Delicious Granola Bars

Mom (who my children know as "Oma") came to visit a while ago and made some granola bars for the children. They liked them so much they asked for some "Oma Bars" over March break. I found out mom had used the Crosby's Molasses recipe for "Peanut Butter and Molasses Granola Bars" and changed it a little. I did the same thing and here they are:

Here is the recipe that made them:

Peanut Butter and Molasses Granola Bars

Ingredients:

• 3 cups quick rolled oats
• 1 cup bran
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut
• 1 cup sunflower seeds or sesame seeds or a combination of the two
• ½ cup chocolate chips
• ¼ cup chopped nuts
• ¼ cup wheat germ
• ½ cup fancy molasses
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup peanut butter
• 1 tbsp 2% milk
• 2 tsp vanilla
• ¾ tsp baking soda

Directions:

1. Mix oats, bran, coconut, seeds, chocolate chips, nuts and wheat germ together in large bowl. Set aside.
2. Combine molasses, oil, sugar and peanut butter in a 2 liter saucepan and cook over medium low heat until sugar dissolves and mixture is smooth. (Stir constantly.)
3. Combine the milk, vanilla and baking soda and add to the molasses mixture. Stir for one more minute. Remove from heat.
4. Pour molasses-milk mixture over granola mixture and stir until dry ingredients are moist. Wet your hands and press the mixture into a 15 x 10 inch (2L) pan.
5. Bake at 275°F (140°C) for 20 to 25 minutes. The edges will start to brown and the bars will be slightly puffy. They will sink as they cool.
6. Let cool, cut into slices (I cut it into 27 pieces).
7. Store in the refrigerator.

Rhubarb Apple Pie with Molasses

Have you ever heard of pie with Molasses in it? I hadn't. Until my husband re-stocked our molasses from Costco. It came as a two-pack, with a recipe book! Imagine! A recipe book suited me just fine. We were impressed to see a recipe for a rhubarb-apple pie and had to try it.

I used up a package of my frozen rhubarb and the last of the wild apples we picked a while ago. So far, so good. It baked up really nice. It looked lovely. I enjoyed it and I think the family did too. Every plate was empty. I did find that it tasted a lot like molasses, and not much like apple or rhubarb. I also went skimpy on the shortening in my crust today, so it came out tough. Since supper, my burps taste like molasses! If I make it again, I will be more careful with the crust and I will go easier on the molasses. I did like the taste of butter in the filling. It was "easy as pie" to make and if you love molasses, go for it! Here is the recipe:

Rhubarb Apple Pie Recipe
2 cups diced rhubarb
2 cups diced apples
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup fancy Molasses
1 1/2 Tbsp. butter
Pastry for 1 2-crust, 9"pie

Prepare pastry lined pie plate. Mix rhubarb and apples together and pour into pie plates. Mix dry ingredients and pour over fruit. Drizzle molasses over the pie and dot with butter. Cover with pastry and cook at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes, and 375 degrees F for 40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Molasses Wheat Bread p.99

What smells like great bread, tastes like great bread but does not look like great bread? This Molasses Wheat Bread! It may be that I over-kneaded it, or that it was the wrong temperature but something made this one look ugly. Which is a shame, because it tastes good.

The recipe said to put all the ingredients and 2 cups of flour together and then "stir to form a thin batter." Now, I don't know if my measures are COMPLETELY different than theirs or if something as thick as play dough is considered a thin batter, but that's what I got! It was a big, fat lump. So I added another 1/2 cup water and kept going. It did not want to knead nicely and I was uncomfortable with their instruction to twist the loaves, but I wanted to follow the recipe. I think that made the bread look really strange. I liked what went into this bread, however, and will probably make it again because it tastes really good. I will use the extra water and I won't twist the dough and I'm sure it will be great!
Tomorrow, I'm planning to bake a nut bread. Stay tuned.