I have come to the conclusion that if you are serving anything but true maple syrup at your house, then you are doing your entire family an injustice. I love, love, love maple syrup. Not Aunt Jemima. I'm talking about the real deal. It is SO worth the splurge in my book. I love coupons, but I will buy this thing full price. Well, not really full price. I've bought it from Sam's and Amazon. I guess I try to find a deal :) This recipe was screaming to me when I saw it in the Food Network Magazine a couple of months ago. I have another recipe for Blondies with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts that I made a few months ago. It is very similar to the base of this recipe. What makes this recipe spectacular is the sauce. What is there not to love about a sauce made of maple syrup, butter and cream?!? Take the warm blondie, top it with vanilla ice cream and drizzle it all with the warm maple sauce. I can make myself sick with this one. In fact, I think I'm about to go get a second helping now...
For the Blondies:
10 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup walnut pieces, divided
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
6 oz. chocolate chips or chunks
For the Topping:
1/3 cup maple syrup
6 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
vanilla ice cream, for serving
1/2 cup walnut sprinkles, for garnishing
Make the blondies. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 X 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
Pulse 1/2 cup walnuts in a food processor until almost fine (do not over process). Whisk the ground nuts, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
Beat the butter and brown sugar with a mixer on medium speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat in the vanilla. Gradually beat in the dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in the chocolate and the remaining 1/2 cup walnuts. Spread the batter in the prepared pan and bake until blondies are light brown around the edges and spring back when pressed, about 35 minutes (I had to leave mine in longer).
Meanwhile, make the topping. Place the maple syrup and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and cook until the mixture bubbles and thickens, swirling the pan, about 6 minutes (mine never really thickened a whole lot). Add the cream and continue to cook until the mixture is the consistency of caramel (again, mine never really thickened until I removed it from the heat and it cooled slightly).
Cut the blondies into bars and serve topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, chopped walnuts, and a healthy drizzle of the maple-butter sauce.
**And be sure to check out this recipe at Maple Syrup World! They have featured this recipe in their recipe archives. Maple Syrup World is a website that features 100% pure, organic maple syrup and treats. Check out more about them here!
Enjoy!
(adapted from Food Network Magazine)
The Sara Lee Pound Cake was on sale this week at Publix (along with the pineapple) so I knew I had to give this one a try. The weather was great for grillin'! I must say though, that these did not turn out quite as yummy as I had hoped. Don't get me wrong, they were good, I just felt like they were missing something. So I added a little vanilla ice cream! I almost felt like the pound cake should have been soaked in something before I skewered them. I don't know what though. And if I soaked them, they might have even fallen apart. This is a great recipe to welcome Summer!
1 pineapple, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 frozen pound cake, slightly thawed, cut into 1-inch cubes
honey, for drizzling (optional)
vanilla ice cream (optional)
Soak 8 wooden skewers in water. Preheat an outdoor grill or grill pan to medium-high heat. Alternately thread 4 cubes each of pineapple and pound cake on each skewer. Grill, turning once, until lightly charred, about 1 minute per side (I got distracted with Emme so mine were on there a little longer!) Drizzle with honey or serve with vanilla ice cream...or both!
Enjoy!
(adapted from Rachael Ray Magazine)
I found this recipe tucked in my binder, clipped from Rachael Ray Magazine. I've seen different versions of this floating around. I liked this one because it used Mountain Dew- which I stocked up on last week at CVS. I couldn't wait to tell my husband the secret ingredient in this! I am not a fan of Mountain Dew, but oh does it do wonderful stuff to this dessert! Don't forget to take the foil off the second half of baking like I did! Because of that, mine took a little longer in the oven, but it was worth the wait. The apples were tender and sweet. This is a quick ode to apple pie. Perfect for company because it looks fancy, especially with a side of ice cream, and its a cinch to make!
Flour for dusting
1 8-oz. can crescent rolls
1 Granny Smith apple- peeled and wedged (I used Gala)
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup Mountain Dew
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. On a surface dusted with flour, unfold the rolls. Place an apple wedge on the wide edge of each "triangle" and roll up (I used the Big and Buttery crescents so mine made 6. I also used two smaller Gala apples, so I rolled two wedges each). Place the dumplings in an 8-inch square baking dish.
In a saucepan, melt the butter with the sugar and cinnamon over medium heat; stir in the Mountain Dew. Pour the mixture over the dumplings. Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes; Remove the foil and bake 15 minutes longer, or until golden brown on top. Serve with vanilla ice cream. YUMMY!
Enjoy!
(adapted from Rachael Ray Magazine)
I am obviously not starting my diet until after the New Year! I saw the Blue Bell Ice Cream and bananas on sale at Publix this week, so I knew I had to make something like this. I didn't decide to add the brownies until last minute. What could it hurt, right? Just my waistline. This was so good. The one upside- my dessert cups do help with portion control. A cereal bowl would be much worse! Play around with this. This recipe is another one of those "method" recipes. Try this with pound cake cubes, cake, brownies, etc. This is a great dessert to throw together for company using whatever ingredients you have on-hand.
For one cup:
4 1-inch brownie cubes
1/2 banana cut in strips
4 strawberries, cut in chunks
1 scoop ice cream
Cool Whip
Place brownie cubes at the bottom of a cup. Layer with ice cream, bananas, then strawberries. Top with a dollop of Cool Whip. If you really want to blow your diet, drizzle with chocolate syrup like my husband did after I took the picture! Yummy!
Enjoy!
I was trying come up with an idea to use all of this cookie dough that's been on sale. I found this recipe, which is great, because it uses the apples that are on sale this week at Publix, too (Braeburns $.99 lb) Little did I know, the sugar cookie dough is not part of the Nestle dough that was on sale. But, I wanted to try this, so I splurged. But you could probably use the Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie dough in the pouch that was on sale. Its up to you. This was really good. It would have been great with ice cream or Cool Whip, but my Cool Whip was still frozen!
6 cup sliced peeled apples
1 cup packed brown sugar (or less)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (divided)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury refrigerated sugar cookies
2 tablespoons granulated sugar (or less)
Heat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl, mix apples, brown sugar, flour, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and lemon juice; toss to coat apples well. Spoon into ungreased deep-dish baking dish.
Spoon cookie dough, by teaspoons, evenly over apples. In small bowl, mix granulated sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon; sprinkle evenly over cookie dough.
Bake 35-45 minutes or until top is golden brown and apples are tender.
**I probably put a little more than 1 cup brown sugar, because I had a little left in the bag, so I dumped it in. It was probably too much! It was delicious, but a little on the sweet side. It would have been great with the vanilla ice cream to tone it down. Let it set for a few minutes on the stove to set up after removing it from the oven. Let the juices thicken a bit.
My family really enjoyed this. My Mom brought pizza over, so I contributed with the dessert. I have just enough to take for a snack tomorrow at work!
Enjoy!
(adapted from Pillsbury.com)
