Chewy Granola Bars

This is the first recipe I tried from a book that has since become a life-saver.  If you are cooking for children with any sort of food allergy, this book is a must-have!  It is called the "Kid Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook" and the nice thing about it is that it offers different recipes, then gives you the appropriate variations depending on the allergy you are working with.  Even for non-allergy kids, there are lots of great kid friendly meals, snacks, and desserts offered.   It was recommended to me by a friend who has been navigating allergies for far longer than I have.  She lent me her copy and I went out to buy my own after the first night.  These granola bars are perfect for anyone!  I found myself addicted to them and I helped my little one polish off the batch we made!  The recipe makes a nice amount of bars and they really do last for a long time.  As long as they are covered well, we can eat them well over a week.  The other nice thing about the recipe is that you can use any combination of add-ins that you have on hand.  It's a nice pantry cleaner! :)  I have made ours with dried apricots, dried cranberries, dried cherries, raisins, soy chocolate chips, etc.  If not working with an allergy, I would love to try cranberries with white chocolate chips.  I think they'd be heavenly!  As a final side note-- I tend to be hesitant to make anything with a lot of coconut because I really am not a huge fan.  The coconut is a must in this one though.  The flavor is incredible, even to a non-fan like me!

Chewy Granola Bars
1 cup butter (If going dairy-free, use soy margarine)
3/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup
4 cups oats
1 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup chopped nuts
1 cup chocolate chips and your favorite dried fruits (If going dairy free, be sure to use specific soy based chocolate chips)

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.  Grease a 12 x 9 inch cookie sheet.  In a large pan, heat the butter, sugars, and syrup until melted.  Stir in remaining ingredients until evenly combined.  Spread the mixture on a cookie sheet and press down, making sure the surface is smooth and even.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Cool for 20 minutes before cutting into bars.  I will cut some 'adult sized' bars and then some mini-bars for my children.  Once cut, transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Source: The Kid-Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook, by Leslie Hammond and Lynne Marie Rominger

Homemade Soft Pretzels. . . Almost.

*I'm having a ton of trouble with formatting on blogger today! I apologize for the appearance of this post! Anyone have any tips? It's making me crazy! :)

Ever since finding this recipe, I have been dying to make these pretzels! My husband and I are both huge fans of soft pretzels and we managed to pass that love on to our son as well. My friend Christy and I decided to make these this morning, but due to another day of crazy weather-- the dough took much longer to rise than the recipe had called for. Unfortunately, she had to leave before they were ready to shape into pretzels. I was so lost on my own! It's almost embarrasing how much trouble I had folding these into the proper shape. They really don't look like the perfect pretzels that I had envisioned in my head-- but they tasted WONDERFUL! So-- if yours look like mine, just close your eyes and enjoy! Your stomach will never know the difference!

I made half of my pretzels with the traditional salt, the other half were made into cinnamon-sugar pretzels. I had a hard time deciding which I liked more. . . I guess I'll just have to eat one of each to help me choose!

Soft Pretzels

1 1/2 cups warm water

1/4 cup warm milk

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons kosher salt

1 package active dry yeast

2 3/4 cups bread flour

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons butter, softened

10 cups water

2/3 cup baking soda

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons water

kosher salt

Combine water, milk, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Stir until sugar and salt are dissolved. Sprinkle yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes. Add flour and butter. Stir until well-combined.
Knead for 5-10 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic. Spray a large bowl with non-stick cooking spray. Put dough into bowl and cover with plastic wrap that has also been sprayed.
Let sit in a warm place until doubled in size, about one hour.

Put water and baking soda in a large pot and bring to a rolling boil. While water is heating up, divide dough into eight sections. Roll each section into a "snake" that is about 12" long. Let dough sit for five minutes. Now roll the dough into a longer "snake" of about 18". (I believe that this might have been part of my problem getting the shape I desired. I would recommend rolling them thinner to give yourself more length to play with while assembling them.) Form the dough into a pretzel shape. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (or grease them).
Put each pretzel individually into the pot of boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove with a slotted spatula and place on a baking sheet. Put four pretzels per sheet. Beat egg yolk with 2 Tbsp water. Brush over the top of the prezels. Add salt. (If making cinammon/sugar pretzels, leave off the salt. Once they are out of the oven, brush the pretzels with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Shake off any extra.) Bake at 450 for 13-14 minutes. Check on the pretzels after 9 minutes and top with a sheet of aluminum foil if they are getting overly browned.

Source: Rara Bakes