Listen up. French Fridays is joining a global revolt. Created by English chef Jamie Oliver, who crossed the Pond to transform the way America feeds its children, we Doristas are proud to hold our whisks high and march into battle. It’s Food Revolution Day. For the past 3 years, we have set aside this special Friday to support Oliver’s mission of inspiring kids to be food smart.
Applesauce Spice Bars
My secret weapon for FRD are the irresistible Applesauce Spice Bars. These amazing sweets are loaded with healthy – diced apples, plump raisins, chopped nuts and unsweetened applesauce. Spiced up with cinnamon and allspice and frosted with a swoon-worthy brown-sugar glaze, one of these tasty bars will multiply your happy tenfold. Family, friends, or guests? Smitten. Just crumbs left. The recipe is below.
The beauty of these tasty bars are that they are made in one pot. The batter is delicious enough to eat (and, I did) or pour over ice cream!
Now I’m game for this revolution but who wants to do battle alone? Not me. So I texted my California family and asked if they’d care to revolt with me. With a little prodding from Melissa, their mother, both Emma, 13, and Clara, 11, agreed, saying there’s nothing they’d rather do! Although I wasn’t privy to the negotiations, I think it revolved around, “It’s Grandma. Her Blog. You will participate.”
Clara (and, her Dad) are the designated Lefse griddle bakers. Lefse is a traditional soft, Norwegian flatbread made with leftover potatoes, flour, butter, and milk or cream.
Food Revolution Day is about getting kids food savvy, setting them up for a long, healthy life. Over 42 million children worldwide under the age of five are now overweight/obese. That’s doubled since 1980. YIKES. As a result, childhood diabetes is on the uptick. Readers, it’s time to throw up a Stop Sign.
The Bars are ready to pop into the oven.
Out of the oven and cooling while I make the glaze.
Emma and Clara know their way around their kitchen. However, it was two years ago, when their mom opened her own business, working long hours, that they stepped up their game. During most weeks, they make a meal plan, Melissa does the shopping and some prep, but it’s the girls who have the meal ready-to-go by dinnertime. Both of them make their own school lunches and, if treats are to be baked, they do it. Since we often trade text photos of what we’re making, this could be an ideal time for more food conversation.
After spreading with the brown-sugar glaze, it’s time to cut them into bars.
Our family eats healthy but we also don’t discount sweet treats. Since Emma’s speciality is Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies which her Mother had already requested for her Mother’s Day stash, she would bake a batch. I was in for Applesauce Spice Bars. Clara’s choice was a dilemma, bagels and pretzels which she’d never done or baked donuts. “The best treats I have ever made,” she said, “were Nutmeg Cinnamon Donuts with Maple Frosting.”
She made all three.
Emma’s making meringues with her Mom while her Dad makes breakfast.
Our food conversations meandered around the best things they make….
Emma: “I love to make Lemon Bars, Macaroons and, of course, Oatmeal- Raisin Cookies with Chocolate Chips. I make the part of dinner that is not meat. [note: Emma is a Vegetarian.] And, I LOVE nachos.”
Clara: “I can make Omelettes, Donuts (baked), all types of Cookies, Burritos, Ham, and Sausages.”
and, their worst disasters.
Clara: “My worst disaster was when I accidentally used powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar (the cookies tasted GREAT though). I also made a cornbread and it sunk. It tasted and looked weird, but I do not know what I did.”
Emma: “Once I make a toffee brownie thing in a pan for a Superbowl party but it tasted bad. It was kinda bitter and gross! “ =(
Emma’s Oastmeal-Raisin -Chocolate Chip Cookies
Wanting to know if they enjoyed this kitchen thing and wished to expand their repertoire, I asked what more they’d like to learn to cook. Their wants ranged from fancier main course dishes and ice cream (“I want my Mom to teach me.”) to quiche and brownies.
Clara’s first-time-ever bagels and pretzels
As I sit writing this post tonight, on the eve of Food Revolution Day 2015, I feel grateful, very grateful and also sadly alarmed. My grandchildren are not who we are trying to reach on this important day. Emma and Clara are not targeted by the California-based Jamie Oliver Food Foundation. They have not met hunger nor suffer nutritional deficiencies. Their parents are tough taskmasters, seeing to their nourishment and filling their bellies with healthy, organic foods. Those kids are already food smart and have the best shot to live a long, healthy life.
My alarm is about the 2.6 million children worldwide who die each year because of hunger-related causes. In the United States alone, 15.8 million children live in food insecure households. It gets worse. Thirty to 40% of the food supply here is wasted. That’s more than 20 pounds of food per person per month. It gets worse. The tab for that lost nourishment is creeping towards almost $200 billion. Hooray and thank you to food activists Oliver, Alice Waters, Ann Cooper and Michelle Obama for their efforts to bring more nourishing choices to America’s school lunchrooms.
Statistics: *WHO, March 2013; United Nations Environment Programme, N. America; Feeding America
APPLESAUCE SPICE BARS by Dorie Greenspan, Baking from my home to yours Cookbook
(Makes 32 bars)
INGREDIENTS:
The Bars
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon applejack, brandy or dark rum (optional)
1 baking apple, such as Rome or Cortland, peeled, cored and finely diced or chopped
1/2 cup plump, moist raisins (dark or golden)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
The Glaze
2-1/2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2-1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS:
1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-x-13 inch baking pan, line the bottom with parchment paper, butter the paper and dust the inside of the pan with flour. Tap out the excess flour and put the pan on a baking sheet.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.
3. In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the brown sugar and stir with a whisk until it is melted and the mixture is smooth, about 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat.
4. Still working in the saucepan, whisk in the eggs one at a time, mixing until they are well blended. Add the applesauce, vanilla and liquor, if you are using it. Whisk until the ingredients are incorporated and the mixture is once again smooth.
5. Switch to a rubber spatula and gently stir in the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear. Mix in the apple, raisins and nuts. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
6. Bake for 23 to 25 minutes, or until the cake just starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the baking pan to a rack and let the cake cool while you make the glaze.
7. For the glaze, in a small saucepan, whisk together the cream, sugar, butter and corn syrup. Put the pan over medium heat and bring the mixture to the boil, whisking frequently. Adjust the heat so that the glaze simmers, and cook, whisking frequently, for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
8. Turn the cake out onto a rack, remove the paper and invert the cake onto another rack, so it is right side up. Slide the parchment paper under the rack to serve as a drip catcher. Grab a long metal icing spatula and pour the hot glaze over the cake, using the spatula to spread it evenly over the cake. Let the cake cool to room temperature before you cut it.
Storing: Kept in a covered container, the bars will be fine for about 3 days at room temperature. Because of the glaze, they cannot be frozen.
French Fridays with Dorie is an international group of food bloggers who are cooking their way through Around My French Table cookbook by Dorie Greenspan. Visit our link here. Merci to Canadian blogger Mardi Michels of http://www.eatlivetravelwrite.com/ who not only supports Jamie Oliver’s efforts but also encourages the FFWD participation.
I love reading about Clara and Emma (and of course Melissa and Stephen)….I had no idea C&E were given so much responsibility but it just shows how exceptional they are.
Mary, thanks for highlighting the nutrition and waste problem. Food bloggers of the world keep it up.
Hugs, TTR
Yum! I’m all about the sweet treats, and those applesauce spice bars are superb.
Two budding foodies! Your granddaughters are such good sports (I sure wish some of my offspring would get that itch to bake!!!). And your applesauce bars look amazing!!!
Clara and Emma definitely are NOT the target for this year’s Food Education petition but it is heartwarming to see kids who do know their way around the kitchen. Thanks Mary (as always) for your support and for standing up for Food Education this Food Revolution Day. xx
Your granddaughters are precious and how fun that they love to cook and share their results with you! What a wonderful way to bond even though you don’t live near each other.
That lefse shot was a bit a of heart tugger for me – just saying.
Those girls are amazing – and I have a pretty good idea where some of it came from…
What a fun post ! Every year I volunteer at a local food / hunger agency and I am always astounded at the numbers. So many…often all around us… are food insecure and don’t know where there next meal is coming from. But what is also criminal is that those who DO and have the means to take a more active interest in their food don’t because they don’t know the first thing. They were not taught or this is just not the parent’s priority. Shame.
Loved reading this and , of course, about the Darling Granddaughters. Need to try converting those bars to GF. They sound amazing. Just FYI..our church in Iowa serves a meal FREE to anyone who shows up every Monday evening. It’s called second helpings. Food is all donated..can be left over from weddings, funerals, etc or just given. We started with serving 25 and now it nears 200. Amazing in small town Iowa but we have hungry people and children.
Hey, Everyone – Nancy is talking about my hometown of Manchester, Iowa (population about 5,000) and the local Methodist Church. I know I am looking at that little farm community through Rose-colored Glasses but I have no memory of ever hearing talk by adults or at church or school of people going hungry. That would be fifty years ago. Ahem…….
Yes Mary. In those years things have changed a lot. My mother was so supportive of Second Helpings, and although she still baked two pumpkin pies, and made 5# of crnberry sauce for the church dinner in her 9th year, she could not help in person with the meals. So she sent them money to buy food and the memorial money from her funeral went to that cause. It was very near to her heart.
Lovely post Mary! Your granddaughters are beautiful, and obviously quite proficient in the kitchen! I have never had Lefse, and honestly didn’t know what it was. It’s so nice to see Clara learning a traditional dish from her dad.
We are lucky to have grandchildren, learning good food habits from their parents! Happy Friday, Mary! And Happy Food Revolution Day!!
Such a beautiful post, Mary. This has been such a wonderful way to support Mardi, and of course, Jamie Oliver.
I am so happy that Tricia and I participated this year. Seriously, when I was growing up, my Mother had enough
to contend with, with 6 kids under foot, and teaching anyone how to cook was probably not high on her list of things to do. Being the youngest of the bunch, I couldn’t have care less and went into marriage not knowing a thing. I am happy that my kids love to cook, no thanks to me, and probably do a better job. I have learned so much from this
project, and let me just say, “Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” Have a great weekend.
You’re so right about who is being targeted by this revolution. Number become a blur, but the reality hits once you walk the streets. I admire Jamie Oliver for sticking through the years with this movement, and also his interest in helping marginal kids with his restaurant.
I must make these bars Mary! So so so so so delectable! Your granddaughters are not only beautiful, but also such young foodies! Great post.
So great that you can cook with your grandkids virtually. I predict they’ll end up feeding all their friends when they get to university – learning their way around the kitchen now will set them up for good eating for the rest of their lives.
And I absolutely agree with you. Food education is a key part of food justice – it’s a crime that so many children face food insecurity across the world.
I loved reading this post, Mary! Loved seeing your granddaughters and hearing about their cooking and baking adventures and I haven’t yet made those bars so I suspect I’ll be finding the time to do so fairly soon. 🙂 I agree that the statistics are alarming and every time I throw away veggies that have gone bad in the fridge, I cringe a bit knowing full well that I’m contributing to the numbers. It’s also difficult when we know that the children in our direct circle are not the ones to worry about. I’ll close with saying, again, that I really enjoyed reading this post and hope you had a great weekend!
I grew up eating LEFSE, my father was Norwegian. I have never made it from scratch and kudos to your granddaughter for doing so. Looks like you are a whole family of very seasoned bakers and cooks. Making ice cream at home is a revelation. Only make the kind cooked with eggs, you will never buy store bought again. Thanks for all the kind thoughts.
Mary, what a charming post – with all those pictures of your beautiful grand-daughters and all the fabulous treats and food they prepared – Emma and Clara certainly know their way around the kitchen but what I like best is that both of them stay curious, interested in learning much more and feeling proud of their wonderful achievements. How wonderful that all of you share a true passion for food and its preparation! I made this recipe only once, a long time ago and I do not remember anymore whether the kids liked it but your version of the Applesauce Spice Bars looks so delicious, I will have to give it another try. And you already know that I do like those spices.
Having a rather busy week ahead of me – there is another worthy cause awaiting my attention in the kitchen – bake sale tomorrow for a school in Indonesia.
Lots of love and hugs from all of us,
Andrea
Mary, I didn’t get to this post myself, but love yours. I too cook virtually with my nieces from time to time, and am happy that I’ve at least played a part (sometimes a large one!) in getting all 22 of my nieces and nephews to love to cook. My nieces tell me that most of their friends have no idea how to do so.
And you are even more right about how that piece is definitely a 1st world, 1% concept- so many others have no access to clean water, reliable food, and certainly the knowledge of how to prepare healthy meals. This is a great effort!