Loaded Candy Cookie Bars

Sunday night snuck up on me this weekend. I don’t think I’ve sat down since I woke up Saturday morning. It’s been one of those go go go get 800 things done kind of weekends. So I was really happy last night when my friend Sarah V. emailed me with this recipe idea from mybakingaddiction.com for Loaded Candy Cookie Bars. I have been especially good at avoiding Cadbury Mini Eggs this year. They are my kryptonite. I have one and I can have the entire bag without looking back. Twice I’ve allowed myself to buy the single serve packs at the checkout at Rite Aid. But it’s like in Twilight when one of the vampires sees or smells one drop of blood. They go absolutely crazy, rip their shirts off in front of werewolfs, and break through walls until they find that blood. That, is exactly how I am when it comes to Cadbury Mini Eggs. Just call me Edward Cullen.

But since I’ve been taking this bootcamp competition very seriously, I figured I had enough self control to be around mini eggs today. Especially because I love when friends send me recipes so this was one worth bringing in to work this week. AThey only had the giant bags of mini eggs today, so right after I finished baking these cookie bars I was just staring at the leftover half bag of mini eggs, and immediately washed the mixer and made a batch of regular Cadbury mini egg cookies. Just can’t leave temptation staring me in the face. So it’s going to be a double cookie Monday for my lucky coworkers tomorrow.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped Cadbury Mini Eggs
• 1 cup miniature marshmallows, divided
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips, divided
• 1 cup white chocolate, coarsely chopped, divided

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugar. Add in eggs one at a time until well incorporated. Mix in vanilla extract and beat for about 30 seconds until smooth. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients, and slowly incorporate into the wet mixture.

Step 2: Coarsely chop the mini eggs. The key is to take it slow, so that you don’t chop your finger off. Also, do not use a meat mallet. It doesn’t work and it makes way too much noise. Add half of the mini eggs into the dough. Add half of the dark and white chocolate chips, and half of the marshmallows.

Step 3: The batter will be thick. Spread it into a well-greased 13×9 baking dish. Take the remaining marshmallows, chopped mini eggs, and chocolate chips and sprinkle on top.

Step 4: Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Let these cool completely (yes, really this time) before cutting.

I’ll come out and admit it. This manicure is a sham. It’s just my thumb again. I was too busy scrubbing paint off my hallway floors like Cinderella to actually paint all of my nails until later tonight. But it is my new Crabtree & Evelyn nailpolish in Peony. It matches the pink Cadbury mini eggs pretty close though.

The batter isn’t super sweet, probably because there is no granulated sugar, but that’s probably better since there is such a variety of sweet goodies in this bar. To make the cookie form of this, I used the same ingredients minus the marshmallows since I just don’t trust marshmallows in cookies.

Yesterday I took a tennis lesson for the first time in like 10 years, and it was so much fun. Back in the day, I used to be quite the tennis player. I was captain and number one singles on the tennis team in high school, and was in tennis training since I was six. I found out yesterday on the court I still have some skills, and apparently a bit of a competitive attitude. Oh well. Stay out of the path of my overhead and you’ll be fine to play with me.

I got Palms at church today but still can’t actually put one together. You’d think this would come naturally since I was born on Palm Sunday. Today I went to my favorite store — Home Depot, and was not judged by the staff. Hooray. Well, maybe a little judgement. I went and bought a patio set for my deck and when the guy was helping carry it to my car I asked him if I bought a gas grill could I fit it in my back seat and he just looked at me like “Really lady?” What? I mean that’s not the dumbest thing I could ask.

And lastly, I got to spend some QT this morning with my friend Sarah and her dog Luna, who I affectionately like to call Pancake, for a nice long walk to enjoy the not-snowing and above-20 degree Boston weather that Mother Nature graced us with today.