Snack or "Matcha Greenola" Bars

Snack Bars

“Matcha Greenola Bars”

Adapted from Sarah Britton by Blue Heron Kitchen

With apologies, recipe posts have been sparse. Life has been busy with work, packing and purging for my upcoming move*, and taking care of my convalescing dog, Alice. Despite that my cookbooks are packed, I’m still in the kitchen and it’ll be the last (and the worst) room to pack. These bars, coupled with Life-Changing Bread, have become staples in my house. Like L.C. Bread, they’re packed with whole grain, seeds, dried fruit and simple, good ingredients.

These satisfying, chewy, delicious emerald ingots are vegan, gluten, soy and dairy free. They’re portable, freezable, individual and satisfying. You and your kids may win the coolest snack ever award this year.

“Power”/“Protein” bars have elbowed their way into our supermarkets, lining complete aisles with colorful boxes, touting energy, health and well-being. Ever try to lift that seam that hides the ingredients?

The best and only protein bar that BHK thinks is great is Rise bar. With minimal ingredients (one of their best bars has three, and I think usually no more than five), these are convincing, real. The one I have has five ingredients and 17 grams of protein – no soy, no gluten. My colleague, a serious marathon winner and two-time qualifier for the U.S. Olympic trials told me about it. Thanks, Jodie!

Stop spending money on candy in drag and whip up a batch of these great bars. (I also cut them into smaller squares for a smaller snack.)

Matcha powder is finely ground (by stone), green tea. There are different grades, the highest being 'ceremonial.' The finest (imho) is from Japan. I don't think you'll need top shelf Matcha for baking or cooking. Try a source like My Spice Sage and you'll find great bargains when you buy 4 oz. or more. There are conflicting reports about Matcha from China. I don't know enough about any of this to weigh in on the stuff. Comments/input appreciated. It touts mega anti-oxidant properties. The finer Matcha is prepared with a bamboo whisk. But for regular folks like me, consumption of this beautiful stuff isn't grand. Today, along with some ground flax, cinnamon and stevia powder, I mixed some into my yogurt. I liked it. Its color is what you’d imagine Emerald City to look like. I bought mine in a local Asian supermarket chain called hMart. I bought the good stuff, but next time, I'll buy cooking grade Matcha. It’s a distinct taste, so if you're going to drink it straight, I recommend buying the higher grade powder .. from Japan. And no, I don't think you need worry about it being radioactive. 

The original recipe required 1 to 1 ½ tablespoonsful. For Matcha heads, add more. For newbies, begin with a smaller amount and ease into this green goddess.

Sarah’s recipe requires unsweetened puffed rice or ‘other’ puffed cereal. Fairway is the only market that consistently carries this unsweetened cereal. The light went on in the piazza as I stared at unsalted organic rice cakes. Easy. You just crush them gently, with your hands, back to their birthday suits.

Whatever puffed stuff you use, don’t use sweetened or salty. And I don’t recommend using puffed corn. Puffed corn was like eating packing material. Puffed millet scored high (and Pickle, my canary, loves it too.)

Instead of tahini, try different (unsalted) nut butters. Try toasting some unsweetened, dried coconut. For a decadent snack bar: peanut butter, peanuts, coconut and chopped dark chocolate!

Thank you for giving me an imaginary reason to take a break from the tedium of sorting through mountains of papers that are making my shredder threaten to overheat. 

peace, love; and for now, not Matcha more,
jane

*BHK moving truc: as much bubble wrap you think you may need, triple it.

Matcha Greenola Bars

Ingredients:

2 c./200g rolled oats, gluten-free if desired

1 c./135g pumpkin seeds or ½ pumpkin seeds and ½ ‘other’ seeds, like sunflower or sesame

3 unsalted rice cakes, broken into a puffed rice cereal state (measure 1½ cups**)

½ c. organic raisins, roughly chopped

            (or other dried fruit try chopped dates,                  cherries or cranberries!)

½  tsp. flaky sea salt (Maldon is great!)

2 ½ tsp. Matcha green tea powder (more or less,      to taste)  (You read above, now***see below.)

1/3 c./80ml brown rice syrup (Lundberg organic      brown rice syrup is good!)

3 Tbsp./45 ml maple syrup

½ c./125ml unsalted tahini

2 Tbsp. coconut oil (organic, virgin is best and          tastiest)

1 ½ tsp. pure vanilla extract

**(Sarah’s recipe calls for 1 ½ c. puffed rice or ‘other’ puffed cereal, but after not finding this at Whole Foods, I realized that unsalted rice cakes would be much more accessible. Make sure they are unsalted. I bought unsalted, organic brown rice cakes.

*** If you don't have or feel like buying Matcha (after all I've done to tell you about it), which I would understand (but the Matcha really does make these delicious; and when was the last time you told Siri, "call Mom"?), try adding some unsweetened (raw, if you have) cocoa; or if you have it, protein powder (I don’t.) If your protein powder is sweetened, cut back on the maple syrup, not the brown rice syrup. It’s the brown rice syrup that's responsible for the great chewy texture.

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F/160°C.

2. Combine oats and pumpkin seeds on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, stirring a few times, until the oats are golden and have a nutty aroma. This step is essential. Both texture and flavor rely on toasty oats and seeds. (For the blue heron botch record, I once forgot this step, and besides being crabby about wasting expensive Matcha powder, as much as I wanted to settle, I dumped them.
If you don't want to fire up your oven because it’s 97º, print this page out, or to be true to your Greenola school, memorize bookmark it.

3. Remove from oven and baking sheet, transferring to a large bowl or cool baking sheet so the oats and seeds may cool

4. Line a ¼ sheet pan (12 ¼” x 8 ¾”) with parchment (it can hang over the sides.) You can use waxed paper (waxed paper will be a great help when you're pressing the batter into the pan.)

5. In a large bowl, combine the cooled oats and pumpkin seeds with the chopped dried fruit, rice puffs, salt, and matcha. Set aside.

6. In a small saucepan combine the brown rice syrup, maple syrup, tahini and coconut oil. Using a silicone spatula, stir vigorously until combine. Take care to not overheat.

7. Remove from heat and using the spatula, quickly stir in the vanilla until it is completely incorporated.

8. Working rapidly, pour the warm, wet mixture over the dry ingredients and stir quickly to mix.

9. Pour the mix into the prepared pan. Using some waxed paper (or your hands, or the back of a spoon or silicone spatula), press the mixture firmly, especially into the corners. Put pan in the fridge for an hour, or until set up enough to slice.

10. To slice: lift parchment from pan and set on cutting board and slice into bars or smaller squares. For modest sized bars, slice into 16, for larger, 14; and for my personal fave, Jolly Green Glutton size, slice 12.

11. After slicing, if the bars aren't completely firm, you can return the sheet to the pan, cover and return to the fridge. When ready, wrap individual bars, using waxed or parchment paper.

12. Store in the fridge up to two weeks, or freeze!