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.

Banana, Caramel and Chocolate Ganache Tart

Admittedly this wasn’t the prettiest of tarts I’ve had but God was it tasty!

I still have that problem of surplus shortcrust pastry in the freezer so this was another sweet way of using it up.

Please do not do what I did and cut the pastry before putting it into the oven.  The rolled out pastry should hang over the sides of the flan tin and this extra should be trimmed off after it has been baked because pastry does and will shrink in the oven.

I know this.  I really do but I still cut it. Why?  Because I’m greedy.  That’s why.  I wanted the extra bits of pastry to make into cheesy twists, that’s why.  And they were so nice and cheesy that it was worth it.  Almost.

Try not to trim the pastry until after it’s baked.  Unless you’re like me and can’t resist cheesy twists.

This is a very easy tart to make but as with most tarts, a bit ‘stagey’.  You have to blind bake the pastry first, allow it to cool slightly then pour in the ganache and allow it to set before you can start layering on the bananas and caramel. 

Everything came from a tub.  Including the caramel and even, I admit, the crème Chantilly which is something I make at home often as its one of the best ways to utilise a vanilla pod.  But again this was rushing against time as I was taking this over to a relative’s house for dessert after dinner.  In situations like that convenience wins every time for me.  But do be careful and mindful of my advice on the pastry, it should really be trimmed after being baked.

This tart is very satisfying with its combination of fresh bananas and luxurious chocolate.  I love the taste and smell of freshly sliced bananas, there is something so refreshing but sweet about it.  I deliberately made the ganache sweet by using half milk chocolate because the shortcrust pastry I was using was the unsweetened kind.  The ganache is also made with single cream which is why the ratio of chocolate needed to be more than the cream otherwise it just wouldn’t set very well.  There’s almost a saucy consistency to the ganache at room temperature which is why it is best to chill it well before adding the bananas.

Banana, Caramel and Chocolate Ganache Tart

·         500g shortcrust pastry

·         300ml single cream

·         200g dark chocolate

·         200g milk chocolate

·         2 bananas, chopped into slices diagonally

·         4 tbsp caramel, from a bottle or homemade (whatever you have to hand)

·         500g crème Chantilly, from a tub (or made by mixing together 500g double cream, one vanilla pod and 50g icing sugar)

Preheat oven to 200C, grease your tart tin.  I used a 14 x 4.5” (36 x 12cm) rectangular tin but you can also use a standard 9” round tin.

Roll the pastry out to roughly the shape of your tart tin.  Make sure it is not too thick, about 3-5mm is about ok and also try to make it consistently thick throughout.

Line your tart tin with the pastry, allow the extra pastry to ‘dangle’ over the edges of the tin but don’t trim to size just yet.  If the pastry is really excessively more than the tin and difficult to handle then cut it a little so that it is easier to manage. 

Prick the base all over with a fork.  Line with greaseproof paper or foil, fill with baking beans (or rice) and bake for about 20 minutes, then remove the baking beans and foil and bake for another 15 minutes until done (remember that this is the only baking stage so make sure your pastry is properly done and not raw – if it needs another 10 minutes then bake it further).  Allow to cool.

Make the ganache by breaking up the chocolate into pieces and placing in a medium bowl, then bringing the single cream to just before a boil.  When you start to see the bubbles on the edge, take the cream off the heat and pour over the chocolate.  Leave for a minute to allow the cream to heat the chocolate.  Then, using a smaller whisk if you have one, gently start stirring the mixture from the middle.  Don’t use very large or vigorous motions just yet.  Let the chocolate and cream emulsify with gentle small circles, keeping to the middle of the bowl, before whisking properly.  Allow to cool slightly.

Pour the ganache into the pastry case and chill in the fridge for about 2 hours (I put mine in the freezer for about 40 minutes).

Slice the bananas and place them over the now set ganache.  Drizzle over the caramel, then spoon or pipe over the crème Chantilly.