With A Cherry On Top

If you like it than you better put a cherry on it. If you like it than you better put a cherry on it. Uh, oh, oh, oh, oh...whatever, Beyonce. Anyway, made some Cherry Almond Bars the other day. I don't really like cherry anything much. I only like fresh cherries and even then I really don't like eating them because my fingers always get stained. I'm a little strange. I can't help it. My brain won't stop thinking of the what if's in life. Please, please make it stop.

Back to the cherries. They have never been my favorite thing, so in my ongoing quest to lose weight, I thought to myself, "Hmmm, if I make these cherry bar things, I won't eat too many because I don't like cherries." Eureka, I have found my diet secret. Make stuff that taste good to other people, but not to you. Voila, skinnyville here I come.

They make a huge 15x10 tray full so there was a lot. I took some to a party, some to the babysitter, and some to work. I was asked for the recipe a couple of times and today a guy from work said, "Oh, those were good. I only got to have one." I told him I would make more. I had only one, too. Cherries...remember...not my thing. Maybe it has to do with cherry being the only flavor of medicine when I was a kid. Here's a close up of them.

This is what they look like when they are out of the oven, cooled, and drizzled with the glaze.

Anyway, here's the recipe and a few tips. They are good. The middle section of mine was a little mushy. See.

I don't think there was enough batter on the bottom there and those darn cherries took over. They were not good enough to serve from this area. It was like a gory scene of a cherry homicide there. I am going to try these again and use a little less cherry filling. The almond extract added a nice flavor that complemented the cherries well.

Cherry Bars
from Taste of Home Baking Classics page 370 recipe from Jane Kamp of Grand Rapids, MI.

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. almond extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
2 cans (21 oz) cherry pie filling

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
2-3 Tblsp. milk

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the extracts. Combine flour and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture just until combined.

Spread 3 cups batter into a greased 15x10x1 inch baking pan. Spread with pie filling. Drop the remaining batter by teaspoonfuls over filling.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Combine glaze ingredients; drizzle over top. Cut into bars. Yield: 5 dozen.

*5 dozen is an exaggeration. Unless they cut them super small.

Peanut Butter Brownies or Cheesecake?

It was Valentine's Day a few days ago which was reason enough to try out a new dessert. But, there are so many to choose from. Looked through that Taste of Home Baking cookbook again and found a recipe for Peanut Butter Brownies.

Peanut butter, chocolate, cream cheese - what's not to like? Yes, I could've just bought a brownie mix, but where's the challenge in that? Instead I far exceeded the cost of a brownie mix. This brownie recipe called for 2 blocks of cream cheese.

And, in the end, I'm still not sure if it was more like a brownie with peanut butter cream cheese or a peanut butter cheesecake with a little brownie in it.

Here's what they looked like when they came out of the oven.

Pretty nice looking, huh? And, here is what they looked like on a plate.

How about a side view.

You know how brownies, cakes, and cookies all taste so, so good when they are warm and right out of the oven? Not with these. We all tasted a little when it was warm and we thought it really didn't have much of a peanut butter taste and they were just okay. Then, I put them in the refrigerator. That did the trick. When cold, these tasted like cheesecake.

I have a really good tip for you brownie bakers. You know when you try to cut brownies and your knife goes in and brings up a whole bunch of brownie with it. This always happens and you get a really gnarly looking brownie. Here is the trick. Drum roll, please? Use a PLASTIC KNIFE! That's right. One day I thought about how mochi is so sticky and you use a plastic knife to cut that, I wonder if it would work for brownies - and it totally worked.

Here's the recipe:
Peanut Butter Brownies from Taste of Home Baking Classics
3 eggs
1 cup butter, melted
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
1-1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Filling:
2 pkg. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp. milk

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, butter, and vanilla until smooth. Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; gradually add to the egg mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Set aside 1 cup for topping. Spread remaining batter into greased 9x13 baking pan.

In a small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, peanut butter, and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and milk on low until just combined. Carefully spread over batter. Drop reserved batter by tablespoonfuls over filling. Cut through batter with a knife to swirl.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Chill until serving. Makes 3 dozen.

Almond Apricot Bread

Last week we had one of the worst blizzards, since I have lived in Illinois. I have to say being a Midwesterner for almost 16 years, I do know so much more about snow. Of course, when the blizzard hit us last week and we got over 20 inches of snow, our snowblower wouldn't start - again!

While the hubby was at work, my oldest son and I went out and started clearing snow. One of my wonderful neighbors - we are lucky to have many - came over and helped out with his snowblower. I am all about showing my appreciation for these acts of kindness. I really think he loves snowblowing because he did the sidewalk and our driveway - hooray! I decided I needed to bake something for him and his family. I looked through my Taste of Home Baking Classics Cookbook. It was only $12 at Costco. And, why do asians like a bargain so much? I won't see any asians for a while and then - boom - I go to Costco or the outlet mall and they are all there.

Whatever, I found the recipe I wanted to try. Almond Apricot Bread. It sounds interesting and easy. I run to the store because I have no dried apricots and absolutely no apricot baby food. Thank goodness, no more babies here. Of course, there is only one choice for baby food, an apple apricot. That'll do.

It came out nice looking.

The recipe was simple and the bread looked pretty when it was done. Here's the recipe:

Apricot Almond Bread
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 (7 oz.) apricot baby food (or similar)
1 egg
3/4 cup plus 1 tsp. milk, divided
3 Tbsp. canola oil
1-1/8 tsp. almond extract, divided
2/3 cup sliced almonds, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup diced dried apricots
1/2 cup powdered sugar

In a large bowl,combine the flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt. Set aside 1 tablespoon of baby food for glaze. In another bowl, beat the egg, 3/4 cup mil, oil, 1 tsp. almond extract, and remaining baby food. Stir into flour mixture just until moistened. Fold in almonds and apricots.

Pour into greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

For glaze, combine the powdered sugar, reserved baby food, remaining milk, and extract until smooth. Drizzle over cooled bread. Yield: 1 loaf (16 slices).

Those must have been some small slices because there was no way we got 16 out of one loaf. See all those little pieces of almond and apricot? Scarily, this reminds me of a fruitcake.



Obviously, I made two loaves one for the neighbor and one for us. Looks like someone was ready for a bite!