I have never been a big fan of nuts in brownies. They’re usually included to provide a crunchy contrast to a fudgy, chocolaty treat. After eating many brownies that were more nuts than chocolate as a kid (before I wisely realized I should carefully inspect the brownie before eating it), I decided that a really good brownie is nice when it’s fudgy and doesn’t need a contrast besides a glass of milk. I almost never included nuts in brownies after that.

Lately, I’ve been looking for different twists for brownies, however. I loved the crunchy crust on the Caramel Oatmeal Brownies I tried and the fun flavors of my Peppermint Cookies and Cream Brownies. So I decided to set aside my bias and look into working with nuts. I immediately discarded the idea of walnuts (the go-to brownie nut) and opted instead for some toasted pistachios. They have a fantastic green color and a lovely nutty, buttery flavor that complements that of chocolate.

The double chocolate brownie base is very rich and made with both dark chocolate and milk chocolate. Melted dark chocolate (I used 65% Callebaut) is incorporated into a not-too-sweet batter and provides a surprisingly intense flavor to the brownies. Milk chocolate chips, or milk chocolate chunks, are mixed in alongside the pistachios to sweeten up the dessert a bit - and because I think that milk chocolate really goes well with pistachios in general. The brownies are moist and rich, but are not too fudgy. In fact, I would say that they almost melt into your mouth, neither cake-like nor gooey. The flavors and consistency balance exceptionally well here and these brownies will definitely be made by me again, even though they have nuts in them.

Extra brownies can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer. I actually like them cold and crumbling them up to use as an ice cream topping isn’t a half-bad idea either!

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I’d like to dedicate this recipe to anyone who thinks that Pillsbury Bake Off recipes are nothing more than prepackaged products rearranged to make variations on a refrigerator biscuit theme. Some of them are - it’s a competition sponsored by General Mills and many name brand, prepackaged products are qualified for use in the entered recipes - but there are just as many recipes that start with ordinary ingredients and are the type of dishes that any home cook/baker might cook up on a given day. And, of course, the contest was started not only to promote their brand, but to give home bakers an outlet to showcase (and be rewarded for) their culinary prowess.

Getting back to this particular recipe, it was a finalist in Pillsbury’s 7th Grand National baking competition - a.k.a. the 1956 Pillsbury Bake off. It didn’t win the grand prize, but the woman who submitted the recipe (Carol Markford from Pennsylvania) must have been very close because these brownies are creative, delicious and easily one of the most addictive brownies I’ve ever tasted.

They are essentially brownies with an oatmeal cookie crust on the bottom. The cookie layer is simple and heavy on both sugar and oats. It is partially baked before the brownie topping is added to the pan, giving the sugars a chance to begin to caramelize and harden (hence the “caramel” part of the brownie name). The brownie layer is added on top of the hot oatmeal cookie layer and the whole thing is baked through. When they come out of the oven and cool down, you end up with a batch of rich brownies with a good chocolate flavor and an amazingly flavorful crust. I say that the brownies don’t quite make the “moist and fudgy” category because they are relatively thin, though they are very moist and tender. They contrast perfectly with the crisp, and slightly candy-like caramel-oatmeal base.

This recipe is easy to make and takes very little active work time. The only problem I encountered was spreading the brownie batter into the pan on top of the cookies. The crust is only partially baked and very hot when you add the brownie batter. As a result, the still-soft cookie dough moves around a bit when you try to spread out the brownies. Don’t worry if it looks a bit messy while you’re working; take your time and spread lightly and carefully. Using an ungreased pan will help hold the oatmeal cookies in place and there should be just enough butter in the recipe that cutting the brownies and serving them should be no problem.

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From lemon meringue bars to brownies to s’mores, tray bakes - a blanket term for all kinds of bar cookies and fruit slices - are really very versatile. You can use a crust to create a layered bar or a tart-like fruit treat, or use a single batter to make brownies or blondies. I’m a bit partial to cookie bars in particular for a couple of reasons. First, that you don’t need to spend all that time doling out batter onto baking sheets or hovering near the oven, waiting for the oven timer to go off every 10 minutes so that you can remove one batch and insert another to bake. With bar cookies, everything goes right into the pan and is done in one batch. Second, you can slice the resulting bars into any size you like - a feature that comes in handy when you’re dealing with this recipe.

These bars are nothing more than oatmeal cookies that come out in rectangles, rather than rounds. Almost nothing more, I should say. They are thicker than regular drop cookies, and consequently have a slight chew to them, but have the same great oat and butter flavor of regular cookies. Unlike some blondie recipes or brownie recipes, these cookies are not dense at all. Instead, they’re tender and a bit crumbly. The dough barely holds together and must be pressed into the pan, and the lack of liquid in the dough helps achieve this texture.

Instead of cinnamon and raisins or chocolate chips - all of which are typical oatmeal cookie additions - I opted to pack these full of pistachios and dried cherries. I used sweet cherries, not tart, and was incredibly pleased with the result. The cherry and pistachio flavors complemented each other very well, both in flavor and in texture. The cherries gave a nice chew to the cookies and the pistachios added a nice crunch, as well as a nice change from much more commonly used pecans and walnuts. I did not chop my cherries or pistachios up before adding them into the dough, but if you prefer your add-ins to be on the smaller side, give yours a coarse chop with a chefs knife before stirring them in.

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Granola bars tend fall into two major categories. One type is mostly nuts - chunky and barely held together. The other type is more like a candy bar - sweet and sometimes full of chocolate. Neither is my favorite because I really want a granola bar that is lighter than the nut bar and healthier than the candy bar, so I definitely prefer to make my own granola bars at home. It gives me complete freedom to customize the bar to suit my tastes. Plus, it’s very easy to do and the bars always taste much fresher than the prepackaged kind.

This granola bar recipe starts with a combination of rolled oats and puffed rice cereal. I love the flavor of the oats, but I really enjoy the way that the rice keeps the bar from feeling too heavy or dense. Oats can be filling, but these two components alone are not nearly enough to make a snack that will sustain an appetite for long. I boosted the protein in the bars with ground flaxseed and almond meal. The former is easiest to digest in a ground form and, as for the latter, I just don’t care to have large chunks of nuts in my granola bars (especially because big nuts make the bars harder to cut neatly).

For sweetness, I added in some brown sugar, and got a big boost of flavor from vanilla, shredded coconut and dried cranberries. I think that some sugar is necessary, as I do enjoy some sweetness in granola bars (these certainly aren’t too sweet), but feel free to play around with the amount to target your tastes. Likewise, the cranberries and coconut can be subsituted for similar ingerdients, and you can mix in some spices to give the bars more variety.

The result? A very tasty granola bar that is high enough in protein to keep you feeling satisfied for far longer than something candy-ish. That said, you might still have to exercise some self control when eating these. Filling or not, they do taste good and it’s hard to eat just one. Wrap them individually and pack them in lunches, or stick them in the glove compartment of your car for long commutes.
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Blondies, as I have mentioned before, are a kind of bar cookie that spans the gap between a regular chocolate chip-type cookie and a brownie. They are typically made with a plain (i.e. nonchocolate) dough that has plenty of mixed in chocolate chips, nuts or dried fruits, but have a dense and fudgy texture that is most often associated with brownies.

My inspiration to make blondies was from a picture that Joe had up on Culinary in the Country. In his batch of blondies, which included cinnamon and chocolate chips, it was easy to see the signature texture of the blondie - the moist and almost fudgy center that sets them apart from a regular cookie. I based my recipe on his, using just a touch less butter and sugar, but still excluding a leavening agent (much as I did in making my Peppermint Cookies and Cream Brownies to prevent the batter from loosing it rich and dense texture during baking. I also used my Baker’s Edge pan, and as expected, each piece turned out to be perfectly done with it.

The blondies turned out to be chewy and delicious, and while they were not nearly as fudgy as brownies, they still managed to give the impression that you’re eating something more than just a cookie. They’re perfect with a big glass of milk. The focal point of this batch was the large amount of chopped dark chocolate-covered cranberries that I mixed into the dough. I ended up adding a handful of extra dried cranberries for some extra tartness and if you don’t have chocolate-covered berries, go ahead and split the amount given below between chopped dark chocolate and plain dried cranberries.

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I find that there are generally two types of shortbread cookies: thin, crispy ones and thick, buttery ones (A third type of shortbread cookies would be the “bad” ones, but I won’t even get into those - who wants to hear about bad cookies when you can hear about good ones?). I like both and while I am partial to the crispness of the thinner cookies, as long as the shortbread is butter and melts into my mouth when I eat a piece, I know that I’m going to enjoy it.

These shortbread cookies are thick, tender and buttery. Aside from the standard flour-butter-sugar-salt base of the cookie, there is also a generous amount of shredded coconut in the shortbread. The coconut not only makes the cookie more tender, but it keeps them tasting fresh and surprisingly moist (by moist, I mean that they are very moist for a shortbread cookie, which tends to be dry; they will not be moist when compared to a cupcake or something of that consistency) long after they are baked. I opted not to add in vanilla or any additional flavorings, but to jazz these up you could blend a bit of rum extract or some lemon zest into the dough  before baking.

The shortbread dough is very, very crumbly. In fact, it barely comes together when you mix it. The best way to handle it is to simply pour the dough into your baking pan and pat it down into place, rather than try to shape it or roll out the dough in any way. I lined my pan with parchment paper so that it would be easy to remove, but lightly greased aluminum foil will work equally well. The shortbread is so tender that it is necessary to line the pan if you want to avoid crumbling any of the bars. And speaking of crumbling, it is best to cut the shortbread into bars with a very sharp knife when the finished cookies are still hot from the oven. Since the cookies will still be setting up, you’ll get the cleanest bars out this way.

I absolute adore these cookies, even though they have a tendency to fall apart if you handle them too roughly and crumbs will probably scatter down onto your shirt when you bite into a piece. It is worth it, especially if you’re a coconut fan.

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