Yoda Lime Bars

Lime bars shaped like Yoda! And colored green to match his signature color. I found this recipe for lemon bars and decided to make some green lime bars to utilize the Yoda shaped pancake mold I have from William Sonoma. I had already used my Storm Trooper and Vader mold so, Yoda was due to have a turn. 


These lime bars were truly luscious. Creamy, sweet, yet tart. The oats were a great touch and made the entire treat more homey in flavor. 


The green was a touch too far on the slime green color in the green spectrum, not necessarily a good "Yoda" green. But I still thought it was fun.


The only thing I would say about this recipe is there was MUCH too much flour in my batch. I don't know if I measured wrong or the recipe just has too much powder for my taste but, I would cut it easily in half. Next time I make these, I will be sprinkling flour into the crust until it's an amount I like more. I'd like the crust to be composed of more brown sugar and oats anyway. 

Hopefully you guys have fun with these and enjoy the recipe! It was seriously divine. Happy baking! And may the force be with you.

Lime Bars:

• 1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
• 2 teaspoons grated lime zest
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 1/4 cups flour (As I mentioned before, however. Mine needed far LESS flour so next time I am going to add flour slowly, just until I like the consistency. Do as you like though, Jill's looked great!)
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 375ºF degrees. Coat 8x8 inch pan with non-stick cooking spray. Mix milk, lime zest and lime juice in medium bowl until thickened; set aside. Mix remaining ingredients in medium bowl until crumbly.

Press half of the crumbly mixture in pan; bake about 10 minutes or until set.

Spread lime milk mixture over baked crust. Sprinkle remaining crumbly mixture over the lime milk mixture, press down gently. Bake about 20 minutes or until edges are golden brown and center is set but soft. Cool completely. Cut 4 rows by 4 rows. Or into Yoda if you want to magnify the dessert's awesome.

Salted Storm Trooper Sugar Cookie

The force is very strong with this cooking blog as of late. Or at least the Dark Side. It's unlikely any of the drone-like Storm Troopers were in touch with the Force or their inner powers. Or emotions for that matter.

SO! Anyway. I made storm trooper sugar cookies. They tasted phenomenal and I got rave reviews- and not just because of the shape! The sugary/salty flavors worked in such lovely harmony, even though these cookies were rather large- everyone wanted one and would polish theirs off.

I think the cookies kind of spread too much (you can see freshly cut dough as the first image) but, that's how the recipe called for them to be made and I am unsure of a recipe that tastes better then this one. I rolled mine extremely thin- almost see thru by the last batch- to get them to stay in more clean lines but, still, they became more blended. Which kind of made them look like frogs to me... Anyone else see that?

Just me then? Okay. Here's one platted up with an attemped Death Star. Sadly, the Death Star looks more like a droid from the film- (remember the one with spidery legs and a red lazer that tries to kill them at the start? That one.)- but still! Everything tasted great :)

May the force be with you!

Butter Sugar Cookies:

Ingredients:

-1 cup butter

-1 cup sugar

-1 egg

-2 1/2 cups flour

-2 tbls orange juice

-1 tbls vanilla

-1 teaspoon baking powder

Combine butter, sugar, and egg in a large bowl. Beat until creamy. Add flour, juice, vanilla, and baking powder. Beat until well mixed.

Divide dough into thirds: wrap in plastic food wrap, refrigerate until firm (2 hours or overnight).

Heat oven to 400, roll out dough on lightly floured surface, one third at a time, to desired thickness. Cut with cookie cutters, place onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 6-10 mins or until golden.

To Make them Storm Trooper Salted Awesomeness:

First cut into the shape of storm troopers! Very important. To make them slightly salty to balance out all that sweetness- you want to:

-Sprinkle Dough before baking with a mixture equal parts sugar and salt

IF icing them as I did, I wanted a SUPER sweet icing so, went canned:

-1 can vanilla Icing
-1 splash (1/2 teaspoon or more to taste) coconut flavor

-Sprinkle AGAIN once you apply the icing to make sure the ultra sugary icing is balanced with the saltiness :)

Enjoy!