Baked Goods

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Wake up and smell the brownies: Wicked Mocha Bars

Coffee-rich, moist and nutty. Boy are these good! I was out of the extra dark cocoa that I sometimes blend into my brownie batter so I pulverized some coffee beans in the grinder until they became dust, and substituted that.

Mocha Bars

  • 1 stick butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 7 Tbs. cocoa
  • 4 tsp. finely ground coffee
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 c. pecans, coarsely chopped
  • 1/4 c. chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and mix well. Stir in dry ingredients, then vanilla. Pour into greased 8 x 8 pan, sprinkle with pecans and chips and lightly press them into the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

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An Old Fashioned Kind of Wife and Mother?

Cherry-almond granola bars.

Am I crazy because I make my kid’s and husband’s lunches?

I used to make my own lunch for work and it just seemed logical to make one for my husband as well. Now I’m making a lunch for my son (his school does not have a cafeteria) to take to school, and it’s not much more effort to make for two. So throughout the school year, I go ahead and make Doug’s lunch. He would gladly make his own lunch (and I must say that he has no expectations that I do this for him), but it gives me great pleasure to know that my people have what they need to get through the day. I also should mention that my son is 15 and is capable of making his own lunch, but what he chooses to take is often inadequate. And so I fix the lunch bags. The lunches are simple, and we try to hit all the food groups: 1 sandwich of either a nut butter with homemade jam, or maybe a meat and cheese always on whole wheat bread; 1 raw vegetable; 1 fruit; 1 dessert or snack bar; 1 yogurt for Doug.

Doug enjoys a sweet with his morning coffee and is fond of cereal/snack/granola bars. Unfortunately we are sometimes reduced to buying the over-the-counter, highly processed varieties. These doughy, fruit filled or chocolate-infused briquettes are sad little candy bars in disguise. I do not eagerly purchase these. And our son, Max, is growing so fast that his caloric needs are huge, so I try and include a lot of protein-rich, calorie-packed items in his lunch sack.

So tonight I am lovingly making homemade granola bars, filled with peanut butter, oats, coconut, almonds and dried cherries. I know I’m going to receive more comments regarding the corn syrup, and just as I promised with the cookies the other night, I will try this with honey the next time. I also stir in a few chocolate chips as a teaser for a certain small person in our house.

These are not low-cal granola bars. They are high in fat and packed with sugar, to be sure. They are also loaded with real fruit and nuts, wheat germ and oats. One bar a day is plenty.

Tomorrow morning I will happily make the nut butter and homemade jam sandwich, and plop it in a well-used lunch bag along with a bag of raw carrots, a fruit, a yogurt and a lovingly prepared homemade granola bar. I’ll even send one off to school with our youngest, Joe, and take one for myself to have with my morning coffee.

Cherry-Almond Granola Bars

1. Mix together:

  • 1 c. brown sugar
  • 1/2 c. corn syrup
  • 1/2 c. butter
  • 2/3 c. almond butter or peanut butter
  • 2 tsp. almond extract

2. Stir in:

  • 3 c. quick oats (or 2 c. quick and 1 c. old fashioned oats)
  • 2/3 c. packed coconut
  • 1/2 c. wheat germ or wheat bran (omit if you want it gluten-free)
  • 2/3 c. slivered almonds
  • 1 c. dried cherries
  • 1/4-1/3 c. chocolate chips

3. Press into a greased 9 x 12 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Score lightly while still warm; cut through when cool.

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Six banana breads at once: bread in the freezer is like money in the bank.

When baking multiple loaves you can choose to make some with nuts and others with chocolate chips—something for everyone.

If you’re going to the effort of baking a quick-bread, then it’s not a lot more trouble to double or triple the recipe. There’s nothing more satisfying than having a stock pile of homemade baked goods in the freezer. I will admit that making this recipe x6 was a slight challenge in that I had to find a huge bowl, and had to scrape together 6 bread pans.

Banana Bread

1. Cream together butter and sugar, then mix in eggs.

  • 2/3 c. sugar
  • 1/3 c. butter
  • 2 eggs

2. Stir in the following:

  • 3 Tbs. buttermilk (or sour your own milk by mixing together 1/4 c. milk and 1 tsp. lemon juice, then let that stand for 10 mins.)
  • 3 medium-sized, very ripe bananas, mashed with a fork

3. Stir in the dry ingredients:

  • 2 c. flour (may substitute whole wheat pastry flour; if using regular whole wheat flour then may substitute up to 2/3 cup.)
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda

4. Optional: Blend in 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans and/or 1 cup mini chocolate chips.

5. Pour into a well greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes or until tests done with a toothpick.

Chunks of pecans placed on top of the batter become toasted during baking.

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Blue Ribbon Challah — 10 Year Anniversary of my Visit to the New Mexico State Fair

Dori taking the kids out in the Swedish double-buggy.

Picture this photo with a five year-old standing on a running board between my arms, and two large, braided loaves of challah riding on the rack beneath the little kids’ bottoms. That was the image the time this city girl decided to enter her bread in the New Mexico State Fair. (And I’m pretty sure that’s the day the buggy exceeded it’s weight limit, and one of the wheels became warped.)

We were living in the mountains just outside of Albuquerque, in a somewhat isolated area, where a trip to the big grocery store meant a 20 mile car ride. With three kids at home, ages 5, 4 and 2, I was happy to putter around the house, rather than wrangle them all into the car, and so it happened that I spent a lot of time baking bread. I challenged myself to go without using store-bought bread. Through a co-op we belonged to at the time, I ordered 50 pound bags of different kinds of flour. I baked whole wheat bread, molasses bread and a beautiful two-toned swirly bread, but our favorite was the challah I learned to bake from my Cousin Betty’s recipe.

Our mountain newspaper had a notice that the New Mexico State Fair was coming to Albuquerque. Being raised in a North Shore suburb of Chicago, I’d never so much as set foot in a state fair before, but I knew that people took bread and had it judged there. Doug was out of the country for two weeks and I was looking for something interesting to do, so I decided to enter.

I entered two separate contests: The Fleischmann’s Yeast Bread contest (with a cash prize), and the New Mexico State Fair bread contest. As I filled out the paperwork the official asked me for my empty Fleischmann’s yeast packages so she could staple them to the entry form. I’m a pretty loyal Red Star yeast user, so her request made me pause. She didn’t miss a beat, thankfully, and handed me a three-pack and a pair of scissors. “There’s a trash can under the table.” I snipped off the ends, emptied that sad yeast into the trash can, and handed her the packages to staple to my Fleischmann’s entry form.

My sister-in-law, Donna, a veteran fair goer, later informed me that picking one’s category is crucial when entering a contest. But at the time I didn’t give it a lot of thought and I chose the “holiday bread” category because challah is a Jewish sabbath bread, and the sabbath is our most important holiday — right? Unfortunately, Easter sticky buns fell into the same category. In fact, there were over 30 breads in the holiday bread competition.

The judging was fascinating. A celebrity food judge from one of the local television stations was tasting the breads for the Fleischmann’s contest. I watched with my three squirmy kids, still buckled into the buggy, while the judge took a slice from the very center of each loaf, holding some up as examples of having a good “crumb” or crust.

The kids held out long enough for my bread to be held up by the judge, who said that he was from Philadelphia and he knew what challah tasted like and that this was the best challah he’d ever had. I won a big fancy third place ribbon, and $30, which almost paid for parking and four ice creams. Later, when I talked with the judge, he told me that I should have entered in the international category. Maybe next time.

I had to drive the 20 miles back up into the mountains so that I could get Max to afternoon kindergarten, and I missed the judging of my other loaf. I called later to find out the results and learned that I had won the first place ribbon in the New Mexico bread contest. They put the bread on display in the case for the 10 remaining days of the fair and asked if I wanted it back at the end. I said no. But I did go to town to fetch my ribbons, and I framed them to display in my kitchen. With thanks to Betty Jane for her fine recipe.

My framed ribbons on the right. On the left is a “Santo,” a painted image of a saint that I got in Taos, New Mexico. On the back it says: Saint Marta. Patroness of housewives, dietitians, domestic workers, waitresses and lay sisters, invoked to protect the home.

Ingredients

For the dough:

  • 1 package yeast (2¼ tsp.)
  • 2/3 c. sugar
  • 2 c. warm water
  • 1 egg
  • 3 Tbs. oil
  • 1 Tbs. salt
  • 2 c. whole wheat flour
  • 4 c. (about) white flour

Mix together and brush on before baking:

  • 1 egg
  • 1 Tbs. honey

Sprinkle with:

  • sunflower, poppy and/or sesame seeds, about ¼  cup total

 

Directions

  1. Proof the yeast: Mix together the yeast and sugar, add the warm water, stir, and let it sit for 20 minutes. It should get foamy.
  2. Add the rest of the dough ingredients, putting in just enough white flour to make a smooth, not sticky dough.
    Knead for about 10 minutes.
  3. Cover and let rise for about 3 hours, or until doubled in size. Shape into two small loaves or one large loaf. Place loaves on a greased cookie sheet or into greased loaf pans if you want sandwich-shaped loaves. Cover and let rise for one more hour.
  4. Brush with the egg/honey mixture and sprinkle with some seeds. Bake at 350˚ for 35–40 minutes.

 

You can find this recipe (and many more!) in these cookbooks:

The Plate is My Canvas: Recipes and Stories from My Family’s Interfaith Kitchen

Plate promo shot

and

You Can’t Have Dry Coffee: Papa’s Excuse to Have a Nosh And Nana’s Perfect Pastries

Dry Coffee promo

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Cookies Two Ways

Joe shows off his bedtime snack.

This is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve ever used. It’s a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe, and makes a chewy on the inside, crisp on the outside cookie that rivals any you might consider buying at the bakery in the mall. You can choose to make them bakery-large, by using a 1/4 cup to measure out each cookie. Or, if you prefer moderation in your caloric intake, I recommend purchasing a mini scoop. You wind up with nicely sized cookies that are uniform in size. Joe, of course, goes for the large size.

Pick up one of these small scoops at a kitchen specialty store. Drop cookies can be made quickly, and will be of uniform size.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • 1/2 c. butter
  • 1/2 c. all natural peanut butter
  • 1 c. brown sugar
  • 1/2 c. sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 Tbs. corn syrup
  • 2 Tbs. water
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 2-1/2 c. flour
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 2 c. chips (large, small or chunks)

Bake 375 degrees, 12 minutes, or until browned.

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Citrus Bars

Fresh lemon juice and orange juice concentrate make these especially moist and fruity. The pastry is as short as they come; very flaky. Their only real short-coming is that they aren’t chocolate.

Citrus Bars

Cut together, or pulse in a food processor, then press into a 9 x 13 pan:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 cup butter

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat together:

  • 1-3/4 cups sugar
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • 4 Tbs. orange juice concentrate
  • 1 tsp. lemon peel
  • 1 tsp. orange peel

Then add to that:

  • 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbs. flour
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Blend well, and pour into hot crust. Bake for an additional 25 minutes.

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Ruth’s Square Cookies and The Blue Bowl

These cookies, pictured below, are from my mother’s recipe entitled “Square Cookies.” (Next fall I’ll show you her cherry cake recipe which is made using plums.)

But maybe your brain prefers this next photograph, made from the same recipe:

Also called Brown Sugar Cookies, the only difference between these two versions is in the shape of the cookie and the size of the pecan pieces.

Before the age of electronics, when I was bored, I would sit on the floor of my mother’s kitchen with my back against the refrigerator and wait for a job. My first job, when I was probably three or four, was to grind nuts into the blue bowl. The blue bowl is the smallest of the colorful Pyrex nesting bowls, made in the 1950’s. My sister and I have a secret love affair with these bowls. We’re always on the look out for them. Recently, I purchased an entire set at a flea market! They are packaged carefully away in our garage, waiting for the time when my 13 year-old daughter has her own kitchen. I used to run the bowls in the dishwasher until I noticed that their luster had faded, so I gave those away and purchased a like-new set on e-bay. On the advice of my sister, these are hand-wash only.

Today I gave my son Joe the job of filling the blue bowl with chopped pecans for Grandpa’s favorite cookies, square cookies. Since Grandpa doesn’t like that many nuts I made him some of the round ones.

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Brownies 3 ways at once

I took brownies to my dentist appointment last week. Before I handed them to the receptionist I asked, “Is it in poor taste to bring brownies to the staff in a dental office?” Before I could finish my question, she answered with a stone-faced, “No, it’s not.”

I like taking brownies places. People get really excited at the mention of the word. I think it’s a great way to make friends.

This is a triple recipe — standard fare in my kitchen. I make it in an 11 x 17 pan.

  • 3 sticks butter
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 6 eggs
  • 1-1/2 cups flour
  • 1-1/2 cups cocoa
  • 1 Tbs. vanilla

Mix, pour into greased pan, top with chips or nuts or berries (if using berries make sure they are at room temperature, and dry). Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cut when cool, if you can wait that long. If you cut them small you can get 88 brownies.

 

Here’s the math for a single recipe. Bake in an 8″ x 8″ pan:

  • 1 sticks butter
  • 1 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cups cocoa
  • 1 tsp. vanilla