My New Favorites

A couple of months ago I wrote about my first attempts at making a homemade pie crust and using that crust for a french silk pie.

I am not a big fan of chocolate so the french silk pie was a little on the rich side for me. I LOVE white chocolate. I decided to use bakers white chocolate in the recipe instead of bakers chocolate. I am in love with this pie. It is the perfect combination of flavors.

White Chocolate Pie

recipe adapted from the french silk pie recipe from one of my former students

1 pie crust

1 c sugar
3/4 c butter
3 (1 oz) squares white chocolate, melted and cooled
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
3 eggs

* Cream sugar and butter together for 4 minutes
* Blend in cooled chocolate and vanilla
* Add eggs one at a time, beating on medium speed for two minutes between each egg. Scrape sides of bowl constantly. Turn into pie shell.
* Top with whipped cream {1 cup whipping cream, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp vanilla} and white chocolate curls.

Yesterday, I was reading Sara's blog and she posted a recipe for Congo bars. I originally saw this recipe over at bakerella but had not copied it

down and forgot about it. Sara's description of the bars made me pull out the ingredients and whip up a batch. It was the perfect mix of chocolate chip cookie/cakey goodness. I used white chocolate chips instead of the pecans {since I didn't have any pecans in the cupboard} and they turned out delicious. They were easy to make and everyone in my house loved them. In fact I delivered half the pan to the neighbors or I knew we would eat them all in one night!

Congo Bars
(recipe from Bakerella - if you haven't ever been to her site you need to. She is amazing. Really, really AMAZING.)

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 lb. light brown sugar (Oh my and thank you!) {I figured out that this works out to 2 1/3 cups}
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
11.5 ounce package milk chocolate chips {roughly 1 1/2 cups}
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
By mixer:

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
Combine butter and sugar using a mixer until blended.
Add eggs, one at a time to sugar mixture, mixing on low in between each addition.
Add vanilla and mix.
Add flour and mix until combined.
Stir in chips and then pecans.

By hand:

{This is the way I chose to do it and they turned out super yummy!}

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Set aside.
Stir brown sugar into softened (not melted) butter in another large bowl until butter disappears. You can use the back of your spoon to help incorporate the two together.
Add eggs one at a time to butter mixture and stir well after each egg.
Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts. Mix well.
Add dry flour mixture and stir until well combined.

Coat a 13 X 9 pan with non-stick spray and spread batter evenly into dish.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Make sure you don’t over bake.

Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!