. Even though I’ve seen these bars on other blogs in the past, I didn’t quite realize what they're really like. These cookie bars are serious business. They’re crunchy, chewy, chocolaty, nutty, and delicious. Cutting these into small pieces is a good idea since they are filling, but I think they’re actually better than a candy bar. Dorie recommends serving them cold which keeps the layers firm, and I agree.These bars are baked in a nine- by thirteen-inch baking pan, and the recipe makes a lot of cookies once they’re cut into small pieces. The bars can be frozen and thawed in the refrigerator. You start by making the oatmeal layer which becomes both the bottom surface and the crumble on top of the cookies. That’s made by creaming butter with brown sugar, then adding eggs and vanilla. Flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon are added next, and then oats and chopped peanuts are stirred into the dough. A couple of cups of dough are set aside, and the rest is pressed into the buttered baking pan. The chocolate layer was next, and that was made by melting chocolate chips with sweetened condensed milk, butter, and salt in the top of a double-boiler. Once melted, vanilla, raisins, and peanuts were added. The chocolate mixture was poured over the oatmeal layer in the baking pan, and the remaining oatmeal dough was scattered on top. The bars baked for about 30 minutes, were cooled, and then refrigerated before cutting.
I just recently got a copy of the Greyston Bakery Cookbook, and as I read through the cakes chapter, I started mentally assigning each cake to a future occasion. The Mexican hot chocolate cake might be good for New Year’s, the steamed lemon cakelets would be lovely in the spring, maybe we should have the mocha kahlua cake on Christmas Eve, I want the fresh coconut mousse cake for my birthday, and the Bermudian rum cake would be great for next Monday because no other occasion was soon enough. After the cakes come the tarts which are followed by the cookies and bars. Since I wasn’t willing to wait for a special occasion to get baking, I decided to start with the oatmeal maple bars. All of these recipes come from the Greyston Bakery in Yonkers, New York which employs people from the community who may have previously had a hard time finding a stable job. Their made from scratch sweets are sold at the bakery, on the bakery’s web site and at shops and restaurants in New York City. There is much more information about the social mission of the bakery and the Greyston Foundation on their web site. I’ve never visited the bakery, but I had heard a lot about it, and the book came highly recommended.
As I wrote down a shopping list of ingredients for these bars, I kept flipping back to the page with the lime bars with white chocolate. In the end though, I chose to welcome the fall season with the flavors of oatmeal and maple. The bars are a mixture of oats, butter, sugar, pure maple syrup, eggs, vanilla, grated orange zest, raisins, and walnuts. The raisins were supposed to be currants, but for whatever reason, Whole Foods had no currants and I was too lazy to make another stop. The raisins were fine here, and the important thing was actually the orange zest. It definitely should not be skipped. The bars were baked in a nine-inch by thirteen-inch pan and then were left to cool. Once cool, a glaze made from butter, maple syrup, cream, and confectioner’s sugar was to have been drizzled on top. The photo in the book shows a nice, thick glaze that was drawn across the bars in lines. My glaze, however, was not of such a consistency. I tried letting it cool for extra time in hopes it would thicken. I tried whisking in a little more confectioner’s sugar. And, then, I gave up and just poured the thin glaze all over the top of the uncut bars and placed walnut halves in what would be the centers of each of 24 pieces.
My glaze may not have looked liked that in the photo, but it was delicious. The chewy, bars are an addictive flavor combination of orange, walnut, oats, and a hint of maple while the glaze adds more maple flavor on top. Cut into cute, little squares, these are hard to resist. Now, I’m starting to think those cakes don’t really need to be reserved for special occasions, and even if they do, I should probably test them first anyway, right?
Last Saturday, we were invited to a brunch party, and that had me thinking about cinnamon rolls. I’ve made plain cinnamon rolls and pumpkin cinnamon rolls and tried different glazes on top, but I felt it was time to try something completely new and different. I found this breakfast ring in The Modern Baker, and this was just what I wanted to try. Incidentally, while looking through the book, I kept pausing and thinking yes, I have to make that sometime. I’m now sure that I’ll eventually bake every item in it. The blueberry crumb cake was irresistible, and I ended up baking that too. But, first, the breakfast ring. I thought the shape would be pretty, but I was curious if the taste and texture would be much different from my usual cinnamon rolls.
The dough is a quick brioche which is started with warmed milk, yeast, and flour. That mixture is left to bubble and rise for 20 minutes before it’s added to butter, sugar, salt, eggs, egg yolks, and flour in a food processor. There’s a tiny error in the breakfast ring recipe. You are instructed to follow the quick brioche recipe through step six, but you should actually only follow it through step four. That was no problem though; it’s obvious that you’re done at step four. The mixed dough was then chilled for an hour after which it was rolled into a rectangle on a floured surface. The filling included softened butter, light brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins, and chopped pecans, and that was spread over the rectangle of dough. The dough was rolled up jelly-roll style, transferred to a parchment-lined baking sheet, and then formed into a ring. Of course, I worried over the evenness of the circle. Where the ends meet, it forms a smaller cross-section that the rest of the ring, but a little coaxing and sculpting left it looking good enough.
The ring shape was smoothed and slightly flattened down from the top. Using scissors, cuts were made all around from the outside perimeter to about three-quarters of the way toward the center. Each piece was twisted to one side to expose the filling. You have to lift and pull a little to get the cut and turned pieces to sit nicely next to one another. After the twisting and flipping, the finished ring sat until doubled in size. An egg wash was applied, more chopped pecans were sprinkled on top, and it was baked. Once cool, it was dusted with confectioners’ sugar. Happily, it was sturdy enough to be transferred to a clean tray, but I feared that step and took photos prior to moving it.
I couldn’t wait to find out how it compared to the cinnamon rolls I’ve been making for years. Because of the ring shape, I couldn’t exactly have a little sample before presenting it to our hosts. So, I crossed my fingers and off we went. At the brunch, I heard some positive reactions about it from other guests and hoped they weren’t just being kind. Finally, I cut a piece for myself. The first bite informed me that it was good, second bite: yes, I like the raisins and pecans, third bite: ok, this dough is better than what I’ve been using for rolls, then no more thinking and just eating. The ring makes a nice presentation and is no more difficult than cutting rolls, but individual portions would be just as good. It was a definite keeper of a breakfast bread, and this tender brioche dough will be my new standard.
I’m submitting this to Yeastspotting where you’ll find some seriously well-made bread.
