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.

The Newest Addition to the Kitchen Family

Some people get pets; I collect kitchen equipment. My family ridicules me. My cabinets look like they have been taken over by a permanent Jenga installation, and really, there is no more room for anything else. Yet I was powerless to resist a recent sale and brought yet another appliance into the house. This time, it was an ice cream maker that called my name.

And oh, was worth it. I and my new best friend, the Cuisinart "Pure Indulgence," have been turning out killer ice creams on an alarmingly regular basis. I don't care that the machine is currently stored on the dining room table. Homemade ice cream is the bomb, and it's better than anything you can get commercially. Hands down.

My first flavor was straight up chocolate (because otherwise there would have been mutiny in my house). For a recipe, I went to the source for all things dessert, David Lebovitz, and used his chocolate ice cream recipe. I followed it as written, except I added milk chocolate chunks for the last few minutes of churning. Heaven. Next up, buttermilk ice cream, this time to pair with a blueberry cobbler recipe I was creating for a class. Not wanting to let the machine rest a day, I decided to be a tester for a Food52 Community Pick contest for frozen desserts, and made Cucumber Mint Ice Cream. And most recently, I started experimenting with the flavor that no one doesn't like--salted caramel.

I have found myself thinking about one of my favorite childhood treats, the hot fudge malt from The Malt Shop in Minneapolis. I felt compelled to try to replicate its taste from a thousand miles away. Malt powder is both a sweetener and a thickener, derived from barley, and it's common in the midwest. No one drinks frappes or shakes, you drink malts. Malt powder wasn't easy to find here (I found it, of all places, at Target). But it's worth seeking out, and I have discovered King Arthur Flour carries it as well.

The major difference between the midwestern version and my ice cream is I dialed down the sugar, to try to enhance the chocolate and malt tastes. The result is delish. So if you have an ice cream maker gathering dust somewhere (a wedding present perhaps?), get it out and start churning.

Hot Fudge Malt Ice Cream 

For the base: 

1 c. whole milk

2 c. half and half

1 c. malt powder

4 egg yolks*

1/2 c. sugar

1 t. vanilla

1/2 t. salt

For the hot fudge sauce:

1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 c. sugar

1 c. cream

2 T. milk

Base directions: Place the milk, half and half, and malt powder in a saucepan. Place the egg yolks and sugar in a small bowl, and whisk until combined. Place a mesh strainer over a container that can go into the refrigerator, and place the vanilla and salt into the container.

Heat the milk mixture in the saucepan on medium heat until bubbles start to form around the edge of the pan. Do not boil. Take about 1/2 cup of the milk mixture and mix it into the egg yolk mixture, then pour the yolk mixture into the saucepan. Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon without dripping (about 5 minutes).

Pour mixture through the strainer into the container. Stir to combine the vanilla and salt, and allow to cool slightly. Cover and refrigerate until cooled completely, preferably 24 hours.

Sauce directions: In another saucepan, place the cocoa and sugar. Add cream and milk and whisk until combined. Heat on medium heat, stirring, until the sugar melts and the sauce turns glossy. Cook until the sauce does not taste grainy. Allow to cool slightly, then transfer to a container, cover, and refrigerate until cooled completely, preferably 24 hours.

To make the ice cream: Freeze base according to your ice cream maker's instructions. Two minutes before the ice cream is done, mix 1 cup of hot fudge sauce into the ice cream to blend. Reserve the remaining sauce to drizzle on top. Freeze ice cream for 2 or more hours.

Serve ice cream with hot fudge sauce, and, if you are like me, a sprinkle of malt powder on top.
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*One by-product of making lots of ice cream is the proliferation of egg whites in the fridge. You could make meringues or angel food cake, but my kids have discovered the joy of the egg white sandwich. And presto, the egg whites are gone. Which means I need to make more ice cream.