Raspberry Danish Murder (Hannah Swensen #22)(90)

“It’s only five minutes to twelve!” she exclaimed. “I thought it was much later than that.”

“So did I.” Michelle reached up to straighten her apron. “Wave, Hannah. There’s Andrea across the way from us. She’s here with Tracey. They must have had a half-day at school today. And there’s Grandma McCann with Bethie.”

“I hope they come over to say hi. I want Andrea to taste one of our new bar cookies.”

“Which one?” Michelle asked. “We have several.”

“We’ll give them all a different one and they can compare them. Do I need to put on more coffee just in case we get a noon rush?”

“I just made it. Do you realize that we’ve gone through eight large pots of coffee and I don’t know how many cookies and bar cookies? We sold all my Orange Marmalade Filled Oatmeal Muffins, too.”

Hannah turned around to assess the packaged cookie and bar cookies that they had left. “We’ve gone through over half of our baked goods already! I’d better call Lisa and see if they have any extras they can spare.”





CHOCOLATE CARAMEL BAR COOKIES




Preheat oven to 325 degrees F., rack in the middle position.





The Crust and Topping:



2 cups (4 sticks, 16 ounces, 1 pound) salted butter

softened to room temperature

1 cup white (granulated) sugar

1 and ? cups powdered (confectioners’) sugar

? cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s)

? teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract (Tablespoon is not a misprint)

3 and ? cups all-purpose flour (pack the flour down in the cup when you measure it)





The Caramel Filling:



12 and ?-ounce (by weight) jar caramel ice cream

topping (I used Smucker’s)

cup whipping cream

1 cup (6-ounce bag by weight) semi-sweet chocolate

chips (I used Nestle)

? teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons sea or Kosher salt (the coarse-ground

kind)





Before you begin to make the crust and filling, spray a 9-inch by 13-inch cake pan with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray. Alternatively, you can line the pan with heavy-duty foil and spray that. (Then you can lift the bar cookies right out of the pan when they have baked and cooled.)





Hannah’s 1st Note: If your store doesn’t carry jars of caramel ice cream topping, you can still make these bar cookies by using an 11-ounce bag of square Kraft caramels, counting out 35 pieces, unwrapping them, and adding a 6-ounce by weight bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Drizzle with ? cup whipping cream and heat in the microwave for one minute, followed by another minute standing time. Try to stir the mixture smooth and if you can’t, heat for another 30 seconds, followed by 30 seconds standing time, and try again. Repeat heating and standing times until you can stir the mixture smooth.





Combine the softened butter, white sugar, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a large bowl or in the bowl of an electric mixer. (This crust is easier to make if you use the mixer.)





Beat at MEDIUM speed until the mixture is light and creamy.





Add the vanilla extract. Mix it in until it is thoroughly combined.





Add the flour in half-cup increments, (the last increment can be ? of a cup), beating at LOW speed after each addition. Beat until everything is thoroughly combined.





Hannah’s 2nd Note: When you’ve mixed in the flour, the resulting sweet chocolate dough will be soft. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.





Measure out one rounded cup of the sweet dough. Wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator to chill.





With impeccably clean hands, press the rest of the sweet dough into the bottom of your prepared cake pan. This will form a bottom crust. Press it all the way out to the edges of the pan, as evenly as you can, to cover the entire bottom.





Bake your bottom crust at 325 degrees F., for approximately 20 minutes or until the edges are beginning to turn a deeper brown color.





While the crust is baking, open the jar of caramel ice cream topping, take off the metal lid, and place the open, lidless jar in the microwave. Heat the contents on HIGH for 20 seconds.





Use pot holders to take the jar out of the microwave. Depending on the power of your microwave, it could be too hot to handle. Dump (yes, indeed. Dump is a recognized cooking term, at least in my house!) the warm caramel topping in a microwave-safe bowl.





Hannah’s 3rd Note: when I bake these at home, I always use my quart Pyrex measuring cup.





Sprinkle the semi-sweet chocolate chips over the top of the caramel ice cream topping and pour the whipping cream on top of that.





Give the contents of your microwave-safe container a stir with a heat resistant rubber spatula.





Listen for your stove timer. When your crust has browned a bit around the edges, remove the pan from the oven, but DON’T SHUT OFF THE OVEN!