Adventures in Teenage Baking: Maple-y Yummy Bars of Goodness

I know, I know, I missed a week. My best friend took me to a surprise concert last Sunday, where I saw my future husband, Hunter Hayes.

Anyway, concert was awesome, but I missed a week. I have good news, though!!

I DIDN'T MESS THIS ONE UP!!!!!

I made this maple bar things the right way without somehow messing it up along the way!!! GO ME!

As I'm writing this the maple bars are cooling because I am irresponsible and busy (lazy). Usually I have about four or five recipes I've taken pictures of and done on hand to write my blog every week, but lately I've been super busy with school (Pinterest), and my friends (my dogs) have been wanting to hang out with me a bunch lately.

So again, I apologize.

ON WITH THE FESTIVITIES.

What you need for deliciousness;

FOR THE BREAD STUFF

1 1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup shortening

2 tbsp graulated sugar

2 tsps salt

1/4 cup lukewarm water

2 (1/4) envelopes yeast

2 eggs

4 cups flour

as much cinnamon as your heart desires

FOR THE CREAMY STUFF THAT GOES ON TOP OF THE BREAD STUFF

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

Tentatively 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 tsps syrup if you have it (I didn't, it didn't really matter)

So, first thing we're going to work on is the bread. What you're going to do is get a suacepan and pour the milk into it. "Scald" the milk (if you're in on the baking lingo, which I'm not, you'll know what that means), and I'm supposing tis is fancy speak for get the milk hot. Really hot. I figured it was ready when this started happening;

So if you stick your spoon in it and that happens, you know it's ready.

After you "scald" the milk, add the shortening, 3 tbsp granulated sugar, and salt. Mix it together in the saucepan and then set it aside until it's lukewarm.

Now take your yeast and lukewarm water and mix those together in a different bowl. Make sure the water is not hot or else it will kill the yeast, and then you're left with a mess. Add 1 tbsp of granulated sugar to the yeast water and mix t until well combined. Then set it aside for five minutes or so.

While that's happening mix the flour and cinnamon together in a big bowl. I used a lot of cinnamon partly because I like cinnamon and partly because the cinnamon container fell out of my hand and into the bowl. But the recipe called for 2 tsps.

After mixing the cinnamon and flour together add two beaten eggs to the yeast and water.

Once the milk/shortening/sugar/salt stuff is cool mix it with the yeast/water/egg stuff until it's well combined. Then you can add the flour/cinnamon slowly.

While mixing the flour stuff with everything else you may find that a whisk will not work anymore. This is when you must bring in some elbow grease.

START KNEADING THAT PUPPY WITH YOUR HANDS.

(Just kidding, no puppies were harmed in the making of these maple bars.)

That will take a while. A little tip I shall share with you is to break it into smaller junks and knead it. Then when all of the smaller junks are knead you can knead them together.

If it seems too sticky to knead, add some more flour. But you still want it to be a little bit sticky.

Once you have kneaded all of the smaller junks together, knead it for 3-5 minutes, then spray a bowl with non-stick spray and put the now-kneaded dough in the bowl. Let it sit for an hour on the counter.

Wow. I said the word 'knead' a lot in that section.

*1 hour later*

Now roll the dough out on the counter with a rolling pin until it's about one inch thick. Then cut it (I suggest with a pizza cutter) into sections. It doesn't really matter how big it what shape the chunks are. I just cut mine into squares.

Spray a cookie sheet or two with non-stick spray and put your chunks onto it. Let them sit on the cookie sheet for half an hour, as you make the frosting stuff that goes on top.

FROSTING STUFF;

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees in the meantime.

In a suace pan, mix the butter, milk, and brown sugar and bring to a boil. Once it's at a boil, turn it down to a simmer and simmer it for 3 minutes. Then turn your stove off and let it stand for 15 minutes.

After that you can add the powdered sugar and maple syrup. I might have barely gotten a cup of powdered sugar in there, because I ran out, so if you don't want to add the 1/2 cup that was left you don't have to.

The recipe said you needed something called "mapeline", but I didn't even know that was a thing. I was just going to use syrup, until I saw that we didn't have any. Whatevs. I didn't see a difference.

Once the dough has sat for 30 minutes and your oven is preheated and ready, put the bars in for 7-8 minutes. Once they're done, let them cool for a few minutes and put the frosting on them.

They should look as awesome as this.