#34: Butterscotch Crunch Squares

Yes, I think I'm slightly addicted to butterscotch these days. Prior to leaving for Utah, I was leafing through my mom's Better Homes and Gardens' cookbook, and came across this gem. Ice cream and butterscotch? How could I NOT make this dessert? Stephen thinks it actually tastes a lot like frozen caramel corn... which may sound strange, but actually is pretty phenomenal. Is this recipe family cookbook worthy? Yes. Undoubtedly yes.

#34: Butterscotch Crunch Squares (as found on the Better Homes and Gardens website bhg.com [I forgot to take down the recipe from my mom's cookbook before leaving, whoops!])

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup quick-cooking rolled oats

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1/2 cup butterscotch-flavored or caramel ice cream topping

1/2 gallon butter-brickle, chocolate, or vanilla ice cream

 
Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a medium bowl combine the flour, oats, and brown sugar. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in nuts.
     - PS: I used pecans. Walnuts are boring.

2. Pat mixture lightly into an ungreased 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven. While still warm, stir nut mixture to crumble. Cool.

3. Spread half of the crumbs in a 9x9x2-inch pan; drizzle about half of the ice cream topping over crumbs in pan.
     - You all lucked out: Mrs. Richardson's makes a BUTTERSCOTCH/CARAMEL TOPPING. To die for, get it. And heads up: I ignored the 1/2 cup suggestion; instead I poured in about half of the jar of topping. So much better that way.

4. Place ice cream in a chilled medium bowl; stir to soften. Spoon softened ice cream carefully over topping-drizzled crumbs. Drizzle with remaining topping; sprinkle with the remaining crumbs. Cover and freeze at least 6 hours or until firm. Let stand at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
     - The ice cream I chose for this dessert is what made it: Toffee caramel swirl. It was a toffee flavored ice cream with toffee bits and caramel swirled throughout it. To die for, and so much better than, BLECK, plain vanilla.

There you have it, super easy. I kind of wish the crumble was a little sweeter, but buy a more interesting ice cream flavor, and you should be golden. Here she be:

#33: Blackberry and Raspberry Crisp with Gingersnap Crumble

Yeah, it's a long title for a pretty simple dessert. Coming across this recipe was an accident. After being requested to make another cobbler, since the other one I created went over so well, I scanned the internet for anything involving blackberries (if you've ever been to a frozen yogurt bar with me *cough NICHELLE cough*, you know my obsession with blackberries all too well). At first I found a recipe I thought was a winner... until I realized there was NO sugar, brown sugar, or cinnamon to be found in it. Yeah, no thanks. Luckily, I found this bad boy. A perfect combination of summer berries and autumn spices, this one will leave you wanting to pull on a big, oversized cardigan and snuggle up to your boyfriend... or at least... that's what I wanted to do?

#33: Blackberry and Raspberry Crisp with Gingersnap Crumble (as adapted from tastykitchen.com... wonderful website, I discovered it because it's affiliated with The Pioneer Woman... which, if you haven't checked that site out, do it now)

Ingredients:

FOR THE FILLING:

18 ounces, weight Fresh Blackberries
8 ounces, weight Fresh Strawberries, Hulled And Sliced (I USED RASPBERRIES... I don't really like how strawberries hold up after they've been cooked, so I swapped them out for my favorite berry)
¼ cups Granulated Sugar
¼ cups All-purpose Flour

FOR THE TOPPING:

¾ cups All-purpose Flour
⅔ cups Packed Brown Sugar
1 cup Oats
½ cups Crushed Gingersnap Cookies (about 10 Cookies)
½ teaspoons Salt
¾ teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
10 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Cut Into Small Pieces
Vanilla Ice Cream, To Serve

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. In a large bowl, gently mix together blackberries, strawberries (RASPBERRIES), sugar and flour. Pour the filling into a 9-inch ceramic or glass pie dish.
     - By the way, in the ingredients, I read the 18 ounces of blackberries and 8 ounces of strawberries as 2 cups of blackberries and 1 cup raspberries, and it turned out fine.

I love how blackberries and raspberries look together

2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, brown sugar, oats, gingersnap crumbs, salt and cinnamon. Add butter and, using your fingers, work the butter into the flour mixture to form a coarse meal. Sprinkle the topping over the berries.
     - WHOA, soooo much topping on this. I was worried I had done something wrong, but Stephen reassured me the finished product was great the way it was.

 Yep, Stephen insisted he take over smashing the gingersnaps with a hammer

Ugh, I wish you could've smelled this stuff. It smelled like Christmas!

3. Bake until the berries are bubbling thickly and the top is golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes. Check halfway through cooking and cover with foil if the top is turning too dark. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes before serving. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
    - I kept mine in for 40 minutes without any problems.

There you have it! Gosh, this treat puts me in the mood for fall leaves, apples, hot cocoa, and pumpkins, I don't know about you. The perfect transition into fall.

#32: Grasshopper Pie

Oh boy, talk about pressure. After having been invited to Bear Lake last week with the Bairds, I first realized that there went an entire week of baking for my blog (Pity, I know). Second, I realized I had been asked to create a dessert for the entire Baird Clan, which, if you don't know this family, there are roughly 20-57 of them. All jokes aside, I was TERRIFIED, but willing, and wanted a super easy recipe I knew I could whip up quickly. BOOM- enter in grasshopper pie. My friend Scottie at WSU had first introduced me to this recipe, and it was definitely one of my favorites because I LOVE mint ice cream. Seriously. So shout out to Mr. Bastin for introducing me to the idea, you were a LIFE SAVER!

#32: Grasshopper Pie (as found on Food.com)

Ingredients: 

2 Oreo chocolate cookie pie crust
Chocolate syrup
1/2 gallon mint chocolate chip ice cream
1 (8 ounce) container Cool Whip
grasshoppercookies (optional) or girl scoutthin mint cookies (optional) or chocolate shavings, for topping if desired (optional)

Directions:

1. Drizzle chocolate syrup on bottom of each crust

2. Put 1/2 of the ice cream in each crust.

3. Drizzle more chocolate syrup.

4. Spread cool whip on and then drizzle more syrup.

5. Crumble grasshopper cookies, or girl scout thin mint cookes on the top (just a few).

6. Freeze, then serve.

Well, reading this recipe again, I realized I actually messed up a little. I didn't have easy internet access up at the lake, so I wasn't able to follow the recipe, I kind of had to make it up. I FORGOT THE COOL WHIP. Anyways, it turned out good, super easy, and I WILL make it again. Check out these pictures that I didn't take... I will get back to taking my own pictures of my work, I promise!

#31: Cindy McCain's Oatmeal-Butterscotch Cookies

Ahhhh, this recipe does my conservative, "we vote Republican!" heart a lot of good. Upon searching the internet for recipes containing both oatmeal and butterscotch (because, if you remember correctly, I was determined to outdo the woman at church and her phenomenal cookies), this little gem popped out. Apparently, Cindy McCain's cookies are known the world over as being absolutely delicious. I figured, if this recipe is good enough for a 2008 Presidential candidate, dang it, it's good enough for my future family cookbook. And dang it, IT IS! I created this cookies for Jeni's arrival into Utah, and brought the remnants with me on our trip to Bear Lake with the Bairds, and they disappeared. Works for me!

#31: Cindy McCain's Oatmeal-Butterscotch Cookies (as found on Food.com)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats
1 2/3 cups butterscotch chips 

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375°F. In a large bowl beat the butter or margarine, granulated sugar and brown sugar together. Add the eggs and vanilla, beating well.
     - I actually ended up making this recipe at my own apartment, since my roommates were both gone and I knew I wouldn't get in their hair. Unfortunately, the dial on our oven was... confusing to me, since I couldn't tell for sure what temperature I was dialing in during the pre-heating. I think it was somewhere between 375 and 400, but it definitely made a difference later on in the recipe.

2. In a medium-size bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture; stir until blended. Stir in oats and butterscotch chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 10 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
     - 10 minutes? Uh, no. I left the first batch in for the recommended time and they were WAY too crunchy, so I slowed it down to around 7 and a half minutes. MUCH BETTER. Again, I'm not sure if this was because of the issues I had with the pre-heating, so who knows?

There you have it! Another simple, yet DELICIOUS, cookie recipe. Naturally, I YET AGAIN forgot to take pictures (you're all probably starting to wonder if I am actually baking these treats or not), but I did find the pictures from the recipe I used, and they're pretty true to what I got out of them. Check it.