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.

Age Doesn't Always Bring Wisdom- 100th Post

Welcome to my 100th blog post! Wow, I can hardly believe I've already hit 100 posts. It's actually been about a year since I created this blog, but I didn't really settle into using it until January. And since then I've gotten a lot out of it. I love having a place to talk about what I'm doing in my kitchen. I've made some great blog friends, and found some great recipes. I wanted to make something special for my 100th post, so I figured it was about time I made the Orange-Cranberry Pound Cake. I read about this cake before I had even started really posting on my own blog. It looked absolutely divine. So divine in fact that I always put off making it, fearing that it would be so good that I wouldn't be able to stop eating it till it all disappeared. But I figured if there was ever a time to make a recipe I've been yearning to from one of the first blogs I read, now was it. And, ironically, this recipe proved that just because I've attained the mighty heights of my 100th post doesn't mean that thing are going to go my way 100 percent of the time. I don't know exactly what I did wrong, but my cake looks nowhere near as gorgeous as Peabody's. It tastes pretty good, and as I obviously didn't taste her's, I can only imagine that it tastes as it should. I either didn't grease and flour my pan evenly enough, or perhaps I should have adjusted the baking time due to my bundt pan being very dark. Whatever it was, my cake just isn't that pretty. Yummy, but not pretty. Anyway, I'm sure that most people could have more success than me, so I wanted to share the recipe. Really, just look at Peabody's pictures, that lone should convince you to mix one up yourself.

Orange-Cranberry Pound Cake
Recipe from Peabody
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
zest of one medium orange
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fresh nutmeg
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried cranberries

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the milk, vanilla, and orange zest.
• Sift together the spices, flour, and salt; add them to the wet ingredients, stirring gently just until well combined. Fold in the dried cranberries. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 10 inch tube pan and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Let the cake cool in the pan, then turn out onto plate.

My notes: Thanks to everyone who stops by this little page. I really appreciate it!