Everyday, Everywhere Bar
an Alex walks into a bar and gives you a new recipe. what do you do?
Active Time: 30 minutes (Waiting time: 2 hours)
Servings: (1) 8”x8” pan
Ingredients
Granola mixture
1 ½ cup rolled oats
¼ cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
¼ cup hemp seeds
2 tbsp white sesame seeds, *see try experimenting with for seed substitution notes
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cardamom
¼ tsp white pepper
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ cup coconut oil, melted (refined or unrefined, it doesn’t matter)
Wet mixture
10 medjool dates, pits removed
2 tbsp ground flax seed
1 tbsp miso
1-2 tbsp dried coconut
Recipe
To make granola mixture:
Preheat oven to 350F.
In a medium size bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Mix.
Add coconut oil, one tablespoon at a time. Mix so that dry ingredients are evenly coated.
On a parchment covered sheet pan, bake mixture for 20-22 minutes.
You can remove the pan in the last 5 minutes or so, mix around the granola, and then return to oven. Sometimes I skip this step. Sometimes I do it.
To make wet mixture:
5. While mixture is baking, prepare the wet mixture: boil ¼-½ cup water. I do this in an electric kettle. In the same, medium-sized bowl that you used to mix the granola (no need to wash in between!), add the pitted medjool dates. Pour ~¼ cup of boiling, hot water over dates. Dates should be ¾ covered. Add more hot water if necessary. Soak the dates until the granola mixture comes out of the oven (~15 minutes).
To make bars:
6. Remove granola from oven, and let cool on sheet pan. Pour off the water from the dates. Add the flax seeds and miso to the now softened dates. Mash with the back of a fork until the mixture forms a smooth paste.
7. Add granola to the bowl. Mix until granola is fully coated. (Save the parchment!)
Granola does not need to be completely cool. If the granola is completely cool, you’ll end up with a crunchier bar. If the granola is still warm, the residual heat will make it easier to mix. You give and you take. There’s not a huge difference though.Use the same parchment to coat a 8x8 pan. Add the mixture to the pan. Press the mixture down into corners and sides of pan, so it is compact. Sprinkle dried coconut, and press down to ensure the coconut sticks. Practice your best self-control, and freeze for at least 2 hours. I’m sorry.
8. Once frozen, cut bar into rectangles, squares, morsels, any shape your beautiful heart desires.
Bars are best kept refrigerated in an air-tight container. Idk how long they last because I usually eat the whole batch in 48 hrs.
Non-negotiables
Medjool dates – Do not substitute any other type of date or dried fruit. Medjool dates have more “meat,” which binds the granola together.
Ground flax seed - I add ground flax to the wet mixture to enhance the stickiness. It acts similar to a “flax egg.” Also, ground flax is easier to digest and absorb nutrients from than whole flax.
White and black pepper – The combination of the two peppers is my favorite part of the recipe. The black pepper provides a sharpness, and the white pepper adds an earthiness. Pepper doesn’t make this recipe spicy per say, but it adds a note that sets it apart from your usual granola bar.
Miso – Miso is used in place of any salt in this recipe. It also adds a buttery base of flavor that grounds pepper zings and nutty morsels.
Try experimenting with
Seeds - I use a combination of my personal favorite three different seeds, totaling to ½ cup and 2 tbsp. Feel free to substitute with your favorite pantry seeds. Notice that my three seeds are all of different sizes: small (sesame), medium (hemp), and large (pepita). In my humble opinion, this variety of seeds creates the best texture and proportions for binding. If you do substitute, make sure you are substituting with a similar sized seed. So, you could sub chia for sesame or sunflower for hemp. In this same vein of reasoning I would not substitute a nut for a seed in this recipe. (Or if you do, maybe add a couple more dates?)
Oil - I prefer unrefined coconut oil because it adds a coconutty taste to the bar. But feel free to substitute a neutral oil (refined coconut, avocado) or an olive oil might add a flirty, fruity note.
Food styling tips
I cut my bars into a variety of shapes: squares, rectangles, triangles, etc. While thi variety makes a nice, visual puzzle for your eyes, it also serves a function. I will eat this bar for breakfast, pre-run snack, mid-afternoon hold-me-over-until-dinner, or dessert. Because I will eat this bar everyday, everywhere, and at any time, I can choose a different shape to eat for each time or purpose. But then again, maybe I’m just trying to rationalize my chaos. If you align closer to lawful than chaotic, feel free to keep the shapes consistent.
The flaked coconut adds a final nutty taste and adds a decorative top. I’ve learned that if you want to be able to eat with your eyes, you always need to garnish your food.
This bar takes on a golden hue if photographed in direct sunlight.
Flat lay! Add some hands! Stack the bars! (Jenga, anyone?) Set a scene and add a cup of tea or coffee. Tell me a story in your photo: who is eating the bar? what time are you eating the bar? where are you eating the bar?
Caption bonus: write a fire bar for your bar.
Recipe Development
If you were chronically online and raised by Asian American fashion vloggers in the 2010s, then you are familiar with this base recipe–Aimee Song’s (Song of Style) raw bars. I made her version countless times. I was that girl who walked into seminar and neatly untied the yarn and unwrapped the parchment to reveal her homemade granola bar. (I was also the girl who used a mason jar as a water bottle.)
I have a couple grievances with Aimee’s OG recipe though. I’m not a huge walnut and sunflower seed fan. Her process of mashing the dates into the granola is messy. It is a brutish process of using your fingers to parse apart the date meat and bury the oats into the dates. (The process is messy that solely this step has become a barrier to mustering up the energy to make these bars.) It also yields crumbly bars that can’t exactly be lifted in one piece. I also feel like her method yields a different consistency each time. …..which all sounds like a recipe for me to make my own.
I’m usually tired of playing with and eating a recipe post-development–that I don’t make it for months or a year later. None of those qualms though reappear with my everyday, everywhere bar. Because even after test #6, I’ve made this bar repeatedly.
Test #1 - October 13, 2022
I first needed to remake the bars more or less according to Aimee Song’s OG recipe. The only ingredients I subbed out were the walnuts and sunflower seeds because frankly both are my least favorite nut and seed. I was surprised to revisit the recipe and note that Aimee does nto call for any spices. I added my favorite warm spices: cinnamon and cardamom. Instead, I included all seeds, hoping the smaller seeds would bind together better.
I ate this batch in the 48 hrs in depths of my monthly life crisis wondering why I decided to go back to school.
What I did right — seeds! I added cardamom and cinnamon. I measured out black pepper amounts; Aimee calls for a sprinkle.
Needs improvement — The bars were still as messy of a process and crumbly of a product as I remember.
Test #2 - October 17, 2022
As I noted, my biggest gripe with the OG recipe is the unwieldiness of binding the wet and dry ingredients. This process became my first priority. While the granola was baking, I soaked the split dates in hot water. I hoped the dates would soften and mash into a paste that more easily bind the dry ingredients.
What I did right — The binding process was now practically effortless!
Needs improvement —I did not drain off the hot water, thinking the water would help the dates form a paste. This was my mistake. Once frozen, the bars were slightly soggy and icy due to the extra water. It still tasted the same, and I still ate it in 48 hours.
I ate this batch in the 48 hrs right before going upstate to the Catskills with my friends.
Test #3 - October 23, 2022
I drained off the water in this test. I wanted to feel something, so I added 2 tbsp miso to the date paste.
What I did right: Without the water, the dates still easily mashed into a paste. (I solved the binding process! I felt something; I’ve made a lot of baked goods or mains with miso, but this time the miso created a nuance I had yet to taste. The miso created a smooth, buttery taste that not only brought together the nuts and seeds in taste but also in mouthfeel. Does this make sense?
Needs improvement: I think I added too much miso though. I have a theory that every recipe that calls for miso always calls for 2 tbsp miso. This time I was proved wrong. It was a little too salty.
I ate this batch in the 48 hrs after returning from the Catskills.
Test #4 - October 28, 2022
I ran out of chia seeds, so I subbed white sesame seeds. I added 1 tbsp miso this time.
What I did right — I actually prefer this recipe with white sesame seeds. But for ease/convenience,
Needs Improvement — Nothing really.
I ate this batch in the 48 hrs of Halloweekend.
Test #5 - November 10, 2022
The recipe was ready to launch, but I realized with the addition of miso and sesame seeds, I unintentionally created an Asian-ish flavor profile. Classic Alex. In order to up the ante, I subbed in white pepper for black pepper.
What I did right — The white pepper played well with the cinnamon and cardamom, and it added another dimension to distinguish my recipe from the OG.
Needs improvement — The white pepper is subtle, and the recipe could benefit still with the addition of black pepper.
I ate this batch in the 48 hours in my recurrent monthly identity crisis wondering what I actually want to do with my life.
Test #6 – November 16, 2022
I added back in black pepper. I doubled both pepper measurements. (I think the peppery kick is the addictive factor in these bars. You just keep wanting another kick!)
What I did right — The white pepper played well with the cinnamon and cardamom, and it added another dimension to distinguish my recipe from the OG.
Needs improvement — The white pepper is subtle, and the recipe could benefit still with the addition of black pepper.
I ate this batch, cleaning out my fridge before going home for Thanksgiving.
If you decide to test this bar, please tag me @everythingalexcooks,
(and I mean actually tag me, the new IG update doesn’t notify me when I simply get mentioned in a caption).
I want to see your creations and hear your thoughts!
