Reptar Bars!

If you grew up in the 90s, it was pretty much a given that you watched Nickelodeon and every show from All That to Rockos Modern Life. I pretty much lived for all of those shows as a child and the Rugrats were one of my favorites [ I always wanted to be a nicer & sweeter version of Angelica].

I was watching Rugrat repeats recently on "the 90s are all that" & then I stumbled upon this blog, and found the most awesome thing ever..REPTAR BARS! Of course I had to make them, but a little more refined. I swapped out the jarred marshmallow fluff for a scratch-made Italian meringue, a homemade salted caramel sauce, & I even tempered the chocolate, for some practice. You could of course always use store bought caramel,  fluff and non-temper [Nestles] chocolate to make your life easier, but that's just not me.

They definitely do turn your tongue green.

Chocolate Cake Trifles

I made this cake in my last post, and everyone should take note that when you make a cake and you have left over trimmings, you should always make a trifle! Forget the cake balls, and go with something a little more sophisticated. They are delicious, so versatile, making them individual sizes is all the better.

 

Every since I first made a french pastry cream in my first baking class its been one of my favorites because its basically pudding, and who doesn't love pudding? Also, the flavor combinations you can add this simple vanilla-based custard are endless. I decided to go with a salted caramel and a spiced Mexican hot chocolate flavored pastry creams.

Salted Toffee Matzo aka Matzo Crack

Every year for Passover my mom buys the giant 5 lb box of matzo and every year we are left with 2-3 boxes at the end of the holiday that goes to waste. Lets be real, its not the most tasty item in the world and after being force fed it for a week straight, no one wants to eat anymore of it then they have to.

I was originally going to make this at the beginning of the holiday but time got away from me and I ended up making it last night [Passover ends tomorrow night], but it is so delicious that I am going to just turn the rest of the matzo in this toffee candy. Completely covered in butter, sugar, & chocolate..problem solved!

Homemade Twix with Salted Caramel

As a child, Twix were always my favorite candy. I would always eat the chocolate and the caramel off the top first, and then save the cookie for last. That way it made me think they were more than just a candy bar, but a cookie AND a candy bar in one! Nostalgia got the best of me one day and I decided search for a recipe. This was the winner because of the addition of ground rice, which gives a crunch to the shortbread just like the store-bought ones. But after tasting these scratch-made twix, I don't think I'll ever want to eat a store-bought one again. The caramel alone from this recipe is SO delicious, you could literally put it on anything and it would still be amazing.

These would be great to take to a party, wrap up individually as gifts, or even just to have around the house to snack on for the week. They are a little time consuming with the 3 different layers that need time bake, set, and cool. The caramel is gooey even after it "sets" so I would recommend popping them in the freezer for 15 minutes before cutting, or letting them chill in the fridge overnight. Making these a day ahead is definitely the way to go.

Chocolate-dipped Pecan Bars

Originally I wanted to make these little cuties for Thanksgiving but Josh just had to have pumpkin pie and I only had time to make one dessert. So I finally was able to try this recipe out today after a long busy week at culinary school!

Pecan pie on its own is really delicious but the addition of chocolate just makes even better. The fact that these are bars instead of a standard pie, adds a whimsical note to them. They can be dipped in chocolate, drizzled on top, completely submerged- the possibilities are endless with chocolate.

I took this recipe even further and sprinkled some pink himalayan salt on the tops of a few, which really takes the idea of decadence to a whole new level. The combination of caramel, chocolate and salt is like no other and because this dessert is so sweet and buttery, that extra salty bite balances very well with the other flavors.

Be prepared: this recipe calls for over 2 lbs of butter, and makes dozens of small sized squares so its great to bring for a holiday party!

Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake

Remember when I said I had lots of left over caramel from the other night, well I found this recipe for a caramel peach upside down cake, but since I also had a couple apples I decided to make it a Caramel apple upside down cake!

The recipe does have its own caramel recipe included, but I just used the cake batter part and used my own caramel

yom kippur & apple crostatas

It was Yom Kippur this past weekend (fri night-sat night) and as part of the holiday, we fast for that 24 hour period and no work is meant to be done. Once the sun has set on the second night, it is customary to have a big dinner to break the fast, which my family did. It is hard to have a dinner prepared when you are not supposed to be cooking during the day, so my go-to recipes are easy and mainly make-ahead dishes.

I'm only going to be posting about the dessert I made, but if anyone is interested about the main courses I made a variety of salads: spinach salad, curried chicken salad, egg salad, and potato salad. The chicken, potatoes, and eggs can be cooked the night before and the rest of the ingredients can be mixed in minutes before guests arrive.

The dessert I made, an apple crostata is basically a free-form tart. This recipe comes from my favorite chef, Giada De Laurentiis, with a few additions of my own. I love this dessert because it is rustic and virtually impossible to mess up. It is free-form, meaning you can shape it however you want, and it will always look yummy.  I also made a quick caramel sauce to drizzle on top.

Recipes and how-to pictures below!