Thursday, January 15, 2009

When I'm bored, I bake.

I don't know how I don't weigh a million pounds. Because honestly, I eat a lot of junk. Here's my junk for today, and boy is it delicious.

Rocky Ledge Bars from Martha Stewart
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon coarse salt
  • 1 1/2 cups packed dark-brown sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup miniature marshmallows
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
  • 1 cup white chocolate, coarsely chopped
  • 1 cup butterscotch chips
  • 18 soft caramel-candy cubes, coarsely chopped

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Line with parchment paper, allowing a 2-inch overhang on the longer sides. Brush parchment with butter (not overhang).
  2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix butter and brown sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla; mix until well combined. Mix in flour mixture until combined. Fold in half of each of the marshmallows, chocolates, butterscotch chips, and caramels.
  3. Spread batter in prepared pan. Scatter remaining marshmallows, chocolates, butterscotch chips, and caramels on top. Bake until top is golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Lift out of pan, and transfer to a baking sheet. Refrigerate until set, at least 30 minutes.
  4. Remove parchment, and cut into about 16 triangles. Bars can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

Let's see, I don't have parchment paper so I just greased up the pan really well and I cut mine into squares, not fancy triangles. I used chocolate chips instead of coarsely chopped chocolate because it's way easier, and this time I omitted the caramel because we are plum out of it. They turned out fine. These bars are super sweet and packed full of extras, so I figured that leaving the caramels out would be ok.

Here are some of my baking secrets: I like to sneak in whole wheat flour whenever I can, and I usually cut the recipe in half. That way I don't eat quite so many.

Happy baking!

13 comments:

  1. How soon you forget your resolution 2 blogs back.

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  2. so how much whole wheat flour to you add...and do you have a good whole wheat pizza dough recipe. I tried the one that nie nie had on her blog, and it turned out FLAT for me. Her pictures look fluffy and nice. When I did half and half (whole wheat and regular white) it was ok, but I'd love a 100% whole wheat recipe. (I have 2 and 2/3 buckets of wheat berries that i got right after we got married and it is dated 78. The church said it has a life of 30 years- so what is another year) btw.... i tried the nie nie recipe with new wheat and it did not turn out- so I know that is not the problem.
    Sorry for a "healthy comment" on such a yummy post.
    You and I are in the same boat- I eat a lot of sweets... and that is why I run and run and still have a squishy bum...but I am not a trillion pounds- thank goodness!!!

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  3. in treats, i usually do a 60(white)/40(wheat) mixture, but only in things that have a lot of brown sugar in them. i find that it hides the flavor the best. i don't really like the taste of whole wheat flour, so i don't want to add too much. they are treats, after all. so no matter how much whole wheat i add, they are never going to be really healthy.

    i've tried so many whole wheat pizza dough recipes with no luck that i finally gave up on the idea. i decided that if i am going to eat pizza, i'm just going to enjoy it and not worry about adding whole wheat.

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  4. Seriously, what is your secret? cause just looking at the picture I'm pretty sure I just gained 5 pounds. Well, since I've already gained the weight, I might as well make them: )
    As always, thanks for the recipe!

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  5. Those look great. Tonight I made the lemon bundt cake recipe you posted the other day and it was a big hit with the elders!

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  6. darn you steph!! Those aren't going to help me lose weight!! but man they look so good. i might have to try this one.

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  7. You could always stick with the whole recipe and pass out the other half to your neighbors! (Just an idea.) Love your recipes!

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  8. YUM YUM YUM!!!! So fun!

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  9. Those look great...I bake when I'm bored too...staying un-bored is my best diet. Which is hard to do in February!

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  10. I made this recipe the other night. I actually had all of the ingredients, except for the butterscotch chips. It is delicious. Definitely rich.

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  11. Hi Stephanie,
    Thanks for having a search bar on your site here! I just made these yummies and I didn't have caramels either so I drizzled some caramel ice cream topping over the top before I put it in the oven. Also I have a ziploc in my pantry with leftover crumbs from making toffee at Christmas, since I always make a lot of it... I added some of those to this batter; small toffee pieces and small nut pieces; figuring I might as well since this has so much in it already!

    These remind me of some super yummy cookies I had last summer at a little bakery in Durango CO; I don't remember what they were called but they make a basic cookie dough and add all their leftover scraps from making candies & stuff; so there are delicious treasures like caramel, macadamia nuts, big chunks of chocolate, etc. These Martha Stewart bars have a very similar flavor; delish!

    Thanks for the recipe. My ward choir tomorrow morning will surely love it.

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