Thursday, January 5, 2012

Food for the Gods Recipe

Baking pan used: 42 cm X 29 cm  (approx. 16.5inches X 11.4 inches)

Yields about 60 bars
Ingredients

   1 cup (140 g) all-purpose flour
   ¼ tsp. salt
   1 tsp. baking powder
   1 cup (145 g)pitted dates, chopped
   3/4 cup (170 g ) margarine, room temperature OR 100 g margarine, room temp. and 60 g oil
   1 cup minus about 5 tbsp (150 g ) brown sugar
   2/3 cup minus about 6 tbsp (70g) white sugar
   2 eggs
   1 tbsp. honey
   ½ tsp. vanilla extract
   1 cup (115 g ) walnuts, coarsely chopped

Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 180 C. Line pan (sides and bottom) with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. Sift the all-purpose flour, salt and baking powder together. Divide this mixture into two. Use one-half to dredge the chopped dates. Use fingers to separate the chopped dates.
3. In a larger bowl, beat butter and oil, if using, together(abt 1.5 minutes, medium speed). Add sugar. Cream butter and sugar( (about 2 minutes, medium speed). Add one egg. Mix. Add another egg and mix until well-blended. Add in the honey and vanilla extract.
Cooling


Notes:
1. Store-bought dates have honey added into them. I lessened the amount of sugar and butter/margarine stated in the original recipe.
2. Use flour to help you chop dates:  1) dates won't clump too much and 2) dates won't stick to the knife like crazy. 
3. Original recipe uses 9" X 13" rectangular pans OR  2 - 8" square pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes.
4.Used plastic dough scraper to cut. 
5. Don't scrimp on parchment paper. Use more for easy transfer/less mess.
6. According to the authors of the original recipe, creaming butter/sugar = light and fluffy food for the godsmelted butter = dense, moist and chewy food for the gods. I was too lazy to melt the margarine. For my first two batches, I didn't have enough margarine so I substitue some with oil. They worked so well that on my third batch, did the same thing.

Link to show I presented them:
http://tsinoyingermany.blogspot.com/2011/12/food-for-gods-date-and-walnut-bars.html

LINKERS -NG, -G, NA

LINKERS -NG, -G, NA. Exercise: Adjectives + Nouns; Nouns + Adjectives Complete the phrases below using linkers -ng, -g, na. Adjecti...