The recipe of choice this week is Chewy Chunky Blondies selected by Nicole of Cookies on Friday. As far as cookie bars go,blondies play a very close second to brownies as far as I’m concerned. Especially blondies that are full of chocolate bits and toffee pieces!
Here we are, Tuesday again and I’ve somehow managed to scrape together the time to make this week’s TWD challenge (that was in doubt for a time this weekend) - Soft Chocolate and Raspberry Tart on page 354 chosen by Rachelle of “Mommy? I’m Hungry!“. As I’m sure you are all well aware by now, as far as I’m concerned fruit and chocolate must be strictly segregated from one another. But at its heart this recipe was pure decadent chocolate so I felt compelled to make it.
First – apologies for my unannounced (and unplanned) disappearance for the past month-ish. I did make the pecan pie back in December (actually I made it for Thanksgiving and it was wonderful), but we left town the day the post was due and I never got around to posting it in all of our travel chaos. I truly wanted to make the chocolate cheesecake but there was no way I could bring Dorie’s book in my luggage and I clean forgot to make a copy of the recipe before we left. Next thing I know, here it is mid January and I haven’t posted since mid December.
Anyway, enough with the excuses, right? This week Lillian of Confectiona’s Realm picked Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars on pages 114 and 115. This is one of many recipes in the book that doesn’t have a drool inspiring photo paired with it so I have often missed it as I flipped through but I am glad that Lillian selected it.
Welcome to today’s somewhat later than intended installment of TWD. This week’s recipe is Caramel Crunch Bars on pages 112-113 of Dorie’s book. We have Whitney of What’s Left on the Table to thank for this delicious selection.
Every year around this time I find myself going through the exact same thing. I go to store after store looking for the Heath toffee baking pieces (the ones without the chocolate), only to be disappointed at every stop. I used to be able to get them easily; they were in the baking aisle of every grocery store, right there with the rest of the assorted baking pieces almost always next to the selection of nuts. Then, about 3 or 4 years ago they quietly disappeared.
How could this be? I asked at several grocery stores and I was informed that the Heath baking pieces were just not popular enough to keep them in stock and I should try a specialty store. Well, I tried several to no avail. Last year I actually bought full size Heath bars, melted the chocolate off them and crushed them myself. I’ve looked online, and sure, I can find those wonderfully convenient baking pieces but the shipping costs are staggering.
This year I decided to finally give up on the idea of convenience (really, is it still convenient if you have to go to a dozen stores to not find what you’re looking for?), I decided I would try my hand at making my own toffee baking pieces. It turns out that it is quick, easy, and well worth the (minimal) effort.
