Bar Cookie Reviews

[clairea]

I made the Fig Bars this weekend. I don't like figs so I have tried them, but DH has polished off almost the entire pan (and he never does that) and asked me to make more. I did make one change to the recipe. In an effort to recreate the "Maker's Mark Fig Newton" DH had at a local bakery recently and has been raving about ever since, I used 1/2 cup of Maker's Mark in place of the 1/2 cup of water when making the fig filling. When the filling was done I was concerned that it would be very "boozy" (it smelled very strong), but DH said that once it was in the cookies it was "just the right amount of booziness."

[BlueMoose]

MMMMM....I'll have to try the date bars, too. I agree, dates are just like candy. I get big bags of them at Sam's Club.

[Mamasue]

clairea...what kind of dried figs did you use? I picked up a container of mission figs because I wasn't sure just which kind. I also have some fig filling in the freezer that maybe I could use instead of making it from scratch.

[kima]

Another two thumbs up for the Pecan Date Bars. They went together very quickly and are very moist. I baked mine in a 9x13 pan and they seem just fine. The batter was quite sticky so took awhile to spread it evenly in the pan. These are a definate keeper. Tomorrow I am making the blueberry bars. Thanks for the great recipes! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[valchemist]

I posted this on the "ISO Bar Cookies" thread, but I noticed that thread was getting very long so I thought I would start a new one. I am hoping someone else will be able to post a review of one of those recipes on that thread. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif Here is a link to the bar cookie thread, FYI:
http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/Forum1/HTML/008133.html

Well, BlueMoose posted a review of the whole wheat blueberry bars here: http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/Forum1/HTML/008179.html
And MamaSue posted a review of the hermits here: http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/Forum1/HTML/008184.html

So I thought I would do my part...

I baked the date pecan bars last night and they were delicious. The recipe was so easy to make. And it is hard to believe that with such few ingredients you could come up with something so tasty. I omitted the pecans (don't like nuts in my baked goods) and I increased the amount of dates a bit. I baked them at a lower temperature because I was using a glass pan. As a result, the center didn't get done as much as the outsides, but that turned out to be a great thing. The edges are nice and chewy and good, but the center pieces are really moist and even better (in my opinion). Luckily, DH likes the edges better, so I get the middle and he gets the edges.

I couldn't really taste the coffee powder at all; maybe it was just an ingredient used to "bring out the flavors." I did taste the grahams and that flavor went really well with the dates. This is a great recipe.

And if you have never tried dates, you don't know what you are missing. They are my favorite dried fruit by far. Straight out of the box, they are like candy. YUMMY!


[This message has been edited by valchemist (edited 06-11-2001).]

[clairea]

mamasue,

I used Sunmaid California Dried Mission Figs (this just happened to be what my husband brought home when I mentioned the possibility of making these cookies), so I think what you have would be fine. I don't know about the fig filling -- the consistency of what you make is quite thick, so if yours is similar it certainly wouldn't hurt to try. However, the fig filling in the recipe is also very easy to make. I just cut the figs up a little with kitchen shears, put everything in a saucepan and simmered for 4 or 5 minutes, then put it in the food processor to puree.