Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars - healthy vs unhealthy {recipe}

Baking was really popular for a while, with shows like the Great British Bake Off fuelling it's popularity. It's still popular, but not like it was because "clean eating" became the fad. It's the stupidest thing to call food "clean" because that is suggesting that other food is "dirty."

That might be okay when we describe going out for a dirty burger after a night out or a long day that calls for a food that literally could be dirty. I mean a burger topped with all the good stuff never all stays in the bun. 

But it's not okay to label every day food as clean/dirty, good/bad, guilt-free/guilty, healthy/unhealthy and so on. You may be surprised that I think it's a bad idea to label food as healthy or unhealthy, but it's all the same in your head if you are one of those people who punishes yourself for eating "bad" food. 

A lot of people, of various sizes, have unhealthy relationships with food. Because we are fed so much crap online across all media sources telling us in one article of a new miracle food that cures all and in the next telling us that same food is the cause of all that is wrong with the world. It's really hard to keep up. 

But the thing is we don't need to keep up. Because everyone is different our diets all vary. When it comes to baked goods like cake, cookies, brownies etc... they aren't unhealthy, they aren't bad, and they are certainly not dirty. 

They are exactly what they say they are and even more basic they are food. Plain and simple. 

I was cleaning out my cupboard and came across of a soon to expire bag of rolled oats and I scoured my cookbook collection for a recipe that I could use them up in and came across this one in Sally's Baking Addiction by Sally McKenney. It was adapted to suit what I had in my cupboards.

The reason I had a long rant about labelling food is because this one is inadvertently labelled as a nutrition bar. It could be compared I suppose, but why can't it just be what it is. Tasty. 

It's full of peanut butter and whatever you want to add: chocolate chips, raisins, dried apple, etc... 

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars

100g light brown sugar

265g smooth peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla paste

120g whole wheat flour

80g rolled oats

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

120ml milk

120-200g of chocolate chips, raisins or other dried fruit 

drizzle (optional) - 50g chocolate chips and 20g smooth peanut butter

Heat the oven to 170/180C (depending on your oven) or 350F - line an 8x8 square baking tin with grease proof paper so that some of it hangs over (easier to get out.) 

Beat the brown sugar and peanut butter together for about a minute until it's smooth, add the vanilla and mix until just combined. Scrape down the sides and add the flour, oats, salt, and bicarb of soda give it a quick mix until it all comes together. Add the milk in a steady stream while beating on low, once it resembles a cookie dough fold in your choice of additions. (I used Whitworth's Mix n' Bake Choc Salted Caramel: dried apple, chocolate coated salted caramel, and sultanas. I bought it on sale for 93p.)

Dump it into the prepared tin and press down until even and then bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes depending again on your oven. When done it should be golden on top. Leave to cool in the tin before using the over hanging baking paper to remove. 

If making the drizzle on a low heat melt the chocolate and peanut butter together and put into a sandwich bag and cut the corner and drizzle across the slab in any way you want. Leave to set before cutting into squares. I cut mine to get 16, but you could cut them bigger to get 9 it's your life you decide! 

*Recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction by Sally McKenney - my review of the book can be found here. There is this guy on instagram that I started following @unfattening who is just amazing at debunking all food related crap as I say and bollocks as he says. 

Blueberry Scones

Wesley Wyndam-Pryce: I wonder if asking Ms. Chase to dance would...
Giles: For God's sake, man, she's 18, and you have the emotional maturity of a blueberry scone. Just have at it, would you, and stop fluttering about. 
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer - season 3 episode 20

I started watching Buffy when I was in high school and I was obsessed with it! My friend and I would call each other during the commercials for any "OMG" moments. We related to all the teenage angst and felt we were a part of the Scooby Gang.

Re-watching it now I am still taken into all the angst, but with less "OMG" moments not just because I have seen it before, but because I have more life experience. Now it's more like "Yup that's how it happens, that's life." Which is why it's such a great show.

Watching Buffy has been a trip down memory lane and when I decide to watch it again in like 20 years I am sure I will see it differently once again. Sometimes long for the days of having the emotional maturity of a blueberry scone, but mostly I'm glad those days are over.

Blueberry Scones

150g dried blueberries
orange juice, for soaking
150g cold unsalted butter
500g self-raising flour , plus a little extra for dusting
2 level teaspoons baking powder
2 heaped teaspoons caster sugar
pinch of salt
2 large free-range eggs
4 tablespoons milk , plus a little extra for brushing

A couple of hours or so before you start place the dried fruit into a bowl and pour over just enough orange juice to cover. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Put the butter, flour, baking powder, sugar, and a pinch of salt into a big bowl and using your (clean) fingers to gently rub the butter into the flour until just combined. The less it's touched the more crumbly it will be.
Make a well in the middle of the dough, add the eggs and milk, and gently mix with a spatula or spoon. Drain the soaked blueberries and fold into the dough. If needed add a little bit of milk, until it forms a soft, dry dough. It should be bit scruffy, the opposite of bread dough which is usually smooth and neat.
Sprinkle a little flour over the top of the scruffy dough and leave in a bowl (covered with with cling film) in the fridge for 15 minutes.
When the time is up roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it's about 2-3cm thick. Then with a 6cm round cutter or something with about that diameter cut out circles from the dough. Place them upside down on a baking sheet. Re-roll the rest of the dough and cut out as many as you can. Brush the top with either melted butter or milk.
Bake for 12-15 minutes. They will be risen and golden on top! Leave them to cool before serving with clotted cream and jam!

Scones are one of the most controversial afternoon treats here in England; from how they are pronounced and what gets put on first the cream or the jam? I myself pronounce scone like cone with an 's' and I like my cream first then the jam. 

*recipe adapted from Jamie Oliver's Crumbliest Scone recipe - found in Jamie's Great Britain

PB & J Power Bars from Whole Food Energy by Elise Museles {book review}

January has come and gone along with most people’s New Year’s resolutions. Making better choices when it comes to food is not something that should only be thought of in January, but all year long. I am a baking blog and I think sugar has it’s place in our lives. However, I also agree that with sugar and/or added sugar in a lot of processed foods is a bit excessive and it’s wise to start paying attention to what is in our food.

I was sent Whole Food Energy to read and review and to be honest I wasn’t 100% sure what I was getting myself into! It was a pleasant surprise just looking at the content page. Divided into 3 parts the book covers everything from what supplies you should keep on hand to drinks, breakfast, snacks, and energy packed treats like these PB & J Power Bars.

I love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and I was curious to how these power bars would turn out. The author states that her son has asked for these over and over again and I have to say they have been a hit with my daughters as well!

Full of oats, dates, peanut butter, dried cherries, and almonds it really does taste like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. No lie! The best part is knowing they are full of whole natural food that’s great for everyone! I like that they are chewy too, but the almonds give it a bit of crunch!

PB & J Chewy Power Bars

50g rolled oats
200g Medjool dates, pitted
60g unsweetened peanut butter
1 tsp of vanilla
1/2 tsp of salt
100g dried cherries
75g almonds, roughly chopped

Line a 2lb loaf tin with greaseproof paper with the sides hanging out. In a food processor pulse the rolled oats until still a bit chunky, but chopped up. It shouldn't be a powder. Add the dates, peanut butter, vanilla, and salt and pulse/process until it starts to come together and clump up. Add the cherries and pulse several times to incorporate them into the mixture. Take out the blade and add the chopped almonds and use your hands, clean please, to mix everything together. 
Place in the prepared loaf tin and using the hang over paper, fold it on and top and press the mixture down to flatten, try to make it as even as possible. Leave in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour before cutting into bars. Easy peasy.

Elise Museles is the author of the popular blog Kale & Chocolate has given us a book packed full of recipes that will keep you energised through out the day! If you haven’t heard of her check out her website/blog and this book! I have learned a lot just from reading through it and I can’t wait to try more of the recipes, especially the smoothie ones!

note: Whole Food Energy: 200 all-natural recipes to prepare, refuel, and recover by Elise Museles (from Kale & Chocolate) was sent to me to review by the UK publishers; Apple Press - Available online, from the publishers, and from all good booksellers now! No other compensation was given. All opinions are my own and it was known that I sometimes adapt recipes to share with my readers to give them a feel for the book.

Energy Bites {Jamie Oliver}

It’s that lovely time of year when the leaves start to change color and the skies are clear but you can’t leave home without a coat and everyone is cuddled up with blankets and a hot cuppa (a word I only started using recently). All this loveliness comes at a cost, because with the changing weather we get the dreaded, the most avoided and annoying thing ever!

The common cold.

Last Monday I went to work and it seemed like everyone had one. Tuesday my day off, I felt my throat start to tingle and itch and by Wednesday I knew I was starting to get a cold. So, I sent the hubby to the store for pineapple, oranges, and lemon so I could make the ultimate cold buster juice. Curtesy of The Juice Master himself Jason Vale. The other ingredient for this Buster Juice, as I call it, is Manuka honey.

I already had Manuka honey in my cupboard patiently waiting for me to make these Energy Bites originally called “My Tasty Energy Balls: Apricot, Ginger, & Cashew.” That title and this recipe comes from Jamie Oliver’s latest book Everyday Super Food. Having watched (most) of his shows and following his popular Food Tube YouTube channel I think he probably got a laugh out of calling them “My Tasty Energy Balls.” The 8 year-old in me laughed.

There isn’t a better time then when you have a cold to give yourself as much energy as possible. With the juice and these bites I think I’ve escaped the worst of the cold. I was still sneezy, had itchy ears, and sounded a bit rough, but I could still breath and didn’t have the pressure headaches. So, I would never say that these things cure the common cold, but they have helped me endure it a bit better!

Energy Bites

100g unsalted cashew nuts
20g sesame seeds
80g dried apricots
20g puffed brown rice
thumb size piece of ginger, about 4cm
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
2 tablespoons manuka honey

Blitz 40g of the cashews into a powder - set aside to cover the bites later. Place 60g of the cashew nuts along with the sesame seeds, apricots, and puffed rice into a food processor and blitz until it’s all chopped up. Then finely grate the ginger into the food processor bowl and add the mixed spice, give it a pulse or three before adding the honey. Mix it for a couple of minutes, scraping down the sides if and when needed. Once it’s ready roll into about 24 bites and coat in the cashew powder and store in an airtight container.

tip: You can toast the cashews and sesame seeds in a dry pan on a medium heat for added flavor as suggested by Jamie, but I didn’t. Also wet your hands before rolling the mixture into balls to avoid it being too sticky.

notes: Recipe adapted from Everyday Super Food Jamie Oliver. My husband bought me a copy because he knows I like Jamie Oliver and thought I’d enjoy this book as well. We are terrible gift givers on special occasion’s, but it’s because we do things like buy each other stuff when we see it and just give it to each other instead of saving it.

White Chocolate Chip Fruity Brioche Muffins

Perhaps I should call them Bruffins or something? Start a new mash-up trend! Mash-up’s are fun, but what makes a mash-up? This is brioche made in a muffin tin and therefore looks like a muffin. It also has common muffin ingredients like the chocolate chips and dried fruit. Works for me as a mash-up, however, I will still call it a Chocolate Chip Fruity Brioche Muffin. No, bruffins here! Or worse Muioche’s … not even sure how one would pronounce that.

Also I am sure somewhere out there in the foodie world someone else has made brioche in their muffin pan/tin way before me. In this world of food it’s hard to be completely original.

Inspiration comes from everywhere. A recipe I found in a magazine a couple years ago inspired these brioche muffins. As I become a more confident baker I am able to change and adapt recipes to suit my tastes and needs.

 It was this recipe clipping and my recent baking day with my friend Jen, fellow baker and blogger, that encouraged me to make these deliciously light, chocolaty, and fruity brioche muffins!

They were loved and enjoyed by everyone who tried one, which was me, my daughters, me, one of the neighbors, and me again…. Sweetbreads are dangerous in this house!

To bring the danger to yours here’s how I made them. I used a stand mixer, but you don’t need one.

White Chocolate Chip Fruity Brioche Muffins

100g mixed dried fruit; cranberries, cherries, blueberries, strawberries

1-2 tsp vodka (or juice)

500g ‘00’ flour, sifted

100g golden caster sugar

2 x7g sachets fast action yeast

pinch of salt

200ml milk, gently warmed

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

150g unsalted butter, very soft and cubed

100g white chocolate chips

100g white chocolate, melted

Soak the dried fruit in vodka or juice and set aside. Sift the flour directly in the stand mixer bowl or in a large bowl and add the sugar, yeast, and a pinch of salt. Be sure to put the salt and yeast on separate sides of the bowl. Salt can kill the yeast.
In a jug combine the milk, which should be warm to the touch you don’t want it too hot as it too could kill the yeast, too cold and it won’t work either, gently whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract. Attach the dough hook and start mixing on low. Slowly add the liquid mixture. Use a wooden spoon to first bring the mixture together before kneading by hand. Mix in the mixer for 10 minutes, knead for about 10 minutes give or take a few minutes. It should be soft and stringy.
While the mixer is still running or while you’re kneading slowly add the butter cube by cube. Make sure each cube is completely incorporated before adding the next. The dough should look glossy. Place in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a clean damp towel and leave to rise for one hour or until doubled in size.

Lightly grease each muffin indent with butter. Once the dough has risen gently knock it back, still in the bowl, by pressing your fist into it. Dust the counter top with a little bit of flour before turning out the dough onto the surface and give it another knock or two before folding in the dried fruit and chocolate chips.
Divide the dough into 12 pieces and using your fingertips fold each dough piece into a little ball before dropping into the prepared muffin tin/pan indents. Cover again with a clean damp towel, I used shot glasses to prop up the towel so it wasn't resting directly on the pan. Leave for an hour a little more or less until the dough has doubled in size.

Heats the oven to 190C, once heated bake the brioche muffins for 20-25 minutes until toasty brown on the top. They should feel slightly hollow when tapped.

Melt the white chocolate in your preferred melting method, either in a heatproof bowl over simmering water or in the microwave, be sure to check in 5 or 10 second intervals. Gently spoon the melted chocolate over the cooled brioche muffins.

notes: this recipe is adapted from Jamie Magazine issue 44 December 2013. 

These Brioche Muffins have been entered in these challenges:

Bready Steady Go – hosted by Jen's Food with Utterly Scrummy 

Recipe Clippings – with Farmersgirl Kitchen

ABC Bakes – hosted by Caroline Makes with the more than occasional baker (brought to us by the letter 'B'. B is for Brioche) 

Chocolate Covered Cranberry Flapjacks {not pancakes, but chewy granola bars}

If I were asked how to describe a flapjack I would say it was a chewy granola bar. However if a flapjack is baked for a bit longer it ceases to be flapjack any more it becomes a granola bar.

Granola Bars are usually baked longer and are crunchy, but where I come from we have chewy granola bars. Which are flapjacks.

When I was a young girl in America I loved a chewy chocolate chip granola bar. It was probably more like a chocolate candy bar, but you know. We didn't call them flapjacks because in America “flapjacks” are a slang term or sort of nickname for pancakes.

However I no longer think of flapjacks as pancakes. It’s one of the few words that I have adopted since living in the UK.

There are very few words I have adopted; I still say sidewalk, garbage, zucchini and pants. That last one does get me in trouble occasionally. My girls are at the age where things like “pants” or “knickers” are funny. So, I have started to get giggles when I tell them to get dressed and pick out a pair of pants.

No idea why some words have changed and some haven’t I say “chips” for both crisps and French fries to which my husband understands in context. If I say “We’re having fish and chips for dinner” he knows I mean French fries and if I say I want chips and dip he knows I mean crisps. Sometimes he does clarify just to be sure.

No matter if these are called flapjacks or chewy granola bars they are still chewy and they are still good. So, you should make them and eat them.

Chocolate Covered Cranberry Flapjacks

250g butter

200g golden caster sugar

50g demerara sugar
175g golden syrup

500g jumbo oats

200g of chocolate covered dried cranberries

Heat the oven to 180C/350F and line and grease a 20 or 23 cm (8 or 9 inch) square pan or whatever size you have.

Heat the butter, both sugars, and golden syrup in a medium saucepan until the butter is melted don’t let it boil too much if the butter is almost melted take off the heat and stir it until the butter is completely melted.

Add the jumbo oats and stir to coat.

Fold in the chocolate covered cranberries.
Pour into the prepared pan and press down. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes remember if you bake them too long they are granola bars, not flapjacks.

Remember they set as they cool so even if they are looking a bit soft it’s okay. Score before they cool completely.

If you like this post you may like these:

Peanut Butter & Blueberry Snack Squares

Salted Caramel Flapjacks

Cherry Oatmeal Bars 

notes: I made these with dark, milk, and white chocolate covered dried cranberries I found at a TK Max if you don’t have chocolate covered cranberries substitute with chocolate chips and dried cranberries in any combination of weight you want to add up to about 200g combined. I looked for a flapjack recipe online and in my library of cookbooks this recipe is a mix of what I found. I didn't use just one recipe. 

What does C stand for in a song sung by a monster? {Cherry & Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies}

It’s tough getting people to be involved in things. Or it’s tough to get people excited about being involved in something.

I’m a part of the PTA and this last Friday we held a Quiz Night for the parents as a fund-raiser for some new out door equipment.

It was a great night out! The entertainment and food were provided, but we could bring our own snacks and drinks. 

I like having wine night with my girls and the occasional cocktail when I’m out, but overall I’m not much of a drinker. So, I brought milk and cookies to the Quiz Night!

As I’m still trying to use what I already have in my over flowing baking cupboard; I used up some dried cherries, left over chocolate chips, and rolled oats to make these cookies.

They were a hit, I passed them around so I could look at other peoples sheets on the celebrity before-they-were-famous picture round… we couldn’t get #10. No one else had it… boo.

We did come in 3^rd place! No real thanks to me I’m rubbish at British general knowledge.

I should just stick to baking cookies. These turned out great! They held up well when dunked in milk. The dried cherries and chocolate chips gave it a great sweet and sour twist! Enjoy!

Cherry & Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies:

170g unsalted butter, softened

320g light brown sugar

1 egg, medium

4 tbsp (60ml) sunflower oil

250g plain flour

½ tsp bicarb of soda

150g rolled oats

75g dried cherries

180g dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas4 and line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and oil, mix until combined before sifting in the flour and bicarb. Add the oats and mix well, then add the cherries and chocolate chips and fold them in until fully combined. Roll the cookies into balls and place unto the prepared baking sheets, gently press each ball with the palm of your hand to flatten slightly.

Bake for about 20 minutes, switching shelves and rotating half way through baking.

notes: P-parent T-teacher A-association; I love Bellini’s and Pina Colada’s yum! Recipe was adapted from Home Baking by Jo Wheatley