Bready or Not: No-Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
Homemade granola bars! These things are delicious and great for breakfast or snacks, for kids or adults.
Making these requires some brief time at the stove. This is a great recipe to get kids or grandkids involved, as they can help measure the dry ingredients and help to stir.
Do note that these bars won’t be quite as firm as the store-bought stuff, so keep that in mind if you’re transporting them around.
However, they taste a lot better than the store stuff. They taste FRESH. And peanut butter-chocolatey. Plus, they can be even more chocolatey if you use Nutella instead of peanut butter.
Speaking of chocolate, for Valentine’s Day next Wednesday, gird yourself (i.e. bust out the stretchy pants) in preparation of a Chewy Brownie recipe!
Bready or Not: No-Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
Ingredients
- 2 cups quick oats
- 1 cup puffed rice cereal like Rice Krispies
- 1/4 cup peanut butter creamy or crunchy
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons coconut oil
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar packed
- 2 Tablespoons mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Line an 8x8 or 9x9 baking pan with aluminum foil and apply nonstick spray.
- In a big bowl, stir together the oats and cereal. Set that aside. Measure out the peanut butter and vanilla extract and set near stove.
- Place the coconut oil, honey, and brown sugar in a small saucepan. Cook on medium heat, stirring often, as sugar dissolves, and continue to heat until it just starts boiling. Remove pot from burner. Quickly add the peanut butter and vanilla, and stir until everything is incorporated.
- Pour the hot mix into the bowl with the oats and cereal. Stir until everything is coated, then pour into the prepared pan. Use a spatula to press down evenly. Sprinkle mini chocolate chips over the top. To compress the granola even more, line waxed paper over the pan, then use the bottom of a glass or other flat, heavy implement to press down.
- Allow pan to set for several hours. Slice into bars. Pack up individually with plastic wrap or keep in a sealed container with plastic wrap or waxed paper between layers. At room temperature, keeps well for up to a week; bars can also be frozen.
- OM NOM NOM!
Sunday Quote heeds the captain of the ship
Read More“There’s luck in art. And then there’s the gift. You can’t earn that. But you can learn skill, you can earn it. You can learn to deserve your gift.”
~ Ursula K. le Guin, Steering the Craft
Bready or Not: Brown-Butter Apple-Cardamom Dutch Baby
Let’s finish up the breakfast theme with a glorious Brown-Butter Apple-Cardamom Dutch Baby.
When I say ‘I’m cooking a Dutch baby,’ I can’t help but marvel at how lewd it sounds. I expect the FBI to come knocking.
I didn’t name the dish, but I can state with certainty that no babies are harmed in the making of this recipe. (Well, not in MY house. You watch your kids around that stove!)
It’s been a while since I posted my more basic Dutch baby recipe. This new version has even more oomph since it includes brown butter and an apple.
A Dutch baby is a fabulous way to whip up a fast breakfast for a couple people. Everyone can ooh and ahh at how it looks when it comes out of the oven… and sigh at how it deflates as soon as it’s cut.
But that’s okay. A deflated Dutch baby is still absolutely delicious. (Go away, FBI!)
Modified from Martha Stewart Magazine.
Bready or Not: Brown-Butter Apple-Cardamom Dutch Baby
Ingredients
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cardamom
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2/3 cup milk or half & half or almond milk
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 medium apple Granny Smith or Gala work well, cored, peeled, sliced into thin wedges
Instructions
- Place butter in a saucepan; a light-bottomed pan makes it easier to prevent overcooking. Heat on medium, swirling occasionally to distribute the butter. Butter will begin to foam, and the color will change from lemony to golden to brown. At that point, it should emit a nutty aroma. That means it's done! Immediately remove from heat and pour butter into a bowl to cool.
- Preheat oven at 450-degrees and place a 10-inch cast iron skillet to heat up as well.
- In a bowl, stir together the sugar and cardamom.
- In a large bowl, beat the eggs on medium-high until they are pale and frothy. Add the flour, salt, milk, vanilla, and a heaping tablespoon of the cardamom-sugar. Beat everything until it's smooth, though expect the batter to be thin.
- Using a potholder, pull the skillet from the oven. Pour in the brown butter and apple slices, stirring a few times to coat the fruit and pan. Spread the apple pieces into a fairly even layer across the bottom and pour the batter over it. Immediately return skillet to oven.
- Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until the Dutch Baby is puffed and golden. Sprinkle a couple more tablespoons of the cardamom-sugar on top. Serve immediately.
Sunday Quote doesn’t adapt well
Read More“When you write, you want fame, fortune and personal satisfaction. You want to write what you want to write and feel it’s good, and you want this to go on for hundreds of years. You’re not likely ever to get all these things, and you’re not likely to give up writing and commit suicide if you don’t, but that is — and should be — your goal. Anything else is kind of piddling.”
~ Dashiell Hammett
Bready or Not Guest Recipe from Author Wendy Nikel: Continuum Coffee Cupcakes
Today I welcome Wendy Nikel! Her novella The Continuum came out on Tuesday from World Weaver Press. Find out all about all the cool time-traveling twists in her new book, and grab a recipe for some cupcakes that are out of this world!
Elise Morley is an expert on the past who’s about to get a crash course in the future.
For years, Elise has been donning corsets, sneaking into castles, and lying through her teeth to enforce the Place in Time Travel Agency’s ten essential rules of time travel. Someone has to ensure that travel to the past isn’t abused, and most days she welcomes the challenge of tracking down and retrieving clients who have run into trouble on their historical vacations.
But when a dangerous secret organization kidnaps her and coerces her into jumping to the future on a high-stakes assignment, she’s got more to worry about than just the time-space continuum. For the first time ever, she’s the one out-of-date, out of place, and quickly running out of time.
January 23 marks the release day for my first book: a time travel novella entitled THE CONTINUUM. And what better way to celebrate a new book than with cupcakes?
My main character, Elise, is a professional time traveler and — like me — a big fan of coffee, so I knew I wanted something rich and delicious. Plus, I’d been seeing galaxy-swirl treats here and there online and wanted to give this colorful, space-themed frosting a shot. What I ended up with was a death-by-chocolate cupcake, filled with mocha pudding and swirling buttercream frosting.
THE CUPCAKES:
THE FILLING:
THE FROSTING:
Bready or Not Guest: The Continuum Coffee Cupcakes by Wendy Nikel
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cup white sugar
- 3 Tablespoons melted butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Filling
- Chocolate instant pudding
- 2 cups milk
- 1 teaspoon coffee extract
Frosting
- 4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 1-2 Tablespoons milk
- Gel food coloring
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa, salt, and sugar.
- In separate bowl, mix melted butter, eggs, and vanilla.
- Alternate adding the flour mixture and 1 cup milk into the butter & egg mixture until well blended. Add chocolate chips.
- Fill cupcake liners half full and bake for 15-17 minutes. Let cool.
- Make instant pudding according to directions. Add 1 tsp coffee extract.
- Fill pastry bag with pudding and place a filling tip on the end. Stick the filling tip into the center of each cupcake at a 90 degree angle and squeeze in the filling until you can see the top crust bulge.
- Drop a bit of each color of food coloring into a bowl. Use a new paintbrush to "paint" the insides of the pastry bag or decorator with the food coloring.
- After the inside is painted, add the frosting. Using a star tip, apply frosting in a swirling motion. Add sprinkles, and enjoy!
THE CONTINUUM out NOW
paperback via World Weaver Press $8.99 (regular $9.99)
eBook via iTunes
eBook via Barnes & Noble
eBook via Amazon
eBook via Kobo
Wendy Nikel is a speculative fiction author whose short stories have appeared in Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Daily Science Fiction, AE Sci-Fi, Nature: Futures, and various anthologies and e-zines. She is a member of SFWA and Codex Writers Group and is a managing editor at Flash Fiction Online.
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