Chocolate-Cherry Lattice Squares

Sometimes, I need a dessert.  Quick.  So I look in my pantry and see what I have and what I can come up with.

I needed something the other night and I had this recipe for these peanut butter squares, made with peanut butter chips.  My husband informed me that he doesn't do peanut butter in desserts (who knew?) so I modified the recipe somewhat and this is what I came up with.  I can't give credit for the original recipe where I got my inspiration, though.  It was written in my beloved recipe book, so maybe it was my grandmother's?

Chocolate-Cherry Squares, with whipped cream and with rocky road ice cream
Served in my pretty new (to me) 1930s Depression glass dessert bowls

Chocolate-Cherry Lattice Squares
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 can cherry pie filling (I had this in the pantry, I have no idea WHY)

Heat oven to 375.  Microwave chocolate chips 1 minute, stir and heat an additional 30 seconds at a time until melted and smooth. It took only a minute and a half for these to melt.

Yum, a bowl full of chocolate!

Beat butter and sugar until creamy and fluffy.  Add in eggs and vanilla.   Blend in melted chocolate.  Add dry ingredients.
Divide the dough in half.  Place half in refrigerator.  In a 9x13" pan, press the other half of the dough into the bottom of the pan.  This part is tricky, because the dough is a little sticky and it tries to pull up as you are pressing it down.  Once it is as smooth as you can get it, bake for 10 minutes.

Press the dough into the bottom of the pan.  Don't bake the spatula.

Once cooled, pour the pie filling over the baked layer.  Roll chilled dough between two pieces of waxed paper.  Cut into strips and place over pie filling in a lattice fashion.  Bake for an additional 20-25 minutes.

Just out of the oven, the cherry is all bubbly

We had company over and these got great reviews.  I believe the quote was "We get the greatest treats whenever we come over here!"  And then tonight, after having them again for dessert, my husband told me they were fabulous, just like me.  He's a keeper.

I would make these again, but I think I'd try doing a half batch and using a 9x9" pan.  This made a lot.  I'd also like to try making them with a homemade filling.  I like to do homemade whenever possible, but I was in a time crunch the other night and I had the pie filling available.  

The Search for the Perfect Lemon Squares-Take 1

I still have an overabundance of lemons, which I love, and I'm on the search for the perfect lemon squares. I made a batch the other night, and although they were tasty, they weren't exactly what I was looking for.
Still, I'l share them and my ideas for improvement on the recipe.  I did a search for a unique recipe and found one that called for white chocolate chips here.

I followed the recipe just as she posted, but was not satisfied with the results.  The recipe follows, along with my notes for improvements.

White Chocolate Lemon Bars 

1 1/4 cups flour -divided
1 cup sugar-divided
1/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup white chips
2 eggs slightly beaten
The zest and juice from one lemon
Powdered sugar

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Stir together 1 cup flour and 1/4 cup sugar in medium bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press mixture onto the bottom of 9-inch baking pan.   (I think this crust was way too crumbly and think.  I think a little less flour would have made it work better)                        3. Bake 7 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven; sprinkle with chips.                               4. Stir together eggs, lemon juice, lemon peel, remaining 1/4 cup flour and remaining 3/4 cup sugar in medium bowl; carefully pour over chips and crust.     (This is a 9 inch pan, but the amount of lemon mixture barely covered the crust and the white chocolate chips.  Had I know, I would have used a smaller, 8 inch square pan in order to get a thicker bar.)

                                                                                

5. Bake 10 minutes or until set. Cool in pan on wire rack; sift with powdered sugar when completely cool. (These needed much more than 10 minutes to bake.  I think I left them in for closer to 20.) 

Even though I felt the lemon was too thin and the crust was too thick, they came out pretty tasty.  My husband, who just returned home from several weeks away ate about half of them, but they still weren't what I was looking for.  So I'll keep looking and hopefully find a keeper!