Lucky Treats

Did you know that March is one of my favorite months of the year? Why? Well, St. Patrick’s day, of course! As I’ve mentioned before, I was an Irish dancer turned Irish dancing teacher. For a good chunk of my life March meant shows, parades, more shows, and celebration. March 17th meant taking the day off from school (or work) and dancing (or watching dancers) at local libraries and pubs.

For the last few years I’ve been bummed to be without my Irish dancing family during this fun month. This year I am going to make the best of things by celebrating the month with FOOD! Starting with these fun treats. They are not traditional Irish fare. Not even close. But they’re fun, easy, and tasty. And a good way to kick off my March! Truth be told, I like them better than regular Rice Krispie Treats.

 

And just for fun – here is a throw back parade picture! That’s me in top middle! Maybe I’ll dig up a few more old Irish dancing photos for the next few posts…

Sugar Cookie Bars

I’ve been on a bit of sweet kick lately. I promise we are eating a lot more than brownie tarts, cookies, sorbet, and sugary bars. Sweet treats are just more fun to share! But I will be sharing some delicious savory recipes soon.

These bars are absolutely perfect for bringing to a potluck, Easter party, or family gathering. They’re easy to throw together and easy to transport. Jesse took half of these to work and he said his coworkers gobbled them up and raved about them. What’s not to love about a sugar cookie with frosting? For the frosting, I was going to make a traditional buttercream, but realized at the last minute I didn’t have any powdered sugar (doh!), so instead I went with my go-to fluffy vanilla frosting. You can use whatever frosting you like best.

The original recipe made a ton. I cut the recipe in half and used a 9×13 pan. I was able to get 32 bars and they were just the right thickness. The recipe below is exactly how I made it, if you have a larger party you can double the recipe and use a jelly roll or sheet pan.

 

 Here are some more great bar/brownie ideas to take to your next party!
Creamy Lemon Bars
Peanut Butter Marbled Brownies
Basic One-Bowl Blondies
Pumpkin Blondies

Individual Strawberry Brownie Tarts

As I promised on Facebook last week, this week is going to be full of Valentine’s worthy treats. Lots of pinks and reds. And of course some chocolate too!

These Individual Strawberry Brownie Tarts are the perfect dessert for impressing your Valentine. A rich and chocolatey brownie topped with a delicious (and simple!) cream cheese frosting, juicy strawberries, and drizzled with chocolate syrup. Decadent and impressive, but surprisingly easy! For the brownie I stuck with a simple one-bowl recipe. While the brownies were baking I cleaned out the bowl and used it for the simple frosting. If you realllly wanted you could make them just a few steps easier by using boxed brownie mix and store bought frosting, but you might find that the (very few) extra steps for the homemade version are worth it. And you can definitely use store bought chocolate syrup (like Hershey’s).

As for the “individual” part of this dessert – I used a this heart shaped mini-cake pan from Wilton. You could also use ramekins or even a regular muffin tin (making 12 instead of 6, so they aren’t too thick). Or if you don’t feel like messing with individual dessert you could also use a pie pan, tart pan, or spring-form pan.  No matter which option you choose, I’m sure your Valentine will be impressed!!

 


Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

You may have noticed that I have been saying “Week of Christmas Treats” and not “Week of Christmas Cookies“. As much as I love (really. love.) cookies, I can’t ignore the other delicious treats loved by so many this time of year. Fudge is something I’ve ignored for the last few years, but I couldn’t let that crime continue another year.

When deciding what kind of fudge I wanted to make I had a lot of ideas swirling around in my head. Once I finally had it narrowed down to 2 ideas, I started searching for good recipes. The problem I came across is that a lot of recipes call for marshmallow fluff or sweetened condensed milk, and some even call for Velveeta cheese (seriously?! tell me it’s better than it sounds). I really wanted to avoid those kinds of products, which, luckily I suppose, really narrowed down my search results. In the end the winning recipe contained evaporated milk (something I usually have on hand anyways) and no marshmallow fluff or sweetened condensed milk (something I never have on hand).

Of course, chocolate and peanut butter are a winning combination in my book. But that’s not all that’s great about this fudge! This fudge is also pretty easy to make and the resulting texture is amazing. Smooth and rich without being obnoxiously sweet (which I find some peanut butter fudge to be). The hardest part for me was deciding when to stop beating the fudge after it cooks and sits. I probably could have gone a bit longer, but I wanted to avoid overbeating.