Cranberry Bliss Bars

These were called White Chocolate Cranberry Blondies when I found them, but they looked like Cranberry Bliss Bars to me!

I added the white chocolate drizzle and then the cranberries, which does not look as pretty as if you do it the right way--cranberries first, THEN white chocolate drizzle...Oops.

Normally blondies would have me responding, "Why blondie when you can brownie?!" But, I mean cranberry bliss bars are obviously in a category of their own.

These are super sweet and decadent, but the tangy cream cheese and cranberries help balance out the the white chocolate.

As I'm sure you know, these are the perfect holiday treat!

Cranberry Bliss Bars

~Print Recipe~

• 6 Tablespoons butter, melted.
• 3/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Dash of ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 3 oz. chopped white chocolate (or chips)

• 5 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 3 oz. chopped white chocolate (or chips), melted.
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped

1. For bars: Grease a 8 in. square baking dish and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 
2. In a large bowl, mix melted butter with brown sugar. When it has cooled to room temperature, mix in egg and vanilla. 
3. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Gradually stir dry ingredients to butter mixture. Mix in 1/4 cup cranberries and 3 oz. white chocolate. The batter will be very thick.
4. Spread batter into prepared baking dish. Bake for 18-21 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted
   
   near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
5. For frosting: beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until blended. Gradually add half of the melted white chocolate and beat until blended. Frost the bars. Sprinkle with chopped cranberries and drizzle with remaining white chocolate. Cut into wedges and store in the refrigerator.

Note: This recipe easily doubles to fit a 13"x 9" pan. In that case, 1 package cream cheese (8 oz) will do. 

*Vegan* Chocolate Chunk Spice Cookies

Need a last minute valentine treat for a loved one, who happens to be vegan or dairy-free? These festive cookies are quick and easy to make, and you will surely find most of the ingredients in your pantry already. Their spiciness also lend themselves to other winter holidays, such and Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you need a bunch of cookies, double or triple the batch, as they only make a dozen large or 20 small cookies.

What's in it

1/3 C sugar (turbinado or unrefined sugar recommended)

1/2 C dark chocolate chunks (be sure to check they are dairy-free, Nestle typically has milk products in their morsels)

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg

1/16 tsp ground allspice

1-2 pinches ground cloves

1 C barley flour (or 1 C minus 2 Tbl all-purpose flour)

3 Tbl cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/3 C maple syrup

1/4 C + 1 tsp canola oil

How it's made

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat.

In a small bowl, combine maple syrup and oil. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the rest of the dry ingredients, except the chocolate chunks. Whisk or sift together until well combined and not very clumpy. Add in the chocolate chunks - you can save out some chocolate chunks if you would like to press them on top before baking. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Scoop out rounded tablespoons of batter onto your baking sheet. Press reserved chocolate chunks on top of each cookie. Bake 11 minutes (no more, or else they will get dry!). Cool on pan 1 minute, then transfer to wire rack to finish cooling.

Patty's Famous Mrs. Field's Cookies

It just is not truly Christmas without these cookies. For as long as I can remember, my mother has baked what she calls "Mrs. Field's cookies" for the holidays. (Her original recipe makes a batch of 90 cookies! Nearly impossible to stir at the end there. I don't recommend it.)

These cookies are out of control. As you can tell from the title, they are jam packed with nearly everything you could want in a cookie. Oatmeal. Chocolate chips. Nuts. In fact, there ends up being trace amounts of dough holding all of those goodies together. Just enough it turns out, and somehow they magically come together in the oven--quickly, too! The baking time is a short 6-8 minutes.

This recipe is straight forward, but it does have a couple twists. The first and most obvious is a grated chocolate bar stirred into the dough... in addition to the massive amount of chocolate chips. Genius, plain and simple. These are chocolate-lovers' cookies, and I happen to love chocolate--so there you go. The second riff is the additional step of blending (or food-processing) some of the oatmeal. The added flavor component and binding capacity are paramount, with very little effort.

The dough gets very, very thick. It tested the strength and determination of my "professional" Kitchen Aid stand mixer. A hand-held mixer would likely prove too weak to compete with this heavy duty dough. Lacking a stand mixer, mix this by hand. (Just make sure you build up your arm strength for a few weeks before hand...)

There is still time to add these cookies to your holiday tradition! They make great gifts, and they are a grand slam for a cookie exchange party.

Patty's Mrs. Field's Cookies

~Print Recipe~

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups oatmeal, separated
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 ounce good quality (Ghiradelli or Scharffen Berger) semi-sweet chocolate bar, finely-grated
• 12 ounces chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups chopped, roasted pecans and/or walnuts

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. 
2. Cream butter and both sugars in a large bowl.
3. Add eggs and vanilla until combined.
4. Blend 1/2 cup oatmeal in a blender or food processor until it is a power. Sift blended oatmeal together with flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl.
5. Mix flour mixture into butter mixture until combined.
6. Stir in chocolate chips, grated chocolate, whole oats, and roasted nuts.
7. Space golf ball-sized balls of dough on parchment lined cookie sheets. Flatten slightly, then bake for 6-8 minutes only. They will not look completely done, but I warn you--do not over cook or cookies will be too crunchy! Let cookies cool slightly on the pan on a cooling rack, then transfer to the rack.

Makes 45 cookies

Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

At the risk of sounding over dramatic, I will say it anyways: these are perhaps the best cookies I have ever made. Seriously. The most fascinating part is that one cookie is totally satisfying, they are that good. Usually one cookie follows another follows another, until you're stuck with a belly full of cookies. Of course I am also a sucker for chocolate and mint, being a huge fan of hot chocolate mixed with peppermint schnapps. These spirited little cookies have the perfect balance of chocolates and peppermint, walking a fine line between cookie and brownie - a good choice for any holiday party or dessert. The original recipe is courtesy of Bon Appetite magazine, but I have made a couple adaptations for the normal baker.

What's in it

2 1/2 C bittersweet chocolate chips (15 oz), divided

1 1/2 C unbleached flour

1/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp instant espresso powder (it's worth it!)

1/2 tsp salt (unless you are using salted butter)

1/2 C (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature

1 C sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp peppermint extract

2 eggs

4 candy canes coarsely crushed (they will be different sizes, that's ok)

How it's made

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, espresso powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat butter until creamy. Beat in extracts and sugar until smooth. Add eggs and beat until combined. Set aside.

In a small metal bowl, measure out 2 cups chocolate chips, and place bowl over a small pot of boiling water (not a rolling boil, more like a simmer). Sir chips until smooth and melted. Measure 1/2 cup melted chocolate and set aside. If you keep it in a metal measuring cup, you can set on top of the oven to keep it warm as the oven pre heats.

Beat in remaining melted chocolate into butter mixture. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just blended. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup chocolate chips. (Ok, I added more than that...)

Using a tablespoon, scoop out small balls of dough and place on cookie sheet 1 1/2 inches apart. If you can shape them to be more round than blob, they will come out prettier when baked.

Bake cookies about 8 or 9 minutes, until they are cracked on top and tester comes out clean. Don't be fooled by the melty chocolate chips inside, though! Let set on baking sheet for a few minutes, then move to cooling racks. You can keep them on the parchment paper on top of the racks if you'd like, to minimize cleanup.

If necessary, re-warm reserved melted chocolate until melty. Using a fork, drizzle melted chocolate in zig zags across baked cookies. Sprinkle crushed candy on top, then drizzle with a bit more chocolate. Once all the cookies are baked and decorated, transfer onto one baking sheet and stick in the refrigerator to set the chocolate, about 20 minutes.

Tips

You should be able to get all the cookies on two baking sheets if they are a good size. If you need to use one twice, be sure it cools down in between, to minimize the dough melting and spreading out.

You can freeze these cookies up to three weeks in advance if you want to get a jump start on baking for the holidays. Freeze in an air tight container, and eat them cold or at room temperature, depending on your preference.