Cranberry White Chocolate Cookie Bars

These cookie bars are a lot easier to make than they look. The final result is a beautiful, soft, white chocolate-drizzled triangle full of different flavors and textures. These bars are the perfect dessert to bring to a holiday party - if they make it out of the kitchen!

This recipe (derived from Taste of Home and inspired by Starbucks 💁🏼) involves prepping a few different elements and then putting them all together at the end for one big holiday flavor mashup, so be ready for a little multi-tasking (but it's well-worth the effort)!

Ingredients:
Cookie Bars:
3/4 cup butter (1.5 sticks), melted
1.5 cups dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 + 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Buttercream Frosting:
2 sticks butter, softened
3+ cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-2 tablespoons milk

Topping:
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
1/4 cup white chocolate chips
1 tablespoon milk
Dried cranberries

Tools:
9"x13" baking pan
baking sheet
parchment paper
3 mixing bowls
cooling rack
2 small microwave-safe bowls
Sifter

Instructions:
Cookie bars: 🍪

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and leave out 2 sticks of butter to soften (for frosting).
2. Melt 3/4 cup butter in one of the microwave-safe bowls. Pour the melted butter into a mixing bowl and stir in brown sugar.
3. Beat the eggs into the wet ingredient mixture one at a time, followed by the vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, spices.
5. Stir the dry into the wet ingredients a little at a time. Once combined, add the dried cranberries, shredded coconut, and white chocolate chips.
6. Spread the thick batter evenly into the baking pan. Bake for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Toppings Part I: Toasted Almonds 🌰

1. Add a sheet of parchment paper to your baking sheet. Spread the sliced almonds in an even layer across the baking sheet.
2. Bake for about 10 minutes (in the same oven as the cookie bars) until lightly browned.

Toppings Part II: Toasted Coconut 🌴

1. Take the almonds out of the oven once they are browned and fragrant. Move them to a plate.
2. Using the same pan and parchment paper, spread out the toasted coconut on the baking sheet and bake (in the same oven as the cookie bars) for about 10 minutes until golden. 

Remove the bars from the oven once they are ready and leave them to cool in the pan for about 15 minutes. Remove them from the pan and allow the bars to finish cooling on a wire rack for about 30 minutes. While the cookie bars are cooling, make the frosting.

Buttercream Frosting: 🍰

1. Sift 3 cups powdered sugar.
2. Using the softened butter, beat until creamy.
3. Add the powdered sugar to the butter a little at a time and mix.
4. Once the sugar is fully incorporated, add salt, vanilla extract, and 1 tablespoon of milk.
5. Beat until the consistency is the same as a can of frosting. If the mixture is too stiff, add another tablespoon of milk (you can add up to 4 tablespoons). If the frosting is too loose, sift and add a little more powdered sugar.

Make the melted white chocolate right before assembling the cookie bars. All other ingredients can be left out on the counter until it is time to bring everything together.

Toppings Part III: Melted White Chocolate 🍫

1. Using a microwave-safe bowl, microwave the remaining white chocolate chips for 15 seconds. Remove and stir. Repeat this process until the chocolate chips become a chunky chocolate mound.
2. Add 1 tablespoon milk and stir until chocolate is smooth. You may need to microwave again for about 10 seconds and then stir.

Assembly: 🏆

1. Spread a layer of buttercream frosting on the cookie bars - this layer can be as thick you want.
2. Add the toasted coconut, toasted almonds, and dried cranberries to the buttercream layer.
3. Using a fork, drizzle the melted white chocolate over the toppings.
4. Once the chocolate is dry, cut into triangles and enjoy!

😛😛😛

Tips and Variations:

• Add parchment paper to your baking pan, leaving the ends of the paper sticking out. This way, the bars can be lifted out of the pan to finish cooling on a wire rack.
• Try using a cream cheese frosting instead of butter cream. This would help balance out the sweetness of the white chocolate.
• The cookie bar recipe would work wonderfully as regular cookies! Try dropping 1-inch rounds of the batter onto your baking sheet and bake at 350 for ~15 minutes. Finish with a white chocolate drizzle.

Walnut Raisin Bread

There is nothing better than waking up on a snowy December morning to a big cup of coffee and a delicious slice of buttery toast. This recipe for walnut raisin bread (adapted from King Arthur Flour) is the perfect treat for winter mornings, to bring to a holiday party, or to keep around the house - it won't last long!

Baking yeast breads can seem intimidating, but fear not! It seems much more challenging than it really is. No special tools are needed! Just be sure to set aside enough time to allow this dough to rise twice. This particular recipe makes two small loaves. The dough can be baked as one large loaf, but the baking time will vary.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups warm water (for yeast), + .5 cup warm water (for raisins)

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup of high quality olive oil

1.5 teaspoons salt

6 cups of all-purpose flour

1.5 cups walnut pieces

1 cup raisins (dark or golden - or both!)

1 cup dark rum

Tools:

1 small bowl

1 medium mixing bowl

1 baking sheet, lined with parchment paper

1 stovetop pan

Plastic wrap or damp towel(s)

Cooling rack

😍😍😍

Instructions:

Part I: Work That Dough 💁🏼

1. In a small bowl, combine raisins, .5 cup warm water and rum. Set aside to allow the raisins to soak up the rum flavor.
2. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the water to the yeast so that the yeast is covered and you don't need to stir. Once dissolved, add .5 cup of flour. Let sit for 10 minutes.
3. Stir in honey, oil and salt.
4. Add flour one cup at a time. The dough should look a little ragged.
5. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface (I like to flour my nonstick baking mat on top of my counter for less mess - see my tips and variations below!). Knead the dough for about two minutes, adding flour as necessary, until you form a round ball.
6.  Put your dough ball in a medium mixing bowl and add the olive oil. Turn the dough to coat it.
7. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and allow to rise until it has doubled in size, about 1.5 hours.

Part II: Walnut Prep 🐿

While waiting for your dough to rise, start prepping the walnuts. They need to be toasted, either on the stovetop or in the oven.

Stovetop:

1. Heat the walnut pieces in a pan - DO NOT coat the pan in oil! As the walnuts heat up, the natural oil they contain will be released. They're strong, independent nuts that don't need no oil.
2. Stir occasionally, and wait for the nuts to get slightly toasty and beautifully fragrant. This could take anywhere form 5-10 minutes. Just watch them like a hawk - they can go from deliciously toasty to nastily burned in about .5 seconds.
3. Once all of the pieces have been toasted, allow them to cool on a cutting board.
4. Once cool, chop them into smaller pieces, slightly bigger than the raisins.

Oven:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spread nuts out onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
3. Allow to bake for 10-12 minutes or until browned and fragrant.
4. Allow the nuts to cool on a cutting board before chopping them into smaller pieces.

 Part III: Bring It All Together 👭👫👬

1. Drain and dry your raisins on a paper towel. 
2. Once your dough has doubled in size, deflate it in the bowl.  Knead in the toasted, chopped walnuts and dried rum-soaked raisins. It will seem like all of the filling won't fit in the dough, but keep kneading! 
3. Divide the dough in half and form each into a ball. Place them on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
4. Cover the loaves with a damp towel or lay plastic wrap over the top and allow them to rise for an additional 30-45 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
6. After the final rise, sprinkle with flour and use a knife to cut X shapes into the top of your loaves, about one inch deep.
7. Bake for 35-45 minutes. The loaves should be browned and sound hollow when you tap the bottom with your knuckle.
8. Allow the loaves to cool on a wire rack. Serve toasted with butter and honey, use as sandwich bread, or eat as is!

Tips and Variations:

• Invest in a large Silpat or other nonstick baking mat. They are dishwasher safe and can be used in the oven too! I always put mine on my countertop when baking - it makes cleanup a breeze, especially when you need to roll out a dough!
• Try using other dried fruits in place of the raisins, like currants or even dried cherries. Just be sure your pieces of fruit are small - otherwise their weight will make them sink to the bottom of the bread! Chocolate chips could also be a delicious variation!
• This bread can be made without nuts, or even using a whole wheat flour instead of white.
• Consider adding other types of oil, like walnut (as called for in the original recipe). Honey can also be substituted for agave, or try experimenting with maple syrup!
• The rum can be substituted for brandy, whiskey, orange liqueur... the possibilities are endless. Or for an alcohol-free version, just double the amount of warm water you add to the raisins.
• When allowing the dough to rise, I usually put my dough in a warm area of the kitchen, usually on my stovetop (without any heat). The warmer environment helps give the yeast a boost.
• If you notice the tops of your loaves getting too brown before the middle is baked, cover them with tin foil. This will allow them to bake longer without adding any additional color.

Happy Baking!! 🙌🏻🍞🙌🏻

Hello, Culinary World!

Hello and welcome to Feast Your Eyes!

I'm Hillary, your guide to delicious treats, quick shortcuts, and everything in between! My goal is to inspire home cooks everywhere to get back to basics and stretch your culinary imaginations. Check back weekly for new posts and be sure to follow me on Instagram (@fyeblog) and Twitter (@fye_blog)! Happy baking :)