A wonderful friend came over and we made Nanaimo bars together! I hadn't made them before, but I was willing (and eager!) to try!
   So, we started with a recipe from my cousin, added a recipe from the World Wide Inter-Web, and ended up with a version just slightly our own. Brittany ended up getting Oreo crumbs because graham crumbs were on sale and there were none to be found! Usually a Nanaimo bar recipe calls for graham crumbs and the addition of cocoa powder, but we just went with the Oreo crumbs instead and they were aaaawwwwwesooooome!!! :)  
   I took a batch with me to see family over the holidays, and I made another batch while visiting, and they got a lot of compliments (*blush*)! My father-in-law said he doesn't always really like Nanaimo bars, but these were the best he had ever had! That was high-praise indeed! 
   So, here it is! 

Brittany & Amy-Lyn's Nanaimo Bars
These bars come together in stages and require cooling between layers. 
Adapted from this recipe from Hidden Ponies, and my cousin Lizzie.  :) 


Ingredients:

Bottom:

• 1/4 Cup sugar
  
• 1 Egg
  
• 1 Tbsp milk
• 1 Tsp vanilla
• 3/4 Cup butter
• 2 Cups oreo cookie crumbs

• 1 Cup shredded coconut

Middle:

• 1/2 cup butter 
• 1/4 Cup + 2 tbsp milk
• 4 Tbsp custard powder
• 4 Cups icing sugar

Top:

• 8 oz semisweet or dark chocolate chips, chunks, baking chocolate, whatever
• 1 Tbsp butter

Method:

Bottom Layer:

1. Line a 9x13 inch pan with parchment paper and set aside
2. Whisk together the sugar, egg, milk and vanilla in a large saucepan. Place onto stove-top at medium-low heat and add the butter.  Stir until mixture is hot (just a few minutes) and the butter has melted. Remove from the heat.
3. Stir in cookie crumbs and coconut and mix 'er up so it's well incorporated.
4. Using your hands, press the mixture firmly into the prepared pan. Chill while you prepare the middle layer.

Middle Layer: 

1. In a bowl with high sides (the highest you've got!), beat the butter and milk with an electric mixer until creamy and smooth
2. Now add the custard powder and continue beating.
3. Add the icing sugar slowly. If you add it all in one dump you'll get a poof of icing sugar in your face, and icing sugar/butter all over your walls! Trust me (and Brittany!), this is for real!
4. Spread over first layer. and chill for 45 minutes (at least)

Top Layer:

1. Melt chocolate and butter in a small saucepan on medium-low heat, stirring often until melted and smooth. 
2. Spread fairly evenly over middle layer.
3. Chill for 1 hour, then score (gently cut into the bars, but only a shallow cut into the chocolate) with a sharp knife and return to fridge to chill completely before cutting into bars

*Scoring these bars before they are fully cooled helps you get a nice clean square when you cut and serve them. Without scoring, your chocolate would harden, and when you cut into the bars the chocolate would break and the delightful middle layer would squish out! Thumbs down. 

   And there you have it! 
   Monday, Monday! I have a lots to do this week with the 'usuals' as well as finishing a few paintings, getting a chalk board/cork board done, and the start of rehearsals for the new show the Belleville Theatre Guild is putting on, The Drowsy Chaperone! 
   I am looking forward to the week though, and taking the challenges on! 
   Whatever your Monday looks like, try to have a good day! 

   Lets talk about cookies! These light and tasty darlings are gluten free, so simple to make, freeze well, and um, actually, I think I covered every point!   

Kokosmakronen

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites
  
• 3/4 cup of sugar
  
• 1 1/2 cups of shredded coconut
  
• Pinch of salt
  
• 2 Tbsp gluten free flour blend (regular flour works just as well too if you aren't worried about these being gluten free) 
  

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 300 Degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside
2. Using a hand mixer (or stand mixer), beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then slowly add in the sugar while continuing to beat
3. Keep beating until the sugar has dissolved. To test if it's dissolved you can pinch some egg white between your fingers and rub them together. It can still feel a bit grainy from the sugar, but not too much
4. In a separate bowl, mix the coconut, salt and flour together, then carefully fold this mixture into the beaten egg whites
5. Scoop up 1 tablespoon-ful of the cookie dough (small pampered chef style scoop makes them perfect if you have one) onto the prepared baking sheets
6. Bake for 13-15 minutes. The cookies will be all-over lightly golden when they are done. They may also seem a little underdone in the centre, but they will set up as they cool.

   My gluten-free skeptic son loved these cookies! He gave them his stamp of approval by devouring 2 in about 60 seconds and then asking for another with his mouth still full. I said "no", by the way. :) But the compliment was noted!
   Whip up a batch, do it, c'mon.
   So, truth be told, I am gruuuuumpy today!
   I'm not 100% sure why.... :(  How's everyone else feeling? I'm wondering if it's just the day?
   I got outside stacking/piling wood for a while (sunshine, fresh air, etc.), but it did little to ease my seriously pessimistic outlook! I've got my middle child home today with the chicken pox (so, phew, that makes all three having had them now!), and that's not making me grumpy. She is sweet and pleasant and isn't making me feel blue at all. 
   Anyway, whatever the reason, I hope you are happy today!
   I just thought, I might be feeling stressed about this weekend. The Belleville Theatre Guild is having their auditions for The Drowsy Chaperone on Saturday and Sunday, and I'll be involved with choreography and with auditions, and maybe I'm feeling pressure? Maybe I'm feeling sad because I want to be in the show, not just helping with it? I literally have no idea....I'm blog-counselling myself right now....just ignore me. 
   I'm gonna get more coffee. 

xo

Arnhemse Meisjes
The dough needs at least 2 hours fridge time


Ingredients:

• 1 Cup of all-purpose flour 
  
• pinch of salt
  
• 1/2 cup of milk, warm (but not hot!)
  
• 1/4 teaspoon of active dry yeast & a pinch of sugar
  
• 4 drops of lemon juice (about 1/4 tsp-ish)
  
• 1/2 Cup butter, room temperature, cut into 1 inch cubes
  
• Sugar in a shallow dish (enough to roll each cookie)
  

Method:

1. Mix the flour and the salt together
2. Stir the yeast in with sugar and the warm milk and let it sit for a about 10 minutes so the yeast can be activated 
3. Stir the yeast mixture into the flour, then add the lemon juice and stir it up again! 
4. Now add the butter in small chunks while you knead/squish/mix until everything comes together. 
5. Wash the dough off your hands, and get out a piece of plastic wrap and place it onto the counter-you'll need it for this next step-
6. Shape the dough into a log. The dough will be really sticky, and this task will be tricky. That rhymed!
7. Place your dough log onto the plastic wrap you got ready, wrap it up and refrigerate for at least two hours.
8. .......Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock........
9. After the minimum 2 hours, take the dough out of the fridge and cut into (roughly) 16 equal parts. 
10. Roll each section up, and drop each ball into the dish with white sugar in it and roll the dough around to cover it in sugar
11. Place all the sugar rolled balls back into the bowl, cover and put back into the fridge while you heat the oven.
12. Turn on the oven to 350 Degrees and prepare some baking sheets with parchment paper
13. Get the sugar covered dough balls outta the fridge and sprinkle some sugar onto the counter
14. Place a dough ball into the the sugar and use a rolling pin to roll each ball into an oval-ish shape, about 3 inches long. Turn it over and press the cookie into the sugar, making sure that both sides are well covered. 
15. Place each cookie onto the prepared cookie sheet
16. When all cookies are made, sprinkle some more sugar over the cookies
17. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until lightly golden

The cookies will puff up, the sugar will caramelize and you will have a wonderful and unique cookie to serve with coffee, Dutch style! 

   These cookies require some work, but really nothing that is too complicated or difficult, and the end result is very much worth it! Trust me! 

 Look at the inside of this fantastic cookie! Yumm! 
   Alright, well, I hope everyone has a good Monday. I am looking forward to the drive home and getting settled into "normal" life again. 
   You'll hear from me again this week, so you had better look forward to that! :)   

   I had a friend who I have not seen for years and years and years. He (and his Mom and Dad) used to make the best boterkoek in the whole wide world!!! 
   This is not their recipe, but it is really good!  What? I just told you I hadn't seen this friend in forever and you expect me to have his recipe? I haven't seen him since long before I was married and I was not baker-lady back then. Back then I ate others baked good and said, "yummmm", and that was it. 
   Anyway, boterkoek is what it sounds like boter=butter, koek=cake. See, so simple. Now, I ask you, why would you not want to try making this? It's called butter cake!?!? It's kind of a no-brainer! :)  

   You can see how the outside has a beautiful golden, crunchy finish, and the centre is super dense and moist. This is really a fantastic cake, and whether or not you're Dutch, you will like it!  
   I hope everyone had a great weekend, and is looking forward to the week ahead with Christmas celebrations! 

   A few years ago I made these cookies....and they were terrible! I have a recipe from a book I bought for a fund raiser, and I was certain the recipe was good, it was just me that sucked. Well, me and my seriously crappy, circa 1960's oven I had been given. O.k, I still was getting my real "sea legs" (or, um, baking  legs?), but it was a pretty close race in suckiness between me, and the oven. This same oven decided to fully crap out on me while I was trying to bake a multi-layered, multi-coloured cake for a birthday. My husband ended up having to buy a sheet cake from the grocery store. They let him buy a froze, un-iced one because I had already made a jumbo bowl of buttercream frosting I needed to use up! I digress....also, I think I've told this story before...
   Anywhooo, I hadn't tried making them again since that time years ago, but I sure wanted to try! I'm not a big fan of letting any baked good beat me, so round 2 was on!
  These cookies are super-fudgey, and simple to make for how beautiful they turn out. I mean, really, look at those beautiful cracked (crinkled) cookies? Lovely. Simply lovely.
   I added mint extract to make them more Christmas-y, but you can use vanilla extract if you would prefer!   

   The best thing about these cookies? They are super-duper freezable (as opposed to just plain old freezable?). Would I share a possible holiday get-together cookie with you if it weren't freezable? I made mine, stashed 'em in an airtight container, and have been pulling cookies out about 4 at a time to add to give boxes and dessert plates. Oh, just be careful to only touch the sides of these though, a giant finger print in the middle of a cookie you're giving too someone else seems yucky. 
   Today I have a wonderful (beautiful) friend coming over and we're going to try to make Nanaimo bars! I've been told it's easy to do, but I had never tried! So, I'm looking forward to trying something new! 
   I'll let you know how it goes!  :)  

   Pet peeve confession. I hate when I reckon I've thought up some brilliant, new, amazingly different recipe.....and then I Google it, and there's a ba-zillion of my idea. MY idea! Golly, well, on that note, here's a delicious idea I came up with.....and so did everyone else.  

Cinnamon Roll Rice Krispie 

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 (10.5 oz) bag miniature marshmallows
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 6 cups Rice Krispies Cereal

Icing Swirl

• 1/4 cup warm water
  
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
  

• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (or almond is yumm too)
  
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar, or more as needed
  
  

Method:

Rice Krispie Treats

1. If you plan to make these into squares, then grease a 9x13 baking pan with spray and line with parchment paper with overhang handles and set aside. If you want to roll them into circles, spray a large sheet of parchment paper and set aside. 
2. In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the cinnamon.
3. Stir in the mallows and melt, stirring often, until you've got a nice melty mallow and butter mixture
4. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract and stir.
5. Add the Rice Krispie cereal and stir  until the cereal is coated.
6. Turn the mixture out into the prepared pan and press into the pan with lightly greased hands, then place into fridge to cool. Or dump the mixture out onto the prepared parchment paper and move it out until it's oblong. Bring the sides of the parchment up around the rice krispie treat, and roll into a log. Place parchment wrapped log into the fridge (seam side down) to cool.
7. Once your roll o' treats is cool and set, take it out of the fridge. Un-wrap the log, and slice into 1 inch rounds and place onto a piece of wax or parchment paper on the counter (feel free to use the parchment you just had the log wrapper in!)      

Royal Icing Swirl

1. Stir warm water, corn syrup, and  extract together in a small bowl until corn syrup and extract have dissolved. 
2. Place confectioners' sugar into a separate bowl and add liquid ingredients. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until royal icing is smooth. 
3. Fill a piping bag or a ziploc bag with a tiny hole cut into one corner, and pipe a swirl onto each cinnamon roll!

   I quite enjoyed these particular treats. Now, I do love (x 100000) Rice Krispie treat anythings, but these had a delightful, grown-up, breakfast feel. I dunno. It makes sense to me!
   G'bye for now! 

   Well, I've seriously dropped the ball! I have a bunch of Christmas cookies I want to post about, and I feel the hands of time chasing me down, wagging it's clock arms at me shouting, "it's too late! It's tooooo laaaaaaate!!!!". 
   I know Christmas is not technically for another 13 days (yiiiiikes!!!), but we leave to stay with family in 6 days, so I've got less time to cram all my projects into! I'm not sure if I'll be blogging while I'm away or not, so I wanted to be sure I got all my pre-Christmas ideas out into the world before Christmas. Anywhooo.....I'm rambling. Let's just move onto today's lovely treat. 
   It's a cookie. It's a brownie. Need any more info? I thought not.   
   Oh, p.s., if you're looking for a gluten free brownie cookie, look here. :)  

Brownie Cookies
The dough requires a teeny bit of cooling time before baking it.
This recipe is from A Bakers House

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup flour
  
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/4 cup butter 
  
• 12 ounces chocolate (you can use semi-sweet chips or baking chocolate)
  
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
  
• 2 large eggs
  
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips 
  

Method:

1. Combine the flour and baking powder, whisk 'er up, and set aside (don't pre-heat your oven yet!) :)  
   
2. Melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave on 30 second intervals at half power, or use a heavy bottomed saucepan/pot to warm and melt together on low heat. Remove from heat and let it cool for a few minutes then add the brown sugar and vanilla.
   
3. Pour the chocolate mixture into a larger bowl and mix in the eggs. Slowly add the flour mixture then add the mini chips as well.
   
4. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and place into the fridge to cool for 10-20 minutes. You may now turn your oven on to heat to 350. I gave you permission.
   
5. While the dough is cooling and the oven warming, prepare your baking sheet with parchment paper. You can do more than one sheet at a time, but you'll need to rotate them halfway through cooking
6. Using a medium (2 tablespoonfuls worth) scoop, scoop the dough out and place, 2 inches apart, onto your prepared baking sheets.
7. Bake for 8-10 minutes. These are better on the undercooked side, not the dry and crunchy side! They are ready when they have flattened some, and the tops are crackly. Crackly? Meh, I'm using it.
8. Remove from oven and cool on racks
   

   Like all the cookies I make for the Christmas season, these are freezable. Thumbs up!
   I hope everyone has a great weekend. We have another busy one ahead of us, but it's all good things, so I'm not too stressed. I am moderately stressed, but that's acceptable, I think!    

   Hello one and all!
   I'm sitting drinking my coffee and eating a piece of warm, chocolate chunk banana bread. I had a serious problem that consisted of me having one million over-ripe bananas in my freezer, threatening to start a revolt and take over my whole kitchen! O.k, well, that may be a slight exaggeration, but only slightly. 
   The truth is that I did have way too many bananas in my freezer, and I needed a banana something recipe to use some of them up. Preferably a large number of them! I have a paleo banana bread recipe already here, but it only calls for 1 cup of mashed banana, and that wasn't going to do! 
   Then I found the Civilized Caveman Cooking and his banana bread recipe and I was sold! 2 1/2 cups mashed banana? Hot dog, we have a wiener! Yikes, that looks more strange typed out than when I just say it out loud. No matter, enjoy the recipe!  Oh, I added chocolate chunks to it too, because, well, do I even need to explain why? 

Paleo Banana Chocolate Chunk Bread
From the Civilized Caveman Cooking. Find his recipe here


Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 Cups mashed, overripe bananas (about 4-6 bananas, depending on their size)
• 4 Eggs
• 1/2 Cup Almond butter
• 1/4 Cup coconut oil
• 1/2 Cup coconut flour
• 1 Tsp Cinnamon
• 1 Tsp baking soda
• 1 Tsp baking powder
• 1 Tsp Vanilla
• Pinch o' salt
• 4 Oz dark, unsweetened chocolate, chopped

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F, and lightly grease a 9"x5" loaf pan and line with parchment, leaving "handles" so you can pull the loaf out when it's done. 
2. In a large bowl, combine the mashed bananas, eggs, coconut oil, vanilla extract and nut butter until harmoniously combined
3. In a separate bowl, stir together the coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and sea salt. Add the dry to the wet ingredients, and mix 'er up well. Fold in the chocolate chunks.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for about 60-70 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean. You may want to start checking the bread at around 50 minutes. If the top is getting too brown, but the middle isn't cooked, cover the loaf with tin foil and continue baking, checking it every 5 minutes, until it is baked through.
6. Once it's done, remove the loaf from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. Once cool-ish (after about half an hour),  use your handles to pull the loaf out of the pan, then let it cool further on the cooling rack before slicing.

   I have made this loaf a few times, and to store it I cut it up, then stick it into an airtight container and put it into the freezer. My favourite way to eat it out of the freezer is to put it into the oven for 15 minutes or so (just on the rack, not on a baking sheet or anything), and let the outside get crisp while the inside get warm. Yumm-o.
   Anyway, I hope you all have a great Wednesday! I hope to bake and bake and bake today! That's the plan, at least. I need to get a workout in too, as well as do my usual things like tidying/cleaning, making dinner for the fam, and doing the chores at the barn. The whole day is in front of me, and I'm ready to go! Well, after one more cup of coffee.      

   More Rice Krispie square recipes anyone? O.k! :)  
   These particular treats are round like the Mint Chocolate treats I made. Again, I just think making them round is different and pretty, and make them seem a smidge more fancy (aka-you can bring them to a Christmas party with adults and not feel like the child bringing Rice Krispie treats!). 
   These rounds are the basic treats, but the top is drizzled with the easiest homemade fudge ever! P.S., if you make a bigger batch of the fudge you can pour it into a greased and parchment lined baking dish to use as an extra Christmas treat to keep or give away. 

Caramel Fudge Rice Krispie Treats

Ingredients:

For the Rounds:

• 1/4 Cup butter
• 4 Cups mini marshmallows, or about 40 large marshmallows
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 5 cups Rice Krispie cereal 

For the Fudge:

• 1/4 can (from a 300 mL can) Sweetened Condensed Milk
  
• 1/2 cups well-packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter

* Use 1 can of the sweet milk, 2 cups of brown sugar and 1 cup of butter to make a full batch of fudge. Look here for instructions on that and scroll down for a photo of the fudge


Method:

1. If you plan to make these into squares, then grease a 9x13 baking pan with spray and line with parchment paper with overhang handles and set aside. If you want to roll them into circles, spray a large sheet of parchment paper and set aside. 
2. In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the mallows and melt, stirring often, until you've got a nice melty mallow and butter mixture
3. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract and stir.
4. Add the Rice Krispie cereal and stir  until the cereal is coated.
5. Turn the mixture out into the prepared pan and press into the pan with lightly greased hands, then place into fridge to cool. Or dump the mixture out onto the prepared parchment paper and move it out until it's oblong. Bring the sides of the parchment up around the rice krispie treat, and roll into a log. Place parchment wrapped log into the freezer (seam side down) to cool               *The squares can go into the fridge because you don't need to cut them before adding the fudge, but you need to cut the log into rounds before adding the fudge, so it needs to cool faster. Just in case you were wondering why one was going in the fridge and the other in the freezer! 
6. While that is cooling prepare the fudge for the drizzle:
7. Put all 3 ingredients in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave for 5 minutes, stirring every 1-2 minutes. You can also do this on the stove, though if you're making a larger batch to make some extra fudge, making it on the stove doesn't always work out for some reason that I can't figure out. Just a fair-square warning! 
8. Let the fudge mixture cool slightly (5 minutes or so).
9. While it's cooling, take your roll out of the freezer or squares out of the fridge. Un-wrap the log, and slice into 1 inch rounds and place onto a piece of wax or parchment paper on the counter (feel free to use the parchment you just had the log wrapper in!). If making squares, no need to cut them just yet.
10. Now that the fudge has cooled, beat the mixture with a hand mixer for 5 minutes (it will start to really thicken as it whips and cools).
11. Once it's whipped and ready, take a spoon and scoop up some fudge, and from a good height, drizzle the fudge over the rounds (or squares still in the pan!). I am literally the worst drizzler, just puttin' that out there. You will have a little extra fudge (well, I did anyway), so I just pour it onto a plate and let it set and we ate it strait up!
12. Let the fudge set, and you're ready to rock and roll! Oh, if you made this in a pan, you've got to remove the square from the pan and cut them, but I feel like I didn't have to mention that and you would have figured it out on your own. :)  

   These treats last for a few weeks in an airtight container in the fridge, though the fudge gets "spotty" (it dries out slightly). They can also be frozen, but again, you get the spotty look from the fudge. I can assure you though, the spotty look doesn't effect the taste at all!
   Anyway, Monday people, I hope you have a good day, and are looking forward to a new week!  

   Something strange has happened to me...I started playing Christmas music long before my usual grinchy December 1st date....in fact, I started playing it in the 2nd week of November....I'm not sure what's happening? Maybe it's because I'm finally medicated and not so derned grumpy....? I'm not sure, but whatever the reason, I'm enjoying it, I'm feeling festive, and festive-ness says shortbread to me! Make it a crazy simple, freezable shortbread, and I'm over-the-moon!
   I make a mean whipped shortbread, and seriously, it's so buttery and good, but these adorable Scottish shortbread have been calling to me. 
   This is a recipe I pinned on Pinterest from Gourmet Photography, and these seriously buttery and scrumptious cookies only have 3 ingredients! Woot woot! Anyone can pull these off, and did I mention they freeze? Yes I did! Well, what are you sitting and reading this for? Get out the 3 ingredients, a freezer friendly bag or plastic container, and get baking for the holidays! :)       

Scottish Shortbread

Ingredients:

• 2 cups butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 4 to 4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 325 Degrees
   
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. 
   
3. Add 3-3/4 cups flour and mix well. 
   
4. Turn onto a floured surface. Knead (for about 5 minutes), adding enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. 
   
5. Roll to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into 3 inch x 1 inch strips (approximately, don't stress out about it!).
   
6. Prick with a fork, and place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets
   
7. Re-roll, cut, and prick dough until it's all been used up. If there is just a pinch left, feel free to eat it! There's no raw eggs to make you sick!
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. Don't you dare over-bake these! :)  
   

   This batch makes about about 4 dozen cookies and it doubles (and triples) well. Woot woot!

  

   I hope you all try these out! They are worth it for sure!
   So, this weekend has my husband work party tonight, then Saturday is our Tweed Santa Clause Parade, as well as the Tweed Festival of Trees. Later in the day we hope to  make a trip and visit with some friends who we had lost touch with, then Sunday is my husband's work party for the kids! So, it's a busy weekend up ahead, but I'm looking forward to it! It's a weekend full of Christmas activities! 
   I hope you have some festive plans for the weekend, and if you don't, well, bake some cookies!  :)  

xo