When liquours are included in baked goods, the flavor doesn’t always make it through to the finished product. This definitely isn’t the case for these boozy Irish Cream Brownies. There is quite a bit of Irish Cream mixed right into the brownie batter, infusing it with flavor. There is also some in the glaze that finishes these off, adding yet another little kick to these grown up brownies.

The brownies themselves have a nice chocolate flavor to them, as well. They are moist and tender, with a texture that falls somewhere between cakey and chewy on the brownie spectrum. There is only a small amount of leavening in the recipe to keep the brownies on the dense side and make sure that they taste more like brownies than cake (which they definitely do!). This recipe was inspired by one I saw that used some artificial Irish Cream flavoring. The real thing is a much better option, taste-wise. It also made more sense for me to use the real thing because, as much as I like Irish Cream, it is so rich that it takes a very long time to finish off a bottle and so I don’t mind using a very generous portion in baking from time to time.

These brownies keep well when they are stored in an airtight container. The glaze is a little on the softer side, so while it does set up, it may soften when the brownies are stored. Cut these into small pieces and serve them with coffee. Coffee will really enhance both the chocolate and the Irish Cream flavors.

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Samoas are easily my favorite Girl Scout cookie because of all the great contrasting flavors and textures they have. It is a shortbread-type cookie topped with caramel and toasted coconut then dipped in chocolate. I like them so much that I have a homemade version that lets me make them any time I want - no Girl Scouts necessary - as well as a slightly easier bar cookie variation that still captures those flavors. This time, I have yet another variation on the theme with some Samoas Cheesecake Bars. They’re not quite as cookie-like as my other homemade Girl Scout Cookie recipes, but I’m pretty sure that those girls could easily sell just as many of these bars!

These cheesecake bars are fairly easy to make and start off with a shortbread base topped with a layer of vanilla cheesecake, a combination I’ve used before in Vanilla Bean Cheesecake Bars. The bars are topped with a mixture of caramel and toasted coconut, then drizzled with chocolate. The result is a delicious bar with a buttery crust, creamy cheesecake, gooey caramel, crisp coconut and rich chocolate.

The only trick to making these bars is that you need to make the caramel sauce by hand. It needs to remain soft when refrigerated because the cheesecake bars need to be stored in the refrigerator. The bars are a bit less satisfying to eat when the caramel hardens up and you can’t slice into them! This caramel is smooth and rich tasting, and remains soft enough to slice easily after it has been spread on the bars and chilled, though it is firm enough that it won’t run everywhere and make a mess. You could get away with using a thick, store-bought caramel sauce if you want to give a shortcut a try, though.

This recipe makes a big batch that is easy to share, but equally easy to enjoy yourself. They keep well in the refrigerator, so you can take your time eating through them. There are several stages to making this recipe, but most of the down time is just waiting for things to chill. Be a bit patient and the results will be well worth it!

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I’m always up for making a new bar cookie recipe. As much as I like regular drop cookies, bar cookies usually take even less time to make because everything goes into one dish. I suppose that you have to wait longer for them to cool (unless you don’t mind the first piece or two crumbling apart) than with individual cookies, but when I’m pressed for time, it’s the prep that I want to cut down on and not the cooling. That said, these Lime and Coconut Crumble Bars are well worth making whether you want to bake something in a hurry or have a whole afternoon to spend in the kitchen.

These are very delicious, and even more so if you are a fan of key lime pie, since they really remind me of the flavors of that dessert. The bars have a crumbly, shortbread-like bottom layer and a crispy streusel topping. Both start with the same crumbly dough mixture that contains butter, brown sugar, oats and shredded coconut. The middle layer of these bars is made with sweetened condensed milk and fresh lime juice. It has the same tangy flavor and creamy texture as a key lime pie does! The oats and coconut toast up beautifully as these bars bake, so the finished dish is a great combination of flavors and textures.

These are good at room temperature, but if you’re making these during the spring or summer when it’s hot, they can actually be quite refreshing if you chill them before serving. Plus, they store a little better in the refrigerator when it’s very hot outside, although they do just fine when stored at a normal or cool room temperature.
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A towering German Chocolate Cake is definitely a dessert to look forward to, but there isn’t always time - nor do I always have the desire - to construct a multi-layered cake. The solution to this little problem is a batch of German Chocolate Cake Brownies. These brownies have all the flavor of the cake, including a coconut-pecan topping that is very much like the gooey frosting that usually finished off a traditional German chocolate cake.

This recipe comes from the Taste of Home Baking Book, a favorite of mine because it has so many classic American baking recipes in it, including cakes, cookies, pies, breads and, of course, brownies. These brownies are very rich and chocolatey with a slightly unusual melt-in-your-mouth texture that makes them seem almost like a very tender cake. They are neither fudgy nor cakey, but are a great balance somewhere in between that should appeal to all brownie fans. The brownies are also not too sweet, so they balance well with the sweet, sticky topping.

The topping is a mixture of coconut, chopped pecans, brown sugar and butter. It is spread onto the brownies after they bake and then broiled to melt it and caramelize the top. Be careful with this step because it is easy to burn both the coconut and the pecans. Either set your oven rack a little ways away from your broiler (a middle rack instead of a top rack) or keep a very sharp eye on it, rather than setting a timer and walking away.

These brownies keep very well and, in an airtight container, will still taste great after several days.

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Recipes for cranberry breads and cakes often call for the use of fresh cranberries. Cookies and bar cookies, by contrast, usually call for dried cranberries instead. They’re easy to incorporate and have a nice sweet-tart taste. Dried cranberries mix into batters and doughs just as easily as nuts and chocolate chips do because they don’t add any additional moisture to a recipe. Fresh cranberries can have their advantages, however, and shouldn’t always be overlooked as cookie dough add-ins. They are more tart and have a clearer cranberry flavor than their dried counterparts.

This is precisely why I opted to use fresh cranberries in these Cranberry Almond Squares. The squares are moist and soft, with a base made with just enough ground almonds to give them a rich, nutty flavor. Without the berries, the bars would be very plain. With the berries, they are colorful and have a great balance of sweet and tart in every bite. I added some sliced almonds to the tops of the bars to give them a little contrasting crunch.

It’s great to have a sweet-tart dessert to serve alongside richer, sweeter desserts that tend to appear during the holidays. Cranberries are fresh and easily available during the late fall and early winter, as well. Although I’ve called for fresh cranberries in the recipe, you can substitute frozen berries easily to make this year-round. The recipe also doubles well and can be baked in a 9×13-inch pan. Or, you can simply do what I did, and bake three batches in a row to satisfy hungry taste-testers!

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As much as I like brownies, I would have to say that I always have a soft spot in my heart and a place in my kitchen for blondies. They tend to be more cookie-like and less chocolaty than brownies, but since they’re not defined by their cocoa content, there are even more ways to deviate from the standard and experiment with different flavors and ingredients in a batch of these bar cookies.

This particular batch of blondies get their flavor from maple syrup and coconut. It’s a pairing that you might not immediately come to mind when you think about either of the ingredients on their own, but they work together surprisngly well. Maple syrup is used as a sweetener for these blondies, along with some sugar, and gives the bars a rich, deep sweetness. It also helps keep the bars nice and moist. I would recommend using Grade B maple syrup, since it has a deeper and more distinct flavor than Grade A, but the lighter type will work fine, as well. The coconut supplies its own soft floral and nutty flavors to the bars, and really ensures that the bars keep a nice chew to them even if you end up storing them for a few days.

The finished blondies have a great texture, both moist and chewy, and a great flavor to them. At first, you can really taste the maple syrup, but as the blondies sit for a day or two, the coconut flavor steps up and shares the spotlight. For a simple bar cookie that takes only a few minutes to mix up, there is a lot of flavor here! I really like these plain, but they’re also good with chopped nuts or white chocolate mixed in, too.

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