When Nate and I were in Berlin a few summers ago, the hotel we stayed in served the most amazing breakfast every morning. One of the items they served was Kaiserschmarrn, or Emperor’s Pancakes, a traditional Austrian dessert…which happens to be very delicious as a breakfast or brunch food.

The version our hotel served was oh so delicious. There are many recipes out there with various techinques, so I’ve decided to make this one of my culinary quests…to recreate those pancakes we had in Berlin.

Today is Attempt #1 at Kaiserschmarrn. It was a good attempt. Not quite like the version we had in Berlin, but I like this recipe on its own merits. The pancakes came out with a nice texture and I was popping kaiserchmarrn like candy.

Kaiserschmarrn is often served with plumb sauce – a delicious combination indeed! I shared a great recipe for stewed plums with you a few weeks ago which I would highly recommend using with this recipe.

So, here is Take 1 of Jane’s Kaiserschmarrn Journey!

Kaiserschmarrn (aka Emperor's Pancakes) Take One!

 

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A combination of several recipes I found online

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup milk
• pinch salt
• 4 eggs, separated
• ¼ cup butter
• ¼ cup sugar
• ½ cup butter
• ½ cup raisins (traditional, but optional)
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Instructions

1. Mix flour and milk together. Add salt. Stir in egg yolks, ¼ cup butter and raisins (if using). Beat egg whites in a separate bowl with the sugar until peaks form. Melt ½ cup butter in a 12 inch skillet that can be placed in the oven. Add egg whites to the flour mixture and pour batter into pan. Bake at 375 degrees F for 18 minutes (I baked mine for 20 minutes, but it was 2 minutes too long). Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with plum sauce.

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Remember this Spanish-inspired nut tart?

I am finally sharing the recipe with you! This Spanish nut tart is pretty gourmet…which means I didn’t actually make this recipe…I just ate it. 😉 But it was delicious, so I have to share it with you just the same. I had the pleasure of enjoying this nut tart about a month ago when my friend Faye, the pastry chef, made these tarts for her son’s elementary school class (lucky class, eh?). This tart is based on a Spanish (specifically Catalan) treat. Faye was nice enough to sit down and write the recipe out for us, which is quite the task actually. Everyone tell Faye “Thanks!” next time you see her. 😉

Faye's Catalan Nut Tart

 

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Author: From Faye Stein, Pastry Chef and Friend Extraordinaire to Jane Maynard 😉

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

• The dough (pâte sucrée):
• 1¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons butter, cubed ( 1 stick? )
• 1 yolk
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons cream
• The filling:
• ⅓ cup pear juice (or juice to your taste)
• ¼ brown sugar
• 4 oz dates (could do any combo, such as; apples/dates, apricots/figs, cherries/figs, etc.)
• The topping:
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons corn syrup
• 6 oz total of dry roasted nuts of your choice (Faye used 2 oz pistachios, 2 oz cashews, 2 oz almonds)
• 1½ tablespoons cream

Instructions

1. For the dough (pâte sucrée): Mix the egg yolk, ½ teaspoon vanilla and 2 tablespoons cream and place in the fridge so that it's cold and ready to go. Cube 3 tablespoons of butter and refrigerate also.
2. In a food processor, pulse the 1¼ cup flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, pinch of salt. Add 3 tablespoons chilled butter and pulse to crumble. Add the refrigerated egg yolk mixture and pulse until you have a cohesive dough, like a cookie dough. Smoosh into a disk in plastic wrap, and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes.
3. For the filling: In a saucepan, allow ⅓ cup pear juice (or other juice) and ¼ cup brown sugar to dissolve. Add the 4 ounces of dates (or other fruits). Bring to a boil over high heat then cook for 1 minute. Process the mixture in the food processor to form a thick paste then let it cool.
4. For the topping: Preheat the oven to 400º F. Roll out your chilled dough, fill your tart shell, and blind bake for 15 to 20 minutes. It should be fully baked. To blind bake, place a piece of parchment in the tart and fill it with beans. This will keep it from bubbling up. Remove the parchment and beans at the end and put it back in the oven for a few minutes. Now it's ready to fill.
5. Cook first 6 tablespoons butter, 6 tablespoons sugar and 3 tablespoons corn syrup in heavy large saucepan over low heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Increase heat and bring to boil. Boil vigorously 1 minute. Remove from heat. Add nuts and 1½ tablespoons cream.
6. Spread fruit filling in crust; smooth the top. Set tart on a cookie sheet. Spoon nut topping over the fruit filling. Bake until filling bubbles, about 20 minutes. Transfer tart to rack and cool 10 minutes. Using oven mitts, loosen tart pan sides but do not remove. Cool tart completely in pan. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and let stand at room temperature.) Remove pan sides. Cut tart into wedges.

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I am a sucker for a beautiful container of berries. They’re just so pretty my wallet and I can’t resist. But half the time I forget I buy them and then the berries end up kind of sad. It’s a crime, really. But if my berries do reach this sorry state, I make good use of them…homemade saucy syrup (I can’t decide if it should be called sauce or syrup, hence saucy syrup.

I’ve made my saucy syrup with raspberries and blueberries. Most recently I made it from a small container of blackberries. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOO good. If I do say so myself. This homemade saucy syrup pairs beautifully with the texture of my new favorite waffle recipe – the waffles didn’t get soggy at all.

Sidenote: Baby’s Got Sauce by G. Love has been playing in my head while I write this post. Which automatically makes this post 10 times more fun.

Homemade Berry Saucy Syrup

 

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From Jane Maynard

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

• 1½ cups berries (one of those 5-6 oz containers) -OR- 1 C blueberries
• ¾ cup sugar
• ⅓ cup water
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon corn starch whisked with enough water to make a slurry

Instructions

1. Bring the berries, sugar, water and lemon juice to a boil. Lower heat. Simmer for a 5-10 minutes, while slowly adding some of your cornstarch mixture. Add enough to get it to the consistency you like (the cornstarch makes it less watery). Refrigerate leftovers, if you have any!

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For the LOVE…these cookies are unreal. My friend Michelle made them for a meeting I had with her one afternoon…I promptly (as in during the meeting) got the recipe and made them myself that very evening. The texture of the cookie is perfect – crispy-ish outside, soft inside. And the surprise peanut butter filling? Better than a peanut butter cup, I tell ya.

Get ready. You’ll need to do a few (hundred) laps around the track in preparation for these cookies…you will not be able to stop eating them. Okay, I may be projecting here. Giving away a little too much information about myself. What’s new?

The Most Heavenly Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie This Side of Anywhere

 

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From my friend Michelle who got it from a friend who got it from the Tasty Kitchen website where it was posted by Karly, who originally wrote about the recipe on her blog. Karly in turn found the recipe on allrecipes.com posted by someone named Stephanie, to whom I will be eternally grateful. In case you were wondering where the recipe came from”¦

Author: Jane Maynard

Cuisine: Dessert, Cookie

Ingredients

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cup white sugar
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• ½ cup butter, softened
• ¼ cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• ¾ cup confectioners’ sugar
• ¾ cup peanut butter

Instructions

1. In small bowl blend flour, cocoa and baking soda. Mix until well blended.
2. In large bowl beat sugar, butter or margarine and ¼ cup peanut butter, until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg, beat. Stir in flour mixture until blended. Set aside.
3. To make Filling: Combine confectioner’s sugar and ¾ cup peanut butter. Blend well.
4. Roll filling into 30 – 1 inch balls. For each cookie, with floured hands, shape about 1 Tablespoon of dough around 1 peanut butter ball, covering completely (Jane note: I also divided the dough into 30 parts to make it easy on myself). Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with glass dipped in sugar. (Jane note: maybe there’s something wrong with my technique, but the glass trick didn’t work – I did flatten the cookies with a glass, but the glass wasn’t dipped in sugar. Instead I dipped the top of the flattened cookie into some sugar – that seemed to work better.)
5. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 7-9 minutes. When cookies are done, they should be set and slightly cracked.

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This post generated several questions – please click here to read the “appendix” for this recipe for a few more tips!

As good as the cake I shared with you yesterday was (and it was mighty good), I simply could not resist pairing that heavenly white chocolate cream cheese frosting with some real chocolate. And since two cakes are certainly better than one, only a week after I made the raspberry cake I went ahead and threw this puppy together. I used the recipe that my friend Lindsay uses for her chocolate ganache cake and it worked beautifully.

The frosting tasted just as good on this chocolate cake as it did on the raspberry cake. The subtle flavor of raspberry in the frosting complemented the richness of this classic chocolate cake very nicely. I can’t decide which cake I liked better.  Nate voted for the raspberry cake, although he had to really think about it. The jury’s still out for me. What I do know is I need to stop making cakes pronto. This is downright reckless behavior!

Chocolate Cake

 

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From the Chocolate Ganache Cake recipe on Epicurious

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

• ¾ cup boiling water
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
• 1 teaspoon instant-espresso powder (I didn’t have any on hand, so I left it out – I’m certain it would deepen the chocolate flavor, though”¦so if you’ve got it, use it!)
• ½ cup whole milk (I only had 2% milk, and things worked out just fine)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1¼ teaspoons baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups packed dark brown sugar
• 4 large eggs

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 3 (7- or 8-inch, 2-inch-deep) round cake pans and line bottoms with rounds of wax or parchment paper. Butter paper and dust pans with flour, knocking out excess. (My oven is too small to bake three cakes at once, plus I don’t have three of any one size. I used 2 9-inch cake pans.)
2. Whisk together water, cocoa, and espresso powder until smooth, then whisk in milk and vanilla.
3. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. Beat together butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until fluffy, then add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and cocoa mixture in batches, beginning and ending with flour and mixing at low speed until just combined. (This batter is TASTY. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.)
5. Divide batter among pans (about 2⅓ cups per pan for 3 pans), smoothing tops. Bake in middle of oven until a tester comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes for 7-inch pans or 20 to 25 minutes for 8-inch. Cool in pans on a rack 30 minutes, then invert onto racks, remove paper, and cool completely.

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Raspberry White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

 

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Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

• 6 ounces white chocolate (melt as directed on package, then cool 5 mins)
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• ¼ cup butter (softened)
• 2 teaspoons raspberry extract (I’m thinking of leaving this out sometime to use with other cakes/rolls/etc)
• 2 cup confectioners sugar

Instructions

1. Beat cream cheese and buter in large bowl with electric mixer on medium (I used my KitchenAid) until well blended. Add cooled white chocolate and raspberry extract. Mix well. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar until light and fluffy (I let the KitchenAid go for several minutes and the frosting truly got light and fluffy).

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First off, I think I might need to change the name of my blog to This Week for Dessert. Goodness, ‘someone’ has a sweet tooth lately. I recently made Julia Child’s Best-Ever Brownies from Baking with Julia.

I know the question on all your minds….are these brownies really the best ever? If you like rich chocolate desserts, then they are. I am warning you, though – these brownies are not for the faint of chocolate heart. They’re hard core, gooey, rich. But in the best way possible.

When I first read through the recipe, I almost didn’t make them. A self-professed gooey brownie is tasty enough, but most often those recipes taste underbaked more than anything. Not so with Julia’s recipe. These brownies are gooey, but on a different level – a completely intentional, delicious-hot-or-cold level. The recipe is very similar in composition to the mini molten chocolate cake recipe I love so much, and these brownies are quite reminiscent of the flavors in that recipe.

Bottom line, I love these brownies. They were amazing hot out of the oven, and they were amazing cold the next day. They also have a great crusty top that stays that way over time. The recipe is a bit labor intensive, but I think worth it. Kind of what I expected, honestly, with Julia.

Remember, I do have an otherworldly tolerance for chocolate, so keep that in mind when considering my recommendation. Nate liked the brownies too, so you can probably trust me. 😉

Julia Child's Best-Ever Brownies

 

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From Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan and Julia Child Excerpt from the book, by Julia Child: Those who are passionate about brownies argue in defense of their favorite type, cakey or fudgey. If you’re a cakey fan, go on to another recipe. These are the epitome of soft, dark, “baked just until barely set” brownies. Their creamy texture makes them seem wildly luxurious and very much a treat to be metered out in small servings (just small enough for a scoop of ice cream and some chocolate sauce). The mixing method is unorthodox for a brownie. Half of an egg-sugar mixture is stirred into the melted chocolate and butter, while the other half is whipped until it thickens and doubles in volume. The lightened eggs are folded into the chocolate with a delicate touch, as are the dry ingredients–tricks that enhance the brownies’ lovely texture.”

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

• 1¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces unsalted butter
• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs

Instructions

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Sift the flour and salt together and set aside.
3. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently and keeping a watchful eye on the pot to make certain the chocolate doesn’t scorch (Alternatively, you can melt the ingredients in the top of a double boiler over, not touching, simmering water.) Add 1 cup of the sugar to the mixture and stir for half a minute, then remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
4. Pour the mixture into a large bowl.
5. Put the remaining 1 cup sugar and the eggs into a bowl and mix or whisk by hand just to combine.
6. Little by little, pour half of the sugar and eggs into the chocolate mixture, stirring gently but constantly with a rubber spatula so that the eggs don’t set from the heat.
7. Fit the whisk attachment to the mixer and whip the remaining sugar and eggs until they are thick, pale, and doubled in volume, about 3 minutes. (Jane note: I let it go for about 5 minutes)
8. Using the rubber spatula, delicately fold the whipped eggs into the chocolate mixture.
9. When the eggs are almost completely incorporated, gently fold in the dry ingredients.
10. Pour and scrape the batter in to an unbuttered 9-inch square pan. (Jane note: I did use an UNbuttered pan. It was actually kind of hard to get the brownies out. I have no idea if using a butter pan will change the way they cook or not. I just trusted Julia and went with it.)
11. Bake the brownies for 25-28 minutes, during which time they will rise a little and the top will turn dark and dry.
12. Cut into the center at about the 23-minute mark to see how the brownies are progressing: they’ll be perfect if they’re just barely set and still pretty gooey. They’re still awfully good on the other side of set, so don’t worry if you miss the moment on your first try.
13. The brownies will keep, covered, for 2 to 3 days at room temperature and can be frozen for up to a month. Thaw, still wrapped, at room temperature. These never freeze solid, so you might want to think about using them as a mix-in for ice cream.
14. In the words of Julia”¦Bon Appétit!

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Today I’m sharing my recipe for lemon bars. Or are they lemon squares? Whatever they’re called, they are lemonicious!

I have no clue where I found this recipe. It was in my recipe box without any attribution. When that happens, it normally means I merged a few recipes together. If I have, in fact, stolen this recipe from someone, well, my sincerest apologies! Just let me know and I’ll throw your name on there lickity split!

I made lemon bars for St. Patrick’s Day with lemon juice from the little squeezie lemon juice thingy in my fridge. No fresh lemons that day – so no fresh lemon juice or zest. When I made them again for this post, I used Meyer lemons and zest. I’ve gotta be honest…the St. Patrick’s Day version was better! The lemon taste was stronger and more tart, which added depth of flavor. Meyer lemons are great because they seem to sweeten up nicely, but for lemon bars I think they ended up being a little too sweet and mild/flat tasting. Take your pick…I’m sure it’s a matter of personal preference!

Why is my recipe so good? I don’t know, it just is.  The shortbread and lemon layers meld together nicely and the texture is just right. This is a non-chocolate dessert I can get behind!

Lemon Bars

 

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From Jane Maynard at This Week for Dinner”¦maybe!

Author: Jane Maynard

Ingredients

• Crust:
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup butter
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Top:
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind (if you don’t have fresh lemons, you can leave this out)
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 2 cups sugar
• 6 tablespoon flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 eggs

Instructions

1. Preheat to 350 degrees F.
2. Mix crust together and press into bottom of 9X13 pan. Bake for 10 mins. Mix top ingredients and pour over baked crust. Bake for 25 mins more. Remove from oven and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Let set and cut into squares. Makes about a million squares.

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Once Valentine’s Day is over, I’ll let you eat dinner again.  But I’m going to force you to have a little more chocolate today. Sorry. I know it’s torture.

For our Super Bowl shindig last week, my friend Rachel made cupcakes in addition to the homemade oreos I shared with you yesterday. I love these cupcakes. We all kept debating back and forth about which we liked better – cupcakes, oreos, cupcakes, oreos. It was a close race, but these chocolate-packed cups of heaven won.

The cupcake recipe is from The Pioneer Woman. As always, she provides beautiful step-by-step photos. Everything about these cupcakes is great. The actual cake part in and of itself is fantastic. The Hershey kiss hiding inside…oo la la! And the ganache icing…to die for.

A few quick notes.

• Rachel said the recipe made a TON of ganache, enough for a double batch of cupcakes.
• The cupcakes are really heavenly served warm. Since Rachel had made them the day before, when we were ready to indulge, we put the cupcakes in a 250-degree oven for 7 minutes. They came out PERFECTLY.

Life by Chocolate Cupcakes from The Pioneer Woman

 

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From Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman (and one of my favorite people)

Author: Jane Maynard

Ingredients

• Cupcakes
• 2 cups Sugar
• 2 cups All-purpose Flour
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• ½ cups Buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk on hand, put ½ TBSP of lemon juice or vinegar in your ½ cup, fill the rest with milk and let it sit for 5 minutes)
• 2 whole Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 Cup Butter
• 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa Powder
• 1 cup Water, Boiling
• 18 whole Hershey’s Kisses, Unwrapped
• Ganache
• 8 ounces, weight Bittersweet Chocolate
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• 6 Tablespoons Corn Syrup
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 18 muffin cups with baking spray.
2. To make the cake batter, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a separate container, combine buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir to combine and set aside.
4. In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and stir to combine. Add boiling water, allow to bubble for a few seconds, then turn off heat.
5. Pour chocolate mixture over flour mixture. Stir a few times to cool the chocolate. Pour buttermilk mixture over the top and stir to combine.
6. Pour ¼ cup cake batter into each muffin cup. Lightly set one kiss in the middle of each cupcake; do not press down.
7. Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove cupcakes and allow to cool on a baking rack.
8. To make the ganache, heat cream and corn syrup over medium heat. Chop chocolate and add to a bowl. Add vanilla to cream mixture, then pour cream mixture over the top of the chopped chocolate. Whisk together until melted, smooth, and glossy.
9. Dunk cupcakes in ganache. Allow to cool and set before serving.

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No matter your opinion of Valentine’s Day, we can all agree it’s a good excuse to binge on chocolate, right? So, that’s what I’m giving you this week.  Chocolate. Because that, my friends, is how I show my love.

For the Super Bowl, my friend Rachel made us two utterly delectable chocolate treats. Today I share with you her homemade oreos.  Tomorrow…well, it’s a surprise! But it is most certainly Valentine’s Day worthy!

I’m not a huge fan of store-bought Oreos. I know, how can I call myself an American? But even I, the evil Oreo-disser, loved these cookies. It’s certainly a derivative of the classic Oreo, but much so much better.

Rachel found the recipe on Smitten Kitchen, one of the best food blogs out there.

Homemade Oreos

 

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Adapted by Deb (Smitten Kitchen) from Retro Desserts by Wayne Brachman

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 25-30 cookies

Ingredients

• Chocolate Wafers:
• 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1½ cups sugar
• ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (1¼ sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• Filling:
• ¼ cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
• ¼ cup vegetable shortening
• 2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.
2. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
3. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.
4. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.
5. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a ½ inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.

Notes

Thank you, Deb, for a great recipe! Thank you, Rachel, for making them for us!

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I love the idea of “blondies,” but whenever I bake them they’re never that great. I just can’t find a decent recipe. When I was a kid, I remember my mom and her sisters finding a recipe for macadamia white chocolate blondies that were buttery, rich and delicious. I suppose the trouble with my quest for a good blondie recipe is that no bar can live up to the memory of that particular blondie from years ago, a memory which may or may not be accurate, I know!

I found this post on Sweet and Savory Tooth recently and knew I had to try the recipe for Chunky Blonde Brownies that she shares. Nate was skeptical of yet another blondie endeavor, but in the end he gave his seal of approval. Success! They were very good…especially right out of the oven! And I thought the proportion of batter to the size of the pan was perfect, so they cooked nice and evenly.

The big question: does this recipe live up to the ideal in my head? As Larry David might say, it’s pretty pretty pretty pretty close.

Chunky Blonde Blondies

 

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From Taste of Home Baking Book, via Heather

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 2 dozen bars

Ingredients

• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¾ cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup white chips
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• ¾ cup macadamia nuts, chopped, divided

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in the white chips, chocolate chips and ½ cup nuts. (Jane note: for the ½ cup that I mixed into the batter, I pulsed the nuts in my Cuisinart processor, so they got chopped up pretty good. I liked how the small bits spread throughout the batter. For the ¼ cup of nuts I sprinkled on top, I hand chopped for a little bit bigger pieces.)
2. Spoon into a greased 9 x 13 baking pan; spread to evenly cover bottom of pan. Sprinkle with remaining nuts. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until top begins to crack and is golden brown. Cool completely on wire rack, then cut into bars. Makes about 2 dozen bars.

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