WEP '12, Day 56 - Cookie Bars

Right, so I've been playing around with a cookie bar recipe that's worked out reasonably well for me.  It goes like this:

1 Cup Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/8 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Cup Chopper Pecans
1/3 Cup Butter
1 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Milk Chocolate Chips
1/3 Cup Coconut (Optional)

Preheat the Oven to 350 degrees.
Sift the Flour.  Add the Baking Powder, Baking Soda and Salt, and sift again.  Add the Pecans and mix well.

Melt the Butter in a saucepan.  Add the sugar and melt them together.  Add the Vanilla and Beaten Egg and mix well.

Pour warm Sugar/Butter Mix into Flour bowl.  Mix.

While still warm, mix in 2/3 Cup of chocolate chips.  Stir until chops are melted and mixture has a brown color.

Mix in coconut (Optional)

Pour mixture into pre-greased 9 x 9 pan.

Sprinkle remaining 1/3 Cup Chocolate Chips over the top.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

You can double the recipe by doing it in a 9 x 18 pan.

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And there you have it.  Everyone seems to love these, and I do too.  Enjoy!

Write Everyday Project #26, Papa's Pineapple Bread (Cooking III)

So named because my niece Julia calls my father (her grandfather) "Papa" and one of his signature dishes "Papa Bread," here's a recipe for pineapple muffins that's popular in my family.

2 Cups Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 Cup White Sugar*
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
2 Eggs
1 1/4 Cups Crushed Pineapple (Half a 20 oz can)
1/2 Teaspoon Anise
1 Tablespoon Milk

Pre-heat an oven to 350 degrees.

Grease 12 Muffin Tins.  (We use Pam)

Sift together the Flour, Baking Soda, Baking Powder, and Salt.

Combine Sugar, Oil, Eggs, and Crushed Pineapple.  Stir well.

Slowly add the Flour mixture to the Pineapple mixture, stirring well as you do.

Add Anise.  Stir well.

Add Milk.  Stir well.

Fill 12 muffin tins to just under the brim of the cups.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.  Prep time 10-15 minutes.  30 minutes baking.  Total time 40-45 minutes.

* = Sweeten to taste.  "Papa" prefers to halve the sugar when preparing it for Julia, though this does make it kind of bland for adult eaters.

Write Everyday Project #21, Shake N Bake (Cooking III )

It's been months since I last had Shake N Bake chicken.  Finding myself with one packet of the stuff and some frozen chicken pieces, I decided to put it together in lieu of doing something more complicated.  It would also let me finish the box off.  So I did, and after having it for lunch, I've got one question.

Has Shake N Bake always been this greasy?

I mean, seriously, there was like a quarter inch of grease in the bottom of the pan when it finished baking!  Maybe my recent awakening into better cooking has allowed me to finally notice the details of what I've been eating, but man, how can something baked be so greasy?  Much as it tastes good...and it does...I think I'm going to lay off the stuff.  It just doesn't seem healthy.

Besides, there are more chicken recipes that I want to try....

Write Everyday Project #18, Game Day (Cooking II)

I've got a busy weekend, with a D&D game on Saturday and a Mutants & Masterminds game on Sunday.  Plus, if time allows, I'd like to watch Bear/Vikings Sunday night. Naturally, the thing to do is to make the weekend even busier by cooking for these events.

To that end, I'm going for three recipes.

The first is a Blondie Brownie .  I made these yesterday, with my own custom modifications.  To be precise, I switched the semi-sweet chips for milk chocolate, added more of them (about 1 cup and 1/4, since that finished off the bag) and put on a layer of coconut.  For some reason, maybe because of the thick layer of coconut, it took nearly twice as long as the 25 minutes listed in the recipe to bake properly. 

Though the initial reaction has been positive, and it does taste good, I wonder if I overdid it with the toppings.  It's virtually impossible to taste the vanilla of the blondie beneath all the coconut and chips, which makes putting as much effort as I did into the blondie itself seem kind of pointless.  Still, it's hard to go wrong with toasted coconut and chocolate.  I'll take it to the D&D game today and see what the guys think.

Recipe number two is a chilled Clark Bar.  I played this one mostly straight, though again I only had milk chocolate chips rather than the semi-sweet that the recipe calls for.

This one is surprisingly good.  Its got a nutty flavor without being overpoweringly peanut buttery, and despite the layer of milk chocolate on the top, not too sweet.   Lacking an electric mixer, I had to muscle the main bar ingredients together, but other than that, it's a pretty easy recipe to assemble.  You do need a long lead time, though, since the recipe calls for four hours in the refrigerator.  I put it together yesterday and let it chill overnight before trying it in the morning.

Recipe number three is even simpler.  It's one for Glazed Chicken Wings.  There's nothing to it, just combine three ingredients into a sauce, coat wings, apply heat.  Even my own fledgling cooking skills should be able to handle that!  No picture as yet, since I'm planning on just bringing the material over to my brother's and cooking it on site.  I've had some problems with last minute baking and then trying to transport a hot pan somewhere, and since his oven works about as well as mine, there's no reason not to cook them there.  I'll update the post with a picture and the results once I've cooked them.

UPDATE: They were okay.  I probably should have marinated them last night instead of following the recipe as written, since the flavor was heavy on the skin but nothing much on the meat.  Also, one of the guys said there was too much soy sauce, though it was fine to me and the other guy who ate 'em.  But then, I'm notroious for liking my food over-salted, so it probably is too much soy for general consumption.  Anyway, here's what they looked like:

And here's much (but not all) of the other snacks we had on site for the game:

You know, it's probably best that we only do this every couple of weeks.  Though I do have another game with a different group tomorrow.  Since some of the Clark Bars and Blondies survived, I'll bring them for the other gang too, but I don't think I'll eat very much of it this time out.  

Anyway, the Clark Bars were a hit, the Blondies less so, and the Wings less than that.

The Cooking Quest continues!

Write Everyday Project #16, Cooking (Shoyu Chicken)

I've been using Allrecipes.com to cook from a lot lately.  Mostly desserts, but I've tried a couple of main dishes too.  My most recent one was this Shoyu Chicken recipe.  It worked pretty well.  I'm coming late to cooking.  Most of the time I've lived on my own, my food was either microwaved, or at best, very primitive meat & rice concoctions.  And while I still do love "Miscellaneous Meat & Rice," I'm starting to appreciate what you can get with more effort.

I still don't have a particularly refined palette, and though I tinker with the various recipes, I'm neither classically trained nor know enough to be a chef, but I am starting to become a cook.

Like the man said, "You've taken your first step into a larger world."  And that feels pretty good.