Granola Bars

I'm here, as promised, to update you on the myriad things I've baked and cooked recently. This morning I pushed my camera's memory card into the slot on my computer and thought "oh crap, what was I thinking not posting these things as I did them. Work be damned, I shouldhave just updated the blog instead!!" Now, I have four recipes to post. Maybe that doesn't sound like that much but look at my previous posts! They're long and detailed. And even as I type this I'm trying to figure out how to do it... all in one post or a post for each one. I think the latter is probably a better idea. So here we go...

I'm going to start with granola bars. Oh. My. These bars make me wonder why mass-produced granola bars even exist, or why anyone has ever bought them, or thought they were healthy. These are so simple and customisable, I really have no reason to ever buy granola bars again.

This process started with a lovely trip to Bulk Barn.


This places rocks (my gypsy soul?). It's easy to spend a lot of money though. Especially when you're like me and you buy things like dried pears, instead of the normal dried fruit... whatever.

I got this recipe from Kitchen Wench, and shock and awe, I basically followed it. Because the recipe is in weights (which I'm very much not used to, being a silly North American and all), I had to pull out my mum's trusty kitchen scale.


I actually shouldn't comment on its trustworthiness... I think I've used it about three times. It's because I'm a silly North American and hardly any recipes even mention the weights of ingredients.

For these bars, I decied to use dried cranberries, golden raisins (much better than red), and dried pears.


I took a knife to them and chopped them up to about the size of sunflower seeds.

I kind of splurged and used hazelnuts for these bars... I also used roasted (unsalted) peanuts, and sunflower seeds.


I had to chop up the peanuts and hazelnuts, as well.

Then, I threw the fruits and nuts into a big bowl with some organic muesli. It was supposed to be rolled oats, but I saw the muesli at Bulk Barn and just bought it... I'm impulsive like that. I also threw in some coconut.


This on its own would be delicious for breakfast.

To hold all this together, I had to used a few sticky ingredients, including honey (and some Nutella, because I didn't have enough honey), peanut butter, oil and brown sugar.




I let that all melt and get gooey in a pot.

While it cooled a little bit, I threw some flour into the dry ingredients and mixed it all up so everything was coated.


And then I dug a little hole into it and poured in the wet ingredients.


Mixing it all together was fun... sticky and gooey.


To bake the bars, I lined a pan with parchment paper, and then pressed the granola mixture into the pan.


It was amazing how much these would compact.

The pan went into the oven for about 35 minutes, and then came out and cooled for about 20 minutes before I cut them up. I couldn't let them cool completely, or they would have just shattered when I put the knife anywhere near them. It was easy to remove from the pan, too, with the parchment paper. I cut the mass that would soon be bars in half, lengthwise, first, and then cut each half into 10 3/4" width bars. That's right... 20 bars from one recipe... that's right, enough for two people for two work/school weeks. Could this recipe be any better?!

And look how delicious they look!




Mmm. These really were great. Healthy and chewy and easy to take to work, or pick up for a quick snack before my run. Next time, I would use a bit more wet ingredients, because the bars did tend to break up a bit. I also wouldn't bake them as long. After 35 minutes in the oven, these were a bit more roasted than I would like. But they really were worth making and I will be making them again as soon as I can get out to Bulk Barn!

Recipe

Granola Bars

320g rolled oats
1/3cup plain flour
100mL vegetable oil
200g mild honey (try 100g honey and 100g golden syrup for a deeper flavour)
50g brown sugar
2-3 tbsp smooth peanut butter (or Nutella)
40g shredded, unsweetened coconut
150-200g of assorted nuts and seeds
150-200g assorted dried fruit

×××

Preheat oven to 325°F, and line an 35×25cm (or close) baking pan (Pyrex or a metal cake pan both work) with parchment paper.
Roughly chop the nuts and larger pieces of dried fruit into smaller pieces (about the same size as a sunflower seed). Then place the chopped nuts and fruit into a bowl with the oats, coconut and flour and stir together with a wooden spoon until well combined. Slightly heat the honey in a pot on the stove, then add the sugar, peanut butter and oil and whisk together thoroughly. Pour together the wet and dry mixture and mix to combine. If the mixture does not seem to stick together well enough, add more honey. Dump the mixture into your prepared pan. Wet your hands with some cold water, and using both the wooden spoon and your hands, pack the mixture down flat, making sure to get it into the corners.
Bake for 25-35 minutes if you prefer a softer, chewier bar, and up to 50-60 minutes if you prefer a crunchier one (the longer baking time will roast the ingredients quite a bit). During the baking process, use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to press down on the mixture every 10-15 minutes.
Allow to cool for 15-20 minutes after baking, then carefully remove from the pan. Using a sharp knife, cut into bars. These can be stored in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 2 weeks. Keep a sheet of parchment paper between each layer of bars.

Guten Appetit! Continue reading...

Orange Berry Muffins

My computer crashed and I lost this once already, so I'm annoyed, but the show must go on and you must see this recipe for muffins.
Even if my previous write up was far cleverer than this one will be.

Anyway, today is Canada Day! Yayyy, Happy Canada Day! Woo 141 years as a country. You go, second largest land mass in the world!
The thing is, I didn't get a long weekend, thanks to McMaster (and in part, the government) deciding we should work on Monday and have real Canada Day off. At first I was pretty annoyed about this whole thing, but all was forgiven when I stepped into the kitchen early this afternoon. And then, a series of thoughts went through my head: 1) Ooh, I'll try my hand at Brötchen again, with one of the three recipes I've been hoarding; 2) Man, this calls for one whole pound of flour? That's a lot, especially if it's not going to work out yet again. I'll try this roulade recipe I found a few days ago. 3) Whhhat? This calls for a lot of whipping cream. And gelatin? No problem, I'll try Quark, instead! 4) Oh yea, all the stores are closed and we don't keep Quark on hand... I'll just make cookies. 5) Oh, we don't have chocolate chips... okay, which of the over 20 recipes in my "To Try" folder do I have the ingredients for?

Turned out I had the ingredients for these bad boys. I originally got the recipe from Eat Me, Delicious, but of course, it was altered as I went along.

To be perfectly honest, I was reluctant to put in the orange zest. I hate zest in baking. Sacrelige, right? Sorry, but I hate it. It interferes with lovely moist cake or smooth filling, or whatever. I just don't like it.

But I don't have a zester, so I used the very fine side of a cheese grater. It turned the zest into mush, which is perfect by my standards.

Next, I took that same orange and cut it into quarters to juice it.

I love this juicer. It's so efficient. You should go get one.

The orange gave me about 1/2 cup of juice. I filled the measuring cup up to 1 cup with milk, then added two eggs, some honey and oil. I meant to add some vanilla, too, but I forgot. I was disappointed.

This looked so delicious that I forgot about the muffins and just drank this.







I'm totally lying.

I actually just whisked it all together until it looked uniform.

Now, this wasn't the first place I deviated from the recipe, but it was the first time I had a bit of a headscratcher. The recipe told me to rub the zest and the sugar together with my fingers. But I didn't use sugar. I used honey. And I had already put the honey in with the liquid ingredients. So I decided to put in an extra tablespoon of honey.


And mixed it until uniform.


Then I mixed in the flour and baking soda (it called for baking powder, too, but I was surprised to find we didn't have any), and then the liquid ingredients.


The recipe called for blueberries, and we did have some, but they're so much more expensive than in-season strawberries, so I threw those in, instead.

I had to fold it pretty gently because I picked out the softest ones, so as not to "waste" the nicest ones that can be eaten by themselves. Mmm.

And then I spooned the batter into a greased muffin tin.

I love this thing. My mum bought it for me after she saw me struggling to get cookie dough out of a 1/8 cup measure. It's perfect, because you can push whatever it is you're scooping out with the soft little silicon bit. You should probably go out and get one of these, too. It's good for scooping ice cream, too.



Fresh out of the oven, I was expecting that these would smell amazingly orange. But they didn't.



They still looked amazing.


Really. Amazing.

And how did they taste?


Pretty darn good! Not nearly enough orange flavour, but it was there. Next time, I would probably use two oranges, instead of just one. The strawberries are great, though! These little bursts of flavour and freshness. Delish.

And since I changed the recipe, here's my version.

Recipe

Orange Berry Muffins
1 orange*
Milk
2 large eggs
5 tablespoons honey
¼ cup olive oil
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½-2 cups berries – fresh or frozen (not thawed)

×××

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease a muffin tin and place it on a baking sheet.
Pour the orange juice into a large glass measuring cup and top up to 1 cup with milk. Whisk in the eggs, oil and 4 tablespoons of the honey.
In a large bowl, mix the orange zest and the remaining tablespoon of honey. Whisk in the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir just to blend. Gently mix in the berries and divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before turning out the muffins.
Makes about 15 standard-sized muffins.

*I recommend using 2 oranges, not just one. Also, add some vanilla!

Guten Appetit! Continue reading...