Coconut Dream Bars

With the warmer weather upon us, all I can think about is kicking back with an icy pina colada on a beach. I can almost feel the salty air whipping through my hair, the sand rubbing between my bare toes, and the ice cubes clinking against the glass in my cocktail...I've been playing a lot of tennis outside and there's nothing more refreshing than a cold drink after a sweaty match.

The scent of coconut brings me back to lazy summer days. These bars make great treats to bring to a picnic with your friends, to a barbeque, or why not take them to that dreamy beach with a pina colada in hand? 

These bars smelled remarkably good, I replaced some of the all-purpose flour in the original recipe with coconut flour. When I mixed the batter, I couldn't get over how aromatic the coconut flour was.  Coconut flour is also gluten-free for those looking for avoiding gluten in their diet and it's higher in fibre than all-purpose flour (for more info on coconut flour and it's benefits, visit Nuts.com)

The bottom layer of these bars is a shortbread topped with a sticky coconut mixture. These bars are best the day they are made, the next day I found the shortbread had absorbed the moisture from the top layer and didn't retain its crisp texture anymore. Regardless, the filling is not too sweet, it's chewy and marries well with the buttery shortbread. 

Tweet

Recipe here!

Crème Brûlée

If you know crème brûlée, I’m going to assume you also know Amelie Poulain, specifically this scene where she's breaking the hard shell of baked custard. If you've had crème brûlée a.k.a. burnt cream, you should skip ahead to the recipe. If haven't tried creme brulee, you skip to the recipe anyway. 

I first tasted the wonders of crème brulee in Shanghai. My parents took me to a French restaurant that had just opened, suitably called Le Seine. At lunch, they served a buffet, complete with platters of salmon salad, foie gras, and roasted duck bathed in orange sauce. The best part though, was the dessert table. It looked like the Willy Wonka factory blew up and spit out glorious petit fours: chocolate ganache bars, strawberry cheesecake squares, a tiramisu bowl, pineapple soufflés, trays of financiers, fruit tarts filled with pastry cream, and of course, little ramekins of crème brûlée. As soon as we were brought to our table, I threw down my jacket and rushed past the lunch table, went straight to the desserts and swooped up as many creme brûlées as my greedy arms could hold just in case they ran out later on. Clearly, I was well versed in dessert buffet dining.

Breaking the layer of burnt sugar and scooping out chilled, lusciously smooth custard definitely ranks among my Top 20 of Life’s Most Pleasurable Experiences. I think Nigella Lawson describes it best, “[There] a few puddings are as voluptuously, seductively easy to eat”. I did some serious reading before making this for Valentine’s Day last week and even though I don’t have a blowtorch, crème brûlée is equally easy to make at home. Once the chilled custard is ready, sprinkle evenly with sugar and stick them under a broiler, soon enough, the sugar will bubble and squeak. Do what I did and share a ramekin with your loved one, I swear it tastes even better.

Tweet

Recipe here!

Chewy Date and Seed Bars

I’m a snacker. Even an hour after lunch, my mouth already itches for food. It's not that I don't eat much, but I usually stop eating once my belly feels comfortably full. Before, I could eat till I felt the desperate urge to unbutton my jeans while seething for eating the last few dumplings on my plate, but I’ve practiced keeping my gluttony under control and just eat until I’ve had enough. At work, I always had a steady stash of things to nibble on, you will find my drawer spilling out fruit, polka-dotted bananas, rice crackers, raisin cookies, a Ziploc bag full of Cherrios, dark chocolate with sea salt, and when I get sick of my cereal, shiny packets of granola bars. 

I’m partial to Nature Valley crunchy granola bars, they got the right amount of crunch, there’s no metallic taste lingering on my tongue afterwards, it’s somewhat filling (depending on how hungry I am), and most importantly, they aren’t too sweet. Snacks to me, should hinge somewhere between substantial and a treat. These chewy date bars do the job, they make a good pick-me up in the afternoons when I’m ready to zonk out after lunch. 

Tweaked from the LCBO Food and Drink magazine, these chewy date and seed bars can be made in less than 20 minutes and ready to be eat in less than an hour. Basically, dates are simmered with water and added to the dry mixture to give a stickiness sweetness, oats and oat flour give the bars bulk and provide the ultimate nutritional benefits like fibre, nuts and seeds are mixed in for plenty of crunch, protein and healthy fats. Finally, toasted coconut and brown sugar are tossed in to add more flavour to the bars.

Although there are over seven ingredients, the beauty of this recipe is its flexible formula, you can use whatever you have lying in your pantry or head to your local bulk foods store to pick up what you need, as long as you keep the general ratio of oats, dried fruit, and nuts and seeds the same.

Tweet

Recipe here!

Brown Sugar Sandwich Cookies

In case you haven’t been following me for long, I’m a registered dietitian. I graduated about two years ago and went through a somewhat tough time doubting if what I chose as a profession was suitable to me. I knew from my internship that I love seeing patients, I love food, and I love that immense sense of reward knowing that I was helping people in need, but sometimes it's hard to control where you can release those feel-good vibes.

I’ve already vented about my unhappiness before, but I recently landed a new job and I’m happy to say I love waking up to it. You know how there are jobs out there that eternally drain you as if someone pulled the plug from a swimming pool? The job slowly and painfully tugs at your insides, exhausting you from head to toe till you don’t have the energy to do anything else when you get home. That’s the kind of job I used to have. It’s kind of a haunting, sickening feeling at the pit of your stomach.

When I graduated, I was chosen by my classmates to speak at our ceremony. At my low point a few months ago, I retrieved the speech I reminded myself: Have passion in what you do. When you love what you do, time flies by, but it also gives you a great sense of satisfaction that makes your life easier and so much better (by the way, though I’m a dietitian, the recipes and food I blog here don’t necessarily reflect my diet nor what I recommend to clients. Buttered Up is a place for me to share, explore and showcase my passion for food and all things sweet).

Anyway, enough of my preachyness. I was browsing through Heidi’s blog for interesting cookies and stumbled upon these lovelies: brown sugar sandwich cookies. The initial game plan was to ditch the chocolate filling (ridiculous, I know) but when I nibbled on a cookie and realized they were better smeared with chocolate, I hopped on the chance to chop up some dark chocolate. 

These cookies, made with spelt flour and all-purpose flour aren’t sweet at all, they carry a hint of sweet butter and graininess and the poppy seeds give it an itty bitty crunch that despite sticking between your teeth, is actually quite fun and make them very special. I imagine these would make perfect gifts for your friends, seeing as how my colleagues swooned when I brought them into work. You can make them in any shape, but it's hard to say no to heart-shaped cookies, especially when Valentine's day coming up...hint hint! 

Tweet

Recipe here!