{"id":1532,"date":"2013-02-11T02:02:16","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T09:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.sugarhero.com\/?p=1532"},"modified":"2024-01-15T12:27:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T19:27:29","slug":"red-velvet-bars-with-homemade-sprinkles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sugarhero.com\/red-velvet-bars-with-homemade-sprinkles\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Velvet Bars With Homemade Sprinkles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

These Red Velvet Bars have the great taste of red velvet cake, in a portable cookie bar! The moist red velvet base tastes JUST like cake, and it’s topped with a tangy cream cheese frosting and homemade sprinkles!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, what’d you do this weekend? I didn’t do anything special…went to the gym, did some work, avoided doing chores, had dinner at a friend’s, made my own sprinkles…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know, because making your own sprinkles is a completely sane activity. A good use of valuable weekend down-time. A great way to relax and unwind while doing a serene kitchen task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, making sprinkles may be none of those things, but it is<\/em> highly satisfying in an “I can out-Martha Martha Stewart” sort of way. It also lets you post mysterious photos on instagram<\/a> that look more like dead worms than sprinkles in the making. Plus, homemade sprinkles led to this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 So all in all, I’d say it was well worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First things first, I absolutely cannot take the credit for the sprinkles idea or recipe. I first read about them on Bravetart<\/a>, and if you guys aren’t already reading Stella’s blog, you should. She is legit. She has a recipe for both rainbow sprinkles and chocolate sprinkles on her site, and as soon as I saw them, I was gone. I have a knack for making things harder than they should be, and for looking for trouble in the kitchen, so of course<\/em> I needed to make my own sprinkles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process itself isn’t complicated, but I found it physically difficult to form the sugar strands. I was worried about making the candy paste too thin, and as a result I think it was too thick. Let’s just say there were a lot of contortions, and some serious applied physics as I worked out the best way to leverage my body weight to get the sprinkles to squeeze out of the dang pastry bag. There might have been whimpering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, on the bright side, my extra-thick sprinkles dried in a few hours flat, so…the system works!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, aside from bragging rights, why make your own sprinkles? In the case of these red sprinkles, I admit there’s not much reason to do so. It’s pretty easy to find red jimmies (or even cuter red heart sprinkles<\/a>) in most stores. In general though, I do think it’s a valuable trick to have up your sleeve. You could make custom colors to go with a cake or party decorations. You could add exotic extracts to give your sprinkles a little extra flava. Or you could make them different sizes—some jumbo-sized jimmies could be really cute on a giant layer cake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But enough about the sprinkles, let’s talk about the sprinkle delivery system, aka these Red Velvet Bars<\/span>! They may look like a sheet cake, but in taste and texture they’re actually most similar to brownies or blondies. However, calling red cookies “blondies” seemed wrong, and “reddies” really wasn’t doing it for me…so “bars” it is. They’re a wonderfully chewy bar cookie with a crackly top and a light cocoa-buttermilk flavor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I didn’t just want to add red food coloring to a regular blondie recipe, I really wanted these to taste like real red velvet cake. So in addition to some cocoa powder, I added my secret weapon: powdered buttermilk. Just a little bit added to the batter gave the bars a great depth of flavor. I wouldn’t say they’re overtly tangy, but they do have a more complex, less sweet flavor than bars made without the powder. (I say this from experience, because I actually made this recipe 3 times before I was happy with it.) This wasn’t a freebie and this isn’t a sponsored post…I just think powdered buttermilk is kind of a brilliant product, and it definitely does good things to these bars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The bars are topped with a whipped cream cheese frosting, all the better to reinforce the red velvet cake connection. Since I made 3 batches we’re up to our ears in red velvet bars over here, but we’re definitely not complaining. Bring on the bars and pass the sprinkles!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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💓More Red Velvet Recipes <\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n