Strawberry Crumble Bars

Can’t get through the new season strawberries quick enough? If your family is the same as mine, as soon as they turn a bit ‘squishy’ they no longer eat them. Don’t throw them away. Use them in baking like these easy Strawberry Crumble Bars.

 

This is one of those melt and mix recipes I love so well. No having to worry about creaming butter and sugar together. The base is also the crumble topping so not a lot to this recipe.

Make a start on the crumble topping and base by mixing all the dry ingredients together then mix in the melted butter.

Using half the mixture, press into a slice tin and bake for approximately 20 minutes or just starting to go golden brown on top. You don’t want to overcook it at this stage as it will need more baking once the fruit and topping has been added.

Set aside and prepare the strawberries.

Cut your strawberries in half or quarters and place in a saucepan with sugar. For 1 cup of strawberries I added 1/2 cup sugar. Slowly cook the strawberries until softened. You don’t want the strawberries to dissolve completely but still have some shape to them.

Spread across the prepared base.

Lightly cover the fruit with the remaining mixture, ‘crumbling’ it on top. Press lightly with the top of your hand and bake for a further 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Allow to cool and slice into squares or bars. Eat as is or drizzle with a simple icing glaze. These bars freeze really well and are perfect for lunch boxes or afternoon tea treats.

I’m not sure I had many leftover to freeze when I made this batch. The best part about this recipe is that you can use any fruit, fresh or tinned. No need to go and buy strawberries especially for it. Use what’s in season or what might lurking in the fridge. Apples, pears, pineapple, kiwifruit, mangoes, cherries, plums, nectarines, the choice is endless. Suitable to serve warm as a dessert too.

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Strawberry Crumble Bars

An easy cookie bar that is a melt and mix recipe and the biscuit mixture acts as the base and the crumble topping. You can substitute the strawberries with any fruit.

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 12

Author Anne Murphy

Ingredients

• 185 gm 6.1/2 oz butter, melted
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1.1/2 cups plain all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
• 1.1/2 cups rolled oats oatmeal
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut

Fruit

• 1 cup strawberries or other fruit
• 1/2 cup sugar

Instructions

1. For the biscuit base, melt butter and add brown sugar, stir.
2. Add other ingredients and combine.
3. Place half of the mixture into a slice pan, 16x26cm (6″x10″), press down into pan and bake in a 180 deg C (360 deg F) oven for approx 20 minutes or until just golden.
4. For the fruit, over moderate heat, allow strawberries to soften and sugar to dissolve.
5. Remove from heat to cool.
6. Spread cooked strawberries over base.
7. Crumble remaining biscuit base mixture over the top of the fruit.
8. Return to oven for approx 10 minutes or until golden on top.
9. Serve warm with ice cream or cream for dessert or allow to cool and cut into bars.

Recipe Notes

Use any fruit you have, fresh or canned.
Eg apples, pears, pineapple, cherries, plums, nectarines, etc.
For extra flavour, add chopped nuts to the biscuit mixture to match the fruit eg walnuts with cherries or macadamia nuts with pineapple.

 

Do you make popcorn for your kids and they always leave a bit leftover? Yes, mine do too! There’s always an argument over who’s going to hold the bowl so I give them each a bowl of their own popcorn and they still leave it. I know it’s only popcorn and it’s cheap but the last time we had popcorn there was so much leftover. I thought about putting it to good use with these No Bake Popcorn Macadamia Bars.

At least these would be good to ‘pop’ into lunchboxes for snacks and there’s no waste. This recipe is also good to make from freshly made popcorn as it’s a cheap ingredient and can be quickly made.

As it turns out, I didn’t have quite enough popcorn as I thought I did so added a few of these rice cakes which I blitzed in the food processor until just broken up.

Add butter, brown sugar and honey in a microwave safe dish and heat until melted and sugar is dissolved.

Mix together your popcorn, (blitzed rice cakes if you need them), macadamia nuts and melted sugar/butter mixture. I also had a small quantity of flaked coconut so added that as well. (This is a great recipe for a pantry clean out.)

Once well combined, press into a 9″x 9″ baking pan and refrigerate for approximately an hour. They will set hard. Slice into small squares and serve.

Such an easy, versatile recipe. You can leave out the macadamia nuts or add peanuts, choc chips, coconut or just about anything. The only thing you really need is the popcorn, butter, sugar and honey. What other ingredients you add to it is entirely up to you.

No Bake Popcorn Macadamia Bars

Ingredients

• 3 cups popcorn
• 125gm butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbs honey
• macadamia nuts (or other nuts, coconut, choc chips, dried fruit optional)

Method

1. In a microwave proof dish, melt together butter, brown sugar and honey on high for 1 minute.
2. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
3. Heat for another minute.
4. Combine popcorn and macadamia nuts (and/or other ingredients). I didn’t have enough popcorn so added a couple rice cakes which were lightly blitzed in the food processor.
5. Pour over melted butter, sugar, honey mixture.
6. Press into a 9″x 9″ baking pan lined with baking paper and refrigerate for approximately 1 hour or until set.
7. Slice into small squares and serve.

Quick Mix Slice

If you want to bake something in a hurry, you can’t go past this Quick Mix Slice. You can make it as fancy as you like with whatever ingredients you have. I just happened to have a few macadamia nuts in the pantry and the last bit of white chocolate which I melted and topped the slice with. It was so good.

I’ve got all the fancy cookbooks you can think of but the one I refer to most is my high school Home Economics cookbook “Day to Day Cookery”. It’s got all your basic recipes in it including one for this Quick Mix Slice. It’s seriously so, so easy. Melt and mix, just the way I like it. It’s very much like a cookie recipe but baked as a slice and cut into bars. 

Just mix the dry ingredients together, crush the weetbix cereal bars into it, melt the butter and mix.

You can create cookies if you like by taking small spoonfuls of mixture and squeezing them into cookie shapes on a baking sheet but the easiest way to cook this recipe is to press it into a slice pan 20x25cm.

Bake for approximately 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

You can eat it like that or top it with icing or melted chocolate like I did. The flavour combinations are endless. This is a great recipe for using up all those bits and pieces you have lying in the pantry. Dried fruit, nuts, sprinkles, lollies/candy, chopped cookies or chocolate, chocolate chips can all be used in this wonderfully easy recipe.

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Quick Mix Slice

A quick melt'n'mix slice that can be made in no time. A great recipe to use up all those bits and pieces lying in the pantry.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 18

Author Anne

Ingredients

• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 cup coconut
• 3 weetbix breakfast cereal bars crushed
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 125 gm butter melted

Instructions

1. Mix dry ingredients together.
2. Add any additional ingredients, eg roughly chopped macadamia nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips etc
3. Add melted butter and mix well.
4. Press mixture into a 20x25cm slice pan lined with baking paper.
5. Bake for approximately 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown in a 180 deg C oven.
6. Top with icing or melted chocolate.

Recipe Notes

Possible flavour combinations:
White chocolate and macadamia
Sultana, dried apricots, dried figs, other dried fruit
Chocolate chips or chunks
Lollies/candy
Nuts of any kind

Chunky Monkey Bars

What are Chunky Monkey Bars you ask? They’re my latest creation using the new look, new taste and improved performance Nestlé  Baker’s Choice range. A combination of a dark chocolate infused crunchy biscuit base, topped with a fudge-like banana and white chocolate centre dotted with dark chocolate chunks and topped with the smoothest of dark chocolate ganache. A really indulgent treat but not overly sweet. Nestlé Bakers’ Choice set me the #BakeItYours Challenge and I accepted. You don’t have to ask me twice to bake something with chocolate. I used the dark chocolate melts, dark chocolate chunks, white chocolate melts and delectably rich 100% sustainably sourced cocoa. All chocolate products have a real chocolate flavour not like that cheap chocolate flavour that you sometimes get with baking chocolate. The chocolate melt products melt really well and the chunks and chocolate chips hold their shape when baked in cookies for example.

A Dark Chocolate Biscuit Base

I’m a ‘melt and mix’ baker. No having to worry about creaming butter and sugar together for the biscuit base. Melt together the Nestlé Dark Chocolate Melts and butter in the microwave. Depending on the wattage of your microwave, I always advise to cook at 30 second bursts to avoid chocolate ‘siezing’. I know that I can melt my chocolate in the microwave for 1 minute and I’ve never had a problem. Mix in the sugar until dissolved. Allow the mixture to cool slightly and add a beaten egg. I don’t worry about sifting either. It’s just one less you have to do when you’re a busy Mum. Add the flour and the Nestlé 100% Cocoa. Mix well until a firm dough is formed. Check out that glossy dark biscuit base. So full of chocolate-y richness. Remember, it doesn’t have too much sugar in it and by using dark chocolate, there is less sugar in that too. Press the biscuit dough into a 20x25cm slice tin and bake for approximately 15 minutes.

A Fudge-like Banana & White Chocolate Centre with Dark Choc Chunks

Next step is to make the middle banana layer. Forget banana bread. This will be my new ‘go to’ recipe when I need to use up ripe bananas. Just mash together 2 medium sized bananas and set aside. Melt 3/4 cup of Nestlé White Chocolate Melts in the microwave (at 30 second bursts). Remember that white chocolate is made from cocoa butter so has a different ‘melting point’ to dark or milk chocolate so extra care should be taken when melting it so it doesn’t sieze.  Add 1/2 cup of melted butter to the melted white chocolate and mix well. Allow mixture to cool slightly and mix in 1 beaten egg, 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Add the mashed banana. Add in 1 3/4 cups of plain flour and a pinch of salt. Combine until a smooth batter is formed. (Note to self: Don’t taste test or else you will eat the lot before it’s baked.) And this is where the ‘chunky’ part comes into it. Add 1/2 cup (or a big handful) of Nestlé Dark Chocolate Chunks to the batter and pour

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over the cooked biscuit base. Smooth over and bake for approximately 30 minutes.  It will be a fudge like consistency like a gooey browney. If you like it a bit firmer, cook for a further 10 minutes. The chocolate chunks hold their shape really well when baked. They’re perfect for Chocolate Chunk Cookies or Muffins. Set baked slice aside until completely cool. [Tweet “Chunky Monkey Bars #NestleBakersChoice #BakeItYours”]

Topped with Dark Chocolate Ganache

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need cream to make a nice chocolate ganache. I used butter mixed with the dark chocolate melts to make a rich but not sweet, smooth delectable topping for these Chunky Monkey Bars. I’ve even made ganache using Greek yoghurt and it turned out wonderfully. To make the ganache, melt together 125gms butter and 125gms Nestlé Dark Chocolate Melts and combine until smooth. (Remembering to microwave at 30 second bursts.) You can also melt chocolate the traditional way over a pot of boiling water in a ‘bain-marie’, that is, in a dish placed over the pot of boiling water but when you’re in a hurry, microwaving works just fine for me. Pour the ganache over the cooled bars and put in the fridge until the ganache has set (approximately an hour or so). Slice and serve. Just like every other combination with chocolate, banana works perfectly with dark chocolate. You could make these bars without the biscuit base and it’d work out just fine but if you’re looking for something a little extra special for a morning tea or cuppa with the girls, these bars will impress. My kids are devouring them. I’ve put them in the freezer so I don’t eat them my kids won’t eat them all at once and they freeze really well. You could also choose to omit the dark chocolate chunks from the middle banana layer but then they wouldn’t be ‘Chunky’ Monkey Bars would they? Hope you give them a try. I’ve got a couple more chocolate recipes up my sleeve using the Nestlé Bakers’ Choice range so stay tuned.

Win your own Nestlé Bakers’ Choice Pack valued at over $100

  Nestlé have been so kind to offer one of my lucky readers the chance to win your very own pack of the new and improved range of Nestlé Bakers’ Choice baking range valued at over $100. To enter, all you need to do is leave your name and email address in a comment below PLUS what you would make with some or all of the Nestlé Bakers’ Choice range of chocolate goodies. 

This competition has now closed.

The winner is Belinda B

Terms & Conditions:

1. Open to Australian residents only.
2. Competition closes 12pm AEST, Friday, 12 August 2016 and winner will be announced via email. Once confirmed, the winner will be announced across my social media channels.
3. This is a game of skill.
4. The prize is not redeemable in cash.
5. The winner will have seven (7) days to respond otherwise the prize will be redrawn.

Good luck!

Recipe

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Chunky Monkey Bars

A decadent but not too sweet dark chocolate and banana bar with a dark chocolate base, fudge like banana and white chocolate centre which has been filled with dark chocolate chunks and topped with dark chocolate ganache.

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings 24

Author Anne

Ingredients

Dark Chocolate Base

• 80 gm dark chocolate melts
• 80 gm butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 cup plain flour
• 3 tablespoons 100% cocoa

Banana & Chocolate Chunk Centre

• 3/4 cup white chocolate melts
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 egg beaten
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 medium ripe bananas mashed
• 1.3/4 cups plain flour
• pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chunks

Dark Chocolate Ganache

• 125 gm butter
• 125 gm dark chocolate melts

Instructions

For the base

1. Place dark chocolate melts and butter in a microwave proof dish and microwave until melted. (Melt at 30 second bursts.)
2. Allow mixture to cool slightly then add beaten egg, sugar and mix well.
3. Mix in flour and cocoa and combine well.
4. Press biscuit dough into a 20x25cm slice baking pan and bake for approximately 15 minutes in a 180 deg C oven.

For the Banana & Choc Chunk Centre

1. Place white chocolate melts in a microwave proof dish and microwave until melted. (Melt at 30 second bursts.)
2. Add melted butter to melted white chocolate.
3. Allow to cool slightly and add beaten egg.
4. Mix in sugar and vanilla extract.
5. Fold in mashed banana.
6. Mix in flour and salt and add dark chocolate chunks.
7. Pour over baked biscuit base and bake for 30 minutes at 180 deg C. (For a more firm banana layer, bake for a further 10 minutes.)
8. Allow to cool completely.

For Dark Chocolate Ganache

1. Melt together dark chocolate melts and butter.
2. Pour over cooled sliced and place in fridge to set. (Approximately an hour or more.)
3. Slice to serve.

Recipe Notes

You can slice it into bite sized pieces therefore getting more than 24 pieces from this recipe.
This recipe freezes well.

  Disclaimer: I was gifted a selection of  Nestlé Bakers’ Choice products in return for a recipe and the purpose of conducting a giveaway. All thoughts, photos and opinions are my own.    

Honey Caramel Cashew Bars

For those of us who love to bake (and eat our baking, like me), do you ever get that craving for something? Yeah, me too. I don’t know why but this particular night I had a craving for those cafe style Pecan Pie bars that are oh so sweet and nutty. Trouble was, I only had a handful of pecans and was missing a couple other ingredients. I looked at what I did have and I had heaps of cashews. That’ll do. That’s how these Honey Caramel Cashew Bars came about.

Even though I limit my grocery shopping to $150 per fortnight, when I’ve got a bit leftover, I like to buy a few less common ingredients like nuts, just in case I get the urge for something baked, adding to a stir fry or adding a crunch to a salad. Cashews are my favourite but then again I do love most varieties of nuts. No need to really chop them up. Just a bit of a rough chop will do. I also found that this recipe all came together by prepping everything in the microwave and then finished off baking in the oven. It was really quick to put together.

I baked a base which was a lovely buttery, shortbread type base but you could just use biscuit crumbs with added melted butter.

Next make the honey caramel filling. I did this all in the microwave. I could’ve used maple or golden syrup but I thought the honey would go well with the cashews, which it did.

Add the chopped cashews to the caramel mix.

Then pour onto the partially baked shortbread crust.

Bake until golden brown and bubbly on top. You’ll need to let it cool down completely before eating. It will solidify upon cooling.

 

The caramel oozes down into the base and then solidifies with the cashews. It truly is delicious, although very sweet. It definitely curbed my craving. You could use pecans or any kind of nuts. I can’t wait to try it with macadamia nuts, walnuts, peanuts or, eventually I hope, pecans. 

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Honey Caramel Cashew Bars

A smooth honey caramel smothering cashews on a buttery shortbread base.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings 18

Author Anne

Ingredients

Shortbread base

• 250 gm butter
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2.2/3 cups plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Honey Caramel topping

• 100 gm butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 cups cashews roughly chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 170 deg C and prepare a 20x25cm slice pan with baking paper.
2. In a microwave proof bowl, melt butter.
3. Add brown sugar and stir until dissolved.
4. Mix in flour and salt.
5. Press into slice pan and bake until just pale.
6. For the topping, melt butter in a microwave proof bowl.
7. Mix in brown sugar until dissolved.
8. Stir through honey and cashews.
9. Pour onto shortbread base and bake until golden and bubbly (approx 20 mins).
10. Allow to cool completely before cutting.

Recipe Notes

Other nuts can be substituted, eg macadamias, walnuts, pecans, peanuts.
Honey can be substituted with maple or golden syrup.
Drizzle with melted chocolate once cooled.

Adapted from Pecan Pie Bars by Just a Taste