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I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

oats

Monster Cookies

Monster Cookies

Sorry I couldn’t resist. Not this time…

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I have really tried to steer clear from making cookies, or most sweets, while I’ve been pregnant. Sometimes I cave, but I at least plan on getting them out of my house ASAP and share so I don’t eat them all.

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You see it’s just that I’ve been too afraid that I can’t resist just having one and before you know it the whole batch of cookies are gone.

Or a tray of brownies.

Or a pie.

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I can’t stand that I am in love with sweets now. I can’t get off Pinterest looking at desserts hoping they would magically instantly appear in in my kitchen just for me. So when I decided to make Monster Cookies for this weekend’s race at “The Monster Mile” I was just about going to eat my laptop screen. But thankfully I resisted and held out for these mega cookies to appear in real life. And of course, hot from the oven!

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These babies are large and in charge. They look really cute with the teeny tiny M&M’s throughout but they are monsters! They pack a punch from the creamy peanut butter, oats, and the double dose of chocolate. Plus they are just giants. Well, isn’t that really the point of Monster Cookies?!?!?!

Hope you enjoy this weekend’s race at Dover.

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Monster Cookies

Makes 18-20 large cookies

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon corn syrup
  • 1 1/2 cups peanut butter
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 1/4 cups quick oatmeal
  • 1 cup mini M&Ms
  • 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks

Process

  1. Preheat oven 350 degrees.
  2. Blend together the butter and sugars in a mixer.
  3. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, corn syrup, and peanut butter and blend until combined.
  4. Add the baking powder, baking soda, oatmeal, and flour and mix until everything is well blended.
  5. Stir in the M&Ms and chocolate chips.
  6. Using a cookie scoop (or just 2 spoons!) scoop dough into balls about 1 1/2″ round on a cookie sheet about 2″ apart. Just slightly flatten the dough balls.
  7.  Bake for 11-13 minutes until lightly brown and just set in the middle. Cool slightly on the pan for 3-5 minutes before removing to enjoy

Sourced from Skinny Not Skinny

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Fresh Berry White Chocolate Streusel Bars- SRC

Fresh Berry White Chocolate Streusel Bars

I made these Fresh Berry White Chocolate Streusel Bars for Memorial Day weekend. We munched on these while we watched the Coke 600 NASCAR race. It made the race even better. How can you not love a sweet treat and hot guys!?! ha 🙂

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Well, these were a fantastic pick for this month’s Secret Recipe Club. Huge hit. It made the house smell great while baking so that we agonized waiting the hour for them to cool before cutting. I’m just so glad that this month I had Avril’s blog Baking and Creating with Avril and we picked these bars.

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The bars are super simple to make and are bursting with fresh berry flavor. I used strawberries and blueberries but feel free to add some raspberries in there as well. We loved that so much at we felt that the white chocolate is not even needed. It’s great but if you don’t have it on hand (I don’t normally), don’t stress out. These will kick butt with the buttery crust, fresh fruit and crumbly topping.

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I found it a bit easier to gently cut the bars when they were still warm so that it made cutting through them when they cooled easier. Like scoring something before you cut it- that’s my 7 yrs of maki. As well, made for thing a bit easier when cutting through the chocolate so it wouldn’t make a mess breaking the drizzle up.

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I swear you won’t be able to eat just one of these. So fantastic!

Fresh Berry White Chocolate Streusel Bars

Makes 24 bars

Ingredients

  • 2 cups oats
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup COLD butter, cut into small pieces
  • 8 ounces strawberry jam
  • 1 tsp lemon zest
  • 2 cups fresh berries (chop or slice strawberries if you use them)
  • 3 ounces white chocolate chips

Process

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Set aside at 15×10 jellyroll pan (rimmed baking sheet.
  2. In a large bowl whisk together oats, flour, both sugars, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add in COLD butter that has been cut into small pieces.  Combine the butter into the dry ingredients either with your hands or a pastry cutter until butter is well incorporated as little crumbles.  Remove 1 cup of the mixture, set aside. Evenly press the remaining mixture into a jellyroll pan. 
  3. Bake for 12-13 minutes or until it is firm to the touch, but not browned.
  4. Warm the jam in microwave for 30 seconds.  Add in lemon zest to combine. Spread the warm jam over the crust.
  5. Evenly sprinkle the berries over the jam layer and then sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture.
  6. Bake for 20-25 minutes until topping is a light brown. Remove from oven and let cool 1 hour before cutting. Once cut pour the melted chocolate over the bars in the pan.

Slightly Adapted from: Baking and Creative with Avril

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Secret Recipe Club



Check out my previous Secret Recipe Club Posts

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Apple Pie Squares

When I was recently doing a bit of random blog browsing on Rachel’s blog I saw this recipe for Apple Pie Squares and I knew I would have to make them this year. After I went apple picking I knew that making these was only a matter of time, finding time. Well after a crazy 2 weeks that included a surprise trip to Chicago (more on that later!) I finally had some time to stay home and bake. I’m not saying they take long, I just felt the impulse to basically unpack everything in the kitchen before hand and put it in a new cabinet/drawer/bin before doing anything cooking related.

 

 

Before making them I discussed with Rachel that I don’t have a food processor large enough to process all the base ingredients together so I would have to adapt the recipe a bit and I’d see how it works out. Well, folks if you have a food processor then follow Rachel’s instructions, you don’t have one then follow mine. These came out really well so I imagine that you can make it work out for you as well. If you can’t break down oats in something like a mini prep which I borrowed from my friend) then you just carry on. Maybe I’d add an extra egg white to help it come together easier. The important thing is that you make these apple pie squares!

 

 

Truthfully I was a bit nervous about enjoying these because I don’t like apple crisps, or any crisps for that matter, since they have an oat crumble on top. Well, it turns out I like the taste and just hate the texture.  Blending the oats kept the great oaty taste but completely changed the texture. Perfect!! In regards to adapting the recipe I basically stuck with it but I used much more apples, basically because I felt like it, so I had to increase the bake time. Also, I didn’t have plain yogurt at home so I used vanilla which gave this a nice a la mode taste to it.These were a hit at work and I bet they will be a hit when you make them too.

Apple Pie Squares

Makes 16 squares

Ingredients

For the base and topping:

  • 1 1/2 C flour
  • 1/2 C brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 C oats
  • 1/2 C butter, cubed
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 tsp cinnamon

For the filling:

  • 6 oz of vanilla yogurt
  • 1/2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 4 C diced, peeled apple

Process

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 8×8 pan by lining with foil or parchment.
  2. In a large bowl, mix the peeled, diced apples together with the sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Once evenly coated, add the yogurt and mix to coat all pieces. Set aside.
  3. In a food processor,  blend the oats until a fine meal is created.  Add the oats to a large bowl containing flour, brown sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon. Mix thoroughly to combine. Add the butter incorporate with your hands/forks/pastry blender until the dough is crumbly. Remove 1 cup of the mix, set aside. Add 1 egg white, blend until mixture is just combined.
  4. Evenly press moist mixture into the baking pan. Bake crust for 10 minutes.
  5. Spoon filling over the pare-baked crust spreading out as evenly as possible. Sprinkle reserved topping mixture over apples. Press down to flatten just slightly. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown.
  6. Cool in the pan then transfer to the fridge to chill for at least one hour. Remove from pan carefully and slice into 16 squares. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Banana Oat Bread

Banana Oat Bread

Post from 10/24/2010, Pictures updated 10/15/17

One of my favorite blogs to follow is Fake Ginger.

I read a lot of blogs from crafting and scrapbooking ones, travel ones, and food ones. They are so fun to read since you get to know the creator in their writings. Plus, you can learn a lot or get inspired to try something new.

I love Amanda’s blog since she is so diligent about posting daily and so early. It’s refreshing to wake up to something new every day. The recipes either have me longing to make something myself or harass her to send something to me. Her posts and pictures  just connect with me.

One of her recent postings was for a Banana Oat Bread. I love banana bread so I was interested in the idea of incorporating oats into it. Plus, it was an old recipe from Cooking Light so I knew it would come out extra healthy.

There is something so nice about Banana Bread.

It’s a ‘I forgot to eat you’ or ‘I bought too much’ bread. Any other fruit that is past is prime needs to be thrown out, but not bananas. Over ripe bananas have a second chance at making you happy when you whip them together with a few other ingredients to make bread.

 

Well, this bread is no exception to greatness. The oats add a slight nutty quality to the bread. Plus it helped hold in moisture- considering it (surprisingly!) hung around our place for a few days, it was just a moist on day 4 as day 1. The oats blend in well without being ‘hey, look at me! I’m an oat!’ (yep I’ve just lost my mind) but add a nice surprise once you bite in.

I bet you will love this bread toasted up with a big slab of butter on it. Or just as is with as an afternoon snack. It’s hearty and healthy, leaving you satisfied and happy!

Print

Banana Oat Bread

Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Keyword banana, Oatmeal, quick bread
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Cooling 10 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Servings 12 people

Ingredients

  • 2 Cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 Tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2  teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2  teaspoon salt
  • 1/2  teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 Cup brown sugar
  • 7 Tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2  large egg whites
  • 1  large egg
  • 1 1/3  Cups mashed ripe banana about 2 large
  • 1  Cup  Old Fashion oats
  • 1/2  Cup low-fat milk

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare a 9 x 5 - inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.
  2. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir with a whisk.
  3. In a bowl of a stand mixer, combine the brown sugar, oil, egg whites, and egg; mix well. Add in banana, oats, and milk; beating well.
  4. Fold in the dry ingredients until just incorporated and moist.
  5. Spoon the batter into the loaf pan.
  6. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan placed on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Recipe Notes

Recipe adapted from from Cooking Light

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