Revel Bars (aka Rebel Bars)

One of my favorite vintage cookbooks is the Better Homes and Gardens Homemade Cookies Cook Book, 1975 edition.

A recipe I use often, and modified to suit my tastes is a bar cookie called Revel Bars. When I tell people what they are called they never remember it right and instead call them Rebel Bars, which I think the bars find endearing. Also, I enjoyed this photo from the book. I remember my grandma had an oven in that pea-green color.

With an oat-base (I've substituted spelt for some), and a chocolate-nut middle, these bar cookies are addictive. The recipe also makes an entire 9x13" pan full, so it can feed a crowd, or your family for a few days. These bars don't last long in our house. If you want, you can also freeze the baked bars for longer storage.

Revel Bars
230 g unsalted butter (1 cup), room temperature
350 g light brown sugar (~1 & 2/3 cup)
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

170 g rolled oats
90 g spelt (or you can sub rolled oats for a total of 260g)
300 g flour (2 1/2 cups)
1 tsp baking soda (zuiverings-zout in NL)
3/4 tsp salt

1- 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk (don't use evaporated milk!)
340 g semi-sweet or dark chocolate (chips, or chopped) (2 cups)
28 g butter (2 Tbsp)
150 g chopped, toasted walnuts (can use hazelnuts or pecans) (1 cup)
2 tsp vanilla extract

With the paddle attachment in a stand mixer (or by hand) cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, beat until combined. In another bowl, mix oats, spelt, flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir this into the butter/brown sugar mixture until blended. Set aside.

In a heavy saucepan over low-med heat stir condensed milk, chocolate, and butter. Once smooth, take off heat and stir in vanilla and nuts.

Pat about 2/3 of oat mixture into an ungreased 9x13" baking pan. Spread chocolate mixture over oat layer. Clump remaining oat mixture on top of chocolate layer. Some chocolate will not be covered.

Bake at 350 F (180 C) for 30-33 minutes. Rotate pan half way through baking. Cool, cut into bars.


The condensed milk can be found here in NL at the Rohit store I've blogged about. It is not the same as evaporated milk. Condensed milk has sugar in it, evaporated milk does not.

Yes, evaporated milk costs 10 cents more, because the can is bigger. Funny thing, they are almost exactly the same weight and both described on the cans as 'Rich & Creamy'.

Be a rebel and make these Revel Bars as soon as possible. They are amazing.

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

 A perfect chocolate chip cookie is irresistible to me. My Uncle Richard used to receive a couple of dozen from my mom every year at Christmas time. He would eat one right after another, until they were gone, and then lament that his belly ached. But, I understand completely. The slightly crisp exterior, soft and chewy interior, bits of chocolate of just the right size and shape... perfection.

Nestle Toll House Morsels has a recipe on their bag that I've used (substituting crisco for the butter) for many years. My grandmother was the first to make them, and then my mom, and now me. While I love this version, I've been experimenting a bit to bring some butter back into this cookie. Crisco, while perfect for some things, has no flavor. Butter, which makes cookies spread more in the oven making them thinner and therefore crunchy, has lots of flavor but (in this case) suboptimal properties. My Dutch friends might beg to differ- I gave some cookies to Marieke and she explained that cookies that are soft and chewy are actually considered 'gone bad' here, because they are stale from exposure to air. Packaged cookies are always crisp, so if they are soft, they've been left out in the Dutch humidity. To me, a crisp cookie means a packaged cookie, not homemade, and so less-good. I guess that's why I never got too interested in biscotti, because it is so crisp, even when fresh out of the oven.

I love the simple, natural ingredients in Nestle's Toll House morsels. The flavor of these chocolate chips brings me back to my childhood, at Christmas time. Other chocolate chips work just as well, and may even seem to have a deeper, darker chocolate flavor (which I appreciate!), however Nestle's evokes the memories for me, and so I bring back several bags when I travel to the US.

If you use chopped chocolate instead of (tempered) chips, keep in mind that the chocolate will melt on its edges a bit, for a more gooey experience (also delightful).

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
77 g butter @ room temperature (1/3 cup)
120 g crisco- vegetable shortening (2/3 cup)
157 g granulated sugar (Fijn Crystal suiker) (3/4 cup)
187 g packed brown sugar (light bastard suiker) (3/4 cup)
2 eggs
2 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
270 g all-purpose flour/ zeuwse bloem(2 and 1/4 cups but please use a scale for the flour)
250 g chocolate chips (9 oz)

Pre-heat conventional oven to 375 degrees F (180 degrees C)
Cream the butter and shortening until light and fluffy. Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat until well blended. One at a time, add the eggs, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the milk and vanilla and mix just until combined. In a separate bowl, sift the salt, baking powder, baking soda and flour. Add flour mixture to butter/sugar mix a bit at a time, mixing just until combined each time, and scraping the bowl often. Once flour is almost completely incorporated, add the chocolate chips, mix just until distributed. Drop by rounded spoon onto cookie sheets (I use the two spoon method, scoop with one and push the dough out of the spoon with another spoon) and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. If you like your cookies very soft, take them out just before you think they are done. If you like a bit of crisp on the outside, leave them until they just begin to brown. Rotate your cookie sheet half-way through baking if your oven is uneven (most are).

 

Portioning cookie dough is always a challenge. Getting the cookies all about the same size can be tricky. The method I use harks back to my childhood. In order to split the last piece of cake or cookie, my friend and I would use the slice and choose method. One person would be in charge of slicing the cookie in half, and the other person would select which half she wanted.  The slicer has a strong incentive to make a perfect 50/50 cut, so it doesn't matter which half the chooser selects.  Needless to say, I always wanted to be the chooser. But what does this have to do with cookie portioning? Simply put: pretend you are the slicer with each ball of dough. Consider that after they are cooked, the cookie you get to eat will be the smallest one on the tray, or the one with the fewest chocolate chips. You can bet I make them all the same!!

 

If you are excited about keeping your cookies soft and fresh you can put small pieces of bread in the tin with the cookies. Don't allow the bread to touch the cookies directly, but rather put a piece of foil or parchment paper (baking paper) in between. Cover tightly and the cookies will stay softer than without bread. The rectangular tin above has bits of bread on the edges, on top of folded-over foil. We did taste tests and Mike preferred the ones without the bread keeping them extra soft (his comment was they did not taste any fresher, and he likes a bit of crunch on the outside), but I liked both versions.

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

The holiday baking season is upon us! Joy abounds!

It's beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS! Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies made with Dutch peanut butter and imported American Hershey kisses. It is a marriage made in heaven. Fine tuning this recipe resulted in less sugar than the original, which of course is (almost) always a good thing.

Adapted from my Aunt Mary Lee's recipe(love you, Aunt MLG!):
Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter (230 g)
1 cup creamy peanut butter (260 g Calve Pindakass)
1 cup brown sugar (220 g bastard suiker)
2/3 cup granulated sugar (150g fijn suiker)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour (300 g Zeeuwse bloem)
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
56 Hersheys Kisses, unwrapped

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F (176 degrees C)
2. Mix butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, sugar in mixer and beat until blended. Add eggs, one at a time, then add vanilla.
3. Mix dry ingredients together, then add to mixture.
4. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto parchment-lined baking sheet.
5. Bake, one sheet at a time, rotating half way through baking for about 12 minutes total.
6. As soon as you pull the tray out of the oven, stick a Hershey's kiss in the center of each cookie.
7. Allow to cool on tray about 3 minutes, then on racks until cool.

Makes 56 cookies.