Danish Pear-Apple Bars

My husband isn’t partial to summer fruit- with the exception of freshly picked strawberries. He loves bananas, Bartlett pears, and cantaloupe. 🙂 Before the summer berry and peach baking season, I made these pie bars to embrace sweet and juicy Bartlett pears.

The bars have a Danish-style pie crust which very tender because it incorporates milk and egg yolks instead of ice water. It was really delicious. I also loved the cream cheese glaze spread over the top.

This recipe was adapted from 100 Cookies: The Baking Book for Every Kitchen with Classic Cookies, Novel Treats, Brownies, Bars, and More by Sarah Kieffer. I weighed most of the dry ingredients as well as the peeled and cored fruit. I also used fine sea salt and omitted the brandy.

It was a wonderful springtime dessert but it would also be fabulous for Thanksgiving.

For the Crust:

• 1/2 cup (120 g) whole milk, plus 1 or 2 T if needed
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 1/2 cups (355 g) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 2 T granulated sugar
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 2 cup (2 sticks or 227 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into 20 pieces

For the Apple-Pear Filling:

• 8 cups (1100 g) Bartlett pears, peeled, cored and sliced 4mm thick (I used 6 organic pears)
• 1 cup (150 g) peeled and grated Gala apples (I used one large Gala apple)
• 1/3 cup (65 g) light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar, plus 2 T for sprinkling
• 3 T cornstarch
• 1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
• 2 T unsalted butter, melted
• 1 T brandy (I omitted it)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

For the Egg Wash:

• 1 large egg
• pinch of fine sea salt
• 1 T (15 g) water

For the Cream Cheese Glaze:

• 2 oz (57 g) cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 T whole milk
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• pinch fine sea salt
• 1 to 1 1/4 cups (120 to 145 g) confectioners’ sugar

To Make the Crust:

1. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, combine the milk and egg yolks. Place in the refrigerator.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, mix the flour, granulated sugar, and salt on low speed until combined.
3. Add half of the chilled butter and mix on low speed until the butter is just starting to break down, about 1 minute.
4. Add the rest of the butter and continue mixing until the butter is broken down in various sizes. (most should be the size of small peas but some pieces may be larger) Make sure that all of the flour is moistened.
5. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the milk-egg mixture, and mix until the dough starts to come together. If the dough is having trouble coming together, add 1 or 2 more tablespoons of milk.
6. Divide the dough in half, place each piece on a separate piece of plastic wrap and flatten each slightly into a square.
7. Cover and refrigerate until cool but still soft, about 45 minutes.
8. On a lightly floured piece of parchment paper, roll one square of the dough into a 9×13-inch rectangle (22×33 cm). (I covered the top with plastic wrap and rolled the dough 1/8-inch thick, using a bench scraper to cut pieces and patch to form the proper shape.)
9. Transfer the dough to a 9×13-inch metal baking pan. Gently pat the dough into the bottom. Place the pan in the refrigerator while you make the filling.
10. Roll out the second square of dough into a 9×13-inch (22 by 33 cm) rectangle using the same method. Place on an inverted sheet pan in the refrigerator while you make the filling.

To Make the Filling:

1. Use a food processor to slice the pears 4mm thick and coarsely grate the apple(s).
2. Combine the sliced pears, grated apple, brown sugar, 1/4 cup (4 T or 50g) granulated sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl.
3. In a small liquid measuring cup or bowl, combine the melted butter, brandy (if using), and vanilla. Pour over the pear-apple mixture and toss to combine.

To Make the Egg Wash:

1. Whisk the egg, salt, and water together in a small bowl; set aside.

To Assemble:

1. Fill the prepared pie shell with the pear-apple mixture and smooth the top.
2. Remove the top crust chilling on the inverted sheet pan from the refrigerator. Place the dough over the top of the filling. (It does not need to be sealed to the bottom layer.) Trim any excess with kitchen shears or a sharp knife.
3. Gently cut a few steam vents into the top layer of dough. (I cut 11 vents.)
4. Chill the pie in the pan in the freezer for 20 minutes while the oven preheats.
5. Adjust an oven rack to the lowest position. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
6. Place a sheet pan on the oven rack while the oven is preheating. (The preheated sheet pan helps crisp the bottom of the pie crust.)
7. When the pie is ready to bake, brush the top of the pie with the egg wash. Sprinkle the top with the 2 T reserved granulated sugar.
8. Transfer the pie to the preheated sheet pan and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, rotating halfway through, until the crust is golden brown and the juices are bubbling. (I baked mine for 50 minutes.)
9. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool while you make the icing.

To Make the Cream Cheese Glaze:

1. In a small bowl, use a hand mixer to mix the cream cheese, milk, vanilla, and salt until smooth.
2. Add 1 cup (120 g) of the confectioners’ sugar and mix again until smooth. If the mixture is too thin, add more confectioners’ sugar until the desired consistency is reached.
3. Once the bars are cool, top them with the glaze; spread to the edges.

Note: The pie bars are best eaten the same day they are made but can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

Brown Sugar Cookies

One more recipe from Sarah Kieffer’s new cookie book!

These wonderful cookies may have tasted even more spectacular because they looked so simple and unassuming. Wow. The extra teaspoon of molasses may have been the secret ingredient. Like her snickerdoodles, they had a crispy edge and soft center.

The recipe was adapted from 100 Cookies: The Baking Book for Every Kitchen with Classic Cookies, Novel Treats, Brownies, Bars and More by Sarah Kieffer. I chilled the dough prior to baking and modified the cookie size. I also reduced the amount of granulated sugar needed for rolling. Great!

Yield: 30 to 32 cookies

• 364 g (2 1/2 cups plus 1 T) all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt (I used fine sea salt)
• 1 cup (2 sticks or 227 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 350 g (1 3/4 cups) dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp molasses
• 1 large egg plus 1 large yolk
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar, for rolling

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C). (I did not use the convection setting.)
2. Line rimmed sheet pans with parchment paper.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute.
5. Add the brown sugar and the molasses and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
6. Add the egg, yolk, and vanilla, and beat on medium speed until combined.
7. Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just combined.
8. Place the granulated sugar in a small bowl.
9. Using a medium-sized cookie scoop, ration the dough into 30g (1 oz or 1 1/2 T) portions. (At this point, I wrapped the scoops with plastic wrap and chilled them. I baked half after 1 hour and the other half after 24 hours.)
10. Roll each ball in the granulated sugar and place 8 cookies on each sheet pan.
11. Bake one pan at a time, rotating halfway through baking. Bake until the sides are set and the bottoms are light golden brown, 12 to 13 minutes (for the chilled dough).
12. Transfer the sheet pan to a wire rack and let the cookies cool for 5 to 10 minutes on the pan, then remove them and let them cool completely on the wire rack. Repeat with remaining dough.

Note: Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Pan-Banging Giant Crinkled Snickerdoodles

I first read about Sarah Kieffer’s famous pan-banging baking method when her Giant Crinkled Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe was published in The New York Times, adapted from The Vanilla Bean Baking Book. During the baking process, the sheet pan is intermittently tapped on the oven rack. The resulting cookies have a “crinkled,” rippled, crisp outer edge and soft center. I love how they look. The added bonus is that they have to be large- giant– in order for the method to be successful.

In Kieffer’s second cookbook, 100 Cookies: The Baking Book for Every Kitchen with Classic Cookies, Novel Treats, Brownies, Bars, and More, she has an entire chapter devoted to pan-banging cookies. I can’t believe that it has taken me this long to bake them! The original chocolate chip cookie recipe has been modified in the new book. I will have to try the chocolate chip cookie version, of course, but I loved the idea of making giant crinkled snickerdoodles.

I did find that the method was only successful with three cookies per sheet pan. It may be be because the dough is closer to the center of the pan but I’m not exactly sure. The pans with four cookies cracked on the edges and spread more than the pans with three cookies. I reduced the amount of cinnamon sugar topping in the recipe below because there was excess.

The original recipe states that it yields twelve cookies, but, after weighing the rationed dough, each batch (sadly) only yielded ten cookies. I immediately made a second batch to share after baking the first ten cookies! We loved them.

Yield: 10 giant cookies

For the Cookie Dough:

• 284g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt (I used fine sea salt)
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 cup (2 sticks or 227g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 300g (1 1/2 cups) granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

For the Topping:

• 25g (2 T) granulated sugar
• 1/2 T ground cinnamon

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle of the oven. (The remaining oven racks should be below this middle rack to not interfere with the pan-banging.)
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C). (I did not use the convection setting.)
3. Line 3 rimmed sheet pans with aluminum foil, dull-side up.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cream of tartar, and nutmeg.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute.
6. Add the 300g (1 1/2 cups) sugar and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
7. Add the egg and vanilla and mix on low speed to combine.
8. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until combined.
9. In a small bowl, combine the 25g (2 T) and ground cinnamon for the topping.
10. Form the dough in to 85 to 86g (3 oz or 1/4 cup) balls. (I initially used the combination of a large and medium cookie scoop, but found it was easier to just weigh chunks of dough.) Place all of the dough balls on a plate until all of it has been rationed.
11. Roll each ball in the cinnamon-sugar topping.
12. Place 3 cookies an equal distance apart on the sheet pans. (One will be leftover to bake after a sheet pan has cooled.)
13. Bake the cookies one pan at a time.
14. Bake until the dough balls have flattened but are puffed slightly in the center, 8 minutes.
15. Lift one side of the sheet pan up about 4 inches (10 cm) and gently let it drop down against the oven rack, so the edges of the cookies set and the center falls back down. (I repeated this lifting the other side of the pan as well.)
16. After the cookies puff up again in 2 minutes, repeat lifting and dropping the pan. Repeat a few more times, every 2 minutes, to created ridges around the edge of the cookie. Bake for 14 to 15 minutes total, until the cookies have spread out and the edges are golden brown but the centers are much lighter and not fully cooked. (To keep track, I actually kept a paper to keep track of the timing: 8*2*2*2*1.)
17. Transfer the pan to a wire rack. Let the cookies cool for 10 minutes, then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Note: Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days (or refrigerate for up to 3 days).

Cinnamon Roll Blondies

One of the most dangerous things I’ve ever done is to “join” baking groups on Facebook. The beautiful baked goods that are shared make me feel compelled to bake and to try cookbooks that are raved about.

This recipe is from 100 Cookies: The Baking Book for Every Kitchen with Classic Cookies, Novel Treats, Brownies, Bars, and More by Sarah Kieffer. This book has a major fan base online. I’m only one recipe in and am already a huge fan. 🙂

Baked goods that involve cinnamon-sugar are a crowd-pleaser in my house so selecting cinnamon roll blondies out of this book was an obvious choice. These blondies had the added bonus of incorporating nutty brown butter too. I weighed the ingredients when possible. Fabulous!

Yield: One 9×13-inch pan, about 24 small blondies

For the Brown Butter Blondie Base:

• 2 cups (284g) all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup (2 sticks or 227g) unsalted butter
• 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
• 1 cup (200g) brown sugar (I used dark brown sugar)
• 1 1/2 T pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp salt (I used coarse salt)
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 4 large egg yolks, at room temperature

For the Cream Cheese Filling:

• 4 oz (113g) cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• pinch salt (I used coarse salt)

For the Cinnamon Sugar Swirl:

• 1/4 cup (50g) brown sugar (I used light brown sugar)
• 2 T unsalted butter, at room temperature
• pinch of salt (I used coarse salt)
• 1 T ground cinnamon

To Make the Brown Butter Blondie Base:

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C).
2. Grease a 9×13-inch (23×33-cm) baking pan and line with a parchment sling. (I used a metal baking pan.)
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder.
4. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt 12 tablespoons (170g) of the butter. Brown the butter until it is dark golden brown and smells nutty, about 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and add the remaining 4 tablespoons (57g) butter to the pot, swirling the pot until the butter stops foaming.
6. Add the granulated and brown sugars, vanilla, and salt, and stir to combine. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.
7. Add the eggs and egg yolks and whisk until combined.
8. Transfer the butter-egg mixture to the bowl with the flour mixture and stir until just combined.
9. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, and smooth into an even layer. Set aside while you make the toppings.

To Make the Cream Cheese Filling:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes.
2. Add the granulated sugar, vanilla, and salt, and mix on medium speed until well combined.

To Make the Cinnamon Sugar Swirl:

1. In a small saucepan or skillet, melt the brown sugar, butter, and salt together over low heat until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the cinnamon until combined.

To Assemble:

1. Dollop the cream cheese and cinnamon sugar over the top of the brown butter blondie batter base in the prepared pan, alternating between the two.
2. Drag the tip of a butter knife through the batter, creating swirls. (I created swirls parallel to the length and the width of the pan.)
3. Bake for 25 to 29 minutes, or until a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted into the blondies comes out with only a couple of crumbs. (The testing spot should be in a central location that does not have the toppings because they will appear wet when the base is fully baked.)
4. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely.
5. Use the parchment sling to gently lift the blondies from the pan. Cut into bars.

Note: Store blondies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. (We placed a few in the refrigerator and they were also absolutely fabulous chilled.)