This recipe is adapted from Sarah Kieffer’s wonderful book, 100 Cookies, which I found myself browsing when I needed an easily shareable dessert for a community dinner. The Scotcharoos caught my eye and I decided to make them with a few tweaks.
This recipe’s journey began with the Brown Butter Pumpkin Pie from one of my favorite baking books, The Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book. I first adapted it years ago, replacing five ingredients with my caramel, a pretty common practice for me these days.
I first made this recipe from Kristin Donnelly’s awesome book, Modern Potluck, a few years ago and it instantly became my all-time favorite apple crisp. While I have made it (and loved it!) with all apples; apples and pears without dates; and various combinations in between, I truly believe Kristin’s recipe cannot be beat if you follow her fruit proportions to the letter.
Last summer I traveled into NYC for a fun day of baking in my friend Rachel’s kitchen. As she is the woman behind my favorite all-things-sesame brand, Seed + Mill*, you can bet we had fun combining our two products — caramel & tahini are magical together!
A few weeks ago I saw an email from Bon Appétit in my inbox with the subject line “The Best Shortbread Cookies You’ve Ever Had.” Since no shortbread has ever held a candle to my Scottish mother-in-law’s, I skeptically opened the email. There I saw the recipe in question was titled Roasty Toasty Pecan-Caramel Shortbread Cookies. OK, now they had my attention. I read on. These slice & bake cookies were made in a food processor and the caramel in the title was actually dulce de leche. Interesting. I printed the recipe and got right to work.
My mom has been known for her blue cheese dressing for as long as I can remember. In fact, the recipe is so often requested by folks that my dad has it formatted as a recipe card on his computer for easy sharing. And I love this blue cheese so much that while we had an AMAZING caterer at our wedding, we asked if my mom could provide her blue cheese dressing to accompany the crudité. They agreed to the rather strange request and after the wedding even they asked for the recipe.
These peanut-y treats are held together with Cara-Sel Salted Caramel instead of marshmallow, resulting in a crispy/crunchy, salty/sweet marvel. Gluten-free if you use a GF crisp rice cereal, too!