Rolo Cups

So what do you know, it's spring and we have a 2 hour delay for snow and sleet. I would like to be sleeping but I was lying in bed for about an hour (even before regular start time of school) and I was finding it impossible to fall back asleep. So instead of just lying there, I thought I could be more productive and invent a new baking recipe.
I fished into my cabinets and saw some rolo candies. I decided to experiment making blondie-like cups with rolos inside.
Here's what I came up with:






Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

½ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

About 30 rolo chocolate caramel candies

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 F and heavily grease 2 small-sized muffin/cupcake tins and set aside (to make it easier to take the rolo cups out in the end).

Combine together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into one bowl. In another bowl, mix together the sugar and butter and then beat in the egg and vanilla. Once this is combined well, gradually add in the dry ingredients and finally mix in the mini semisweet chocolate chips.

Spoon the batter into the individual cups until it is about 3/4 of the way full. Afterwards, insert a rolo candy into the center of each cup until it is even with the top of the batter.

Mini chips are good to not overpower,
and make the rolo stand out.

Place the tins into the oven for 14-17 minutes.

remove from the oven, let cool, and then remove from the tins and enjoy.

I put in a little too much batter so they puffed up a little more than desired, but it was kind of nice because in a way it concealed the rolo inside so it was more of a surprise and the taste of it was still very, very good.

Dulce De-Lish Bars

I bake a lot for my friend but when he brings the leftovers home, his younger sister never can have them because she’s allergic to peanuts. Even though I make a lot of things without peanuts, I found out that his sister can’t even eat toll house chocolate chips because they’re made in a factory that also processed peanut products.

So this time I decided to make something especially for Lindsey, and I checked all the labels to make sure it would be completely peanut free and yummy.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup package brown sugar

2 eggs

1½ teaspoons vanilla

1 (14-ounce) package caramels

½ cup evaporated milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease a13x9-inch baking pan.

Stir flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl on the side and beat butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until nice and creamy. Add the eggs and the vanilla to the large bowl and beat again until smooth. Slowly stir in the flour mixture.

Spread one half to two thirds of the batter in the greased pan and bake for 7 to 8 minutes.

While the first layer is cooling, melt the caramels and evaporated milk in a nonstick saucepan over low heat, using a wooden spoon to periodically stir this dulce de leche mixture.

Pour the dulce over the first layer, and reserve about two tablespoons to drizzle over later.

Afterwards, drop spoonfuls of batter in top of the dulce de leche layer and use a rubber spatula to spread the batter evenly.

Place back in the oven and bake for an additional 25 minutes. Cool and then reheat the left over dulce de leche and drizzle it over the bars. Let the drizzle cool and then cut into bars.

Packaging them up.

These bars may not look perfect but they taste so good they’re dangerous. Don’t let yourself stay alone in the house with a batch of these, they will be gone by morning.