An Impromtu Thing: close but not quite is good enough for me!

I promised a more seasonal and festive post-- a more thought out and interesting one too, but amidst a super busy time at work, this is the best I can come up with: Pumpkin Pie Bars. Technically, I could have baked it in a pie dish and called it pumpkin pie, but I think they work better as bars. Let's discuss.

My family is traditional in some ways, not so in others. There wasn't a turkey in sight on Thanksgiving weekend; instead there were lots of greasy fried noodles and rice, malaysian style curry and chicken and baby bok choys with soy. My offerings to the gathering were simple: a quinoa and swiss chard stew that turned into more of a salad (recipe coming soon!) and a vegan apple and cranberry crisp (just apples cranberries, a touch of sugar and lemon juice and that beautiful spelt crisp topping), which I thought my parents' old-fashioned guests wouldn't care too much for but surprisingly loved. Let's not talk about my dream Thanksgiving dinner -- it would definitely not include greasy Chinese food. But anyway, my sister mentioned that her beloved would be making pumpkin pie for the gathering, so I resisted the urge to bake up something spicy and cinnamon-y with my mound of roasted pumpkin. Turns out, he didn't have time to make the pie and so Thanksgiving was pumpkin pie-less. Shame on us.



The next day, I kinda craved pumpkin pie. My other half wanted apple crumble -- the old fashioned way, with butter and brown sugar. So I conceded, but I still wanted pumpkin so I thought up a plan. I didn't have enough patience to make a pie crust and I was tired up pumpkin pies that only taste like butter and cinnamon; I wanted to taste pumpkin. What I did was totally impromptu and I wasn't even sure that it would work, but it did. Not quite a pumpkin pie, but close enough for me. The crust is a combination of graham cracker crumbs -- the last that half cup that had been sitting in my cupboard for too long -- spelt flour and canola oil. And the pumpkin custard? Totally experimental. I remembered Michael Smith saying that a bread pudding custard was always standard: 1 egg gets 1/4 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of milk. I went for that I hoped for the best. Results? Yummy, creamy, spicy and very pumpkin-y. It's a super soft custard and unlike a firmly set pumpkin pie. The crust? Wholesome tasting, nutty, but a bit tough. But it was close enough and I enjoyed each bite.



Pumpkin Pie Bars
with help from Michael Smith

For the Crust:
1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup of spelt flour
1/4 cup of canola oil or melted margarine/butter

For the Filling:
1 cup of roasted pumpkin or pumpkin puree (I roasted my pumpkin but didn't bother to puree it.)
1 cup of soy milk
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
1 egg
1/4 cup of brown sugar
a splash of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon each of allspice and cardamom
a small pinch of nutmeg

1. Make the crust by mixing the oil into the flour and crumbs with a fork. Press it into a square baking pan. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl whisk together all the ingredients for the filling until everything is smooth and combined. Pour it over the crust.

3. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 50 minutes or until the top gets a nice sugary, glaze-y look and the custard is set. Let it cool, and cut into bars.

Peanut Butter + Fruit Part 3: The Finale

Yes, I have waited too long to show you the Peanut Butter + Fruit Finale. Way too long. But all that peanut buttery goodness had to be broken up a little, you know? Although I don't believe that there's anything such as too much peanut butter. This combination isn't classic by any means, but the end result is fabulous, wholesome and unique. Introducing: cranberry peanut butter bars. Since discovering a new love of playing with fresh cranberries and reading this post about raspberry yogurt bars, I knew I needed to try bar-making for myself.


The combination of cranberry and peanut butter don't seem like an obvious match, but they really are. The peanut butter is added to the crust of the bar and, when mixed with honey, provides a lovely, smooth background for the tart, mouth-puckering cranberries. It definitely wakes up your taste buds in the late afternoon when you're about to crash, or on a rainy Sunday when all you can muster is curling up on the couch with endless cups of herbal tea and a favourite CD set to loop. I could have definitely used the company of these bars this week to chase away the blues that came on after a late night at work and no one hug away the stress of the day (my lovely love was away this week visiting family). Baked goods give nice hugs too, especially when they're wholesome and healthy, which is exactly what these bars are.

End your weekend on a high note and bake these little bars. You'll be glad you did on Wednesday when you want it to be Friday. Happy work week!

Peanut Butter Cranberry Bars
inspired by apples and almonds

3 tablespoons of honey
1/4 cup of natural peanut butter
1/4 cup of skim milk yogurt
1 cup of rolled oats
1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 cup of fresh cranberries

1. Whisk together the honey, peanut butter and yogurt until smooth. Sift in the flour, salt, baking soda and stir. Add the oatmeal and mix well until a soft dough forms.

2. Spread half the dough out onto a square or round baking pan. Sprinkle over the cranberries. Crumble the rest of the dough over the cranberries.

3. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes, or until the dough on top has spread out nicely, turned golden brown and the cranberries have burst and begun to bubble. Cool and slice into wedges or bars.

Coffee Update!
We've slowed down due to incredibly busy schedules and chilly weather, but we'll make it!


F'Coffee: americano, 2 cappucinos and breakfast bagel and a f'cookie
Moonbeam Coffee Co: double americano, cappuccino and French caramel flavoured drip coffee + beans to go!
Merchants of Green Coffee: soy latte and 2 very strong cappucinos with a chocolately-caramely-nutty bar, enjoyed on a rainy Sunday afternoon
I Deal Coffee on Kensington: 2 cappuccinos and a latte on one of the our very first frosty, wind chill nights

Favourite Fruits and Rainy Labour Day Baking

Labour day is always a funny kind of day. I always wake up with a funny feeling, the feeling of something ending and something beginning, wanting to have an adventure, but knowing that obligations follow the next day. And I never ever have a good night's sleep on labour day. My most vivid memory of labour day was when I was about 11 years old, and it had turned cold all of a sudden. Instead of bounding downstairs in shorts and t-shirts, ready to tackle the weekend, I dug around until I found my flannel night gown. I spent the day curled up on the couch and going back and forth from being excited and dreading the first day of school.

This year, was not too much different. The funny feeling came over me the minute I woke up, but this year, I wanted to make it disappear, or at least fade to the back of my mind for the first couple hours of the day. The rainyness didn't help and the chill that sneaked up over the whole loft reminded my of that labour day way back when I was 11. To help ease my anxiety over summer leaving and autumn arriving, my holidays ending and work beginning, I decided to do a little bit of baking with what I have just recently discovered, is my favourite fruit.

If you had asked me even a few months ago what my favourite fruit was, I would have probably said apples. They're reliable, wholesome, very Ontario and who doesn't like apples? But, as much as I like my empires, and macintoshes, idareds, granny smiths and cortlands, I've recently discovered that there's another fruit that I pretty much add to everything: the lemon. From iced teas to curries, muffins to coleslaw and everything in between, it's the lemon that adds brightness, fruitiness, tang and that unmistakable finishing touch.


But, this labour day, I made lemon the star of the show. Don't gasp, people. Those lovely pictures of the perfectly cut, sugar dusted lemon bars above are, sadly, not mine. They were made by my best friend and closeted cooking blogger for a barbeque party this past summer. Not only do they look lovely enough to serve to royalty, but the boys at the party couldn't keep their hands off of them... and my boy even asked for the recipe. We didn't get to baking it this summer-- mostly because we were afraid that we'd be disappointed that they wouldn't turn out to be the exact luscious, lemony, tangy, crumbly, buttery goodness of the originals from the party. But I thought it would be the perfect little baking project to chase away those labour day blues. And it definitely was. The smell coming from the oven instantly brought sunshine and summer back into my mind, and kept back the back-to-school anxiety, if only for a couple of hours.

I'm going to leave you with the original recipe, but as usual, I made a few little tweeks which I mention below. Happy lemon-baking!

Coconut Lemon Squares
via "Mia the baker" adapted from Betty Crocker's Entertaining Basics

Coconut Crust

1 cup of all purpose flour
6 tablespoons of butter or margarine at room temperature
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix everything except the coconut in the large bowl using a pastry blender, fork, or cold hands, until a soft dough forms.
3. Stir in the coconut
4. Press into an ungreased pan (Mia used an 8x8" square pan)
5. Bake for 20-25 mins until golden. While the crust is baking, prepare the lemonyness.

Lemony Filling

1 cup of granulated sugar
2 teaspoons of grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons of lemon juice (about 1 small lemon)
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs

1. Beat everything in a medium bowl until light and fluffy. (Mia used an electric mixer on high speed. It took about 3 minutes).
2. Pour the lemony filling over the hot crust.
3. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until there is no indent when you lightly touch the centre.
4. Cool on a wire rack for about 1 hour.
5. Dust with icing sugar if you want to be fancy.


As usual, I made a few changes, the most drastic because it was raining outside and I didn't want to go to the store ...

1. Instead of 6 tablespoons of butter, I used 4 tablespoons of canola oil and 2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter. I didn't need a fork or pastry blender -- a spatula worked fine. The peanut + coconut combo was so good that we didn't miss the butter at all.

2. For the flour, I used 1/2 cup of whole wheat pastry flour, 1/4 cup of ground almonds and 1/4 cup of all purpose flour .. just to be interesting. :)

3. I used about 3 tablespoons of lemon juice because my lemon was large and I wanted to finish juicing it. :) My mixture never went light and fluffy .. it kinda stayed liquidy and I was worried, but all was mended under the heat of the oven -- it only took about 20 minutes for it to set.

4. Last but not least, I baked it in a 9 inch round pie-shaped dish, so I couldn't cut them out into beautiful little bars, but now that I'm thinking about it, it would make a great substitute for a birthday cake ...

Oh, I almost forgot! If you're in Toronto and you love coffee, you should totally buy an Indie Coffee Passport. $20 gets you a card where you can get a drink of up to $5 in 24 different independent coffee shops. It's a coffee adventure! We've already started ..

Green Grind: We had a cappuccino and a skim latte.
Red Rocket (Welleslely location): We had a cappuccino and a "Red Rocket" (a shot of espresso, chocolate syrup and brewed coffee).