Not Just Anutter Breakfast Bar...

Today I decided to throw random things in a bowl, mix them together, pour the batter into an eight by eight pan, bake it at 350, and see if the results were any good.  I wanted to do something original; I was not in the mood for Adaptation Afternoon.  Of course, as you probably guessed, I wasn't going to throw completely random things together.  There was a skeleton of a plan:  enough structure to give me some direction, but not so much that if things took an unexpected turn I wouldn't be able to at least attempt to adapt. In other words, I didn't get my hopes up and I didn't get stuck on having things come out a certain way.  Good thing.  Might be a good idea for more than just baking, now that I think of it.  Hmmm.

Anyway, I wanted to make some kind of energy bar or bar-like cookie with some serious substance to it.  I have wanted to experiment with that type of recipe for years now and have never done it.  Several times I have gotten as far as spreading all the potential ingredients on the counter and preheating the oven, only to re-read whatever recipe I had and deem it not quite the right recipe and not quite the right time to throw random nuts and fruits and egg white into a bowl and see what came out.  Today was the day.

I read the ingredients on the Lara Bar package even though I already knew them:  dates, almonds, cashews.  I knew many of the nut/fruit bars use honey as a binder; I have seen recipes that use egg white as a binder.  Some bars are baked, some sit at room temperature to firm up, some require refrigeration (not sure what the point of that is - I want these things to be portable!).  I did not feel like pitting Medjool dates, delicious as they are.  I also did not feel like getting out the food processor and making a puree out of six different dried fruits.  Well, mostly it was the clean up I wasn't up for.  I just wanted to mix stuff together, spread it out in a pan, bake it, and have it be delicious.  I also wanted something with a little bit of softness to it, but not quite cakey softness.

It occurred to me to use a nut butter cookie dough as a base to bind everything together since I know it works.  Then I figured I could just throw in a bunch of different nuts and fruits until there were just about equal parts soft dough and hard/chewy pieces, unlike a typical bar cookie which has much more dough than pieces of stuff.  I also figured I would add an extra egg white to my nut butter dough as additional binder, use a bit less sweetener and a bit more salt to make the flavor less like dessert and more like Serious Substantial Snacking Tidbit.

So I went to work.  The batter tasted way too salty, but I hoped that as the nuts all baked and browned, that saltiness would be balanced by nuttiness and the depth of flavor imparted by using honey instead of sugar.  And it actually worked out that way.  Next time I might toast the nuts beforehand or at least let them come to room temperature (I got them out of the freezer and dumped them right in), but all in all, I'd say the bars are pretty tasty, not too sweet, not too crunchy, not too dessert-like.  Let me know how yours come out.  Oh, and if you happen to feel like pitting Medjool dates, or if you have other dates in your fridge, feel free to substitute those for all or part of the coconut and dried berries.  They'll add extra deliciousness, and you can never have too much of that, in baking, or in life.

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Philly Breakfast Cookie Bars

Ingredients
1/2 c. Gluten Free Flour blend (I put into a 1/2 c. measuring cup 1 TBSP potato starch, 1 TBSP arrowroot, and topped it off with sorghum, but you can use what you like. I don't recommend using 100% of any one flour though - mix it up)
1 TSP guar gum (or xanthan)
1/2 TSP cinnamon
1/2 TSP salt
1 TSP baking powder
1/2 c. cashew/almond/sunflower butter or a blend of those
1/2 c. honey
1 TBSP brown sugar
1/4 c. shortening at room temperature (or you can use butter - yum)
1 egg
1 egg white
1/3 - 1/2 c. flaked sweetened coconut (you can use unsweetened if you want)
1/3 c. chopped pecans
1/3 c. chopped walnuts
1/3 - 1/2 c. slivered/sliced/chopped almonds
1/3-1/2 c. dried cranberries (or dates or cherries or chopped apricots)

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350.
Generously grease the bottom and sides of an eight by eight or nine by nine inch pan.  I used palm shortening.
In one bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and guar gum.
In another bowl, using an electric mixer, blend together your nut butter, shortening, honey, sugar, and eggs until smooth.
Add the flour and beat on low speed until smooth.
Add the nuts and dried fruits one element at a time, folding each one in before adding the next.  Once you reach the 50-50 batter-nut saturation point, stop adding.
Spread your firm but sticky batter in the greased pan and pop it in the oven.
This will take about 20-28 minutes, so rotate the pan after 10 minutes, then check after another 10 and add time accordingly.  The edges should be deep golden brown and the center should spring mostly back when you press on it.  Because of the nut butter, the bar will firm up more as it cools, so if you want a chewier creation, take it out of the oven when the edges are golden brown and the center almost springs back but still seems a bit moist.

Enjoy!  Suggestions?  Tell me!

~GFG

Look Mom, No Gluten!

I am getting the hang of this gluten free thing.

I know what you're thinking.  More precisely, I know the thoughts that might follow the somewhat exasperated eyeroll that you usually reserve for incorrigible children but that you're giving me right now.  You're thinking, "Of course you're getting the hang of it, stupid!  You have nine hundred types of flour on hand at all times.  You HAVE time...obviously lots of time, all the time.  And you know what you're doing!  What about the rest of us with none of that?"

Well, I didn't always have nine hundred flours on hand at all times.  Or guar gum.  Or xanthan gum.  When I first started baking regularly, it was a luxury reserved for nights when I was still awake at 1:30am and feeling a second wind coming on...when I was totally comfortable with being sleep deprived all the time.  I had finally realized for certain that a lot of the things I was buying in stores were icky.  That's the technical term for it.  I didn't want to eat that stuff anymore.

I didn't know what I was doing any more than anyone else following a Buttermilk Quick Bread recipe for the first time does.  I dusted off memories of creaming butter from when I was a kid and used common sense from there.  I read and re-read the explanation of cutting in butter in the Joy of Cooking.  And Cooking Light.  And Better Homes and Gardens.  And at least two other publications, just to be sure I had the general idea based on the fact that my interpretations of ALL those texts were SOMEWHAT in agreement with one another.  Not kidding.

I blatantly ignored the word "cooled" when it followed "melted butter," because I thought it was dumb (based on...let's see...NOTHING).  After inadvertently and disgustingly scrambling eggs in what would have been delicious batters, I learned to look for that word "cooled" when it followed "melted blahblahblah" because it was a crucial piece of the chemistry of that particular baked good.

And this was all when I was using one kind of flour!  I made all kinds of mistakes cooking with wheat, learning the ups and downs of ingredients, learning my own likes and dislikes and strengths and weaknesses as a baker.

Then I started getting curious about the gluten free thing and whether it was even possible to do at home.  I had no idea what kind of flour to buy.  I read all the descriptions on all the Bob's Red Mill flours in Sprouts to see what they did, how they acted, and the recommended applications.  I took into consideration that while this was helpful information, I was still totally experimenting.  I read all about gluten and what it does.  I inspected all the baked stuff I ate, looking closely at the crumb of it, seeing if it tore like bread or crumbled like cake.  I sneaked pinches of wrapped scones and muffins in stores, gluten-free and regular alike, to see how much they bounced back and how dense they felt.  Crazy, right?

After all that, I realized I still had absolutely no idea how to make gluten free anything, so I might as well just start experimenting because no matter how many muffins I pinched, no matter how many times I read the back of the Quinoa flour, until I had mixed together a batter, I had no idea how anything was going to work.  Never mind the excessively dry climate I was cooking in.  And the horribly uneven oven.

My first experiment went extremely well.  I'm not sure where I'd be today if it had gone differently, to be honest.  Taking that Patriotic Pound Cake out of the oven, pressing on it, and gasping with delight and shock at its apparently successful execution was something I will always remember.  It was one of the most encouraging and affirming moments I've had.  Look Mom, no gluten!

I guess the point here is, Yes, I am getting the hang of it, but it has taken lots of time to get to the point where I'm confident enough to say that and even, gulp, write it.  Time is only one of the factors.  It takes patience, desire, and a whimsy reminiscent of what you might have felt if you ever made pretend soup when you were a kid.  You know the kind, where everything from frogs legs to rose petals to Tonka trucks went in and made a delicious, pinky-raising Pretend Feast.

When you're mixing up your flours, throw the ingredients in with that same kind of reckless abandon, I say.  Just use measuring cups and spoons.  Worst case scenario, you learn what doesn't work well together (buckwheat and quinoa - YUCK!!).  Best case scenario, you have a surprisingly yummy AND aesthetically pleasing goodie that you can't wait to share.
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Honey Glazed Pear Upside Down Cake
(adapted from In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite by Melissa Clark)

Before you start - it's best if you have a cast iron or other heavy duty stove-top to oven pan to make this.  She called for a nine inch pan; I used a much deeper eight inch pan and really liked how it came out.  The first time I made it I only had a ten inch pan, and it still came out well, just less tall and more chewy.  The most important quality for the pan to have is the ability to go from stove to oven and not blow up.

Ingredients
1/4 cup honey (I used Mesquite)
4 medium sized Bartlett pears (Bosc will work great too, but I used Bartlett because it was what I had)
Peel, core, and quarter the pears.  If they are really round, cut them into six pieces each.
1 scant cup of sugar
zest of 1 lemon
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 cup potato starch
1/4 cup arrowroot
1 teaspoon guar gum
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup sliced almonds (if you don't have them, don't worry about it)

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350.  Position a rack in the center.
In an eight or nine inch skillet, simmer the honey until it begins to reduce and caramelize, allowing it to bubble very slightly at the edges.
Arrange the pears in the pan in something approximating a circle, with the cut sides down.  You may have extra.  Chomp while you simmer the honey.

Simmer them until they begin to brown, about 12-15 minutes.
Turn all the pear pieces to the skin sides (when they had skin).  Put the pan in the oven and roast for about 25 minutes, or until the pears are tender and beginning to dry and brown a bit more.
Whisk together the sugar and lemon zest in a blow, then add in the eggs and vanilla.
Whisk all the flours, the baking powder, guar gum, and salt in another bowl.
Pour the flour into the wet ingredients and blend completely, then fold in the melted butter MINUS ONE TABLESPOON.
When the pears are done, take the pan out and brush the edges of the pears with that remaining tablespoon of melted butter.
Pour the batter evenly over the pears, then sprinkle the almond halves on evenly, if using.

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, turning the pan halfway through cooking.
Here is the hard part:  let the cake cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes, then gently run a paring knife or spatula around the edges to loosen it before you invert onto a plate.

Enjoy!

~GFG