2009 Baking Challenge - November

Right before Christmas last year I was complaining that while I like to bake, I never get the chance to.  I would save all kinds of yummy recipes in hopes of having an occasion to bake them.  There was always "just because", but seriously, hubby and I cannot have 4 dozen cookies in the house just for us.  Then someone suggested that I bring things into the office...

Which led to my New Year's resolution a.k.a. The 2009 Baking Challenge.  I was challenging myself to make the back page recipe of MS Living every month for the whole year.  (FYI, this column started the year as "Cookie of the Month", had a one month stint as "Last Course" and is now "Save Room for")

January was Toasted-Pecan Butter Cookies

February was Cinnamon-Swirl Cookies 

March was Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Apricots and White Chocolate 

April was Black-and-White Cheesecake Squares .::.these are the front runner for Best of '09.::.

May was Lemony Angel Food Cake 

June was Strawberry-Shortcake Cookies

July was Vanilla-Raspberry Sundaes with Spoon-Shaped Cookies .::. since these went to work I only made the cookies, and did star cut-outs instead of spoons.::.

August was Plum-and-Port Crostata but I cheated and made No-Bake Chocolate and Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars from August 2008 instead

September was Apple-Honey Challah 

October was Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprints 

And today, we have November - Chocolate-Caramel Cookie Bars .::.which might give April a run for it's money.::.

This is a two part recipe - the cookie and the caramel.

The cookie base is just four ingredients - butter, brown sugar, flour, salt.  Cream, mix and bake for 30 min.

Then the tricky caramel - melting sugar and water; adding cream, butter and salt; combining with chocolate; pour on cookie and chill for 4 hours (I have to wait four hours to taste?!?!)

Sprinkle some Fleur de Sel on top and mmm worth the wait!  All of my taste-testers agree that it tastes more like fudge than caramel.  This was a fairly simple recipe and it didn't require any fancy equipment, so try these!! I think these would make a great Christmas gift cookie, and while they are best kept in the fridge, they are fine at room temperature for a while too.