Peanut Butter and Jelly Dessert Bars

2  1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 cup butter
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 jar of grape jam
1/2 cup peanut butter chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Brush a 9-inch square baking pan with butter, room temp.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar and salt. With a pastry cutter or your hands, work in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal with a few pea-sized pieces of butter remaining.

Add egg, lightly beaten, and vanilla; stir until dough just comes together.

Set aside 1 cup of dough and firmly press remaining dough into pan in an even layer. Spread jelly over top.

Combine reserved dough and peanut butter chips; crumble over jam layer.

Bake until topping is deep golden brown, 45-50 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Run a sharp knife around edges then, using parchment, lift cake from pan and cut into squares.

Brownie Dessert Pizza

Brownie Pizza

 You'll need:

1 box of brownie mix (your choice)

1 tub of cheesecake filling OR your favorite homemade recipe, enough for one cheesecake

half bag of chocolate chips

chocolate sauce

caramel sauce

green food coloring

pink food coloring

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a traditional pizza pan, set aside.
2. Mix brownies according to the directions on the box. Spoon all the mix onto the pizza pan, spreading to the edges. Bake for 25-28 minutes.
3. In the meantime, split the cheesecake filling in half, placing mixture in separate bowls. Dye one half pink, the other green. This will NOT affect the taste at all. Place back into the fridge once they've been dyed.
4. Once brownie is done, leave it to cool for about an hour. Do not remove from pan.
5. After it's cool, spread a layer of pink cheesecake filling over the top of the brownie, repeating with the green layer on top. Do NOT mix the colors together. Immediately cover with chocolate chips and as much chocolate and caramel syrup as you like. Pop back into the fridge until you're ready to serve.

There are many variations you can play with as well!

• The Elvis: Substitute peanut butter for half the cheesecake filling, layering it onto the brownie before the cheesecake, topping the cheesecake with bananas and chocolate sauce.
• Candy Bar: Fore go dyeing the cheesecake, simply layering it all onto the brownie and topping with crushed toffee bars, Snickers, M&M's and chocolate sauce.
• Strawberry Heaven: Dye the whole cheesecake filling pink, topping with fresh strawberries and a light drizzle of both chocolate and caramel.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Vanilla Chocolate Chip Filling

This is the first of many, many entries to come and it's so incredibly easy! It took me less than an hour to make them all. Believe it or not, it doesn't require many ingredients either so...let's get started.

What you'll need for the cookies:

1 box of chocolate cake mix (your choice)
2 eggs
1/2 cup of vegetable oil

What you'll need for the filling:

1 can of vanilla frosting
half a bag of chocolate chips (your choice of brand)


Directions:

1). Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine your cake mix, eggs and vegetable oil. The dough will be quite thick so, even if you are tempted to "thin it out a bit" with water, don't. This is what it should look like when it's done:

2). Measure out rounded spoonfuls of the dough and place them on a cookie sheet, 9 to a sheet.

3). Using either the palm of your hand or the bottom of a glass, press the dough balls flat.

4). Bake for 11 minutes and remove them to a wire rack to cool. It won't take them only to cool at all, just about 4 or 5 minutes. Once they are, you can pile them up on a plate.

5). When all the cookies are done, you can go ahead and start your filling. Just empty a container of vanilla frosting into a medium bowl and fold in half a bag of chocolate chips.

6). Once all the cookies are cool, sandwich the filling between two cookies and pile them up in a large bowl or cake stand to serve them.

Enjoy!

Vanilla Graham Cracker Pudding Pops

I tried, as a test, to make some pudding pops using the plastic pop molds my mother had sitting in her freezer. The pudding, caramel and graham cracker combination was delicious. Eating it from the plastic, however, didn't happen because they didn't freeze into the pudding the way they should have.

Still, I can't just let you go without the recipe if you want to try them as regular pudding cups or frozen (in small Dixie cups and wooden sticks).


You need:

• 1 small box of instant vanilla pudding
• 2 cups of super cold (not frozen) milk
• Crushed graham cracker crumbs
• Caramel sauce of your choice

 Whisk the pudding and milk together until it starts to become a bit thicker than water, about 2 minutes. Immediately pour the molds (if you're freezing them) and layer with graham cracker crumbs and caramel, parfait style.

If you are just going to make an unfrozen parfait style pudding cup, put the pudding into the fridge to set, about 5 minutes. When it's thick, spoon into a cup or bowl, or even ramekin, then layer it parfait style with the graham cracker crumbs and caramel sauce.

I am going to take you step by step through a similar thing next weekend when I make Fruity Pebble Pudding Cups.

Until then, enjoy!