Butterscotch Bars Recipe

January, February and March - by default these should be the slowest months of the year. After all, we came from the mad holiday rush, we all deserve a break. And so I believe in the next few months, everyday should be all be Sundays. 

Sundays where everyone should sleep in late (or if you're a morning person - okay to get up early, too) and just rest, read a book or spend a day in the park or the beach. And while we're all at it, make some butterscotch bars to munch on all day. These butterscotch bars are a perfect companion to perfect Sundays. And as a treat, I'm going to show you how. 

Butterscotch Bars Recipe
from Food.com
350F/makes 18 bars

What we need:

1/3 cup butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped cashew nuts

 Here's how:
(1) In a small saucepan, mix together the butter and brown sugar until butter has just melted. Let it cool before proceeding to #2.

 (2) Add the egg to the sugar-butter mixture.

 (3) Mix thoroughly until well combined.

(4) Add in flour, baking powder (make sure to sift them together before adding to the batter at this point) and vanilla.

 (5) Fold in 3/4 cup cashew nuts.

 (6) Pout  batter into a lined 8"x8" pan. Sprinkle remaining cashew nuts.

 (7) Bake for 30 minutes.

(8) Make sure to cool completely before cutting it up into bars.

Perfect with coffee or milk. Your choice :) Have a great week ahead everyone!

Pinoy Cupcake: Calamansi Cupcakes Frosted with Cream Cheese, Glazed with Bugnay Wine and Topped with Butterscotch Mini Cupcakes

Third installment of the Pinoy Cupcake Series.



Is it just me, or did you also noticed that the last 6 posts have something to do with chocolate? I think it's time to break the trend. This week I decided to focus on Calamansi - the Pinoy version of lemon.

We use it with bagoong when eating fried fish, with patis when eating liempo, I use it with salt when eating Chowking's Chicharap. Seldom have I heard of it being used to make dessert so I dedicate this week's post to Calamansi.



Why Calamansi? Why not.

Since there is no recipe for calamasi cupcake, I decided to look for a recipe for lemon cupcakes and found one at Martha Stewart's website. I just made made the necessary substitutions.



Calamansi Cupcakes

(adapted from Martha Stewart's Lemon Cupcakes)

Makes 24/325 degrees



3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature

2 tablespoons fresh calamasi juice

1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is until incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk and calamasi juice, and beating until just combined after each.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.



Because of the tangy flavor, it seems a cream cheese frosting would compliment this cupcake. My dilemma is, how can I make it more Pinoy? I decided to glaze it with a simple Bugnay wine (from Baguio) syrup then topped it with Butterscotch (from Bacolod) shaped like little cupcakes.

Bugnay Wine Glaze



½ cup Bugnay wine

6 tbsp sugar



Bring wine and sugar to a boil until mixture thickens.







Happy Cupcaking,

Aikko