Mini Cranberry Bliss Bars

With Thanksgiving just around the corner I thought it would be fun to share a mini version of this delightful treat. I don't know about you, but when I go to a holiday gathering I like to try a little bit of everything. Making these bliss bars mini sized makes it easy for everyone to get a taste with out having to eat a full sized bar or letting any go to waste. This recipe is super simple and can be easily doubled.

Mini Cranberry Bliss Bars 
Cake 
8 tablespoons Unsalted Butter ( 1 stick), softened
1/2 cup Brown Sugar, packed
2 Eggs
Zest of half an Orange
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
3/4 cup All-purpose Flour
1/8 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/4 cup Dried Cranberries, coarsely chopped (plus more for sprinkling)
1/4 cup White Chocolate Chips (plus more for sprinkling)*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9x9 inch pan then line with parchment paper and spray with baking spray. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and brown sugar till creamy, about 4 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, scrape bowl as needed. Mix in the zest and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and pumpkin pie spice then add it to the butter mixture and beat until well mixed. Stir in the cranberries and white chocolate. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely on wire rack.

Frosting 
4 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
2 tablespoons Unsalted Butter, softened
1 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla

While the cake is cooling make the frosting. In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the powdered sugar on low, then once it is fully incorporated add the vanilla and increase speed. Beat until smooth.

Assembly
Once the cake is completely cooled, remove it from the pan and spread the frosting evenly over the cake. Sprinkle with white chocolate chips and dried cranberries. Cut into small triangles if desired.

* I used the white chocolate calets pictured below from Whole Foods Market. They are smaller than regular white chocolate chips so they were the perfect size for sprinkling. If you are using regular white chocolate chips you may want to coarsely chop them up before sprinkling or use white chocolate shavings instead.

Recipe slightly adapted from My Baking Addiction where it was adapted from Mr. Breakfast

Spiderweb Cake

Halloween in my absolute favorite holiday. I tend to start baking Halloween treats towards the end of September or early October. Usually I start decorating for autumn/Halloween around this time as well, but it has been incredibly warm here and I just can't bring myself to decorate until sweater weather officially begins. But that doesn't stop me from baking for the season. I used this cake recipe from Sweetapolita. It is a white cake with white chocolate frosting, which originally came from the cookbook Baked: New Frontiers in Baking.

Spiderweb Cake 

Step1: Start with a frosted cake.

Step2: Using black decorating gel, make evenly spaced circles starting in the center and working your way out to the edge.

Step3: Drag a toothpick from the center of the cake out to edge, creating six lines or so to create the spiderweb patten. You can also add a spider on top or crawling up the side of the cake.

For this cake recipe visit Sweetapolita.

Happy Baking!

White Chocolate Cranberry Almond Cookies

These cookies were inspired by a local cookie shop that sells raw cookie dough balls that you take home and bake yourself. Our friends gave us three of these cookie balls to try. We had a snickerdoodle, a ginger cookie, and a white chocolate cranberry almond cookie. All of the cookies were delicious, but the white chocolate cranberry almond cookie was my favorite. It was soft and chewy with just the right amount of almond flavoring. I decided to try and recreate this cookie myself  and I was really happy with the way they turned out. This cookie is a great twist on the traditional chocolate chip cookie.

White Chocolate Cranberry Almond Cookie
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
12 tablespoons Unsalted Butter, melted then cooled until warm
1 cup Light Brown Sugar, packed
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1 Egg plus 1 Egg Yolk
1 teaspoon Almond
1 teaspoon Vanilla
3/4 cup White Chocolate Chips
3/4 cup Dried Cranberries

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat together the butter and the sugars until well combined. Add the egg, yolk, almond, and vanilla and beat until combined, scraping the bowl as needed. In a separate bowl whisk together all of the dry ingredients, then add to the butter mixture and beat just to combined. Stir in the white chocolate chips and dried cranberries. Form dough into 2 tablespoon sized balls and drop onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 11-14 minutes or until golden.

Recipe adapted from Annie's Eats 

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Lately I have been craving peanut butter cookies. I can't even remember the last time I had one. So when I was making my grocery list this morning I made sure peanut butter made it's way on there. D and I rarely eat peanut butter anymore, which is strange because I would say for three solid years it was all we ate for lunch, PB&J's seven days a week 52 weeks in a year, that's a lot of peanut butter. Okay so maybe we didn't eat it everyday, but it sure felt like it. I started to loath peanut butter. I think I just figured out why I haven't had a peanut butter cookie in so long. Actually I really do like peanut butter, but just when it's part of dessert, not for lunch.

I set out this morning with the intention of buying plain old peanut butter but what I found intrigued me. Are you ready for it... white chocolate peanut butter . Now I realize you have probably heard of this before and you may even have some in your cupboard right now (which would be great because then you could make these cookies), but I guess I've been out of the peanut butter loop because I just discovered this gem today.

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies 
1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 /2 cup Granulated Sugar, (plus more for sprinkling in you like)
1/2 cup Light Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature
1 cup White Chocolate Peanut Butter
1 tablespoon Milk
1 Egg
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla

Peanut Butter and Butter

Sugar, Egg, Milk and Vanilla, added

Flour, Baking Soda and Salt

Flattened Dough Sprinkled with Sugar 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat together butter and peanut butter until creamy. Add the sugars and beat until well combined. Beat in the egg, milk, and vanilla. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture. Beat until well combined. Using a muffin scoop, drop heaps of dough onto prepared baking sheets. Flatten with the back spoon, knife, or fork. Sprinkle with a little sugar if you like. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Makes 40 cookies

Recipe adapted from Joy of Cooking

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Muffins

Over the past month or so I have acquired three packages of dried cranberries. This sort of thing happens to me when I buy items on a whim. That is why I rarely go to the store without a shopping list, because when I do I end up with multiple packages of dried cranberries and no toilet paper. I am the kind of person who has to write everything down, it gives me a sense of calm, when it's on paper I no longer have to store it in my head and I like that.

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Muffins 
3 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
8 tablespoons Powdered Buttermilk
2 cups Water
8 tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Melted and cooled
2 Eggs
6  ounces Dried Cranberries
6 ounces White Chocolate Chips
1 teaspoon Vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line standard 12 cup muffin tin with baking cups. Whisk together the eggs, water, butter, and vanilla. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and powdered buttermilk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir just until combined, then add the dried cranberries and white chocolate chips and stir just to incorporate, careful not to over mix. Fill muffin cups 2/3 the way full with batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden.

Makes 30 Muffins

Adapted from Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredients