Tag Archives: dessert

It was like a crepe buffet!

28 Mar

Having apple cinnamon crepes for breakfast is like having apple pie for breakfast.

Is there such a thing as a crepe buffet? If not, then I think we invented one. If so, then I think we had one at our house too.

Two Sundays ago, Don asked me the fateful question: What do you want for breakfast today?

Now had he asked me, “What are we having for breakfast today,” maybe my answer would have been different, like “Scrambled Eggs” or “French Toast” or whatever we usually have for a typical breakfast on the weekends.

What I wanted, what I was craving, was Nutella Banana Crepes.

But on that day he asked me what I *wanted* for breakfast. Well what I wanted was crepes with bananas and Nutella in them. Yup, ever since National Nutella Week, when I saw them somewhere on some yummy food blog out there, I have been craving that very item. So when he asked, that was my answer.

“I want crepes with bananas and Nutella in them.”

His answer: “WHAT????”

We went back and forth for a bit, as in, “I’m not making that,” and “Fine, I’ll make it,” to “No, fine, I’ll make it.”

The kids were having fun garnishing their plates with whatever we had on hand that day.

It was settled. We were having crepes for breakfast. I was SO excited. The kids were excited too, when they heard.

Don found a recipe on Allrecipes.com for Basic Crepes that he followed to a “t” with one exception, which I’ll note later on when I post the recipe.

I cut up some apples to saute, as we decided to make a whole bunch of different kinds of crepes: the banana Nutella as requested, some apple cinnamon, some scrambled egg with ham, and some with just egg and cheese.

It was a regular ole’ crepe buffet at our house that morning!

There’s a commercial on TV now, I don’t even know what it’s for, come to think of it, but it has couples being asked “what’s the most romantic thing he’s done for you lately?” It’s a very funny commercial, and I thought of it that morning as Don handed me a crepe on a plate, just for me: a chocolate peanut butter crepe. There was just one, and I could’ve easily polished it off myself, but I shared.

Yes, I shared my peanut butter and chocolate chip crepe with my kids!

I know, that’s big for me, sharing my food.

I cut off some pieces for each of the girls and I ate what was left.

It.Was.Delicious.

And so, that is the story of how we very possibly invented, or not, a crepes buffet at our house that day. It was so successful that our kids now want to have that for breakfast EVERY Sunday.

Ooops.

Basic Crepes Recipe from AllRecipes.com

It was crazy-busy in Don's Kitchen that morning as he prepared all kinds of crepe varieties for us!

INGREDIENTS

(we doubled this recipe)

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth. *This is where we changed the recipe. Mix all the wet ingredients together first and all the dry ingredients together and then combine them and whisk. The very first comment alludes to the same fact.
  2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.
  3. Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Serve hot.

    A crepe buffet...who would've thought?

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A new after school dip from Budget Gourmet Mom

22 Mar

Chocolate chip cookie dough dip...how could I resist trying this one?

I follow several different blogs and one of the ones I really love is the Budget Gourmet Mom blog. I actually wait all day long to see what is going to pop up in my inbox each afternoon. She and I seem to have the same taste, the same love of chocolate and the same frugal lifestyle when it comes to cooking.

Last week when Krista posted a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip, I knew I just had to try it out.  Now Krista is not just a great cook, but she takes beautiful photos of her food. You have to go over and check them out. Everything always looks so pretty, right down to the wood on her table. It’s very different from when I take my photos, on top of the stove, the counter, or wherever I can find a space. She also has a way of writing while she shows her photos. I just love to read her blog, it’s thoroughly enjoyable.  And, Krista has a ton of kids, I think four of them, so I can’t say she has nothing better to do, because she’s super busy too.

I tried this out last week, and my kids enjoyed it, but they still stand by the peanut butter yogurt dip as their favorite.

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 tblsp cream cheese, softened
  • 1 heaping tblsp light brown sugar
  • 6 oz lowfat vanilla yogurt
  • 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a medium bowl use a spoon to work the brown sugar into the cream cheese. Stir until combined.
  2. Add the yogurt and stir until creamy. You may want to use a mixer to fluff it a bit but it’s not necessary.
  3. Fold in the chocolate chips and serve with graham crackers, fruit, or pretzels.

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Grandma Grello’s Mashed Potato Bake

21 Mar

My memories of our summer days at the beach are very special to me.

As a kid, I spent at least half of each of my entire summers with Grandma and Grandpa Grello down by the beach near their house. We often slept there for a couple of weeks at a time while my parents worked. I have great memories of all the times we spent with them, the things we got to do, and of course, all the great things we got to eat while at their house. They made the best french toast, the best omelettes, the best pizza, the best everything.

As an adult with my own kids, I have made sure to take advantage of the fact that until recently we still had both of them in our lives and even now, we have her in our life still. I know how lucky we are, how lucky my kids are, and I do my very best to cherish this time with her, hoping to make similar memories for my kids to cherish too.

I tell you this not because I’m going off on a tangent, but because today’s recipe is another one of her recipes and it’s one that she made for our family a couple of summers ago after a day at the beach. Very often we would to take our kids to the beach, spend a good part of the day there, and then come back to her house to shower and change up for dinner.

In the time we’d spend at the beach, and entire dinner would be prepared for us, including appetizers, which was usually their famous homemade pizza and spinach pies.  Oftentimes there was a homemade blueberry pie sitting on the counter cooling as well, and ice cream in the freezer to go with it. (Hungry yet?) We’d eat our dinner, and then sit out on their deck for hours, having coffee and dessert out there while the kids played in the yard while the sun set, chasing rabbits (there were always so many rabbits in their yard, it seemed.) It was idyllic, to say the least.

I think of Grandma Grello and our days at the beach near her house, every time I make this.

One particular visit, she served us a whole roasted chicken with this amazing Mashed Potato Bake on the side. It wasn’t anything complex, but it was so delicious I couldn’t believe we’d never had it before. Now, every time we make it ourselves, I think of her and those times we spent at their house.

As you know, she’s famous for her homemade French Meat Pies, and since she gives us one for our freezer every year, I usually will make this Mashed Potato Bake as the side dish to go with it. This year Don made the mashed potato bake to go with the meat pie and it was as delicious as ever.

I don’t have a specific recipe for you, but it’s really super easy:

1) You make a basic recipe of mashed potatoes using as many potoates as you normally would, but when you are mashing them, add in about a half block of shredded cheddar cheese (more for a big batch, less for a smaller batch.)

2) Spread the mashed potatoes into a casserole dish and top with more cheddar cheese, bread crumbs and bacon bits.

3) Bake until crispy and brown around the edges.

Super easy, super delicious and for me, full of happy memories.

Gram Grello's Mashed Potato Bake with her French Meat Pie: the perfect combination of tastes and memories! Enjoy!

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Bakerella’s Black Bottom Cupcakes

9 Mar

Bananas, cream cheese, chocolate. Seriously, could anything be better?

Did you ever just have one of those memories of something you ate in your childhood, but never had again? First of all, I have memories of things I’ve eaten, probably every day. But, things I’ve never had again but still remember? Not as often.

When I was younger my mom used to make these fabulous black bottom cream cheese brownies. They had chocolate chips in them. They were mouth-wateringly (is that a word?) delicious. My mouth is watering right now and all I’ve got is my bagel for lunch to satisfy it.

Anyways…I follow this blog, Bakerella, and in fact, she just announced this week that one of her recipes will be featured in the April Women’s Day Magazine. One day on her blog she posted these yummy looking Black Bottom Cupcakes, and just the photos on her blog made me want to make them THAT DAY, never mind the fact that they reminded me of my mom’s black bottom brownies of my youth.

So I did. I made them that very day.

They were SO GOOD.

And healthy! Yup, they have THREE bananas in them. That makes them in the fruits food group in my opinion.

After I made them, I passed the recipe along to my mom and she said, “Those remind me of the black bottom brownies I used to make.”

ME TOO!!

And now, I have her brownie recipe as well. I’ll make them soon and post that one too. Bonus.

In the meantime, here is the recipe for Bakerella’s Black Bottom Cupcakes. One thing to note: It says it made 18, but I ended up with 12. Twelve very large muffin-like brownie cupcakes. I think my muffin tin is too big. Other than that, they were quick and easy. Delicious, definitely a keeper, according to my family.

Now, my photos aren’t as amazing looking as hers, so definitely go over and see her recipe post too, so you can see what I mean.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Two batters, two bowls.

Cream Cheese Mixture
 8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 small banana, pureed
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

Chocolate Mixture
 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large bananas, pureed
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For the cream cheese mixture:

  • Beat cream cheese and sugar until nice and fluffy.
  • Add banana, egg and vanilla and mix together until combined.
  • Stir in chocolate chips and set aside.

I used my Pampered Chef scoop to do the chocolate batter.

For the chocolate mixture:

  • Sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, soda and salt using a wire whisk.
  • Add bananas, oil and vanilla and mix together on low until combined.
  • Use a large scoop to fill cupcake liners with batter.
  • Repeat topping the cupcake batter with the cream cheese mixture.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until done.

Makes about 18 cupcakes.

Recipe adapted from Great American Favorite Brand Name Cookbook, 1993.

See...mine were kinda large by the end! And of course, everyone had to fight over who would get the biggest one with all the chocolate chips from the bottom left corner.

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Purim 101

7 Mar

When I heard that these cookies could be made with chocolate chips as a filling, I knew I had to try them.

What’s Purim, you ask?

Well, at least that’s what I asked when my friend Pam said that I should include a Purim recipe on my blog for the upcoming Jewish holiday.

Not being Jewish, I had not even heard of Purim and definitely not of a cookie recipe to go with it. I asked Pam for an explanation and within a day or so, she sent me one, along with the recipe. It looked pretty easy and it said that you could use chocolate chips in it, so in my mind that meant I had to at least try it out so that I could include it on my blog in time for Purim. I figured that if the recipe was a keeper, I’d celebrate Purim every year!

Well, it wasn’t *exactly* a keeper, but if you watch TLC’s “Four Weddings,” where they rate the weddings on several different benchmarks, I’d say the overall score was a 7 out of 10. It was a very simple recipe, didn’t use a ton of utensils or bakeware (always good for someone without a dishwasher,) the batter was yummy and the cookies got all thumbs up from my kids. But, they didn’t come out looking “just like the picture,” when I Googled “Purim Cookies.” They didn’t hold their shape very well. Later when I re-read the recipe it said you could freeze them prior to baking them to get them to hold their shape when baking. I should’ve read more carefully, but even still I don’t think I would have taken the time to do the extra step, at least not without trying it out first.

Here’s what Pam sent me regarding the holiday:

Jewish Year 5772: sunset March 7, 2012 – nightfall March 8, 2012
The story of Purim is told in the Biblical book of Esther. The heroes of the story are Esther, a beautiful young Jewish woman living in Persia, and her cousin Mordecai, who raised her as if she were his daughter. Esther was taken to the house of Ahasuerus, King of Persia, to become part of his harem. King Ahasuerus loved Esther more than his other women and made Esther queen, but the king did not know that Esther was a Jew, because Mordecai told her not to reveal her identity.
The villain of the story is Haman, an arrogant, egotistical advisor to the king. Haman hated Mordecai because Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman, so Haman plotted to destroy the Jewish people. In a speech that is all too familiar to Jews, Haman told the king, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your realm. Their laws are different from those of every other people’s, and they do not observe the king’s laws; therefore it is not befitting the king to tolerate them.” Esther 3:8. The king gave the fate of the Jewish people to Haman, to do as he pleased to them. Haman planned to exterminate all of the Jews.

Strawberry filled

Mordecai persuaded Esther to speak to the king on behalf of the Jewish people. This was a dangerous thing for Esther to do, because anyone who came into the king’s presence without being summoned could be put to death, and she had not been summoned. Esther fasted for three days to prepare herself, then went into the king. He welcomed her. Later, she told him of Haman’s plot against her people. The Jewish people were saved, and Haman and his ten sons were hanged on the gallows that had been prepared for Mordecai.

And here is the recipe she sent:

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups butter or margarine, softened
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 6 tablespoons orange juice
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 (12 ounce) can poppyseed filling (people use raspberry or apricot jam, or even chocolate chips)

Refrigerate batter at least two hours.

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the orange juice and vanilla. Mix in the baking powder, then gradually stir in the flour until the dough forms a ball. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. I like to do mine overnight.
  2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
  3. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into 3 inch circles using a cookie cutter or drinking glass. Place circles on the prepared cookie sheets. Spoon 1 teaspoon of filling onto the center of each circle. (Any more and it will ooze out) Pinch the sides of each circle to form a triangle, covering as much of the filling as possible. The cookies may be frozen on the cookie sheets if desired to help retain their shape while cooking.
  4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until light golden brown. These are best undercooked slightly. Cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

    Chocolate chip, blackberry, strawberry and apricot filled cookies.

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Donut Maker Update

2 Mar
Babyckaes Donut Maker

My new toy!

Back in January I posted on my blog about our New Year’s Eve Donut Wars. At the time we’d just received our Babycakes Donut Maker and it was our very first time using it. Now that we’ve had it a couple of months, I thought I’d put out a quick update letting you know what we’ve tried since then.

First of all, I am still a huge fan of the donut maker. It’s so much fun to use. To date we have used it three more times since that first time.

We used it in January with a pumpkin spice donut mix that my mother-in-law brought with her when she visited. Before making them that time though, we went to AC Moore and I bought a pastry bag with a tip to use when filling the donut wells. MUCH easier than using a ziploc bag. Caroline has become a pro at filling the wells. I use that time to make the frosting so that we can frost them while they’re slightly warm.

Everyone had their own donuts to frost, their own bowl of frosting and their own spoon.

The next time we used it was for a triple playdate after school. Once the word about us having a donut maker got out, “everyone” wanted to come over and try it out. I decided to bite the bullet and let each kid have one friend over after school all in one day. We’d make the donuts and let the six kids frost them. So later on in January that’s what we did. Although I wasn’t sure if it’d be too much for me to keep organized, it worked out fine. I mixed up the batter and while Caroline filled the wells, her friend helped me make the frosting (a double batch of frosting seems to be enough for all the donuts that one recipe yields.) Then when we were ready to frost, I gave each girl a plate, four donuts to frost, and a bowl of frosting with a spoon. They could do whatever they wanted with their four but couldn’t share with each other (I didn’t want to share germs if they’d been licking their spoons, fingers etc.) I put a common area in the center of the table for sprinkles and decorations. It worked out great. They could then eat their donuts when they were done, or save them to take home, or whatever they wished. It worked out great.

The kids like being able to decorate their donuts however they want to. I try to have plenty of sprinkles out.

Another thing I did differently for the playdate this time from other times, was I used the recipe that came in the box for the Sour Cream Donuts rather than a cake mix, and the recipe for their Chocolate Frosting instead of a tub of frosting. Both were very, very good and easy to make. It made the donuts truly taste like donuts, rather than like cupcakes, which is what happens if you use a cake mix. Both work fine, but if you’re looking for that donut taste, definitely try out their recipes.

Separate work stations for each kid seems to work out great; no cross contamination!

The next time we used it was for a cousins sleepover. We had one of our cousins sleep over during February Vacation Week and we thought it would be fun to make donuts with her for our movie night, and we were right, it was fun!

I used the exact same two recipes and did it the same way, with Caroline filling the wells while I made the frosting. I still kept it to four donuts per kid and we had more leftover, which I sent home with our cousin for her brothers.

Overall, we’ve really enjoyed the Babycakes Donut Maker! We’ve got Alex’s birthday coming up soon and she’s already said that she’d like donuts instead of cupcakes this year, so I’ll take it out again for that, if not sooner. I’m also anxious to try out the other recipes in their booklet. There’s a chocolate donut recipe, a maple donut recipe as well as vanilla glaze and maple glaze frosting recipes. Grandma Rose loves maple glazed donuts so we might just surprise her one day with some.

Now…if I could just get the Babycakes Cake Pop Maker……:)

Here are a couple of other “finished product” photos from our donut making experiences.

The "after" shot.

If you run out of or don't like frosting, there's always powdered sugar on top which is yummy!

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Did you survive February Vacation Week? Reward yourself!

24 Feb
Vanilla pudding dessert with vanilla wafers, strawberries and bananas

A perfect treat for the end of the week!

It’s Friday!

Did you survive the week?

If so, treat yourself to a super-simple dessert that I found on Pinterest (been on there yet??) and just had to pin for future use. The future came sooner than later! If you click on the underlined words above, it’ll take you right to the blog post where I got the recipe from.

In the past, I’ve mixed vanilla wafers, vanilla pudding and bananas for a treat before, but this recipe just looked so much better because she served it in mason jars, and I just so happened to have mason jars downstairs, sitting there doing nothing.

I also happened to have both bananas and strawberries, which in my opinion go so well together, so I figured I’d throw some of those in as well.

I got my ingredients at Aldi's, including the bananas, the strawberries and the milk.

To make this, I used two small packages of instant vanilla pudding, just as I would to make pudding for my family usually, plus three bananas and almost the entire package of strawberries. I don’t have a specific number of vanilla wafers to tel you that I used, but I made six mason jars worth of dessert, so I used almost the whole package of vanilla wafers. I just threw them into a gallon-sized ziploc bag and used my rolling pin to crush them up.

You have to let the pudding chill once it’s mixed, so I mixed it first and did the other ingredients next. Once it was sufficiently solid, I started my assembly line of layering the ingredients in the jars.

mason jars

Assembly line layering worked best for creating this dessert.

The layering was easy. I simply layered the vanilla wafers first, then the pudding and the fruit. I did another layer of wafers, a little more pudding and fruit and then whipped cream on top with a couple of strawberries for a garnish. If you have any of those nice long iced tea spoons, they are the perfect utensil to use for eating this type of dessert.

This is also the kind of thing that doesn’t keep well, so once you make it, you have to eat it right away or else the vanilla wafers get soggy inside the jars and obviously you can’t refrigerate it with the cream and strawberries on top either!

I think it’s a perfect dessert for company, for summertime, or….for the last day of February Vacation!! I also saw a comment on the original post that said someone put in mini chocolate chips too! Wouldn’t *that* be yummy?! I didn’t have any, but it’s on the list for next time!

I bet your mouth is watering right now!

Enjoy!

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A February Vacation treat so easy even your kids can make it!

23 Feb
Rice Krispie treat cookie cutter snacks

Caroline has been dying to try making this snack for months apparently!

My kids have definitely inherited my creative bug. They like to craft and bake all the time. They’re constantly looking in their magazines for recipes, crafts and games. I can’t keep up with all of the things they find that they want to make, try or do, in addition to all the things I want to make, try and do. (And, can I just say, it’s a good thing none of my kids are on Pinterest yet. They’d be addicted!)

Apparently way back in the fall Caroline found a snack she wanted to try out and allegedly I gave my standard answer of “We’ll see,” or maybe it was “Yup, but not today,” and forgot all about it.

Alex told me that this day was her favorite day ever because she got to paint AND play Playdoh both on the same day. Both make for good, relaxing vacation day fun!

Saturday she came up to me out of the blue and asked if she could please make this snack for her sisters, who were painting and playing play doh. She reminded me that she’s been asking me since October and that I keep brushing her off for one reason or another. This time I really had no reason to say no. I mean there was already a mess in the dining room, what’s one more activity going on in the kitchen? (And I must say, she didn’t even make a mess, she was very neat.)

Painting, like coloring, is a relaxing and engaging activity for kids of any age.

She went in and didn’t allow anyone else in there the entire time she was working, so I don’t have a ton of details for you. What I do know is that at some point on the TLC show, “Cake Boss,” she saw Buddy, the Cake Boss himself, take Rice Krispie Treats and flatten them out, using cookie cutters to make them into shapes, then frosting them to add to their cake creations. We happened to have a package of individual serving Rice Krispie treats in our snack box for school snacks. Caroline took “a whole bunch of those, there’s not too many left Mom,” and rolled them into balls together. Next, using a pizza dough roller, she rolled them out to a more workable thickness and used a variety of cookie cutters to make them into shapes. She then used several of my frostings, icings and other decorative treats to create cute little snacks for her sisters to eat when they were done with their crafting fun.

Decorated Rice Krispie Treat snacks

I was proud of Caroline for trying out this cute snack for her sisters.

Everyone stayed busy that afternoon, everyone loved the special snack, and Caroline was so proud of herself. I was proud of her, and glad I’d finally said yes, even though I only vaguely remember being asked to begin with!

I can definitely recommend this as a snack that kids can make in the kitchen themselves, with little to no help, depending on their ages. It’s not a particularly healthy snack, but it’s a fun treat and makes for a fun afternoon! If you’re looking for something to keep your kids occupied this February Vacation week, try out Caroline and Buddy’s Rice Krispie Treat snack!

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Vanilla Rich Chocolate Chip Cookies

17 Feb

This chocolate chip cookie recipe is definitely a keeper!

A few months ago I came across an advertisement by McCormick for their pure vanilla. It came with a recipe for Vanilla Rich Chocolate Chip Cookies. As I looked at the recipe I noted that it called for 4 tsp. of vanilla, much more than usual for vanilla, and I promptly tore it right out of the magazine for future use.

It’s funny, with all the recipes I have and all the cookbooks I have, I’ve never found a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that is “my” specific, always-go-to-recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies. This recipe might just be it. I tried it out recently because I wanted to make cookies for a friend’s 40th birthday. She’s someone who is always “there” and never asks for anything in return. I decided that I’d make her a plate of 40 chocolate chip cookies and this is the recipe I used. Even though I made 40 for her, I still had another two dozen or so left for us. This recipe made a ton.

The cookies are delicious. I like hard, crunchy chocolate chip cookies and of course I like vanilla, butter and brown sugar. This recipe had it all! I will say though, as much vanilla was in them, it wasn’t an overpowering taste and it didn’t seem like it had as much vanilla as I knew it did! Try them and see how you like them!

INGREDIENTS

3 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1 1/3 cups butter, softened

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

4 tsp. McCormick Pure Vanilla Extract

1 pkg. semisweet chocolate chips

(This recipe also calls for 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, which we don’t use.)
DIRECTIONS

Mix flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl.

Beat butter and sugars in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. (I used my Kitchen Aide Mixer.)

Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well.

Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed.

Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Drop by rounded tablespoons about 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake in preheated 375 degree oven 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. (Mine took more like 11-12 minutes but I always set for ten minutes and then increased by one minute intervals.)

Remove to wire racks; cool completely.

Makes 5 dozen.

Cool on baking sheets one minute.

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After school snack: Homemade Granola Bars x2

16 Feb

This was the first time that I thought to use a pizza stone for them, and I wish I'd done it sooner. Made it much easier to cut them.

A few years back I came across a recipe in the newspaper for “Becky’s Homemade Granola Bars.” Through the years I’ve made them a variety of ways. My kids always love them for an after school snack, and the last time I made them Elizabeth came home and saw them and said, “Oh Mommy I was thinking about these ALL day at school, and I didn’t even know you were going to make them today!” Score one for Mom…

This recipe is one you can make a variety of ways, using whatever you have in the house really. I’ve done craisins, raisins, chocolate, and even snuck in carrots once or twice with the raisins. I actually loved those, nice and sweet.

Here's what happens when I don't take the photo quick enough...an empty plate!!

One time when I made them,  I didn’t have half the stuff on the list so I made up my own, using her original as a basis for it. They came out great, best I’d ever made. I don’t always do them the same way, either. I almost always double her original recipe to make lots.

So below are the two recipes, mine first, and then Becky’s below that. Two for the price of one.

Jen’s Chocolate Craisin Granola Bars
INGREDIENTS
2 cups Oatmeal (Quick Oats)
1/3 cup Wheat Flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 package Craisins
2/3 cup chocolate chip (I use semi sweet)

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter
1/4 cup honey

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Mix first five ingredients in a large bowl together.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, mix butter, honey and brown sugar, stir.

Pour hot ingredients from saucepan over the dry ingredients in large bowl. (This will melt the chocolate chips.) Stir until completely mixed.

Pour out onto a cookie sheet and flatten out until even all the way across the pan in both directions. There may not be enough mixture to spread right to the edge of the pan but it’ll get pretty close.

Bake 20-22 minutes, check at 20 minutes. You’ll kind of be able to see the edges crisp up. With them being chocolate colored, it’s hard, but you can still tell. Cool completely in pan and cut or break into bars.

Next….

A nice big bowl is needed to mix all the ingredients together.

Becky’s Granola Bark (my notes in parenthesis.)
INGREDIENTS
1 cup oats
1 cup sliced almonds (I’ve used pureed almonds, 1/3 cup.)
1/2 cup coconut flakes (I never used them I don’t like coconut)
1/4 cup wheat germ
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons honey

other mix-ins could could include pumpkin puree, carrot puree, raisins. (As I mentioned above, I particularly like the raisin and carrot combo, makes it sweet.)

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 325 degrees.

In a bowl mix together dry ingredients. Set aside.

In small saucepan combine butter, honey and brown sugar.

Pour over oat mixture and stir to combine.

Spread on cookie sheet and bake 20 minutes.

Let cool completely in pan and cut or break into pieces.

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