Oat-Date Bars

In my continuous search for alternatives to commercial granola bars, I decided to try out another recipe from Whole Foods, one of my favorite source for "healthy" cookies and the like. For both their taste and lack of artificial ingredients, Larabars are one of my favorite commercial granola bars, and they use dates as one of the primary binders. These simple bars also use dates to help bind the bars together, imparting structure and sweetness, though they get a little help from egg as well. Sweet, sticky dates are a splendid companion to nutty whole wheat flour and together with chewy oats and for a satisfying and quick to prepare, albeit tame, healthy snack.

As is my typical strategy, I started with the original recipe, but I immediately saw myriad possibilities for adding flavor and nutrition to this solid snack bar foundation (dried fruit, seeds, nuts, flax, coconut, honey, maple syrup, spices etc.) but this recipe's greatest attribute is its potential for adaptation and that's what makes it worth sharing. As I'm constantly telling other people (and doing myself), experiment! Too many people are fearful of making mistakes while cooking and baking, but sometimes in the culinary arts, just as in science, errors often create the most amazing results, and even if they don't, you've learned something for next time.

Oat-Date Bars
adapted from Whole Foods
makes 10 bars

2/3 cup chopped pitted dates, divided
1/2 cup water
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups quick-cooking oats(or old-fashioned oats for an especially chewy bar)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 375°F and grease an 8 x 8-inch baking pan. In a blender, combine 1/3 cup of the dates and water; blend until very smooth. Add egg and blend just until combined. In a medium bowl, combine oats, flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt and whisk until combined. Add date-and-water mixture and remaining 1/3 cup chopped dates; stir until moistened.

2. Scrape into prepared pan, level the top with a spatula, and bake until firm and lightly browned around the edges, about 17 minutes. Cool in the pan and cut into 10 bars. Bars keep in an airtight container for about a week. They can also be individually wrapped and frozen until ready to eat; allow about 2 hours for them to thaw.

Butternut Squash Bars with Cranberries and Walnuts

Did you get a chance to make Pumpkin Raisin Oatmeal Cookies for a healthy snack last week? If you didn't have time or that particular squash isn't your cup of tea, let me offer up another suggestion-Butternut Squash Bars with Cranberries and Walnuts. The original recipe contains white chocolate and an excessive amount of sugar, but I've scaled these back to a slighty sweet snack rather than a saccharin dessert. The sweet butternut squash beautifully complements the nutty whole wheat flour, rich walnuts, and sweet and tangy dried cranberries in these delightful little bars, perfect with a cup of tea. The dark brown sugar and butternut squash add just enough sweetness to make these feel like a treat, but the whole wheat flour, dried cranberries, and walnuts make these filling and nutritious enough to serve as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon boost or late night guilt-free nibble. If you decide to take these bars on the dessert route, add just a bit more sugar and perhaps some (dark) chocolate, if you like, for a delicious fall treat.


Butternut Squash Bars with Cranberries and Walnuts
adapted significantly from Whole Foods
makes 12 bars

4 tablespoons melted butter, plus more for greasing pan
1 1/2 cups peeled and grated butternut squash
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan with butter or canola oil spray; set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, toss together squash, flour, cranberries, walnuts, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. In a large bowl, whisk sugar and eggs together until pale and thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in butter and vanilla, then add flour mixture and stir together just until combined.

3. Transfer to prepared pan and bake until just set in the middle and golden brown around the edges, about 30 minutes. Set aside to let cool, then cut into 12 squares and serve.

Carrot-Oat Cake

I love dessert, and any day that includes some sort of indulgence is all the better for it in my opinion. Like the cookies I made last week, this cake is a way to indulge my sweet tooth but still sneak in some quality nutrition along the way. This cake is flavorful, moist, and everything I want in a snack during my morning break at work, but also healthy enough for breakfast or sweet enough for dessert.  If you're concerned about the amount of sugar in this recipe from the 1 cup of maple syrup (or simply don't want to use so much an expensive ingredient), substitute half of the maple syrup with unsweetened applesauce; honey could also be used in lieu of the maple syrup, also in combination with applesauce, if desired. Personally, I'm a sucker for anything with (real) maple syrup so I wouldn't want to subtract any of that wonderful maple flavor and aroma from this cake. Taking a few minutes to savor a cup of tea, this delicious cake, and a bit of calm goes a long way to breaking up the work day and keeping my sanity when things get hectic.

Carrot-Oat Cake
from Whole Foods
makes one 9x9-inch cake

Natural cooking spray
1 cup rolled or quick cooking oats
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups grated carrots
1 cup pure maple syrup
1 cup dried currants
1/2 cup unsweetened finely shredded coconut
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly oil a (9-inch) square baking pan with cooking spray and set it aside.

2. Pulse oats and walnuts in a food processor until coarsely ground. Transfer to a large bowl. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt and mix well. In a second large bowl, combine carrots, maple syrup, currants, coconut and vanilla. Add carrot mixture to flour mixture and stir until completely incorporated. Transfer to prepared pan and bake until cooked through and deep golden brown, about 1 hour. Set aside to let cool before cutting into squares.

Chocolate Chip Oat Bars

For the past two weekends I've been making desserts on the healthier side, so this weekend I decided I was allowed to make something a bit more indulgent, although in the grand scheme of desserts, these aren't so bad. Made with whole wheat flour, old-fashioned oats, and heart-healthy pecans and dark chocolate, these bars are full of indulgent flavors without being completely unhealthy. These bars would also be good with walnuts or other nuts, and dried fruit in place of some or all of the chocolate chips.

Chocolate Chip Oat Bars
adapted from Whole Foods

Nonstick cooking spray
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (I like Ghiradelli 60% Cacao chips)
1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a (9-inch) baking pan with cooking spray; set aside.

2. Put butter and sugar into a large bowl and mash together with a fork until well combined. Add eggs and vanilla and stir well. In a separate medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture in thirds, alternating with the milk. Stir in oats, chocolate chips and pecans until combined then transfer batter to prepared pan, smooth out evenly and bake until golden brown around the edges and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Set aside to let cool then cut into squares and serve.

Blondies

I knew this recipe would be good when I saw that it had 4 teaspoons of vanilla extract (the 12 tablespoons of butter couldn't hurt either). I am of the opinion that one, you MUST use pure vanilla extract and not imitation vanilla flavoring, and two, it never hurts to add a little more to a recipe. I know that pure vanilla extract is far more expensive than imitation vanilla flavoring, but it is definitely worth it. The last time I bought vanilla extract at a grocery store I believe it was $3.99 or so for a 2 oz. bottle, while imitation vanilla extract was $0.99 for a 4 oz. bottle and that's why I don't buy it at the grocery store anymore. At Sam's Club you can buy a 16 oz. bottle for only $6.48! I think I get my Sam's Club membership's worth from vanilla extract and tires alone. I've never checked out Costco, so they might have a great deal like that as well. But I'd still buy pure vanilla extract over imitation vanilla flavoring any day, even at grocery store prices.

Now, as much as I adore America's Test Kitchen, I don't follow all their recommendations, mostly because I'm lazy. Because weighing is more accurate the measuring out ingredients, the America's Test Kitchen Baking Book provides weights for many of the ingredients. Despite the fact that I have a digital kitchen scale, I still use measuring cups. Although toasting nuts gives them a deeper flavor, I don't always do it, usually because I don't have the time. The foil sling works well if you're going to remove the bars from the pan you baked them in for cutting and serving, I rarely am, so I just make sure to grease my pans well. My 9x13-inch pan has a cover, so I see no reason to remove them from that pan to serve or store them. Why create extra dishes? It's also a rare occasion that I can wait until a baked treat is completely cool to try it, unless I need to frost it first. Who doesn't love a warm brownie or cookie?

Blondies
from the America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

1 1/2 cups (7 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups packed (10 1/2 ounces) light brown sugar
2 large eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup (3 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup (3 ounces) white chocolate chips
1 cup (4 ounces) pecans, toasted* and chopped

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13x9-inch baking pan with a foil sling** and grease the foil. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl.

2. In a large bowl, whisk the butter and sugar together. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla until combined. Stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Stir in the chips and nuts.

3. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake the blondies until a tooothpick inserted near the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 22 to 25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.

4. Let the blondies cool completely in the pan, set on a wire rack, about 2 hours. Remove the blondies from the pan using the foil, cut into squares, and serve.

*You can either toast nuts in a skillet or in an oven. To toast less than 1 cup of nuts (or seeds), heat them in a dry skillet over medium heat, shaking periodically to prevent burning, until the nuts are brown and fragrant, 3 to 8 minutes.

To toast a large quantity of nuts, spread the nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast in a 350-degree oven until they are browned and fragrant, 5 to 10 minutes. Shake the baking sheet every few minutes, keeping a close eye on them because it doesn't take long to go from toasted to burnt.

**To make a foil sling, fold or cut two pieces of aluminum foil so they are as wide as the baking dish, but longer. Lay the sheets of foil in the pan, perpendicular to one another, with the extra length of foil hanging over the edge of the pan. Push the foil so it is as flush with the pan surface as possible, ironing out any wrinkles and making sure to get it pushed into the corners. Grease the sides and bottom before you add the batter. When your bars are finished baking and cooling, you can easily lift the bars out of the pan using the foil overhang as handles to cut and serve them.

Pumpkin Bars

Although it pained me not to make a Thanksgiving feast this year, I had to at least bring something to Thanksgiving with my husband's family. At his request, I made pumpkin bars, one of his favorite treats. I would have chosen something much more complex if it had been up to me, but it turned out to be a wonderful thing that I only had to make these very simple (and delicious) bars amidst the rush of getting packed up and ready to go.

Pumpkin Bars
from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
4 eggs, beaten
1 15-ounce can pumpkin
1 cup cooking oil (I used canola)
1/2 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and cloves. Stir in the eggs, pumpkin, and oil until combined. Spread batter in an ungreased 15x10x1-inch baking pan.

2. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 2 hours. Spread with 1/2 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting. Cut into bars.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
5 1/2 to 6 cups powdered sugar

1. In a large mixing bowl beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in powdered sugar to reach spreading consistency. This frosts tops and sides of two 8- or 9-inch layers. Halve the recipe to frost a 13x9x2-inch cake.

Oatmeal Fudge Bars

Oatmeal Fudge Bars
from The America’s Test Kitchen Baking Book

Makes 16 bars

Old-fashioned oats may be substituted for the quick-cooking oats, although the bars will be more chewy.

CRUST AND TOPPING
1 c. (3 oz.) quick-cooking oats
1 c. packed (7 oz.) light brown sugar
¾ c. (3.75 oz.) all-purpose flour
¼ t. baking powder
¼ t. baking soda
⅛ t. salt
8 T. (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

FILLING
¼ c. (1.25 oz.) all-purpose flour
¼ c. packed (1.75 oz.) light brown sugar
2 t. instant espresso or instant coffee
¼ t. salt
1.5 c. (9 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips*
2 T. unsalted butter
1 large egg

*Although they’re not semisweet, I used Ghiradelli 60% cacao chocolate chips, as they were what I had on hand and I prefer darker chocolate.

Step 1. For the crust and topping: Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8-inch baking pan with a foil sling and grease the foil.
Step 2. Whisk the oats, brown sugar, flour, baking soda, and baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Stir in the melted butter until combined. Reserve ¾ c. of the oat mixture for the topping.
Step 3. Sprinkle the remaining oat mixture into the prepared pan and press into an even layer. Bake the crust until light golden brown, about 8 minutes. Let the crust cool completely on a wire rack, about one hour.
Step 4. For the filling: Whisk the flour, sugar, instant espresso, and salt together in a medium bowl. Melt the chocolate chips and butter together in the microwave, stirring often, 1 to 3 minutes. Transfer the chocolate mixture to a large bowl and let cool slightly. Whisk in the egg until combined. Stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated.
Step 5. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Spread the filling even over the cooled crust and smooth the top. Sprinkle with the reserved oat topping. Bake the bars until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached and the filling begins to pull away from the sides of the pan, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.
Step 6. Let the bars cool completely in the pan, set on a wire rack, about 2 hours. Remove the bars from the pan using the foil, cut into squares, and serve.

These bars are decadent and delicious and are definitely on my list of desserts to make again. It only takes one little square to satisfy a sweet tooth, but you may find yourself going back for seconds as I did.