Oreo Caramel Brownie Bombs

“With a bottom layer of soft chocolate chip cookie, which is topped by broken Oreos and gobs of caramel before a layer of soft chocolaty brownie, it's no wonder that this one ticks a lot of boxes for dessert and sweet lovers.” Rock Recipes, www.nlrockrecipes.com

Ingredients

Chocolate Chip Base

WET

1/2 cup butter 

1 cup brown sugar 

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

DRY

1 cup + 3 Tbsp flour

1 tsp baking powder 

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Oreo Layer

18 Oreo Cookies 

3/4 cup toffee or caramel pieces (or 24 caramel squares)

Brownie Top

DRY

3/4 cup flour 

2 tsp cocoa powder 

1/4 tsp salt

WET

1/2 cup butter

5 squares of unsweetened baker's chocolate

3/4 cup granulated sugar 

1/4 cup brown sugar 

3 large eggs 

1tsp vanilla

Directions

Choc Chip Base: In your stand mixer, cream butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, beat on medium until well mixed. In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Add to creamed mixture folding to combine well. Fold in chocolate chips. Spread in a greased 9x13 baking pan.

Brownie Top: Sift together dry ingredients. In a small pot, melt together butter and chocolate over low heat. Remove pot and stir in sugars. When lukewarm, add eggs and vanilla. Stir until sugars are dissolved. Mix wet and dry together.

Baking and Assembly: Set the oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees if using glass baking pan) Bake the choc. Chip base for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and top with Oreo Layer ingredients. Pour brownie mixture on top and spread evenly. Return to oven and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until brownie layer no longer looks glossy and is slightly firm to the touch. Remove from oven, cool completely. Cut into squares. 

Really, the only part that I used the stand mixer for was to cream the butter and the brown sugar together for the chocolate chip cookies. This could have been easily achieved with a hand-held mixer or even the old-fashioned way with a good solid forearm. 

Mint Chocolate Chip St. Patty's Cookies

Chewy, subtly minty, perfectly chocolaty... step number one to a fantastic St. Patricks Day. If only they went a little better with that green beer. Happy St. Patricks Day everyone! Heres to a cold beer and another one.

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, at room temperature

2 3/4 cup flour

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon mint extract

Green Food Coloring, 10-12 drops

1 1/2 cups Chocolate chips

Method

1. Add butter and sugar to stand mixer and, on high speed, cream until light and fluffy. Add eggs and mix again, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula when needed. Add mint extract and mix until light and fluffy again.

2. Mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add to butter mixture on medium until well combined. Add enough green food coloring to get the right colour. The color of the dough should be a little darker than you want the cookie color to be. Add chips and mix until incorporated.

3. Instead of the traditional ball, I flattened out 1 Tbsp of dough and used a shamrock cutter to mould the shape. Gently lay cut cookies down on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees. 

4. Remove and let cool for 10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. 

Cookie Fail: I tested a cookie (at first interested to see how the cutter would hold up). Good thing I did because the wax paper I used was horrible. Maybe I am confusing wax paper and parchment paper - can you cook with wax paper? I don't recommend it.

These cookies could have easily been made using other methods such as using a hand-held electric mixer or mixing by hand. I did however use my stand mixer in their production.

Recipe: Scalloped Sweet Potato

Let me introduce this dish by saying it was an experiment.... and it turned out to be a bit of a failed experiment. I don't recommend it. "So why are you posting it?" You ask. Well in starting this blog experimentation was an accepted tenant of the mission. And, as any good scientist will tell you, experiments don't always succeed. So I post this if only to demonstrate that not all cooking is successful, that trying something new will either result in a new recipe or an area you know to stay away from next time!

Its not that this dish was inedible. We ate it at dinner as a side to chicken and greens. We ate leftovers. But it just wasn't exciting. Further, there was just something off about it. I am now a firm believer that scalloped potatoes should always remain true to their original classic form. But hey, I invite you to by your own judge!

Ingredients
3 sweet potatoes
1 medium onion, sliced and separated into rings
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp cinnamon
2 1/2 cups milk

Directions  

1. Attach the slicer/shredder attachment to your stand mixer, using the thick slicer blade. 
2. Rinse the sweet potatoes. Turn on the stand mixer to Speed 6 and feed the sweet potatoes through the slicer. Catching pieces into a medium sized bowl.
3. Oil a large, rectangular casserole dish. Arrange sweet potato slices to cover the bottom of the casserole dish. Top with onion. Repeat layers. Arrange remaining potatoes over top. 
4. On a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add flour and spices, stirring together to form a paste. Gradually whisk in milk stirring constantly for 5-8 minutes or until boiling and thickened. 
5. Pour the sauce over top of the sweet potato and onion layers. 
6. Cover and bake in an oven set to 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until sweet potatoes appear soft at the prick of a fork. WIthin the last 20 minutes of baking, uncover the casserole in order to brown potatoes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. 

Recipe in Photos: 

Sweet Potatoes

Slicing the Sweet Potato 

Layers of sweet potato and onion in a casserole dish

Making the sauce 

Pour the sauce over the casserole 

The finished product

What I Learned:

• While it can be a fruitful endeavour to experiment with new combinations and ideas sometimes the original classic is a classic for a reason 
• There are better ways to eat sweet potatoes. I suggest homemade sweet potato fries tossed in olive oil and sprinkled with Cajan seasoning. mmmmm, much better. 
• I dont even recommend this recipe if you were to simply substitute out the sweet potatoes for white potatoes such as Yukon Gold. My grandmother has a infinitely better scalloped potato recipe that would blow this recipe out of the water. We will try that on another day. 

A stand mixer is not required for scalloped (sweet) potatoes. I imagine other routes would take just as much effort as what was required here.