Anyone else not plan for a spur of the moment craving and sure to be
disaster, yet come out with something possibly better than what was
wanted? Just this day I have, and am rather pleased with the doing.
I have a friend at work that cannot even accept the sight of raisins,
much less eat one. She is repulsed by what the raisins look like,
calling them boogers. I make some pretty good "raisin bars" from a
recipe past fifty years old, and each time I make them to take into my
Marines, I parcel out one cup of the batter before adding the raisins,
then pour this bit onto an end simply to share with her. The raisins
and nuts are added to the batter last, and when ready to do that today,
I found no raisins about. But I did have dried peaches to cut into
raisin size, doubting the bars would be as good. Hah! I now have a
great 2005 recipe for bars, along with the 1950 one!
Old Fashioned Raisin Bars, era 1950
1 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable or Canola oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1 slightly beaten egg
1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
Mix all together, then well-stir in:
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. table salt
1/4 tsp. powdered cloves
1 cup raisins (or dried peach bits, or, or?)
2/3 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
Bake on a 1/2-3/4" sided, full size COOKIE SHEET at 375 degrees
Fahrenheit for 16 minutes, turning the sheet around halfway through.
After cooled on the cookie sheet, frost rather lightly (not even 1/4"
thick) with a mix of: powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, butter and 1/3 cup
fine-chopped walnuts (optional).
Picky Note: First time I made these, as there was no pan-size defined,
I poured the batter into an 8"x8" pan that sure would not get done in
the very large middle section before the edged totally dried out. I had
never made a powdered sugar frosting for anything before these, so I
have no exact measurements. I start with about 1-1/2 cups of the sugar,
always a fat teaspoon of vanilla, about 1/4 cup of milk, and three
tablespoons of soft butter. I just mix this until I'm happy with the
consistency, adding more powdered sugar to thicken if needed. Recipe
makes 32 fair sized bars. I now like to line the cookie sheet with
Reynold's "Quick Release" foil, though regular foil or parchment have
served well also. The only taking them anywhere problem comes about
when pre-cut into single servings because they do not stack well without
tending to crumble a bit. Hence, it's good to chill them overnight.
Picky ~JA~