Honey Oat n’ Seed Bars

It’s always nice when things turn out better than you expect them to.

For example, the other day I took a chance on a recipe with suspiciously high ratios of butter and flour that called itself “granola” — a recipe without a photo, even! — and what popped out of my oven later was totally better than anything I could have expected.

Crazy, right? How often does that happen?

I feel the need to say, though, that this is definitely not “granola” — it’s more like granola’s chubby cousin.

These treats are full of the same nutritious stuff, like oats, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, and sticky-delicious-oozy honey, but have a bit of fat and flour packed in, too.

The key to getting the best flavour out these bars is in the effort you put into toasting your oats and wheat germ.

Crank that heat up and toast everything a wee bit longer than your good judgment tells you to — seriously!

I had a few suspiciously dark and crispy oats in my skillet by the time I was done, and it was just perfect — more crunch, more yum!

Cheddar Apple Fennel Twists

I wish I knew how to make puff pastry. Well, I do know, theoretically, how to make puff pastry.

Puff pastry is very technical, really — some people say that baking is an art, but if there’s anything out there that better demonstrates the science of how proper baking requires time, temperature, precision, and delicacy than puff pastry does, I’d have no idea what that could be.

There are only a couple rules for handling puff pastry: keep everything cold, cold, cold!

It’s the moisture in the liquid and fat that’s sandwiched between the layers of flour that give puff pastry its amazing puff, so you want to make sure you don’t over-handle the dough and melt the butter trapped inside the pastry.

Anyways! These cheddar, apple, and fennel twists are a great little way to enjoy buttery, flaky puff pastry.

The sweet apple goes nicely with the sharp cheddar, and the crushed fennel adds an interesting depth of flavour to these twists. Make sure you sugar and salt everything in this recipe sufficiently, though —  puff pastry itself tastes a little bit flat, so you need to make sure that all the other ingredients have a strong presence.