the website, My Baking Addiction, which is one of my favorites.

1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 cups packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 large eggs

2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9×13” baking pan.  Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper; grease and flour the parchment paper or spray with non-stick cooking spray.

In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the butter until it turns golden brown; remove from heat and let cool while you prepare the other ingredients.  (Note: I probably could have cooked the butter a little longer, but I was scared it would burn.)

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine browned butter and both sugars.

Add the eggs.  Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Stir in the vanilla extract.  Add the flour mixture until thoroughly combined.  Fold in the butterscotch chips.  Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool completely before slicing the bars.  ENJOY!!

Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Kerrygold

Yesterday was ingredient spotlight day at Eat At Home Cooks.  This week the focus is on nuts, which is great because sometimes I feel like a really big nut!!  Wink, wink!! 

Anyway, enjoy all of the delicious looking recipes over there.

This is the second post of my Christmas fudge recipes and it focuses on peanut butter fudge.  Yum!  I am usually a chocoholic, but sometimes I prefer peanut butter fudge to the chocolate.  This is a really simple recipe and has a wonderful buttery flavor.  I found this on www.foodnetwork.com and it is an Alton Brown recipe.  If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know that he is my favorite Food Network chef to watch.  His show, Good Eats, breaks down the recipes and he teaches the viewer about the scientific properties of the ingredients and how they react with each other.  It is very interesting! 

I digress, though.  Back to the fudge!  The only change I would make to this is to use a little less powdered sugar.  The taste was awesome, but the texture was crumbly instead of creamy. 

1 cup butter

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 lb powdered sugar

Line a 8 or 9 inch baking pan with foil.  Spray with non-stick spray.  Put the butter and peanut butter into a large microwave safe bowl.  Microwave this combo for 2 minutes on high.  Stir to combine and microwave for another 2 minutes on high.  Add the vanilla and powdered sugar to the peanut butter mixture with a wooden spoon.

Pour into the prepared pan and smooth.  Place a piece of waxed paper on the surface of the fudge and refrigerate until cool.  Cut into 48 pieces and store in an airtight container for up to one week, if it lasts that long.

It is Christmas season and that means celebrating Jesus Christ’s birthday around here with food and family.  I love all of the homemade candy that gets made around the holiday, especially fudge.  For some reason, I have never found a recipe that ended with a batch of smooth, creamy, rich fudge.  Mine has always either been gritty or does not set up and I have fudge soup. 

I was searching the internet a little while ago and found this recipe for easy chocolate fudge.  Yeah, right!  I’ll just see about that.  I even made it more of a challenge by making it on a rainy day.  Did you know that the higher the humidity, the more difficult it is for candy to harden?  Try making divinity on a rainy day and see what I mean.  Well, on second thought, don’t.  You will just be wasting your ingredients; just take my word for it instead.  I learned the hard way!  By the way, I found this recipe at www.verybestbaking.com.  The only change I made was to use pecans instead of walnuts.

This recipe lived up to its names.  It is easy and turned out great!

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1 cup chopped & toasted pecans

1 tsp vanilla extract

Line a 8 or 9 inch square baking dish with foil and set aside.  Combine chocolate chips & milk in a heavy saucepan.  Warm over low to low-medium heat, stirring until smooth.  Remove from heat and nuts and vanilla.

Spread evenly into the foil-lined pan.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until firm.  Lift the fudge out of the pan and peel off the foil.  Cut into 48 pieces and enjoy!  Come back next week for a great peanut butter fudge recipe!

Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Scharffen Berger.