Granola Bars: Fail

When we were working on the house all the time, but hadn't moved in just yet, we made sure to keep a stock of quick and easy eats in the pantry. That included some granola bars that were no doubt not great for me, but very delicious all the same. I figured that I could surely recreate something similar and a quick Google search turned up a recipe for granola bars from Alton Brown. I decided to give it a go, with a couple of changes. The granola was delicious, but refused to remain in bar form. I don't know if I just didn't press it into the pan hard enough, or if I did something else to cause the poor results. It's not that big of a problem though, since this granola makes a great breakfast with a bit of soy milk. Yum! I'll definitely make it again, maybe give the bar thing another shot. If it doesn't work I won't be too upset. I'll just have a few great mornings ahead of me!

Granola Bars
Recipe from Alton Brown via Food Network; Makes 16 2" bars















2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 ounce unsalted butter, plus extra for pan
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 1/2 ounces chopped dried fruit, any combination of apricots, cherries or blueberries

• Butter a 9 by 9-inch glass baking dish and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
• Spread the oats, sunflower seeds, almonds, and wheat germ onto a half-sheet pan. Place in the oven and toast for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• In the meantime, combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, extract and salt in a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook until the brown sugar has completely dissolved.
• Once the oat mixture is done, remove it from the oven and reduce the heat to 300 degrees F. Immediately add the oat mixture to the liquid mixture, add the dried fruit, and stir to combine. Turn mixture out into the prepared baking dish and press down, evenly distributing the mixture in the dish and place in the oven to bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares and store in an airtight container for up to a week.

My notes: I was doing some other stuff in the kitchen at the same time, so I wasn't quite "immediate" with mixing the oat and liquid mixtures. Perhaps therein lies my problem. I bought toasted wheat germ, so I added it to the mixture post-toasting of the other ingredients. And for dried fruit I used apples and cranberries to recreate some of the flavor of the bars that inspired me in the first place.

Still Behind

Remember Christmas? You know, that big holiday that was over a month ago? Yeah, I still haven't posted what we did for Christmas breakfast. Better late than never. I guess. We were in such a hurry to get to the presents that we just tucked in to breakfast and I didn't even take a picture of the table set up. I did manage to shoot a quick pic before I put the goodies in the oven to warm though. I made my usual Sweet & Spicy Bacon- that's a requirement according to my brother and his wife. Additionally I made cheap, fast and easy sausage rolls- no real recipe there, refrigerated crescent rolls, shredded cheese and small smoked sausages. Voila! And then for the sweeter side of the menu I made Deb's Whole Wheat Apple Muffins. On half of them I added a topping, and the other half I left plain to avoid possible allergens for my niece.

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen; Makes about 16













1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk or yogurt
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Grease and flour a muffin tin and set aside.
• Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.Mix in the buttermilk gently. (If you over-mix, the buttermilk will cause the mixture to curdle.) Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.
• Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400 degrees, and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

My notes: I used buttermilk, and don't worry about the curdling. I mixed it in the first time like I was folding clouds into the batter and it still curdled. Everything comes back together when you add the dry ingredients, so it doesn't really make a difference how gentle you are. I skipped the brown sugar on the plain muffins because I didn't really want to coat my niece's muffins in sugar. The topping for the other muffins is comprised of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and chopped pecans- basically a version of what I did for the Peach Muffins but with more oats and pecans. Since I wasn't doing the brown sugar topping I simple cooked the muffins at 400 degrees for 17-20 minutes. Much easier than me remembering to turn the temp down. Because I just wouldn't remember, ha.

Apple Crumb Coffee Cake

Last week I was taking a stroll over at Everybody Likes Sandwiches when I saw a delicious looking coffee cake. Now, she made the coffee cake in a bout of insomnia induced baking, and forgot to add the baking powder. The cake looked so good I was certain that I just had to make it. I decided to give it a shot Saturday afternoon, as a nice treat for all the spring cleaning I was doing. When gathering the ingredients I decided I would go ahead and give it a shot with the baking powder. It came out wonderfully, but I think I'm going to try it without the BP too, because her cake looks so wonderfully dense with apple. This cake gave me one of the nicest moments of the weekend- windows open, sun and breeze streaming in, hands messily mixing crumb topping while Prairie Home Companion seeped out of the speakers from NPR. It made me feel like I was doing something that my grandmother had surely done before me. So pleasant! Second nice moment- eating a piece of this cake!

Apple Crumb Coffee Cake
Recipe from Everybody Likes Sandwiches












for the cake part:
1 1/2 cups of flour
2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 Granny Smith apple, chopped

for the crumb part:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

• Preheat oven to 400. Butter and flour an 8" round cake pan, shaking off any excess flour. Prepare crumb topping in a medium-sized bowl, crumbling mixtures with your fingers until it looks like crumbs. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl, combine egg, milk and oil. Add the wet to the dry and mix. Add in apples and stir until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan and top with crumb mixture. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool.

My notes: I had one large Fuji apple in the crisper, so that's what I used. Fuji holds it's shape well when baked, so it's a nice texture with the cake. I used a 9" round pan, no problem there. I cooked it for 25 minutes and my crumb topping was a little dark, so maybe cut it a little earlier next time. This cake was so delicious, especially with a nice cup of coffee, of course.

Sugar High Friday #28

Alrighty, to help me stick with my resolution to keep up this blog I decided to have a go at participating in some blog events. This will be my first entry in the monthly Sugar High Friday event, created by the Domestic Goddess and this time being hosted by Cardamom Addict. Not only is this my first entry in Sugar High Friday, but it's my first blog event entry ever. Hopefully I do everything right! So, on to the sweetness.

For round #28 Cardamom Addict has come up with the theme Sweet Seduction. Very fitting for the month of February, no? I was thinking, and thinking, rolling ideas around in my head. And then it hit me while I was re-reading my February issue of MS Living. The very first sight in the "Warming Winter Puddings" article was a delightful looking dish, called Eve's Pudding. Named so for the first lady of Eden and the inclusion of her weapon of seduction, the apple. Cardamom Addict mentioned several different angles to approach from- something you've made to seduce someone, something your planning to make to seduce someone, something someone made to seduce you, or something you wish someone would make to seduce you. In my mind this particular item falls into two of those catagories. I used the possibility of this delicious dish to help sweeten the deal when convincing Josh to take me to Ikea, so I suppose you could say I used it to seduce him. And then, there is the lovely thought of sharing this decidedly British dessert with Colin Firth, after he whipped it up for me. Remember how helpful in the kitchen he was in Bridget Jones' Diary? Before I get too distracted, let's get to the recipe.

Eve's Pudding
Recipe from MS Living; Serves 8 to 10














1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened,
plus more for baking dish
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Salt
1 3/4 pounds baking apples, peeled,
quartered, cored, and cut into 1/8" thick
slices
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup whole milk
Heavy cream, for serving

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8 1/2" square baking dish; set aside. Whisk flour, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt ina medium bowl; set aside.
• Put apples, 1/4 cup sugar, the lemon juice, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt into a large bowl; toss to combine. Transfer to prepared baking dish, and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons water over top; set aside.
• Put butter and 6 tablespoons sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. Mix in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, alternating with milk. Mix until combined.
• Spread batter over apples, and sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Bake until batter is cooked through and juices are bubbling, about 40 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack 15 minutes. Spoon into dishes; serve drizzled with cream.

My notes: I (so, so, sadly) don't have a stand mixer. I used my regular handheld mixer up until the flour point, and then mixed with a rubber spatula from there. Also, my square baking dish happens to be 8", not the above-mentioned 8 1/2". I baked the pudding on a foil lined baking sheet, in case of any over-spill. None occured, so I imagine that 1/2" isn't all that important. Lastly, I also sprinkled a little cinnamon atop the batter with the remaining sugar, to add a little color, and because I love cinnamon. :)