Family Chow Hall

I just love making these cookies and an added bonus — there is very little guilt involved with eating them!

Not much more than an over-baked glob of pie meringue, containing no fat or cholesterol, and only a bit of sugar, Meringues can satisfy that urge for a treat without ruining your diet.

Last weekend, we made some of these - a few for us and a few to share, and I was experimenting a bit so we added some mint extract and broken up chocolate bits. Delicious!

Mint Chocolate Chip Meringues
makes 2 dozen

3 large egg whites, room temperature is best
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. cream of tartar
1/2 t. peppermint extract
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. broken or chopped semi-sweet chocolate

To start with, set the oven to 225 degrees (that’s correct, not a typo - really low heat for this) and line two cookie sheets with foil.

Next, separate the eggs and discard the yolks or set them aside for something else, like noodles. I’m not a great noodle maker, so mine generally get tossed. Drop the whites into a medium-sized bowl. (No yolks allowed - if you get a bit of yolk mixed in with the whites, you have to start over, this recipe will NOT work with yolks, even a tiny bit.) Add the salt and cream of tartar. You will have to get out your mixer and go to town beating those egg whites up. Beat and beat and beat them - on high. They will turn white and fluffy, but keep on beating until they form peaks when you pull the beaters out.

Now it’s time for the sugar and mint — add the mint, but just a little sugar at a time, and lower the speed on your mixer to medium. Once all of the sugar is added, your meringue will be smooth, fluffy, and glossy. Gorgeous. Slow the mixer way down and fold in the chocolate bits.

Great - now plop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Bake these at 225 for 1 1/2 hours. (Again, not a typo - an hour and a half.) No peeking! They might fall if you do. The final result should be a slightly browned, crispy, airy meringue cookie.

ENJOY!

After buying Nature Valley Granola bars with a coupon, I decided to try making my own homemade version of those delicious treats. With a family of seven, a dozen granola bars does not last long at all. For us, it’s really not worth spending the $4 to get 2 boxes of granola bars that will last less than a day.

Somewhere between a Payday candy bar and a whole grain granola bar, Nature Valley’s Sweet and Salty bars are the latest bar on the market and they are GOOD. I could not resist buying a few ingredients and heading to the kitchen… After you read the recipe, keep scrolling for a cost comparison…

Sweet and Salty Bars
makes 40 bars (a darn sight more than the 6 that come in a box)

4 c. crisped rice cereal
3 c. oats
1 c. crushed graham crackers
2 c. cashews or peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 c. sweetened condensed milk
1/2 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar
1 t. vanilla
2 c. peanut butter OR butterscotch baking chips, or a combination of both

First, heat the oven to 275 degrees and put the oats on a jelly roll pan to toast. It should take about ten minutes, just let them begin to turn golden brown. Leave the oven on, since you will be using it again soon.

Next, combine the oats, crisp rice cereal, graham crackers, and nuts in a large bowl. Set this aside. In a saucepan, heat the sweetened condensed milk and butter and let it begin to bubble. Add the brown sugar and stir until it is completely dissolved. Then add the vanilla and stir well. Pour this gooey mixture over the cereal combination and stir well, tossing with a rubber spatula.

Press tightly into a greased jelly roll pan. Using a sheet of aluminum foil can be helpful for this, just lay it on top and press down with all your might. Remove the foil. Then, sprinkle the baking chips over the top and return to the oven for 10 minutes to let the chips melt. Remove from the oven and spread the melted chips over the granola as if you were frosting a cake. Cool in the freezer or refrigerator.

Cut into bars and wrap in foil or plastic wrap.

(To simplify this recipe, toss the baking chips into the mixture along with the cereals and nuts. Then you can eliminate the final step of returning it all to the oven and spreading the melted chips.)

Cost comparison; the amounts below reflect my estimate for the cost of each ingredient, the amount used in this recipe:

Crisped rice — $.50
oats — .$50
graham crackers — $.25
cashews — $2.00
sweetened condensed milk — $1.00
butter — $.50
brown sugar — $.50
vanilla — $.05
baking chips — $2.00

Total cost of 40 homemade bars — $7.30 equals $.18 per bar
total cost of 40 boxed bars (with coupon) — $13.33 equals .$33 per bar

It might be better to spell this with an “s” — Sin-a-bon rolls. I will warn all of my readers that these things can be addicting and are most definitely not beneficial to your health or your waistline.

I wish I could tell you where I got this recipe and give the right person credit, but I don’t remember. It has been in the back of my recipe card box for quite a while, I have only made them once or twice before, due to their high calorie and fat content. Something made me think of them and I baked some on Sunday afternoon as a treat for my kids and hubby.

This recipe is far and wide my favorite for cinnamon rolls. Sorry, Mom — your cinnamon pecan rolls are pretty great, but these are just a notch above them. These measurements have been adjusted from the original recipe so that I could fit a batch into my bread machine.

Here we go, friends, you can now make your own CinnaBon Rolls at home instead of paying top dollar for them at the food court in the mall:

CinnaBon Rolls
makes 18 large rolls

3/8 c. water
1 3/4 c. prepared vanilla pudding (make a small box according to the package directions - you will have a little bit leftover)
2 T. sugar
6 T. melted butter
2 eggs
3/4 t. salt
5 c. flour
4 t. yeast

The water, pudding, sugar, butter, eggs, and salt go into your bread machine. Add the flour and the yeast and set the machine to “dough.” Before it’s finished, get the filling ingredients ready:

1/2 c. butter, softened (1 stick)
1 3/4 c. brown sugar
3 1/2 t. cinnamon

Let the butter come to room temperature in a bowl or on a plate. You don’t want it melted, just softened. In a medium-sized bowl, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon.

When the dough is finished, punch it down, knead it for a few minutes on a floured board, then roll into a large rectangle, approximately the size of a cookie sheet. It’s likely you don’t have a cutting board that large - just use your counter top. Smear the butter over the whole thing and then sprinkle the cinnamon mixture on top.

Next comes the tricky part. First, grease two baking dishes - 9 x 13 or whatever you have that will hold these rolls. Next, carefully roll up this large piece of dough and pinch the edges together. Roll the long edge, so you have the longest possible tube of gooey, buttery, roll dough that you can possibly have. Next, slice about 1 - 1 1/2 inches thick. Place each slice onto the greased pans, leaving about 2 inches of space between them.

Cover loosely with a clean towel and let rise until double. This will take about 45 minutes. Bake at 350 for 15 - 20 minutes, until lightly browned.

I am happy with a simple powdered sugar glaze as a topping, but if you’re dying for the classic cream cheese, below is the original recipe for the frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 t. vanilla
3 c. powdered sugar
1 T. milk

Beat all vigorously.

Hint: You can also make a cream cheese glaze with just 1/2 c. soft cream cheese, water, and powdered sugar.

These are a bit too much work to plan on baking them fresh for a Saturday morning breakfast. But, I promise you, no one is going to care much what time of the day you serve them!

ENJOY!

P.S. Never be afraid to experiment; add nuts, orange peel, cherries, or anything that suits your fancy!