See's Candies at Fashion Island and a Giveaway!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Since today is a day filled with delicious foods and being thankful, I thought it would be the perfect day to talk about chocolate.  I mean, I don't know about you, but I am thankful for chocolate!

Recently I was invited to a media event to check out the new See's Candies store at Fashion Island the day before it's grand opening.  If you can't tell, I L-O-V-E dessert so I was super excited to go.  To make it even more fun, I went with one of my very good friends and fellow bloggers, Amy.

Not only did I get to check out the new store, I got to sample to my hearts content, and did I ever.  If you have ever been to See's, then you know that you get a sample every time you go.  I'm not going to lie, sometimes when I'm running errands I decide I should pick up a Scotchmallow for Josh (those are his all time favorites and one of See's top 5 sellers).  Even though I tell myself it's for Josh, I'm the one who gets a yummy sample to eat right then so we both win.  This night I was welcome to enjoy unlimited samples...I was in heaven.  We also had a fun little head to head race where we packed our own 1/2 pound boxes.  We had two types to choose from but I filled mine with all Dark Butterchews.  If you haven't tried this one yet, I highly recommend it.  The Dark Butterchew is a chewy vanilla brown sugar caramel covered in dark chocolate and it is one of my absolute favorites.

I love dessert and I will happily eat the leftover Halloween candy in our house but there is no comparison between the preservative filled stuff in our Halloween bucket and the preservative free, aged chocolate heaven that you get at See's Candies.  See's make 100 delicious varieties of treats and sells over 1 billion pieces a year.  In addition to their standard fare, See's also has special seasonal candies and packaging.

I love the fall leaf on this packaging and don't even get me started on the seasonal pie truffles.  I'm not usually a fan of white chocolate, but the pecan pie truffle was OUT OF THIS WORLD!

See's makes it easy to celebrate any holiday.  Of course they have lots of great Christmas products, but they have Chanukah too!  Since we celebrate both holidays in our family, I love it when a store gives me one stop shopping like this!

While I was there the store manager brought this out for us to try and instructed us to eat it the way he handed it to us.

It was the See's Candies version of a peanut butter and jelly.  Seriously you guys, MIND BLOWN!

I'm not usually a fan of fruity chocolates so I never in a million years would have bought the Strawberry Cream but I am sooooo glad that he gave us this to try.  If you can't tell, it's paired with a peanut butter patty.  This combination was unbelievably good.  If I wasn't already super full I would have asked for another.

Now that I have you drooling over all of these delicious treats, See's and I have a little Thanksgiving treat for you.   Enter below for a chance to win a $25 gift card to See's Candies.  This can be used in any See's Candies store, the new Fashion Island location is great because it is located on the outside edge of the mall (near Macy's) so you can just run in and out.  You can also use the gift card online with FREE shipping, score!



 a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was a guest of See's at this media event and received some See's products to take home.  The gift card for this giveaway was provided by See's.  All opinions are my own. 

Salted Caramel Blondies

We have officially entered the season of potluck celebrations and homemade gifts.  If you are like me and love to bring desserts to dinner parties or give baked goods at the holidays, you NEED to add these blondies onto your list of goodies to make.  They are out of this world good, unbelievably easy, and are made in one bowl, well actually one saucepan.  Every time I make these, I set a couple aside for myself before I serve them because otherwise by the time I go to eat one they are already gone.  You will definitely be asked for the recipe, though you may not want to share because then people will know that they aren't nearly as fancy as they look. 

Start out by melting 2 sticks of butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Once the butter is melted, turn off the heat and add in some brown sugar, white whole wheat flour, eggs, and vanilla.  Stir it all together until its completely combined.  Then pour the batter into a baking pan sprayed with baking spray.

Now for the tricky part, just kidding, there is no tricky part.  Sprinkle some Maldon sea salt all over the top.  You want to use a nice flaky salt for this.  Table salt is not nearly the same thing.  The Maldon salt is so worth the price.  If you want another use for it, try these Salted Caramel Brownies.  Better yet, make both and serve them together as two sides of the salted caramel coin so to speak.

Anyway, back to the blondies.  Bake the blondies at 350 for 15-18 minutes.  These were baked for 17 minutes.  Let them cool completely before you cut them into bars.  These Salted Caramel Blondies are deliciously rich.  I recommend enjoying them with a tall glass of cold milk.

Salted Caramel Blondies
Recipe adapted from iVillage

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/2 tsp. Maldon sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray an 11 x 7 baking pan with baking spray.
2. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
3. Turn off heat and add sugar, flour, eggs, and vanilla.  Stir together until completely combined.
4. Pour into baking pan and smooth with a spatula.
5. Sprinkle sea salt all over the top from high above the pan.
6. Bake for 15-18 minutes.  Cool completely before cutting.

I'm linking up with Two Cup Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Tasty Tuesdays, Moonlight & Mason Jars, Whimsy Wednesdays, Wednesday Whatsits, Create It Thursday, and Pin It Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, Cook it Craft It Share It, Weekend Social, Best of the Weekend, Link Party Palooza, Best Recipes, Weekend Potluck, Celebrate It, and Pinworthy Projects. 

Double Dark Chocolate Creme de Menthe Cookies

One of my favorite parts of the holidays is holiday baking.  I spend a month or so before holiday time combing through pinterest and my favorite blogs looking for inspiration of what treats I want to bake.  I love making a variety of treats to give to all of the people in our lives.  This year I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it though because of our new little man, but luckily he took a couple of good naps on the Sunday before Christmas so I was able to whip up a couple of different treats.  It was later than I usually get my baking done, but at least I got some made.

I don't know about you, but I am a HUGE fan of chocolate and mint.  I love mint chip ice cream, thin mints at Girl Scout Cookie time, peppermint bark, Andes mints.  If it is mint and chocolate, I want to eat it.  I knew that if I only made one treat this holiday season it had to include some combination of chocolate and mint.  I really wanted the Hershey's mint chocolate chips but I couldn't find them at any local store.  Then I saw these Andes Creme de Menthe baking pieces.  When I was a kid my mom's parents always had Andes mints in a dish on their coffee table and I was definitely guilty of sneaking more than my fair share.  I LOVE those things so these baking pieces practically leapt into my cart.

I wanted to make a really rich, decadent cookie and these definitely fit the bill.  They combine dark cocoa powder with chopped dark chocolate, the Andes baking pieces, and because I'm a firm believer that you can't have too much chocolate I threw in some semisweet chocolate chips in as well.  

Start out by creaming 2 sticks of butter with some sugar and brown sugar.  Don't skimp on this step.  Take the time to get it really nice and fluffy, this is what makes your cookies have a nice light texture.

After about 5 minutes or so, add in some peppermint extract and the dark cocoa powder.  You can use regular cocoa powder if you don't have dark, but the dark is so much richer.  Look at that deep chocolate color, yum!

Crack in both eggs and mix again.  At this point you will really want to eat the cookie dough, try to resist, but if you can't, I won't tell anyone.  After all, what are friends for?

Add in some corn starch, baking soda, and flour.  Then wrap your mixer with plastic wrap (to help prevent a floury mess) and mix until it is well combined.  I recommend starting off slow and then speeding it up so that your flour stays in. 

Now for the fun part.  Chop up some dark chocolate, I used Trader Joe's pound plus bar.  (You can use dark chocolate chips or chunks instead but they won't give you the same melting pools of chocolate that chopped up chocolate will.) Pour in the dark chocolate, some chocolate chips, and the creme de menthe baking pieces.  This is a lot of mix-ins and they are delicious!!

The dough will be very thick so I enlisted my husband to stir in all of that chocolatey goodness.  You can either stir it in by hand or use your mixer.

Use a cookie scoop to drop the cookies about 2 inches apart on your parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 8 minutes.  

These can be baked right away, without refrigerating, and they will stay nice and puffed, yay!  I hate it when I make cookies and then I have to wait hours before baking.  I am impatient and want cookies in my face as soon as humanly possible.  

These cookies are mint chocolate bliss.  The combination of the semi-sweet chocolate chips, the melty dark chocolate, and the creamy creme de menthe pieces makes a soft, gooey, ultra-chocolatey minty cookie.  Have an ice-cold glass of milk ready and eat some when they are still warm from the oven.  

Then give away the rest as quickly as possible or you may end up eating a lot more cookies than you had planned on.  

Double Dark Chocolate Creme de Menthe Cookies
Makes about 5 dozen cookies
 Adapted from Back For Seconds

• 1 cup butter, softened 
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
• 3/4 cup dark cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. peppermint extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 heaping tbls. cornstarch
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped dark chocolate or dark chocolate chunks
• 1 cup Andes creme de menthe baking pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
3. Add in cocoa powder and peppermint extract and mix until the cocoa is completely blended in.
4. Crack in both eggs and mix again until well incorporated.
5. Add baking soda, cornstarch, and flour and mix until the dough is completely brown with no white showing from the flour.
6. Stir in all the chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, and Andes pieces.
7. Use a cookie scoop to put on your cookie sheet about 2 inches apart and bake for 8 minutes.
8. Let cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling. 

I'm linking up with Whimsy Wednesday, Create It Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, Pin It Thursday, Pin Junkie, Link Party Palooza, Super Saturday, Show Stopper Saturday, Inspiration Monday, and Tasty Tuesdays.

Fresh Cranberry & White Chocolate Chip Blondies

I've never been a big fan of white chocolate because it is overly sweet to me, but I heard that the white chocolate chips that Trader Joe's has at holiday time are really good so I picked up a bag.  They've been sitting in my cupboard waiting for inspiration to strike.  A bunch of people have been posting copycat Starbuck's Cranberry Bliss Bars and they got me thinking.  Those usually use dried cranberries, but I thought that might be a little too sweet for my taste with the white chocolate.

Since I bought the big bag of fresh cranberries at Costco I decided to make my own version of Cranberry Bliss Bars but with fresh cranberries and no frosting.  I started out with a plain blondie base, kicked up the vanilla flavor by using vanilla paste, if you haven't tried this stuff it is basically vanilla extract on steroids, and then stirred in some fresh cranberries and white chocolate chips.

I bought mine at Sur La Table but Williams Sonoma and Amazon have it too.

It comes together really quickly, all in one bowl, so you can have a delicious holiday treat with minimal effort and minimal dishes.  The sweetness of the blondie and the white chocolate with the tart bursts from the cranberries are the perfect balance for each other and leave you with a delicious, seasonal treat.

Start out by creaming your butter and sugar until they are light and fluffy.  Then beat in an egg and the delicious vanilla paste. (If you don't have vanilla paste you can use vanilla extract instead.)  Once that's all mixed together, add in some flour, baking powder, and a little salt.

Stir in the cranberries and white chocolate chips and then spread the batter in a square baking pan sprayed with cooking spray.  The batter is very thick so you will need to spread it around.  I forgot to take a picture before I put it in the oven so I pulled it out after about 3 minutes so you can see how thick the batter is.

Bake at 350 for about half an hour or until the top is golden brown and it's puffed up.  You want it to be fully cooked, but think of this like a giant cookie, keeping it a little bit underdone when you pull it out will keep your blondies soft and chewy.  They will continue to cook a bit after removing them from the oven from the residual heat of the pan.

Once they are baked, let cool for a half hour or so before you cut into it.  If you let it cool completely, it will cut even more neatly, but if you are impatient, 30 minutes is enough to be able to get a piece out without it falling apart and you won't burn your tongue.

Fresh Cranberry & White Chocolate Chip Blondies

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp. vanilla paste 
• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt 
• 1 cup fresh cranberries
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup white chocolate chips (depending on how sweet you like it)

1. Preheat your oven to 350 and spray an 8 x 8 in. pan with cooking spray.
2. On medium-high speed, beat butter and brown sugar until fluffy, about 5 minutes.
3. Beat in the egg and the vanilla paste.
4. Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until just combined.
5. Stir in cranberries and white chocolate chips.
6. Spread in the prepared baking pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.
7. Cool at least 30 minutes before cutting.

I'm linking up with Whimsy Wednesday, Moonlight & Mason Jars, Less Laundry More Linking, Pin It Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, Create It Thursday, Pin Junkie, Link Party Palooza, Show Stopper Saturday, Future Expat, Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Marvelous Monday, and Whimsy Wednesday.

Vanilla Chess Pie

A couple of weeks ago we had our annual Friendsgiving dinner and I made this delicious Cranberry Chess Pie.  It was amazing so I wanted to make it again for Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, my father-in-law doesn't eat fruit, or vegetables for that matter, but that's not important to this story.  In an effort to be a nice daughter in law I decided to make it without the cranberries or the orange zest so that everyone could enjoy it.

Because I was taking out two strong flavors, I added more vanilla paste to amp up the vanilla flavor.  This pie was A-MA-ZING!  This was only my second experience with a chess pie (the cranberry version was my first) and all I can say is, "where have you been all my life?!"  If you are a fan of custardy desserts then this pie is for you.  It is also super quick and easy to whip up.

Start out by preheating your oven to 350 and putting a pie crust into a pie plate (I used a refrigerated one because it's faster and easier for me).

Put some unsalted butter and sugar in your stand mixer and mix on medium until it is nice and fluffy.  Doesn't that look good?  I could seriously eat it like that (pregnancy makes these feelings totally normal).

While your butter and sugar are getting friendly, in a small bowl combine some flour, cornmeal (I used polenta because that's what I had), and a little salt.

In a measuring cup combine some buttermilk and the vanilla paste.  Look at all of those beautiful specks of vanilla in there.  Whoever created vanilla paste deserves a holiday, or at the very least some sort of plaque acknowledging their contribution to mankind.

Once your sugar and butter are ready, add in your eggs, scraping the bowl between each one.  Then alternate adding in the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture.  Give it one last stir/scrape and then pour it into the pie crust.

Bake it for about 40 minutes, rotating it after 20.  I loosely covered mine with foil 30 minutes into the baking time so it wouldn't get too brown.   Let it cool to room temperature.  You can serve it like that, but I like mine cold so I refrigerated it and then just pulled it out of the fridge about an hour before we were going to eat it.

I seriously cannot get enough of the vanilla bean flecks.  I have a small obsession with the vanilla paste if you can't tell.

This pie is also really yummy for breakfast but don't tell anyone I said that.  I never eat dessert for breakfast.

Vanilla Chess Pie

• 1 refrigerated pie crust
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 7 tbls. flour
• 1 tbls. cornmeal or polenta (not quick cook)
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 - 2 tbls. vanilla paste

1. Unroll pie crust into a pie plate and preheat oven to 350.
2. Beat butter and sugar in stand mixer on medium until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. 
3. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping after each.
4. In a small bowl whisk together flour, cornmeal, and salt.
5. Measure out buttermilk and stir in vanilla paste.
6. Add flour mixture and vanilla buttermilk to sugar mixture, alternating between the two, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
7. Pour into the pie crust and bake for 40 minutes rotating halfway through.  If the top starts to get too brown, loosely cover with foil for the last 10 minutes.

I'm linking up with Thrifty Thursday, Pin It Thursday, Less Laundry More Linking, Showcase Your Talent Thursday, Pin Junkie, Link Party Palooza, Show Stopper Saturday, and Inspiration Monday.