Dolly's magic bars

These bars are often called Hello Dolly bars, or seven layer bars or magic bars. I never really got the seven layers name - it makes them sound like they are way more complicated than they are. And they are really, really not complicated to make. They take about 10 minutes to get them in the oven and they really have two very simple layers: a graham crumb crust and then a gooey, caramelly chocolate and nuts layer, balanced with some flaky salt on top. 

You can put anything you want in these bars. I like to go with lots of types of chocolate, and I think the star touch is the malted chocolate balls. When you bake them, the malty insides kind of vaporize into crispy, melty magic. I’m very fond of this particular combination, but go for whatever you like - often these bars have coconut, or dried fruit. 

dolly’s magic bars

• 1 ½ cups graham crumbs 

• ½ cup butter, melted 

• 1 tin sweetened condensed milk 

• ¼ cup milk chocolate chips or chunks

• ¼ cup dark chocolate chips or chunks

• ¼ cup white chocolate chips or chunks

• ¼ cup chocolate malt balls (Maltesers or Whoppers)

• ½ cup toasted walnuts, roughly chopped

• 1.2 cup toasted pecans, roughly chopped

• A very generous pinch of flaky salt (Maldon salt is great)

Line an 8” x 8” pan with parchment paper. Combine graham crumbs and butter until evenly mixed. Spread over the bottom of lined pan, and smooth into a uniform layer. 

Sprinkle chocolate and nuts over the graham crumbs. Pour the condensed milk evenly over the chocolate and nuts, scraping out as much from the can as possible. Sprinkle a bunch of flaky salt over top (I like to really go for it with the salt - these are very sweet and they can handle it!).
Bake at 350° F for around 30 minutes, or until the top is caramelized and bubbly. Cool bars completely before cutting (chilling them helps even more). These keep well in an airtight container in the fridge (or freezer) if you manage to keep them hanging around.

world peace cookies

I don’t usually like double chocolate style cookies very much. I often find them to be cloying and lacking in necessary flavour contrast. And so I would probably never have made these, if my sister hadn’t made them a few years ago and completely won me over to these odd, delicious little cookies. I should have known that anything from the undisputed cookie genius Dorie Greenspan would be a winner.

These are all about texture. They are a modified version of french sable cookies, which means sand cookies, with the untraditional addition of brown sugar. They are somehow sandy and chewy at the same time, which might not sound delicious (sandiness not usually being a plus in cookies) but it is. They are delightfully sandy and nubbly, and with a rich chocolatiness that isn’t overwhelming or cloying.

world peace cookies:

adapted from Dorie Greenspan

• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

• ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

• ½ tsp baking soda

• ½ cup + 3 tablespoons butter, cut into big chunks, at room temperature

• ⅔ cup packed light brown sugar

• ¼ cup sugar

• 1 tsp flaky sea salt (like Maldon or fleur de sel)

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 5 milk chocolate, either chips or a chopped-up bar

With the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugars together in the bowl of a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer) until fluffy, around 3-4 minutes.

Add in vanilla and salt and beat briefly to incorporate. Add in dry ingredients and mix on the lowest speed to avoid flour explosions. Mix until all flour is incorporated. This dough is a little unpredictable. Sometimes it comes together into big buttery lumps, sometimes it stays crumbly and dry looking. Either way, the cookies will work, but if you have a crumbly dough, you will need to give it a gentle knead to bring it together.

Shape the dough into two logs about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least three hours.

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Slice cookies and bake on parchment lined cookie sheets for 12 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack.

malt ball snack cake

Sometimes you need a casual little one-layer cake, no messing around. And you might as well fold a load of smashed up candy in there, swoop some light and fluffy milk chocolate frosting and some rainbow sprinkles. It's only slightly childish to fill a cake with candy, and totally worth it; the smashed malt balls will create melty puddles of chocolate-toffee-ish goodness inside cake as it bakes. 

This cake recipe makes twice as much as you need. You can just freeze half this batter for later, it never hurts to have frozen cake batter around for an emergency. Or if you want to go big, you could make all the cake batter and make two layers. Just double the frosting. This would be a fantastic birthday cake for children or childish adults. 

vanilla malt cake:

adapted from smitten kitchen

• 2 cups plus 1 tablespoon cake flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp table salt
• 3 tbs malt powder (optional but recommended!)
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk soured with a splash of lemon juice)
• ⅔ cup slightly smashed malt balls, like Maltesers or Whoppers

Heat oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of a 6" cake pan with parchment paper.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Cream butter and sugar together in a stand mixer until fluffy and light in colour. Add vanilla and eggs and beat to combine. Scrape the sides of the bowl and beat again until well incorporated.

On the lowest speed, mix in buttermilk. Add flour mixture in three additions; a little hand mixing with a spatula to incorporate before turning on the mixer will help prevent flour exploding everywhere. Scrape down bowl well.

Pour about 1/2 of the batter into the prepared pan. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Set cakes on a rack until completely cool and run a knife around the edge so they come out of the pan cleanly. Reserve half the batter for another use, it freezes very well in an airtight container.

milk chocolate frosting:

adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

• 4 ounces milk chocolate chopped (or chips)
• ¼ cup + 2 tbs whipping cream
• 2 tsp golden syrup or corn syrup
• ¼ cup + 2 tbs butter, room temperature

Combine cream and golden syrup in a small saucepan, heat on medium until simmering. Pour over chocolate in the bowl of a stand mixer and stir until all chocolate is melted. Set aside until the bowl no longer feels warm at all.

Using the whisk attachment mix in butter on medium-high speed until very light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl to make sure everything is incorporated well.

Generously slather the cake in chocolate frosting in big fluffy, pillowy swoops. Sprinkle with rainbow sprinkles all over.

caramel swirl brownies

These are really fudgey, gooey brownies. If you are a cakey brownie person (why though? Cakey brownies are obviously inferior.) these are not for you. These brownies really foxed me at first; the original recipe called for a 9" x 13" pan and I just couldn't get them to bake properly at that size. When the condensed milk was perfectly bubbly and golden brown on top, the brownies in the middle of the pan were still oozingly raw.

I solved the problem by halving the recipe and using an 8" x 8", without skimping at all on the condensed milk. This did the trick and I got soft, gooey, just-set brownies with a frankly shocking amount of  swirly puddles of condensed milk through the bars and a crispy-crackly caramelized top. 

They are crazy rich. I urge you to keep the flaky salt on top, even to go a little more heavy-handed with the salt than you might be thinking. The salt is going to balance the sweetness beautifully, and really make that condensed milk caramel sing. They are best served cut into tiny bite-sized pieces, and any leftovers freeze really well. If you should have any leftovers...

caramel swirl brownies: 

adapted from Fine Cooking

• 3/4 cup butter

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup + 2 tbs cups cocoa powder

• 3 oz. semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped

• 1 cup + 2 tbs granulated sugar

• 2 tbs brown sugar

• 1 tsp salt

• 3 large eggs, cold

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

• 1 tsp espresso powder (optional)

• 1 tin condensed milk

• big pinch flaky sea salt

In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. When the butter is melted, remove from heat and stir in chocolate. Let the heat from the butter melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally until fully melted and  incorporated. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip eggs, sugars, vanilla and espresso powder on a medium-high speed. Whip until very fluffy and pale yellow, around 8 minutes. While the eggs whip, whisk together flour and coco in a medium bowl, making sure there are no clumps. 

Once egg mixture is very fluffy, reduce speed to low and pour in the chocolate-butter mixture 

Pour about 2/3 of the condensed milk over the top of the batter, and swirl around with a toothpick. Bake for about 10-15 minutes, until the top is starting to caramelize and bubble. Pour over the remaining milk and sprinkle with a big pinch of flaky salt. Saving some milk to add later helps make sure that you get a chewy caramelly top and it doesn't all sink into the batter.

Continue to bake for about 10-15 minutes, until all the caramel is bubbly and caramel brown. 

Let cool completely and  cut into small squares. 

chocolate cake with praline frosting

Are you looking for a dessert for New Years Eve? Or for any other time? This cake is fancy enough for a big celebration, but it's also appropriate pretty much any time. Rich chocolate cake layers with fluffy, caramelized, toasty, nutty praline, offset with a wee bit of salt. 

This cake is how you should be ending 2017. 

Lately I have been using ermine frosting more than Italian or Swiss meringue buttercream. It has a few different names, boiled milk frosting, flour buttercream...it's just about the weirdest frosting I have ever made, and I think it's also the best. It starts with a flour and milk mixture, cooked up until thick and puddingy. It is flabby and weird looking. It seems like it would make an effective wallpaper paste. It does not seem like it will become a delicious, fluffy, light-yet-rich frosting. 

But then you cool the milk goop, and whip up some butter and sugar and incorporate the strange goo and it's just magical. The stodgy flour mess becomes so unbelievably fluffy and light, it's utterly transmogrified. You have to try this frosting, it will win you over. Promise.

chocolate cake: 

adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

Note: this makes about twice the cake batter you will need. You can either make a huge cake, or freeze the extra for later. 

• 3/4 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1 1/4 cups hot water

• 2/3 cup sour cream

• 2 2/3cups all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 cup butter, room temperature

• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening

• 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

• 3 large eggs, at room temperature

• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Heat oven to 325°F. Prepare 3 6 inch cake pans, either butter or line with parchment. Combine sour cream, hot water and coco in a small bowl, mixing well. 

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. In a stand mixer, beat butter and shortening on medium speed until fluffy. Add sugars and beat for another 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between eggs. 

Alternating, add flour and coco mixtures in three additions each. Mix on low until well combined. Using about half the batter, divide evenly between prepared pans. 

Bake until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Set cakes aside to cool. 

praline paste:

adapted from Joe Pastry

• 1 cup plus two tablespoons granulated sugar

• 1/4 cup water

• 1 cup blanched almonds

• 1 cup hazelnuts

• big pinch flaky salt

Toast nuts in a pan over medium-low heat, shaking them frequently. When they are toasty-coloured and fragrant, remove from heat and place nuts on a parchment lined baking sheet. 

Melt sugar and water together in a small pan, swirling until it is a medium amber colour. Pour over the nuts. Let cool and smash up into rubble. Blitz in a food processor with the salt, if you have a mini food processor it will be a bit easier. It takes quite a while to get the praline to form a paste;  keep on pushing the mix down into the bottom and blending until it stops looking sandy and forms a slightly oily paste. Be patient, it will work eventually. 

praline ermine frosting:

adapted from Martha Stewart

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 cup whole milk

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• Pinch of salt

• 2 sticks butter, room temperature

• 1 cup sugar

• 3-4 tbs praline paste

Combine milk and flour in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir continually until the mixture thickens to a pudding-like consistency. Let cool completely. 

In a stand mixer, whip butter and sugar for about 2 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Add in milk mixture and beat until the mixture is very light and fluffy. Add praline paste and beat until well incorprated. 

Note: If the flour mixture or butter are slightly too cold the frosting may not want to come together and stay kind of grainy and wet looking. I solved this by passing a blowtorch with a low flame rapidly around the side of my metal (not glass!) mixing bowl, while whipping on high. If you don't have a blowtorch, I think a hairdryer on hot or a very hot towel wrapped around the base of the bowl would work too. You want to use the heat just until you see the mixture come together and become visibly fluffy. Don't keep the heat on after or you could melt the butter too much. 

assemble: 

Trim cakes as required to flatten the tops.

Place one cake layer on a 6" cake board if you have it, or a flat plate or cake stand. Cover cake with a generous layer of frosting. Sandwich next cake layer on top and frost, repeat with the final layer. Chill the cake to set the frosting in the layers. Put a couple skewers through the cake if the layers are sliding around. 

Frost the chilled cake quickly all over with an offset spatula, making sure to cover all exposed cake. Adding more frosting as you go, use an offset spatula, or bench scraper to tidy up and give the cake some nice clean angles. Sprinkle a few chopped toasted hazelnuts around the top of the cake. 

Practice saying "Yes I made the praline myself." with just the right amount of humility and a slight glow of pride. Your guests are so impressed.