Chocolate Candy Oat Bars (gluten free)

Before I went gluten-free, Chocolate Candy Oat Bars were my favorite cookies to make during the holidays. These are basically a crumb-type base that's baked and then spread with a sweet chocolaty filling and then topped with more crumb and candy coated chocolate pieces (aka M&M's). More than once I ended up making two batches because I would consume most of the first round, leaving none to share. Having taken a few years off from making this recipe, this year I decided to try it using gluten-free flour.
The recipe only calls for 1 1/2 cup of flour, and I had just over that amount left in my box of King Arthur Gluten Free Multipurpose Flour, so that's what I used. Ideally, I should have also used certified gluten-free oats, but I need quick-cooking oats to make this recipe, and I had a difficult time finding them. They are available on amazon.com, but I didn't want to wait for an order to arrive, so I went with just regular quick-cooking oats instead. Inherently oats don't contain gluten, but cross-contamination is a concern.

For the Chocolate Candy Oat Bars:

2 cups quick cooking oats 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used the gluten-free King Arthur flour mentioned above)

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar 

1 cup chopped pecans 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, melted 

1 1/2 cups candy coated chocolate pieces, divided 

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray a 10" by 15" jelly roll pan with nonstick cooking spray. If you don't have a jelly roll pan, a 9" by 13" sheet pan works. You'll just have thicker cookies.

In a large bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, brown sugar, chopped pecans, baking soda, and salt. Add melted butter, stir together until mixture is crumbly.

Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the pecan crumb mixture. Press the rest evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven, and cool. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F.

In a microwave safe bowl (I just used a glass measuring cup), microwave 1 cup of the chocolate candy pieces, on high for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. Press candies with the back of a spoon to mash them, and then stir them into the condensed milk.

Spread the chocolate mixture evenly over the prebaked crust, leaving about half an inch border on all sides. Combine remaining 1 1/2 cups of crumb mixture and the rest of the chocolate candy pieces. Sprinkle over chocolate mixture and press lightly.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool completely before cutting into bars. I'm really sorry, but I totally forgot to take a picture of the cut cookies so you can see the layers and yummy goodness.

I must say that they're a lot sweeter than I remember. Maybe my taste preferences have changed since I don't try not to consume as many sweets nowadays. The gluten free flour did give these more of a grainy mouthfeel than I remember, but I don't know if you would necessarily notice unless you had a batch made with regular flour to compare them with. Overall though, I think they came out just fine.

Local Resources: Noi Gifts and Gourmet

For those in the middle Tennessee area, there is a fantastic specialty bakery located just outside downtown Franklin along Main Street called Noi Gifts and Gourmet. I've driven past the place I many times over the past few months, never really having the time to stop. Today my curiosity finally got the better of me, so I went in for a look.

Oh. My.

I wish I took pictures, but trust me, you'll just need to go check it out and see for yourself. She does seriously beautiful work. Cupcakes, cakes, cookies, and various other forms of confectionary are on display and for sale, plus she does custom orders for all occasions. She makes her own rolled fondant, from scratch, and decorates everything by hand. AND, her prices are very reasonable!

Please consider ordering from her the next time you need something special because she is VERY talented. You can see some photos of her work here: www.noigiftsandgourmet.com.

Xylitol, Part 2

I'm thinking that I should make meringues more often. They're naturally gluten free, low in fat, and relatively easy to make. I realize most meringue recipes call for quite a lot of sugar, so I decided to try making these Cocoa Meringue Kisses with Xylitol instead. For the sake of comparison, I also made the recipe with sugar. The results were rather interesting. Let me just point out that the original recipe tells you to dust the finished cookies with powdered sugar. I never got around to doing that. The cookies are more than sweet enough already, and that would have added sugar when I'm trying to make these sugar free.

Cocoa Meringue Kisses:

3 large (1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon) egg whites

1/2 cup Xylitol

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

pinch salt (not pictured, but I added it)

First, preheat your oven to 300 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Sift the cocoa powder, 1/4 cup of the Xylitol, and and salt into a small bowl. As you can see, the Xylitol crystals were too big to filter through my sieve, so I ended up combining everything well with a whisk.

Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks start to form, then gradually add in the remaining Xylitol. Beat until the mixture forms medium-firm peaks.

  

Slowly add the cocoa mixture, beating until stiff and glossy. I had no trouble with this step when using the Xylitol, despite the fact that I could tell the Xylitol wasn't really dissolving. But for some strange reason, when I reached this step using sugar, my meringue got pretty dang glossy, but it didn't firm up any more--in fact, it started looking slightly deflated so I quit mixing it. 

 

Drop meringues onto prepared cookie sheets, spacing cookies an inch apart. I piped mine with a tip #1M in the corner of a gallon ziploc bag.


  
I used a tall plastic tumbler to hold the bag open for me.

 

Bake 25-40 minutes depending on how chewy/crisp you want them to be, and then allow them to cool completely. Here you can see the difference. The cookies made with sugar are on the left, and the ones made with Xylitol are on the right. Remember in my previous post how I said that Xylitol has a tendency to dry everything out? Well, this is very noticeable with this recipe.

When made with sugar, these cookies are meant to be eaten right away, as they go chewy after a while. The Xylitol caused the texture of these meringues to be way off initially--they were more like eating styrofoam or  a dry sponge--but, after a few days in the refrigerator they were more like a crispy meringue. The Xylitol meringues also got a little over browned, even though I baked them for less time than the recipe made with sugar. Overall, they came out okay, but I think they were way too sweet, and I could still detect just the slightest aftertaste.

  

The meringues made with sugar were softer and didn't hold their shape quite as well, but they tasted better and had the right texture. They did go very chewy after a day or so, as warned, but I didn't mind as that gave them more of a brownie-like mouthfeel. Also, I could taste more cocoa and less sweetness with these.

  

I'm wondering what would happen if I substituted half the sugar for Xylitol. That would still lower the glycemic index and calorie count, and maybe it would keep them from going quite so chewy while at the same time maintaining more of a true meringue texture. I would try it, except I have other plans for the last bit of Xylitol left in the bag that Xylitol USA sent me. If you decided to try this recipe with half sugar and half Xyltiol, please let me know how the cookies come out.

Oh, and don't forget about the coupon code! Save 10% off your first order at www.emeraldforestxylitol.com with coupon code FIRST.

Krusteaz Sugar Cookie Mix

First off, let me just say I won't be buying or using Krusteaz Bakery Style Sugar Cookie Mix again. The dough was quick and easy to make and fine to work with, but I'm not pleased with the end result. I personally didn't try any of the cookies because of the gluten factor, so I can't speak to how they tasted. I'm just not happy with how they turned out.

I normally don't use mixes, and I had never made cookies from a mix before. I consider myself to be way too much of a food snob to take those sort of short cuts. However, I bought a box of this sugar cookie mix because I was short on time, and it was on sale. We were supposed to make and decorate cookies as part of the Yummy Treats Decorating Camp, but cookie day got canceled, so I wrapped up the dough and froze it to use later. (Oh, and apologies for not having photos of the cake pops we made. It was so busy that I honestly didn't have time to take any.) Whenever I make cookie dough ahead of time, I pat it into a big, flat disk between sheets of wax paper and then seal it up in a gallon-size food storage/freezer bag. This makes rolling out the cold dough easier.

In preparation for my cookie decorating class at the Rec center this weekend, for which I'll need some shaped cookies to demonstrate on, I decided to use up this cookie dough. I feel like I did everything you're supposed to do: I made the mix according to the instructions for roll-out sugar cookies on the back of the box, I thawed the frozen dough slowly in the refrigerator so it was good and cold, my oven was preheated to 375, and I even chilled the cookies after cutting them before baking.

Yet, despite all that, they still didn't hold their shape very well. I like clean edges and neat sides, not cookies that spread out into a blobby mess only somewhat resembling the original shape. Plus, some of them bubbled, and a few even stuck to the cookie sheet, which was left ungreased as per the directions. The spreading is really obvious in the bunnies, blossom flowers, and butterflies. The dresses came out a little better, and the spreading isn't as obvious on the Easter eggs thanks to their shape.

 

I know they'll look better once decorated, and I probably shouldn't be so picky, but I hate how instead of being a good firm-yet-crumbly texture they're actually kind of flexible and have a shiny finish to them. I had a non-gluten-intolerant tester handy to eat one that stuck to the sheet and fell to bits, and according to that person's discerning taste buds these just aren't nice cookies, which is a shame. I think the extra time investment to make cookies from scratch is generally well worth it in the end.

My Other Display Samples

I know I was supposed to post pictures of the other display samples I made for the Art Sparks event before now. The thing is, I procrastinate, and so I ran out of time and didn't even get two of the dummy cakes decorated--although they are iced. I had grand visions of setting up an awesome table to promote my cake decorating classes, snapping a few photos of it to impress everybody, and then posting all about it. That didn't happen. Despite arriving with a good 45 minutes to set up, I didn't have a chance to take a picture of my booth. Honestly. I was busy the entire five hours because everybody wanted to decorate a cookie or cupcake. Some folks opted to do both, which I suppose I shouldn't have allowed, but there ended up being plenty for everyone and I even had a few left over.

Apologies for the glare on this.

Technically, since my clases are for teens and adults, the cookies and cupcakes were for ages 12 and up to decorate. However, this was a family-friendly event, and while I did my best to encourage the moms and dads to decorate a treat for their kids, I wasn't able to stick to that policy very well. I also really wanted to take pictures of cookies and cupcakes the visitors to my station decorated, but I didn't have a spare moment. There were maybe three very brief lulls, but I had to use that time to quickly reorganize and try to get things tidied up as much as possible. Whenever icing, sprinkles, and kids are involved there is going to be some mess. That just goes with the territory. But it was loads of fun.

I would like to thank Publix for providing the cupcakes, cookies, and icing, and I especially want to thank Roundabouts Cupcake Sleeves for generously sending me enough cupcake wrappers so that everyone who decorated a cupcake had their choice of Valentine's Day themed sleeves, A Tisket, A Tasket, and Tickle the Ivories. I quickly ran out of the candy hearts, so it was the most popular design. I really wish I had pictures, because some of the cupcakes were really awesome.

I had to wait until I got home to take photos of my other display pieces. So, as promised, here they are. I think they held up pretty well considering I didn't so such a great job of packing them to bring back home, and I let people touch them. I also made a white color flow heart with smaller pink hearts on it, but the pink really bled into the white and looked awful, so I threw it away. I'm bummed that a string on the football laces broke off, but other than that these things stayed pretty much intact. I definitely like the laces positioned in the middle of the football as opposed to on the top edge, but I had to try both ways in order to see which would look better. I'm not so great at visualization.

The cupcakes didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. I used some old Wilton rolled fondant to makes these, and they were way too heavy and took forever to dry. Next time I'll just spend the money and get some styrofoam balls or something more practical to use. I meant to pipe little pastel dots around the chick to make it look like he's sitting in a field of Easter eggs, but I forgot. Also, the dark purple grapes bled a little. I'm not sure why, as that's not an issue I've encountered before.

This is actually a cake board I decorated a while ago to put in the display case at the Rec center as an example of what students can learn in Buttercream Basics. Since I'm not scheduled to teach that class again until March, I swapped it out for the cake dummy I decorated to represent Buttercream Flowers. I wish his eye wasn't baby blue, as I think it looks kinda creepy. I should have made it black.

Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I had the obligatory hearts and love cake. Please pretend like you don't notice the dips on the top. They're not entirely my fault, as the styrofoam had some nicks and dips in it, but I still should have filled those in with royal icing before covering with rolled fondant.

I wanted to do a tablecloth cake, but I'm not entirely happy with the bottom border. I probably should've just piped simple beads, but I had already done that on the other two cakes and didn't want to be repetitive. Also, the roses aren't supposed to be a dingy grey color. I think some Nu Silver was left on my brush when I went to apply the Super Pearl. Oh, well. At least I used a better green for the leaves this time.

Here is my redux from this week's Should've Done Sunday. Yes, this cake was entirely inspired copied from my cake I did in the Fondant II class (as were the roses on the cake above). But nobody else knew that.

All in all, it was a great day, and tons of fun. Hopefully this week I'll get around to trying a recipe that's worth sharing.

This is What I've Been Doing...

I haven't baked anything exciting lately, so I don't have a recipe to share, but I am going to show pictures of some display samples I've put together. These aren't difficult to make, but they have been somewhat time consuming and are the main reason I don't have a recipe to post. But don't worry, once I have all of these completed I'll get back to making edible stuff.

First, a little background: The craft store where I teach Wilton cake decorating classes has display pieces to represent the different Wilton courses offered. The idea is that customers see the display and are so inspired by the thought that they could learn how to make such awesome cakes, cupcakes, cookies, candy, or whatever, that they rush up to the cashier and register for class immediately. Or something like that. Well, the Wilton classes changed last summer when they launched their "refreshed curriculum," so that meant the old displays were no longer accurately representing the new courses. Plus, over time the samples had started looking pretty shabby, and some were damaged, so it was time to make replacements.

I'm not sure why I bothered rambling on about all that because I didn't think to take pictures of those display pieces before turning them in. Still, I'll tell you what I made. The other Wilton Instructor is taking care of the displays for the 4-week Wilton courses, so I made stuff for the project classes. I made a springtime/Easter cookie bouquet, which was actually very good practice, as I've scheduled a Cookie Blossom project class for next month. I also made an assortment of decorated cupcakes to promote the Cupcake project class, which I plan to offer in March. (A bit of shameless self-promotion there, sorry.)

Now, using real cupcakes and cookies for something like this isn't a good idea. Cookies go stale and crumble, and the cupcakes go all moldy and nasty after a while, assuming they don't fall apart first. I made the "cookies" out of cardboard by tracing around some shaped cookie cutters and cutting out the pieces. After the holidays, there's no shortage of spare boxes lying around this house, believe me. Styrofoam balls are a great option for cupcakes, but I didn't have any. Since I was providing my own supplies for these, I had to go with what I had on hand to avoid any out-of-pocket expense. I'm cheap that way.

I had a few boxes of Wilton rolled fondant in my cupboard that I really needed to use up. Nobody in my family will eat it anyway, and it had been around for a while. I just balled up some fondant, and then I pressed it into the cavities of a muffin pan, thereby molding it into a cupcake shape. Once dry, I hot glued a paper baking cup to it, and it's a cupcake dummy. (As in it's a dummy/fake cupcake, not "It's a cupcake, dummy." That would be rude.) Now, the fondant is considerably heavier than using styrofoam, and that presented its own problems, but I won't bore you with all that, especially since I don't have photos of them anyway.

While I was getting the above done, I was also working on some display samples for my cake decorating classes at the Rec center. They're having this big "Art Sparks" event in a couple of weeks, and all the arts and crafts instructors are eligible to participate, which is supposed to help generate interest in our classes and boost enrollment. I'll be there with some cookies and cupcakes for the public to decorate with icing and sprinkles (all courtesy of a local grocery store).  It's actually going to be loads of fun because Roundabouts Cupcake Sleeves sent me some super cool sleeves to use on the cupcakes, so they're going to look awesome.

Anyway, I need pieces that represent what students learn in my classes. I offer quite a few classes, so that means cookies, cupcakes, buttercream cakes, and examples of fondant-decorated cakes. The cupcakes and cookies were easy enough, as I made some while I was working on the others for that-craft-store-I-won't-name. I haven't actually decorated the cupcake dummies yet, but here are the cookies:

Imagine them (minus the hearts) on sticks and artistically arranged in a make-shift flower pot, and that's what the cookie bouquet looked like. These are really easy and so much fun. Just use your cookie cutters to cut out a perfectly fitting piece of fondant, in whatever color you wish, and use a little icing to attach it to the cookie. That's all I did for the tulips, except I hot glued it, which is why the surface looks a little bumpy.

The duck I did the same way, and then when the fondant was dry I used a black food marker to add an eye. I marbled some pink and blue fondant (by not thoroughly mixing the two colors together) for the butterfly, then drew on the details with a black food marker. For the Easter eggs, I just cut narrow strips of fondant using the zig-zag wheels on my Ribbon Cutter Embosser tool, and attached them to the top with a little water. The bunny's ears were made using a small leaf cutter, I free-handed his nose, and drew his face with the trusty black food marker.

For the hearts, I used a smaller heart cutter (helps if you have a nesting set) to cut out the center piece, and I frilled the edges with a veining tool, trying to make it look like lace or a doily or something. On the bigger piece, I took a very small blossom cutter to make the eyelets.

I recently ordered some styrofoam cake dummies, but while I'm waiting for those to arrive I decided to go ahead and decorate some cake boards. The rolled fondant class I offer just covers the basics for beginners, so nothing complicated here. The fish are made with a fish-shaped cookie cutter and yellow fondant, then I took a veining tool and added the lines on the fins and tails. The scales I made with a tiny round cutter, but the wide end of a piping tip would work just as well. The eye are little pieces of white fondant with a black dot, made with a food marker. I used an impression mat to get the embossed texture on the blue fondant. So much of this type of cake decorating is merely a matter of having the right tools for the job.

Daisies are fun because they're quick and easy. All you need is a daisy-shaped cutter, and a veining tool to make a line down the middle of each petal. Then flatten a small ball of yellow fondant for the center (can attach with water or clear alcohol), roll a thin snake for the stems, and cut some leaves. For these, I used my Leaf Cut and Press set. It cuts and embossed the veins on leaves at the same time. Oh, and I used an S-shaped crimper around the edge there.

Ah, yes, of course. The obligatory package cake. These are still really popular so I had to do one. I think I went a bit overboard with the texturing, but I had all my fun tools out (well, the cake decorating ones, anyway) and got carried away. The only thing about a cake like this is making all the bow loops in advance. They really need to be dry and set before placing them. All you do is cut strips of fondant, attach the ends together--most of the time just pinching it does the trick, if not use clear alcohol or water, and then set them up on one edge so that they dry with their loops open. Before cutting these bow loops, I pushed my spiral rolling pin over the fondant. I used another impression mat to emboss scrolls on the yellow fondant, and I cut the ribbon with my handy little cutter tool, using the quilting wheel attachment to emboss the stitched look along the sides.

Since my rolled fondant had been sitting in the cabinet for a while, it wasn't all that easy to work with. You can see here where it's cracking just from being folded over cake board edge. I rarely have this issue with other types of fondant, but those brands are more expensive, not to mention actually worth eating, so I used the Wilton stuff. I'm actually required to use it for the Wilton class samples, for obvious reasons, and it was all I had on hand.

I'll post more photos of the cupcakes and buttercream-decorated cake samples when I have them done. I'm actually really looking forward to making them. I've certainly enjoyed working on these.