butterscotch – DessertedPlanet.com

The Next Big Thing…Pudding?

April 13, 2012 No Comments

So, the word on the street is that pudding (yes, pudding) is going to replace cupcakes as the next big dessert trend. Now in the past, predictor types have also foreseen pie, whoopie pies and macaroons dethroning the almighty cupcake but so far…hasn’t happened. This article mentions a couple of new pudding restaurants that have popped up in New York where alot of trends start.

Don’t get me wrong I do love pudding, ESPECIALLY totally-from-scratch butterscotch pudding, but I really can’t imagine saying to my girlfriend during girl’s night out, “Hey! Let’s go get some pudding!” I mean, it’s going to either be ice cream (if we want something cold) or a cupcake. And I really don’t see mom ordering a big ‘ole bowl of chocolate pudding for little Mary Sue’s birthday party anytime soon.

Chocolate Pudding Photo by Smitten Kitchen

But hey, what do I know? Do you think it could be the next big thing? Should cupcake shops start diversifying now and slap pudding on their menus?? Something to think about…

Brownie, Cookie, Desserts, Snack

Sweets for Superbowl 2012

January 19, 2012 No Comments

Sometimes I make the mistake of doing, ahem, research for my blog when I’m hungry. And it never ends well. After looking at numerous varieties of desserts for this post, it was all I could do to not go into my kitchen, get a huge bowl of peanut butter, sprinkle it with dark chocolate chips and crushed graham crackers and call it dinner. But I didn’t! Instead, I had a sensible meal of garden lasagna (delicious!) and refrained from eating every bit of sugar in my house. Just a word of caution!

Any of these desserts would be GREAT for a Superbowl party. I tried to choose things that were fairly simply and not too labor intensive. After all, you’ve barely recovered from Christmas baking! I really don’t think you can go wrong with whatever recipe you choose–they’re all delicious. And next week I’ll have football themed desserts if you’re feeling a little more crafty with your baking…football shaped sweets are just too darn cute!

Brownies

The Baked Brownie

King Arthur Flour Brownie

S’mores Brownie

Caramel Coconut Pecan Brownies

Blondies

Peanut Butter Blondies

Fondue

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Fondue, Salted Caramel Pecan Fondue and Apple Cinnamon Fondue

Chocolate Orange Fondue

Mocha Fondue

White Chocolate Fondue

Dessert Pizza

Apple Pie Pizza

Sugar Cookie & Fruit Pizza

Banana Split Brownie Pizza

Rocky Road Cookie Pizza

Cookies

NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oatmeal Cookies

Butterscotch Gingerbread Cookies

Snickerdoodle Cookies

Peanut Butter Potato Chip Cookies

Monster Cookies

Turtle Cookies

Mudslide Cookies

Snack Mixes

Sweet and Salty Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Mix

Gluten-Free Popcorn, Cereal & White Chocolate Mix

Sweet & Spicy Mix

Maple Cinnamon Cereal Mix

Pumpkin Spiced Mix

Puppy Chow

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Popcorn

Bars, Brownie, Cheesecake, Chocolate, Desserts

No-Bake One Pan Wonders

December 7, 2011 No Comments

Things are busy this time of year. You need something to be easy. Like 5-minutes, DONE easy. What about some desserts that require ZERO baking time and hardly any effort? Maybe you need something for an office party or family get-together or ANOTHER ugly Christmas sweater party? I’ve got a few recipes that are perfect and done in no time, all in one pan. They will definitely impress! And you will be alot less stressed.

Enjoy!

Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treats

No-Bake Lemon Curd Cheesecake Bars

No-Bake Brownies

Peanut Butter Cup Bars

Oatmeal Butterscotch Bars

Chocolate Layered No-Bake Cheesecake Bars

No-Bake S’mores Bars

No-Bake After-Dinner Mint Bars

Nanaimo Bars

No-Bake Chewy Cookies and Cream Bars

Candy, Holiday, Recipes

Butterscotch Jumbles

November 30, 2011 No Comments

This recipe is perfect for holiday parties, super simple and one that I cannot stop eating!! I mean seriously, these things are soooo dangerous…I found myself just having one little *nibble* and then another and another and….yeah. They are kind of an updated version of a candy my mom always made with butterscotch chips, peanut butter and chow mein noodles. I pretty much threw whatever I had on hand into these and the results were quite amazing. So if you don’t have the exact ingredients, feel free to get creative although I highly encourage using the potato chips and graham crackers. And some kind of nut, even if you don’t like peanuts. Just use what ya like!

Butterscotch Jumbles

Ingredients

11 oz. Butterscotch Chips
½ c. Smooth Peanut Butter
1 c. Dry Roasted Peanuts
1 c. Graham Cracker Pieces (about ½-inch)
1 c. Pretzel Chip Pieces (about ½-inch)
1 c. Wavy Potato Chip Pieces (about ½-inch)

Instructions

Line a large cookie sheet with foil.
In a large bowl, melt the butterscotch chips in a microwave at 20-second intervals, stirring between each until completely melted and smooth. Stir in the peanut butter until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to coat completely. Drop by spoonfuls onto the foil lined cookie sheet and place in the freezer or refrigerator for a couple of minutes to let firm up completely. Store in an air-tight container.

Notes

Makes 18-20.

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Cookie, Desserts, Recipes

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies with Malted Butterscotch Filling

September 2, 2011 No Comments

I know that I just posted a recipe for Key Lime Pie Ice Cream earlier this week, but the truth is I am already WAY into fall baking mode. After having several days of degrees well above 100 this summer, anything less than that seems cool and fall-ish in comparison even if it is still in the upper 80s! So now that it’s September, I am opening up the flood gates on everything pumpkin, apple and maple and the recipes are gonna come pouring out!

Let’s start with this recipe for Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies. I initially wanted a chewy cookie but these were some of the puffiest, softest cake-like cookies that I have ever made. And that was ok by me. And they weren’t too sweet which was perfect because the butterscotch filling more than made up for any lack of sweetness in the cookie. I took these to a get-together and they got rave reviews all around and not one made it back home with me. Always a good sign.

Let the fall baking begin!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies with Malted Butterscotch Filling

Ingredients

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

1 c. (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened
1⅓ c., plus 1 T. Light Brown Sugar, packed
2 Large Eggs
1 T. Pure Vanilla Extract
2 c. AP Flour
1 t. Baking Soda
1½ t. Ground Cinnamon
1 t. Pumpkin Pie Spice
½ t. Salt
2½ c. Oats

Malted Butterscotch Filling

1 c. Butterscotch Chips
2½ T. Unsalted Butter, cut into chunks
⅓ c., plus 2 T. Plain (not chocolate-flavored) Malted Milk Powder
1½ ounces Cream Cheese, softened and cut into chunks
3 T. Milk
1½ t. Pure Vanilla Extract

Instructions

For the Cookies:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, salt and oats together. Mix the dry ingredients into the butter/sugar mixture. Chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight.
Roll dough into 1½-2" balls and place two inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake 9-10 minutes (9 minutes was perfect for me), rotating pans half-way through. Let them sit on the cookie sheets for 2 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Filling:

In a medium bowl, microwave the butterscotch chips and butter at 20 second intervals, stirring between each, until completely melted and smooth. Cool to warm. In an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the cream cheese and malted milk powder until well blended and completely smooth. Beat in half the butterscotch mixture just until incorporated. Beat in the milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until well blended. Beat in the remaining butterscotch mixture and the vanilla until evenly incorporated. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, or until somewhat thickened but not stiff. (The recipe then calls for you to beat the filling on high speed until light in color and very fluffy, about three minutes. I accidentally missed that step. Oops. So it's up to you, but I'd recommend NOT skipping that step.)
Spread about 1½ tablespoons of the filling on the underside of half of the cookies and then top with the remaining cookies. These can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

Notes

Serves 25

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*Malted Butterscotch Filling Adapted from The All-American Cookie Book

Life, Restaurants

Tommy Bahamas (aka dessert overload)

July 21, 2011 No Comments

Triple Chocolate Cake
Four layers of moist chocolate cake, chocolate
ganache frosting and topped with a mocha mousse
whipped cream.

In the past when we’ve vacationed in Florida, we’ve tended to eat at the same restaurants that we know and like. I really wanted to go to some new places on this visit and looked up some restaurants that had good reviews. One of those was Tommy Bahamas. It had about 4.5 out of 5 stars and people couldn’t say enough good things about it, despite the fact that it was a chain. So we tried it and wow, what amazing food! We had a variety of things from fish tacos to coconut shrimp, chicken and cuban sandwiches to ahi tuna salad. Of course after we had our fill of all this food, we decided to splurge on desserts (oh, I should mention that it wasn’t just me and Jeremy on this trip…there were six of us so we had plenty of people to help us pig out).

Key West Key Lime Pie
The real deal! Fresh and tart, made with real key limes.

These desserts were all made-from-scratch and absolutely delicious! We couldn’t pick just one or two so we chose all except one, which was four desserts. I thought my favorite would be the Key Lime Pie and while it was absolutely delicious, the Triple Chocolate Cake ended up the #1 dessert on my list and I think everyone else felt the same way. It was divine! The chocolate cake reminded me of wacky cake and the mousse was thick and not too sweet, just pure chocolate goodness. Oh, you’re wondering what a wacky cake is? Hmmm, well it’s a chocolate cake that is made a little differently than most chocolate cakes. Not to worry, I’ll make one and do a post on it in the near future. Purely for educational purposes, of course.

Blackbeard’s Butterscotch
Creamy, rich, vanilla & scotch whiskey flavored
pudding with chocolate ganache, “from scratch”
caramel sauce & fresh whipped cream.

The Pina Colada cake was also delicious…I loved the toasted coconut and hint of rum that had soaked into the cake layers. And the Blackbeard’s Butterscotch was the first time I had butterscotch pudding not made from a box and wow, awesome. I’m already looking up recipes so I can recreate it at home.

Piña Colada Cake
Moist vanilla layer cake with Myers Dark Rum,
chopped pineapple, white chocolate mousse &
toasted coconut.

They have restaurants in a few different states so click here to see if one is near you and visit immediately! And unless you go with a group, try not to order all the desserts at once….

Cookie, Desserts, Recipes

Peanut Butter Potato Chip Cookies

March 29, 2011 1 Comment

Salty and sweet. Seriously, could there be a better combination? I think not. And when that combination consists of peanut butter, butterscotch chips, chocolate and crushed potato chips, you pretty much have a recipe for amazingness. Yes, that’s a word. At least in my vocabulary.

I started with a recipe I found online for the “World’s Best Peanut Butter Cookie”, made some tweaks, dipped it in chocolate and finished with crushed potato chips. The cookie itself is soft and slightly chewy and the end product reminds me of a Butterfinger in a weird (but extremely delicious) way.

I think you’ll love these. Oh, and be sure and have a glass of milk nearby.

Peanut Butter Potato Chip Cookies

2 Sticks Unsalted Butter, softened

1 c. Brown Sugar

1 c. Granulated Sugar

2 c. Peanut Butter (I prefer Peter Pan)

2 Large Eggs

1 T. Pure Vanilla Extract

2 c. AP Flour

1 t. Baking Soda

1/2 t. Salt

12 oz. (2 c.) Butterscotch Chips

12 oz. (2 c.) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (I used Ghirardelli)

2 1/2 c. Crushed Wavy Potato Chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Mix butter, sugars and peanut butter on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time and then vanilla.

In separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Add to butter mixture and thoroughly incorporate. Mix in butterscotch chips.

Using a 1-inch scoop, place cookie dough on baking sheets two inches apart and bake for 10 minutes, rotating pans and switching racks halfway through. Allow to cool on pans for two minutes and then transfer to wire rack. Cool completely.

When cookies are cooled, place semi-sweet chocolate chips in bowl and microwave at 20-second intervals, stirring between each time, until chips are melted. Dip bottom of a cookie into chocolate and scrape off excess with the back of a spoon. Press the cookie, chocolate side down, into the crushed potato chips and place on foil to cool and harden.

Makes 50 cookies.