I was so happy this weekend… I had time to cook and bake! For fun!
I’ve made somewhat of a Dorie Greenspan “pact” with a group of internet friends. Every couple of weeks, someone picks a recipe out of Baking: From My Home to Yours, and we all make it and share our results. It’s fun because everyone makes little changes to the recipe based on their likes/dislikes, what they had in their pantry, etc.
This time, the choice was Dorie’s Applesauce Spice Bars, and I couldn’t have been happier. Perfect time of year to make something like this, and with such awesome ingredients, it was difficult to see how this recipe could possibly go wrong.
And, as expected… it didn’t. These were wonderful! (And pretty easy when it comes to Dorie.)
Applesauce Spice Bars
(Recipe from Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan)
For the Bars:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick (8 tbsp.) unsalted butter
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 tbsp. applejack, brandy, or dark rum (optional) — I did not use
1 baking apple, such as Rome or Cortland, peeled, cored and finely diced or chopped (I used Newcrisp apples–and used probably 1 & 1/2 apples)
1/2 cup plump, moist raisins (dark or golden) — I omitted
1/2 cup chopped pecans — I substituted unsalted peanuts
For the Glaze:
2 1/2 tbsp heavy cream
1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 1/2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tsp. light corn syrup
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9″ x 13″ baking pan, line the bottom with parchment paper, butter the paper and dust the inside of the pan with flour. Tap out the excess flour and put the pan on a baking sheet. (I skipped all of this parchment paper, butter, and flour nonsense and just liberally sprayed the pan with cooking spray.)
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.
In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the brown sugar and stir with a whisk until it is melted and the mixture is smooth, about 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat. Still working in the saucepan, whisk in the eggs one at a time, mixing until they are well blended. Add the applesauce, vanilla and applejack (if you’re using it), and whisk until the ingredients are incorporated and the mixture is once again smooth.
Switch to a rubber spatula and gently stir in the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear, then mix in the apple, raisins and nuts.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake for 23 to 25 minutes, or until the bars just start to pull away from the sides of the pan and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the baking pan to a rack and let the cake cool while you make the glaze.
While waiting for the bars to cool… In a small saucepan, whisk together the cream, sugar, butter and corn syrup. Put the pan over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil, whisking frequently. Adjust the heat so that the glaze simmers, and cook, whisking frequently, for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
Turn the bars out onto a rack, remove the paper and invert the bars onto another rack, so they are right side up. Slide the parchment paper under the rack to serve as a drip catcher. (I also skipped all of this and just left the bars in the pan. They were really moist and I was too afraid they were going to break if I took them out of the pan. Also, who needs this extra mess? Unnecessary.)
Grab a long metal icing spatula and pour the hot glaze over the bars, using the spatula to spread it evenly over the cake. Let them cool to room temperature before you cut them.
Cut into 32 rectangles, each about 2-1/4 x 1-1/2 inches. Yield: 32 Bars (Cut using Dorie’s measurements, those would be some pretty small bars. I think we ended up with 16-20 bars.)
Storing: These will keep for about 3 days at room temperature. Because of the glaze, they cannot be frozen.
One of the locations today for my trash the dress shoot. I will do a better recap later but it was a fun experience. Hopefully will have some preview photos soon!
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This is a recipe I saw Rachael Ray make on her talk show, probably about a year and a half ago. I printed it off at that time, and we’ve made it occasionally since then. I didn’t realize until now just how easy this recipe is–it’s a great weeknight meal because it’s quick. It has nice flavor, too. But if you don’t like lemon and you don’t like poppyseeds, it probably goes without saying that you won’t like this. :)
Gone are the days of taking photos of our dinners in natural light. It’s getting dark earlier and earlier. So I guess these photos will have to do for the next several months, until spring rolls around again!
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Lemony Poppy Chicken with Sweet Pea Couscous
(Adapted from Rachael Ray)
Ingredients:
– 2 cans chicken broth
– 1/2 lb. frozen peas
– 1 box (original flavor) couscous – We buy the 10 oz. box
– 3-4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
– 1 cup flour
– salt and pepper
– 1 lemon
– 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
– 2 cloves garlic
– 2 tbsp. butter
– 2 tbsp. poppy seeds
– 10 leaves of basil, chopped (or about 1 tbsp. dried basil leaves)
(If you so choose, you can also add 10 leaves of chopped mint to the couscous. I’m not big on mint, so I omit it from the recipe.)
Directions:
1. Place a large skillet over high heat with the olive oil. While the skillet is heating up, place the flour on a plate. Toss the chicken in the flour to coat, shaking off any excess. Add the chicken pieces to the hot skillet. Season the chicken liberally with salt, pepper, and the zest of the lemon. Cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring every now and then to get the chicken pieces brown all over. Grate or mince in the garlic in the last two minutes of cooking.
2. While chicken is cooking, get the couscous going. Following the directions on your package, boil the specified amount of chicken broth (for our package, it says 2 cups). Once boiling, add in box of couscous and the peas. Cover and remove from heat. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.
3. Once the chicken has browned, add the remaining chicken broth to the skillet. Once the broth is hot, add the butter and poppy seeds.
4. Stir until the butter has melted and the sauce has thickened up a bit, about one minute. If you want your sauce even thicker (we do), add a slurry (1 tbsp. corn starch and a little bit of water). Turn off the heat and squeeze the juice of the lemon into the pan.
5. Remove the lid from the pot of couscous, add the basil (and mint, if you choose), and fluff with a fork. Place a portion of couscous on the plate and top with the chicken.
Enjoy!
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I finished up Wilton Course II last night. It was fun to actually bring a cake to work on. You feel so much more accomplished when you leave class with a fully decorated cake!
(I interrupt this regularly scheduled post to report that sunlight just broke through the clouds and is shining through my window. Yes, that’s right. SUN! We literally have not seen the sun in over a week. It’s depressing. Anyway, I’m sure it won’t last long. In fact, it’s already fading back behind another cloud. Boo.)
We started class by learning and practicing basketweave. We started off on the practice boards, flat on the table. Then we put the practice boards on the stand so we could try to do the basketweave on an upright surface (much more challenging). Once we had that down, we moved on to learning the rope border. Pretty easy. Not much different than a shell, it’s just you have to make small “S” shapes over and over.
Then we got to move onto our cakes! Very exciting. We started off with the basketweave, which took much more time and a lot more icing than I ever anticipated. Holy cow, my finished cake is HEAVY! There is a lot of buttercream on that sucker.
Next time, I would expand the basketweave by going up one more row at the top. I didn’t quite cover the entire side, even after adding the rope border, so I’m not 100% pleased with how it looks. After finishing the basketweave, I did a rope border on the top and bottom edges of the cake.
Then it was time to bust out the flowers that we spent three classes making. I had way more flowers than I actually needed for this cake, so I picked over them and chose some of the best ones for the cake. Some of them broke as I was transferring them off of the wax paper and onto the cake (I’m looking at you, daisies!) but most were pretty successful. I did my best to arrange them in a nice way, then filled in gaps and made them look more natural by piping in some buttercream leaves.
Ended it all by adding one of my colorflow birds to the side.
Tada! I’m pretty happy with the results. I’m bringing the cake into work today, and judging from their past reactions, I know I’m going to have to argue to get them to even cut into it and eat it. It’s a cake, people! You’re supposed to eat it!
Oh, how I miss it.
I really got used to having so much of it over the summer. September began, and bam–it was gone. Starting next week, things should be a bit better. I can’t wait.
I want to cook dinner more than once a week. I want to bake for fun. I want to take the dog for walks, and I want to have time to relax. I want a clean house.
I want, I want, I want.
(P.S. I am doing a “trash the dress” shoot with a photographer this weekend. See Road to the Aisle for details.)
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
