homemade granola bars

I've been on a bit of a rampage lately trying to straighten out our eating habits. It seems like I can't get away from the horror stories online about preservatives, processed foods, the dangers of soy, and genetically modified grains. I've always been great about making desserts from scratch (my waistline bears testament to that) but I would buy whatever was on sale for the kids to snack on. Then I started reading ingredient lists and it all sounded kind of gross! I'm taking baby steps to healthier snacks, and granola bars were one of the easiest things I found to make; they are delicious. Like I have to restrain myself and remember that these are for the kids. And then I eat them anyway.

I found the basic recipe here for chewy granola bars and then read through a bunch of the comments and followed the ones that sounded credible. Less butter and melt it, add crisped rice for texture, cut the chocolate in half. I made a test batch and decided to cut the flour in half also, and the end result is almost identical to pre-packaged granola bars but I can spell what's in these. This version is soy and dairy free (less chocolate chips); my youngest is sensitive or allergic to soy and the boxed kind contains soy three times in the ingredient list.

I'm a very visual person and I actually wanted to see what was in each snack-sized portion, so this is exactly the amount of what's in each bar; I added chocolate chips to these but next time I want to try dried apples. I'll probably replace half the butter with applesauce and add a little cinnamon. So many possibilities!

Here was my final recipe:

1/2 cup butter
4 cups quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup crisped rice
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup honey
1 cup chocolate chips (or other add-in, if desired)

1. Preheat oven to 325º and lightly grease 9 x 13 pan.
2. In a large bowl, melt butter in microwave. Stir in oats, crisped rice, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, vanilla, and honey until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Press tightly into pan and bake for 17-19 minutes or until just starting to turn golden brown. Remove from oven and immediately press bars down with the bottom of another pan until compressed down. Cool completely before cutting into 18 bars.

I roll each one up in a bit of plastic wrap so they're less tempting to eat like cookies (you know, by the handful ;) and then stack them in a sealed container in the pantry.

cookies! the final chapter

Today is my oldest son's birthday - ten years ago we were brand new parents, oh so unaware of how our lives were going to change. Today, instead of baking him a birthday cake, I made yet more spritz cookies, an apple strudel for tomorrow's Christmas Eve melee at my sister's, yeast rolls for Christmas dinner (how those are fitting in the freezer is beyond me), and I still have to make a special something for a family member. But don't feel sorry for the kid - last week I made him his favorite peanut butter pie, and on Monday chocolate cupcakes. And today hubby took the big kids to Dairy Queen and my son got the most obscenely huge Blizzard I've ever seen. There's a certain advantage to being born two days before Christmas.

I wanted to share with you the final two cookies in my Twelve Days of Christmas spread. I actually only made eleven kinds, but I'm also giving out homemade cinnamon rolls (tomorrow's project) so I am counting that as number twelve. And I just didn't have it in me to think of another kind of cookie. And there's not an inch of space remaining in the freezer.

These are Spumoni cookies! They're a little bit tricky to make, but as long as you roll each dough out between layers of wax paper and leave them together in the fridge overnight, you'll do great. I love these because they're really pretty but they also taste good. Chocolate, pecan, and cherry all come together so well!

The final thing I made was these mint brownie cups. I wanted something mint, but not just another cookie with mint chips in it, and I've had mixed results making things using candy canes (seems like I can never get them crushed finely enough!) I just dropped a small scoop of my favorite brownie recipe into a miniature baking cup, and sprinkled on Andes mint baking chips. I bought foil baking cups since I don't own a mini muffin pan, and they stood up just fine for baking. After they were done, I added a few more chips to each brownie cup. I think they're cute, and definitely tasty!

Thanks for letting me share my holiday baking tradition with you!

cookies! numbers eight and nine

It's 11:24 p.m. and the rest of the family is sleeping. I can hear hubby snoring over the baby monitor. Actually I can hear him snoring quite well even without the baby monitor. (He'll love me in the morning for this shout out.) I've gotten to the point that I pretty much dread bedtime. There's just not a lot of comfort and joy to be had in knowing that the moment my head hits the pillow, I turn on some sort of invisible switch that screams, "Wake up and scream, baby!" Instead, I give you cookies.

And our pretty Christmas tree.

Yesterday went by in a flash - we seem to have that moment every year where we make a sudden discovery : it's 10:30pm, tomorrow is the last day of work before hubby's Christmas vacation, and he has to take in cookie gifts for his co-workers. And I rush around the kitchen like a madwoman, finishing up the last of the cookies and packaging them for the next day. For some reason only the Christmas cookie gods must know, I always, always, always end up having to ice spritz cookies on this frantic last-evening-before-Christmas-vacation melee. I don't think I can recall a time where this hasn't been the case : even last year, post emergency c-section and with a week-old newborn clinging to my breast, I still had to ice spritz cookies. To be fair, hubby helped, but I think these cookies have it in for me. I always envision the kids handling this part of the cookie festivities, and fate always decides that this is going to be my special joy.

Next year I'm not making spritz cookies.

Okay, I take that back. I LOVE spritz cookies.

This is my scary old cookie gun, courtesy of 1962. We bought it off ebay several years ago, because the new plastic cookie guns are pathetic. Sorry Kitchen Aid lovers, but not everything gets better with time. The neat thing about this old cookie gun is it has a great old recipe for spritz cookies very unlike anything you see today. These cookies are really, really good baked up and then dipped in a bit of powdered sugar icing and a few sprinkles. They have a hint of lemon in them, and you won't be able to stop eating them!

Oh, and I also made those Soft Lemonade Cookies I mentioned yesterday. Those turned out surprisingly yummy, and oh so soft and moist. Very good sweet yet tart lemon flavor! I was even a complete goofball and I skimmed over the whole "divided" part with the lemonade concentrate, and wound up adding quite a bit more to the cookies than I was supposed to. They still turned out well! The only thing I found was the oven was a bit hot for my liking; I turned it down 25 degrees. Of course that may have had something to do with all the extra liquid in my dough, too. Oops!

Tomorrow I'm baking up adorable Spumoni cookies and some mini mint brownie cups. Stay tuned!

Oh, and I'm going Christmas shopping with my mom tomorrow, just us girls. Well, and the baby too. Wish me luck.

cookies! number seven

Yesterday was a slow day in the field; after an eternally long night of fractured sleep pieced together with long, loud screaming sessions courtesy of Hobie, I wasn't quite sure any of us would even make it to morning. Alas, saved by Pop Tarts and Coke and a healthy dose of ibuprofen, onward I baked.

First, I have to get this off my chest. I use the fresh butter wrappers from each recipe as a spatula/beater rest. Call me crazy. Oh, and I couldn't live without my cookie scoop. Unless a cookie calls for being rolled into a ball or rolled out, I use the scoop. Mostly because I'm lazy. You should get one - I think I paid like $8 for mine at Target a few years ago.

Yesterday's cookie is one of my all-time favorites. Orange Almond Drops are some of the sweetest, moistest, most cake-like cookies I've ever tasted, and such a great citrusy addition to a typically chocolate-heavy cookie tray (not that I'm complaining about chocolate, mind you). In previous years I could go right out in our backyard and pick fresh oranges for this recipe; I'm not sure anything is as good as orange juice just minutes apart from its tree. Since we moved to our new place we no longer have that advantage, although we do have a lemon tree that drops fruit bigger than cantaloupes. I'm not kidding. I'd take a picture to show you but it's freezing outside.

Back to the cookie. The cookie gets frosted with a thick, creamy, dreamy mild orange frosting that is so delicious there will be fights over who gets to lick the beater. And spatula. And bowl. I'm pretty sure everything would taste better frosted with this creamy orange frosting. Don't skimp on the frosting! And if you like to freeze your cookies like I do, just freeze these in a single layer for 30 minutes before you stack them in a storage container, and you won't have any worries about how to keep all that frosting from making a huge mess.

If I can peel myself away from the baby later, I'll be making a new recipe that calls for frozen lemonade in the dough. It sounds different and promising! Or very, very disastrous.

cookies! two more

If ever a day in Florida were made for baking, today was the day. Did you know we can have days in December with a windchill factor of 32 degrees? No? Well, I'm glad to see I'm not alone here. That kind of cold is typically reserved for our annual three-day-long "winter" in late January, and then we pack away our pants and closed-toe shoes and welcome summer. But not this year, apparently. This year, tonight, mid-December, we're going to be getting down into the TWENTIES. Did you know the baby doesn't even own a pair of feetie pajamas, and my older kids don't have any matching socks? So cranking up the oven was a welcome sight.

Today I only plowed through 2 of my recipes (both double batches), but the cookies were tasty! And I rarely have an excuse to dance around the kitchen, singing along to Christmas tunes (well, plod clumsily. And my singing is more like humming). My day was cut short by Hobie's twelve-month checkup - you mean we have to go outside in this weather? - and the ministrating of several sickies. I missed this evening's 4-H meeting but in this cold I'm not so sure I didn't get the better end of the deal.

Enough yammering. The first cookie I whipped up was the White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies. I omit a lot of the ingredients (coconut, apricots, macadamia nuts) but the white chocolate combined with my secret weapon (aka Craisins) is so good you don't need the extra confusion. I bet these would be wonderful with a little dark chocolate tossed in! Of course that probably holds true for most things.

I also trudged through the Turtle Cookies. I absolutely loathe making these cookies, I won't lie. The dough has to refrigerate, they have to be rolled, dipped in egg, dipped in pecans, flattened, baked, they stick to the pan, I always have to re-flatten the thumbprint while they're hot (a rubber baby spoon works great for this!), and then they have to be filled with caramel and finally drizzled with chocolate. And if you aren't drooling by now, there's something wrong with you. This is why I make them every year, even though they are a tremendous pain.

As I make my Christmas cookies, I take a photo of one of each variety on a white napkin, which makes it easy to drag into an editing program like Photoshop later on. Then it's a quick cutout and I can add tiny photos of my cookies to a cute little cookie card that I print out and attach to each gift tin or box we hand out. This was the card page ready for printing out, from a few years back. Cookie names are subject to change depending on my whims.

Stay tuned for more! And if you're looking for the recipes from yesterday's post, I went back and added the links for you.

cookies! the first four

Christmas would not be Christmas without cookies. This year, I'm busy baking up The Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies to give as gifts to family and friends. Not that it has anything at all to do with the twelve days of Christmas, or the song, but there will be a dozen kinds of cookies and it does sound rather festive.

I got a late start this year; last year I managed to finish up the final batch the day before Hobie was born. Our freezer literally did not have another inch of room to spare. We had to forego our storage drawer, our frozen vegetables, and our Eggo's for a few weeks. The kids muddled through the sacrifice.

Today, I spent 7 hours in the kitchen whipping up the first four recipes on my list, in six batches. You should have smelled my kitchen.

 First, there were the Chocolate Bliss Cookies. Chewy middles, crunchy edges, rich, crackly goodness. These cookies are basically chocolate chips swimming in melted chocolate, with just enough egg and flour to hold the things together. I like to make mine sans nuts, because I already have enough of those to go around. In a word, heavenly.

Next we had Almond Sweets. I make these every year; they're so pretty and festive, and just look like they belong on a cookie tray. In spite of the name the don't contain almonds; the cookie is like a little shortbread with an almond extract-flavored icing sprinkled with red and green sugar.

Then, there are the Oatmeal Twinkles. Basically they're just peanut butter oatmeal cookies with chopped pecans and M & M's, but these are a real kid-pleaser. They remind me of that scene in The Parent Trap Two (remember that movie?) where the kids are making cookies and add various candies to the dough (marshmallows, gum drops, M & M's). I like how colorful they are!

Finally, today I made Peanut Butter Madness. These cookies are soft, almost cakelike peanut butter mounds stuffed with chocolate chips, honey roasted peanuts, and chopped peanut butter cups. Yes, they are delicious.

The best part of cookie baking days are the plates of rejects. Runaway icing, bottom-of-the-bowl dregs, and cookies that spread too far do not go to waste in this house!

Four down, eight to go!

Day 33

Today, instead of slogging through hours of schoolwork, we baked brownies.

Actually, we did the schoolwork too. The brownies came along later when my Internet was nowhere to be found (thank you yet again, Comcast, we are so glad you monopolize our neighborhood). I don't bake brownies from a box. I love my box-mix-using friends dearly, truly, but I'm sorry - brownies need love.

And over half a pound of chocolate crammed in a 9" x 13" pan.

This was several years, houses, and pant sizes ago. Baking brownies is educational.

Here's what you need to make these.

brownies:
4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
2/3 c shortening
2 c sugar
4 eggs
1 1/4 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 heaping cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet, milk, dark : pick your poison)

Preheat the oven to 350˚ and grease a 9" x 13" pan. On stovetop, melt chocolate and shortening. Stir in sugar and eggs. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread evenly in pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.

frosting:
3 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
3 tablespoons shortening
2 c powdered sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c milk

On stovetop, melt chocolate and shortening. Stir in remaining ingredients until smooth. Spread over warm brownies. Try to wait until they cool before you eat them.

A couple of brownie words of wisdom for you:

1. Always use a glass pan (ovenproof, of course).
2. When in doubt, underbake. I know this flies in the face of every salmonella-mongering mother out there, but there's a little-known secret about brownies : they continue to bake after they leave the oven. Trust me.
3. Frosting is a must, don't listen to the man in your life telling you that, "they'd be just fine without frosting." Pshh. And take the three minutes to make it instead of opening up a can of that brown goop that passes for "chocolate frosting." Don't do it, man!

Okay, so that was a few and not a couple of tips. But the friends and family in my life who have had my brownies know that you can never take these things too seriously. Your friends and family will thank you.

Tomorrow, homeschool PE. Someone has to work off all those brownies.

I command you to make these

For the love of all that is buttery, cinnamony goodness, you HAVE to make The Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls. Set aside the negative thoughts you may have : "What on earth will I do with six pans of cinnamon rolls??" Is this fat free?" "I'm no good with yeast." Stop whining and start baking! Over the past week I have made these twice (isn't that what Saturdays are for?) and my good friend also gave them a try. She sent us home with a pan; we nibbled graciously.

Actually, the pan was empty and had been licked clean by the time we pulled into our driveway. Hey, it was a long drive home. They're like a good 5 miles from us!

Just go make these. They are heavenly! The only thing I did differently was use a plain glaze instead of maple/coffee - just sub a teaspoon of vanilla for the maple flavor and equal parts milk for the coffee.

Here's the freshly cut line on the first go-round, and my little helper.

fresh out of the oven

ready to eat!

Now go make your own!