Oatmeal Chocolate Butterscotch Bars-The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

The first week of December found boxes and boxes of cookies traveling here and there and everywhere.  It was time for the 4th annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap and bloggers were sending and receiving packages of cookies all week. I received cookie packages from:

Carrie at The Frugal Foodie Mama sent  these delicious shortbread cookies.

Susan at theFoodette sent these adorable Santa boot cookies.  I am anxious to see if these have cardamom in them.

Dixya at Food Pleasure and Health sent these little beauties.  (I forgot to tell hubby not to eat these until I could take a picture, so there were only three left.)

 
The cookies I made went to Lindsey Farr, American Heritage Cooking, Sara Lemert, FoodieAnonymous, and Mary Bolster Eat Drink and Be Mary. I made little reusable treat bags to sent the cookies in.

I chose one of my favorite easy and versatile bar cookie recipes, Oatmeal Chocolitas.  This was originally a Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest recipe.  I renamed it Oatmeal Chocolate Butterscotch Bars to give a better description of the bars for this post. This is a four layer cookie with a bottom layer of oatmeal streusel, a layer of chips, a layer of ice cream topping, and another layer of oatmeal streusel.

The middle layers can be any combination of chips and topping such as butterscotch or peanut butter chips with chocolate topping, chocolate chips with caramel topping, white chocolate chips with chocolate topping, chocolate chips with marshmallow topping, caramel chips with apple cinnamon topping or just about any combination you can think up.

Oatmeal Chocolate Butterscotch Bars
from a Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest
2 c. flour
2 c. quick-cooking rolled oats
1 1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 1/4 c. butter or margarine, melted (I always use butter)
1 c. semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips
1 (12 oz.) jar butterscotch ice cream topping
3 T. flour

In a large mixer bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and salt.  Mix on low for 1 minutes to combine.  Add melted butter and mix at low speed until mixture is crumbly.  Press half of crumb mixture (about 2 1/2 c.) into bottom of a foil-lined 10x15-inch baking pan.  Set remaining crumb mixture aside  Bake oatmeal mixture at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.  Meanwhile mix butterscotch ice cream topping and flour.  Remove oatmeal base from oven.  Sprinkle warm base with chocolate chips.  Pour topping mixture evenly over the chips.  Sprinkle with remaining oatmeal mixture.  Pat down lightly.  Return to oven and bake 16 to 22 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool completely.  Cut into 48 bars.

Thanks to Lindsay of Love and Olive Oil and Julie of The Little Kitchen for hosting the swap each year.  Thanks also to this year’s sponsors:  Oxo Good Grips, Dixie Crystals, California Olives and Brownie Brittle who matched the bloggers contributions so a little over $12,000 was earned for Cookies for Kids' Cancer.  566 bloggers from 7 countries participated in this years swap.  That is a lot of cookies.  Oxo again sent a wonder little gift, and this year it was this great Decorating Bottle Kit.  I dont usually make fancy, decorated cookies, but with this kit, I may just give it a try.

If you missed the cookie swap this year, but think you might like to participate in 2015 you can sign up here to be put on the list to receive the cookie swap information when it becomes available next year.

Come back Friday for a link-up to all the cookies in this year's swap.

Secret Recipe Club-Butterscotch Blondie Mini Muffcakes

The blog that I was assigned for January for Secret Recipe Club was Bizzy Bakes.  Since I have been up against bandwidth issues with my ISP I did not have a chance to explore the blog as much as I would have liked.

I did, however, find two great potato patty recipes and a whole page of links to muffin recipes.  When I saw Butterscotch Blondie Muffins listed on that page, I knew that was what I would make.  After all who can resist a blondie or a muffin?  I am definitely going to explore this blog further when I get through this ISP thing.

I made a few minor changes which is why I named my recipe Butterscotch Blondie Mini Muffcakes.  A year or so ago, Tiffany from Eat at Home and I had a email conversation regarding what to call those recipes that seemed to be between a muffin and a cupcake.  Muffcakes was the result of that conversation.

I used an egg instead of the egg substitute.  I baked the batter in a mini muffin pan and instead of stirring in the butterscotch chips, I just placed a butterscotch chip on top of each muffin.  I had hoped that the chips would remain on the top, but they sunk into the muffins.  Next time I will use two chips for each muffin cup and push them into the batter to cover them.

Hubby really liked these, especially the butterscotch chip center of each mini muffin.

Butterscotch Blondie Mini Muffcakes
adapted from Bizzy Bakes
1/4 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar, packed
1 large egg at room temperature
2 t. vanilla extract
1 c. flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/8 t. salt
36 butterscotch baking chips

Melt butter in a large microwave-safe bowl.  Stir in brown sugar, egg and vanilla.  Combine flour, baking powder and salt.  Stir flour mixture into butter/sugar mixture just until flour is moist.  Batter will be somewhat stiff.  Spray a mini muffin pan with nonstick spray.  Drop batter by teaspoonsfull into muffin cups.  Push two butterscotch chips into each muffin.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  Let cool and store in a zip top bag to keep muffins moist.  Makes 18 mini muffins.

Salted Mixed Nut Bars

If the Peppermint Crunch Bars posted on Thursday were for the peppermint lover, this Saturday Sweet is for the nut lover.

More a candy than a cook, Salted Mixed Nut Bars consist of a shortbread-like base with a topping of mixed nuts embedded in a butterscotch toffee candy.

The original recipe for these bars came from a Pillsbury Bake-Off.  I have adapted the recipe to use the Holiday Cookie Mix for the base.  You can probably tell by now that the mix can be used in any recipe that calls for a shortbread-like base.

This is another versatile recipe that can be changed up at will.  Any combination of nuts or a single nut can be used.  Salted nuts can be used or unsalted nuts with some salt added.  The chips can be almost any flavor.  Peanut butter chips with salted peanuts is one option.  Chocolate chips with almost any nut is another.

Don’t be afraid to use corn syrup.  It has nothing to do with high fructose corn syrup.

Salted Mixed Nut Bars
2 1/2 c. Holiday Cookie Mix
3 c. mixed nuts of choice
1 (11 oz.) pkg. butterscotch chips
1 c. corn syrup
1/4 c. butter
2 T. water
1 1/2 t. kosher salt

Measure cookie mix into a foil-lined jelly roll pan.  Pat the mix out in the pan into an even layer.  Bake at 350 degrees 10 to 12 minutes or till golden brown.  Remove from oven and let set  5 minutes . Spread nuts over base in a single layer.  In a medium saucepan combine butterscotch chips, corn syrup, butter and water.  Cook and stir over medium heat, melting the chips and butter and bringing to a boil.  Boil and stir 2 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Stir in salt.   Quick and evenly pour mixture over the nuts spreading as evenly as possible.  Return pan to oven and bake 10-12 minutes.  Place pan on rack to cool completely.  Remove from pan and cut into 48 bars.

Linking to these great parties:
Weekend Potluck
Feature Friday Linky Party
Strut Your Stuff
Seasonal Inspiration
I'm Lovin' It
Weekend Bloggy Reading
Saturday Nite Special
Sunday Show and Tell
Sweets for a Saturday

Butterscotch Oatmeal Cake

I just want to say a quick welcome to my new followers.  As always, thanks to all who take the time out of their busy lives to read this blog.  It is appreciated.

Many years ago I clipped a recipe from a Nestles ad for Butterscotch Bark Cake.  It was called that because you used a fork to make the frosting look like bark.  I loved that cake, but over the years the recipe disappeared.
 
Lately I have been thinking about that cake and wanted to make it.  I searched the Nestle site, and it is not there.  I searched the net and did not find it.  I also had done a search for chocolate oatmeal cake and found one at Are You Hungry that called for semisweet chocolate chips.  I thought why not use  butterscotch chips in place of the chocolate ones and see what happens.  Though not quite like I remember, this did make a very good cake.

I have to admit that once I made the cake, I didn’t want to work any more; so I just frosted it with some canned chocolate frosting that I had purchased to make candy with at Christmas time and didn’t get to it.

Butterscotch Oatmeal Cake
adapted from Are You Hungry

1 1/2 c. boiling water
1 c. quick-cooking oatmeal
1/2 pkg. butterscotch chips (3/4 c. plus 2 T.)
1/2 c. butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar, packed
2 eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt

Mix oats and boiling water together in a bowl.  Add butterscotch chips, let stand 5 minutes.  Stir.  Let stand 10 minutes more.  Meanwhile in another bowl cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Stir oat mixture to thoroughly blend in  the chips.  Add to sugar/egg mixture.  Combine flour, baking soda and salt.  Add to oat mixture and blend well.  Pour into a greased 9x13-inch baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool in pan on a wire rack.  Frost with your favorite frosting.

Linking to:  Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
Totally Tasty Tuesday
Tuesdays at the Table
Sweets for a Saturday

Almond Toffee Butterscotch Brownies

I wanted to call these Almond Roca Brownies, but that name is owned by Brown & Haley who make a candy by that name.  During the holidays, one of my local grocery stores had Torani Syrups on sale, and I had some coupons so I purchased several flavors:  Hazelnut, Butter Rum., Almond Roca, and Raspberry.  I don’t drink coffee but wanted to try the syrups in some recipe ideas I had.

The first thing I tried are these brownies using the Almond Roca Syrup and Heath Milk Chocolate Toffee Bits.  This makes a very sugary, soft bar that keeps well tightly covered.

I used toasted slivered almonds in these.  I like to break the almonds up further so there are more almond pieces per brownie.  This is extra work so is not necessary if you don’t want to bother.  I only used half a package of the toffee bits as these are very rich.

I based my recipe on an old recipe from Betty Crocker.  Melted butter, margarine, shortening or vegetable oil can be used in the recipe.  I generally prefer to use the butter.  Because the butter is melted, this recipe goes together very quickly.

If you don't have the syrup, you can omit it and use 1 t. vanilla or almond extract instead.  The flavor will just be a little different.

Almond Toffee Butterscotch Brownies

1/2 c. melted butter, margarine, shortening or vegetable oil

2 c. light brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

2 T. Torani Almond Roca Syrup

1 1/2 c. flour

2 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

12 c. slivered toasted almonds

1/2 package Heath Milk Chocolate Toffee Bits (about 1/2 c. plus 3 T.)

Melt butter, margarine or shortening and let cool slightly.  This is not necessary if you are using vegetable oil.  Combine fat and brown sugar until well blended.  Stir in eggs and mix well.  Stir together flour, baking powder and salt.  Add to sugar mixture and stir until well blended.  Add the almonds and toffee bits.  Turn batter into a well-greased 9x13-inch baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  The bars may not seem to be done, but they are.  Do not overbake.  Cool slightly and cut into bars 2 1/2x1-inch bars.  Makes about 36 bars.  Store tightly covered.

Linking to:  A Marvelous Mess Monday
Melt in Your Mouth Monday
Must Try Monday
Making Monday Marvelous
What Makes You Say Mmmmm Monday
Homemaker Monday
Newbie Party
Sweet Treats Thursday
Sweet Temptations

Ingredient Spotlight-Dessert Sauces-Butterscotch & Chocolate

If you try either of these easy dessert sauces, you will understand why I could not NOT link them up to Eat at Home's Ingredient Spotlight today.  They are so quick and easy, made with regular ingredients most of us have in our pantries all the time.  Either sauce is great over just about any dessert:  first and foremost, ice cream; but also pound cake, puddings and custards, bread pudding, apple or peach pie, etc., etc.  If no one is looking they are also perfect to just slurp off a spoon.  I sometimes add chopped, toasted nuts (walnuts to the chocolate, pecans to the butterscotch) just to make them a little more decadent.  Keep any leftovers in the fridge.  Cover and warm slowly in the microwave, 50% power about a minute at a time, stirring often.  I think the recipes came off the internet, but I don't remember from where.

Hot Butterscotch Sauce
1 cup (240 ml) packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup (60 ml) half-and-half
2 T (30 ml) butter or margarine
2 T (30 ml) light corn syrup

In 1-quart (1-liter) saucepan over medium heat, heat brown sugar, half-and-half, butter or margarine and corn syrup to boiling, stirring occasionally.  Serve over ice cream, pound cake slices, peach or apple pie, tapioca pudding or baked custard.  Makes 1 cup

Chocolate Dessert Sauce
1 cup (6 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup half-and-half
1 T butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In 1-quart saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate with corn syrup, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat; stir in remaining ingredients until mixed.  Serve warm over your favorite dessert.  Makes 1-1/3 cups.

You can make Mint Chocolate Sauce by using mint chocolate chips and omitting the vanilla.

Now I think that I will have to have a banana split for dessert tonight.  Enjoy.

I am linking to post to Eat at Home's Ingredient Spotlight and Whisking Wednesdays at a Pinch of This, That, and The Other.

Tomorrow I will be Skipping through Blogland and coincidentally stopping by Eat at Home


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