Georgia on My Mind: Peach "Pie" Bars with Pecan Streusel

A few weeks ago, I was fairly obsessed with these oatmeal cookie bars—I couldn't stop thinking about them! I finally convinced myself it was okay to make them if I shared them with friends, but that didn't stop me from eating quite a few myself. Just before making them, I couldn't remember if there were nuts in the recipe or not. And when I thought about it some more, I wondered, "Why aren't there nuts in the recipe??? That would taste great!!!" So then it was August, and August reminds me of peaches, and peaches remind me of Georgia, and don't they just happen to specialize in pecans there, too? I'm sure you see where this is going!

Peach "Pie" Bars with Pecan Streusel

Ingredients:
1 cup very soft butter
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
13 oz. peach preserves (homemade would be fabulous!)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a 9x13-inch baking pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and salt together, then add flour and stir to combine as much as you can. At that point, scrunch the mixture between your fingertips to ensure the butter is evenly distributed and there are no dry pockets of flour left. Remove 1 cup of the crumbs to a smaller bowl, and mix together with the pecans, cinnamon, and brown sugar. Set this aside, then spread the remainder of the plain crumbs evenly into your prepared pan and press firmly to form the base. Bake for 15 minutes to set, then remove and (carefully) spread the preserves over the base, and finally sprinkle with the pecan-cinnamon crumbs. Return to the oven and bake for another 25-30 minutes, or until just slightly golden and the edges of the filling start to bubble. Let cool completely before cutting into squares. Cover and store any unused portion in the fridge, but let the bars come to room temperature before trying to cut them again.

Notes: These bars are very sweet, but certainly cut back (or omit) the brown sugar in the streusel topping, if desired. As well, feel free to use any jam/preserves you enjoy, or any nuts you like! As is the case with many of my desserts, these travel well and can remain at room temperature until you're ready to put them away. Oh, and I don't need to tell you how great these would be with vanilla ice cream, right? :-)

>o<

Flour Power: Not Your Usual Brownies, Plus Some Encouragement

True story: I've been working with alternatives to wheat flour for many years now. I do this to provide something a bit more nutritious for myself, as well as create options for friends and family who need to avoid grains, either out of desire or by necessity. I've made these coconut flour brownies in the past, and they're very good. And recently, I spotted this grain-free brownie recipe online, and definitely wanted to try it!

I already had almond flour on hand (you'll remember those grain-free/egg-free chocolate-chocolate chip cookies from last month), and just needed eggs and some chocolate hazelnut spread to pull the whole thing off. After all, with only three ingredients, how hard could it be??? Of course, when the day came and the time was right, I gathered my loot and reviewed the recipe, only to notice a few minor details:

* I had a little more than half the amount of chocolate hazelnut spread as called for, but no worries - I'd just make half a recipe in a smaller pan.
* I had, inexplicably, bought jumbo eggs.
* I remembered, also inexplicably, I had about a Tablespoon of coconut flour left rattling around in the pantry.

The first two anomalies gave me more liquid in proportion to the dry called for in the recipe, but the third gave me the ability to correct for it - not to mention, use it up without letting it go to waste! I was confident (and greedy) enough to proceed, and dumped my ingredients, plus a bit of salt for balance, into a bowl and began to stir:

The batter came together, I set it in the oven to bake, and you know what? It worked! Fudgy, gorgeous brownies - nutty, chocolatey, and divine. I was grateful I had some experience with these ingredients under my belt, and didn't need to scratch the project completely. So, even though I didn't really follow a recipe, or even develop a new one, I still wanted to encourage you with this thought: cooking and baking with alternate flours is like any other cooking and baking. Once you get to know the ingredients and how they behave, you will be able to adjust as needed if circumstances aren't going quite to plan. If being grain-free is something you'd like to explore for any reason, don't be afraid to do so. I've created a new tag here on the blog for "grain-free", so you can find those options quickly. As well, I wholeheartedly suggest browsing through some of my long-time favorite sites, including Elana's Pantry and Deliciously Organic - and, for more awesome treats like those brownies, The Big Man's World! Be open, be curious, and take full advantage of the resources available. Others have been generous in sharing their work so you can avoid disappointment in your own kitchen. And, most importantly, enjoy :-)

Notes: If you really want to make these exact brownies, here's what I did!

Grain-Free Brownies a la Oops

Ingredients:
13 oz. jar of chocolate hazelnut spread (you know the one, or an organic one!)
1/2 cup almond flour
1 Tablespoon coconut flour (alternately, increase the almond flour by two additional Tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 jumbo eggs (large or extra-large will still be fine)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter an 8x8-inch baking pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, stir together all the ingredients until fully combined, being sure to scrape the bottom frequently to catch and incorporate any dry bits. Let stand for a few minutes to allow the flours to absorb the liquid. Scrape the batter into your prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the edges are dry and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with fudgy crumbs. Let cool for a while before trying to cut and serve (they will actually have more flavor the longer they are allowed to cool). Baked goods made with almond or coconut flour are more filling than their conventional counterparts - you may be pleasantly surprised by feeling satisfied after just one serving!

>o<

Ave Maria: Fresh Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits

It was cookbook club time again, and our selection was Mexican Made Easy by Marcela Valladolid. There were some very tasty-looking recipes in there, full of spice and heat! But I really wanted to make a dessert, so I focused on that chapter and selected something described as a trifle. It used things like sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and fresh limes. Yum! Instead of something like pound cake, however, the recipe called for Maria cookies as the base, which are akin to tea biscuits and completely delightful. And the most wondrous things of all? After shopping for my ingredients, I actually FOLLOWED THE RECIPE to make the dish. Exactly. To the letter. Okay, I added a little splash of vanilla extract, but otherwise totally the same. And used some zest as well as the juice of the limes. BUT THAT WAS IT, I PROMISE. I layered and poured and layered again, and you know what? It was terrible! The flavors were excellent, but the consistency lacked...consistency.

It was like a baby had left their teething biscuits in all that milk and then you found this lime-zest-flecked montage-strosity the next day. I must have done something wrong, but I didn't have time to make anything else, so I suffered and brought my soupy mess to the meeting anyway. To everyone's credit, they dutifully tried it. Thankfully, there was a knockout dessert from another member, and all the other dishes were fantastic. But those Maria cookies haunted me. I knew they could be put to better use, and they had paired so well with the creamy milk and the sharp fruitiness of the lime. Heck, they were even delicious on their own! And I still yearned for a layered dessert, something to please the eye as well as the palate:

Fresh Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits

Ingredients:
10 Maria cookies (or other plain tea biscuits), finely crushed (you should have about 1/2 cup crumbs)
2 Tablespoons butter
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 lb. fresh strawberries, hulled and diced

Melt butter in a skillet over medium-low heat and add cookie crumbs. Stir to coat the crumbs with butter, then continue to toast the crumbs for another 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until fragrant. Let cool completely.

In a small bowl, thoroughly combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract until smooth. Using four glass dishes/containers/wine glasses (about a cup in capacity), place a quarter of the cooled crumbs in each. Carefully add a fourth of the cheese mixture to each dish, and spread slowly to cover the crumbs. Finally, add a fourth of the strawberries and serve!

Notes: The parfaits can be made 2-4 hours in advance and stored, covered, in the fridge until ready to serve. Absolutely use any kind of berry, fruit, or a combination to your taste. Can't be bothered to layer? Just make a double or triple batch of the cheese mixture and serve in a bowl as a dessert dip with sliced fruit and Maria cookies on the side (the cookies are also available in chocolate in many stores). I haven't tested it, but I bet the cookies would make excellent s'mores—if you try it, let us know in the comments!

>o<