Pecan Crunch Granola Bars

So, I've seen plenty of granola bar recipes floating around on several websites, that I finally decided to make my own granola bars. My dad was especially happy about this; Being that these were going to be homemade granola bars. He doesn't like anything store bought. He likes anything that is homemade and thats the way he likes it. So he was especially happy about this.

I originally wanted to have dried blueberries in these, however, I could not find any in the store, and I didn't have the time or the patients to make my own dried blueberries. I wanted to make granola bars today. And I had to make granola bars with my favorite nut; Pecans! In the end, it was much better that I used raisins instead of blueberries. I have a feeling that the blueberries the pecans wouldn't have made a good pair. With the cinnamon, everything just came together wonderfully.

One tip I have when making these; LET THEM COOL! If you do not let them cool completely, they will fall apart on you. Then you would had destroyed a beautiful creation.

Recipe

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1 cup pecans, chopped into little pieces
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tbsp. butter, melted
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup dried raisins (or any dried fruit)


1. Butter a 9 by 9-inch glass baking dish and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Spread the oats, sunflower seeds, almonds, and wheat germ onto a half-sheet pan. Place in the oven and toast for 15 minutes to toast.

3. While thats going, combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, extract and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook just until the brown sugar has completely dissolved.

4. Once the oat mixture is done, remove it from the oven and reduce the heat to 300 degrees. Immediately add the oat mixture to the liquid mixture, add the dried fruit and coconut, and stir to combine.

5. Turn mixture out into the prepared baking dish and press down, evenly distributing the mixture in the dish and place in the oven to bake for about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares and wrap up for snacks or store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Banana Cookie Bars

I don't know if I have really ever tasted a cookie bar that tasted as good as these. I didn't think anything could necessarily beat my love for banana bread, but this is really making me question whether or not these are better or not.

These cookie bars are really rich and chewy and so darn delicious! To describe what they taste like me would be to say... It's like a slice of banana bread in between two chocolate brownies. That's how I would describe these bars. When you take the first bite, the bananas and the chocolate really come threw very strong. If your a chocoholic, I would defiantly recommend these. If not, a good alternative for instead of a chocolate crust would be a graham cracker crust or even a shortbread version. You could even switch the dark chocolate chips for butterscotch chips or peanut butter chips or even white chocolate chips. Theres a variety away to change it around, but this one is defiantly meant for the chocolate lovers out there.

Recipe

1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup confectioner sugar
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
2 bananas, mashed
2 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts
2/3 cup shredded coconut


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13 x 9 inch baking pan with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, soft together flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, beat butter and confectioner sugar until creamy. With two spoons or by hand, stir butter mixture with flour mixture to mix together. Take both spoons and push down the butter mixture with the flour mixture. It will take time, but batter will become moist, but kind of stiff.

3. Press mixture into prepared baking pan and bake for about 15 minutes.

4. In a medium bowl, Mix together condensed milk and bananas until incorporated. Once the crust has baked for 15 minutes, take out and pour the banana mixture over it. Combined chocolate chips, walnuts and coconut together in a bowl and sprinkle over the top.

5. Bake for abut 25-30 minutes. Let cool completely, roughly around 10-15 minutes. Then, chill in the fridge for about an hour. To chill quicker, place in the freezer for 25 minutes. These are much better when chilled. After chilled, cut into desired sizes.

Pop-Tarts

Here at my house, we are big time lovers for pop-tarts. We eats pop-tarts like we breath air. Thank god that we have fast metabolisms, for if we didn't, we'd be bigger than an obese elaphant! So very thankful for that.

I came across this recipe for homemade pop-tarts awhile back when I was browsing threw Peabody's recipe index. When I found it, I knew right away that I wanted to make it. But, I'd never gotten to it. It just kind of sat there in my memories. Till now.

It was actually really easy to make, it didn't take much effort. I made it with two different flavors; Strawberry and Blueberry. There were more Strawberry than Blueberry though... I would have make more blueberry pop-tarts rather than strawberry; because I'm a huge fan for blueberries, But, large majority of people in my family don't like blueberries to much and prefer strawberries much more than blueberries.

I thought the blueberry ones were better ;]

Recipe
For Pie Crust

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 tbsp. cold water

For Filling

Jam (your choice)

For Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
milk to thin

Sprinkles


1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Add shortening and butter and blend with a fork, pastry cutter, or your hands. Blend until mixture is fairly coarse. Add water, 1 tbsp. at a time, gently mixing dough after each addiction until dough forms a ball.

2. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll into a square/rectangle. To about 1/8 thickness. Cut out long strips about 2 inches wide and 3 inches long. Repeat until dough runs out.

3. Take one pie crust rectangle and lace 1 tsp. of jam on top. Cover with another piece of pie crust and crimp all four edges. Repeat with the rest of dough. Place Pop-tarts on a baking sheet with parchment paper, and bake for 7-8 minutes.

4. While pop-tarts are baking, make glaze. Place powdered sugar in a bowl. Pour milk slowing until it has a consistancy of really thick syrup. 1/2 a tbsp. to 1 tbsp. might be enough.

5. Once pop-tarts are done and cooled, top with glaze. Sprinkle and decorate with colorful sprinkle

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

Ever had trouble choosing between a brownie and cookie? In all honesty, it's pretty difficult to choose between a chewy cookie to a delicious, chocolaty brownie, no? Maybe that's just me. None the less, the two are just so good that I find it hard at times to actually choose one over the other. Thus, instead of having to choose between the two, I did something completely different and made something to resolve the problem. I combined the two! Creating the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownie!

The name itself is just screaming sin. But these are so incredibly chewy and decadent that you won't even be thinking about the fact that you are consuming both the chewy cookies and decadent brownies all in one. I cut the brownies in small sizes to help portion control and I couldn't help but aw at how cute and delicious they looked. I wish now that I added a layer of frosting. That would have made these so much better!

These a defiant must try! But, I'll tell you now that you'll need to watch the amount consumed!

Recipe

Brownie Layer

3/4 cup flour
2/3 cup cocoa
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
4 eggs, beaten
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Cookie Layer

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 rolled oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 eggs
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13x9 in baking pan.

2. For brownie layer, melt butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add sugar and cocoa; stir to blend. Remove from heat. Stir in eggs and vanilla. In a bowl, stir together flour, salt and baking soda; stir into chocolate mixture and add chocolate chips. Spread into baking pan.

3. For cookie layer, grind oats in a food processor or blinder until fine. In a medium bowl, combine the ground oats with the flour, baking soda, salt and ground cinnamon. In another medium bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla and lemon juice. Add the eggs and mix until smooth. Stir the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Add the chocolate chips.

4. Take the cookie mixture and add dough by rounded tablespoonfuls evenly onto brownie layer. Press down lightly.

5. Bake for about 40-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted 2 inches in comes out almost clean. Cool completely before cutting. Cut into 8 rows by 6 rows.

Peanut M&M Cookie Bars

I first came across this recipe here when I was browsing threw TasteSpotting not to long ago. I knew right off the bat that I wanted to make these. They sounded really good. I, however, don't really favor regular M&M's really at all. I much more prefer Peanut M&M's. Peanut M&M's just taste a hundred times better than just bitting into a piece of candy with chocolate inside it. But, thats just me.

We always have peanut M&M's on hand being that we keep a jar pull of M&M's and Peanut and Raisin's in the kitchen for snacking on. So I already had the main ingredient on hand. I wanted to make these bars a bit festive being that fall has arrived and all. So, I picked out only brown and orange peanut M&M's and I sprinkled the top of these bars with these new Fall Sprinkle I found at Party City. I thought they looked cute. These Cookie Bars came out really good. They were really chewy, which was what I was hoping for. I think I may try other candy with this recipe. Theres a lot you can do with it.

Recipe

2 3/4 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup butter, melted
2 1/4 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups Peanut M&M's


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.

3. In another bowl, combine the melted butter and brown sugar together, stirring until evenly distributed. Allow to cool slightly. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well each egg. Mix in vanilla. Stir in flour mixture. Once combined, add Peanut M&M's. Spread into a 13" x 9" baking pan or 10" x 15" jelly roll pan.

4. Bake for 24-27 minutes. Try not to oven bake or they will be dry. Once done, remove from oven and allow to cool completely before cutting.