Peanut Butter Chocolate Oat Bars

I am grateful for this internet age, where friends and family in any part of the world can hear about my travels and I'm able to keep up with what's going on at home. It eliminates a lot of culture shock transitions and homesickness. But right now, if my shift my eyes up from my computer to the bulletin board behind it, I'm greeted with letters and pictures from my loved ones. And there's almost nothing I cherish more than that. 

I mean, someone cares enough about me to sit down, shut the computer and actually handwrite something to me (sometimes even draw a picture, haha). How neat is that? That's pretty neat. 

Seriously, I really appreciate it. A physical, tangible reminder of a human connection. Can't get lost on the interwebs. These are what I'll remember years from now when I look back on this trip. 

If I could mail you some peanut butter chocolate oat bars across the sea I would, but for now, make them for yourself and think about me! They're incredibly easy to whip up and are perfect to satisfy a raging chocolate craving that comes out of nowhere around 8 pm. Not that I'd know anything about that....

Peanut Butter Chocolate Oat Bars

1 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups quick cooking oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup peanut butter 

(side note - I didn't use these exact measurements. Cups aren't a measurement here, everything is done by weight. Which is so much more accurate! So I messed around with my scale and tried to figure out how much each of these would weigh. Anyway, carry on)

Grease a 9x9 inch square pan.
Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar and vanilla. Mix in the oats. Cook over low heat 2 to 3 minutes, or until ingredients are well blended. Press half of mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Reserve the other half for topping.
Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter in a small heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently until smooth. Pour the chocolate mixture over the crust in the pan, and spread evenly with a knife or the back of a spoon.
Crumble the remaining oat mixture over the chocolate layer, pressing in gently. Cover, and refrigerate 2 to 3 hours or overnight. Bring to room temperature before cutting into bars.

White Chocolate + Almond Banana Bars

Don't ask me why I did it. Maybe it's to strengthen my food street cred. Maybe it's because I'm still at the age where trying food because you know it's bad is still appealing in a perverse sort of way. The point is, I ate lutefisk. And it was AWFUL. If you don't know, lutefisk is dried out fish re-hydrated in lye (which I wouldn't think is safe for consumption). It smells, and has the texture of mushy shrimp. Kind of gelatinous and stringy. *Shuddershudder*. 

We got into a small conversation about lutefisk in one of my classes today. Since Norwegians established my school, and lutefisk is a "traditional" Norwegian food, it's served for four days every year in the dining hall around Christmas. Everyone hates it. And very few Norwegians actually eat it, as it's kind of considered peasant food. When you had no other choice, lutefisk seemed pretty okay. Eating it today doesn't really connect us with modern Norwegian culture (and maybe it never did, since it's the food of poor immigrants). Anyway, if it's okay with you, I would like to talk about food that is actually delicious now. 

These banana bars do a fine job of washing the taste of lutefisk or anything else unsavory out of the mouth. Though the recipe called them blondies, they're somewhere between a bar cookie and a cake, and studded with almond slivers and white chocolate! They turned out a bit sweeter than I would like, so next time, cut back on the sugar a bit.

And if someone offers you lutefisk, say no. 

White Chocolate + Almond Banana Bars
adapted from Honey, What's Cooking?

1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 ripe, mashed bananas
2 cups flour
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup white chocolate chips 

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine butter and sugar until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth. Add bananas and blend again. Fold in flour, nuts and chocolate until no dry spots remain, but do not over mix. Pour batter into a greased 9x13 tray. Bake 20-25 or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Bars

Makes me sad: waking up before the sun rises
Makes me happy: taking a nap after class
Makes me nervous: economics tests
Makes me pleasantly surprised: getting points back on economics tests
Makes me upset: internet trolls
Makes me satisfied: being able to ignore internet trolls by taking a walk in the crispy fall air
Makes me scared: the moth that likes to bang on my window at night (don't judge)
Makes me laugh: haunted house employees (I also feel bad, like I'm ruining their jobs by laughing at them)

Does European butter make things tastier? Beats me. 

See? For every annoying, obnoxious thing that happens, there's probably an equal and opposite awesome thing out there. You just have to be open to finding it. I'm trying really hard to do that. It's working surprisingly well to keep the angst and stress levels down.

And if all else fails...you can always fall back on baking. Bonus points for something you've had your eye on for a long time. Triple your word score if you expect to burn/undercook it and it turns out perfectly. Seriously, I'm a little upset I waited so long to make these. Maybe it's because they seemed labor intensive (they aren't). Maybe because I was afraid of all the butter (silly me, butter is ALWAYS your friend). Layer of thick, soft cookie + layer of pumpkin pie-ish + cinnamon sugar + white chocolate. Guaranteed to make you speechless. 

Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Bars
from Dozen Flours 

Snickerdoodle Layer
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Pumpkin Pie Layer
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin

2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 oz white chocolate, chopped
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch pan and lay a piece of parchment paper across the pan, so that it extends the pan slightly. The parchment paper is an optional step, but it will make it easier to get the bars out later

To make snickerdoodle layer:
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. In large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth.

Stir in the flour mixture until well blended. Spread evenly in prepared pan (mixture will be thick and cookiebatter-ish.)

In a mixer bowl (you can use the same one you used to make the snickerdoodle batter) with a paddle attachment, mix together all ingredients until well combined. This layer will be less thick and more pourable. Pour over the snickerdoodle layer, smoothing out the top.

Combine white sugar and cinnamon in a little bowl. Evenly sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over the top of the batter.

Bake for 33-40 minutes (maybe more depending on your oven) or until a toothpick inserted into the *center* of the pan comes out clean. Let the bars cool completely (about an hour). They will deflate a bit and remain a bit pie-like on the top layer.
After the bars are completely cool, place the chopped white chocolate into a bowl or zip-lock bag and melt on low power. When it's completely melted, add the pumpkin pie spice and mix (or knead if using a zip lock bag). Use a spoon or cut a small corner off the bag and drizzle the melted chocolate over the top of the bars and let it cool and harden.

Use the parchment paper to lift the bars out of the pan. Place on a cutting board and cut into bars. Store in a covered container.

To Daniel - Yogurt Cereal Bars

Though I've had people I once loved fade out of my life in various ways, some more difficult than others, I have never lost lost someone I deeply cared for. It is a pain that I can't possibly comprehend. And when that person is a spouse or significant other, I think the heartbreak magnifies. This is a person you chose, out of all the people you've ever met, to remain faithful to. But sometimes that time is cut short. It's not fair and it doesn't make sense. But it happens.

You are so loved.

I've never met Daniel Saraga in real life. Our only encounters have been through the Secret Recipe Club. But he was always a friendly, welcoming, and vibrant personality. He ran a blog with his wife, Meredith, and I loved that a husband and wife could blend their different backgrounds in cooking together. For Meredith, this woman I have never met and probably never will meet, I am so sorry. Sorry for this devastating loss, and sorry that these words are inadequate. I wish I could take away your pain. No one deserves to feel this. Your love for each other was immediately apparent to anyone who visited your blog.

For my tribute, I chose something that Daniel and Meredith developed together for their young son. Yogurt and cereal bars – simple and sweet, but very deliberate, and filled with unconditional love. To Meredith and her children – hang in there. We're all sending so much love your way. I know I wish I could do more.

Yogurt and Cereal Bars

by The Haggis and The Herring

2 cups corn flakes
3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 tbsp flour

Preheat oven to 350-degrees.
Combine corn flakes, flour, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Cut in butter until coarse crumbs form.
Press half of the mixture firmly into the bottom of a greased 8-inch square pan.
Mix yogurt, egg and 2 tbsp flour in another small bowl.
Spread yogurt mixture over cereal mixture in pan and then sprinkle the remaining cereal mixture on top.
Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Let cool and cut into bars.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

Happiness is...eating nothing but ice cream and roasted corn for dinner. Campfire hair. Learning the ghost stories of your college campus. Getting tea in the mail. Having a huge crowd show up to your Taiko drumming performance. Happiness is having friends who love you and you love back.

Happiness is NOT getting burnt by the radiator. Sigh. Happiness is surprising your classmates with homemade peanut butter chocolate bars and luckily not having anyone in the class with a deadly peanut allergy! Yay! People seem shocked when you bring them food and it's not your birthday and you're not just pushing your scraps and leftovers on them. I just like to bake, that's all. 

These are basically the same recipe and my favorite family Christmas confection ever, peanut butter balls, but in bar form. So you get more at one time!! They're very reminiscent of a peanut butter cup. But if you want my opinion (which I assume you're at least mildly interested in if you're reading this)....they're better. Better than Reeses! You'll have to see for yourself. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

1 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

4 tablespoons peanut butter

In a medium bowl, mix together the butter or margarine, graham cracker crumbs, confectioners' sugar, and 1 cup peanut butter until well blended. Press evenly into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 inch pan.
In a metal bowl over simmering water, or in the microwave, melt the chocolate chips with the peanut butter, stirring occasionally until smooth. Spread over the prepared crust. Refrigerate for at least one hour before cutting into squares.

Cookie Dough Brownies

So I haven't been having a whole ton of luck with the oven in my new dorm. First problem–greasy foil lining the oven rack caused almost enough smoke to start the smoke alarm screaming. I scuttled away from the reproach of the other person in the kitchen in shame, clutching my half baked pumpkin bread. As much as I enjoy a piece of raw bread dough now and again, I don't want a whole loaf of it. 

I think the person whose cooking supplies are in this picture was the same one that scolded me, haha.

Attempt #2 - Make some pumpkin muffins with the bit of puree left from my failbread. Well, if you ever look at my facebook page, you saw how those turned out. I burnt the bottoms! What? I don't burn things, I underbake them! I was flabbergasted, but they were edible after I pulled the bottoms off. But not blogworthy. So I've been kind of scared to bake, understandably. 

Aw, pumpkin...Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!

But...it's one of my friend's birthdays. And I don't like showing up for birthdays without food, especially in college. No family around to make a cake for you. He requested "something chocolate". And so I faced my oven-nemesis once again. And things turned out great! It's hard to destroy something with a name like Cookie Dough Brownies. Layer of brownie + layer of eggless cookie dough (my personal favorite part). So it's your move, oven. But I'm ready for you. 

Cookie Dough Brownies
from Brown Eyed Baker

For the Brownie:
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups light brown sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
For the Cookie Dough:
¾ cup unsalted butter
¾ cup light brown sugar
¾ cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons whole milk
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups mini chocolate chips

1. Prepare the Brownies: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9×13-inch pan with foil, with enough to hang over all four sides. Butter the foil. In a medium glass bowl, melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30-second increments, stirring after each, until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool slightly. In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract, scraping the bowl as needed. Mix in the melted chocolate until combined. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour and mix just until combined (don’t over-mix). Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake 25 to 35 minutes (I ended up cooking mine for probably 19 minutes. It's a really hot oven, apparently), or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely.

2. Prepare the Cookie Dough: In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer on medium speed to combine the butter and both sugars. Add the milk and vanilla and mix until combined. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the flour just until combined. Using a rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate chips.
3. Spread the cookie dough over the cooled brownies. Refrigerate until the dough is firm, about an hour. Use a sharp knife or a pizza cutter to cut the brownies. Store the brownies in an airtight container at cool room temperature or in the refrigerator.