Heather's Bytes

It’s not August without Chocolate Zucchini Cake.

It was a mistake to make these Applesauce Spice Bars. Fall won’t descend upon Las Vegas for another two months or so, and now my kitchen smells like cinnamon and baked apples and caramel, and it makes me sad. I mean, my mouth and nose are very happy, but it’s a reminder that fall is still so far off!

I had some help with this week’s Tuesdays With Dorie, which was picked by Karen of Something Sweet (and bear with me, I’m a day off!). One of my nine-year-olds hung out in the kitchen with me and she even took a few pictures, which is why there are so many.

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I’m participating in Tuesdays With Dorie, and this week’s project is Dorie’s Brownie Buttons from her book Baking. The recipe can be found at Two Scientists Experimenting in the Kitchen.

The brownies turned out well, but my biggest obstacle was that I didn’t have any of the bittersweet chocolate that the recipe calls for. I ended up using unsweetened chocolate instead, and tried to compensate by adding about two extra tablespoons of sugar to the mix. Though the brownies turned out a little dry, they tasted great, and the kids loved them!

The first step was combing chocolate, butter and brown sugar over a double-boiler to get everything melted and combined.

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I made this for the twins’ birthday breakfast this year and it was a huge hit. Cream cheese, cinnamon, pecans, gooey sauce, what could beat that?

Surprise Pull Apart Bread

1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 (1 stick) melted butter
1/3 c maple syrup
1 tube (14 oz) refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese

Sprinkle pecans into a greased 10-inch bundt cake pan. In a small bowl, mix 2 Tb butter and maple syrup until well blended, pour over pecans in pan. Set aside.

Separate biscuits and cut in half (create a half circle). Then cut in half horizontally (slice through the center to get two half circles) – you should have about 32 pieces. Flatten each cut biscuits a bit with your fingers. Place remaining melted butter in a shallow bowl. In another shallow bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon.

Cut cream cheese into 32 cubes and roll in sugar mixture. Place one cube in center of each piece of dough, and fold up dough around cream cheese to seal tightly. Dip one side of each biscuit in the butter, than in the sugar mixture. Place in bundt pan sugar-side up.

Pour remaining butter over top and sprinkle with remaining sugar mixture. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Invert onto a serving platter and serve warm.

cream cheese surprise!