Chocolate Caramel Shortbread... (think Twix!)

UPDATE: I got the good recipe from my cousin! It's actually from a book I gave her for her birthday this year! Thanks to Fran for typing the recipe up for me!

Chocolate Caramel Shortbread
Makes 12

1/2 cup butter, plus extra for greasing
Generous 1 cup all purpose flour
Generous 1/4 cup superfine sugar

Filling and topping
3/4 cup butter
Generous 1/2 cup superfine sugar
3 tbsp dark corn syrup
14 oz/400 g canned sweetened condensed milk
7 oz/200 g semisweet chocolate, broken into pieces

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Grease a 9-inch/23-cm square, shallow cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Place the butter, flour, and sugar in a food processor and process until it starts to bind together. Press into the prepared pan and level the top. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden.

Meanwhile, make the filling. Place the butter, sugar, corn syrup, and condensed milk in a heavy-bottom saucepan. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let simmer for 6-8 minutes, stirring until very thick. Pour over the shortbread and let chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours, or until firm.

Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Set over a saucepan of gently simmering water and stir until melted. Let cool slightly, then spread over the caramel. Let chill In the refrigerator for 2 hours, or until set. Cut the shortbreat into 12 pieces and serve.

When I got home from work yesterday I was so excited to start baking for "wing night." I wanted to make one of my Grandma's recipes, and I chose her Jelly Roll recipe. I was planning on tweaking it a bit by flavoring the cake with coconut and making a pineapple cream filling instead of using jelly. I attempted to translate my Grandma's handwriting and finally came up with what looked like a perfectly delicious cake batter. I poured it into the pan, watched it bake slowly at a temperature that I had to assume because it wasn't specified in the recipe, then I removed it from the oven to cool. On my way from the oven to my cooling rack..... SPLAT!!?!!? There it went... straight onto the floor... face down, of course!Thankfully, my brain is pretty good at knowing what is and isn't worth getting upset over, and this was definitely not worth it. I picked up the pieces, tossed them into the trash, thought briefly about a few negative words, then headed straight for one of my new cookbooks to choose a new recipe! I used the last of my white sugar in the jelly roll cake, so my options were narrowed down to brown sugar recipes. I chose a recipe for "Toffee Squares" in Better Homes and Gardens^® The Ultimate Cookie Book, but between you and me, I don't recognize any toffee in this recipe. I changed the name to Chocolate Caramel Shortbread! I hoped it would be similar to something my cousin made a few months ago. She let me have some of the leftovers, and it truly tasted like a homemade Twix candy bar! Crunchy shortbread on the bottom, chewy gooey caramel in the center, and chocolate on top. Mine, however, were not like a Twix at all. Well, maybe a factory reject Twix. The recipe called for baking the cookie layer WAY too long before the caramel went on. And it called for too much vanilla in the caramel, which created a very distracting flavor. If I made these again (I won't! I'll be getting my cousins recipe) I'd reduce the first baking time to 15 minutes. I'd also reduce the vanilla to only 1 teaspoon.

I'll try to get the recipe my cousin used and post it here for anyone who wants to try it! Until then, here's the sorry version I made...

Toffee Squares (from Better Homes and Gardens^® The Ultimate Cookie Book)
Prep: 25 min. Bake: 33 min. Chill: 30 min. Oven: 350° F
Makes: about 36 squares

3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk (1 1/4 cups)
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 12-ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips or pieces (2 cups)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan; set aside.
For crust, in a large mixing bowl beat the 3/4 cup butter and the brown sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Beat in the egg yolk. Stir in the flour and salt until well mixed. Using flour hands, press the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake about 20 minutes or until light brown (I'd probably only bake for 15 mins next time). Cool in pan on a wire rack while preparing the filling.
For filling, in a medium saucepan heat and stir the sweetened condensed milk and the 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat until bubbly. Cook and stir for 5 minutes more. (Mixture will thicken and become smooth.) Stir in the vanilla. Spread over the crust. Bake 12 to 15 minutes more or until top is golden brown.
Sprinkle evenly with chocolate pieces. Bake for 1 to 2 minutes more or until chocolate pieces are shiny and melted. Remove from oven; set on a wire rack. Using a flexible spatula, immediately spread the chocolate evenly over baked layers. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Cover and chill 30 minutes or until chocolate is set. Cut into squares. Refrigerate up to 3 days.

Baked Rice Pudding

Q: What do you do with all the leftover white rice you get with your Chinese takeout?

A: Make rice pudding, duh!

I've loved rice pudding ever since I was a kid. My dad used to buy the Kozy Shack brand in the big container. Momma would divide it up into those little Tupperware cups with the plastic lids. Then, when it was time for dessert she'd take them out of the fridge, sprinkle them with cinnamon, and mmmmm it was so good! Until this day, I can't understand how some people don't like it! I guess it's a love it or hate it thing. Josh doesn't like it. He says it's a texture thing. I don't understand that either, but to each his own. That means more rice pudding for me, IF I can fight the spoon away from my dad! ;D

This recipe comes from Better Homes and Gardens: New Baking Book. I love this book, and I recommend it to any home baker. Along with lots of pictures and informative tid-bits, the book has a wide variety of recipes, including low-fat, foreign specialties, and my favorite, old-fashioned desserts, which is the chapter where the rice pudding recipe was hiding. The recipe would be perfect without any tweaking, but of course I can't always go by the recipe word-for-word. I added a little extra vanilla and just a pinch of lemon zest. I also plumped my raisins in dark rum for a minute or two. The end result is fabulous! My family prefers it cold, so after it cooled I divided it up into containers, just like mom used to. It's perfectly creamy with just the right amount of vanilla and cinnamon. And the lemon zest really brightens it up and keeps it from feeling so heavy without actually tasting lemony. This recipe is definitely going into my binder as a keeper!
Did I mention this only took minutes to make?! It's one of the easiest desserts I've made in a long time, AND I got to mark another thing off my Top 100 list!

Baked Rice Pudding (from Better Homes and Gardens: New Baking Book)
8 servings

4 beaten eggs
2 cups milk, half-and-half, or light cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups cooked rice, cooled (leftover rice works well)
1/2 to 3/4 cup raisins (I plumped my raisins by simmering them in 2 tablespoons of dark rum for 1 minute. Drain them and let them cool.)
Pinch of lemon zest (about half of a small lemon) (my own addition)
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1. In ungreased 2-quart casserole combine eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Beat until combined but not foamy. Stir in cooked rice and raisins (and lemon zest, if using). Place casserole in a 13x9x2-inch baking dish on an oven rack. Pour boiling water into baking dish around the casserole to a depth of 1 inch.
2. Bake in a 325 degree F oven for 30 minutes. Stir well; sprinkle with nutmeg and cinnamon. Bake for 20-30 minutes more or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Serve warm or cold. To serve cold, cover and chill pudding for up to 3 days.

Nutrition Facts per serving (8): 184 cal., 4 g total fat (2 g sat. fat), 111 mg chol., 130 mg sodium, 31 g carbo., 0 g fiber, 6 g pro.

Fresh Blackberry Kuchen

I've been waiting since the beginning of June for the tiny green buds on my blackberry bush to turn into plump, juicy blackberries! Finally, last week, the blackberry bush delivered! I picked handfuls and handfuls of the gorgeous berries. I maneuvered my way around spider webs, stink bugs, and bird poop to find the best looking berries on the thorn-laden stems. My hard work paid off when I baked my thoroughly cleaned blackberries into this yummy kuchen (pronounced "koo-ken")!

This is my impression of you right now: "What the heck is kuchen?" Was that an accurate impression? And here's my impression of Wikipedia: "Kuchen, the German word for cake, is used in other languages as the name for several different types of sweet desserts... The term itself may cover as many distinct desserts as its English counterpart cake." It goes on to list several types of kuchen, including this description which is closest to the kuchen I made today: "A pie-like pastry, with a thick, "cakey" crust and a sweet custard based filling." And lastly, here's my impression of someone who just likes to argue: "Nuh uh! Kuchen is a German yeasted coffee cake!"

No matter what you think a kuchen is (okay now THAT sounds naughty), believe me when I say that this one is really yummy! The recipe I used is from Better Homes and Gardens: New Baking Book. It's a dense cake on the bottom with a sweet/tart, lemony yogurt custard on top. Oh yeah, there's also loads of BLACKBERRIES! I absolutely LOVE the flavor of blackberries and lemon together. I also love the flavor of yogurt with honey. So I replaced some of the sugar in both the cake and the custard recipe with a bit of honey. The end result is a fabulously refreshing dessert that is totally perfect for summertime! If you have any kind of fresh berries sitting in your fridge dying to be eaten before they get wrinkly and mushy, you MUST make this kuchen! ;D

Fresh Raspberry Kuchen (from Better Homes and Gardens: New Baking Book)
Makes 1 9-inch cake (up to 12 servings)

2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries (I used blackberries)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar*
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 egg whites (save yolks for filling)
1 teaspoon vanilla

FILLING
1 1/2 cups plain low-fat or fat-free yogurt (I only had 1 cup and it worked fine)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar*
2 egg yolks
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest (about 1/2 a lemon)
1 teaspoon vanilla

*(In both the cake and the filling I removed 1 tablespoon of sugar and replaced it with 1 tablespoon of honey)
1. If using frozen berries, thaw at room temperature 15 minutes; drain.
2. In food processor bowl or medium mixing bowl combine 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and the baking powder. Add butter, egg whites, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Cover and process, or stir by hand, until mixed well. (Mixture will be like soft cookie dough.) Spread onto the bottom of an ungreased 9-inch springform pan; sprinkle with berries.
3. For filling, place yogurt in a large mixing bowl, sprinkle with the 2 tablespoons flour. Add 1/2 cup sugar, egg yolks, whole egg, lemon zest, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix until smooth; pour over berries in springform pan.
4. Bake in a 350 degree F oven about 55 minutes or until center appears set (slightly wobbly) when shaken gently. Cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes; remove side of pan. Cover; chill in refrigerator for 4 to 24 hours.
5. To serve, remove pan bottom. Transfer to a platter. If desired, garnish with lemon leaves.

Nutrition facts per serving (12): 187 cal., 6 g total fat (1 g sat. fat), 55 mg chol., 111 mg sodium, 30 g carbo., 1 g fiber, 4 g pro.