Operation "Clean Out the Pantry" in full swing

One month from today we will be unpacking boxes at our new house in Freeport.   In the meantime, we are working on cleaning out the pantry, fridge and freezer so that we aren't moving too many boxes of food and we aren't throwing things away before we go.   The trick to this is that we have a lot of items in both pantry and freezer for dessert making which is fun for me but not so healthy to have sitting around on the kitchen counter.   So I've needed to time my dessert making for days when I can distribute the leftovers to various locations soon after.  I'm also trying to continue making the new recipes from my cookie cookbook (see post from 12/2/2010).

The first dessert from this week's round were the Frosted Cherry Nut Bars that I made on Tuesday.   I had some maraschino cherries that I needed to use that were in the fridge (leftover from the Cherry Coconut Bars that I made the previous week.  Since I only had half of the cherries needed I made a half batch and put them in an 8x8 pan instead of a 15x10 pan.    I think that the consensus on these were that the best part was the icing.   I thought that the bars turned out a little dry and too much like cake.   Caleb thought that they would be better without chocolate (I'm not sure he's actually my son!)  

Frosted Cherry Nut Bars (as I made them)
1/4 C butter
1/4 C sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 t vanilla extract
1 C flour
3/4 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/2 C milk
1/2 C pecans
1/2 C quartered maraschino cherries
1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars.   Add egg and vanilla.   Mix in baking powder and salt.    Add flour to creamed mixture alternately with milk.   Stir in nuts, cherries and chocolate chips.   Spread into a greased 8x8 pan and bake at 325 for 15 to 20 minutes.  

Frosting
2 T butter
1 T milk
1/2 t vanilla extract
1 C powdered sugar

In a saucepan melt butter until golden brown.   Add milk and vanilla and remove from heat.   Beat in powdered sugar until smooth and spread over warm bars.   Cool and then cut.

The leftovers here went to the Tennis Center on Wednesday when Caleb had his class.

On Thursday I discovered a half bag of toffee pieces that needed to be used and I still have more chocolate chips to use as well as dried cranberries so Thursday I mixed up a batch of Toffee Cranberry Crisps.   I had previously made this recipe in December of 2008 (with no notes in my book so I'm not sure what I though of them at that time).    I modified this a bit because this recipe called for them to be shaped into rolls and placed in the fridge for a couple of hours and then cut into slices.   I also had some bran that needed to be used but not enough oatmeal so I substituted bran for some of the oatmeal and used whole wheat flour and regular flour in the recipe.    Caleb also doesn't like dried cranberries, so I mixed up the batch and then baked 2 dozen of them and then added the cranberries to the rest.  Here is the recipe I used for these:

Toffee Cranberry Crisps
1 C butter
3/4 C sugar
3/4 C brown sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla extract
1 C flour
1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 1/4 C quick-cooking oats
1/4 C bran
1 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/2 C dried cranberries
1 C miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1 C toffee bits

Cream butter and sguars.   Beat in egg and vanilla.   Add baking soda and salt and then mix in flours.   Stir in oats and bran, chocolate chips and toffee bits.   Shape into balls and bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes.   After you've made a couple dozen cranberry free cookies add the cranberries and bake the rest as you did the first.   (You could also just add 1 C cranberries from the beginning).

After eating a few of these the rest went to work with Mark as he traveled north so they didn't get photographed.

Finally, tonight I found some white chocolate chips and dried apricots so I finished these off (less to pack up!!) and made Apricot Almond Blondies, but since I substituted pecans for the almonds (because that was what was in the freezer) I guess I need to just change the name to Apricot Blondies!

Apricot Blondies
1/2 C margarine, softened
1/2 C brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 t vanilla extract
1 C flour
1/3 C whole wheat flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 C vanilla chips
1/2 C pecans
1/2 C chopped dried apricots

Cream butter and sguar.   Beat in egg and vanilla.    Add baking soda and salt.   Mix in flours.    Stir in vanilla chips, pecans and chopped dried apricots.   Bake at 350 for 7 to 9 minutes and remove to wire racks to cool. 

Reviews from here - I am a big fan of cookies with vanilla chips in them, but the apricots are a little too chewy for me to be a big fan.   Mark likes them because they are bite-sized (so he says) but Caleb hasn't tried them yet.

So far these don't have a home besides my kitchen counter, but I'm sure they'll be accompanying us to our football watching with friends tomorrow!

There are still plenty of dessert baking items in my pantry and freezer and am looking for ways to use more chocolate chips, pecans, cranberries, butter, margarine, sugar, flour and other random pantry and freezer items.   Stay tuned ....