Cookie Dough Billionaire Bars

Is it really June? Wow. I had the worst luck this week trying to get back into my regular blogging schedule because my computer had a nasty virus. Luckily my husband fixed it up and I am back in business! The month of May went by like a breeze since I had my hands full learning the ins and outs of my sweet baby girl, Elena. I can't believe that she is already a month old and almost 10 pounds. I felt like it was just yesterday that we had brought her home from the hospital.

I was happy to receive a copy of The Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook from the fabulous blog of Love and Olive Oil. Congrats to Lindsay on such a wonderful book. It's filled with plenty of eggless cookie dough recipes that are perfect for any cookie dough lover. This book gives you plenty of reasons to eat cookie dough by the buckets. Chocolate chip cookie dough truffles, cookie dough whoopie pies, cookie dough cream pie, and oatmeal raisin cookie dough granola bars are a handful of recipes that I have bookmarked to make to make in the very distant future.

These cookie dough billionaire bars are easy to prepare and a perfect crowd pleaser. I had baked a batch of these bars to thank Eric's coworkers for their sweet welcome gifts for Elena. The bars are composed of a crispy shortbread cookie crust with a luscious caramel layer and the creamy cookie dough topped with a chocolate glaze. I added some chocolate jimmies for that extra wow factor. They are melt in your mouth delicious! Make these for your next get together or to share with your family and friends.

Also, make sure to get your copy of The Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook, it's available for pre-order on Amazon and will be released June 5.

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Cookie Dough Billionaire Bars
Adapted from The Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
Shortbread:
1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

Caramel:
7 ounces soft caramel candies, about 25 candies, unwrapped
2 tablespoons heavy cream
or (caramel sauce)

Cookie Dough:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, 1 stick, room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Chocolate glaze:
4 ounces semisweet or dark chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon unsalted butter

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper, leaving a 1-inch overhang on two sides.
Prepare the shortbread. In the bowl of the stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and salt and beat until combined. Add the flour and mix until incorporated, dough will resemble like coarse sand and crumbly. Press into the prepared pan and lightly pat it down until firm. Poke shallow holes into the surface of the dough with a fork or skewer. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, or until edges are lightly golden. Remove pan from oven and set on a wire rack.

Prepare the caramel sauce. Place caramel candies in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add heavy cream and stir until completely melted. Pour hot caramel sauce over shortbread crust and spread into an even layer. Refrigerate until set, for at least 1 hour. If caramel is still soft and sticky after 1 hour, it may help to freeze it for another 15 minutes before continuing.

Prepare the cookie dough mixture. Cream together the sugar and the butters in the bowl of the stand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in the heavy cream and vanilla, and combine. Add the flour and salt and mix on low speed until incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips. Spread cookie dough on top of the caramel layer, using a spatula to create an even layer. Keep in the fridge until you prepare the chocolate glaze.

In a small saucepan over low, heat, melt the chocolate and butter, stirring constantly until smooth. Spread chocolate glaze over cookie dough layer and chill until set, about 30 minutes.

Remove bars from pan, gripping the parchment paper by the sides and lift carefully. Place on cutting board and using a large sharp knife cut into 2-inch bars. Will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for at least 3 days.

Yield: 16 bars

Tip: If baking for a group. This recipe can be doubled or tripled and made in a 13x9 baking pan for 32 crowd-pleasing bars.

Review: Absolutely scrumptious and baked a double batch for Eric's coworkers. They disappeared quickly and were enjoyed by all. Elena says thank you for the wonderful gifts!!

Caramel Appledoodles

Happy Friday! Can you believe that we are 9 days away from Christmas?!?!

I am almost finished with my holiday baking craziness and finished some cute little Christmas buckets for some special ladies. I know they will get their surprises later tonight, and they might be reading my blog right now. But I just wanted to give something special to you...just because I love the holiday baking spirit, and because you are awesome. That's all. ;-)

After my baking craziness, I wanted to start wrapping presents. What a concept, instead of placing gifts into cute Christmas themed gift bags but to my avail I had run out of tape. Christmas fail on my part. I forgot to take inventory on wrapping supplies, but I had plenty of Christmas wrapping paper yet no tape. Luckily I had a plate of these Caramel Appledoodles to enjoy instead of my Christmas wrapping duties.

These are sweet caramel-y apple goodness on a plate. Thank Nicole and Jey for teasing me with their cookie posts for finally baking these up. I truly love the simplicity of old-fashioned snickerdoodles because what's not to love about sugar and cinnamon..it's always nice. Hehe. Yet, with the addition of the apple and caramel bits, this irresistable cookie is taken to a higher sugar-y blissful heaven. You might want to make a double batch because they might be hard to share with others. I'll wrap gifts tonight, and probably enjoy another plate of cookies, too.

Caramel Appledoodles
Adapted from Prevention RD & The Jey of Cooking
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon fresh nutmeg
1 medium apple, peeled, cored and finely diced
1 cup soft caramels, finely chopped (i.e. Kraft Caramel Bits or Werther's Soft & Chewy Caramels)

For Rolling:
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg

Preparation:

In the bowl of the stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and mix until combined.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until on low speed until combined. Fold in the chopped apple and caramel bits. Let cookie dough mixture chill in refrigerator for 1 hour.

When ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat baking mat.

In a small bowl, mix the 1/3 cup sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg until combined. Using a tablespoon or small cookie scooper, roll the balls of cookie dough in the sugar mixture. Place on prepared baking sheets about 3 inches apart.

Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, turning the pan midway baking time (only if you don't have a convection oven).

Let cookies rest on baking sheets for at least 5 minutes before placing on cooling racks. Enjoy immediately and try not to eat them all.

Yield: 40 cookies

Review: Purely addicting and sooo scrumptious. Plus, I had a chance to meet up with Alicia, an anniversary nestie, and her adorable daughter while they were in town. Natalie just turned one year old this past month and I foresee her as a future baker in the making because she absolutely loved my cookies and my DIY flower headband. (Thank you Pinterest!) She totally made my day complete and my heart melt like butter. If my baby is a girl, can you imagine how much fun we will have together in the kitchen? Eeks!

Other Christmas Homemade Ideas:
Peppermint Bark Cheesecake Truffles by The Nifty Foodie
White Chocolate Cranberry Pecan Cookies by The Granola Chronicles
Homemade Peppermint Marshmallows with Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix from me

Cookie Update: Guess who is 19 weeks already!! We finally got our Christmas tree up and decorated. I love it! Next week, we get our 2nd trimester ultrasound and Eric and I are so excited to see how big our little cookie is baking. We won't be finding out the gender of the baby because we chose to be surprised at birth. Am I having a girl or boy? I'll let you keep guessing. ;-)