Chocolate Orange Revel Bars

I made these bars a little bit different than how you would normally make a Revel Bar. I had a bunch of left over cookie dough from a previous recipe I put together early this week and I needed to use it up fast. I go on auto pilot sometimes when baking and forget I'm not cooking for all the Dwarfs anymore, so there's no need to double/triple recipes anymore!

Instead of using canned sweetened condensed milk, I made up a batch of my own, which wasn't hard at all! I used this recipe from Kitchen Stewardship. I fainted a little in my mind when I read that it would take 2 hours to reduce to the amount I wanted, but there was no way I was getting out of my comfy clothes for the day and running to the overpriced store nearby. The sweetened condensed milk was done in a little less than an hour, but I had the heat up a little higher so it would go much faster. It tasted exactly the same, and I felt much better about using raw milk and organic sugar in it than using some aluminum canned stuff.

I digress! This stuff is the bomb diggity! It has just a hint of orange and the chocolate orange mixture complimented the cookie well. I'll definitely be making this again.

Chocolate Orange Revel Bars

Cookie Dough
1 14 oz can Sweetened Condensed milk (or make your own! Recipe Here)
2 cups semisweet chocolate pieces
2 Tbls butter
2 tsp. vanilla
1-2 tsp. orange extract

Preheat oven to 350. Flatten 2/3 of your room tempt cookie dough in a 13 x 9 pan. In a heavy saucepan stir sweetened condensed milk, chocolate and 2 Tbls butter over low heat until smooth. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Pour chocolate mixture evenly on top of cookie dough and with the remaining cookie dough crumble dough on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool and cut into bars.

 

Hood River Fresh Apple Cake

*drools* Holy. Moly. Drop everything you are doing, and make this cake! You'll feel like you've died and gone to heaven. This may be my favorite cake ever. 

This recipe is actually from the "A Taste of Oregon Cookbook" (where I'm from!) and seriously, you won't be sorry you made this. The cake caramelizes on the sides, and on the top. And you make this amazing sauce that you drizzle on top. I've made this a few times and all I could hear while I was dishing out the dessert was,  "Mmmmmmmm!" "Oh my goshhhhhh!" "This is so GOOD!" from everyone. 

The only thing I changed from the original recipe was instead of shortening, I used butter. I wouldn't change anything else. :)

Hood River Fresh Apple Cake

A teeny tiny bit changed from "A Taste of Oregon Cookbook"

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 4 cups chopped cooking apples
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• FOR THE SAUCE:
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Cream together the sugar, shortening and eggs. Mix the dry ingredients and add to the creamed sugar/eggs. Add the chopped apples and nuts. Pour into a greased 9x13-inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
To make the sauce, in a small pan combine the sugars, butter and whipping cream. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and add the vanilla. Pour the sauce (which is great hot or cold) over individual servings of the cake.

Fruity Pebbles White Hot Chocolate

How pretty is this drink?! 

Snow means, no work, lazy days annnnnnd HOT CHOCOLATE!

Hot chocolate is always better when it's snowing, don't you think? :) So instead of making the same old hot chocolate/white hot chocolate drink we usually make, I wanted to put a spin on it! 

I recently got a box of fruity pebbles after I found a recipe on Pinterest that called for it. I didn't turn out as good as I thought it would, and was kind of a dud. Bummer. I'm a big fan of fruity pebbles, so I was trying to figure out ways I could use the rest of the pebbles up, since I'm not much of a cereal fan, or a milk fan. So, why not try a fruity hot chocolate? It has the perfect amount of Fruity Pebbles taste to it and it's such a pretty color! :) Definitely keeping this recipe around!

Fruity Pebbles White Hot Chocolate

1 cup milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup fruity pebbles, crushed

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup purple white chocolate melting chips 

In a sauce pan warm your heavy cream and purple chocolate together. Add vanilla, milk and crushed fruity pebbles and bring almost to a boil. Strain the fruity pebbles out of the drink as you pour it in your cup. Top with whip cream and Fruity Pebbles. 

Skittles Muddy Buddies

Skittles are my one weakness. Ask me if I want chocolate over Skittles, and I'll always choose Skittles. Always.

So I was trying to think of ways I could incorporate them into a recipe. Skittle cookies? Nah. Skittle Smoothie? YUCK. Skittle blondies? No. And then the muddy buddies idea came to me. I rushed to the store, picked up the rest of the ingredients for this and made it right away. Sometimes I get a recipe that just pops in my brain and I can't stop thinking about it until I make it. Sometimes this happens in the middle of the night and I have to write it down, just so I can sleep.

This version of Muddy Buddies tastes just like Skittles. Whether your a chocolate lover or not, or love Skittles, you'll like this! Taste the Rainbow, baby. I plan on trying this with Sour Skittles (my favorite) the next time I make these!

Happy loved these so much, he wanted me to contact Chex or Skittles to share the recipe. He's sweet. :)


Skittles Muddy Buddies

1 bag of Skittles, crushed finely (I used the Wild Berry flavor)
6 cups Rice Chex
1 1/2 cups white chocolate, melted
2 cups powder sugar

Separate your skittles by colors. Grind each color in a cuisinart (I used a Vitamix) until it becomes almost  a fine powder. Put them in (5) separate bags with equal amounts of powdered sugar. In a double boiler, melt your white chocolate. Add to a bowl with your 6 cups Chex and mix until fully coated. Quickly add equal amounts of white chocolate Chex to each Skittles/powdered sugar bag, seal and shake until coated evenly. Pour out evenly on a sheet pan and let dry/harden. Enjoy!