Meeting-friendly snacks to bake

[Anna N]

26 minutes ago, bos said:

Try baklava

 Much as you may enjoy it it is highly inappropriate for my purposes. 

[Anna N]

 This weeks’ offering: 

 

 

 

 

I have eaten and made (many years ago) far better lemon bars than these.  The lemon topping is verging on rubbery.  I probably over baked these.  But that is only one of the issues.  

 

 I’m not offering this as an excuse but rather as a reason. I need to put in a grocery order so my options as to what I could make this week were somewhat limited.  So I shall treat this as a challenge to make much better lemon bars next time.

 

For those inclined to wonder, this is the recipe I used.

 

 

 

 

[Anna N]

 

 Honey nut bars.  

[ElsieD]

@Anna N  Wow, those look good.  Are they sort of like a butter tart bar?

[Anna N]

7 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

@Anna N  Wow, those look good.  Are they sort of like a butter tart bar?

There is definitely a similarity.

 

This was the recipe I used more or less. I just chose a selection of nuts from my freezer and I had no cream so used couple of tablespoons of milk.  I think it could’ve just been left out altogether. 

 

Next time I think I would toast the nuts briefly.

[blue_dolphin]

4 hours ago, Anna N said:

Honey nut bars.  

Those look amazing - I just made a cup of coffee and really wish I had one....or two!

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

Those look amazing - I just made a cup of coffee and really wish I had one....or two!

Thanks. They are OK but they don’t call out to me as much as some cookies do. Right now I wish I had a thick and chewy oatmeal raisin cookie. 

[chromedome]

2 hours ago, Anna N said:

Thanks. They are OK but they don’t call out to me as much as some cookies do. Right now I wish I had a thick and chewy oatmeal raisin cookie. 

That's the gold standard, right there (IMO, anyway...).

 

[Tri2Cook]

2 hours ago, Anna N said:

They are OK but they don’t call out to me as much as some cookies do.

I may have to give them a try anyway. I'm thinking half and half salted and unsalted nuts. The nutty, sweet and salty combination is the reason I still buy Payday bars when I can find them. I'd probably scatter the salted nuts on the base and then pour the topping with the unsalted nuts over it just to try to keep as much of the salt as possible on the nuts instead of dissolved into the syrup. 

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

I may have to give them a try anyway. I'm thinking half and half salted and unsalted nuts.

 Wish I had thought of that.

[kayb]

3 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

I may have to give them a try anyway. I'm thinking half and half salted and unsalted nuts. The nutty, sweet and salty combination is the reason I still buy Payday bars when I can find them. I'd probably scatter the salted nuts on the base and then pour the topping with the unsalted nuts over it just to try to keep as much of the salt as possible on the nuts instead of dissolved into the syrup. 

Oooohhh. You just reminded me I had a bag of mini Payday bars. Thanks!

[Anna N]

 

 Proof that I am not altogether altruistic. Thick and chewy oatmeal cookies because that’s what I wanted!   This is a Smitten Kitchen recipe.

 

If you take a close look at the middle front cookie, its furthest edge over to the right, you can see that it is obviously well caramelized.  Two of these cookies developed that same caramelization as they spread out into a wonderfully thin and lacy doily resembling a brandy snap.  Despite that the appeal of these cookies is supposed to be that they are thick and chewy, I wolfed down those two.  Just saying.

Edited March 25, 2019 by Anna N
To fix grandma. No, not grandma! Grammar (log)

[Anna N]

 

 Simple ginger snaps but with chunks of crystallized ginger waiting to surprise.

 

 

 So good I didn’t even wait to find a plate or even a paper towel.   They must be quickly packaged and sealed so they go to their destination and not to my hips.

 

 

[Anna N]

 

 Chocolate chip and butterscotch bars.  

[kayb]

Recipe? Those look pretty sinful.

 

[Anna N]

10 minutes ago, kayb said:

Recipe? Those look pretty sinful.

 

Yup.  Just one and you will have met your sugar requirements for the remainder of 2019.

 

Here you go.

[kayb]

6 hours ago, Anna N said:

Yup.  Just one and you will have met your sugar requirements for the remainder of 2019.

 

Here you go.

 

Lord have mercy. I b'lieve I'd have to convert to Catholicism. I'm not sure the Methodists have enough forgiveness for those things.

 

I will be trying them shortly. Butterscotch chips on the grocery list.

 

Will get back to you if I survive the diabetic coma.

 

[demiglace]

On 4/8/2019 at 10:41 AM, Anna N said:

 

 Chocolate chip and butterscotch bars.  

 

It's funny, I've been meaning to ask you if you had made blondies for the meeting folks. Your CC Butterscotch bars look wonderful!

[Anna N]

40 minutes ago, demiglace said:

 

It's funny, I've been meaning to ask you if you had made blondies for the meeting folks. Your CC Butterscotch bars look wonderful!

 Thank you. I believe I did make Blondies and got into trouble with @Kerry Beal!   I think they veered away from her definition of Blondies.😂   That’s the way I remember it anyway.  

 

 The chocolate chip butterscotch bars went over well:

 

 

But I had no doubt. They were so sweet they made my teeth ache,  even the teeth that my denturist made. 

Edited April 10, 2019 by Anna N (log)

[demiglace]

6 hours ago, Anna N said:

 Thank you. I believe I did make Blondies and got into trouble with @Kerry Beal!   I think they veered away from her definition of Blondies.😂   That’s the way I remember it anyway.  

 

 The chocolate chip butterscotch bars went over well:

 

 

But I had no doubt. They were so sweet they made my teeth ache,  even the teeth that my denturist made. 

 

 

Love it!

[Anna N]

 

Lemonies glazed but not yet cut into bars. 

 

Thanks to @Kerry Bealfor the recipe and the revised name.

 

 The recipe writer called these “Lemon Brownies”— so wrong.

 

She (Jill) had good intentions. Brownies are easy. So are these. 

 

Yet one who plays fast and loose with language must be held at arm’s length as far as trustworthiness goes. 

 

The recipe calls for 6 tablespoons of zest and 5 tablespoons of juice. Assuming, as I am wont to do, that any lemon worth its salt will yield 1 tablespoon of zest and at least 2 tablespoons of juice, then according to the recipe, we require 6 lemons.

 

Lemons don’t grow on trees. At least they don’t in Ontario.  And you can make an awful lot of whiskey sours with 6 lemons.

 

Two will work just fine with enough juice left over for a couple of stiff drinks. If you are in the least doubt shall we say, of the virility of your lemons, add a couple of drops of lemon oil to the cake and to the glaze. I did. 

 

Cheers. 

 

P.S.  If you expect to get a layer of glaze as thick and luscious as that shown in the photograph, then you will need much more glaze than this recipe supplies. 

 

Here

 

Or

 

 

[Anna N]

3 hours ago, Anna N said:

Lemonies glazed but not yet cut into bars. 

 

 They are basically a dense lemon cake with a lemon glaze. Nothing wrong with them at all.  But if you were to eat one I doubt if you would feel the earth move.  

[Anna N]

 

 Apricot and raspberry thumbprints. 

[Tri2Cook]

8 hours ago, Anna N said:

Apricot and raspberry thumbprints.

You're really calling up the memories for me now. My grandmother used to make those every year at Easter. She coated the outside with chopped pecans before baking and instead of filling them with jam/jelly, she would mix up a big batch of a relatively thick icing sugar glaze, divide it into smaller bowls and color each bowl a different pastel color. She'd then fill the cavities in the cooled cookies with that and let it set. My mom later took over making them only she did them as part of her Christmas cookies.

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

You're really calling up the memories for me now. My grandmother used to make those every year at Easter. She coated the outside with chopped pecans before baking and instead of filling them with jam/jelly, she would mix up a big batch of a relatively thick icing sugar glaze, divide it into smaller bowls and color each bowl a different pastel color. She'd then fill the cavities in the cooled cookies with that and let it set. My mom later took over making them only she did them as part of her Christmas cookies.

Happy to bring back some good memories. These were coated with a mixture of walnuts and almonds. I am not happy with the dough for these and will be looking around for a better recipe. This one is a beast in terms of keeping it together and shaping the cookies to have an indentation.