Weekend Cooking: Coffee Bars

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

_______

I've talked about King Arthur Flour many times on Weekend Cooking. I love their products and their recipes. Beside perusing their website for recipes, I also subscribe (print and digital) to their quarterly Baking Sheet.

Don't those danishes on the cover of the spring 2014 issue look wonderful? I haven't made them. I did, however, bake dessert a few weeks ago, and the recipe came from this issue. I picked the Coffee Bars because I find it hard to resist recipes that include coffee as an ingredient.

I was worried that they might be too sweet, especially with the icing; but, in fact, they were perfect. Very moist and good. These would be a hit at a pot luck or for any informal entertaining. Oh, and they're great with a cup of coffee in the afternoon.

Note: I scanned the photo from the newsletter. The spots are proof that I actually cooked from the print edition. One way I can tell if I've made a recipe is if I find crumbs and oil spots on the page.

Coffee Bars
Makes 4 dozen (umm, we cut ours bigger than that)

Bars

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 c warm, strong coffee
• 1 1/2 cups King Arthur all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Caramel Icing

• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 cup confectioners sugar, sifted

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9 by 13-in pan.

Cookies: Mix the sugar, butter, and oil until well combined. Mix in the eggs and vanilla thoroughly and then mix in the coffee.

Whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and add to the sugar mixture. Stir in the raisins and nuts.

Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Bake for 25 minutes or until the edges just begin to pull from the sides of the pan. While the bars are baking prepare the icing

Icing: Combine the brown sugar, butter, and cream in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and gradually add the confectioners sugar, beating constantly. If the icing is not smooth, place over low heat, stirring constantly until lumps of sugar disappear.

Remove the bars from the oven and immediately spread the icing over the top. Cool completely before slicing.