SMiLes by Meg

Tag: bar

Small Batch Olive Oil Lemon Bars

Happy Valentine’s Day! Erik and I just finished a feast and I’m writing this as I’m about to slip into a food coma powered by Schitt’s Creek on the couch. We ordered cook at home hot pot and it was perfect – lots of delicious food, a fun thing to do. Highly recommend. If you’re in the DC area check it out – Fat Choi Hot Pot. Also in the Valentine’s Day trend, Erik has been talking about how much he loves lemon bars for weeks now, and I thought it was probably a good time to make him some. …

Small Batch Magic Bars

If you’ve known me at any point in my life, you know that a constant is my all time favorite dessert: magic bars. I’ve shared my favorite recipe for them before, and even tried some seasonal variations, but I haven’t made any since COVID started because I know myself and my complete lack of self control. If I made a full pan of magic bars, I would eat a full pan of magic bars. Then, this weekend, Alexandra sent me a recipe for a salted caramel pretzel version that looked great, and reminded me that I was really missing a …

Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

It’s a rainy day in DC today, and I’m very happy about. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the weeks on end of perfect Fall days, but sometimes you just need an excuse to curl up in cozy clothes all day, drink coffee out of your biggest mug and refuse to leave the apartment. This will be that day. Yesterday was not that day – it was mid-70s, and we had some friends over for pre-dinner roof drinks. After last week’s experiment in keeping the blog post’s baked good for ourselves all week, I was more than ready to …

Brown Butter Blondies

Week 2 of quarantine baking and I still haven’t come up with a good word for it. “Quaranbaking”? “Sugar isolation”? Those are both so bad. If someone has already figured this out, let me know. I’m also quickly realizing that baking treats when you don’t have a kitchen to offload them into is a different experience. This week, a friend in the building requested blondies, so that’s what I made, and now they aren’t in my kitchen! If you live in the Boston area and are looking for something sweet, PLEASE let me know – I will happily make it …

Caramel Peanut Brownies

“;.////////////////////////////////////p;//” – From Elwynn, who decided to walk across my iPad when I started typing this up. He did capture how I feel about this week though – I could use another 3 weekends right now. But I think that’s just February for you. Fortunately, I did get to spend some time making something new – caramel peanut brownies! Meg Fay, one of the other second years at my firm, has a birthday this week. She requested something “chocolate and peanut butter, or chocolate and caramel” and I was able to find something that was chocolate and peanut AND caramel. …

S’mores Blondies

November might be a weird time to make s’mores-themed things, but I think campfires carry into the fall. Also, my running offer is that any first year (or I guess we’re now second years?) in the corporate group at work can request whatever they want for their birthday. Taylor wanted something s’mores, and these blondies looked like the best way to accomplish that. Start by pulsing the graham crackers in a food processor until they are finely ground. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and pulse a couple more times to combine. In a stand mixer fitted with the …

Millionaire Bars

Last week, I promised to make something with halvah. This week, I bring you: Millionaire Bars. I’m going to keep this post on the shorter side, since I’m typing it before going into the office on Friday, and I’ll be traveling to Portland for the weekend to see what the pacific northwest is all about. Though these take a little bit of work (three separate layers, each with its own instructions), they actually were easy to make during the week. One night, I made the shortbread layer, and let it cool overnight. The next morning, I quickly did the halvah …

White Chocolate, Toffee, and Pecan Brownies

I’m posting this from Alaska, but not on an Alaskan trip where I anticipated to have time to bake. So instead, I baked on Tuesday, and after already bringing Irish Soda Bread Scones to work on Monday, brought these brownies on Wednesday. I feel like maybe I’m bringing too many baked goods to work – but also Lent, so it’s not like I can eat them. Regardless, people don’t seem to mind. Turns out, offices are a place you can ALWAYS get rid of baked goods. Now, midweek baking means I had to pick something that wouldn’t be too time …

Baklava

Baklava is one of those recipes where you think it must be super complex (there are so many layers!), but when you actually make it, you realize there aren’t that many ingredients, and the process is fairly simple. I wouldn’t have believed any of this, but Sandy, whose recipes have appeared on my blog in the past (Trout Farm Apple Pie, Mud Pie, Oh Henry Bars), gave me a pan and her recipe for Christmas. So obviously I had to give it a try. Now, to be honest, this was actually my second attempt at Baklava. When she first gave …

Crack Pie

This is a recipe I’ve been meaning to try since probably the first year of SMiLes by Meg. Before I acquired any of the multitude of kitchen gadgets that currently define my baking. Before I had Amazon Prime. Before I felt confident enough to try a recipe that involved 3 separate internal recipes. But I’ve grown in the last 5 years, as has my kitchen gadget collection, and with the Patriots going to the Super Bowl, I was finally felt ready to make it: Crack Pie. I first had Crack Pie when visiting Marj in NYC after college. She brought …