Breakfast Bars in the Blogosphere

Breakfast Bars

Last year I tripped over Nigella Lawson's recipe for Breakfast Bars shown above, photo courtesy of www.eatingoutloud.com, and they appealled to me for a few reasons. I am not a breakfast person, but the concept of a portable, healthful, low-fat snack (for anytime during the day, really) was a big seller. I liked the fact that these are easy to put together and that there are no added fats in the recipe, just oatmeal goodness enriched by seeds, nuts and dried fruit, bound together with a can of condensed milk.  Like eating cereal and milk, definitely a breakfast theme, but in a bar format. So, here I have been, happily munching on these great little goodies, never imagining that there is a bit of a Breakfast Bar "war" occuring in the blogosphere. One blogger called Nigella's bar a let down, saying they lacked flavour. I see them as a great base and a canvas for improvisation. Want more flavour? Add cinnamon and nutmeg! You love dried blueberries? Substitute them for the dried cranberries! Here is what I see as a chewy, moist, delicious, all-purpose Breakfast Bar recipe that you can play with and tweak to suit your own taste:

Nigella's Breakfast Bars

1 14-ounce can low-fat sweetened condensed milk; up to 1/4 cup of skim milk, if needed; 2+1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant); 1 cup shredded unsweetened flaked coconut; 1 cup dried cranberries; 1 cup mixed seeds (pumpkin, flax, sesame); 1 cup chopped walnuts.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F and line a 9" x 11" pan with parchment paper or tin foil. Oil paper or foil. Stir together all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Pour in the condensed milk and stir to coat everything well, adding extra milk by the tablespoon if the mixture seems dry. You should be able to pinch some of the moistened oatmeal mixture and have it hold its shape. Press mixture down firmly into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour until firm and set. Let bars cool.  Remove bars from the pan by lifting the edges of the parchment or foil. Chill the mass before cutting if you want neat-looking slices. These keep very well in the fridge but I usually freeze them.

The Breakfast Bar debate on the blog www.eatingoutloud.com stipulates that Heidi Swanson's Big Sur Power Bars from www.101cookbooks.com are even better than Nigellas's, with spot-on texture and flavour. Heidi's recipe has more to it, at first glance, including some harder to find ingredients like natural cane sugar, brown rice syrup and unsweetened crisp brown rice cereal, nothing a trip to a health food store couldn't resolve. I don't really fancy the inclusion of ground espresso beans and would substitute 1 tsp. ground cinnamon instead. I have included other possible substitutions as well.

Heidi's Big Sur Power Bars

1 cup pecans, chopped; 1 cup slivered almonds; 2/3 cup unsweetend shredded coconut; 1+1/4 cups rolled oats; 1+1/2 cups unsweetened crisp brown rice cereal (Rice Crispies OK - "puffed" rice not OK); 1 cup brown rice syrup (honey OK); 1/4 cup natural cane sugar (brown sugar OK); 1/2 tsp. fine-grain sea salt; 2 tbsp. ground espresso beans (or 1 tsp. ground cinnamon); 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9" x 13" baking pan for thinner bars or an 8" x 8" pan for thicker bars. Toast pecans, almonds and coconut on a baking sheet in the oven until the coconut is golden, tossing once or twice along the way. Mix the oats, toasted nuts, coconut and cereal together in a large bowl and set aside.

Combine the rice syrup, sugar, salt, espresso and vanilla in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir constantly until it comes to a boil and thickens a bit, about 4 minutes. Pour the syrup over the oat mixture and stir until it is evenly incorporated.

Spread the mixture into the prepared pan and cool to room temperature before cutting into bars. 

Makes 16 - 24 bars.

Power Bars

Speaking out in the blogosphere about better Breakfast Bars is Allen, the owner of www.eatingoutloud.com. He proclaims deep respect for Heidi's Big Sur Power Bar recipe, but had his own personal problem to resolve and therefore revised the recipe to meet his needs. You, in all likelihood, will not have his problem, namely a bumper crop of hickory nuts needing to be used. He used hickory nuts instead of pecans. He likes dried blueberries and added 1 cup of dried blueberries, along with 1/4 cup of flax seeds and 1/3 cup of raw sesame seeds. Allen also decided that cinnamon was more appealing than espresso and used 1 tsp. cinnamon instead of ground espresso. Allen's Power Bars, derived from Heidi's, are shown above.

You are now fully equipped to form your own opinions on Breakfast Bars! Try them and speak to me. 

If you love Breakfast Bars, you probably need to read these books:

  A to Z bar cookies / by Simmons, Marie.

   Bars & squares : more than 200 recipes / by Snider, Jill.

Going on a Food Hunt

  Olives in market

True confession: my idea of fun is to comb the city in search of special foods that I don't find at the supermarket, like freshly baked Lebanese pita bread, tender and pliant and still faintly warm in its package, or frozen guava puree from Mexico which I use in fruit smoothies to add a tangy tropical note. There are lots of little shops scattered about the city with all kinds of edible treasures to explore. As if she was reading my mind, Calgary writer, chef and food lover dee Hobsbawn-Smith has just published an excellent little source book for finding fabulous food in the Calgary area:

SHOP talk - The Open-All-Hours Insider's Guide to Finding Great Ingredients in Calgary, the Bow Valley and Beyond by dee Hobsbawn-Smith

Shop talk is divided into 26 broad categores, with entries for Bakeries, Local Producers, Organics, Latin, Farmgate Sales, etc. With obvious relish and lots of flair, dee has done all the legwork for you, sourcing out where to find almost everything related to food in our region. Using this book provides many joys, from exploring new neighbourhoods to driving out to a farm to buy fresh from the source, to eating locally and, consequently, freshly. Some of my own favourite hunting grounds are included in Shop talk:

Montreal Bagels - 103, 8408 Elbow Drive SW 403-212-4060 I am from Montreal and I am here to say that these are the real thing, at least in the poppy seed/sesame seed permutation (say "white seed" or "black seed" to demonstrate real Montrealishness).

Village Pita Bakery and Mediterranean Food Store - 208, 255-28 28 Street NE 403-273-0330 For the most melt-in-your-mouth, supple pita breads, baked fresh on the premises, come to Village Pita and stay for lunch. A modest little lunch counter would have you think you were nowhere special, but the food will tell you differently. Have a spinach/feta pita with a large handful of napkins, and help yourselves to the free olives on the counter. 

As for frozen guava puree, go to La Tiendona Market - 1832 36th Street SE 403-272-4054. You can also stock up on black beans, masa harina, hot sauces and dried Mexican chiles, great for making your own spice mixes. Hey, that's a great idea for another post: Making your own spice blends! Coming soon . . . . . . . . . 

You may want to chew on these titles for more foodie news:

My Favourite Cheap eats 2008 by John Gilchrist

My Favourite Restaurants in Calgary and Banff 2006 by John Gilchrist 

Food of the Month - September: An Apple A Day . . . . . . .

    . . . . . . . keeps the doctor away! Or, at least boosts our vitamin quotient. With autumn comes a new crop of crisp apples and I love incorporating apples into my meals, in salads, in soups, in desserts. Tart apples like Jonagolds lend themselves beautifully to salads like Mesclun Salad With Stilton, Grapes and Apples from the inspirational website www.epicurious.com. Make a vinaigrette by whisking together 2 tsp. Dijon mustard, 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar, 3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil and 1 tbsp. finely chopped fresh thyme or sage, plus salt and pepper to taste. Toast 1/4 cup of sliced almonds. In a salad bowl mix together enough mesclun (assorted baby greens) to serve 4 people and 20 seedless grapes, halved. Toss greens and grapes with the vinaigrette and top with the toasted almonds, 1 crisp apple, cored and cut into 16 wedges, and 1/4 cup of crumbled Stilton or blue cheese. Gently combine and serve.

How about a lucsious, old-fashioned Sticky Apple Pudding With Toffee Sauce from the lovely book Apples - Recipes from Canada's best Chefs ? This dessert won 1st place in the annual Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival dessert competition in 2005, which is all the prodding I need to try it. I made it last night and it is a cross between good, tender gingerbread and sticky toffee pudding with dates, with unexpected bursts of little apple cubes. The dates are first cooked so that they melt into a moist, sweet base to which you add everything else. My family loved this simple yet elegant dessert which means it's a keeper:

2 cups apple cider or juice; 1/2 cup chopped dates; 4 tsp. baking soda; 1/3 cup butter, softened; 1+1/4 cups granulated sugar; 3 eggs; 2 cups all-purpose flour; 1 tbsp. baking powder; 1 tsp. ground cinnamon; 1/2 tsp. each ground nutmeg and cloves; 2 Cortland apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch dice; Toffee Sauce (recipe follows).

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9X13" cake pan. In a large saucepan, bring apple cider (or apple juice) and dates to a boil. Boil until soft, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda. Mixture will froth and increase in volume. Cool the mixture for at least 30 minutes. In a mixer cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a bowl combine flour, baking powder and spices. Stir flour alternately with date mixture into the egg mixture. Stir in diced apple. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in oven about 40 minutes, or until tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. Serve warm with Toffee Sauce:

3/4 cup butter; 1+1/4 cup brown sugar; 3/4 cup heavy cream; 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract. In a saucepan melt butter over medium heat. Add brown sugar and stir until dissolved. Stir in cream and simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes, or until mixture reaches 240 F on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Serve warm.

Plenty of pudding for 8 people. I made extra toffee sauce, multiplying the recipe by 1.5, making enough sauce so that unnamed people could dip their eager fingers into it.

I must include another seasonal favourite of mine, apple chutney. There is something about the sweet/sour tease to the senses, the chunky texture, the deep tones and aromatic spiciness of chutney that speaks to me in the fall. Try this flavourful condiment with meats, fish, and cheese and crackers. It is from an old, worn recipe card from my personal stash, taken from a Gourmet Magazine issue from 1982!

Apple Chutney         

3/4 cup dark brown sugar; 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar; 10 medium-sized apples, peeled and diced; 1/2 cup golden raisins; 1/2 cup minced onion; 1/2 cup minced red pepper; 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice; 2 tbsp. fresh ginger, grated; 2 tsp. curry powder; 1 tsp. yellow mustard seeds; 1 tsp. ground cinnamon; 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes; 1+1/2 tsp. salt; 1/4 tsp. pepper or more to taste.

Combine sugar, vinegar and 3/4 cup water and cook over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Add apples and simmer for 10 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and boil, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes or until apples are soft and the mixture is very thick. Store in the fridge. Can be frozen.

This recipe is also wonderful when made with fresh peaches, using about 12 large peaches. You can kick up the heat by including fresh, diced hot peppers in the mix. Try the variations and let me know how things turn out.

Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.

"Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants." This is sane advice. This is a summation of the wisdom to be  found in Michael Pollan's new book "In Defense of Food - An Eater's Manifesto". Pollan's previous book titled "The Omnivore's Dilemma" created  a huge conversation about the American, and North American, way of eating.  "In Defense of Food" shows us what we need to know to unscrabble the American paradox which has more and more people becoming less and less healthy,  all while being overly concerned about nutrition.

Why does food need defending? Much of what we eat, as a society, is not food, not produced by nature but by food science. With the industrialization of food, whole foods have become refined and processed. Archetypal "Mom" has lost her authority over meals as the food industry and nutritional science have shaken our confidence in common sense and tradition. We have shifted our trust over to the food industry whose "experts" guide us towards nutrients instead of foods. Michale Pollan strongly urges us to avoid food products that contain unpronouncable ingredients or that make health claims.  With lively prose and logical clarity, Pollan points out the value of eating like the French. Or the Italians. Or the Japanese. Or the Indians. Or the Greeks. If these traditional diets weren't healthy, the diet and the people who followed it wouldn't still be around. We are reminded to eat meals. At a table, not in the car.  A desk is not a table. We are urged to cook and to plant a garden.

Pollan proposes a new (and very old) answer to the question of what we should eat. "In Defense of Food" is an empassioned plea to reclaim our health and happiness as eaters. Let us point you to some ways to start your own journey to better eating and better living:

  The glorious foods of Greece : traditional recipes from the islands, cities, and villages / by   Kochilas, Diane.

 Outstanding in the field : a farm to table cookbook / by Denevan, Jim.

 Homegrown : pure and simple : great healthy food from garden to table / by Nischan, Michel.

For more farm to table food ideas, visit Farm-To-Table Cooking and Eating.