Fruit Bars

Some of you may call these Hermit Bars, but in my family they're fruit bars. When I was young, treats from the bakery were a rare treat. I remember helping my mom unpack the groceries, not just because I wanted to help but also to get my hands on whatever treats my mom may have slipped in the cart. In a family of nine, the competition was fierce, and only rarely did I fish out a bag of dry iced oatmeal cookies or tiny sack of bridge mix destined for my mom's sock drawer. One of the best treats I remember was a package of soft, iced fruit bars from the store bakery. It took some convincing to eat one, since one pack contained only six or eight bars.

I've found a recipe that comes pretty close to those bars. They're moist with molasses and chopped fruit.

Fruit Bars
1 1/3 c. sugar
1/2 plus 2 T. (4 oz.) shortening
4 T. unsalted butter
1/4 c. (3 oz.) molasses
3/4 t. salt
3/4 t. allspice
3/4 t. cinnamon
1 3/4 t. baking soda
2 lg. eggs
5 c. cake flour
1/3 c. water
2 c. chopped raisins, dates, currants, or other dried fruit in any combination.

Glaze: 3 T. milk mixed with 1 c. powdered sugar.

Cream together sugar, shortening and butter. Add molasses, salt, spices, and baking soda. Mix for 1 minute, then scrape down bowl. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add half the flour and mix in. Add the water, mix, and then the other half of the flour. Add chopped fruit. Spread in greased 10 x 15 jelly roll pan and bake at 350 for 18 to 20 minutes. (I run my hands under cold water and press the dough in the pan.) Be careful not to overbake. When cool, drizzle with glaze.

Note: You could substitute all-purpose flour if that's all you have. 1 cup cake flour equals 1 cup all-purpose flour (preferably bleached) minus 2 tablespoons, and then add in 2 tablespoons cornstarch. Also, I like to plump up the dried fruit by covering it with 1 c. hot water then covering the dish for a few minutes. Then I use the soaking liquid for the water called for in the recipe. Depending on the dryness of your flour, you could increase the water to 1/2 c.

Clam Flan

Sorry, folks - no recipe here. And if you're easily nauseated, stop reading. Carrie, I mean it. I recently had a chat with a friend about an article in Gourmet that was authored by an ice cream fanatic who's quest became to try all sorts of wild and crazy ice cream flavors. I think her children drew the line at clam ice cream sundaes. My friend then recalled a childhood competition to come up with the most disgusting food combinations and Oreos with clam dip was declared the hands-down winner. Suddenly it dawned on us that every bad food combination must include clams. Anything and everything we could dream up–add clams–and presto, you've got something really disgusting. Clam churros? Yep. Clam forest cake? You bet. Clam flan? Now we're talking!

Blurry Tomato Dill Salad

It takes a very steady hand (raise hand if you thought of the "Operation" commercial from the 70's) to take this picture, apparently. Thanks to Amy for this recipe.

Tomato Salad with Dill Dressing and Blue Cheese
5-6 c. of your favorite salad greens
2 T. each olive oil and red wine vinegar
2-3 lbs. tomatoes, sliced, quartered or halved. (I use a combo of heirloom and cherry tomatoes)
1/2-1 c. your favorite blue cheese
1/2-1 c. dill dressing
Dill Dressing:
3 T red wine vinegar (I reduced it to 2 T)
1 T fresh lemon juice
1 heaping T mayo (I put in 2 T)
1/2 c. snipped chives
1/2 c. canola oil
salt and pepper to taste (I used about 1/2 t. salt)
Blend together in food processor, blender (I used an immersion blender.) and season to taste. I found it very acidic with the 3 T. of vinegar, so adjust to your taste.

To assemble salad, line platter or shallow bowl with salad greens and dress with the olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper. Cover with tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Spoon dressing over top and sprinkle on blue cheese.

How to be a Zucchini Goddess

I was in the mood for a little stress baking today. Getting my hands dirty so to speak allows me to take my mind off other things. And, I was able to use up some of the zucchini taking over my countertop, so this task was especially fulfilling. This is the second time (well, technically third - we'll get into that later) I've made the zucchini cake from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess. A domestic goddess I am not, but the cake is quite nice. Most zucchini cakes/breads I've tasted are heavily spiced and moist to the point of oiliness. This cake is just barely sweet and is filled with lime curd and topped with a tangy cream cheese frosting. The frosting is just cream cheese, lime juice, and a little powdered sugar. It also calls for a sprinkling of pistachios on the top but I was in no mood to be that extravagant.

Nigella is a British lady, so some of her recipes have ingredients that I'm not familiar with. This cake called for self-rising cake flour. Well, I had cake flour, and I knew I could add some baking soda and salt and make it "self-rising". Trouble was, I got my proportions wrong and also added way to much baking soda. I didn't suspect anything wrong until I sampled a bit of the cake scrap that I had "leveled off". (Let's face it, the cake really didn't need leveling off but I wanted to taste it anyway.) Good thing I tasted it before I frosted it, because it had an overwhelming "baking soda" taste. But, I didn't mind doing the cake again since I got to use more zucchini (whoot!) and the cake only uses 1/2 c. oil and not my precious unsalted butter.

Next time I do the cake I'd like to try a different filling and frosting. The tart/tangy works well with the plain, moist cake, but I'd also like to try something with bananas, orange, or chocolate.

What a Tart

The temperature dipped today to a mild 90 degrees. Perfect tart-making weather, I say. With our swamp cooler whirring away, I quickly made the pastry and chucked it in the fridge. The tart also calls for roasted garlic so I got to crank on the oven and roast my very first head of garlic.

Because my new Ikea tart pan was a bit larger that the called-for 10 inches, I doubled the pastry recipe and made a little apple tart with the leftover pastry scraps. Now that's what I call dinner: pie for a main course; pie for dessert. Oh, and a salad. What with all the tarts in the kitchen today, there were a few "tarty" comments from Ed. And let's just leave it at that.

A note about the pastry: the recipe called for 1 c. unsalted butter, but I swapped out 2-3 T. of the butter for shortening. On of the squares of butter was frozen and chopped, the other was just cold from the fridge, and of course the shortening was room temp. Perhaps I was overthinking a bit, but I wanted to see if using part frozen butter would preserve the pieces in the dough, especially in my hot kitchen. I think it worked.

If You Can't Take the Heat

...then don't bake cookies in August. However, if you're a compulsive baker like me, you're willing to sweat it out a little. These cookies are a variation of my oatmeal raisin cookies, with added chocolate chips, golden raisins, and walnuts. My neighbor Wendy requested the recipe, so here it is.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
1 c. unsalted butter
1 c. shortening
3 lg. eggs
2 t. vanilla
3 c. flour
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. salt
5 c. rolled oats
1 1/4 c. raisins

Cream together butter, sugars, and vanilla until smooth and light (about 2 minutes). Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. On low speed, mix in dry ingredients, oats, and raisins until just combined. Finish mixing by hand as needed to blend evenly. Chill in fridge at least 1 hour.

Notes: When using raisins, I give them a rough chop before adding to the mix. You can also use quick (not instant) oats for part of the oatmeal, but I'd always use a higher ratio of the old-fashioned. This recipe is a nice template for tinkering around with add-ins like chocolate chips, dried fruit, and nuts. This recipe is configured for high altitude. If cooking at lower altitude, you may require 1/4 c. less flour.

You Say Tomato...

I say what the heck am I going to do with all of these. What was once a highly-anticipated event, I'm now experiencing a bit of tomato fatigue. The first week they ripened, we gleefully scarffed BLTs, tomato salads, and, my favorite, tomatoes with cottage cheese and lots of pepper. Now that they're ripening in earnest, I'm struggling to keep up. Let's call the whole thing off, I say.

This year I branched out a little and planted some heirloom varieties, including Zebra Stripe, Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter, Abe Lincoln, and Pinapple. It's been fun to taste new flavors, although I haven't decided what's my favorite. The Zebra Stripe are pretty acidic. The Abe Lincolns are rather sweet. The Brandywines have a rich taste, and get overripe quickly on my countertop.

I've been wanting to make the tomato tart from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, but these last two weeks of August have been so hot I can't bear to turn on the oven. Stay tuned.