Hand-held Superbowl Desserts!

Let's start with the Applesauce Cake recipe I adapted from this:  http://www.landolakes.com/recipe/2313/applesauce-spice-cake

The kids and I are learning about how things were done before grocery stores and specialty shops dotted the landscape and just about everything was within a fifteen minute drive from our homes, so this week we made homemade applesauce... and we mashed the cooked apples by hand so we had a nice, chunky, cinnamony version, oh, so good!!!!!

And then we recorded our observations in our Handy Dandy Science Notebooks!!!!

The natural progression of things in our kitchen is "WHAT NEXT????"

Applesauce cake is a great way to turn something marginally healthy into something crazy delicious and NOT THE LEAST BIT HEALTHY!!!!

You're welcome! Because taking the low-carb thing to extremes makes us g-r-u-m-p-y!

Here's my version of the recipe and it was melt-in-your-mouth amazing and easy because it's a dump all this stuff in a bowl kind of cake:

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cups chunky applesauce
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Mix all together, blend well at medium to medium high speed, scrape sides as needed, about two minutes.

Grease and flour 13" x 9" pan. Pour batter into pan.

Bake at 350° for about 35 minutes, be careful not to overbake... When done, use the Ruthy trick of placing cake right into the freezer and freezing for about an hour before frosting. (Cakes continue to bake once out of oven, in pan. Putting fruit or oil-based cakes right in the freezer keeps them supermoist and delectable. This is a great trick).

Caramel frosting (browned butter icing):

1/2 cup butter, caramelized (don't worry, that's a fancy way of saying "brown the butter gently")
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt butter in saucepan on stove.

cook and stir over medium heat until butter foams and starts to turn golden/brown. Remove from heat.

Measure powdered sugar into mixing bowl, add butter and vanilla, mix until blended,

then add cream or milk until you have a spreadable consistency. Whip for three minutes until frosting is creamy and fluffy.

Frost and enjoy! This is an amazing complement of flavors. Thank you Land o' Lakes for the idea!

And from The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, her "Knock You Naked Brownies"

Gratuitous Finn pic licking out the caramel bowl!!! Oh, Finn!!!!!! :)

Here's the link to that one:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/knock-you-naked-brownies-recipe.html

I made these on Sunday and froze a batch for our annual Half-a-Superbowl party where a bunch of my young friends come over, make noise, play games, watch commercials and pretty much ignore the incidence of football.

We feed them well, they're pretty sure they're COOL because they went to a Superbowl party where punch was served in fancy glasses.... and they all go home at halftime!

Perfect!!!!

These are really good brownie confections. I don't like the name at all, I'm such a stinkin' prude! So let's just call them Turtle Brownies here, because that's what they're like. A chocolatey bottom, a layer of perfect caramel, then a chocolatey-nutty top. So they taste like your eating a praline (with pecans) or a chocolate turtle.... I was out of pecans (Kitchen: FAIL!!!!) so I used finely chopped almonds and they worked well but a slightly chewier consistency than if I'd had the pecans.

And I'd like to report that I've gotten that bedroom all back in order, just like most of youse would have done, right???

Well, there was a Saturday full of watching sweet grandboys and girlies and Sunday was just plain busy and then, of course, the day job and writing sweet books, so the room is still EMPTY.... but soon! :)  Let me just say my entire upstairs is in a dreadful state, but I'm writing the SWEETEST NOVELLA RIGHT NOW, and honestly....

No one pays me to clean.

:)

But they do pay me to write books, so we'll get to the bedroom um.... soon? Maybe?

Enjoy the Superbowl fun! God be with you! Here's a pic of the finished, caramel-layered Turtle Brownies!