No-Bake Coffee Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

You might hear the phrase “Go Local” and not know exactly what that means. Dine local? Shop local? Yes and yes. It also means growing your own food and supporting your local farmers. Where should you start? Well, it depends on where you live. Do you have a local farmers’ market? If so, head there for fresh produce instead of hitting your regular supermarket. Going out to eat? Do a little research and find out which restaurants in your area use local ingredients and dine there to show your support. Let them know you appreciate their effort.

In the Philadelphia area we are fortunate enough to have Philly Homegrown, an initiative of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation. They promote chefs, restaurants, farms and flavors of the region’s 100-mile foodshed. Their site is a wealth of information on everything you would want to know about how to go local. They recently reached out to me and a few other local bloggers to raise awareness of some of the amazing products that this area has to offer. You can see a list of all of the goodies we received in my friend Allie’s post on All I Eat Food.

There were so many great products to experiment with but one stole the show. We each received a package of Metropolitan Bakery Granola. Once I found out that they were recently named the best granola in the country I knew I had to work with their product to come up with a fun, easy and healthy snack. Around that time I spotted several recipes for no-bake granola bars. Less work with the same great taste sounds like a wonderful recipe to me.

Founded in 1993, Metropolitan Bakery is the brainchild of pastry chef James Barrett and former restaurant manager Wendy Smith Born. The two met while working at local food landmark White Dog Cafe. Today, the bakery boasts five locations around the city, all known for their artisan, old-world European creations like flour-dusted organic miche, crusty baguettes and round cracked-wheat loaves. Their hand-made granola is created with 100% pure fruits, nuts, seeds, grains and spices and comes in three varieties – original, coffee chocolate chip and nut-free cinnamon pomegranate.

The bars were incredibly easy to make. I stored them in a sealed container. They stayed fresh for a few days. I am sure they would stay fresh a little longer but they were all gone before I could test out that theory. You can use the recipe below to adapt it to their nut-free cinnamon pomegranate or original granola. Your family will love these bars because they taste great. You will love these bars knowing that you are feeding your family something rich in natural ingredients.

[print_this]

No-Bake Coffee Chocolate Chip Granola Bars (Adapted from Back to the Cutting Board)

INGREDIENTS:

4 tablespoon (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

2 cups Metropolitan Coffee Chocolate Chip Granola

1 cup rice cereal

DIRECTIONS:

1.) Line two 9 x 5 loaf pans or one 11 x 7 inch baking pan with foil or parchment paper. Lightly butter or spray the foil. Set aside.

2.) Combine honey and butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in brown sugar after butter starts to melt.

3.) Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat to medium-low and simmer until the sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat.

4.) Add the granola and rice cereal into the saucepan and fold them into the sauce until evenly coated.

5.) Spread the mixture into the prepared pans and press firmly with a spatula to evenly fill.

6.) Let sit at room temperature for 15-20 minutes or until mostly cooled and set; lift out of pan and cut into bars.

[/print_this]

*DISCLAIMER: While Philly Homegrown provided me with the Metropolitan Bakery Granola, I was not compensated for this review. My opinions are my own.

Pumpkin Nutella Pound Cake with Maple Pecan Glaze

The calendar states it is the middle of October. I cannot believe that to be true because up until this recipe I have yet to make anything with pumpkin. Once I received my assignment blog for the Secret Recipe Club I knew it would be a good time to start baking with my favorite fall fruit.

Erin at Making Memories…One Fun Thing After Another has many family friendly recipes including some fun Halloween ideas like her Pumpkin Joes and Monster Mouths. As you can see from the pictures she shares on her site, her kids love her recipes and so do I.

I settled on trying out one of her favorite desserts, Grandmother Paul’s Sour Cream Pound Cake. The basic pound cake recipe was easily adapted into a fall inspired dessert. The cake is a lot more dense than a regular pound cake. It almost has the consistency of a pudding cake. The maple pecan glaze kicks this dessert into overdrive. I paired a slice of this cake with a cup of my favorite bourbon vanilla tea. It was a perfect pairing.

 

[print_this]

Pumpkin Nutella Pound Cake  (Adapted from Paula Deen)

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 lb (2 sticks salted butter), softened

3 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup regular sour cream

1/2 cup Nutella

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon grated nutmeg*

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine and cream the butter and sugar. Add sour cream, Nutella and canned pumpkin and mix until blended. In a separate bowl, sift the baking soda, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternating with eggs, beating each egg one at a time. Add the vanilla and mix until blended. Pour the mixture into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan. Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

*I prefer a lot of nutmeg in this recipe. If you are not a fan of nutmeg cut back to a 1/2 teaspoon instead of 1 teaspoon.

MAPLE PECAN GLAZE (Courtesy of About.com)

INGREDIENTS:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons maple syrup

3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

3 tablespoons pecan pieces (finely chopped pecans)

DIRECTIONS:

In a small saucepan, combine the butter, maple syrup, and cream; bring to a boil. Continue to boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and sift the confectioners’ sugar into the hot mixture. Whisk until smooth. Let cool for about 15 to 20 minutes, until slightly thickened. Stir in the finely chopped pecans. Drizzle over the cooled cake.

[/print_this]

Top 10 Ways You Know You’re A Food Blogger

10.) Your food goes cold while you get the “perfect” photo.

9.) When someone tells you the dish you made was good, you then pepper them with 20 questions about what they mean by good.

8.) Your wish list is full of kitchen gadgets.

7.) After taking a pretty good photo of your dish you then take 574 more just in case.

6.) You know all the major food holidays better than your friends’ birthdays.

5.) Buying cookbooks has made such a dent in your bank account that your family is considering an intervention.

4.) You plan your vacations around the food in that location.

3.) Friends and family roll their eyes when you take out your camera at the table.

2.) It would take 365 years to make all the recipes you have saved.

1.) You embrace the word foodie with wild abandon.