Last Wednesday, after we arrived at the in-laws' home, I decided to cook something the we, the hosts and the other guests could snack on. It seemed a perfect opportunity to try out a recipe I'd been wanting to make for a few weeks.
The most recent issue of Cook's Country
(January 2011) featured the results of their annual Christmas Cookie Contest. The year's winning recipe and six finalists were printed in the new issue, and one of the finalists, Blackberry Bliss Bars, looked simply wonderful. Coconut, chocolate and white chocolate chips, toffee, cinnamon, oats and blackberry jam... even though it was only a finalist in the contest, the recipe sounded like a winner to me! I'm happy to say that the recipe more than lived up to expectations. |
| Some of the ingredients for Blackberry Bliss Bars |
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| The crust, fresh out of the oven. |
I started by mixing flour, granulated and brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, oats and coconut to make the crust, then baked the crust for a bit. After the crust cooled for a bit, I first spread a layer of blackberry jam over the crust, then topped it with walnuts, chocolate, white chocolate and toffee chips and a bit of the crust mixture.
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| Ready to go back into the oven |
Then it was back to the oven. I knew I had a winner when I pulled the bars out of the oven... the melted chocolate, warm toffee, toasted nuts and coconut and hot blackberry jam mingled into a mouthwatering melange of scents, and the blackberry jam bubbling up through the top layer looked downright delicious. The bars had to cool for awhile before they could be eaten, and I honestly had a bit of difficulty going to bed without sampling them.
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| Fresh from the oven |
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| Close-up view of bubbling blackberry deliciousness! |
The next morning, I removed the bars from the pan and sliced them. The flavor... well, "bliss" is a pretty apt description for these delicious treats. They were, unsurprisingly, quite popular on Thanksgiving Day and the next, and there were only a couple left to take back home with us on Saturday.
This recipe is definitely a keeper, and I plan to make up another batch really soon.
I love Cook's Country magazine and made these bars yesterday, and thought that they were good. For some reason, they weren't over the top good (to me or my husband - I think it's a thing I have with jam in desserts), but my friend raved about them and thought they were in my "top 5 ever" desserts. Seeing the expression on her face when she bit into one of these bars was awesome! There are some really talented home bakers that submit christmas cookie contest recipes and I've enjoyed making so many of them from my Cook's Country magazines!
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting! We think that Cook's Country is one of the best Cook's publications.
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