I think the young men
and young women have a combined activity each month. Once a year (I guess in January) they have a
cook off. Jenna had wanted to make the
"cupcakes" that we had at her last birthday party - sure she is
combining three ingredients to make something else, but I don't really think it
should count if Reese's, Pillsbury and Duncan Heinz are really doing most of
the work. The rules are that it needs to
be a recipe and not from boxes. We didn't
happen to have brownie mix, cookie dough and peanut butter cups hanging around
anyway and so Roland had talked her into making an apple pie.
Pie for an armature cook-off? Really?
I could sense that Jenna was not that thrilled with the idea of making
any kind of pie. Nor did she wish to start it last night but rather after she
returns from school today. However,
Roland was able to assist last night and will be working when she returns from
school. I don't want to make pie! I looked for a recipe that would work with
ingredients that we already have.
From years' past, I can remember
when Peggy Bird was in her domestic mother earth stage. The woman was always baking. I loved going across the street because her kitchen
was always filled with pleasant smells of baking. Molasses cookies seemed to be the number one
staple. But I do remember my first
encounter with Peanut butter squares (or peanut butter fingers as the boys
called them) coming from her house and had searched for that recipe so that
Jenna could make them.
She found all the ingredients and
placed them on the table and then measured each one out and really did do most
of the stirring and combining and baking herself. We didn't have the right size pan and so our
bars came out thicker - and heavier. I
don't recall ever having such heavy bars before. We could have made the frosting, but chose to
sprinkle on chocolate chips as soon as the pan was removed from oven.
I turned the oven off and returned
the pan to the warm oven to allow chips to melt as the oven cooled down. After a few minutes we spread them over the
bars. I cut them into rectangles this morning, but thought better of it and cut
each rectangle in half - not only because it would give Jenna more bars to
take, but because they are heavy and a long bar might be too much sugar shock
for some.
So here is the final product minus
what we sampled and the oversized edge that she ended up taking to school.
The recipe we used is found here, though
there are others. I might have used a
different recipe the last time I had made them (recently as October) or had
used two different pans as mine were not as heavy. I think these ones that Jenna made are
definitely the most heavy I have ever eaten. I am assuming there will be leftovers.
