Cooking Up Cottage

Tag: bars

  • Chocolate Chip Bars

     

    Chocolate-Chip-bars-1Today is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day and in honor of that I am posting a recipe for Chocolate Chip Bars instead of cookies.  Why bars you ask?  It’s because I love the ease of cooking the bars in a pan instead of making individual cookies; making them the perfect choice when you are in a hurry to get to a potluck, bake sale, or birthday party. This recipe is buttery, soft, chewy and loaded with Hershey’s Chocolate pieces making them a treat that everyone will love.  My mom has made these Chocolate Chip Bars since 1978; however, for this recipe I made just a few modifications.  I doubled the recipe to make them extra thick and I added chocolate candy bar pieces to the top. If you need to make a bar for a large group and you don’t have a lot of time, this is the recipe for you.

    chocolate-chip-bars-2-

    They will disappear so fast people will be asking you for the recipe.

    finished barsIn a mixer beat  1 1/3 cups of softened butter, 1 cup of granulated sugar, and 1 cup of brown sugar together until creamy.

    sugar and butter

     

    creamed sugar and butter Mix in 4 eggs and 2 teaspoons of vanilla.

    eggsIn a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients together. Then mix 2 cups of flour with 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda.

    flour-salt-and-baking-sodaSlowly mix the flour mixture into the sugar mixture until it is totally combined.

    mixing in flourNow add in the 2 cups of rolled oats.

    oatmealThen stir in the 11.5 oz bag of chocolate chips.

    chocolate chips

    Spread the batter in a greased 9″x13″ baking pan.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes or until they are set up and golden brown.

    spreading batter in the pan

    While the bars are cooking break up the 2 candy bars into squares and put them in a plastic bag in the freezer.

    chocolate chuncksWhen the bars are finished, get the chocolate out of the freezer and place the chocolate on top of the bars while they are still hot.

    adding chocolateThen let them cool.  Now you are ready to sit down with a large glass of milk and enjoy your bars. Happy National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day!

    [amd-zlrecipe-recipe:36]

     

    chocolate-chip-bars-long-pin

     

  • Cherry Topped Cheese Dessert


    Cherry Topped Cheese Dessert

     Who loves cheesecake, but doesn’t have the time to make a cheesecake? That describes me in a nutshell. That’s why I love the recipe for Cherry Topped Cheese Dessert. It has all of the flavor of a cheesecake with half of the work. This is a no-bake recipe so it is perfect for this part of the summer when you don’t want to heat up your kitchen. It is a light fluffy dessert with a yummy graham cracker crust.  I served this as dessert at the same garden party where I served Old-Fashioned Potato Salad and Easy Sloppy Joes. My guests loved it so much that we only had one piece of left! It is the perfect end to any meal. So let’s get our graham crackers out and get started.

     First we start by making our graham cracker crust. Put 14 full graham crackers in a bag (half of a box of graham crackers) and close the bag tightly. Now roll your rolling pin over it so that the graham crackers are fully crushed.

    crushing graham crackersOnce they are crushed, you can put them in a bowl and mix them with 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of melted butter. 

    mixing ingredients for graham cracker crust

    After they are mixed, spread them in the bottom of a 9 x 13 cake pan. Now put the cake pan in the freezer for at least 4 hours to allow it time to set.

    spreading out graham cracker crust

     After the crust is set, you can start mixing up the filling. Make sure you thaw the Cool Whip in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours before you begin the recipe. If you don’t have the Cool Whip thawed out ahead of time, you won’t be able to make this dessert. The next thing you need to do is make sure your cream cheese is softened. Set it on the counter for 30 minutes so it will be easy to mix. 

    cream cheese thawing In a bowl cream the sugar and cream cheese.

    mixing cream cheese and sugarOnce that is combined, you can fold in the cool whip until it is mixed. 

    mixing in cool whipNow you can get your graham cracker crust out of the freezer and layer the cool whip mixture on top.

    spreading whip mixtureThen take your cherry pie filling and layer it on top of the cool whip.

    spreading cherries on dessertNow you can put the dessert in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours to let it set up. And that’s it!  You have an easy dessert that tastes like cheese cake and you didn’t have to slave away in the kitchen for hours; however, you can always pretend that you did. Enjoy!

    [yumprint-recipe id=’55’]