This is my first real attempt at writing down a recipe. Like I have said before, I don’t cook by recipe cards, measurements, cooking time, consistent temperatures (every oven and stove is different)…well, you get the idea. I learned how to cook by watching my great grandmother (Musa) and my other great grandmother (Nana Rose).
I can remember being very little and very interested in whatever it was they were doing in the kitchen. When I would get sick, I would call both Musa and Nana Rose, to ask them to bring me their homemade chicken soup (and yes, I would fake sick often *wink*).
Most of my Spanish/Cuban recipes are from Musa, and most of my Italian recipes are from Nana Rose. Unfortunately, before they both passed away, I didn’t get all the answers to my cooking questions. So, I had to figure out the missing pieces on my own. Working off my memory of what their food smelled, looked, and tasted like I was able to accomplish my goal of making sure their recipes stayed alive forever.
In the end, that’s how I developed my style of cooking. When there is something I would like to make, I watch it being made, taste it, and then go make it myself off of my memory. It’s odd I know…I really don’t know any other way to cook. I even do this with restaurant food. I can eat something at a restaurant, and while I am eating it, pick out every ingredient that was put in it. That way I can try to make it myself.
However, this recipe is two things, I am terrible at, combined…baking AND recipes. I’m pretty sure the reason I am so terrible at baking, is because you have to be precise with you measurements or else it comes out like crap. My mom and my sister are geniuses when it comes to baking (cooking is a different story…yuck). I always joke that if my sister ever had to throw a Thanksgiving dinner; it would be 10 different kinds of pasta and some Easy Mac. If my mom were to throw a Christmas dinner, it would be 10 different kinds of hummus…my mom makes hummus out of anything…no really, she probable makes a facial scrub and toothpaste out of the shit.
This chocolate peanut butter oat bar is something my mom use to make for me when I was little. I can still picture her standing in the kitchen, in that silver silk robe, (yes I said silver, this was the 80’s) with her big poofy perm mall bangs, making these for me. She made them a little different than I do…I had tweak it a little because of my poor baking skills.
So here you go…
Things you will need:
- 3 bars of chocolate (I would recommend just using the Hershey’s bars like the ones I have here…only because you kind of need the wax that’s in that chocolate to hold the bar together…baking chocolate doesn’t work as well. My advice is, don’t try to get fancy with this)
- 1 cup of milk ( I use the vitamin D milk)
- ½ a stick of butter (unsalted)
- 3 cups of quick cook oats
- 2 cups of peanut butter (whatever kind you like should be fine)
You will also need one glass baking dish, PAM, and some wax/parchment paper (which ever one you already have at home)
You need to make a double boiler where you will melt the chocolate, peanut butter, and cook the oats. That’s pretty easy to do…a med sized pot with a little bit of water and a bowl. Now I know they (“they” meaning the pros on food network) say to use a glass bowl for this process…but I don’t have one, I rarely ever do stuff that calls for a double boiler, and this isn’t Top Chef. I promise Gordon Ramsay will not walk through your kitchen and yell at you for this…this is not serious business…a metal bowl will be fine. The only thing to remember is:
1. Don’t burn yourself
2. don’t burn the chocolate
- Go ahead a pre measure everything, cause once this starts going you will need to add the stuff in fast.
- Turn on your stove to med high heat...so by the time you are dont breaking up the chocolate into pieces, your makeshift double boiler will be ready and waiting for you.
- Now you can break up all the chocolate bars and throw then into the double boiler with a cup of milk. Oh! Dont forget to save a chocolate squre for yourself...you know, to munch on =)
- Make sure that from now on you are using oven mits to handle the bowl.
- Wisk the chocolate pieces and milk until its all melted ( then you can turn the heat down a little...so nothing burns)
- Add the cubed butter and whisk until melted
- Add the 2 cups of peanut butter and whisk until melted (a tip from Paula Deen, spray the measuring cup and spoon with PAM so it wont stick)
- Once the peanut butter is melted you can go ahead and turn off the stove.
- Then add you 3 cups of oats and stir (this will take some muscle)
- Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish and set in the fridge overnight...Oh, and make sure you set some of the melted mixture to the side for yourself...its amazingly amazing all melted and stuff...mmmmmm. Also, you have to keep these bars refrigerated at all times!
And here is the finished product! =D
My mom use to roll them into little balls,which is why when I designed my version of this recipe I called it "Pug Poop"...cause they look like little poop nuggets. I decided to cut them into squares this time around
I know that this dessert doesn't look 100% appetizing...but I promise you that you will not be able to eat just one of these things.
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