Whole Wheat Oatmeal Peanut Butter Bars with Chocolate Chips

I first made these oatmeal peanut butter bars about six years ago, and they were an instant hit at home and at parties and picnics. The rich flavor belies their simplicity—an oatmeal peanut butter cookie crust with chocolate chips sprinkled on top then drizzled with peanut butter glaze—and they always garner “ohs” and “ahs” when served to peanut butter and chocolate lovers. Because I’m trying to switch over to whole grains in all our baking, I’ve swapped out the all-purpose flour for whole wheat pastry flour, but you can use unbleached all-purpose flour if you cannot find whole wheat pastry flour in your area.

The dough is pretty sticky and will even cling to silicone spatulas, so I just wet my hands and press the dough into the pan with my fingers, and it doesn’t stick to me. Read more

Panini with Prosciutto, Fontina, Spinach and Slow-Roasted Tomatoes

One of my quick weeknight meal inspiration sites is Panini Happy, run by my friend Kathy. We met at BlogHer last summer and I have been impressed with her and her site from the beginning. Kathy is in love with her panini grill and it shows in her creative sandwiches. Even if your average weeknight is too busy for a fancy dinner, everyone has time for a healthy sandwich in the evenings, and Kathy’s site provides plenty to choose from.

She inspired me to spiff up our weekly panini night, and I came up with this one after I found a tub of grated fontina in the back of refrigerator and couldn’t remember why I bought it. Obviously I need to keep better track of my groceries. The slow-roasted tomatoes came from our summer garden, and we are looking forward to growing even more tomatoes this summer.

Prosciutto and fontina can be a little pricey, but you can easily substitute another thin-sliced ham and some Swiss cheese. If you don’t have slow-roasted tomatoes, purchased sun-dried tomatoes will work just fine. We really liked the sandwich and will make this again.

This is my contribution to Grow Your Own, a blogging event that celebrates the dishes we create from foods we’ve grown, raised, foraged, or hunted ourselves. I am hosting this round, so please send your post to me at andreasrecipesgyo AT gmail DOT com by February 28. If you are new to the event, you can read more about the rules for participating at the Grow Your Own page. Read more

Cracked Wheat Knot Rolls

Once again, a small group of bakers is tackling a Gourmet magazine challenge, this time the breads featured in the February issue. The team tackling this fun challenge includes:

Kelly of Sass & Veracity

Judy of No Fear Entertaining

Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen

Courtney of Coco Cooks

Sandy of At The Baker’s Bench (It was her idea this time.)

Me

If the bloggers sound familiar, that’s because we baked a boatload of cookies together back in December. This time around we had six breads to choose from, one per week during February. We’re tying this in with BYOB, aka Bake Your Own Bread, hosted by Sandy. Visit her blog for more information on how that event works.

I chose these cracked wheat knot rolls first because they have some whole wheat flour, plus I like the crunch of cracked wheat and the shape of the rolls. Cracked wheat, similar to bulgur, is a crushed wheat grain that has not been parboiled. It’s not always easy to find and might even be labeled as bulgur because experts do not necessarily agree on the difference, so check any local Indian or Middle Eastern markets for it. If you can’t find it, bulgur makes a fine substitute. Read more

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

After the cookie marathon in December, I begged off from making anything sweet for a while. Like many, we just needed a sugar break and I admit I didn’t even want to make my birthday cake. I’d had my fill of sweets and didn’t miss it. Usually I’ll make one sweet dessert a week that we enjoy on the weekend, but that’s it for us, so Michael was quite surprised when he came home from work and found these on the counter.

One of my life hacks for this year is to incorporate more whole grains into our desserts and I’ve been going through my cookbooks again looking for ideas on how to do that best. Due to the way whole wheat flour absorbs liquid, it’s not always a 1:1 swap for unbleached all-purpose flour, so I decided to start with some tested recipes and then go back to some of our favorites and hack them.

This recipe from King Arthur Flour is easy to make and doesn’t use any white flour at all. Because oatmeal cookies tend to be more hearty and substantial anyway, I think these are a good way to introduce whole grains in desserts if you aren’t used to it. The butter and sugar still keep these firmly in the occasional treats category, but they are more healthy than a white flour version. Other dried fruits will work well, too, and I look forward to trying them with dried cherries and apricots. Read more

Live Blogging: The Daring Bakers Make Lavash

Today is posting day for the monthly Daring Bakers challenge, and I’m live blogging the challenge. This month our hosts Shel of Musings from the Fish Bowl and Natalie of Gluten A Go Go chose an alternative challenge for us: vegan and/or gluten-free lavash crackers from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice with vegan and gluten-free dips.

Because crackers and dips are a match made in heaven, the challenge calls for both. I chose to make a roasted tomatillo jalapeno and avocado salsa using the fresh tomatillos and jalapenos from our garden. The flavors worked perfectly with the cumin seed lavash, and it’s a combination we will certainly make again.

I chose to make two batches of lavash, one according to the challenge instructions and the other with a 50-50 mix of bread flour and whole wheat flour. Of the two, we preferred the flavor of the whole wheat lavash.

Step 1: Mixing Read more

Quick Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Pizza is a staple around our house, something that we really enjoy making and eating. I have wanted to add a whole-wheat dough to our repertoire, and I’ve tried it a number of different ways but not always with good results. I also wanted to experiment with a quick dough, something that I could whip out on a busy day without a lot of rising time. I wish I could say that I had loads of time to make bread and pizza dough every day, but that’s just not the case! Maybe when I’m retired and the boys have all grown up and gone off into the world.

I saw this recipe on Eating Well advertised as a dough you could prepare and have in the oven in just 30 minutes. That’s not really time to rise, just enough time for gluten to start developing, but I thought it was worth trying. The whole wheat flour adds a lot of depth to the crust and can make it too heavy if you accidentally use too much, especially since it loves to soak up the liquid. I think the recipe works better with one tablespoon of flour subtracted from the full cup. The dough does not rise, so don’t expect that, it just has time to rest before shaping. If you can make it the night before and let it rest in the refrigerator it’s even better because the dough is a little slack and easier to roll out, plus the flavors have time to develop even more. It will even perform well after sitting for up to two days. If you like the refrigerated Trader Joe’s pizza dough in the bags, then you will probably like this as it’s pretty similar. Read more

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