Is it fair to say that everyone has a hard time coming back from vacation?  I know I always do.  Back in the days when I had a desk job, I would feel an almost overwhelming depression when I was finally back in my house and realizing I had to go to work the next day.

Now that my life is very different, I don’t feel that same despair but it certainly is hard to get back into the regular routine.  This time around it’s especially hard because my husband is going to basically be gone for the next three weeks, essentially making me a single parent.  When Randy is not here, I don’t put that much effort into cooking.  I know some people delight in cooking for one, but I am not one of those people.  In some ways I welcome the break.  In other ways I miss cooking.

I am lucky to have my family living close by and when Randy is out of town, I always invite my parents and my brother Michael over for dinner.  I invite them most weeks anyway, but it’s especially nice to have them here when I’m flying solo.  I welcome the company but I also welcome the chance to cook.  They are enthusiastic eaters of my food.

Since my brother is a cookie monster of the highest order, I can’t have them here without some kind of baked good to send him home with.  I usually make something I’m certain he will like, but since he really loves anything in bar or cookie form, this time I decided to cater to my parents.  Both my mom and dad love coconut.  I have a recipe from Food and Wine for a sophisticated take on a Mounds bar that I have been meaning to make.  The problem is, it’s one of those recipes that takes up the entire page of the magazine.  There are three elements to the bar, each one fairly time consuming and complicated.  Not quite the right thing to tackle this week.

Instead I offer you this fairly simple Coconut Bar from Vegetarian Classics.  It’s not perfect but it’s easy.  If you are a coconut fan, this is a great way to satisfy a craving.

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Coconut Bars
Adapted from Vegetarian Classics
Makes 16 bars

The original recipe calls for only 1/2 cup of chocolate chips but I used a full cup.  Because I am a chocolate person, I think it could have used even more but I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

The Crust:
8 tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt

The Topping:
6 oz. Neufchatel (light cream cheese), softened
3 tbsp. butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 1/2 tbsp. flour
3 cups (about 12 ounces) sweetened coconut
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1.  Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Lightly butter a 9×13 baking pan.

2.  In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until blended.  Beat in the egg and vanilla until smooth and creamy.  Sprinkle in the flour and salt, and beat just until combined.  Scrape the batter into the prepared dish and use a rubber spatula to spread it evenly on the bottom.  It will be very thin.  Bake 15 minutes.

3.  Meanwhile, make the topping using the same bowl and beaters (you don’t have to wash them.)  Beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Add the sugar, egg, and almond extract, and beat until combined.  Stir in the coconut.

4.  When the crust is done, spoon the batter into it.  Carefully spread it around to cover the crust evenly.  Bake 18-20 minutes, or just until the top off the batter begins to get a tiny bit of color.  Place on a wire rack to cool.

5.  While the bars are still hot, fill a medium-size saucepan halfway with water, bring to a boil, and remove the pan from the heat.  Place the chocolate chips in a small Ziploc bag and tilt the bag so the chocolate chips collect in one corner.  Lower the bag into the water, keeping the chips in the corner, and let them melt, about 2 minutes.  Squeeze the chips occasionally to see if they are melted.  Remove the bag from the water.  Keeping the bag tilted, snip off a very tiny piece of the corner.  Squirt the chocolate all over the coconut surface in an abstract pattern.  When everything is completely cooled, cut into bars.

Sometimes old recipes just pop into my head.  I’ve been cooking and baking a long time and many of the recipes I used in the beginning of my journey have fallen by the wayside.  Things that once seemed complicated that are now too easy, or things that just didn’t turn out at all.

I would guess the first time I made these brownies was about 12 years ago.  My friends tease me that I have an amazing memory for dates and I have to say that it’s true.  I just remember what was going on in my life and can attach the year and time of year to it.  In this case, I was married to my first husband (we split in 1999) and we were heading off for a camping trip with some friends.  If  I was camping in the Seattle area, then it must have been July or August and I assume that it was 1997 because in the summer of 1996 we had just gotten married, and in the summer of 1998, things were already in a serious downward spiral.  So there you go, 12 years ago.  See how my brain works?

Anyway, I think the brownies stuck out in my mind because a) they were really special (who doesn’t love biting into a brownie and finding a Reese’s peanut butter cup in there?) and b) things were already not feeling right in my marriage.  I went with it for a while and then decided not to and we split.  If I make it sound like it all was neat and tidy, please know that it was not.  It was messy and heartbreaking but it is the 4th best thing that I have done in my adult life – the first being marrying Randy, the second being having my first son, and the third being having my second son.  Got that?

Since that time 12 years ago, I have made these brownies several times, but not recently.  This was one of those recipes that just fell by the wayside as I got seduced by other bars involving chocolate.  But I thought of them the other day when I got word that a good friend of mine had a baby girl.

When both my boys were in their first few months of infancy, I absolutely had to have chocolate.  Given my professed love for chocolate, this may not seem strange, but it wasn’t something I wanted.  It was something I needed.  Brownies were the perfect thing for me because they packed a lot of chocolate into each bite and they could be held in my hand – something a nursing mother can appreciate.  I decided to make these for my friend because she shares the need for chocolate when caring for a newborn.  She also has two other little ones who I think will appreciate the Reese’s peanut butter cups.

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Fudgy Peanut Butter Cup Brownies
Adapted from the Godiva web site (long ago)
Makes 16-24 brownies

I was unable to find mini-Reese’s this time, so I just cut 4 full size ones into quarters.  I cut my brownies larger and got 16 but you could cut them very small and get 24.

12 tbsp. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
12 oz. semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
6 large eggs, at room temperature
1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
24 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups (such as Reese’s)

1.  Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.  Line a 13-by-9 inch baking pan with aluminum foil so that the foil extends 2 inches beyond the long sides of the pan.

2.  Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler, or in a heatproof bowl set over simmering water (be sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water.)  Cool until tepid.

3.  In a medium bowl, using a wire whisk, beat the eggs until foamy.  (DT:  I used my mixer with the whisk attachment for this part.)  Add the sugar and beat until blended.  Add the cooled chocolate mixture and mix until smooth.  Stir in the vanilla.  Stir in the flour and salt until well combined.

4.  Scrape half the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.  Arrange the peanut butter cups evenly over the batter, in four rows of six cups each.  Press down lightly on cups.  Pour the remaining batter into the pan and carefully spread level over the peanut butter cups.  Bake the brownies for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in to the center comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it.

5.  Cool the brownies completely in the pan set on a wire rack.  Using the two ends of the foil as handles, lift the brownies out of the pan.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least four hour or overnight.

To tell you the truth, I’m not sure why these are called Mexican Brownies.  As I’m sure we all know, Cinco de Mayo is coming up tomorrow which also happens to be my client day.  I am making (what else?) Mexican food and I wanted the “treat” to fit in with the theme.  A quick search on Epicurious brought me here.

I know Mexican chocolate has cinnamon in it and this brownie batter calls for a whopping tablespoon of the stuff.  I don’t know what the topping contributes to making them Mexican.  I remember reading that Latin America likes it’s desserts really sweet (how about that for a gross generalization?), and if that is true, these should please a Latin American palate.  They are very sweet.  Kind of like brown sugar fudge on top of a cinnamon-y brownie.

You could, of course, leave off the topping all together and have a very tasty (and incredibly easy) bar.  I like sweet things but this was a little much for me.  I’ll let Randy and the boys eat these and I will turn my attention to the slices of 6 layer chocolate cake that my neighbor brought over.

I made a few changes here.  After reading some of the comments following the recipe, I bumped up the amount of cinnamon from 1 tablespoon to 1 1/2.  I also added semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate because I could sense these were going to be super sweet as it was.  Also, I opted to leave the sliced almond topping out, because I don’t think chocolate and nuts belong together.

Mexican Brownies
Adapted from Bon Appétit
Makes 16

For brownies
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (packed) golden brown sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (about 6 ounces)

For brown sugar topping
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
3/4 tbsp. vanilla extract

Make brownies:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line 8-inch square baking pan with foil, extending foil over sides.  Stir unsweetened chocolate and butter in heavy large saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth.  Cool 5 minutes.  Whisk in sugar, cinnamon, and salt.  Whisk in eggs, 1 at a time, then vanilla.  Continue to whisk until batter is smooth, about 2 minutes.  Add flour and whisk just until blended.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Pour batter into prepared pan, smoothing surface.  Bake until tester inserted into center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 30 minutes.  Cool completely in pan on rack.

Make topping:

Whisk suar, cream and butter in heavy small saucepan over low heat until mixture is smooth and comes to boil.  Remove from heat; mix in vanilla.  Cool 10 minutes.  Whisk and then allow to come to a thick enough texture to spread, whisking occasionally.  Spread over brownie.  Let stand until topping sets, about 1 hour.  (Can be made 1 day ahead.  Cover and refrigerate.)

Using foil as aid, lift brownie from pan.  Cut brownie into 16 squares.  Serve cold or at room temperature.