Turtle Brownies for Caramel Day!

If you like turtle stuff these are definitely for you. The turtle layer is about as thick as the brownie layer.  Just a warning, these are super messy and gooey, but thats what makes them good. I'm sad to say I used a boxed brownie mix, but I was in a hurry. Here's what you need for the turtle brownies

Brownie mix (or your favorite brownie recipe), caramel, pecans, chocolate chips, and an egg. Prepare the brownies as the box says

Pour into an 8x8 foil lined and greased pan

Bake for about 30 minutes. While the brownies are in the oven, prepare the topping. In a mixing bowl, combine the egg, caramel, pecans, and chocolate chips

Mix all this together 

Pour on top of the cooked brownies and spread out carefully and evenly

Put back in the oven and bake for 5 more minutes. Pull those suckers out of the oven and let cool. Once they have cooled, pop them in the fridge for a couple of hours to harden up a little. If you don't, you'll get this..

Which wasn't such a bad thing, but I think it would've made them better. If only I had the patiences...

Turtle Brownies

1 box brownie mix (or your favorite brownie recipe)

1 egg

1/2 cup caramel

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

1 cup chocolate chips

Prepare the brownies as the box or recipe directs. Pour into a foil lined and greased 8x8 baking dish. Bake about 30 minutes. While the brownies are baking, prepare the turtle topping. In a mixing bowl, beat together the egg, caramel, pecans, and chocolate chips. Pour over the bake brownies. Put the brownies back in the oven and bake 5 more minutes. When they are done baking, let cool to room temp. Then chill in the fridge about 2 hours before cutting. Serve the ooey gooey brownies and enjoy :)

The New PB&J Sandwich

I hope y'all are peanut butter and jelly lovers because here is another dose! I remember the elementary school days of sack lunches with a classic pb&j sandwich!! That was one of the highlights of my day as a youngster (and still is if I have one). A not so healthy, but extremely delicious, twist on the pb&j sandwich is pb&j bars. I was surprised how much I loved them, but then again, how could I have ever doubted the pb&j combination?? I found this recipe on Brown-Eyed Baker's blog http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2009/09/02/peanut-butter-and-jelly-bars/. She is one of my favorites! Here is what you need:

Creamy peanut butter, butter, flour, salt, vanilla, your favorite jelly or jam, sugar, eggs, baking powder, peanut butter chips, and peanuts. First thing you need to do is cream the butter and sugar. Add in the peanut butter and eggs.

Once that is nicely mixed, add in the vanilla and stir.

Now all you need is the flour mixture (flour, salt, and baking powder) and peanut butter chips.

Mix just until all the ingredients are incorporated. The dough is pretty tasty..just had to make sure it was peanut buttery enough :)

Cover a 13x9 in. pan with foil and grease or spray with Pam. Add 2/3 of the peanut butter mixture to the pan.

Press the mixture flat in the bottom of the pan. It will be a slightly thick layer.

Spread your favorite jelly over the surface of the peanut butter mixture. | chose blueberry...I think that was wise.

With the rest of the peanut butter mixture, break off small to medium size pieces and distribute them evenly over the jelly. Sprinkle with peanuts.

Now pop them in the oven for about 40-45 minutes, or until golden.

I'm telling you, these are worth trying...you may never go back to a classic pb&j after this. Well, that may be going a little too far, but they are definitely worthy of being added to the recipe collection! HAPPY NATIONAL PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY DAY!!!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars
By: Brown-Eyed Baker

3 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1½ teaspoons salt
1 cup peanut butter chips
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups granulated sugar
2½ cups creamy peanut butter
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1½ cups jam or jelly (your favorite flavor)
2/3 cup peanuts, chopped

1. Cream the butter and sugar.
2. Add peanut butter and eggs. Stir until combined.
3. Stir in vanilla extract. Add flour mixture (flour, salt, and baking powder) and peanut butter chips. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated.
4. Foil the bottom of a 13x9 in. pan and spray with Pam. Press 2/3 of the peanut butter mixture in the bottom of the pan until flat and mostly even.
5. Spread jelly over the surface of the peanut butter mixture.
6. Evenly distribute the rest of the peanut butter mixture over the jelly in small to medium-sized pieces. Sprinkle with peanuts.
7. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until golden, at 350 degrees. Let cool for about 10-15 minutes. Eat up!

Peanut Butter Jelly Time

Happy PB&J Day! There are so many things I wanted to make to celebrate this day. For some reason I picked pb&j puppy chow. If you like pb&j, you'll like this! :) I'll be honest, it's not as good as the original puppy chow, but I still can't stop eating this one. The peanut butter and jelly is not that strong of a flavor, so if you want it to taste straight up like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I would add more peanut butter and jelly. Here's what you need for the pb&j puppy chow

Honey nut chex, butter, peanut butter, jelly, white chocolate chips, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Pour chex into a large bowl

Set that aside and start on the pb&j mixture. In a microwave safe bowl, combine white chocolate chips, butter, vanilla, jelly, and peanut butter

Heat about 30 seconds to a minute in the microwave. Stirring every 30 seconds to make sure the jelly doesn't burn. Heat it until it is smooth and melted

Pour over the chex and gently fold in

Once all the chex are fully coated, add the powdered sugar

This bowl has a lid to it so I just put the lid on and shook it up. If you are using a bowl without a lid you can fold the powdered sugar in gently or pour all of this into a large ziplock bag and shake it up. Here's the finished pb&j puppy chow

As you can see, I didn't add much powdered sugar. I didn't want to over power the pb&j flavor but that's up to you! Store your finished puppy chow in a air-tight container or ziplock bag.

PB&J Puppy Chow

(serves about 5 people)

4 1/2 cups honey nut chex

1/3 cup white chocolate chips

1 Tbs. butter

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 cup of your favorite jam/jelly (I used strawberry jam)

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Pour chex into a large bowl; set aside. In a microwave safe bowl, combine white chocolate, butter, pb, jelly, and vanilla. Microwave about 30 seconds to a minute, stirring every 30 seconds to make sure the jelly doesn't burn. Once the pb&j mixture is melted and smooth, pour over the chex. Gently fold in until all the chex are covered in the pb&j. Add in the powdered sugar and shake or fold in. You may need to add more powdered sugar, depending on your taste. Store in an air-tight container or large ziplock bag. 

German Chocolate Cake

My Dad's birthday was yesterday, and my momma's is tomorrow. For as long as I can remember we have only had one cake. Our family just didn't need 2 cakes. One of the only cakes both parents could agree on was German Chocolate Cake. Which is fine with me because that cake is amazing. If you've never had german chocolate cake, it is a lighter and sweeter chocolate cake with a cooked coconut and pecan frosting. Here's what you need for the cake

German's sweet Baker's chocolate, water, eggs, butter, sugar, vanilla, flour, salt, baking soda, and buttermilk (you can make your own buttermilk. I'll tell you how further on in the recipe). First, you're going to melt Baker's chocolate and water in a saucepan

Cook this on low heat, stirring continuously. This is to make sure you don't burn the chocolate because that is very easy to do. Once chocolate is completely melted and smooth, remove from heat and let cool about 10 minutes

While the chocolate mixture is cooling, start preparing the batter. Beat together room temp. butter and sugar

Beat about a minute or until fluffy or well combined

Now, separate the eggs into two bowls. If you have no idea how to separate eggs, google it or teach yourself because I have no idea how to explain it. Also, separating eggs is really common in cake making so it's nice to be able to separate them

Using a fork, beat the egg yolks

Add the beaten egg yolks to the butter and sugar mixture; set the egg whites aside

Beat in the yolks until well combined. Then add the melted and cooled chocolate mixture and vanilla

Mix the chocolate in well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again

In a medium-size bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking soda

You are going to need the buttermilk now so if you don't have buttermilk on hand you can make it yourself in 5 minutes! All you do is add 1 Tbs. of lemon juice or vinegar to every 1 cup of milk and let it set for 5 minutes. After the milk has turned into buttermilk, alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk into the batter (beginning and ending with flour. So you'll do 1/3 flour, then 1/2 buttermilk, then 1/3 flour, then the rest of the buttermilk, then the rest of the flour. Your mixer should be going on low speed while adding the wet and dry ingredients). Once that is mixed in the batter, you need to deal with the egg whites that you set aside earlier. Using a mixer beat the egg whites on high speed until soft peaks have formed

Pour the beaten egg whites into the batter and gently fold in using a spatula

Here's what the finished batter looks like

Grease three 8-inch round cake pans with pam or butter and flour. Then place wax paper in the bottom of each pan. What you do is rip 3 pieces of wax paper off the roll. Stack them and place underneath a cake pan that you are using (you are also going to need a sharpie)

  

Using the sharpie, trace a line on the wax paper going all the way around the bottom of the pan

Cut the wax paper on the line

Place each piece of wax paper in the bottom of each pan and grease the wax paper

Pour the batter evenly throughout all 3 pans

Place in a heated oven and bake. When finished baking flip out onto a parchment/wax paper lined cooling rack

Gently peel off the wax paper that is on the bottom of each cake layer. While the cake is cooling, prepare the frosting. Heads up, this frosting is frustrating, complicated, and time consuming, but worth it. Here's what you need

Butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla, evaporated milk, pecans, and coconut. In a large pot whisk together egg yolks and evaporated milk

Once combined, turn heat on low and add in butter, sugar, and vanilla

Starting here, you are going to stir this constantly until the mixture thickens up and turns to a pretty caramel color. This will take about 20 minutes. The mixture isn't going to be thick enough to put on the cake when your done cooking it so pour into a plastic bowl and let cool to room temperature. The cooler the frosting gets, the thicker the frosting will get. Once frosting is cool fold in chopped pecans and coconut

Here's what the finished frosting will look like

When the frosting is cool enough and thick enough to stay on the cake, start assembling the cake! Place one layer, top side down on the plate. Scoop a generous amount of frosting on that layer

Spread that around and continue until all the layers are stacked

Frost the tops and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting

You can serve just like this, but it looks a little boring to me, so I decided to decorate it just a little. There's not really much you can do to decorate a german chocolate cake without ruining it so I just lined it with pecans

Tada! This long process is totally worth it! This cake is just delicious and there is really no other way to describe it

German Chocolate Cake

1 pkg. (4 oz) german Baker's chocolate, broken in pieces

1/2 cup water

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

4 eggs, separated

1 cup butter, soft

2 cups sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/4 cup buttermilk

• Preheat oven to 350. Grease 3 8-inch round cake pans, then line bottoms with wax paper. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the chocolate with the water, stirring to melt the chocolate, and blend well. Set aside and cool for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt; Set aside. In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg yolks, beating until well combined. Add the chocolate mixture and the vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients in thirds, alternating with the buttermilk, beating after each addition, until smooth. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites on the high speed of an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gently fold into batter. Divide batter among the prepared pans. Bake for 25-28 minutes. Be careful not to over bake! Pull the finished cakes out of the oven and flip out onto a wax/parchment paper lined cooling rack. Gently peel the wax paper off the bottoms of each layer. While the cake is cooling, prepare the frosting.

Coconut Pecan Frosting:
17 ounces evaporated milk
6 egg yolks
2 tsp. vanilla
2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
3 cups sweet and shredded coconut
2 cups coarsely chopped pecans

Beat egg yolks and milk in large saucepan with wire whisk until well blended. Add sugar, vanilla, and butter; cook on medium heat 15-20 minutes or until thickened and golden brown, stirring constantly. Pour into a plastic bowl to cool to room temperature. (Frosting will thicken up as it cools.) Fold in coconut and pecans. Once the frosting is cooled, frost and layer the cake. Even if you feel like you are putting too much frosting on the cake, use it all because the frosting is what makes the cake so delicious. Decorate if you want. Enjoy! :)