Rice Krispie Treat S’mores

I have kind of been on a Rice Krispie kick lately. Last weekend, I somehow decided it would be a good idea to make a frosting with Rice Krispie Treat Frosting, which hello, is totally necessary in life. At the same time, I have suddenly found myself obsessed with S’mores. As such, I have been racking my brain trying to come up with a variation of a S’mores dessert.

I made a stop at a local bakery recently and they had this awesome ginger snap S’mores cookie that was half dipped in chocolate. I knew I wanted to try something similar at home and poof! The Rice Krispie Treat S’mores were born. Does it seem a little redundant to have marshmallow filling inside a rice krispies treat, since said treat already contains marshmallow? The correct answer is no; it’s actually amazing.

Peanut Butter Cake Bars

Does anyone recall my love for Jif Whips? I made this Whipped Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting and immediately posted it the following day. Jif Whips are what I call a “yellow light food”- which means I need to approach it cautiously, because overindulgence is absolutely going to happen. So I first used it in a frosting and now I am using it for a Peanut Butter Cake Bar.

I adapted this recipe from one of my favorite bloggers, Dorothy at Crazy For Crust. She did a brownie version of this bar. I changed it up using a cake mix base, added some Jif Whips and used crumbled brownies on top. The crumbled brownies were really just a way for me to allow myself to finish the brownies left over from the previous project. There is no guilt in eating brownies that are baked into a cake bar, trust me! Head over to My Cooking Spot for the recipe!

For more peanut butter goodness you might like:

Whipped Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting

Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Bars

I am so excited about this post because I am entering it into a recipe contest hosted by my two favorite bloggers: Confessions of a Cookbook Queen and Cookies and Cups. When I first found out about the contest, I was went a little crazy deciding what recipes I could recreate and had a dozen different ideas and then pondered over them for way too long. I am a little nervous because these two bloggers are so amazing and a source of inspiration to me.

I chose to recreate Shelly’s Caramel Apple Cheesecake bars. Hands down, my favorite dessert is cheesecake, but I really don’t allow myself to have it very often, because let’s face it, I don’t need the extra calories. I also am a little bit intimidated to make a cheesecake at home. So I am starting here, with Shelly’s recipe and I made Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake bars. These cheesecake bars have a streusel topping as well, which I love.

No-Bake Mini Salted Caramel Ice Cream Brownies

I mentioned on Monday that I am on vacation at the lake for a week, and it is friggin’ hot! The area where I live is somewhat coastal, so it gets warm but not unbearable. The weather here is in the high 90s. I know everyone in inland California, Arizona, Texas and other part of the US are rolling their eyes right now, but seriously, I am not used to this and I don’t know how you deal with it! Thank god I can just jump in the lake at any given time during the day.  So there will be very little baking going on while I am on vacation. Grilling? Sure, all day long, but I am NOT turning on the oven. Therefore, desserts will be of the no-bake variety. I guess it helps that we can hop in the boat and cross the lake for some frozen mud pie!

How about these No-Bake Mini Salted Caramel Ice Cream Brownies? They couldn’t be easier to prepare. I used a container of store-bought brownies, some Haagen-Dazs Sea Salt Caramel Gelato and homemade whipped cream. These mini ice cream brownies are the perfect little snack. I usually feel less guilty when I eat things in smaller portions, until I eat 3 or 4 of them. Oops. Anyway, I am totally head over heels in LOVE with this Sea Salt Caramel Gelato ice cream. I am not usually a salted caramel type of person, but I could eat a pint of this ice cream about as fast as I could down a pint of Ben and Jerrys.

Espresso Chip Cookie Dough Bars

A few weeks back, my mom and I went on a bakery tour in Austin when I was there for the BlogHer Food conference. One of the bakeries I went to was called Delish and they had a fabulous millionaire bar. The bar consisted of a shortbread crust layered with cookie dough, caramel and chocolate. As soon as I tasted it, I knew I wanted to make my own version at home. I had a few leftover boxes of Walkers Shortbread Cookies so it was the perfect opportunity to try something.

My version of the “millionaire bar” has a shortbread crust, made with a mixture of Walkers Shortbread cookies, and is layered with espresso chip cookie dough then topped with an espresso infused chocolate ganache.