I’m about to have a real problem on my hands…

I still have leftover matcha bars in my kitchen and I have two more desserts planned for testing next week. Crossing my fingers and hoping that every piece of this strawberry almond bark gets eaten this Easter weekend so that I don’t end up with 4 desserts in my house, because I will eat them all if there’s no one there to stop me. It’s a mathematical certainty.

I LOVE sweets. I try my best to answer my cravings with fruit, but oftentimes I’ll finish my apple or grapefruit or what-have-you and be left thinking, “Well that was good, but it sure wasn’t cake. I wish it would have been cake.” If it’s not a cookie or worse, my body just does not consider it sugar. Does anyone else have this problem?

I like to think that eating a little sliver of this strawberry almond bark, with it’s creamy white chocolate base and tart little berry bits, is better than downing two slices of birthday cake (which I totally did this weekend.) It has fruit on it, so it’s healthy right? Haha. My brain can talk me into anything.

Strawberry almond bark

A pink and pretty strawberry almond candy that's quick and easy to whip up.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 (11oz.) bag of white chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds
• 1/2 cup freeze dried strawberries

Cooking Directions

1. Pour white chocolate chips into a heat-safe bowl and microwave for 20 seconds, then stir. Continue microwaving and stirring in 20 second intervals until white chocolate is fully melted.
2. Crush half of the freeze dried strawberries into the white chocolate and mix through, then pour the mixture onto a wax paper lined baking sheet and spread evenly with a spatula.
3. Sprinkle over the sliced almonds and remaining strawberries and gently pat into the chocolate.
4. Refrigerate or freeze until hardened, then slice into irregular pieces. Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

I’m taking the last of this bark to Easter lunch with family to try to unload it. There will be more birthday cake there, wish me luck.

Do you have an unbridled lust for sugar that cannot be tamed?

April 1, 2013 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 9 comments

Somehow it’s always the simplest recipes that manage to throw me for a loop.

Remember this line from my recent post on the photo shoot where I first made these supposedly simple matcha bars?..

“The bars were based on a similar recipe that I’ve made countless times, so I knew they’d turn out. The only thing I was really trying to figure out with this test was how much matcha to use and how long to bake them.”

Yeah, well, I ended up needing to make these 4 times to get them right. It cannot be said that I don’t care about you guys. I guess tasting 4 different versions of matcha bars wasn’t too bad though. 😉

When I made them for Jimi at the photo shoot, they really did taste incredible. But it was clear that I’d over-baked them and I wondered if maybe omitting the almond meal would help the green tea flavor to stand out more. On my second attempt I replaced the almond meal with more flour and was pretty pleased with how the dough looked before baking. But then…I over-baked them again.

No matter! I’ll try again! And so I did with the same all-flour recipe and this time I managed to bake them correctly. Hooray!

But wait…this all-flour version is so dry. And the crumbles are the texture of sand, and the whole thing crumbles into a sandy mess when you try to take a forkful of it. On top of that, I hated the photos I had taken of it. The bars looked brown and drab, not bright and green and springy.

And here we are, come round full circle to the original recipe, just not over-baked. Finally. I swear they really are easy to make, I totally made it hard on myself for no reason.

I hope you try them. The subtle grassy tea note is mellowed perfectly by the sweet jam. I love to eat them warm while the jam is still all molten and melty. They would be excellent as an Easter dessert or brunch pastry.

I’ve had a hard time finding matcha in regular grocery stores that isn’t either of terrible quality or terribly expensive. I saw a single ounce being sold at Whole foods for $28. I don’t care how organic or artisan or made of magic it was, that’s a sucker price. I’ve been buying the 4oz. bag of this matcha from Amazon(full disclosure: this is an affiliate link) for less than $10 and have been really pleased with it. It may not be high quality enough for drinking, but it’s plenty nice for baking. I store it in the freezer between uses to keep it fresh and it’s been just as good as the day I bought it for several months now.

Mmmmm….jammy.

Have you ever baked with matcha (green tea powder) before?

March 27, 2013 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 12 comments

So glad to have such a nice response to my first ever giveaway!

And the winner is…..

(I just realized that my comments aren’t numbered, so I’ve ordered them from first received to last. So, from the top of the comment list going down. Just making sure we’re all on the same page!)

Yay, Amber! For those of you that don’t know, Amber has written a cookbook of her own that is absolutely fantastic, AND she has another one in the works. If you’re interested in raw food, or just love delicious food that also happens to be healthy, check out her book, Practically Raw. Amber, send me your address to alayna@thymebombe.com and I’ll mail it out as soon as possible, along with a few little extras. 😉

In other news… Carol of Lucky Zucca made my Baked Shiitake Wontons! How cool is that!?

And she wrote about them here. Thanks Carol! I’m so glad you liked them, they look perfect and I love the substitutions you made. You made a ton of them too!

I would love to see your recreations too! If you make something from the blog or my cookbook, send me a pic and I’ll post it!

Thanks again to everyone who entered. This blog is definitely still growing so I wasn’t sure what kind of turnout I’d have for this. You all made my day! 😉

March 21, 2013 Alayna Discussion 6 comments