Picnic Bars or Ooey Gooey Nom's

Life is sort of returning to a normal or I am simply adjusting to the new chaos we call our life.

Yesterday we had a spring barbecue with lots of friends. There was so much good food yesterday no one knew where to start. At the end of the day though there was very little left over. I always get so busy I forget to take pictures and then remember after most people have left and all the food is gone. One of these days I will remember!

I made a couple of favorite desserts, Kladdkaka with Daim Cream and another that I had tried at a get together a decade ago. The recipe has just been sitting in my box getting shuffled around and passed by for the same old standbys.

I wanted something new and easy for the barbecue yesterday and it seemed like a good time to try the recipe and see if I could make these as well as I remembered them. They were so easy and after I tried one I remembered why I had to have the recipe.


Bars:
1 3/4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs, slightly beaten

Topping:
1 can 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts
PRINT RECIPE

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 9x13 pan.

Combine dry ingredients. Cut in butter until course crumbs. Stir in eggs.

My butter was room temperature. Colder butter will result in a more crumbly mixture. 

Set aside 1 1/2 cups of crumb mixture for topping.
Press remaining crumbs into pan.

Bake for 6-8 minutes until set.

Meanwhile, melt 1 cup of the chocolate chips with the entire can of sweetened condensed milk. You can use a double boiler or the microwave. Microwave 20 seconds at a time until melted and blends together.

Pour chocolate milk mixture over the top of crust and carefully spread over the crust.

Use a gentle touch to spread to the edges of the crust. 

Combine the reserved crumb mixture with the remaining chocolate chips and nuts.

Sprinkle crumb mixture over chocolate layer.

Bake 15-20 minutes until top is set. Chocolate chips will not look melted.

Cool before cutting.

Homemade Kahlua

Today is National Kahlua Day so I thought it would be a good time to mix up a batch. I did this fairly quickly so the pictures aren't the greatest but it is really easy to make.

2 cups water
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup instant coffee
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon rum extract
2 cups vodka

Boil water and sugar to 225F or for 3 minutes at a rolling boil.

Remove from heat and stir in instant coffee. Continue stirring until coffee is dissolved. This could take several minutes.

Add vanilla and rum extract.

Let mixture cool for about a half hour. It should be lukewarm but not hot.

Add vodka and stir.

Pour into bottles. (If all the coffee didn't dissolve pour through a strainer if desired.) This recipe makes 5 cups. I had enough to refill my Kahlua bottle and a pint jar.

That's it. You now have Kahlua.

Best Ever Carrot Cake

I don't remember how many years ago that this recipe was shared with me, close to ten years I think, but when my friend told me about it I knew I had to try it. She explained it was HEAVY. Not just dense heavy but everything about this cake is heavy. Although it has some healthy ingredients in it, I don't imagine with the amounts of oil, sugar and eggs in the treasure that it would be a food for anyone's diet.

How good is this cake? This is what my husband told me, "You need to make one every Sunday to make Mondays better."

Now can a cake really get much better than that?

Best Ever Carrot Cake

2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 ounces shredded coconut
2 cups shredded carrots
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup oil
1/2 cup water
3 large eggs
8 ounce can crushed pineapple with juice
2 teaspoons vanilla
Cream cheese frosting - recipe follows
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I used my food processor to make super fast work of shredding the carrots. 

Mix sugar, flour, cinnamon, soda, salt, coconut and carrots in a large bowl.

In a large measuring cup add the water, oil, eggs, pineapple and vanilla.

Add all at once to flour mixture.

Stir until well combined.

Mix in nuts.

Pour into greased 9x13 pan. I measured the amount which was 8 cups then divided it between two pans.

Bake at 350F for 35-45 minutes.

Cool completely, then frost.

Cream cheese frosting is not the easiest to decorate with.

I didn't take any pictures of making the frosting. But it's really easy to make and hard to mess up.
If it's too thick, add more milk. Too thin add more powdered sugar. I made this recipe pretty thick so I could use it to decorate.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8-ounce package cream cheese-softened
6 tablespoons butter-softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
4-5 cups powdered sugar

Cream butter and cream cheese together. Add vanilla and powdered sugar. Beat in adding milk as needed to thin.

Rye Sub Rolls

I am not a great bread baker. I have a couple recipes that I go to and can make easily enough with no problem. I am quite envious of the real bread makers that get perfect looking loaves each time they bake. So when my husband asked me to get rye sub rolls for his Reuben's and I could not find any such thing in the store I was a little worried I couldn't make them at home.

I searched the internet for a recipe for light sub rolls. I couldn't find any! Apparently this isn't a very popular idea. No big deal, a roll is simply a loaf of bread that is shaped differently. I searched two towns to find the rye flour and made a special trip to buy it. Then I looked at recipes. They all called for caraway seed which I had none of and did not want to go back to the store. (I'm lazy like that.) I took several recipes and combined them and made my own instructions, without caraway.

I am not great at shaping bread but did the best I could and they turned out looking somewhat like a roll. I cannot tell you how they taste or what the texture was like because I don't like rye bread. The two that ate Reuben's last night said the bread was perfect. It did feel like it had a nice texture so I will take their word for it.

Rye Sub Rolls


1  package active dry yeast
1/4  cup warm water (105 degree F to 115 degree F)
1/2  cup butter, cut up
1/3  cup sugar plus 1 teaspoon
1/4  cup molasses
2  teaspoons salt
2  cups boiling water
2  cups rye flour
2 tablespoons dough enhancer (optional)
4-3/4  to 5-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
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Directions

In a small bowl dissolve yeast in the warm water with 1 teaspoon of sugar. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl place the butter, sugar and molasses. Add the boiling water; stir until butter is melted.

Add rye flour. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until combined, then on medium speed until smooth.

Gradually beat in yeast mixture until combined.

Using a heavy spoon, stir in 2 cups all-purpose flour.

Add in dough enhancer and salt.

Mix in another cup of all purpose flour to make a dough that can be kneaded.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining all-purpose flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (10 minutes-set your timer). I used a total of 5 cups all purpose flour by the time I finished kneading. You might use more or less.

Shape dough into a ball. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease surface of the dough. Cover; let rise in a warm place until double in size (1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours).

Punch dough down. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in 12 pieces. If you are crazy like me you can measure each piece for uniformity. Mine weighed 150 grams each.  Shape into rolls by rolling and folding ends under. The dough should not need any floured surface to roll it out on.

Place on greased baking sheet sprinkled with corn meal.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly double (40 to 50 minutes).

Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 20 minutes or until nicely browned. Remove from pans. Brush tops of warm loaves with a melted butter. Cool on wire rack. Makes 12 rolls.

Getting ready to be a reuben. 

Coming soon: How to make these into a Reuben and Carrot Cake that's out of this world.