Bready or Not Original: Hazelnut Praline Bars
These delicious Hazelnut Praline Bars are a lot like praline candy, but it fantastic bar form.
The top of these bars caramelizes. These things are very sweet, with the nuts rendered softly crunchy. The combination of textures is just divine.
The slight drizzle of chocolate on top is the perfect accent, too. Funny how the tiniest bit of chocolate adds so much in terms of flavor.
A 6 ounce bag of hazelnuts will be the perfect amount for both the crust and nut layer, too.
Can you use other nuts? I haven’t tried it in this recipe, but why not? Praline candy traditionally uses pecans, after all. I bet using other nuts–or a combo–would be fine.
Hazelnuts are sure delicious and fun, though!
Bready or Not Original: Hazelnut Praline Bars
Equipment
- 13x9 pan
- food processor
- small saucepan
Ingredients
Crust
- 1/2 cup hazelnuts
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened, 1 1/2 sticks
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
Nut Layer
- 1 cup hazelnuts
- 13 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
Topping
- 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line a 13x9-inch pan with foil and apply nonstick spray or butter.
- Place the 1/2 cup hazelnuts in a food processor. Process until finely ground.
- In a medium bowl, beat together the next two crust ingredients, the brown sugar and butter. Add the flour and ground hazelnuts. Press crust into pan; a piece of wax paper and a heavy glass makes it easy to form an evenly compressed layer. Bake for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, put the remaining hazelnuts in the food processor and give them a quick pulse, just to coarsely chop them.
- As soon as the crust comes out, sprinkle the hazelnuts over the top. In a small saucepan, warm the butter and brown sugar to boiling at medium heat. Boil for a minute. Pour over hazelnuts.
- Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until edges are bubbling and center is set. Cool completely.
- In a small microwave-safe bowl, zap the chocolate in 25 second bursts, stirring well between each pass, until it can be stirred smooth. Use a fork to drizzle the chocolate over the bars.
- Chill in fridge for 30 minutes, or until chocolate is set. Use the foil to lift contents onto a cutting board and slice into bars.
- Store in a sealed container at room temperature or in the fridge with waxed paper or parchment between the layers.
OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Chocolate Cherry Bundt Cake
Chocolate and cherries team up to delicious results in this delicious Chocolate Cherry Bundt Cake!
I first encountered this lovely combo in the Queen Anne Cordial Cherries my parents would buy around Christmas. The combo is pretty amazing in cake form, too.
You use both cherries and cherry juice in this recipe. That infuses the crumb with cherry flavor, even if your bite lacks cherry chunks.
Chocolate is swirled throughout. Make sure you don’t swirl it too much–you want distinct layers of chocolate, not only for the flavor, but the lovely appearance.
This is a special kind of bundt cake, perfect for a birthday, brunch, special dessert, breakfast, and–of course–Valentine’s Day.
Bake up this beautiful thing and indulge. Plus, it can always be sliced up and frozen for later!
Bready or Not: Chocolate Cherry Bundt Cake
Equipment
- large bundt pan
Ingredients
- 13 1/2 ounces maraschino cherries with juice
- 3 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, room temperature
- 2 cups white sugar
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 teaspoons almond extract
- 1 1/2 cups sour cream or plain or vanilla Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Drain juice from cherries into another bowl; reserve 1/2 cup of juice. Remove stems from cherries and roughly chop up the fruit. Set aside.
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Grease and flour a large bundt pan.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the flour and baking soda. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time. Pour in the cherry juice, water, and almond extract. Start adding the flour mix and the sour cream in small amounts, going back and forth until everything is just incorporated. Fold the cherries into the batter.
- In a microwave safe dish, heat the chocolate chips in short bursts until they can be stirred smooth.
- Spoon some cherry batter into the base of the bundt pan. Add dollops of chocolate, then more batter. Keep going back and forth until all of the batter and chocolate is in the pan. Drag a butter knife through--without touching the metal--to swirl everything together a bit more, then smooth the top.
- Bake for about 1 hour, until an inserted knife comes out clean. Set on a rack to cool for 20 minutes, then invert the cake and remove the pan so it can completely cool.
- Store covered at room temperature. Slices can also be frozen for later enjoyment.
- OM NOM NOM!
Book Blog: The Body Under the Piano (Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen #1) by Marthe Jocelyn
I review everything I read and post reviews on Goodreads and LibraryThing. That’s not enough. Good books are meant to be shared. Therefore, I’m spotlighting some of my favorite reads here on my site.
The Body Under the Piano (Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen #1) by Marthe Jocelyn
out now; Indiebound, B&N, and Amazon
I received an advance copy of the book from the publisher via NetGalley.
I need a time machine so I can go back to 1990 to hand my 10-year-old self this book. Almost-40-year-old me ADORED this novel, and I know my 10-year-old self would love it even more. Why? Because the book is smart, savvy historical fiction with an honest depiction of the era, and a heroine with a morbid bent that reminds me lot of myself–though Aggie is actually inspired by the childhood of the Queen of Mystery Writers herself, Agatha Christie.
Aggie is a young girl in 1902, growing up in a small British coastal town. She has a wild imagination and a taste for the macabre, and she can’t help but get involved when her music teacher’s cruel mother is found dead–dead of poison! Aggie and her friend Hector set out to investigate. Their methods are smart, but they also cause a lot of problems along the way, especially when a meddlesome local reporter gets tangled up in everything.
The characters are fantastic and fun, just as you expect in a cozy British mystery village; plus, they have fun portraits at the front of the book. One of the things I loved most was the honest depiction of the past. It was not sugar-coated. The book deftly addresses bigotry (Hector is a “foreigner,” a Belgian refugee inspired by Hercule Poirot), sexism (girls can’t/shouldn’t do many things), and the complications that arise in this period from a child born out of wedlock. The book feels quite cozy with its fun mystery and whimsical characters, but also grounded in realism because of how these other issues are handled. The balance is so well done.
I highly recommend this book for kids and their parents. If the child isn’t already into classic whodunits, this novel could very well be what kicks off a life-long love of the genre.
Read MoreBready or Not: Sable Breton (French Shortbread)
Last month I shared my recipe for Almond Sable. This time I present another French (from Brittany, to be specific) take on shortbread: Sable Breton!
These cookies are much more straightforward than the previous recipe. The ingredients are shortbread basics: butter, sugar, flour.
What sets this apart is, foremost, that it is not as sweet as its counterparts across the channel.
I also recommend that you use a kitchen scale to get that European-style precision–along with actual French butter. President-brand is expensive but widely available, even where I am in Arizona.
These cookies are downright pretty, too, with a crosshatched pattern and an egg yolk wash. They are perfect alongside a cup of coffee or tea!
Modified from the original at Mon Petit Four.
Bready or Not: Sable Breton (French Shortbread)
Equipment
- parchment paper
- small cookie cutter
- food scale
Ingredients
- 200 grams salted butter 1/2 cup plus 5 Tablespoons, President butter recommended
- 120 grams white sugar 1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon
- 3 egg yolks divided
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 280 grams all-purpose flour 2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons, plus more if needed to dust work surface
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 375-degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or use a silicone mat.
- Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add two egg yolks and vanilla extract. Add flour until just incorporated.
- Lightly flour work surface and hands. Using rolling pin or hands, press dough to about 1/4-inch thickness.
- Use a small round cookie cutter on dough. Transfer rounds to cookie sheet, spaced out a bit. Use a fork to scratch a crosshatch pattern in the top, like a hashtag with more lines.
- Beat remaining egg yolk in a small bowl. Brush tops of cookies with yolk.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until cookies are a consistent golden color. Transfer to a rack to completely cool.
- Store in a sealed container.
- OM NOM NOM!
