Triple Layer Cookie Bars

Have you ever cooked something with a really specific idea of what you were making, only to have it come out as a completely different recipe? I thought this recipe was going to be the ubiquitous but multi-named “Seven Layer Bars,” “Magic Bars,” or “White Trash Candy” that I grew up eating at every party I ever attended in the state of Kentucky. I read the ingredients and assumed that's what the end result would be, so I was completely surprised when it turned out to be a recipe for something significantly different, though no less good.

So what is this a recipe for, exactly? It's sort of like a chewy, dark-chocolate covered macaroon, these bars manage to be sweet without crossing over into cloying because the mix of flavours and textures is so perfectly balanced: salty crust, sweet filling, bitter chocolate topping. The perfect blend. If you were serving these at a party, I'd cut them into truffle-sized, single bite servings. If you're serving them at a girls' night where the goal is less elegance and more decadence, you could cut them into slightly larger, two or three-bite sizes.

I can imagine Eleanor and her friends snacking on these while they played bridge. They're easily transportable, they look incredibly fancy when cut up on a plate because of that smooth chocolate layer, and they're so decadent they'll make even the sweetest tooth swoon with happiness.*

These bars are rich, and, as we've already discovered, Eleanor's sweet tooth ran deep, so I guess that makes sense. Strangely, I haven't been able to think of an American equivalent, but they taste awfully similar to Millionaire's Shortbread-- a Scottish dessert comprised of shortbread topped with caramel and covered in chocolate. The good news is that this recipe is way easier than millionaire's shortbread because it doesn't require you to make caramel (always a plus in my book!), and it makes a ton, because you're gonna want to cut them small. Plus, they keep well in the fridge for at least a week (possibly longer, but that was when we ran out).

I usually don't pay too much attention to the type of butter I use in baked goods, but for this one you're definitely going to want to use salted butter. The slight saltiness in the crust offsets the sweetness of the other layers just perfectly and without it, I think these would cross into sickly-sweet territory. If you can get your hands on desiccated coconut instead of the usual shredded stuff, it might make the bars easier to cut into uniform cubes, but it also probably cuts down on the coconut texture/flavour that shredded gives, so if you're into that, go for shredded.

*I have no picture to show you of how fancy they look once they are cut, because I got distracted with how delicious they were as soon as we started cutting them and totally forgot to take a picture. Next time, friends.

The verdict:

5 spoons out of five. They're rich, delicious, and easy, they keep well, and the recipe makes a lot. What more could you possibly want?

Loose crumbs.

Post-baking, pre-chocolate layer.

Final Layer.

The recipe:

Triple Layer Cookie Bars

The ingredients:

½ c salted butter
1 ½ c rich tea biscuit crumbs, or graham cracker crumbs
7 oz desiccated coconut
14 oz condensed milk
12 oz bittersweet baking chocolate
½ c creamy peanut butter

THE DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 176C/350F.
In 13x9 pan, melt butter in oven.
Once butter is melted, sprinkle crumbs evenly over butter (no need to pack it down or try to stir it into a "crust," it will form on its own in the oven).
Top evenly with coconut, then condensed milk (tip: sprinkle the coconut and pour the condensed milk easily-- you're not gonna be able to level them out much after you add them to the pan without disturbing the bottom crust).
Bake 25 minutes until lightly browned (will be mostly dry but still sticky looking).
During last 5 minutes of baking, in a small saucepan over very low heat, melt chocolate with peanut butter, stirring constantly to avoid burning.
After bars are done baking, pour melted chocolate mixture evenly over hot coconut layer.
Chill thoroughly before cutting bars.
Store loosely covered at room temperature, or in the fridge if you're not going to eat them for a few days.

Yields 30-36 small bars, depending on size.

Old Fashioned Bread Pudding

Did you make a giant loaf of Easter bread last week AND a full-size batch of hot cross buns? Do you now have more raisin-studded bread than you know what to do with, filling your kitchen and threatening to overpower you and your family if you eat anything that isn't a sandwich?

I have a solution for you!

Bread pudding gets such a bum wrap. If you can find it on the menu at a restaurant, it's inevitably pitted against such hard-to-resist sweets as flourless chocolate tortes, vanilla crème brulée, lemon panna cotta, or raspberry sorbet-- all lovely in their own right, and far more exciting then bread pudding sounds. But really, what could be better on a rainy spring night than a steamy teacup full of warm spiced bread pudding, straight from the oven? Spiced with cinnamon and raisins with a creamy, custard-like texture, this is the perfect comfort food, and a total upcycle at that.

There are a lot of recipes like this in the box: dishes that feature ingredients you'd have to throw away otherwise. These are the recipes that Eleanor saved and used over and over because they helped prevent unnecessary waste (including a recipe for mock apple pie that contains... you guessed it! No apples). Since the box was started during WWII when even the most basic foods were being rationed, I guess she became good at stretching her dollars-- and her pantry. Written in what I assume is Eleanor's own hand, the original recipe card for this includes the notation “(good)” at the top, underlined twice-- so you know it was a winner for her, too.

So don't throw away your next loaf of stale bread; get creative and make yourself a bread pudding. It's the perfect dessert for this time of year when the weather vacillates between warm and freezing (cold out? Serve this hot! Warm outside? Serve it chilled!), and it's versatile enough to be appropriate for breakfast or dessert (scoop a dollop of yoghurt on it for breakfast, or serve it with cream as a dessert!) Seriously, what are you waiting for?

This is the perfect recipe on which to use up the remnants of a sweet bread you have laying around (Hawaiian bread would be an absolute dream here!), but the original actually calls for plain sandwich bread, so that would work fine, too. I've included two different amounts of sugar below, depending on how sweet your bread is to start with.

The verdict:

4 spoons out of five. I'd give it five, but by the time I made this, I was so tired of bread that it was hard to muster up as much enthusiasm as this deserved.

The recipe:

Old Fashioned Bread Pudding

The ingredients:

6 slices stale bread (white or your choice of sweet breads)
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp cinnamon
Scant ½ c sugar (if using plain bread, add an additional 2 tbsp sugar)
½ c raisins (optional, but recommended as they definitely improve the texture and flavour)
4 eggs
2 c milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

THE DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 176C/350F.
Grease an 8x8 (or 1 ½ quart) baking dish and set aside.
Cut crusts from bread and brush remaining bread with melted butter.
Sprinkle with cinnamon (and 2 tbsp sugar if you're using plain bread).
Cut bread into quarters (mine were more like cubes because my slices were thicker).
Arrange in layers in prepared dish, sprinkling each layer with raisins as you go.
In a separate bowl, beat eggs just until combined.
Add scant ½ c sugar, milk, and vanilla to eggs and stir until sugar is dissolved.
Pour egg mixture over bread.
Set dish in pan of 1 inch hot water and place in oven.
Bake 55-60 minutes until “silver knife inserted ½ inch into pudding comes out clean.”

This post also listed over at #InspireMe Wednesdays!

Sweet & Sour Beef Kebabs

Shish Kebabs, to me, are the quintessential food of the 1970s. More than fondue, more than Watergate Salad, more than stuffed peppers or anything else I can think of, shish kebabs just seem like a 1970s party waiting to happen... and so it makes sense that I found a recipe for “Sweet and Sour Beef Kebabs” in the box without much searching.

I've never made a kebab (fun fact: when I was a kid, I thought I hated all food on sticks just because I happened to hate onions and peppers... and it never occurred to me that I could just eat the other things on the stick and avoid those ones), and I've never seen skewers in the store here in Scotland. This is the weird thing about living in a different country that I don't think people always understand: we've been here a year and a half, but, at least twice a month there is still something we need to buy or do that we can't figure out how to purchase or accomplish. For instance: bamboo skewers are readily available at every grocery store in the US that I've ever been to, and even more readily available at every Wal-Mart and Target. But here in Edinburgh, the grocery stores are much smaller (ours doesn't carry pie filling, gelatin, or marshmallows), so I knew getting skewers there would be a non-starter. So I headed down to a hardware store in our neighbourhood-- the same place I bought our kitchen scale, copper cleaner for our pots, soda crystals to clean our washing machine, and a whole lot of other random gadgets that no one else in town carries. Most of the times I've been there looking for a really specific thing, they've looked at me like I was crazy, but this time they came to the rescue and I am now the owner of a large bag of (very small) bamboo skewers and a set of 4 (even smaller) metal ones.

Dat maple syrup tho.

I like to imagine Eleanor smoking a cigarette, wearing a polyester dress with a loud psychedelic pattern, and mixing up a pitcher of lemonade while my grandpa Wilbur grilled up these kebabs in their backyard, but I can hear Eleanor's voice in my head, even as I type this, reminding me that it's too hot to grill outside for 90% of the year in Florida, so maybe I'm wrong about that one.

We don't have a grill here in Edinburgh (it's pretty much the only thing I miss from our house in Atlanta), so I had to make these in the kitchen... though I might bust this recipe out when it gets a little warmer: we live across the street from the largest park in Edinburgh and in the summer it's full of groups of people grilling out on tiny disposable grills they sell at all the grocery stores. This is an easy, tasty recipe that is intended as an appetiser, but we ate it as a main course one night for dinner and I REGRET NOTHING.

Some words of advice: the cut of the meat actually does matter on this one, despite the fact that it's marinated for ages in a briny mix. I accidentally bought “stew meat” the first time and it was noticeably, terribly tough. Get yourself some sirloin and you won't regret it. Also, the longer this marinates, the better-- if you can get it into the marinade in the morning, it'll be totally worth it when dinner rolls around, I promise. Any kind of onion should work, but the sweeter, the better-- if you have Vidalias, use them here! And finally: these kebabs don't reheat particularly well, so aim to make as close to the actual amount that you need as possible.

And special thanks today go to my mom, who sent this bottle of maple syrup to us as an anniversary gift because it's so hard to find over here. We think of you each Saturday when we eat crepes.

The Verdict:

4 spoons out of five. They're delicious, easy, and seriously, they come on a stick. Does it get any better?

The Recipe:

Sweet and Sour Beef Shish Kebabs

The Ingredients:

1 ½ lb boneless sirloin, cut into ¾-inch cubes
½ c soy sauce
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp scallions, spring onions, or chives
½ tsp garlic powder
2 large sweet onions, cut in chunks
Skewers

THE DIRECTIONS:

Place beef cubes in a large bowl.
Pour in other ingredients, stir well to coat.
Cover and place in refrigerator at least one hour or up to all day.
Remove cubes from marinade and thread on skewers, alternating as desired with onion chunks.
Broil or grill for 5 minutes or until browned on all sides but still pink inside.
rrange on platter and serve as hors d'oeuvres, or have them as a main course with a giant green salad, like we did.