Why Cry Over Spilt Milk When it can be Drank?

also known as…a succesful failure. A success dressed in failure playcloths? What am I talking about?! Okay – I’ll back up.

I am not a baker. Sure – I’ve had success with the recipes I’ve posted on here, but I won’t lie that I was pretty surprised these amazing muffins worked after the playing I did. Same goes for the rest of the baking you’ve seen from me. Fact of the matter is, I like to play with my food too much to be a really good baker. You know how I cook, right? A lil-o-this, a lil-o-that and pray to the cooking Gods, who happen to not hate me and cover my butt? Yeah – that dun’ always work for baking. But, this is getting pretty drawn out. And the moral of this novel is that, luckily, even a lot of my baking failures turn out to be fun little successes. Of course, an average person probably wouldn’t think so – but it works for me!

Take these bars, for instance.

These are the pretty ones.

I woke up this morning with baking on the brain. I needed to bake. I craved baking something. I was leaning toward granola bars. But I told myself; NO! I am far too captivated by granola bars in stores, and love them, too. Homemade could never fully satisfy my desires when I just want a granola bar. I want labels. I want Clif, or Gnu, or…something that says “New!” on it.

At the same time, I kind of just wanted cookies! Oatmeal cookies. A strange desire for me, but part of it was that I wanted to make something the ‘rentals would like, too. So I settled on these Apple-Walnut Oat Chewies from my trusty companion, Bob.

Because anything with a cup of dates has me sold.

It seemed like a tasty combination of both worlds, and pretty healthy to boot! I didn’t set out with the mission for a healthy treat necessarily, but apparently I’m always drawn to them anyways. Oh, well.

I pretty much followed the recipe to a T. I made slight modifications, but hardly worth calling “my own.”

Simmer 1 cup of dates in 1/2 cup coconut milk, and mash with a fork.

I chose to simmer the dates in coconut milk rather than water. Mainly because I thought it sounded better and am realizing I’m not such a fan of it after all – so any way to use it up faster and return to my almond milk addiction.

1 cup (pressed down) shredded apple

Mistake from impatience #1? Shredding the apple rather than grating. I know there’s a difference. Buuuutttt, the grater part was not working out for me. I would still be sitting there. It was just juicing the apple! So, I figured – what they hey? Shredded it is.

Combine dates, apple, oil (I used SunSweet Lighter Bake), and vanilla.

Before you start to wonder why I’m doing this whole post for a failed recipe, I should say that it’s not really a failed recipe. I just failed in the last step, really. But my results were still yummy, and now you know what not to do, should you chose to make these yourself (Because, I’ll say it again – they are pretty good!)

Add in your nuts...

…unless you’re like me, and don’t have chopped walnuts, and use roasted and salted mixed nuts that you have to chop yourself, and eventually get tired of that after 1/4 of a cup, and use trail mix with pepitas, dried fruits, choco chips, and other nuts for the other 1/4 cup. Actually – I quite liked the trail mix idea. Next time I think I’d do the full 1/2 cup with that.

In addition – I did not add the 1/4 tsp. sea salt since the nuts I used were salted.

Add 1 cup oat bran and 2 cups rolled regular oats.

You need a mixing bowl now, Jess.

Combine.

Somehow, I made it work without creating a mess. The baking Gods were trying to help me out.

In addition, I added cinnamon and nutmeg at this point. Not sure why the original recipe doesn’t call for any, because it should. Next time, I’d add more.

DON'T DO THIS!

Here is the second major mistake from impatience. Or, maybe my “granola bars!” mind was trying to take over my logical mind. I chose to make bar cookies. Riiiight. If I had a smaller dish, it may have worked, but probably not, since I still wouldn’t have grated my apples.

Instead, drop by tablespoonfuls on a cookie sheet and bake @ 350* for about 20-25 minutes.

I made quasi-granola-soft-squar-ish coookies instead:

The middle squares held their form pretty well, whereas the outer banks lost shape and just kind of crumbled. Hmm…what to do, what to do?

Oh, but of course!

So, you should probably just have them crumbled over some plain greek yogurt with a drizzle of honey. Mmmm!

But, they’re really good plain, too 🙂 I love their oat-y taste! Not too sweet – I would probably add a llittle bit of honey or agave next time. I also heated some up with a bit of milk, and it was like oatmeal in thirty seconds! Another thought? I bet you could spread it out on a pan and bake it more for some granola crunch! I ended up with mostly big chunks, but…I’ll probably keep crumbling them up, anyways 🙂