Why make your own granola when it is so readily available and in so many varieties? Because it’s a new year, maybe you’re going to a “new you” and in truth, store bought yuppified granola (Bare Naked etc)* is laden with oil, fat and a heavy hitter in the pocket book department.

Save a buck and your gut by whipping up a batch of your own with whatever you have laying around the house. The basic concept is this: you need something sweet and a little sticky, you need some egg whites to help bind the oats together and then you needed the goodies—fruits, nut, spices.

Here is a good base recipe to get you started:

Maple Granola with Cranberries and Walnuts

• ½ cup light brown sugar
• ½ cup real maple syrup
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups old fashioned oats.
• 1 cup walnut halves, chopped if desired
• 1 cup dried cranberries or cherries

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees positioning two racks in the center. Pam two sided baking sheets or line with parchment paper.

Heat sugar and syrup in a small heavy bottomed pot until sugar is dissolved. If the mixture sticks to the pot sides while you’re stirring, brush down with damp pastry brush. Set mixture aside to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk egg whites until frothy. Add spices and vanilla and whisk a bit more. In a slow stream, add the sugar mixture, whisking as you go. When this scrumptious sauce has taken on some body, add the oats and stir to coat. Next, toss in the walnuts and stir to combine. Place oats on prepped baking sheets and pop them in the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes then switch the cookie sheets, you want the granola to cook evenly. After another 10 minutes, stir to break up large lumps and add the dried fruit. Continue to cook for 15 more minutes. Depending on your oven and the size of the baking pans, the granola cook time will vary so keep your eye on it; you want it to be a golden brown color, but not any darker. It will tasted burned if you do.

* I’m not knocking these granolas entirely, they are delicious, no question about it.

Disclaimer: This post should have gone up on Friday…but writing it on the way to Chicago for a weekend full of party….I was otherwise occupied and didn’t pull it off.  Keep reading because it is a truly delicious one this week.

“The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” is a politically incorrect statement.  In fact, its just plain wrong since I’m fairly convinced my heart and stomach are integrally connected. I don’t want discriminate in my cooking, however, the salty sweet love child that I cooked up before Christmas has “dude” written all over it.

Chocolate chip cookies with pecans and bacon– the recipe is a powerhouse and vaults the common CCC into haut cuisine territory.  In addition to its inherent deliciousness, the bacon acts as a flavor amplifier, much like vanilla.

I am only slightly embarrassed that I jumped on the Bacon Bandwagon, but at rate these cookies were devoured, there is clearly a good reason this food fad cropped up. Just in case you were curious, “Bacon mania” has its own Wikipedia page.

This cookie is the perfect companion to this weekend’s college football bowl games.  So drink your champagne tonight and when you need that big brunch tomorrow, (and maybe a bloody mary,) save some of the bacon for these bad boys.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pecans and Beacon Bits

Recipe adapted from Susan Russo for NPR

5 strips bacon (don’t you dare touch the reduced fat slices)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter softened at room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (may I suggest Ghirardelli?)
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper

In a large, heavy bottomed pan, cook up that bacon, turning several times until browned and delicious, about 8 minutes.  Transfer to paper towels to drain and cool, then chop finely.

In a big bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars on high until pale and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla mixing until blended. Add the dry ingredients in 2 batches, beating until just incorporated and dough is uniform. Finally add the bacon, chocolate chips and pecans. Now (this is very important) taste it.

Plop heaping tablespoons of dough onto the prepared pans 2 to 3 inches apart. Bake for about 12 minutes, until edges are brown.

Cool and enjoy with milk. No, forget the milk, on New Years Day you’re going to want to enjoy these with a good dark beer.

On that note, Happy New Year, and Go Northwestern Wildcats!

Bluebarb equals rhubarb plus blueberries and it is quite possibly my favorite pie. Apple is also high on the list, and pumpkin…I just really like pie. And what better way to use the fruits of summer?

A Little Bit About Rhubarb

The sour, stalky rhubarb is actually a vegetable, though I have never heard of a savory recipe using rhubarb that doesn’t make my lips pucker. Reading more about the plant, I was hopping to discover it as a secret nutrition powerhouse, but it only offers a meager amount of vitamins C and A. The addition of  blueberries to the ‘barb boosts both the antioxidant and vitamin C concentration in the pie.

However rhubarb is not totally worthless (besides being delicious of course).  The ancient Chinese commonly used rhubarb to induce vomiting. Centuries later, in Europe during the fifteen and sixteen hundreds rhubarb in dried form sold for similar medicinal purposes for ten times the price of cinnamon and double that of opium. And I only pay a dollar for it at the farmers market. Lucky me!

Photo by SmittenKitchen

Yesterday Marshal brought me a bundle of rhubarb from the farmers market and asked very nicely if I would make him a pie. He also brought sunflowers and a dashing smile, just to sweeten the deal. I happily complied.

Bluebarb Pie (Recipe adapted from Cooks Illustrated)

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup fine or medium ground cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons salt
7 tablespoons crisco cut into pieces (I know, I know, but its great)
11 tablespoons cold butter cut into pieces
10 tablespoons ice water

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 or 2 bunches rhubarb (1-2 lbs) edges trimmed of gross bits, cut into 1- inch size pieces (5-6 cups)
1 pint blueberries
3/4 cup sugar plus a bit for dusting the top crust
3 tablespoons arrowroot ( a white powder found in the spice section)
Pinch o salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg white, beaten

Grab a nine inch pie pan and set the oven to 500 (scary, but the temp comes down right away)

1. This dough is very versatile. Keep some in the freezer for a spur-of-the-moment tart, crostata or pie . The addition of the cornmeal adds a welcome counterpoint texture to the smooth fruity insides. Pulse dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor, till mixed. Add crisco and pulse until flour mixture looks like sand that’s about ready to make a castle, or about 5 seconds. Next add butter and blend with 12 1-second pulses.  The butter should be cut into the flour in blobs no bigger than small peas. Dump dough into large mixing bowl and sprinkle ice water over top. Press dough together with a spatula or your hands until it forms a ball. Divide dough into two parts, flatten each into 6 inch discs and refrigerate.

2. Heat the oil in a large sauce pan until very hot, then toss in rhubarb. Get ready! It’s going to sizzle and smoke! Add 1/4 cup of the sugar and cook until rhubarb has released most of its liquid but is still firm, roughly five minutes. Set in the fridge to cool.

3. Its time to roll out the dough! Take one of the discs out of the fridge and flour your work surface.  Now proceed to roll it out, adding as much flour as you go. It helps to rotate and turn the dough over as you work, that way it will be easier to plop in the pan.  Roll until dough is a fourth of an inch thick then place it in the pan, and put the pan in the fridge to keep the dough chilled.

4. Combine remaining sugar (plus more if you want a sweeter inside), arrowroot and salt in a small bowl. Now go fetch the cooled rhubarb and combine with blueberries in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle sugar mixture over the fruit and gently mix, then pop the whole mess into the pie pan.

5. Proceed to roll out the other piece of dough. Gently slide it over the pie and trim off excess around the  edge, leaving enough to make a tasty crust. Now roll edge dough under and press with a fork to seal. Create 8 slices in the top to allow steam to escape.  Brush pie with beaten egg white and sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of sugar.

6.  If you’re afraid there is just too much goodness inside, place pie on a cookie sheet to catch any spills. Now its time to get this bad boy in the oven. Immediately lower the temperature to 475 and bake for 25 minutes, until crust is lightly golden. Then lower temperature again to 375 and continue to cook until fruit bubbles through the slits.

7. Wait as long as you possibly can to eat it. Shoot for a few hours. Seriously, its better when it doesn’t scald you. Oh, lastly, make sure you have good vanilla ice cream on hand!  Happy eating!

Bread, that is, bread. What did you think I meant?

Well I am back in action, the oven is hot and I have set off my fire alarm at least three times this week. Although I am just getting used to the ancient oven — the door doesn’t close all the way and the dial has no temperatures listed– I think the loaves are starting to have a good crust and crumb.

Let’s break it down: when you want a good crunchy chewy crust, you need to create steam. So as you slide the raw dough onto the hot baking stone you have to simultaneously pour a cup of water into an oven safe receptacle and slam the oven door shut. It’s not as complicated as it sounds, I promise.

The crumb is the inside of the bread. My current loaves are made from a combo of all purpose and rye flours, which yields a cakey interior, and a great depth of flavor.

Different flours mean different protein contents, a crucial concept in baking. High protein flours provide more structure and make more chewy bread, Lower protein flours, like cake flour make for a soft buttery inside. Rye flour generally hovers around 7-10 % protein content by weight whereas all purpose has about 12-14%. This all adds up to the best kind of bread, at least in my opinion.

So here is my proposal. I want to bake. I hope you want to eat. Want to barter? Want to buy some flour?

I should never have made a promise (or a statement) I couldn’t stick to.  I failed greatly at my blogging last week, which will hereby be known as the “Week of Bread.” But actually, the Week of Bread was something of a triumph, if  an undocumented one and from the looks of it this summer will be full of homemade boules.

In fact, my oven is beeping right now.  I just check, my semolina needs 3 more minutes.  The top is nicely brown and the diagonal score mark I cut just before baking has opened and allowed the loaf to rise.

I have always loved the concept of making my own bread for a lot of reasons.  First, it makes my house smell great, second, it’s incredible cheap and third it is therapeutic.  This all being said, it can be a time consuming activity.  Last summer I remember being late to an event or to meet a friend on more than on occasion due to rising or baking loaves.

Not so this year.  I’ve discovered a method developed by Zoë François and Jeff Hertzberg in their book “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day”.  The central idea is bread making should be easy, fun, and non-intimidating. (My oven just went off again, the bread is done and cooling now.)

This summer, my family is not buying any artisan bread from the grocery store or a bakery.  Why would we? At $4.99 a loaf the “artisan breads aren’t’ worth it when I’m creating the same thing for about a $1.25. (yes, I did the calculations, and the yeast is the most expensive part.)

Thus far and the week of bread, we have eaten Italian Boule, Sourdough, Whole Wheat and Semolina. The semolina is my favorite. This loaf that came out today was cakey and delicious.  The only problem I am encountering (other than the stomach ache that follows eathing a whole loaf) is a slightly dough bottom.  I think I figured it out tonight: finer milled cornmeal to slide the dough into the hot oven. Tomorrow I’m giving it a go with flour instead.

This method is something I’m going to bring back to Northwestern in the fall.  When I’m not at home my baking stone goes unused so I’m taking it with me.  Talk about a way to make friends. Fresh bread anyone?

In Spain, April showers bring May flowers just like in the US, but April also brings Easter and the week long vacation called Semana Santa that directly precedes egg painting time.  In cities all throughout the country, the Cofradías, Fraternal Brotherhoods of the Church, process along twisting cobblestone roads, adored in white and gold and bearing statues of Christ and the saints on their backs.

I, on the other hand, watched the festivities on a small television hidden away in the beach town of Peñíscola, about 250 kilometers south of Barcelona.  This April’s Semana Santa did in fact bring a lot of rain, and while I tried to get a little tan (after a short polar plunge in the Mediterranean) my favorite part of the vacation ended up being my lesson in Torrijas, the traditional dessert of holy week.

Torrijas are essentially a fried version of French toast or portable bread pudding- bread, milk, sugar, eggs and spices (honey, muscatel wine and cinnamon are all added to the eaters liking).  Standing in the tiny, very humid kitchen with my Spanish host mother, I began my apprenticeship. Everyone’s recipe is a little different, but in this case, first we mixed milk, sugar, cinnamon, and muscatel wine in a bowl and submerged slices of bakery bread two at a time.  Meanwhile, I beat four eggs in a separate bowl and heated frying oil in a pan. After we had a stack of 12 or so bread slices, we dredged them in the eggs and fried them up.  Delicious? Obviously.  Heart attack?…probable.  This is not what my doctor had in mind when she said watch your cholesterol.

Torrijas, are ubiquitous during Semana Santa.  Bakeries, restaurants and even convenience stores hang sign in their windows—“Hay Torrijas”— to attract the sweet-toothed Spanish population. The classic postre originated in Spanish monasteries in the 15th century as a way to make good and cheap use of leftovers. This year, El Mundo, a Madrileño newspaper, estimated that 3 million torrijas were sold, or said another way, 375,000 kilos (787,100 pounds)!

For me, this pastry came at the perfect time, feeling a little homesick, nothing says comfort like a few warm torrijas and a spanish soap opera.

Here is Mark Bittman’s take on the Spanish treat, and because I trust him implicitly, give this one a whirl.  Plus, the recipe is in English.