Chocolate, Honey and Peanut Butter Booster Bars

Or fancy Flapjacks, as my Dad calls them.  Funnily enough he loved these – I don’t think he noticed they contained chocolate, although the chocolate was hard to visually detect as I’ll explain below.

These were made for a trek our group took a couple of weekends ago.  It wasn’t a very strenuous trek, around eight kilometres, but the weather was extremely cold, and despite wearing Thinsulate gloves (which are apparently meant to keep you very warm while still being lightweight), everyone’s hands became virtually numb.  At least it didn’t snow (like the following day).

But anyway, my reason for making these was because I wanted to take snacks on the trek that we could easily munch on; something that would hold its shape well and wasn’t too sticky or messy.

After considering a few options I decided to go with making these booster bars (or flapjacks/granola bars) and a fat-free banana cake which looked like it had the texture and consistency to keep it firm and mess free on the trip.  Unfortunately this brazil nut and dark chocolate chip banana loaf cake got gobbled up before I could take some pictures of it and even the bars didn’t last too long.

This is in effect the second time I’m making these and I tweaked the recipe considerably, but only with good intentions as I wanted to reduce the sugar quantity and rely more on the honey to sweeten the mixture.  After all, some of the ingredients going into this concoction are just so good for you that I felt morally obliged to reduce the ‘baddies’ as much as I could.  But not to the detriment of taste.  That’s where common sense can kick in and you can just take a smaller portion.  Well, you can try to take a smaller portion.

This worked very well on the trip which was a pleasant surprise since when I made these for the first time I thought I made a pretty big error and ruined the whole batch.  You see, I mixed all the dry ingredients together and was melting the ‘wet’ ones, but the damned peanut butter had hardened up (as natural peanut butter is wont to do) and it was taking just ages trying to dissolve all the ingredients.

I became impatient and the minute the wet ingredients had all melted I quickly poured them onto the dry, not realising, silly girl that I am, that I had added the chopped chocolate to the dry ingredients too.  Now, it doesn’t take a genius to guess that the chocolate all melted from the heat of the hot wet ingredients.  It wasn’t the effect I was going for when I decided to add chocolate to the recipe.  I was thinking more along the lines of chocolate chips/chunks embedded in the honeyed oats, giving a sweet contrast to the nuts and seeds.

Well what I got was the chocolate melting to completely combine and become one with the hot wet mixture and there was no going back.  I baked it as it was and just hoped for the best the next day.  I reasoned that we would be so hungry and tired on the trek that we would just be grateful of getting any kind of sweet morsel to boost our metabolism.   

Well these sweet morsels scored highly with trekkers and non-trekkers alike that day and were just as much a hit with the folks at home.  The sweetness of the chocolate and honey combined is just difficult to describe and I completely love it.  I didn’t think I would, but the combination is rich, heady and decadent (not what I would usually describe flapjacks as).  The nuts and seeds impart the requisite texture and crunch and the whole works very well together.

My Dad said that these need to be made again.  No asking or requesting politely.  Just firmly stated.  So here they are again.

Chocolate, Honey and Peanut Butter Booster Bars

·         150g butter

·         150g natural organic peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)

·         100g light brown sugar

·         100g honey

·         50g golden syrup

·         1 lemon, zest only

·         300g Scottish oats

·         125g dark chocolate, 70%, chopped

·         75g almonds, coarsely chopped

·         75g brazil nuts, coarsely chopped

·         50g sesame seeds

·         50g pumpkin seeds

·         20g desiccated coconut

·         15g linseed (I used brown because that’s what I had but golden would be better)

Melt the butter, oil, peanut butter, brown sugar, honey and golden syrup in a pan over low heat.  Make sure all the ingredients are properly dissolved (my organic peanut butter can harden up sometimes) before taking off the heat.   Add the lemon zest and mix in.

Combine all the rest of the ingredients together in a large bowl and pour the hot mixture into it.  Using a stiff spatula or wooden spoon, mix until the wet ingredients are well combined into the dry ingredients and mixture looks uniform.

Pat the mixture evenly into a 8”x8” square tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 25 minutes.  Do not bake for over 30 minutes as this will make the flapjacks hard and crunchy.

Cinnamon and Apple Pie Sticky Buns (Chelsea Buns)

I made these after a very long day studying and practising for the Outdoor First Aid Certificate.  I still have another long day ahead of me tomorrow and the thought of these just eases the pain slightly.

Not that it was an exceptionally hard course, just tiring and intense.  Very, very useful though.  I now know what to do if I come across an unconscious person, if someone is choking, if someone is drowning, having a heartache, a seizure, is in shock and generally just injured.  And there is more to learn tomorrow.

The instructors were very good too, making us do the sequences and procedures again and again until they were completely drilled into our heads. 

It’s funny how a little knowledge can impart so much confidence.  Because that’s what I’ve come away with today – quite a bit more confidence than I had yesterday.  I know that if I was to come across a situation in which someone was in trouble, then I could do what I needed to the best of my ability, and more importantly, what I couldn’t do which is just as important really.

This is a Paul Hollywood recipe, a savoury one called ‘Turkey, Stuffing and Cranberry Chelsea Buns’.  It was featured in a Great British Bake Off Masterclass and I knew that I wanted to make it into a sweet recipe instantly.

The flavours are basically all inspired from apple pie and the method is very easy to do.  After making the dough and rolling it out into a rectangle spread the softened butter, cinnamon and dark brown sugar over it but leaving the sides or edges free.  Then grate an apple or two and spread it over the filling.  If you’re grating the apple in advance like I did, make sure that you soak it in some citrus to prevent it going brown (I used a simple syrup made from limes and sugar that I had lying around). 

The syrup that goes into the baking tray contained walnuts with more brown sugar, butter and a little oil.  The effect was cinnamon buns with a hint of apple pie flavour.  The dough from Hollywoods recipe was amazing!  So soft and pliable and not too rich with butter.   

Everyone really enjoyed these with a cup of tea and make sure you eat them fresh as, although they’re still delicious and soft, they’ve just not got that magic the next day.

Cinnamon and Apple Pie Chelsea Buns

·         500g strong white flour

·         50g caster sugar

·         10g salt

·         40g butter, cut into small pieces

·         2 eggs

·         2 x7g sachet fast-acting yeast

·         150ml lukewarm milk

·         90ml lukewarm water

Filling:

·         100g butter, softened

·         3 tsp cinnamon

·         150 dark brown sugar

Topping:

·         80g butter

·         20g oil

·         300g dark brown sugar

·         50g maple syrup

·         75g walnuts, chopped

Place the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl and combine well.  Add the butter, eggs, yeast, milk and warm water.

Mix all the ingredients with your hands until a rough dough is formed.

On a well floured surface, knead dough until smooth and elastic.   Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to rise for 1 hour.

Make the topping by mixing the ingredients together with an electric whisk until well combined, then pour into a 20cm x 30cm baking tin.

Make the filling by combining all ingredients together to form a spreadable paste – the butter has to be very soft in order to achieve this.

Once the dough has almost doubled in size, roll it out into a large rectangle that is about ⅓ inch thick on a very lightly floured surface.  Spread the filling over the rectangle as well as you can (including the grated apple), then begin to roll the dough up from the longer side.  Once the dough is rolled up, brush some water on the very edge of the dough and ‘glue’ this bit on so that the roll doesn’t open up.

Slice the roll into pieces around 1 ½ cm thick and place these on the topping you have filled the baking tin with.  Leave a slight space between each so that they room to expand in their second proving.  Prove for a second time for about 40 min to 1 hour.

Bake for between 25-30 minutes in a preheated oven gas mark 180 C.

Once out of the oven, leave to slightly cool for about 10 minutes then tip the baking tin over on to a large enough tray, so that the buns are upside down with gooey topping on top.  Eat warm with a cup of tea.

Cream Horns With Creme Chantilly

My first attempt at proper patisserie wasn’t as scary as I had imagined.  It was a technical and methodical process which was surprisingly quite calming – I caught myself humming once or twice.  It was actually quite a pleasant overall experience.  Especially as they turned out pretty good.

I first saw these moulds in my local TK Maxx store.  I love prowling around this store for unique and sometimes the most irreverent baking equipment.  You don’t realise you need a lime squeezer, egg slicer, egg white separator, avocado holder and an elongated fish slice until you see one.  Surprisingly I use all these fairly regularly now that I have them, especially the lovely long fish slice.

These moulds caught my eye because I had been wanting to try something more on the patisserie side rather than cake for a while now and I know that whipped cream or crème Chantilly (the traditional filling for cream horns) is a favourite with my folks.  I always have puff pastry in the freezer so thought it couldn’t be that hard.

And it wasn’t.  It was a bit fiddly getting the strips of pastry onto the moulds but once you get the hang of it things go pretty smoothly.  I didn’t use egg wash, just some water to make them adhere once on the moulds.  Once the strips are on they are wetted with some water on a pastry brush then sprinkled with granulated sugar (I used Demerara too).

These look like a forest of golden fir trees.

I stood them up in the oven which might not have been such a good idea as the weight of the pastry made it sink as they baked and puffed up.  

I later looked online at tutorials (I know I should have done this before making them) and they had the moulds lying down when placed in the oven. 

You’d think I would have learned my lesson and do this the second time I tried these, but I just wanted the puff to be even all over and not flat on the side which would be lying down, so I didn’t.  I thought I would just make the pastry strips stick better by pressing down on them more firmly.  Unfortunately this didn’t work and yet again there were some moulds on which the pastry sank down.

The next time I’m keeping these on their sides in the oven.

After these cooled I spooned in a little raspberry jam then piped in some crème Chantilly – which was so much fun.  Again I have to mention that making these is a very enjoyable process. Eating them even more so.

I think the combination of raspberry and crème Chantilly is an excellent one with the puff pastry but next time I want to try these lined with some melted chocolate or ganache and with chocolate flavoured whipped cream.  Hmmm.

Cream Horns with Crème Chantilly

(makes about 10)

·         500g puff pastry

·         Granulated or Demerara sugar for sprinkling

·         600ml double cream

·         1 vanilla pod, scraped and seeded

·         4 tbsp icing sugar (or more/less to taste)

·         Raspberry jam (about half a jar)

Prepare about 10 cream horn moulds by rubbing them with a little butter.

Roll out the puff pastry into a rectangle about – you will be cutting one inch strips from this so try to judge it by this.

Slice the rectangle lengthways into roughly one inch strips.  Take the mould and wrap the strip around it making sure the strip is overlapping itself as you go down the mould.

Once all the strips have been used, wet the pastry on the moulds with water on a pastry brush.  Then, holding it over a large plate or tray (to catch the sugar), drizzle the sugar over the pastry so that it is evenly coated.

Place on a baking tray and bake at 200 C for about 30-35 minutes.  Once out of the oven, allow to cool on the tray.

To de-mould these, squeeze the mould slightly so that the pastry case pops away from it.  The moulds for cream horns should have this flexibility inbuilt to allow this.

Drizzle in some seedless raspberry jam with a teaspoon, or in a piping bag fitted with a narrow nozzle.  Try to spread the jam all over the inside and not too thickly – there shouldn't be so much that it drizzles out.

Whip the cream with the vanilla pod a little.  Add in the icing sugar and whip until medium-stiff peaks – make sure not to over whip and turn the cream into butter (I find that once you’ve got to the stage where the cream is starting to peak, stop using an electric whisk and do it gently by hand so that you have more control and don’t over-whisk).

Scoop the cream into a large piping bag fitted with a medium star nozzle (not really necessary if you don’t have one) and pipe into the pastry cases.