"Sakes Alives" Chocolate Fudge Bars

"Sakes Alive" Chocolate Fudge Bars:

courtesy of J.M. Smucker Company

Crisco Butter Flavor No-Stick Cooking Spray

2 cups firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 large egg

2 (7.4 oz) pkgs. Martha White Chocolate Chip Muffin Mix

1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats

1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 (12 oz.) package semi-sweet chocolate chips (2 cups)

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 13x9 inch pan with no-stick cooking spray. Beat brown sugar and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and egg.

Stir in muffin mix and oats. Reserve one cup of mixture. Pat remaining mixture into prepared pan.

Combine sweetened condensed milk and chocolate chips over low heat until chocolate is melted, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in walnuts. Spread over muffin mixture to edge of pan. Drop reserved oat mixture by teaspoonfuls over chocolate mixture.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely on wire rack.

Sugar Free Apple Pie

My mother in law is a diabetic and I'm always looking for some sort of dessert to make for her. I normally get her a sugar free apple pie from Wal-Mart, but I figured why not make one from scratch. This wasn't hard and she really likes it!

No Sugar Apple Pie:

Adapted from Allrecipes

2 (9 inch) pie shell - recipe below

3 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

1 (12 fl oz) can unsweetened apple juice concentrate, thawed

6 cups sliced green apples (I used granny smith)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch, cinnamon and 1/3 cup of the apple juice concentrate. Set aside.

In a large saucepan, simmer apples with remaining apple juice concentrate until apples are tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in cornstarch mixture and continue to simmer until thickened. Remove from heat. - I did add about 3 packets of Equal to sweeten it a bit

Spoon apple mixture into pastry-lined pie plate. Cover with top crust. Seal and flute edges. Cut steam vents in top.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

Basic Flaky Pie Crust: (makes 1 crust - double ingredients for double crust)

From Allrecipes

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup shortening, chilled

3 Tbsp. ice water

Whisk the flour and salt together in a medium sized bowl. With a pastry blender, cut in the cold shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Drizzle 2 to 3 Tbsp. ice water over flour. Toss mixture with a fork to moisten, adding more water a few drops at a time until the dough comes together.

Gently gather dough particles together to form a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes before rolling.

Roll out dough and put in pie plate.

Baker's One Bowl Brownies

I had some leftover unsweetened chocolate in my cupboard that I wanted to use up. This recipe came from the side of the carton of the Baker's chocolate. They came out so fudgy and rich.

4 squares Baker's Unsweetened Baking Chocolate

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) of butter or margarine (I used butter)

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup flour

1 cup coarsely chopped Planters pecans (I omitted)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 13x9 baking pan with foil; with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Grease foil. (I used cooking spray)

Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 minutes or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is melted. Stir in sugar, eggs and vanilla. Add flour and nuts; mix well. Spread into prepared pan.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs. (Do not overbake.) Cool in pan on wire rack. Remove brownies from pan; using foil handles. Cut into squares. Store in tightly covered container.