coffee in a cake... or something.

we unpacked more cookbooks today. i feel like i'm finding old friends in a town i've never been to. okay, so that's pretty much our life right now. except i've been here before. but these cookbook discoveries are slowly filling my freezer. and excuse the odd light. i pretty much only bake after 10 pm. c'est la vie.

you need to make this right now, because life is too short to not have coffee in your cake.

adapted from a King Arthur Flour recipe.

Cafe Au Lait Bars

3 large eggs
1 1/2C sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 sticks (12 Tblspoons - oh yeah. lots of buttah.) unsalted butter, melted
2C all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4C instant coffee crystals OR 3 Tblspoons instant espresso powder
1/4 cup heavy cream (next batch, i'm trying fat free half n half. it seems to sub well for me.)

Pre-heat your oven to 325ºF and grease a 9 x 13 inch pan.

In a mixing bowl, beat the three eggs until thick and light. Add the sugar, and beat until stiff and glossy... which for me just looked more thick, lightly colored, and pudding textured. i never did get stiff out of these. add the vanilla and melted butter until the batter is thick. Then add the flour and salt, mixing well. Remove 1 1/2 cups of the batter and set aside.

In a small bowl, mix coffee or espresso powder and cream together and then add to the remaining batter. Mix well, and then pour this batter into the 9 x 13 inch pan, spreading out the batter with a knife, or an offset spatula covering entire bottom of pan. i felt really officially "chef-y" with my spatula.

Then take the batter you set aside and place that on top of the coffee-laced batter. use your spatula again, since this is a bit thicker than the coffee batter.

Use a knife to draw pretty swirls. or not so pretty swirls. whichever.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. i think my oven bakes cool, because this took me 35. you want the edges pulling a fraction of an inch away, and the center to not jiggle.

Remove from oven and allow to cool before cutting. or mostly cool.

Proceed to drink coffee, and eat these bars. and post the recipe at 3 in the morning because you might have eaten too many.