Starbucks Knockoff: Cranberry Bliss Bars

I’m a sucker for almost anything labeled “Limited Edition.”  I’m looking at you, Limited Edition Mint M&Ms.  You, too, Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale.  And same goes for you, Starbucks’ Cranberry Bliss Bars.  Why must you only exist during the winter holidays?  You would be the perfect dessert on a summer afternoon.  If only I could dig into your cranberry goodness and cream cheese deliciousness all year ‘round.  Hooray, now I can!

Knockoff recipes for some of our favorite indulgences are nothing new.  I’ve always hesitated to make a knockoff because it usually doesn’t taste as nearly as good as the original.  Disappointment almost always abounds -- but not here, thankfully!  A quick Google search led me to this recipe for Cranberry Bliss Bars from Food.com.  The result?  Absolutely delicious, and truly every bit as tasty as the original from Starbucks.  So pshaw to the limited edition moniker for Cranberry Bliss Bars.  They’re here whenever you crave them!  Huzzah!

Cranberry Bliss Bars
For the bars:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons orange extract or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I recommend using both!)
2 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
¾ cup dried cranberries
¾ cup white chocolate chips

For the cream cheese frosting:
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon orange extract

For the drizzled chocolate finish:
1/3 cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons grated orange rind
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon canola oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9x13-inch baking pan with parchment paper.

Begin by making the bars: Beat the butter and sugars until light.  Gently blend in eggs and extract(s), taking care not to overbeat eggs.  Add the flour, baking powder, and ginger and beat briefly.  Add the cranberries and chips, stirring just until incorporated.  Spread the thick batter in the prepared pan.  Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until light brown at the edges and a toothpick in the center tests clean.  Be careful not to overbake or the bars will be dry.  Let cool completely.

While the bars are cooling, make the frosting: blend the cream cheese and butter until fluffy.  Add  extract and confectioners’ sugar and beat until frosting is fluffy and spreadable (add 1 teaspoon of milk to thin slightly, if needed).  Spread evenly over cooled bars.

Drizzled chocolate finish: Sprinkle the orange zest and chopped cranberries over the frosted bars.  Next, mix the white chocolate and oil in a glass measuring cup.  Microwave 1 minute; stir until melted.  Use a fork or whisk to drizzle the white chocolate diagonally across the bars.

Now for the tough part, allow one hour for the white chocolate to set before cutting.  Starbucks cuts their bars into triangles; for the authentic touch you could do this, too.  I usually dive right in with a knife and fork -- so delectable.  Enjoy and laugh in the face of "limited edition!"

Kahlua Blondies

Oh my gosh, is there anything better than an ooey, gooey blondie fresh from the oven?  How about a drunken blondie!  No, no, I’m not referring to the latest LiLo scandal.  The brownie’s lighter, sweeter cousin, the blondie, is my favorite cookie bar -- the perfect marriage between a chocolate chip cookie and a brownie.  Jazzing it up with the kiss of Kahlua adds a wonderfully subtle sweetness and meshes well with the chocolate chunks.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  Excuse me while I get another piece…

Kahlua Blondies
8 Tbs (1/2 cup) butter, melted
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbs Kahlua
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease an 8 x 8 inch baking pan and set aside.  In a large bowl mix the melted butter and brown sugar until well combined.  Add the egg, vanilla and Kahlua; mix well.  Add the flour and salt; stir to combine.  Pour into the greased baking pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Slice into bars, serve with a tall glass of cold milk and enjoy!

Peppermint Patty Brownies

It’s a new year!  New dishes to conjure, new recipes to try and the continuing quest for the perfect brownie.  A coworker recently brought a batch of mint brownies to an office function and I couldn’t stop marveling at how gooey and delicious they were.  I simply had to bake a batch right away.  The recipe below is modified from Hershey’s Kitchen.  After all, who knows how to showcase the York Peppermint Patty better than Hershey’s?

These brownies are truly gooey and fudgy, but the mint flavor and firm yet sticky texture develop as the brownies sit for a day.  This is a really good example of those rare foods that are better with time.  Grab a bag of peppermint patties and bake a batch tonight.  You’ll love them tomorrow!

Peppermint Patty Brownies
16 small York Peppermint Patties
¾ cup cocoa (preferably dark chocolate cocoa)
½ tsp baking soda
2/3 cup butter, melted
½ cup boiling water
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 13x9x2 baking pan and set aside.  In a large bowl, mix together the cocoa and baking soda.  Stir in 1/3 cup of the melted butter  Add the boiling water and stir until thick.  Add the sugar, eggs and remaining melted butter and mix until smooth.  Add the flour, vanilla and salt and combine well.  Pour half of the batter into the prepared baking pan.  Arrange the peppermint patties in a grid pattern on the batter.  Pour the remaining batter over the patties.  Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until done.  These are even better the next day when they firm up a bit, if you can wait that long!

My Quest for the Best Brownies Volume 3: Magical Fudge Brownies

It has been a while (almost one month) since the last Delectable Kitchen post.  Shameful!  But the time away has yielded another step in my continuing quest to find the best brownies.  A friend sent me a link to this recipe, originally posted by Food and Wine Magazine, and I was daring enough to serve it to another friend without trying it first.  This recipe employs a mysterious alchemy.  After cooling, the brownies go into the refrigerator to chill, followed by a rewarming to room temperature.  These last two steps seem to be crucial.  We tried the brownies soon after they came out of the oven.  Verdict?  Meh.  But after we chilled them and tried them again – oh boy!  Talk about a fudgy brownie!  Even better, the sea salt plays so nicely with the not-too-sweet chocolate.  I used more sea salt than the recipe called for (I covered the entire surface with salt flakes), and it made a wonderful difference.  This recipe is definitely a keeper.  Just make sure to leave enough time for the magic to transform these from average to delectable!  You won’t be disappointed.

Magical Fudge Brownies
via Food and Wine Magazine
1 ½ sticks unsalted butter
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Lightly grease a 9-inch square baking dish.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter with the unsweetened chocolate over very low heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat. Whisking them in one at a time until thoroughly incorporated, add the cocoa, sugar, eggs, vanilla and flour. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Sprinkle the salt evenly over the batter. Using a butter knife, swirl the salt into the batter.

Bake the fudge brownies in the center of the oven for about 35 minutes, until the edge is set but the center is still a bit soft and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out coated with a little of the batter. Let the brownies cool at room temperature in the pan for 1 hour, then refrigerate just until they are firm, about 1 hour.  Cut the brownies into 16 squares. Serve at room temperature.  Delicious!

My Quest for the Best Brownies Volume 2: Mint Frosted Brownies with Sea Salt

I love brownies.  Who doesn’t?  I have never met anyone who could turn down the offer of a brownie.  Have you?  Impossible!  Alas, my quest for the most delectable brownie continues.  As you may remember from Volume 1 of this saga, what was promised to be a super fudgy brownie wound up being only moderately fudgy.  How disappointing!  So it was time to take the quest for brownie perfection in a new direction… frosted!

To celebrate the season, I whipped up a mint frosting.  Spring always puts me in the mood for mint.  Much to my dismay, I didn’t have any fresh mint on hand, so I substituted mint extract.  Sure, the lack of green specks of fresh mint in the frosting isn’t as visually appealing or as bright in flavor, but still satisfying nonetheless.  But the special twist that makes these brownies especially good is the sprinkle of sea salt on the frosting.  I recently discovered how a light touch of salt can enhance the flavor depth of almost any sweet dish.  Try it!  Add a dash of sea salt to your next batch of chocolate chip cookies just before baking.  Or take a chance with these minty brownies.  I promise you’ll never look at salt the same way again.  And while these brownies are quite good (and easy to make – all in one large pot), I still believe that the ultimate brownie remains out there, waiting to be discovered.  What do you think?

Mint Frosted Brownies with Sea Salt
Brownies
½ cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup cocoa powder
½ cup all-purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder

Mint Frosting
4 tbs unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
¼ tsp vanilla
1 tsp pure mint extract

To make the brownies, begin by preheating the oven to 350 degrees.  Melt the butter in a large saucepan.  Remove from heat and add the sugar, eggs and vanilla.  Stir to combine.  Beat in the cocoa, flour, salt and baking powder.  Spread into a greased and floured 8-inch baking pan.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

For the frosting, beat the butter and sugar until creamy.  Feel free to adjust the amount of confectionars’ sugar to achieve the appropriate consistency of frosting.  Add the vanilla and mint extracts and stir until thoroughly incorporated.  When the brownies are cool, slice and frost.  I used a round biscuit cutter for a fun kick.  Delicious in any shape!

My Quest for the Best Brownies Volume 1: Super Fudgy

Brownies rank high on the list of perfect desserts, second only to chocolate chip cookies (and closely followed by its delicious cousin, the blondie).  I am always on the quest for the ultimate brownie.  I have a recipe folder bursting with yet-to-be-tried recipes that I’ve ripped out of magazines or printed from websites.  Today I opened the folder and came across a recipe I printed from Everyday Food in May 2008 for "Super Fudgy Brownies."

The recipe is wonderfully easy to make, and it uses minimal ingredients.  I didn’t have semisweet baking chocolate, so I used chocolate chips instead.  Chocolate chips are alright to use in a pinch, but are best suited to cookies because most chips contain stabilizers to retain their shape.

Alas, this recipe didn’t fulfill my hope of finding the best brownie recipe.  So my quest continues.  These brownies were rather thick and cakey, and didn’t quite live up to the title of Super Fudgy.  At best, I'll consider these Moderately Fudgy.  They crumble easily and didn’t taste very sweet, despite the 1.5 cups of sugar.  But for those that prefer a cake-like brownie with a deep chocolate flavor, this may be a good choice for you.

Super Fudgy Brownies
8 tbs butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs

In a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; set aside.  In a large heatproof bowl, add the butter and chocolate.  Place over a saucepan of gently simmering water.  Heat, stirring frequently, until smooth.

Remove the bowl from pan.  Add the sugar and mix well.  Next, add the eggs.  Finally, add the flour mixture and stir just until combined.  (I wrote about the downside of overmixing in my post about muffins.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.  Let cool, slice and (if you like a cakey brownie) enjoy!