Honey Granola Bars

This might be the healthiest thing I've ever made. Seriously. If ingredients like wheat germ, and sunflower seeds scare you, then maybe you should skip past this and come back another day. But if you're open to things that don't start with a stick of butter, try these granola bars!

Rosh HaShanah Desserts

A week from today, at sundown, is the Jewish holiday of Rosh HaShanah. Marking the new year, Rosh HaShanah is one of the most important days in the Jewish calendar. And, like all Jewish holidays, it's marked with a celebration of food! There are some weird food customs, such as eating/having on the table the head of a fish/sheep (we prefer to dissect jelly fish). Pomegranates are popular, as their seeds are said to correspond to the number of commandments. There are also several foods that are good omens for the new year based on their names, like carrots, gourds, leeks, beets, dates and - fenugreek. What? Yeah I don't know either. And there is the seminal classic - apples and honey - to guarantee a sweet new year.

Well, only a few of those ingredients interest me. So, here are some suggestions for the upcoming holidays:

1 - Apple Pie

2 - Carrot Muffins
3 - Honey Cake

4 - Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Meringue

5 - Alsatian Apple Tart

6 - Apple Cinnamon Bundt Cake
And I'm not done yet! Check in later this week for a sweet apple galette, and a delicious chocolate babke. I know I'm going to be eating for three days straight - are you? PLUS - I have a birthday coming up soon, and some interesting childhood photos to share. Stick around - it's going to be a fun week!

Honey Cake and a New Year

This weekend is the Jewish holiday of Rosh HaShanah - which means the new year - and one of the traditional foods eaten is Honey Cake. Honey is used as an ingredient to ensure a "sweet new year."
Now, I confess, I don't really like honey cake. It just isn't my thing. But my brother loves it, and when I saw smitten kitchen's recipe for "Majestic and Moist Honey Cake," I figured I would give it a shot. With some substitutions.
Here's the thing though. The original recipe makes 3 loaf pans, or a 9x13" pan, or 2 8 inch pans...you get my drift. I really wanted to make a loaf for some inexplicable reason, and not only do I only have one loaf pan, but I am also bringing this on public transportation, and one loaf seemed like the right size for somebody who doesn't like honey cake.

So I did something bad. I cut the recipe by 2/3. It probably wasn't the best idea. It resulted in some 1/3 of a teaspoon of that and 6 tablespoons of this. And of course some fudging. But I was hoping it would be forgiving.
Another thing - the cake sank in the middle. It sank for Ms. smitten kitchen (OK, her name is Deb), and for many of her readers, and it sank for me too. After reading this I meant to decrease the leavening I used, but somewhere in the third-ing it never happened. But I don't really mind.
Anyway back to those substitutions. The recipe called for a few things I didn't have on hand. Like orange juice. However I did find some peach flavored grape juice in the back of my fridge. And in it went. And somehow, among the spices I've accumulated over the years - which include five containers of cinnamon, four onion powders and two paprikas - I have no allspice or ground cloves. I looked, I promise. So I upped the cinnamon a little and threw some nutmeg in instead. The recipe also called for some rye or whiskey, which I definitely don't have, so I just added more of the tea.

You'd think after all the questionable math and the eyebrow-raising substitutions this would be awful. I kind of thought it would be. But it really wasn't. Even me, professed honey cake hater, was impressed by the moistness and flavor of the cake. If you really hate honey cake, you're not going to love this, but it's certainly an improvement over any others I have. That's not to say that if faced with a piece of honey cake and a chocolate chip cookie, I wouldn't pick the cookie.

Tip of the Day: Small amounts of liquid in recipes can often be substituted with little problem (be a little more cautious with milk) - so try switching things out for new flavor combinations - orange and lemon juice, whiskey, brandy, tea - you never know what you can create.

Recipe: (from smitten kitchen)
Note: I am providing the original recipe, which fits in 3 loaf pans, 2 9-inch round pans, 2 8-inch square pans or 1 9x13" pan. In brackets are the quantities I used, for one loaf pan.

3 1/2 cups [1 cup plus 3 tbsp] flour
1 tbsp [1 tsp] baking powder
1 tsp [1/3 tsp] baking soda
1/2 tsp [dash] kosher salt
4 teaspoons [1 1/2 tsp] ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon [sprinkle] ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon [sprinkle] ground allspice
1 cup [1/3 cup] vegetable oil
1 cup [1/3 cup] honey
1 1/2 cups [1/2 cup] granulated sugar
1/2 cup [ 3 tbsp] brown sugar
3 [1] eggs
1 tsp [1/3 tsp] vanilla extract
1 cup [1/3 cup] warm coffee or strong tea
1/2 cup [3 tbsp] orange juice
1/4 cup [1 1/2 tbsp] rye or whiskey

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and allspice (or nutmeg).
Make a well in the center and add in sugars, oil, honey, eggs, vanilla and liquids.
Whisk together until all ingredients are moistened.
Pour into well-greased pan(s) and bake on 350F following these directions:
Loaf pan: 50-55 minutes
9x13, 8 or 9-inch: 40 to 45 minutes
Tube or bundt pan: 60 to 75 minutes.

Chewy Brown Sugar Bars

I don't like nuts. Peanuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios. I don't like 'em. Peanut butter -now that's another story. Can't get enough of it - creamy of course. It's just something about the texture of nuts - it's weird, not like anything else - that I can't take. Which may sound weird, considering I've been known to enjoy a piece of tofu now and that, but it is what it is. That said, I'm constantly coming across recipes with chopped nuts - and finding ways to innovate.

These were originally called Brown Sugar and Honey Pecan Bars (recipe here), but of course I lost the pecans. So they became Chewy Brown Sugar Bars. With rice krispies!

For this recipe, I used something I rarely bring out for baked goods. This baby:

For the base of this cookie, I pulsed together the flour, sugar and salt, and then added the butter to create a very crumbly mix. It could probably be done without the food processor, but with alot more work.

Anyway, after I pressed the mixture into the bottom of a 9x13" pan, and baked it for 20 minutes. While that was baking, I made the top part, by melting butter and adding in salt, brown sugar and honey, and let it simmer for one minute. After removing it from the heat, I added cream, vanilla, and where I should have mixed in pecans, rice krispies.

(Here is normally where I would show you pictures of those steps. But I was actually on the phone when they occurred, and while I can manage to multitask enough to bake and talk at the same time, I can't quite bake, talk and photograph.)
After you spread the mixture on top of the base, it bakes for another 18 minutes. Then let it cool to room temperature, and stick it in the fridge to firm up.

After I left it in the fridge for a while, I pulled it out to cut into bars.


I even had to take a break it the middle it was tough. I used a big chef's knife to cut through it easily. And of course I had to taste the corner. It was good - like nothing really I've made before. The top was chewy and had a nutty-brown sugar/honey taste. I liked the two different layers - the cookie bottom and the chewy top. I think that they actually got chewier as time went by - there was definitely a noticeable change in the texture after a day.

Tip of the Day: Brown sugar is always measured as a "packed" cup - which means you press the sugar down into the cup with your fingers to make sure it's as full as possible.

Recipe: (from Cookie Madness)

Crust:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsps cold butter, diced

Filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3 tbsps honey
1 tbsp whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup rice krispies (or coarsely chopped pecans)

Crust:

Mix flour, brown sugar and salt.

Add butter and mix until coarse crumbs.

Press into the bottom of an 8 inch foil lined pan and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Filling:

In a saucepan, melt the butter, and stir in the sugar, salt and honey. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and cream. Stir in rice krispies or pecans.

Pour over crust and bake for another 18 minutes. Remove and let cool for an hour on a rack before refrigerating until firm. Cut into bars.