I am fully into Fall now – savouring the scent of apples baking, leaves turing a golden yellow, cinnamon, pumpkins, cozy sweaters, and of course the aroma of gingerbread! I love making gingerbread cookies, muffins cakes or bars that use molasses to add flavour and gorgeous golden colour to all my seasonal baking. These ginger peanut cookie bars are an amazing cross between a soft ginger cookie and peanut butter cookie. Just for good measure and extra yumminess they are also loaded with chocolate chips – I call them cookie bars because they are soft and chewy in the centre just like a perfect cookie should be – dense, delicious not too sweet – pretty much perfect in a cookie bar kind of way.

 

One of the best things about these bars is that they are moist and chewy even after a few days which make them perfect for lunches, picnics, and after school snacks. Molasses and peanut butter work their magic to give these bars a wonderful texture and that added bit of molasses and some cinnamon and ginger make them a perfect fall treat. My whole family loved them and over the course of perfecting this recipe – it took three or four tries to get the ingredients just right – they were very happy to be the official taste testers!

Baking up a pan of these delicious, chewy cookie bars is definitely the right thing to do this fall – your house will smell heavenly and your family will thank you – enjoy!

*This recipe is an entry in a contest sponsored by Crosby’s Molasses offered  through Food Bloggers Canada.*

Ginger Peanut Cookie Bars

Ingredients:

1/2 cup or 1 stick of butter melted

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup crosby fancy molasses

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1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp.baking soda

1/2 tsp.baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8×8 inch square pan with foil and spray lightly with cooking spray.  (Tip ~ I have a truly square pan I splurged on about a year ago and I LOVE it for baking squares  ~so much better than the pans with the rounded edges. If you care about that kind of thing, get one!)
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer combine melted butter with sugars and mix until creamed. Add egg, vanilla molasses and peanut butter. Mix well.
3. In another bowl combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and ginger. Mix until just combined then stir in chocolate chips. The batter will be sticky.
4. Spread batter in prepared pan – use your fingers or the the back of a spoon to even it out!
5. Bake bars for 25-30 minutes. Edges should be firm and centre just soft to touch, they should also be a lovely golden colour.

Once the bars have cooled they are very easy to remove  – just lift the foil out of the pan and place the bars on a cutting board to cut into squares. The bars should remain soft and chewy for  about a week left out in a covered container.

I know I’m a bit late with this post. Call me crazy, but I’m not one of those people who long for fall before summer’s really over.  In fact, I luxuriate in every extra moment of summer warmth that I can, often wishing summer might last just a little bit longer. But alas, school is finally starting up next week, the weather is starting to cool, the evenings getting darker, and even I can’t put it off much longer. Not that I don’t like autumn, I just always feel a little lost at the start of the season. I find it hard to say goodbye to long summer nights, extended time with family and friends, less structure, hot sunny days spent at the beach, ice cream  and loads and loads of yummy fresh fruit! I hope you enjoy this recipe that uses one of my favourite summer fruits and can hold on to those warm summer days just a bit longer!

Blackberries – fresh, sweet, juicy and packed full of flavour – they are easily my very favourite summer fruit. It wasn’t always this way. It was only after moving to the sunny Okanagan that my love affair with these berries began. Shortly after our move here I was lucky enough to find an amazing local farm stand which I visit almost daily during the summer, for the very best peaches, blueberries, nectarines and of course blackberries. It’s basically a fruit lover’s paradise, part of the reason we feel so blessed to live here!

As much as I LOVE to eat these yummy berries fresh by the handful I also love baking with them. One of my family’s favourite summer desserts is blackberry peach cobbler but I was anxious to make a hand held treat with these lovelies; something that wouldn’t be so much a dessert, a little healthier in fact, but no less tasty! The base is firm and not too crumbly – easily packable for lunches, hikes, a trip to the park or whatever adventure awaits!  I think these bars would be equally as yummy with blueberries or raspberries or frozen berries as fall approaches and fresh fruit becomes less accessible.  I modified this recipe slightly from the original version which you can find here: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/09/raspberry-breakfast-bars/

Blackberry Oat Bars

Make the crust: 

1 1/2 cups of flour

1 c packed brown sugar

1 1/4 cup oats

3/4 tsp/ baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp/cinnamon

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter cut into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9 by 13 inch pan. Put a long piece of parchment paper in the pan letting the paper over hand a little on both ends. Butter the parchment – this allows for easy removal of the bars after cooking.
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Combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon in a large bowl – mix gently. Using a pastry cutter, or your fingers combine butter until coarse crumbs form. Reserve 11/2 cups of the mixture and set aside – this will be your streusel topping. Pour the rest of the mixture into the prepared pan use your hands or he back of a spoon to much the crust into an even layer at the bottom of the pan. The crust should also touch the sides of the pan. Bake until golden brown 12- 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool while you make the filling.

Make the blackberry filling:

1/4 brown sugar

grated lemon zest to taste

pinch of cinnamon

2 TBSP flour

3 cups or more blackberries fresh or frozen

2TBSP fresh lemon juice

2 TBSP. unsalted butter – melted

In a medium bowl whisk the sugar, lemon zest, cinnamon and flour together. Add the berries, lemon juice and butter. Toss gently until the berries are evenly coated. Spread the filling over the cooled crust and sprinkle the reserved crumb topping over the berry filling.

Bake for 35 – 40 min. until the top is golden and filling is bubbling. Transfer to a cooling rack before removing from pan and cutting into squares.

Store bars in refrigerator for up to 3 days. (I seriously doubt they will last that long though!)