Bars n' Brownies | Just About Baked

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White Chocolate Oreo Bars

September 3, 2014
Mir
Bars n' Brownies
26 Comments

I read last year that Oreos are highly addictive. Like, more than crack. I wouldn’t really know, because I’m not a crack kind of girl. I prefer my highs via sugar.

And boy, do I eat a lot of it! Whenever I see anything that’s cookies and cream in flavor, my heart soars a little higher and my mood lifts. There is nothing like that flavor combination. And when Oreos make their way into baked goods, it’s pretty much as good as it gets.

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Peanut Butter Surprise Brownies (Gluten-Free!)

His job just got moved to a farther location, and there isn’t much food available for him out there. So I’m trying to be a cute little wife and bake him goodies. Plus, I like a challenge. Not all gluten-free desserts taste like their wheat-filled counterparts. But I promise you that everything I post tastes like I threw flour everywhere.

You can believe me when I say that because my husband won’t eat the desserts that don’t taste like what he remembers food should taste like. He’s picky. But I’m grateful for that, because he picked me!

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Magic Twist Bars (Gluten-Free!)

Today is my first day back at work. Ah, the good ol’ grind. A week from today, my now empty classroom will be full of sleepy teenagers wondering what in the heck happened to their freedom. I will be annoyingly perky and they will hate me. Heh heh heh.

This is year 15 for me as a teacher, and every year, I love it just a little bit more. Teaching is unpredictable and active and just so much fun. I laugh a lot at work. But then, I find people funny. Kids especially. I know that my own kids get really mad when they think I’m laughing at them (i.e., all the time), so I will do a better job of hiding my smiles at work. Maybe.

To make my esteemed colleagues feel a bit better about returning, I’ve made some treats. One of my teacher buddies can’t have gluten, and guess what? She’s been teaching for over 35 years. So I think she deserves these bars!

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Heath Blondies

August 15, 2014
Mir
Bars n' Brownies
6 Comments

Beach Week is winding down, everyone. Big sighs. But everything must end. And I say, go out with a bang, not a whimper! I didn’t make that up. Some really great poet did.

The cookies and bars at beach town bake shops are so wonderfully homemade. No, I’m not counting Starbucks. These shops are owned independently, and you can taste the singularity of each baker’s products. It’s like they’ve baked their souls into their treats.

I’d like to believe that I do that, too. So these Heath Blondies represent the heart of what I love best in baking: caramelly, chewy amazingness. Because what else is there? Oh, except Reese’s.

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Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies

August 8, 2014
Mir
Bars n' Brownies, Cupcakes and Cheesecakes
14 Comments

Today I took my kids to a splash playground. It sounded like a good idea at the time. But several hours and one indecent exposure later, I’m not so sure.

My son went into the bathroom to change. On the way, he must’ve dropped his Spider-Man underwear. He burst out of the bathroom in the nude in front of everyone, screaming, “I can’t find my underpants!”

Ah, kids. Can’t live with them. But I sure can’t live without them.

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Toffee Bars (Dairy-Free!)

Some recipes are more special than others, and there are always reasons behind that. Food ties in strongly to childhood and nostalgia, and that’s why these bars strike a particularly deep chord within me.

Along with Entenmann’s chocolate frosted donuts. Man, do I yearn for those on an almost daily basis. But we’ll get into that one another day!

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Cookies and Cream Frosted Brownies

I think we all have our weaknesses. Some are more serious than others, for sure. People argue quite heatedly whether sugar is an addiction, and I’m going to ignore all the studies and state with quite a bit of certainty that if sugar’s not an addiction, it sure as heck comes close. Because anything that I crave this much is entering danger territory.

I’ve tried to fight it. I even went two months sugar-free last year to see what would happen. Nothing happened. I didn’t have cravings as madly as I’d supposed, but I also never lost the desire to eat chocolate. So there you have it.

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Peanut Butter Ganache Cookie Bars

So this week I went back to work for all-day leadership meetings. I’m a teacher, which means I get summers off, but I’m also the elected faculty representative for the other teachers in the building, so I work a bit here and there when my colleagues are off having beach time.

Anyway, I’ve come to a very important conclusion about going back to work.

It makes me more productive! I know, duh. But it makes me work better everywhere. The house is neater. My bills are paid. And I baked three different things today, all of which I’m so excited to share with you! And the first is this evil little puppy right here.

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Reese’s Oreo Fun Bars

Everybody has a different idea of fun, which explains skydiving. I’ve never felt the urge. Yeah, I get that the adrenaline pumps because you think you’re about to bite it and then you don’t and woohoo and all that, but I can get my thrills a lot cheaper.

Oh yeah, you challenge? You betcha. If I can find just ten minutes of uninterrupted reading time in my zoo of a household, that’s all the fun I can handle.

Wait. Now I sound boring. So to change your mind about me real quick, here are these bars! They are the essence of fun.

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No Time, No Gluten Bars

Is it just me, or have women engineered our lives so that we have no time at all?

See, we have rights and we can work and vote and do all those great things. Super! I’m excited to be alive in this time, really I am. But why does having permission to be considered equal to men translate into women suddenly being superheroes?

Because I am, ya know. Sometimes I lie back against my fluffy pillows at the end of the day and just sit there, dazed at how much I could pack into a day. And I’m not bragging, because I’m not pretending to do it well or anything. But somehow, it’s totally legit for women to figure out how to pack in work, family time, exercise, errands, logistics (don’t get me started on how much we plan), general hygiene, and oh so much more in one day. Every day. Relentlessly.

I’m not necessarily complaining, mainly because I’m lazy and tired and don’t feel like opening that can of worms right now. I’ll open it next week. I’m just trying to explain how I wound up baking when I had no time. These bars, to be exact.