Karen's Coffee-Toffee Bars

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Coffee-Toffee Bars

Ingredients:

• 2 ¼ cup flour
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 1/2 tsp instant coffee
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts/pecans

Directions:

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.  
2. Cream together butter, brown sugar, almond extract and coffee.  
3. Add chocolate chips and walnuts.  
4. Press dough into 9x13 greased pan.  
5. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.  Do not over bake.  
6. Cut while warm.  Top with sugar glaze if desired.  Freezes well.

Marsha's Notes:

I made this as a special treat for Mom and Auntie in the Christmas of 2022. It was my first time personally making it. The "dough" is quite dry and crumbly before you press it into the bottom of the pan, so don't panic. There is not really any liquid in this recipe. Don't overmix! Just whip the butter/sugar mixture really well to get some air in it, sift the dry ingredients to get more air in it, and then blend everything together just until combined so you don't make the cookies tough. Also, at 350 on convection, it baked almost perfectly at 20 minutes, but I might even try 18 next time. If the bottom and edges are just going brown, it's DONE! Be sure to run a knife around the edge after it has cooled for about ten minutes or so and cut into your desired piece size because you will have a hard time cutting them after they are cooled.

If using pecan pieces, make sure they are in small pieces. Straight from the package, some of mine were still pretty big.

Quick P-Ups

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Quick P-ups

Ingredients:

• 1 egg, well beaten
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup sugar

Directions:

1. Add sugar to beaten egg.  Mix well.  
2. Add peanut butter and mix well again.  
3. Drop by spoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet.  
4. Bake at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Fix It and Forget Its Hot Fudge Cake (Crock Pot) & Mom's Chocolate Pudding Cake

My mother made chocolate pudding cake a lot when we were kids, and I LOVED it! It has stuck with me and is still one of my favorites. She always made it in the oven, but I found this recipe that allows you to use your Crock Pot instead, and it tastes just the same. It's my new favorite way to make this childhood favorite. It also makes it easy to transport and serve warm if you are visiting someone.

This recipe came from my Fix It and Forget It cookbook.

Hot Fudge Cake (Crock Pot)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup packed brown sugar 
• 1 cup flour 
• 3 Tbl. Unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 2 tsp. baking powder 
• ½ tsp. salt 
• ½ cup milk 
• 2 Tbl. Melted butter
• ½ tsp. vanilla
• ¾ cup packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 ¾ cups boiling water
• vanilla ice cream or whipped cream

Directions:

1. Mix together 1 cup brown sugar, flour, 3 Tbl. Cocoa, baking powder and salt. 
2. Stir in milk, butter and vanilla. Spread over the bottom of slow cooker. 
3. Mix together ¾ cup brown sugar and ¼ cup cocoa. Sprinkle over mixture in slow cooker. 
4. Pour in boiling water. Do not stir. 
5. Cover and cook on approximately 2-3 hours on low, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream. 

Mom's Chocolate Pudding Cake (Oven)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 Tbl cocoa
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 Tbl shortening, melted
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1 1/4 cup hot water

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Measure first five ingredients into bowl. Stir. 
3. Blend in milk and shortening and nuts. 
4. Pour into ungreased 9x9 pan. 
5. Stir together brown sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa. 
6. Sprinkle over batter. Pour hot water over all. Bake for 45 minutes.

Cooks' Delicious White Sweet Bread Dough (Karen's Bread)

My mother used to make a wonderful bread when we were growing up. It was her favorite recipe, and usually she made the bread for herself to eat right before bedtime.  It was a special treat when us kids got to have some too. Sometimes she would make little "baby loaves" to share with us.

When adulthood came on, I remember starting to bake breads myself, and I wanted mother's favorite recipe. However, she had fallen out of the habit of making the bread and lost the recipe! This felt like a tragedy to me.

Maybe a year ago, or so, I called my mom up to ask her what she could remember of her famous recipe, and between what she told me and a recipe I found on the Internet, I think I have pretty much managed to resurrect this tasty treat! I hope you enjoy it.  We sure do!

I found this recipe on the Cooks website.

Delicious White Sweet Bread Dough (Karen's Bread) 

Ingredients: 

• 6-7 cups flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 pkg. yeast (4 ½ tsp.)
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup milk
• ½ cup butter
• 1 egg

Directions:

1. Heat milk, water and butter in pan until very warm, approximately 120-130 degrees. (You can skip this step if you use powdered milk instead (made with very hot water, 120-130 degrees or hottest from the tap), melt butter separately, then mix together the powdered milk mixture, melted butter and additional 1 cup very hot water from the recipe.)
2. In a large bowl, add 2 cups flour and sugar, salt and yeast; blend very well. Add warm liquid and egg to flour mixture and beat with a beater; slowly add rest of flour and knead.  Let rise about 1 hour in a warm place until dough is doubled in size.  Punch down and shape dough into loaves.  Place in greased loaf pans and let rise again.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until top is brown and bread is cooked through.  Brush hot loaves with melted butter, if desired.

Marsha's Notes:

My metal bread pans are larger than my glass pans, so you will have to experiment and see how many loaves this makes for your size pans.  I find this recipe makes either three medium loaves or two larger loaves with one or two additional mini loaf pans to finish off the dough.  Mini loaf pans only take about 20 minutes or less to cook.  

I personally like to use glass pans, because then I can see that not only the top of the loaf has browned, but I can also check the sides and bottom as well.  No one wants to cut into a doughy loaf of bread after going to that much work!