Granola Bars

After weeks of making granola from several recipes found on line I finally gave up and decided to try granola bars.  I made this recipe not too sweet and not to decadent so it can be eaten at breakfast. It is also very pliable.  It can be made gluten free, vegan, and you can add other ingredients pretty easily.      

      I used butter (which could be subbed with earth balance or margarine), sugar, honey and molasses (or just molasses),  vanilla (optional), gluten free quick cooking oats,  ground pecans,  unsweetened coconut, and chocolate chips or some sort of fruit.

Mixing all the ingredients

 The first step is to melt the butter, sugar, honey and molasses together. Then add the vanilla, oats, nuts,coconut, and chocolate chips to the mix. Next you put the mixture into a prepared pan, pressing evenly, and bake for 22 minutes, then wait five minutes to cut into the bars and then another hour to cool and break apart completely. After that they can be stored on the counter in an air tight container. They don't last even a week around these parts!

Pressed into pan

Finished baking

Cut into bars

Here is the recipe !

1/2 cup of butter

1/2 cup of sugar

2 tablespoons of honey

2 tablespoons of molasses

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 cups of quick cooking oats

1/3 cup of ground nuts

2 cups of unsweetened coconut

1/3 cup of chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 º and prepare an 11 x 8 pan by buttering and then layering with parchment paper, once lengthwise and once crosswise.

      Then melt the butter with the sugar, honey, and molasses. Add the vanilla and stir. Add the rest of the ingredients. It will look dry but will be some what sticky. Then pour the ingredients into the prepared pan and press evenly. Sprinkle with extra coconut and chocolate chips and put in the oven for 22 minutes. Take the granola bars out and then let sit for five minutes. After five minutes cut into 14 bars. Then let sit for about an hour before removing the bars from the pan.

Simple syrups

I like to make simple syrups. They are easy to make, and add different flavor dimensions to drinks and other foods. A simple syrup is usually equal parts sugar and water with some sort of flavoring. I like to use a bit less of sugar and lots of spices. The two I have give here as examples are a lavender syrup and a chai syrup. Other ones that I have made are a rosemary and sage simple syrup and a juniper berry and sage simple syrup.
The first syrup for this blog is the lavender simple syrup.
I used one and a half cups of water, a half cup of sugar, and one and a half tablespoons of lavender.

I combined all the ingredients and heated it on the stove until the sugar dissolved. I then bring it to a boil and then simmer it for 15 minutes. After that it steeps for another 15 minutes. Once it cools I strain the lavender out and pour it out into a mason glass.
This syrup is good in mixed drinks, lemonades, and with earl grey tea.

Another syrup I like to make is the tealess chai syrup from Entertaining for a Veggie Planet by Didi Emmons. I make chai tea and sometimes add it to my mixed drinks from time to time.
I use raw honey, cloves, star anise, cardamon pods, and fresh ginger, mix it with water, stir it and then bring it to a boil. Then it simmers for an hour, making the whole house smell like a big cup of chai tea !
 After it cools I strain it into two mason jars .

Not as Dense Brownies

The last brownie blog that I posted was, admittedly, a very dense brownie which some people like. Others prefer a less dense brownie, so this blog post is for those who like the slightly fluffier brownie.

This recipe is a variation from the Alpha-Bakery Gold Medal Flour Cookbook found under F is for Fudge Brownie.

This recipe is simple and only uses one pan for prep and one for cooking. I follow the recipe, except that I add about 1- 2 Tablespoons of Cocoa, depending on how "chocolately" I want the brownie to be.
The ingredients are a half a stick of butter, I use unsalted, 6 oz of chocolate chips, sugar, flour, vanilla, baking powder, salt, eggs, and chocolate chips and nuts if you want.
As a note, I tried using Sunspire chocolate chips in this recipe, but it made it have an odd texture so I suggested just using Hershey's or Nestlés for these.

The first step is to melt the chocolate chips with the butter at a low heat, then after it melts  take it off the heat and add all the other ingredients and stir.

 Scrape the batter into a buttered 8x8 pan and bake it at 350° for about 20 minutes. Let sit for about a half hour, and then you may have a less dense brownie.