Adelia Makes no. 016 // caramelitas

First of all, I will tell you that I didn’t get pictures of these yummy yummy caramelitas. Adelia made these for friends. And right after they were fresh out of the oven, we cut them up straightaway, packed them up and sent them off to be enjoyed. But you do get one picture though. From the recipe book Adelia made these out of. That’s the closest I could get to taking of pictures of how these caramelitas actually look like.

But second of all, I will tell you that you have to take my word for how good these are. If you don’t believe me, just ask our friends because I think they all quite liked it. Imagine a layer of chocolate + caramel + nuts. Oh so good.

Try it and let me know how you like it!

Caramelitas

Makes: 20
Baking time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup or 2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
• 10 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup pecans, lightly toasted and coarsely chopped
• 1 cup caramel sauce (or Dulce de Leche)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Base line a 12 x 12-inch shallow baking pan with parchment paper.
2. Put the oats, flour, baking soda, sugar, and salt into a bowl and mix together. Add the butter and mix well. Spread half of the mixture in the base of the prepared pan. Press out evenly using the back of a spoon.
3. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and sprinkle the chocolate and huts evenly over the surface. Drizzle the caramel sauce evenly over the top. Sprinkle the reserved oat mixture on top and press gently with the back of a spoon.
4. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
5. Leave in the pan to cool completely and cut into bars to serve.

NOTE: Feel free to substitute the nuts for your favorites!

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Adelia Makes is a blog series featuring my very own little sister and all the fun things she makes. Read more about Adelia Makes here.

Adelia Makes no. 015 // maple glazed cookies

Maple Glazed Cookies

These were addictive and so, so good. We finished these cookies in just a couple of days, down to the very last crumb. They were that good.

Maple Glazed Cookies

Makes: 18
Baking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 6 tablespoons or 3/4 stick butter, cut into cubes
• 1/3 cup sugar
• Scant 1/2 pecans, chopped (we used walnuts instead of pecans)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 6 tablespoons maple syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly grease two baking sheets.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, and baking soda into a bowl. Add the butter and blend with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Stir in the sugar and pecans.
3. Add the egg and 4 tablespoons of the maple syrup and mix until well combined.
4. Drop small heaping tablespoonfuls of the dough, slightly spaced apart onto the baking sheets. Bake until golden, about 15 minutes.
5. Brush the cookies with the remaining maple syrup while still hot, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

NOTE: Adelia use less concentrated maple syrup so she made up for the flavor by adding more tablespoons of syrup in the batter. This made the cookies soft and chewy but we still liked them that way (:

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Adelia Makes is a blog series featuring my very own little sister and all the fun things she makes. Read more about Adelia Makes here.

Adelia Makes no. 014 // chocolate pistachio fingers

Chocolate Pistachio Fingers

With the array of pinterest recipe boards and online recipes nowadays, recipe books hardly make an appearance in our kitchen anymore. But once in awhile, they show up and we get to try some yummy recipes from them (:

These chocolate pistachio fingers came together in no time at all and the salty pistachios gave a nice contrast to the chocolate.

Chocolate Pistachio Fingers

Makes: 12
Baking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• Scant 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup golden superfine sugar
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup shelled pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped
• Unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a shallow square 7-inch pan with parchment paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Sift together the flour and cocoas powder. Add to the butter mixture and work in using your hands until the mixture is smooth. Add the pistachios and knead until soft and pliable.
3. Press the mixture into the pan and smooth the top using the back of a tablespoon. Prick with a fork and mark into bars.
4. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. Do not allow to become too brown or the cookies will taste bitter.
5. Allow to cool slightly then cut through the marked sections and remove from the pan. Cool on a wire rack and dust sparingly with cocoa powder.

Try it and let me know what you think.
Happy Tuesday!

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Adelia Makes is a blog series featuring my very own little sister and all the fun things she makes. Read more about Adelia Makes here.

Adelia Makes no. 013// chocolate mint brownies

Chocolate Mint Brownies by Joy of Baking

Chocolate + mint have always been one of my favorite combinations. So I absolutely loved these chocolate mint brownies. They especially make a good post-dinner dessert, like those After-Eight mints. Mmm.

These were pretty simple to make – the brownie was nice and fudgy, and the balance of all three layers was good. Adelia used more peppermint extract than was stated in the recipe but really, I think it’s up your personal preference and how minty you like your brownies to be. And instead of chocolate glaze, Adelia used a chocolate ganache (cream + melted chocolate) since we already had some of those on hand.

I think these make a fancy-looking dessert, which actually isn’t as hard as it seems. That, is always a plus.

Let me know what you think if you try this out!

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Adelia Makes is a blog series featuring my very own little sister and all the fun things she makes. Read more about Adelia Makes here.

Adelia Makes no. 012 // nutella and sea salt stuffed sugar cookies

Nutella and Sea Salt Stuffed Sugar Cookies by Cookin’ Canuck

My love for Nutella really isn’t a secret. So these sugar cookies were just right up my alley. And they were SO GOOD.

Imagine all the goodness of a sugar cookie combined with the goodness that is Nutella, with a hint of saltiness, oozing from the center when you bite into it. Oh so yummy. Just talking about it makes me crave some Nutella cookies right now.

With the humidity that is typical of Singapore, it helped to leave the Nutella balls in the freezer the whole time and take out a couple of pieces as you go along. Otherwise, they start melting and it gets a little too messy. Also, a cookie scoop, or a mini ice-cream scoop really helps with assembling the cookies – put a little dough at the bottom of the scoop, sprinkle some salt, place the Nutella ball, and scoop up more dough to fill up the scoop. This makes it very easy to release the cookie dough into the sugar to coat.

Once baked, these cookies turned out to be quite big. But hey, the bigger the cookie, the better right? (:

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Adelia Makes is a blog series featuring my very own little sister and all the fun things she makes. Read more about Adelia Makes here.