Chubby Hubby Bars

My husband sent me this recipe requesting these cookie bars with some immediacy. He found the recipe through one of his readerson his running blog, Wisely and Slow. I have never been much of a cookie bar maker, I am a purist and I like my cookies round. But I decided to give these a try as written.

Google tells me the recipe originated from a blogger who does not love ice cream but liked the inclusions in Ben and Jerry’s Chubby Hubby ice cream.

The recipe is pretty easy, it makes a ton, and the bars are good. Not great. I would tweak these a bit by using two thirds of the caramel, more and larger pretzel pieces, and a thin layer of sea salt on top of the caramel. I love some salt in my dessert.

My task to you all is to make these with my tweaks and let me know how it works out. I recommend these for a gathering or foisting upon coworkers.

Chubby Hubby Bars

Ingredients
1 cup butter, room temp
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups coursely chopped pretzels
1 bag (8oz) mini Reese’s pb cups (you can usually find these in the candy aisle)
14 oz caramels
1 tbsp water
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat your oven to 350. Grease a 9 x 13 baking pan.

In your mixer, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and eggs, mix well. Add the salt, baking soda, and flour to form a cookie dough.

Spread the dough in the baking pan and bake 20 minutes or until light brown and set.

Once baked allow to cool completely. This might take a few hours.

When the cookie is cooled, melt the caramels with the water, stirring once every minute. Spread onto the cookie and then place in the fridge to set, about 15 minutes.

Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler or microwave, spread on top of the caramel and return to the fridge to allow to set.

Once completely cooled and set, remove from the fridge and allow to warm to room temp before trying to cut these, trust me.

German Sweet Chocolate Pie

My parents new better than to ask me what kind of cake I wanted for my birthday. I hated cake, and to this day, I rarely enjoy cake. If I like a cake, it has to be moist and basically have a 1:1 cake:frosting ratio. Otherwise, I’ll choke down a piece to be polite. But I do not enjoy it. This does not apply to German Chocolate Cake, which I am genetically programmed to love.

Pie on the other hand, I love me some pie. My favorites were always fruit pies, namely strawberry, but out of season strawberries are gross, and my birthday is in October. I dabbled in pecan pie, rejected pumpkin outright (come on guys, that’s not a pie, that’s flan… ick). Finally, I found my love. My favorite pie. German Sweet Chocolate Pie. This is a simple, frozen pie with a lovely velvet texture, delicate chocolate flavor, and a slight tang as provided by the cream cheese. Another great thing about this pie, almost all of the ingredients can be substituted with fat free/low fat versions and it is still great.

Please enjoy my favorite pie.

German Sweet Chocolate Pie

Ingredients:

4 oz German Sweet chocolate
1/3 cup milk, divided
4 oz cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp sugar
2 cups Cool Whip

1 graham cracker crust (you can make it, or buy it)

Directions:

In the microwave, melt the chocolate with 2 tbsp of the milk. Melt on low power and slowly, stirring often. This will take about 2-3 minutes.

In your mixer, mix the chocolate, remaining milk, cream cheese and sugar, then whisk.

Refrigerate 10 minutes to cool. Add the cool whip by folding it in gently. Pour the batter into the pie crust. Cover and freeze overnight.

To serve, remove from the freezer 15 minutes prior to serving.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip

This is a delicious, sweet dip which is good for an evening party or family event. It is on the sweet side for sure, which provides a nice balance to other dips which are common at finger-food type events. I will tell you this was a HUGE hit at my party! It makes a lot, but won’t last long!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip

Ingredients:
1 package (8oz) cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened/melted
1.5 cups brown sugar
1 bag (12oz) mini chocolate chips
Graham Crackers/Wafers

Directions:
In your mixer, cream the cream sugar and butter. Add the sugar and the chocolate chips. Serve cold with graham crackers or wafers of your choice.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

A few weeks ago, I went to go visit my Mother in Boston. We had a great time outlet shopping (they have a White House/Black Market outlet up there… I know, right!) and cooking and talking. I love my mom very much.

Mom (with lots of makeup, on my wedding day):

While I visited, we had a BBQ at one of her friend’s houses. My mom’s friend brought a desert from the local grocery store. I looked at it, I hadn’t even tasted it… and I knew I had to figure out how to make this. It was a light chocolate cake with a peanut butter sauce on top and a whipped chocolate frosting around the outside, garnished with peanut butter cups.

This is my take on that desert. I wanted a thicker peanut butter sauce that was on that dish as well as a more simple Cool Whip topping.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Ingredients:
1 box cake mix, plus the stuff it calls for (You can make this from scratch, I did not have time)
1.5 cups Peanut Butter, creamy, reduced fat
3/4 cup sugar, plus a bit extra
4 tbsp butter
Cool Whip
Peanut butter cups
Chocolate, for shaving

Directions:
Bake the cake. I used 2 round cake pans, I froze the second cake though. You do not want more than one layer here, so you can make 2 separate cakes or save half for later. Once the cake is done, allow to sit in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove and allow to cool completely.

Once the cake is cool, place it on your final platter or cake carrier base. On the stove over med-low heat, melt the butter, pb, and sugar. It is really important to taste this sauce as it melts, make sure it is sweet enough. Heat to about 200 degrees.

Poor over the cake slowly, then use a spatula to coat just the top of the cake, allow the sauce to pour over the sides. Place the entire platter in the fridge for 1 hour to allow it to cool again.

Now its time to add the cool/sweet topping such as cool whip, whipped cream, or whatever else you want to use. I used lite cool whip and I put it in my decorative frosting thingy to make pretty tufts of cool whip. A short cut here, get the spray can of cool whip.

Top with shaved chocolate and pieces of peanut butter cup. Serve chilled, possibly to the cutest baby you can find: