SRC: Caramel Apple Shortbread Bars

It's the 4th Monday of the month which can only mean one thing.... It's Secret Recipe Club Group D Reveal day! I love the Secret Recipe Club and look forward to reveal day every month. I had a break last month so it's really good to be back. Just in case you need a reminder about what it's all about - each blog is assigned another blog in secret and the idea is that you choose a recipe to make from your secret blog and reveal it on the same day. It's a great way to discover new blogs and exciting recipes. 

This month my assigned blog is Mom's Test Kitchen writted by Jaime. She describes herself as "a child of God {who requires ALOT of forgiveness}, wife to an automotive genius, momma to a Princess that changed my life, daughter to some pretty alright parents, sister to my best friend & aunt to three kiddos that have me wrapped around their fingers!" You can read more about her and how she got to cooking and blogging here.  She has a lot of great recipes on her blog each accompanied by a beautiful photo. 

I had trouble choosing a recipe as there were so many I wanted to make. I shortlisted a few recipes including No Bake Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie, Candied Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies, Blueberry Lemon Crumb Bars and Hot Cocoa Cookies. However, my eye was drawn to this Caramel Apple Shortbread Bars. There's a few steps involved in baking this but it's well worth it. It's absolutely delicious and a perfect autumnal bake. I loved the crispy bit at the edges even though it was a little burnt! I would probably add more apples next time as mine cooked down to not very much and my apples were really small. I love the buttery, crumbly shortbread and the caramel apple filling is divine. I might also add in some spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg as I do love spice in my baking!

 making the base 

 cooking the filling

 spread filling over the base

 add crumble mixture on top 

 burnt round the edges but delicious none the less

 you will notice that there are 2 pieces missing as we couldn't wait to try them! 

For the shortbread layer and crumble topping 

225g butter

112g caster sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

312g plain flour (divided into 280g & 31g)

For the caramel apple filling 

57g butter

1 tablespoon honey

50g dark brown sugar

1 can (14oz) condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 small apples (Large apples would be better) - peeled, cored and diced 

• Grease an 8inch x 8 inch pan and line with foil allowing for some overhang (for easy removal later). Spray liberally with non stick spray.
• Beat buttter, sugar and vanilla until pale and fluffy
• Add in 280g flour. 
• Transfer 1/2 of the dough to the prepared baking tray and press down firmly to form the base.
• Place in the fridge.
• Add 31g flour to the remaining dough and mix with your hands until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. This is for the crumble topping later.
• In a medium saucepan, combine butter, honey, sugar, condensed milk and vanilla and bring to a boil, whisking occasionallu.
• Add in the diced apples and whisk frequently until the mixture thickens and darkens in colour (approximately 10 minutes).
• Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. 
• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Remove base from the fridge and pour the caramel apple filling on top.
• Sprinkle crumble topping and bake for approximately 1 hour.

An InLinkz Link-up

SRC: Easy Peanut Butter and Banana Flan

It's Secret Recipe Club Group D reveal day again. This month has gone particularly quickly probably because I've been so busy. If you need a quick reminder, Secret Recipe Club is a fun blogging challenge where each blog is paired with another blog in secret. You are given your assigned blog well ahead of time and the idea is you make something from that blog and everyone reveals what they've made on the same day! 

This month my assigned blog is Confessions of a Cooking Diva written by Julie. She lives in Utah, loves food, Basset Hounds and the colour pink. She's addicted to TV shows and is scared of spiders! She loves creating her own recipes as well as discovering new ones and she certainly has lots of great recipes on her site. 

As I was busy packing to move house when I got my assignment I knew I had to choose a relatively simple recipe, preferably a no bake recipe. I shortlisted her Strawberry Cream Pie and Easy Frozen Peanut Butter Banana and Chocolate Pie. However, if I had all my regular baking equipment, I really want to try her Key Lime Bundt Cake and Apple Pecan Cheesecake. 

This really is a very simple, no bake recipe with great results. I made a few minor changes as I had absolutely no equipment and minimal ingredients. Unfortunately the supermarket had run out of ready made pie crusts so I bought a flan cake instead and it worked quite well. I don't have a microwave in my new house and I haven't unpacked the pots and pans so I left out the chocolate drizzle. I did however have some mini peanut butter cups that I was given as a birthday present which was perfect to decorate this pie/flan with.

Recipe adapted slightly from Confessions of a Cooking Diva

1 ready made pie crust/flan cake
1 banana, sliced
200g cream cheese
300mls double cream
100g sugar
250g smooth peanut butter
Mini peanut butter cups to decorate.

• Whisk the cream until stiff then place in a bowl.
• Whisk the peanut butter, cream cheese and sugar until smooth.
• Stir in the whipped cream.
• Place the flan case on a cake tray or plate.
• Place a layer of sliced bananas on top as shown.
• Fill with the cream cheese/peanut butter filling.
• Decorate with mini peanut butter cups.
• Chill overnight before serving.

An InLinkz Link-up

SRC: Healthy Raspberry Bars

It's the 4th Monday of the month which can only mean one thing.... It's Secret Recipe Club Group D Reveal day! I love the Secret Recipe Club and look forward to reveal day every month. The concept is simple - each blog is assigned another blog in secret and the idea is that you choose a recipe to make from your secret blog and reveal it on the same day. It's a great way to discover new blogs and exciting recipes. 

This month my assignment is Without Adornment written by Bean. Her favourite hobbies are baking/cooking and photography, both of which she showcases on her blog. She is gluten intolerant and loves to experiment with vegan baking so her blog is a treasure trove of gluten free/dairy free/vegan recipes. I know more and more people with gluten intolerance and food allergies so this was a good opportunity to experiment with recipes and to bake outside my comfort zone. 

I had a real nosey round her blog and I do encourage you to pop over and say hi. She writes a beautiful blog with lovely accompanying pictures. I shortlisted a few recipes to try and in the end went with this raspberry bar as it sounded good and I had some fresh raspberries to hand. Her recipe is a gluten and refined sugar free vegan bar. I've made some adjustments as I did not have all the ingredients to hand so mine is not quite gluten free but it's dairy free with minimal refined sugar. I was really pleased that mine turned out almost exactly the same as Bean's. It tastes like a crumble and the sweetened, spiced tart raspberries are the perfect filling. These would be great for lunch boxes or picnics.

Other recipes I shortlisted to try are banana coconut cream pie, Vegan GF strawberry banana loaf with walnuts, Health(ier) Peanut (Not Quite) Brittle and Vegan Polenta Pizza. 

 flour and oat mix 

 adding coconut oil 

 looks like a crumble mixture 

 mix the raspberries with honey and spices 

 press more than half of the flour mixture onto a traybake tin 

 add a layer of raspberries 

 top with the remaining flour mixture 

 delicious!

Recipe adapted from Without Adornment

55g ground almonds

80 g brown rice flour

100g oats

55g wholemeal flour

100g spelt flour

1 teaspoon baking powder 

50g dark brown sugar

100g coconut oil

450g fresh raspberries

4 - 5 tablespoons honey (adjust to taste) 

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• In a large bowl, mix the ground almonds, brown rice flour, oats, wholemeal flour, spelt flour, sugar and baking powder.
• Add the coconut oil and rub into the flour mixture with your fingers until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
• In a separate bowl, mix the honey, spices and raspberries together. 
• Spray a traybake tin with non stick spray. Press more than half the flour mixture into the tin and smooth out the top with a spatula.
• Spoon the raspberry layer on top and finish with the remaining crumble mix.
• Bake for approximately 30 - 40 minutes or until golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before slicing into squares.

An InLinkz Link-up

SRC: Butterscotch Brownies

Welcome to July's Secret Recipe Club Group D Reveal day! I love the Secret Recipe Club and look forward to reveal day every month. The concept is simple - each blog is assigned another blog in secret and the idea is that you choose a recipe to make from your secret blog and reveal it on the same day. It's a great way to discover new blogs and exciting recipes. 

This month, my assignment is Bewitching Kitchen written by Sally. She was born and raised in Brazil but now resides in Manhattan working as a biochemist. Her approach to cooking reflects the timeless advice of Julia Child, using a famous quote by Harvey Steiman: “Everything in moderation, including moderation…”

She writes a beautiful blog full of lovely recipes and tales from her life. I strongly encourage you to visit her blog and to see for yourself. There's certainly never a dull moment in the Bewitching Kitchen!

As always, it was difficult to pick just one recipe to make but my eyes were immediately drawn to these Butterscotch Brownies. I love brownies and the simplicity of this recipe appealed to me. I've never made a brownie recipe with only 1 egg or less than a block of butter! As Sally mentions on her blog, the recipe only makes a very small batch so I ended up using my loaf tin instead of my square tin. The brownies were deliciously fudgey and gooey as a brownie should be. You can clearly taste the walnuts and chocolate especially since I put more than the suggested amount in! 

Other recipes that I've bookmarked to try are Chocolate Bread, Lemon Shortbread Bars, Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Tuxedo Cake. 

 butterscotch base - melted butter and brown sugar 

 adding the nuts and chocolate chunks

 ready to go in the oven 

 packed full of walnuts and chocolate chunks! 

Recipe adapted slightly from Bewitching Kitchen

75g flour
1 tsp baking powder
65g unsalted butter
180g brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
100g chopped walnuts (OR omit the walnuts, and double the choc chips amount)
100g chocolate chips

(I would recommend 50g walnuts + 50g chocolate chips)

• Preheat the oven to 175C.
• Grease and line a small loaf tin.
• Melt the butter and then stir in the brown sugar. 
• Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix well.
• Stir in the flour followed by the walnuts and chocolate chunks. 
• Pour the batter into the loaf tin and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until the top is set and the middle is still slightly wobbly.
• Allow to cool completely before slicing. 

An InLinkz Link-up

SRC: Cranberry Cornbread

It's the fourth Monday of the month which means that it's Secret Recipe Club Group D Reveal day! I love the Secret Recipe Club and look forward to reveal day every month. The concept is simple each blog is assigned another blog in secret and the idea is that you choose a recipe to make from your secret blog and reveal it on the same day. 

My assignment this month is Fried Ice and Donut Holes written by Melissa who is a teacher by profession. She loves to cook and bake and started her blog back in 2009. The story behind the name of her blog comes from her grandpa telling them to behave or they would have fried ice and donut holes aka nothing for dinner! 

She has a lovely blog full of wonderful recipes so do head on over to say hi and to check them out. I shortlisted a few recipes to make including Citrus Kissed Honey Buttons, Peanut Butter Bars, Salted Caramel Cashew Bark and Irish Coffee Cupcakes. In the end I decided on this Cranberry Cornbread as it sounded really interesting and look really tasty. 

It's a really simple recipe and the results were amazing. I love the coarse texture of the polenta and the sweetness of the cranberries. I usually think of cornbread as savoury so it was good to try a sweet version. Everyone at work really enjoyed it as it was different to normal cake and it felt quite healthy to eat! 

 buttermilk, sugar, flour, polenta, dried cranberries, eggs, butter 

 wet ingredients and dry ingredients 

 stir in dried cranberries

 ready to bake 

 love the golden colour 

Recipe from Fried Ice and Donut Holes

70g butter, melted
250mls (1 cup) buttermilk
225g polenta or cornmeal
85g flour
110g sugar
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
170g dried cranberries

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Whisk the butter, eggs and buttermilk in a bowl. 
• Mix the polenta, flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in another bowl.
• Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.
• Stir in the dried cranberries. 
• Pour into a cake tin (I used a 23cm round cake tin but you can also use a square tin) and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

An InLinkz Link-up

SRC: Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

It's the fourth Monday of the month which means that it's Secret Recipe Club Group D Reveal day! I love the Secret Recipe Club and look forward to reveal day every month. The concept is simple each blog is assigned another blog in secret and the idea is that you choose a recipe to make from your secret blog and reveal it on the same day.

My assignment this month is I am a Honey Bee written by Nicole or Nic as she is better known from Boston. You can read more about her here including 28 random things about her! Her blog is about cooking, crafts and life in general. There is a mixure of recipes, craft projects, dining out, family updates and more. It's definitely worth a read. 

As usual, I had difficulty choosing just one recipe as there were so many I wanted to make. However, this chocolate chip cookie bar caught my eye. I love chocolate chip cookies and this looked like a better version. Plus I wanted to try out my individual brownie pan which I've had for ages but have never used until now. I couldn't find any colourful chocolate chips here so I used a mixture of dark, milk and white chocolate chips and some coloured confetti sprinkles. I brought them to work for an event and they were very well received. The bars were crispy and you could definitely taste the different chocolate chips. The confetti added a fun burst of colour and they were all eaten within a short space of time. 

Other recipes that I've bookmarked to try are Andes Mint Chip Brownies, Bacon Jalapeno Cornbread, Monkey Bread and Super Rich Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting. 

 adding the chocolate chips and confetti sprinkles

 My new individual brownie pan 

 fresh from the oven 

 Each bar has a crisp edge 

 You can see the different chocolate chips and the coloured confetti sprinkles

Recipe adapted very slightly from I am a Honey Bee 

280g plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

226g butter

165g caster sugar

150g brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

100g dark chocolate chips

100g milk chocolate chips

100g white chocolate chips

1 x box of coloured confetti sprinkles

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Cream the butter and sugars until pale and fluffy.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. 
• Add in the vanilla extract.
• Beat in the flour and bicarbonate of soda.
• Finally stir in the chocolate chips and confetti sprinkles.
• Divide evenly into a greased individual brownie tin (or you can use a square tin) and bake for approximately 20 - 25 minutes until golden brown. 

An InLinkz Link-up

SRC: No Bake Berry Cheesecake

It's the last Monday of the month which means that it's Secret Recipe Club Group D Reveal day! I love the Secret Recipe Club and look forward to reveal day every month. The concept is simple each blog is assigned another blog in secret and the idea is that you choose a recipe to make from your secret blog and reveal it on the same day.

This month my assignment is Fantastical Sharing of Recipes written by Sarah who shares what her family likes to eat and what they like. She is also working on recipe development and sharing original ideas. Her blog is really easy to navigate and I like that there are thumbnail pictures for the recipe index. As expected, they are mostly family recipes and she has lovely photos to accompany each recipe.

As usual, it was difficult to choose a recipe to make as there were so many I wanted to try. So I asked J what he would like and he immediately chose this No Bake Berry Cheesecake. It's not a surprising choice as he loves cheesecake and he loves berries! This is the first time I've used condensed milk in a cheesecake recipe and it's absolutely gorgeous. The cheesecake is really smooth and creamy and the berry sauce is divine. I made a really thick biscuit base which helped to cut through the sweetness of the filling and berries.  I can foresee a lot of repeated requests for this one!

Other recipes that I've also bookmarked are Caramel Filled Brownies, Nutella Twix Blondies, Rolo Cupcakes, Caramel Frappucino Cupcakes, Candied Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies, Death by Chocolate Sea Salt Cookies and Best Ever Peanut Butter Fudge. She has a really good selection of recipes to suit every occasion and every taste so do check out her blog.

 I made a thick base layer 

 Filled it with the cream cheese/condensed milk filling 

 cooked down lots of berries with some sugar 

 piled the berry sauce on top 

 Delicious!

Recipe adapted slightly from Fantastical Sharing on Recipes

1 large pack of digestive biscuits

155g butter

200g cream cheese

1 can condensed milk

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the berry topping

I used a mixture of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries - approximately 450g 

Approximately 50 -75g caster sugar -adjust to taste

• Blitz the digestive biscuits in a food processor or place in a ziplock bag and bash with a rolling pin then place in a large bowl. 
• Melt the butter and pour over the crushed biscuits.
• Mix well with a spoon. 
• Press into your serving dish and let it set in the fridge. 
• Make the filling by mixing the cream cheese and condensed milk together in an electric mixer. Add in the vanilla extract and lemon juice.
• Spoon over the cheesecake base and allow to set in the fridge. 
• Cook the berries and sugar in a small saucepan on a low to medium heat until the berries have cooked but not turned to mush. 
• Pour over the cheesecake or serve it on the side. 

An InLinkz Link-up