Chocolate Chip Cajeta Pretzel Bars

Chocolate Chip Cookies solitas ( all alone) are unquestionably my absolute favorite dessert.....ever. If I'm at a party with one of those super cool, absolutely delicious buffet style dessert tables, my eyes always scan the length of it looking for a soft and chewy brown sugar chocolate chip studded yumminess.

Somehow my feelings about chocolate chip cookies have advanced into a new kind of  amor (love) just by adding two simple ingredients....... Salted Pretzels and Cajeta. Now you may remember a few weeks back I made my own homemade  Mexican Cajeta, if you've never seen it you can find the recipe here. 

So believe it or not as enticing as it was, I still had a little bit of cajeta left  over. I couldn't bare to see it go to waste so I came up with a quick recipe to put it to good use, the result was a rich bar of, sweetness with a creamy gooeyness in the middle, spiked with a salty crunch.

Ummm and did I say all of this was stuffed in the middle of a chocolate chip cookie. No mas palabras necesario ( no more words needed) just a boca ( mouth )full of happiness!

This time I kept it super easy and used my most favorite ready made cookie dough in all the land!  This cookie dough tastes so good, it has been known to cause epic arguments in my casa about who ate the last batch....true story!


If you have a go to chocolate chip cookie recipe feel free to use it, if not here is one that sounded pretty good to me!

Ingredients

1 batch of chocolate chip cookie dough

1 cup of crushed salted pretzels

1 jar of Mexican Cajeta, dulce de leche or caramel sauce


Recipe

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees , grease brownie bar pan and set aside ( you can see a picture here)

2. Place a spoonful of cookie dough in the bottom in the bottom of your brownie pan.

3. Next sprinkle a handful of crushed pretzels, then a spoonful of cajeta, another spoonful of cookie dough, spoonful of cajeta and a final handful of crushed pretzels.

4. Bake for 12- 15 minutes, remove from the oven right before it's golden brown

5. Cool completely, than carefully remove from brownie bar pan, I like to lay down a piece of wax paper and turn my pan upside down and give a little tap on each cavity to assure easy removal from the pan.

Dulce Cajeta

So another week has gone by.....too fast if you ask me. You know what they say " Time flies when your having fun" but time seems to go in quadruple speed during the summer, how much more fun can you have if you have approx 70 full care free days to sleep as late as you want go wherever you want to go and stay there as long as you please.

Especially if you have a super sweet job like a school teacher and time is not of the essence and it come with a paycheck as well!  The end of the week however also signals some important things like..... time for a new episode of " New Jersey Housewives" yes, this is my guilty pleasure. I can't wait for tonight.....the RV trip is almost over and things are heating up between The Manzos and The Guidices and it's gonna be good!

Okay I got a little distracted anyway, aside from reality trash television it's also the day I like to submit the recipe for my weekly I Heart Cooking Clubs theme. 

I flipped through my Rick Bayless cookbook and decided since it was potluck  this week I would make a recipe I'd been wanting to try for a while.  Cajeta is what I choose. it is a Mexican confection that is a thickened caramelized syrup made of goat's milk. It is similar to America caramel but more like the Latin love of my life " Dulce de Leche", but I think that Cajeta has a more distinct, sweeter taste and darker color than dulce de leche.

Although I did enjoy the taste Yo Amo ( I love) dulce leche just a little bit more.......ok a whole lot more!!! Don't get me wrong though Cajeta is still delicious, you should give it a try, I did.

Earlier in the day I found this bread which the muchacho behind the counter told me was like a Mexican Cornbread and figured it would be the perfect match for my Cajeta.

In the manana I  tested the two together and it was pure deliciousness, I'm still not even sure what the " Mexican Cornbread" really is or what it's actual name is, but the flavor was so sabroso combined with the Cajeta. I just have to find out......stay tuned! ♥

Adapted from Rick Bayless- Frontera Recipes

Cajeta

Goat's Milk Caramel Sauce

Makes about 3 cups

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Ingredients

2 quarts goat's milk or a combination of goat’s milk and cow’s milk—or even with all cow’s milk (use whole milk in all cases)
2 cups sugar
A 2-inch piece of cinnamon stick, preferably Mexican canela
1/2 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in 1 tablespoon water

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Directions

1. Simmer the cajeta. In a medium-large (6-quart) pot (preferably a Dutch oven or Mexican copper cazo), combine the milk, sugar and cinnamon stick and set over medium heat. Stir regularly until the milk comes to a simmer (all the sugar should have dissolved by this point). Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the dissolved baking soda—it’ll foam up if the goat’s milk is acidic. When the bubbles subside, return the pot to the heat.
Adjust the heat to maintain the mixture at a brisk simmer (too high and the mixture will boil over; too low and the cooking time will seem interminable). Cook, stirring regularly, until the mixture turns pale golden, more or less one hour.

Now, begin stirring frequently as the mixture colors to caramel-brown and thickens to the consistency of maple syrup (you’ll notice the bubbles becoming larger and glassier). Stir regularly so nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot. Test a couple of drops on a cold plate: When cool, the cajeta should be the consistency of a medium-thick caramel sauce. If the cooled cajeta is thicker (almost like caramel candy), stir in a tablespoon or so of water and remove from the heat; if too runny, keep cooking.

2. Finish the cajeta. Pour the cajeta through a fine-mesh strainer set over a bowl or a wide-mouth storage jar. When cool, cover and refrigerate until you’re ready to serve. Warming the cajeta before serving (a microwave oven is efficient here) makes it extra delicious.

Working Ahead: Cajeta keeps for a month or more in the refrigerator. Keep it tightly covered to keep it from absorbing other flavors.