Harvest Bars

Everything right now in Massachusetts is apples, apples, apples. With a few pears and pumpkins thrown in. Don't get me wrong ⎯ I love autumn in New England. I've picked pears, baked pumpkin cinnamon rolls, and made applesauce and apple crisp. I'm all in. But my family's first love is chocolate. And this week, we got a break from fall produce. 

About a hundred years ago (or perhaps closer to 25), I took a semester off from college to work on the staff at Gould Farm in Western Massachusetts. It is a working farm that also serves as a residence for guests with mental illnesses. Staff and guests live and work together, with the goal of helping guests learn to live independently. I learned how to milk cows, make yogurt, and tap maple trees, all while supervising guests. An amazing experience. 

Gould Farm also gave me one of my first exposures to the concept of eating locally, long before it was talked about the way it is now. One of my regular work rotations was cooking at the farm's cafe, which served breakfast and lunch to the public (and which still exists, I discovered). Among the many specialties of the cafe were massive, plate-sized blueberry pancakes made with the farm's eggs, milk, and syrup. I needed two spatulas to flip them. 

When I left, I copied one recipe from the cafe onto a 3 x 5 index card for a dessert called Harvest Bars. I don't know where the recipe came from, or why they are called Harvest Bars. In essence, the bars are a chocolate chip cookie with oats. But baking them in a pan means each bar is delectably chewy. I have returned to this dessert year after year, and the wear and tear on my index card is beginning to show. It's my go-to recipe when I need a quick dessert that is a crowd pleaser. I've made a few adjustments to the original ingredients and I've added cooking instructions, but this is pretty much as they were. I hope they are still being made at Gould Farm as well. 

Harvest Bars
adapted from Gould Farm Roadside Cafe
makes 12-15 bars

1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 c. brown sugar, packed
1 c. white sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. kosher salt
2 c. rolled oats
1 c. semi or bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 9 x 13 baking pan with cooking spray.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugars together for 3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until just blended. Mix flour, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl. Add flour mixture to the stand mixer and mix until just blended. By hand, stir in oats and chocolate chips. 

Spread the batter (it will be very thick) into the baking pan and bake until a tester comes out clean, 30-35 minutes. Allow to cool and cut into 12-15 squares.

Summertime Crostata

I'm starting to feel a slight sense of panic now that the last days of summer are closing in. I am buying so much corn my son, who usually loves corn, has started complaining. I eat tomatoes daily. The peaches are just coming in around here, and they are beauties. I like to can peaches, but a fresh fruit pie is one of the great joys of summer eating. 

So far this summer I've done sour cherry pies and blueberry pies in the more traditional pie plate. But sometimes I like a crostata, which you could also call a free form pie. It's forgiving both in terms of shape and amounts. And, as my daughter says, every bite has both crust and fruit. While a crostata looks stunning, I have found that peaches give off a lot of liquid when baked. As a result, a peach crostata can often be a soggy mess without the pie plate to rein it in. But then I read this clever trick on one of my favorite food blogs--strain the fruit beforehand! The results were delicious, minus the sog.

This photo was taken just before the crostata went into the oven. You get the idea. It was eaten up before I could take another photo. 

Summer Fruit Crostata
Serves 8 (leftovers are an awesome breakfast!)
Cream Cheese Pie Dough adapted from Rose Levy Berenbaum

1 1/3 c. all purpose flour (can substitute 1/3-1/2 cup with whole wheat pastry flour)
1/2 t. salt
8 T. unsalted butter, cold and cut into several chunks
3 oz. cream cheese, cold
2 T. cold water + ice to make 3 T. total
2 T. apple cider vinegar
5-6 peaches, nectarines or plums, cut into about 2 inch chunks
2 T. sugar
2 T. flour
1 t. salt
zest of 1/2 lemon
1 egg, beaten 
sugar for sprinkling

In a stand mixer, place flour and salt. Mix to blend. Add butter and cream cheese and mix until the dough looks shaggy and some butter chunks are the size of walnuts, about 1 minute. Add water and vinegar all at one and mix until the dough just comes together, about 30 seconds.

Turn the dough onto a clean, floured surface and press with the heel of your hand a few times. Gather it together into a rough circle, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for at least one hour (and up to one day).

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place cut fruit and sugar into a strainer over a bowl and let sit for 1/2 hour. Then mix in the flour, salt and lemon zest. 

Take out dough and place on a clean, floured surface. Roll until about 14 inches in diameter. Place dough circle on a sheet pan covered with parchment. Place fruit mixture in the center of the dough, leaving about one inch of dough uncovered around the edge. Fold edge over the fruit, then brush edge with beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake until the crust is browned and the fruit is bubbling, 30-40 minutes.

Monkeying Around

I love baking. The ingredients, the process, the gadgets, and definitely the outcome. But now I am in the midst of a gut renovation of my kitchen. Which is wonderful, don't get me wrong. I've been living with a highly dysfunctional, unattractive kitchen for eight years. Think cow and goat wallpaper and wood paneling on the ceiling. Seriously. Plus a big honking stove that looked (and acted) like something Laura Ingalls Wilder would have cooked on. Our new space will be airy, bright, open to the dining room, and most important to me, extremely functional. I cannot wait, but for the next few months, baking is off limits. Our temporary cooking space in the living room includes a microwave, toaster oven, and double electric burner, but no oven.

For my last baking act in the old kitchen, I chose (or my kids chose) monkey bread. It's a favorite in our house, and I confess that for a while we were making monkey bread every weekend. What is Monkey Bread, you ask? It's a yeast bread confection baked in a bundt pan that one of the best examples of accessible home baking. It's a do-ahead recipe that uses few ingredients and kids can help. It's also a crowd pleaser, and the results are so marvelous it usually doesn't have time to cool before it's gone. 

This recipe borrows heavily from Smitten Kitchen, which is one of my favorite food blogs. But I changed quite a bit. I nixed the cream cheese glaze, which I did think was overkill in the sweetness department. I altered the recipe to set is up the night before, so when you wake up in the morning you can just preheat the oven and stick it in. And while Smitten Kitchen claims this serves 8+ eaters, I beg to differ. The four of us at my house, for better or worse, can easily make one of these disappear.

Monkey Bread

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

serves 4-6

2 T. + 6 T. butter, divided

1 c. milk

1/3 c. water

1/4 c. sugar

2 1/4 t. instant yeast

3 1/2 to 4 c. all-purpose flour, plus more if needed

2 t. salt

1 1/4 c. packed brown sugar

2 1/2 t. cinnamon

Place 2 T. butter, milk, and water in a heat proof measuring cup. Heat in microwave in 30 second intervals until the mixture feels lukewarm (or gently warm in a pan on the stove). Add sugar and yeast and mix. Let sit for a few minutes. 

Mix 3 1/2 cups flour and salt together in the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Turn on the mixer and slowly add the milk mixture. As the dough comes together, if it sticks to the bowl, turn off the machine and add additional flour, 1/4 cup at a time. Once the dough comes together enough so it isn't sticking to the sides of the bowl, stop adding flour. Mix on medium high until the dough is smooth, around 7 minutes (be careful to stay near your mixer as it works-it tends to jump around the counter when kneading). You can also knead the dough by hand if you need a good arm workout.

Turn the dough onto a clean lightly floured surface to check. It should form a smooth ball and spring back to the touch. If not, continue kneading by hand until it's springy and smooth. Spray the mixer bowl with cooking spray, and place the dough back in it. Cover and let rise in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size, about one hour.

Coat a bundt pan with cooking spray. Melt the remaining 6 T. butter and place in a bowl. Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon in another bowl.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface. (Kudos to Smitten Kitchen's technique here.) Gently roll the dough into an 8-inch square. Using a bench scraper, divide the dough into about 64 pieces (8 x 8). Start cutting in the middle and work out. If the pieces aren't even, don't worry. Just combine a few of the smaller pieces as you work. 

Line up an assembly line with the butter, sugar, and bundt pan. Roll each dough piece on the counter to form a ball, then dunk it in the butter, then roll it in the sugar, then drop it in the pan. Repeat until all the dough is used up (this is where kid hands come in handy). Sprinkle any remaining sugar on the top. Cover the pan and place in the fridge overnight. (You could also let it rise immediately for another 30 minutes, the proceed with baking).

Remove pan from the fridge. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Remove cover and bake until the top is browned and the sides are bubbling, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Take a deep breath and turn the bread out onto a platter. Try to let it cool slightly, or just dig in!