Cooking the Chronicle – Nov. 15

Sometime the most simple recipes have the best results. This week’s recipe in the Chronicle (“Maple brown sugar oatmeal bars,” Nov 8) was a total hit with every member of our family, from my daughter to my parents.

This recipe has so many wins. Minimal ingredients, easy instructions, and just a simple, delicious treat. You don’t even have to use a separate bowl, we just dumped all the ingredients in a tin and mixed, rested, and baked in there.

My 3-year old bullied me into letting her add chocolate chips, which worked wonderfully and transformed something that I thought would be great for breakfast into a lovely little dessert. But I imagine the options are endless here—you could add dried fruit, nuts, drizzle chocolate on top, add chocolate chips to the bars themselves, etc.

Like Jessica Grann recommended, we made these while we were preparing our dinner, let them bake while we were eating, and enjoyed them as a parve dessert.

The bars were soft but held together really well. That 30 minutes where the batter rests is critical. At Grann’s recommendation, I do have a plate of them uncovered in our kitchen to leave overnight, seeing if they harden up like granola bars.

This is one for the recipe book! With such basic and natural ingredients, I have no qualms serving these to our family as a quick breakfast or for a special treat any time of day.