Using Your Food Storage: Chocolate Caramel Graham Crackers

Looking for a quick and easy treat for your sweetie this Valentine's Day? Look no further!

These Chocolate Caramel Graham Crackers taste like buttery chocolate-covered toffee and best of all, I didn't have to go to the store to be able to make them.  All the ingredients are ones I have as part of my three month and/or long term food storage. Try it - I promise you'll love it! 

If you can stop after only eating two pieces, you have far more self-control than I do! 

Chocolate Caramel Graham Crackers - Slightly adapted from a recipe published in the January 2003  Gourmet magazine

12 graham crackers (If you don't have graham crackers in your food storage, you could even make your own!)

1-1/2 sticks of butter

1/2 c. packed light brown sugar

1/8 t. salt (If you use salted butter, feel free to skip this.) 

1-1/2 c. semisweet chocolate chips

1 c. chopped pecans

Preheat your oven to 375. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil, leaving a 2" overhang it each end. Line the bottom of the pan with the graham crackers. 

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium low heat. Add brown sugar (and salt, if using) and cook, whisking constantly, until the butter and sugar are smooth and well combined. The mixture be separated at first, but a minute of whisking over heat will bring it together. Pour over crackers, spreading evenly. Bake until golden brown and bubbling, about 10 minutes. 

Scatter chocolate chips evenly over crackers and bake in oven until chocolate is soft, about 1 minute. Remove pan from oven and gently spread chocolate. Sprinkle nuts over chocolate and cool in pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Then pop the pan in your freezer for 15 minutes. 

Lift the crackers from the pan by grasping both ends of foil. Peel foil from crackers and break them up into chunks. Devour!

Supposedly these crackers will keep, chilled and layered between waxed paper in an airtight container, for two weeks. I wouldn't know since they've never lasted that long at my house!

Fresh from the Garden: Raspberry Bars

We grow the Heritage variety of red raspberries. Heritage produces two crops of berries, one in June and one in September. If you cut the canes back in late fall/winter, however, it will produce one, larger crop in the fall. That is our preferred method of management which means that we are still in the midst of our raspberry harvest.

I've used a lot of our raspberries to make the following recipe for raspberry bars. Beware! The recipe makes a large amount of these very rich, completely irresistible bars. There's something about that tang you get from the fresh raspberries that makes these bars addictive. Don't say I didn't warn you if you find your pants a little snug the day after you make these!

Raspberry bars

Raspberry Bars (slightly adapted from this recipe on allrecipes.com)

1-1/2 c. sugar
1 t. baking powder
3 c. all-purpose flour
1 pinch cinnamon
1 pinch salt
1/2 c. coconut oil (You can substitute shortening for this, if you wish.)
1/2 c. shortening
1 egg
4 c. fresh raspberries
3 t. cornstarch

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 13x9 inch pan.

Combine 1 cup of the sugar, the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Cut in the coconut oil and shortening and then blend in the egg. Pat half of the dough into the prepared pan.

Combine the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, the cornstarch and berries. Place mixture over dough in pan. Crumble the remaining dough over the tops of the berries.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes or until the top is slightly brown.              

Fresh From the Garden: Blackberry Cobbler

I apologize for the formatting issues you may see on this and other recent posts. I'm having issues with Blogger working, period, much less formatting correctly.
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I'm starting a new category of posts - Fresh From the Garden. These posts will feature recipes that are based on seasonal garden produce. Many of them will also be food storage-friendly.





Blackberries! We're getting inundated and I love it!


Now that I've canned 24 half-pints of blackberry jam*, I've started freezing pint containers of blackberries for cobblers. Here is a quick and easy cobbler recipe that my family really enjoys.




Fresh out of the oven and ready to devour



Blackberry Cobbler
Slightly adapted from this Betty Crocker recipe

2 1/2 cups blackberries
1 c. sugar
1 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 c. milk
A dash of vanilla extract
A stick of butter, melted


In a medium bowl, stir together blackberries and sugar. Let stand about 30 minutes or until fruit syrup forms. My firm, fresh berries needed a little help releasing their juice, so I had to gently press a few of them to get the syrup going. If you are using frozen, thawed berries, you may not need to do that. Preheat oven to 375°F.

In another medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt, milk, and vanilla. Stir in melted butter until blended. Spread in ungreased 8-inch square pan. Spoon blackberry mixture over batter.


Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until dough rises and is golden.



*If you want to track my progress, check out the "Harvest 2011" box in my sidebar. I'm keeping a tally of what I add to my pantry or freezer from our garden.