Tidings of baking and joy -- a sweet vintage clipping

 

In an envelope of old recipe clippings, I came across the above: Tidings of Baking and Joy!  What a fun title!

The front of the clipping features a scrumptious-sounding recipe for Peanut Butter Cream-Topped Brownies.

 Above is the recipe for the brownie part.  Double clicking should help in seeing it.

And above is the recipe for the peanut butter cream topping and the chocolate glaze.

The back of the clipping features another recipe -- Easy Mocha Brownie Torte -- and a 25¢ coupon on Hershey's Baking Chocolate.

 

The date on the coupon (it expired in February 1998) tells me these recipes are from 1997.  

I appreciate that these treats are made from scratch!  They are also meant to be refrigerated, so they would make nice summer desserts as well.  Why not bake up some comfort and joy today?

Pink Lemonade Bars

 

 I mentioned a few days ago that I would try and post the recipe for Pink Lemonade Bars featured in the little cookie booklet Visions of Sugarplums.  To me these would be perfect for a summer cookie tray, but they would be pretty at Christmas time as well.

PINK LEMONADE BARS

Crust:
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup confectioners sugar

Topping:
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 cups sugar
1 Tblsp. freshly grated lemon zest
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
5 drops red liquid food coloring

Confectioners sugar for topping

Heat oven to 350º.  Line a 13 x 9 pan with foil, letting foil extend above pan at both ends.  Coat foil with nonstick baking spray.

For crust, beat butter, flour, and confectioners sugar in a large bowl with mixer until blended and crumbly.  Press over bottom of prepared pan.  Bake 15 minutes or until light golden.  Remove from oven but do not turn the oven off.

While crust is baking, make topping.  In a large bowl, beat eggs, sugar, lemon zest and juice, flour and baking powder with mixer to combine.  Add food coloring and beat until topping is pink in color.  Pour over the hot crust.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes until top is golden and topping has set.  Cool in pan on a wire rack.

Lift foil by ends to cutting board.  Cut bars in 6 rows lengthwise and 8 crosswise to make 48 bars.  Dust with confectioners sugar.  Makes 48 bars.

(No mention of when to remove the foil.  I think I would do it before cutting the bars, so as not to get shreds of foil mixed in with them.)  

There it is!  Enjoy!

Salted Butterscotch Bars

 

Time for a cookie recipe! I like bar cookies, especially in summer, because they are so quick and easy to make.  The oven is not on for long, and a 13x9 pan usually yields at least 24 bars.

These Salted Butterscotch Bars come from Jocelyn at Inside BruCrew Life.  I've shared before how much I appreciate Jocelyn's recipes.  She has a great instinct about putting flavors together and what's going to work in a recipe, plus she keeps the recipes simple.

The bars are made with melted butterscotch chips and brown sugar, along with basic ingredients like butter, eggs, flour, vanilla and salt.  The frosting is made with salted caramel chips (or, if you can't find those, more butterscotch chips) and whipping cream, plus coarse sea salt for the garnish.

Photo from Inside Brucrew Life

 
From my limited research, it looks like Hershey's may not make the sea salt caramel baking chips any longer, but it seems that perhaps some other companies (Lily's, Trader Joe's) do.  In any case it's good to know what to substitute if you can't find the caramel sea salt ones.

Hope you enjoy this recipe if you try it!