As promised, I present to you the recipe for these amazing little apple butter oat bars I made in my frazzled cooking bender yesterday.

It sounds like I’m not the only one around here that is craving the flavors of fall already. I’m desperately longing for pumpkin butter, warm applesauce, baked apples, kabocha squash, hot cider, and all the other delicious foods we only get to eat around the winter holidays.

I made these same bars last week in another cooking frenzy but with strawberry jam and almonds instead. They were definitely yummy, but I’m just so over all the bouncy summer berries and very ready to break into the firmer fall fruits. Biting into one of these made me feel like I was wearing a fuzzy sweater and snowed in on the couch with a big warm blanket and a cup of hot tea.

Apple butter oat bars

This quick and simple dessert or snack is not too sweet and features the warm flavors of cinnamon and apples.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 55 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Yield: 16 bars

Ingredients

• 1 stick of butter (room temp.)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup chickpea flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup apple butter

Cooking Directions

1. Cream together butter and sugars in a mixer.
2. Add egg and mix to combine.
3. Whisk together flours, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a separate mixing bowl.
4. Add dry mix to wet in three parts, mixing gently between each addition.
5. Fold in oats by hand and divide mixture into two equal parts
6. Press half the dough into a buttered and floured 9x9 baking pan and top with the apple butter.
7. Pinch off small pieces of the remaining dough and dot all over the top making sure to get all the way around the edges.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.
9. Let cool in pan, turn out onto a cutting surface, and cut into bars.

These aren’t too heavy on the butter and sugar either. It wouldn’t be naughty for you to pop one or two for breakfast, with a rich cup of coffee or herbal tea. Just enough sweetness for a morning pastry.

I intended on sending half of these to work with Jeff to keep me from eating all of them, but I don’t think I can part with them!

What foods do you most closely associate with fall?

August 25, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 19 comments

I have been trying for over a year now to make Jeff some oats and honey flavored granola bars from scratch. Every time something goes wrong; I either burn them, they never bake in the middle, or they just fall apart.

This time, they just fell apart.

It was ok though! I tasted the oat crumbles and was completely in love with it as an unintentional granola.

Lemme show you what I did and what I came out with…

For the almond butter and honey oat granola I used:

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 1/8 cup honey

Start by toasting the oats and oat bran in a dry pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Keep stirring almost continuously so that nothing burns.

Microwave almond butter and honey together in a bowl for 40 seconds, stir, then heat for another 10 seconds and stir again.  Pour this over the toasted oats in a large bowl and mix together completely.

Line a loaf pan with wax paper and pour the mixture in.

Press mixture firmly into the loaf pan. I used the bottom of a drinking glass to really smash it down into the bottom of the pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

At this point I wanted to get it out of the hot pan so it wouldn’t continue to cook the bottom and edges, so I pulled it out and placed it on a cooling rack.

You can see that it started to crack and crumble immediately. I tasted a corner and it was really yummy though, so granola it is!

Here it is cooled and crumbled up, ready to top yogurt, cereal, ice cream, whatever…

I had some this morning over strawberry yogurt with bananas on top. The combination of the fruity yogurt and the almond-buttery granola reminded me of a classy PB&J sandwich!

I think if I were to make this again I could skip pressing it into a pan (since I’m not aiming to make it into bars) and just crumble it over a sheet pan and bake it for less time, maybe 10 minutes should do it. It’s certainly a very simple granola to make with only four ingredients.

Almond butter and honey oat granola

Super-fast honey oat granola recipe with the rich roasted flavor of almond butter.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Yield: About 2 cups

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 1/8 cup honey

Cooking Directions

1. Toast oats and oat bran in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring almost continuously.
2. Microwave honey and almond butter together for 40 seconds, stir, then another 10 seconds.
3. Pour melted almond butter and honey over oats in a large bowl and mix well.
4. Either serve as is or bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees for extra crunchiness.

In your opinion, what makes the perfect granola?

February 26, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 4 comments