Snack bars loaded with favorite flavors

Several years ago, my husband and I started eating a lot of breakfast bars or granola bars.

During our weekly shopping trip, we always stop for a few minutes on the cereal aisle just to check out the latest offering of granola and fruit bars. There are so many on the market now that it's hard to keep up with all the new products. There are bars made from packaged cereals, nuts, dried fruit, oatmeal, peanut butter and chocolate.

Reggie and I particularly like the peanut butter varieties or anything with a lot of nuts, including almonds and sunflower seeds. I keep a stash of these breakfast bars in my desk drawer at work and will often have one for a mid-morning snack. It's a treat to pull out a granola bar filled with crunchy almonds!

But I like making my own treats, too.

Last week, I tried to think of some recipes that would be good for back-to-school, whether it be breakfast, snack or lunch for students or teachers. I searched the Internet for some ideas on breakfast bars and came upon a wonderful recipe that is totally versatile and can be tailored to your taste.

The recipe doesn't require baking, but you do need to heat the peanut butter/ honey/ brown sugar mixture on the stove.

The next step is up to you. The recipe calls for five cups of dry cereal, your choice, and a half to one cup (or more) of add-ins such as dried fruit, nuts or chocolate chips.

I made my first batch Sunday before moving my son back to college. I wanted him to try them.

I chose chunky peanut butter, five cups of Rice Krispies and a half cup of chocolate chips.

The recipe I used as a guideline said to boil the peanut butter mixture, but my ingredients got hot way to fast and started to stick and burn, so I turned down the heat, picked out the little burned pieces, and opted not to let the mixture boil. I let it cook until it was thinned out. The next time I made it, I let the mixture start to bubble; the bars turned out too hard to even cut.

Follow the directions on this one, and stir constantly. Use a non-stick pan if you have one. If you've ever made Rice Krispies Treats, you know what marshmallow/ butter mixture looks like after it's cooked. Go for a similar consistency.

I added the chocolate chips after stirring in the cereal. The mixture was still very warm, and the chocolate chips melted quickly. I only added 1âÑ2 cup of chocolate chips, but it looks like so much more because the chips melted. (That's a good thing in my book!)

The breakfast bars don't hold together at first. But once they've cooled enough to touch, press down the mixture firmly into the pan, or use a piece of waxed paper to press down if the bars are too hot to touch. Once they have cooled, they should firm up nicely.

I think the end result was awesome. I loved the taste and the texture of the peanuts and cereal, and so did my family. And, of course, the chocolate added a nice touch. The cut bars are also pretty, revealing a nice pattern of peanut butter/ honey mixed with the cereal.

I keep imagining new combinations for this recipe. I want to make it with two cups of oatmeal and three cups of Rice Krispies, and I want to try it with granola and maybe dried fruit. I'm sure Cheerios would be good, too.

I had a bar for my mid-morning snack today. I loved the chewy texture and the peanut butter flavor with the slight taste of honey. This recipe is most definitely a keeper and would be a great treat for those of you going back to school.


Peanut Butter Honey Breakfast Bars

• 1 1/2 cups crunchy peanut butter*
• 1 cup honey
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 5 cups Rice Krispies
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Combine peanut butter, honey and brown sugar in saucepan. Warm over low heat, stirring constantly until mixture thins and is very hot. Be careful not to let it stick to the pan or get too hot. Remove from heat, add in cereal, then mix in chocolate chips. Pour into square baking dish. Press down mixture firmly with a buttered spatula or waxed paper.

*Adapted from cooks.com

Our daily bread

I had a long list of things to do while on vacation last week. One was to bake bread.

It's not easy to find time to bake bread, even if you're using a bread machine to make your dough. My machine requires 90 minutes for the dough cycle. Then the loaf has to rise on the counter for about 45 minutes. Then there's another 30-45 minutes baking time, depending on the bread. It's easy to run errands during the 90-minute rising cycle, which is what I did Thursday morning with my first loaf.

Because it had been so long since I made bread, I had a hard time choosing which recipe to use. I couldn't remember which ones we liked best! So I went to an old an reliable recipe, Honey White Bread. This is one of the first recipes I made when I got my machine about a dozen years ago. That bread machine has been so good to me!

The recipe is one of several in the cookbook I made for my family some years back. In the recipe note, I mention how I like to start the bread at lunchtime and let it bake during the afternoon, getting ready just in time for supper. That's when I used to let the bread cook in the bread machine. I don't do that anymore. Instead, I let the machine make the dough, and then I put the dough in a bread pan for the second rising and cook it in the oven.

The Honey White loaf is so simple to make. The hardest part (and that's not even hard) is scalding the milk, which I do totally by smell, by the way.

My tips for this recipe include giving the bread pan (I use glass) a light rub of butter before placing the dough in to rise and taking the bread out about 5 to 10 minutes before it's finished baking and brushing on a little more butter. The extra butter gives the bread a wonderful taste as well as a golden brown crust.

The bread is delicious straight from the oven, but the texture stays tender and tasty hours later. I also love making cinnamon toast and French toast with this bread on the second or third day -- if there's any left!

We enjoyed the first loaf so much that I made a second the next day, and on Sunday, I made a third loaf, this time an oatmeal bread recipe I first made years ago that I found on a bag of King Arthur bread flour.

I think I've shared the King Arthur recipe before, but it's so good that I'm including it again today. King Arthur Toasting and Sandwich Bread is another delicious bread either plain or toasted and is a favorite at my house. I've also used this dough to make a delicious cinnamon bread.

I don't know how much longer I'll have this bread-baking bug. My son has already mentioned that he wants his favorite herb rolls, and I'm eager to try a new pizza dough recipe. So I guess I'll keep baking!



King Arthur Oatmeal Toasting and Sandwich Bread

• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 cup rolled oats (old-fashioned oats)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3 tablespoon honey (Can also use brown sugar; I use honey)
• 2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
• 1 1/4 cups lukewarm milk

Place ingredients in bread machine pan in order suggested by manufacturer. Program to dough setting. Check from time to time to see if flour or water is needed. Finished dough should be soft and supple.
When cycle is complete, place on floured surface and shape into log. Put in loaf pan greased with butter. Cover with towel and let rise 45 minutes to 1 hour or until 1 to 2 inches above rim of pan. I let my bread rise in the oven. Just before the dough cycle is complete, I turn the light on in the cold oven and place my 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup inside, filled with boiling water. That makes a warm, humid place perfect for rising dough.
Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes.
Yields: 1 loaf.
King Arthur Flour Company



Honey White Bread for Bread Machine

• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 tablespoons butter (I always buy salted.)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon bread machine yeast or active dry yeast
• 2 cups bread flour (King Arthur is best.)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Scald milk. Remove from heat and add butter and honey. Stir until butter melts. Cool to room temperature.
Add milk mixture and other ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer. Might need to add extra flour.
Set machine for dough setting.
When completed, remove dough from pan. Shape into rectangle and roll in jelly roll fashion, pinching bottom seam. Place seam-side down in bread pan prepared with a light coating of butter. Let rise in warm place for 30-45 minutes. I let my bread rise in the oven. Just before the dough cycle is complete, I turn the light on in the cold oven and place my 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup inside, filled with boiling water. That makes a warm, humid place perfect for rising dough.
Bake at 375 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven and brush with butter. Return to oven for about 5 minutes or until done.