Decadent bars searching for a name...

Hard to believe these bar cookies don't have a name...partly because I just made them up. They are a combination of two different bar cookies and the marriage worked very well ;-)

Sooo, if you can come up with a very clever name and I use it, I may just make you a batch of them !!

They are very gooey and dense, chewy and rich, packed with coconut, walnuts and chocolate chips.

Ingredients
The Crust:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup oat bran or rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2  tsp. salt

The Filling:
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1  cup shredded coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1) Preheat oven to 350 F.
2) Mix together all the crust ingredients thoroughly and press into 9 X 13 inch baking pan.

3) Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven.
4) In a mixing bowl combine the eggs, brown sugar, sweetened condensed milk, flour, baking powder, and vanilla, beat together.
5) Stir in the nuts, coconut, and chocolate chips and pour onto warm crust.

6) Bake for 25 minutes.
7) Here comes the hard part, you really should allow them to cool before you cut them into squares.

Didn't happen for this batch. They are sticky and very gooey if you try to cut them too soon Bob didn't care he wanted to sample them warm ;-)
They store well in the fridge or even in the freezer, if they last that long.

Hot Pepper Jelly

I have not been posting much lately, partly because I have not been making much new food.
And because I have been busy with other things, notably my husband turned 60 last week.
Some dear friends hosted a surprise party at their home. It was a blast !!

Here's a photo of the cake, chocolate cake, of course, from The Buttery. One chocoholic pronounced one of the best chocolate cakes he had even, I would agree, the secret was the ganache filling and frosting.

I did make hot pepper jelly this last weekend. I made it from some red bell peppers and hot pepper I had frozen last fall.

I find this works quite well. I really prefer my produce local thus in season so I do a lot of freezing when things are cheap and fresh from my farmer's market. For this jelly I freeze one recipe's worth of peppers per bag.

Hot Pepper Jelly

This cheery sweet, sour and hot jelly is a classic served over cream cheese with crackers or bread. It is also great on bagels, burritos or quesadillas. You can use it in salad dressing, in sauces or marinades. This jelly makes a wonderful gift.

Ingredients

2 red bell peppers chopped and seeded

4-7 hot red peppers, chopped, leave in as many seeds as needed for desired hotness

1 1/2 cup white vinegar

6 cups sugar

1 pouch of liquid pectin

Besides both kinds of peppers, you will need pectin, sugar and white vinegar.

1) Place all the chopped peppers and 1/2 cup vinegar in the food processor, whiz until blended.

2) Pour mixture into large pot, use the 1 cup remaining vinegar to rinse the food processor. Add to pot along with one pouch liquid pectin.

3)  Stir and heat over high flame until it begins to boil.

4) Once it is at a full rolling boil add 6 cups of sugar and stir well.

5) Once this comes to a boil, time for 1 minute. 

6) Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes before canning. This allows the bits of pepper to settle into the jelly and keeps them from all rising to the top of the jar.

7) Do the whole canning magic thing with sterilized jars, lids and canning kettle.

8) Do the hot water bath for 5 minutes, remove jars and allow to cool, check seals and store.

Yield 7-8 half pints

Carrot Cake

I was trying to come up with a dessert to make for my poker group last week...nothing was inspiring me. I looked into my fridge and saw all these beautiful carrots from the farmer's market. I have not made a carrot cake in a very long time, I have made those great vegan carrot cupcakes but my poker buddies are not vegan and I wanted cake !!

I did some research online, I wanted an easy carrot cake. I found a recipe by Betty Crocker of all people, did some modifications, of course and was very pleased by the results.

Laurie's Carrot Cake

Ingredients

Cake
1 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup canola oil
3 eggs
2 cups unbleached white flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cardamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups shredded carrots (5-7 medium)
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1/3 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup raisins

Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. honey
4 cups powdered sugar.


1) Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease a 9 by 13 inch pan. The original recipe says you can make this into a layer cake with two 8 or 9 inch round pans.

2) In large bowl, beat sugars, oil and eggs with electric mixer on low speed about 30 seconds or until blended.

 3) Whisk together in a bowl flour, spices, baking soda, and the salt.

 4) Add dry ingredients and a teaspoon vanilla to the wet mixture and  beat on low speed 1 minute.
5) Grate carrots to make 3 cups.

 6) Stir in carrots, nuts, coconut and raisins.

7) Pour batter into pan.

 8) Bake for 40 to 45 minutes for the 9 by 13 inch pan, 30 to 35 minutes for the round pans, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool rectangle in pan on cooling rack. Cool rounds 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

To make the frosting: beat cream cheese, butter, honey and vanilla with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, on low speed until smooth and spreadable. 

It really helps if the butter and cream cheese are at room temperature. I used Nancy's cream cheese which has less gum that the Safeway kind, so I didn't need the 2-3 teaspoons of milk the original recipe called for.

Tricks for frosting cakes: 
1) If the top is very bumpy, turn the cake upside down to frost.
2) Brush away the crumbs from the top and side with a pastry brush before you begin.
3) Always start at the top center of the cake and work outwards.

 4) Don't mess around too much, that just stirs up the crumbs. Use a few strokes to cover the cake.

5) Feel free to use edible plants to decorate around the sides. Mint is a great one.
 I would have done that except that my poker group is mostly guys who don't really care how it looks. It did get rave reviews !! It turned out moist, flavorful and while it was great frosted, could have done well without it too.

 

Recipe Updates: green soup, kale salad, granola, chocolate cake

As I make some of the recipes I have shared they have had their own evolution, I want to updates on a few of the recipes.

1) Let's start with green soup.

I have been making this soup a lot. It is great for lunch or a light dinner but my new favorite secret ingredient is....PARSNIPS !! You know those anemic, flaccid carrot shaped roots that most folks don't know what to do with ??... they are amazing to pureed soups of any kind. They lend a very smooth, creamy texture when cooked in liquid and pureed. I first had them years ago in a pear parsnip soup at some fancy museum cafe. I could not believe it was a dairy free soup. I tried making a version myself and was so impressed with their creamy texture.
So when you go to make green soup add two parsnips instead of the potatoes.

Remember that flourless chocolate cake ? I loved it's texture when I made it straight from my recipe but something was missing...then a friend gave me a bar of dark orange chocolate for Valentine's day.

I decided to use it in the smaller version of the cake recipe. It's wasn't quite four ounces so I added a little more regular dark chocolate and I add the zest from one orange. Wow, what a difference that made, the flavor deepened and the cake went from being good to great !! I'll bet other flavored chocolate bars will work too.

3) Massage Kale Salad is another recipe I have been using a lot. We ( Bob and I) have found we like it with lots of grated carrot and shredded cabbage and orange slices !

I have been using my lime infused olive oil in the dressing which pairs well with the orange.

4) Granola, when I posted the recipe I gave you the original recipe with some of my modification, the ingredient list has evolved even more. Here is the real version.

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 1 cup walnuts or pecans or some of both
• 1/4 pumpkin seeds
• 1/4 sunflower seeds
• 3/4 cup  unsweetened flake coconut
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup agave 
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 teaspoon salt