What Katie's Baking: Candy

I'M BACK!!!

Kellen had a wonderful 21st birthday!

We were planning on leaving on Friday morning of last week, but ended up leaving at 11 p.m. and getting to his house at 3 a.m.! Definitely worth it because I know Kellen wouldn't have been able to wake up Friday morning. ;) So we got there and obviously went straight to sleep!

We spent the next few days eating and laying around at the pool. Soo relaxing not to have to worry about anything at all. We ate at Kellen's favorite place, China Palace, somewhere around 329042 million times. Needless to say, I'm sick of Chinese food. Luckily his mom made us some pretty good dinners in between.

We obviously both think we're really cool...

...when we have sunglasses on.

On his actual birthday, we ate at China Palace for lunch (go figure) and some new Mexican restaurant for dinner. Being the nice girlfriend that I am, I planned a surprise party with all of his friends, so Kellen's mom and I spent most of the dinner stalling while everyone showed up. We went to his friend's house to "go pick her up on the way to the bars" and when we got there, everyone jumped out and surprised him. It turned out perfectly!

SURPRISE!!

That night we just hung out for a while and eventually ended up at the bar. Kellen had a really good time:

The rest of the week was just takin' it easy, eating, and hanging out with friends. I had a lot of fun, but it's nice to be home again.

So, I suppose you want a recipe? Perfect! I really missed baking while I was gone (isn't that cheesy?) so I made something immediately when we got back.

The thing is, I'm not eating sweets this week. I can't even remember the last day I went without having some kind of dessert... probably since lent last year. So, I'm doing a 'cleanse' and cutting them out... but only for a week. So my mom and dad have the job of dessert tester this week. I'm just hoping you all will trust their judgement considering they love sweets just as much as I do.

The other thing is, it's too freakin' hot to be baking right now! So I made a no bake dessert... I'd love to tell you how great it is, but I have no idea. What I do know is that my parents both gave it an A, it's super easy to make, and it looks and smells delicious.

Help, please! I'll be gone from this Thursday until Sunday the 31st and I'm in need of some guest posters. If anyone would like to do one for me, I'll love you forever. :)

Nutella "Candy Bars"
Gingerbread Bagels

1 cup Nutella
2 cups graham cracker crumbs (finely ground)
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, melted

4 Tablespoons Nutella
1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips.

Put 1 cup of Nutella in a large bowl.

In a food processor, grind up the graham crackers. Measure out 2 cups of graham cracker crumbs and add them to the Nutella.

Add 2 cups of powdered sugar. Mix everything together.

Pour in 1 cup of melted unsalted butter and stir to completely combined.

Spray the inside of the pan with non stick spray. This will help the wax paper/parchment paper stick to the pan. Line a 9 by 12 baking pan with wax paper or parchment paper.

Put the Nutella Candy Bar mixture in the pan and press it down evenly.

For the topping:

In a microwavable bowl, melt together 4 Tablespoons of Nutella and 1 1/2 cups of semi sweet chocolate chips.

Pour of the Nutella Candy Bars and spread it out evenly.

Refrigerate the Nutella Candy Bars for 1 hour. Let the Nutella Candy Bars come to room temperature before you eat them!

I've baked 3 times today.

I'm starting to worry that Intervention is going to show up at my house... maybe they'd leave if I baked them something?

Anyway, I have excuses. We went to visit my sister (who will be updating her blog soon.. right?) and my great aunt today, so some dessert was obviously in order. I promised my Auntie I would make her a pie next time I came to visit, so I made her an Apple Berry Pie today. And my sister needed (yes, needed) something, too, so I made some Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies. (I'll put recipes up soon). So, see, these were necessary.

For the first two times, at least. I have no excuse for the third one, but after you see the pie, I think you'll agree that it was completely necessary, too. This pie almost made me feel bad for giving my family the other things. It's that good.

It was supposed to be a Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie, but I realized I didn't have any chocolate chips, so I rode my bike to Walgreens to get some. Guess what..they don't have chocolate chips! What is wrong with you Walgreens?! Don't you realize that I had to ride my bike a grueling 5 blocks to get there and I had to make this pie? If I had driven, I probably would have left and gotten some somewhere else, but there was no way I was about to ride my bike a jillion miles to Walmart, so I made due. I made better than due!

I was walking down the chocolate aisle trying to decide which substitute to use when I saw Hershey's Symphony Bars on sale... 2 for 2.79, or something like that. Have you ever had a Symphony Bar?? It's a milk chocolate candy bar with almonds and toffee in it. Yum. I was planning on substituting the nuts in the recipe with toffee bits anyway, so I figured this was perfect, since it has both nuts and toffee in it. So I bought it, rode my bike back home, and made one of the yummiest pies ever.

Symphony Bar Cookie Pie
Adapted from: How Sweet Treats

Ingredients

2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, melted and cooled to room temperature**
1 cup chopped up Symphony Bar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 unbaked pie shell (This is a good one: Pie Crust IV)

Preheat oven to 325. In large bowl, beat eggs until foamy.

Beat in flour, sugar and brown sugar until well blended.

Blend in melted butter. **Make sure you let it cool to room temperature or all of your chocolate will melt from the butter and sink to the bottom. Stir in Symphony Bar pieces.