Just Call Me Betty Crocker

This weekend, I had the house all to myself!  The boys went down to Myrtle Beach for the weekend to play golf and drink beer.  This left me with a lot of time on my hands.  So with all of this extra time, I decided that I would spend my weekend cleaning the house, baking some goodies, and spending some time relaxing (which I am not very good at!).

I love baking, so I decided that I would bake some goodies for the boys when they come home on Sunday and to bring to my coworkers on Monday.  Below are some of the treats that I have made thus far over the weekend! Enjoy, they are delicious!!

Salted Caramel Pretzel Blondies

My sister posted a recipe on my Facebook for Salted Caramel Pretzel Blondies that she found on the averie cooks blog.  I LOVE pretzels and blondies, so I thought I would give these a try!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (1 stick)
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups mini pretzels, measured loosely and crushed slightly
• about 1/3 cup salted caramel sauce, for drizzling before baking (the best is Trader Joe's Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce)
• about 1/4 cup salted caramel sauce, for drizzling after baking

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8x8 inch pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
2. In a medium microwave safe bowl, melt the butter, about 1 minute.
3. To the melted butter (allow it to cool slightly so you don't scramble the egg), add the egg, brown sugar, vanilla, and whisk vigorously to combine.
4. Add the flour and stir until just combined, taking care not to over-mix or the blondies will be tough. 
5. Fold in the pretzels (crush them in the palm of your hand)--I also added Chocolate Chips into mine right after adding in the pretzels!
6. Pour the batter into prepared pan, smoothing it light with a spatula.
7. Drizzle about 1/3 cup caramel sauce over the pan in a zig-zag pattern.
8. Bake for 28 to 32 minutes, or until center is just set.
9. Immediately after removing pan from the oven, drizzle about 1/4 cup caramel sauce over the top in a zig-zag pattern.

Mixing in the pretzels and the chocolate chips

Right out of the oven...yum!

The finished product

Resees Eggs Blondies

I got this blondies recipe from my sister Katherine's blog, Tar Heel Taste Bud, and I have made it before, but this time I decided to substitute the chocolate chips with Resees Eggs.  Rusty's mom sent us a HUGE box full of Easter goodies and we had a lot left over, so I decided to do some baking with them!

Recipe from Shutterbean (slightly adapted from Barefoot Contessa Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust)

• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips** (Instead I added Resees Eggs)
  

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour an 8x12x2 inch baking pan. (I used an 13x9 inch pan and lined it with parchment paper that I greased to make the bars easier to remove. I'd definitely suggest it!).
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar on high speed for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the vanilla, then the eggs, one at a time, and mix well, scraping down the bowl.
3. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. With the mixer still on low, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Fold the walnuts and chocolate chips in with a rubber spatula.
4. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 30 minutes exactly (I baked mine for 26 minutes based on the pan size and my love for underbaked cookies).Don't overbake! A toothpick may not come out clean. Cool completely in the pan and cut into bars.

Add in the Resees Eggs to the batter

Ready to go into the oven

Resees Egg Blondies

Drizzle Chocolate Chex Cereal

The last thing I decided to make was Chex with Chocolate drizzled on them.  We had some extra cereal laying around the house and some left over white/chocolate chips, so I thought it would be yummy to make some sweet snacks.  This was really simple!

All I did was melt chocolate chips and drizzle the melted chocolate over a tin foil lined pan with the Chex cereal on it.  Let them cool and dig in!

I hope that you enjoy these goodies as much as I will :)