Pecan Baklava

I'm baaa-aaack!

And I made baklava!

I love baklava.  Actually, scratch that.  I love this baklava.  I'll take pecans over the traditional walnuts any day.

It's just so yummy.

Don't worry, I'll have plenty of Minnesota stories, pics, etc. up in no time.  But now, to make up for my über-long post about that fantastic cookie dough cake, I'm making this short and sweet - which is basically baklava.  Except for the short part.  It's a pretty long process.

I found this recipe on Food Snots.  It's not traditional, as it uses pecans instead of walnuts.  And don't freak over phyllo dough.  You can find it in the frozen section of your grocery store.  Probably.

This is a very moist baklava - and because it's baklava, it's really sweet.  Translation: perfect for me! :D

Pecan Baklava
REQUIRES CHILLING TIME

Baklava:
1 pound chopped pecans
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
14 sheets phyllo dough, thawed
2 sticks butter, melted

Syrup:
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
2 tablespoons lemon juice

1. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan.
2. Combine pecans, sugar, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
3. Important: lay each sheet of phyllo dough out on a flat surface and cover with a piece of wax paper and a moist paper towel to keep them from drying out.
4. Fit a sheet of phyllo dough into the bottom of your prepared pan, tearing off extra dough if necessary.  Brush with melted butter.
5. Fit another sheet on top and brush with melted butter.
6. Sprinkle some of the pecan mixture over that sheet, then top with another sheet and brush with melted butter.  Continue this pattern (2 butter-brushed sheets, pecan mixture), ending with two sheets brushed with butter.
7. Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
9. Cut into 2-inch squares and drizzle with remaining butter.
10. Bake 45 minutes or until golden brown, then remove from oven.
11. While baking, bring sugar, water, and lemon juice to a boil over medium heat.  Reduce and simmer 20 minutes.
12. Drizzle syrup over hot baklava immediately.  Cool completely on wire rack.  Store at room temperature, covered.

Breaking it down:
Combine chopped pecans, sugar, and cinnamon...

Then lay phyllo sheets spread with butter and that mixture out in the pattern mentioned above.  You'll have 6 layers of pecan mixture and, of course, the 14 phyllo sheets.

Be generous with that butter!

Funny story time: I actually forgot to cut the baklava before it went into the oven.  I realized this about 20 minutes into baking.  So I cut it then.  Follow the recipe, and if it turns out much different, get back to me on it!

And this is what it looks like finished:

Gorgeous.  Eat with a fork.  Sooo sweet and sticky! :)

Have a lovely day!

-JJ

Dark Chocolate Pecan Halves

Or, as I like to call them, "A Convenient Way to Get Rid of Leftovers."

So, I had a bunch of pecans left over from those Butter Pecan Bars and a somewhat empty bag of dark chocolate chips from the Mint Crinkles.  So I decided to combine two good things and get a really great one.  (By "good" and "great" I mean, of course, "fatty" and "really fatty".  But don't let that stop you!  It never stops me! XD)

Anyhoo, here's a "recipe" - it's more like simple instructions, really:

Dark Chocolate Pecan Halves
pecan halves
dark chocolate chips

1. Melt dark chocolate chips in saucepan over low heat.  Stir frequently.
2. Once the chips are melted, drop a few pecan halves in at a time.  Stir them around until coated, then lift out with a fork onto a baking pan covered with wax paper.  Repeat until either pecans or chips are gone.  (Finish off the rest yourself :D)
3. Cool in refrigerator for about 30 minutes, then remove from wax paper.

The nuts in the refrigerator:

Don't get too stressed out about the fat content... I mean, nuts are healthy, right?  If you still feel bad, go jog it off.  Spring is sprung!
-JJ

Mini Kisses Butter Pecan Bars

I'mmmmm baaaaack!

And soon there will be several pictures of my vacation.  Unfortunately, I don't have a waterproof camera, so I couldn't take any undersea pix... :'(  But I have several nice ones and perhaps a few Look Up pictures, as well!

In the meantime, I didn't even last a whole day before I had to bake something.  Sure, I had one week of really good food and the generally crappy airport fare, but I just couldn't take it any longer.  I had to bake.  Preferably something chocolate.

So, considering I had a bunch of pecans and some Mini Hershey's Kisses lying around, I found the perfect recipe to use those up and satisfy my baking and chocolate cravings: Mini Kisses Butter Pecan Bars.

Mini Kisses Butter Pecan Bars
REQUIRES SOFTENED BUTTER

1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup flour
10-oz. pkg. (1 3/4 cups) Mini Hershey's Kisses (or any other milk chocolate chip), divided
3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans, divided

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease 8-inch square baking pan or use nonstick pan.
2. Beat butter in a medium bowl until creamy.  Beat in brown sugar.  Add egg and vanilla.  Beat in flour.
3. Stir in 3/4 cup Kisses/chips and 1/4 cup pecans.  Spread evenly into pan.
4. Bake 25 to 30 minutes (25 recommended) or until lightly browned; remove from oven.
5. Immediately sprinkle remaining 1 cup chocolates over top.  Let stand 5 minutes or until chips/Kisses soften.  Spread with spatula or knife.
6. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup pecans over top; press in gently with your fingers.
7. Cool completely in pan on wire rack, then cut into bars, 6 by 2.  12 bars.

Breaking it down:
Beat butter, then beat in sugar...

Add egg and vanilla and mix well...

Beat in flour...

Add Kisses...

...and stir.  Stir in pecans and spread evenly in an 8x8 baking pan...

Bake for 25 minutes.

Sprinkle with 1 cup Kisses...

Let it sit for 5 minutes and then spread the molten Kisses with a spatula...

Sprinkle on pecans and press them into the chocolate with your fingers.

Let cool completely and cut into long, thin bars.

Enjoy!

-JJ

My Missing Thanksgiving Recipes

I made a total of three baked goods for Thanksgiving 2011, which turned out to be two too many - for the Thanksgiving crowd, that is.  The leftovers turned out to be the best of the three. :)

So first, for that traditional Thanksgiving dessert, there was the pumpkin pie.  No pictures, sorry. :'(  The recipe is Eagle Brand's Perfect Pumpkin Pie, found here.  There were no leftovers! :D

At a Halloween party the other year, I had pumpkin bread for the first time - with chocolate chips.  Which, of course, made me fall in love with it, being the chocoholic that I am.  So I had to try to make a few loaves myself.  I used this recipe, from Taste of Home.  The results were good, although it couldn't compare to the chocolate chip pumpkin bread I'd had at that party.  The crust was rather dry and the chocolate chips were rock-hard, but the taste was good.

And finally, my crowning achievement of the day, brownies.  Ah, those brownies.  (Which turned out to have been totally unnecessary, as there was a whole batch of other brownies already - but these were better by about a thousand times XD)  I'd had half a jar of caramel topping left over from a cookie bar recipe, and I needed something to do with it.  So I thought, caramel in brownies, why not?  After searching half an hour for a good recipe, I stumbled upon the best brownie recipe that I'd ever tried: Layers of Love Chocolate Brownies.  Semisweet chips and chocolate brownie and white chocolate chips and pecans and caramel... I don't think I can ever go back to a regular old chocolate chip brownie again.  They are that good!!  Just a note: I expected the white chocolate (I know, I know, the dreaded faux-chocolate - that, I admit, I'm starting to like :O) to be all melted - but it wasn't, and it was awesome anyway.  EAT THIS WITH A FORK.  It's sticky and wonderful and insanely rich and is just the thing for a chocoholic like me. :D  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of anything I'd made, so I'll just have to make these again to snap a few photos... ;)

As Promised: Modified Mega Chocolate Cookies

Here's my modified version of the Mega Chocolate Cookies recipe:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup butter-flavored Crisco
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
4 one-ounce squares dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat butter, Crisco, brown sugar, and white sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, stirring well after each addition.  Mix in vanilla.
Gradually add flour mixture to the creamed mixture, stirring well.
Mix in all chips, chunks, and pecans.
Drop by tablespoon or 2-teaspoon cookie scooper onto an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.

If you want the original recipe, look here: http://mistyyoon.com/2010/10/12/mega-chocolate-cookies/.  NOTE: In the original, the amount of salt and directions for adding the flour mixture to the creamed mixture have been accidentally left out - but this modified recipe works very well.

Enjoy!

I'll add the recipes for Black and Whites and the Mega Chocolate Chip Cookie either sometime this week or next week.  In the meantime, read those Hannah Swensen Mysteries!

Mega Chocolate Cookies

This is incredibly out-of-date, since I made these cookies in June... XD  I'm a lazy blogger, I'll admit it, but from now on, I'll try my hardest to post at the very LEAST once every two weeks.

Now, on to the good stuff.

I made these Mega Chocolate Cookies (recipe from http://mistyyoon.com/2010/10/12/mega-chocolate-cookies/) for my birthday, which was, well, a while ago.  But they were pretty dang awesome, although I'll be posting my modified version of the recipe later for those of you who don't like bittersweet chocolate.  Yeah, they're "mega" for a reason: 4 kinds of chocolate (milk, semisweet, white, bittersweet) and pecans.  And they were delicious.

This:

Turns into this:

Which turns into these (caution: major photo tonage ahead):

Yeah.  It's a big batch, but somehow it only lasted two days...  Then again, extended family and late-night snacks call for lots of cookies!

Thanks to Misty Yoon and her amazing recipe, and check back next week for my modified recipe!