Peanut Butter Cornflake Bars. These delicious bars are a favorite summertime treat! Not only are they no baked, which keeps you out of the heat of the kitchen, but they are quick and easy to make.
They also use only four simple ingredients, excluding the optional topping. Simple ingredients that most people will have in their kitchen right now.
Not only is it a no bake recipe, engineered to get you in and out of the kitchen quickly and fuss free, but it is also a small batch recipe! Yep I small-batched this old, old recipe of mine to make only 8 servings, which is plenty!
Especially if you don't have children around to help you eat them! As it was I took half of them over to my next door neighbor. I wanted to do something nice for her.
She was so warm and welcoming when I was first moving into my new home. I have observed that she is like that with everyone. Always checking on the singles who live on the street making sure they are okay.
She seems very kind. I just wanted to do something nice for her. But, you can't out-give a giver. I came home with two porch chairs that she is lending me until I can get some of my own. Sigh . . .
This was very kind of her. I suppose she had noticed that I was never out on my porch. To be honest I haven't had a lot of time for porch sitting.
Funny that. I thought I would have oodles of extra time on my hands, but it seems my time keeps getting eaten up with one thing or another. I don't mind.
I would much rather be busy than bored silly. Mom always said there was no rest for the wicked. I must be much naughtier than I thought!
In any case, these bars are perfect in the summertime when the temperatures start to soar and you want something sweet to eat, but just don't want to heat up your kitchen!
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They are also something which my children used to love, and I didn't mind making them for them either. They were so quick and easy to make.
Quick, easy, chewy, a but crunchy, these are always on the delicious side of pleasing!
Don't look at how straight cut my squares are. I am having a day when everything I cut is a bit wonky! Some days I can't cut a straight line to save my life! My sister is much better at this than I am at the best of times.
These are chewy, crunchy and filled with loads of peanut butter tastiness! If you like peanut butter as much as I do, prepare yourself to fall in love!
I have often thought about what I would take with me if I knew I was going to be marooned on a desert island. Peanut butter would be one thing (protein and tasty), potatoes (because I just couldn't exist without potatoes.)
An axe or knife and something to start a fire. If you have a few potatoes, you can always grow more. If you have an axe or a knife you can cut brush, sticks, etc. make hunting and fishing tools, a roof for over your head.
The fire one, self explanatory really. Handy for cooking and keeping warm. I reckon you could survive for quite a while with just those things.
Like I said, these tasty bars only take four simple ingredients. Peanut Butter. Corn syrup (or golden syrup). Sugar. Cornflakes cereal.
That's it, so simple! You just melt the peanut butter, syrup and sugar together in a sauce pan, stir in the cornflakes and then press the mixture into an 8-inch square pan.
Alternatively you could press the mixture into a 9 by 5 inch loaf tin, in which case you would get thicker bars, which is also not a bad thing.
Today I added an optional topping. Its just melted chocolate chips with some peanut butter chips sprinkled over top for looks. Easy peasy. Also no bake/little cook.
I melt my chocolate chips in the microwave. Its easily done. Just pop them into a bowl and cook them on high for about a minute or so, stirring them every 30 seconds. The length of time depends on the strength of your microwave.
Mine takes about a minute and a half for the perfect melt. They won't be totally melted, but as you stir them the heat in the bowl and already melted chips will melt everything perfectly.
Just spread that over top of the squares. I also added some peanut butter chops, but white chocolate chips, or butterscotch chips would also be nice, or no chips at all. Its your choice really!
If you are a fan of chewy crunchy moreishness, you are in for a real treat with these simple, easy and quick to make bars. The hardest part will be waiting the hour for them to set up! I guarantee!
Peanut Butter Cornflake Bars (Small Batch)
Yield: 8
Cook time: 15 Mininactive time: 1 HourTotal time: 1 H & 15 M
Delicious bars made with only four ingredients, not including the optional chocolate topping. Quick to make, easy and no bake, these are delicious!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (135g) creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 cup (96g) granulated sugar (In the UK use castor sugar)
- 1/2 cup (175g) light corn syrup (In the UK use golden syrup)
- 3 cups (65g)cornflakes
Optional Topping:
- 2/3 cup (120g) chocolate chips, melted
- a handful of peanut butter chips (optional)
Instructions
- Butter an 8-inch square baking tin and line with baking paper. Butter the paper. Set aside.
- Combine the peanut butter, corn syrup and sugar in a saucepan. Cook and stir over medium low heat until the sugar has dissolved completely and everything is well combined. Remove from the heat.
- Stir in the cornflakes and then spread the mixture into your prepared pan, pressing it down lightly.
- Melt the chocolate chips (If using) in which ever way you prefer. (I microwave them on high in a microwavable bowl, stirring them every 30 seconds)
- Pour the melted chocolate chips over the cornflake peanut butter mixture in the pan and spread out to cover completely. (Its easy if you use the back of a metal spoon.) Sprinkle with the peanut butter chips if using.
- Leave to set for about an hour before cutting into bars.
Notes:
If desired you may top these with chocolate and chopped roasted peanuts. Also very delicious!!
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Rhubarb Meringue Pie. Just the name is enough to get my taste buds salivating. I love my rhubarb, and I love rhubarb pie, but rhubarb meringue pie, well, it just pushes all of my taste buttons.
The delicious recipe for this tasty rhubarb meringue tart pie I am sharing with you today comes from my big blue binder. It is a recipe I got from my first mother-in-law many, many years ago now. In fact about 47 to be exact! (How did I get to be that old!)
I remember the first time I experienced this pie. It was nothing at all like my mother's rhubarb pie. Mom's was really good, but it was just a normal two crust pie, filled with rhubarb and sugar.
Delicious warm with ice cream. You can find a traditional old fashioned rhubarb pie recipe here on my page. I can warn you now, its very, very good!!
I wasn't sure if I would like Lois's pie. It was so far removed from the pies of my childhood. It took a lot of courage for me to try it. I was a bit squeamish in those days.
I got really brave however, my desire not to hurt anyone's feelings being far greater than my squeamishness. I stuck my fork in and it was pure love at first bite! This was THE most delicious rhubarb pie I had ever eaten!
I have to bake it at least once every year, and I spend the rest of the year just thinking about it. I learned a lot about cooking from Lois.
Lois was a farm wife and she was an excellent cook. She had raised five children and fed a hungry farmer husband for many years, as well as farm hands. There was nothing coming out of her kitchen that wasn't delicious.
She had a huge kitchen garden next to the house and grew most of their vegetables. They also had dairy cows, apple orchards, sheep and chickens. Plus they grew vegetables each year for the local Graves manufacturing plant as well as almost all of the feed for their animals.
A lot of it was good, old fashioned basic cooking, made with wholesome pure and natural ingredients. Economical and meant to use up what was produced on the farm, but she was also not afraid to stretch her boundaries.
She taught me not to be afraid to stretch my boundaries and to try new things, along with plenty of the basics. Her fried potatoes were legendary.
She fried them in rendered salt pork and they were full of flavor and pork scratchins. Delicious! They literally melted in your mouth.
Back in the day a farm wife had to be a good cook. The reliability of your work force depended on the meals you were able to provide the farm hands. If you were a good cook, you never had any trouble getting anyone to work on the farm.
I think I would have liked to be a farmer's wife in some ways, but not in others. She was up at the crack of dawn and worked long hours into the night as she was also the book-keeper for the farms. (They had four.)
It was really hard work from dawn to dusk and not for anyone who had a lazy streak of any kind. You really had to love what you were doing and be ready to get stuck into anything, be it rounding up cows that had gotten up at 3 in the morning, helping the animals to birth, or mucking out the barn.
It is not for the weak of heart! I will just leave it there.
The cooking and gardening part I could easily have handled. Especially the cooking part. As you know it is one of my great loves.
As is this pie. I normally use my butter and lard pastry. Here is the recipe for that. The photo on the recipe is for my Canadian Butter Tarts, which you can find HERE. They are excellent if I don't say so myself!
Butter and lard pastry
Yield: makes 2 nine inch crusts
This is a beautiful pastry. Flaky just right. You can add a touch of sugar to it if you are making a fruit pie.
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour (280g)
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup butter (76g)
- 1/3 cup lard (or white vegetable shortening) (74g)
- 5 to 6 tablespoons of ice water
Instructions
- Mix flour with salt, and cut in butter and lard, until you have pieces of fat in the flour about the size of peas.
- Add ice water, one TBS at a time, tossing it in with a fork until pastry comes together.
- Form in to a ball and cut in two pieces. Form each into a round flat disc.
- Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Notes:
If using for a sweet pie, add 1 or 2 teaspoons of sugar.)
Normally I would make my own crust, but today I used a frozen crust. I like the Tender Flake Lard Crusts. They taste just like pie crust should. I used another brand a few weeks back and they were horrible. They had a nasty chemical taste.
These ones did not. Normally I have my own pastry frozen in rounds, well wrapped, but on this occasion I didn't and I was in a rush.
This really is a simple pie to make. You use an unbaked 9-inch crust. You will need about 4 sticks of rhubarb for the filling, or 3 if the rhubarb is really large.
You need to cut the rhubarb into 3/4 inch pieces and cover it with boiling water. Leave it to sit for 15 minutes, and then drain it really well.
I think this helps to take some of the sharpness away from the rhubarb, but I am not really sure for certain. I only know it is what Lois did.
Once you have it drained you put it into the crust and then you pour a simple custard mixture over top. This is pretty basic. Its just egg yolks, sugar, flour, melted butter and water.
This gets stirred til smooth and poured over top of the fruit. I use a large measuring cup so that I can get it poured evenly over everything.
Once you have the custard in, you dust the top with cinnamon. I have always wondered by the cinnamon doesn't just get added to the custard, but this is the way its always been done, and why mess with perfection.
Fifteen minutes at a high temperature and half an hour at a lower temperature and your rhubarb custard base is done. Ready to be topped with the meringue that you have made with the whites from the eggs.
I always like to add an extra white so that my meringue is nice and fluffy tall. Did you know that if you haven't got any cream of tartar you can use 1/2 a tsp of lemon juice or white vinegar in it's place? It works a charm.
I like to beat the whites until they form soft peaks and then I slowly start pouring in the sugar in a steady stream until the whites double in volume and become all glossy and stiff. Perfect to mound on top of that baked custard.
Brown in the oven and then try to resist digging into the pie until its completely cooled down. If possible its nice to refrigerate it overnight, as it cuts even nicer, but you need a lot of willpower to do that!!
Did you know if you use a sharp knife and dip your knife into warm water, you get nice slices and the meringue doesn't stick to your knife? Its true.
Enjoy!
Rhubarb Meringue Pie
Yield: Makes one 9-inch pie
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 55 MinTotal time: 1 H & 4 M
This is the MOST delicious rhubarb pie going!
Ingredients
- short-crust pastry for a 9-inch deep dish pie
- 2 to 3 cups of rhubarb, cut into 3/4 inch lengths
- 2 large free range egg yolks
- 2 TBS flour
- 3 TBS water
- 1 cup (195g) granulated sugar (In the UK use castor sugar)
- 4 TBS butter, melted (56g or 2 ounces)
- cinnamon to dust
For the meringue topping:
- 2 large free range egg whites
- 3 TBS granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
Instructions
- Place your rhubarb into a bowl. Cover with boiling water and leave to sit for 15 minutes. Drain well.
- Preheat the oven to 425*F/225*C/ gas mark 7.
- Line your pie tin with the pastry, trimming and fluting the edge.
- Whisk together the sugar and flour. Whisk in the melted butter until smooth. Whisk in the beaten egg yolks and the water. The mixture will be fairly runny.
- Place the drained rhubarb into the pie crust. Pour the egg yolk mixture evenly over top. Dust lightly with cinnamon.
- Bake in the center of the oven at 425* for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 325*F/165*C/ gas mark 3 and bake for an additional half an hour. The rhubarb should be soft and the custard set. the pastry should be golden brown.
- Increase the oven temperature to 400*F/200*C/gas mark 6.
- To make the meringue, whisk the egg whites with the cream of tartar until they form soft peaks. Continue to beat, slowly drizzling in the sugar until you have a mixture with stiff, glossy peaks.
- Spoon the meringue on top of the baked rhubarb filling, covering it completely.
- Pop the pie back into the oven and bake for a further 8 to 10 minutes until the meringue is golden brown.
- Remove and cool completely before serving.
- Serve cut into wedges. Store any leftovers in the refrigerator.
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I am a salad lover. I have always said that I have never met a salad I didn't fall in love with! (Although I am sure there are probably some I might not like.) Salads are fabulous meals, especially in the summer months when the temperatures are rising.
I could actually eat salad three meals a day, especially when you are talking about as delicious a salad as this Crispy Chicken Salad is! Its fantastic!
What you have here is a delicious mix of salad greens, topped with a mix of fruit and vegetables. Spring and red onion. Cucumber, carrot. Radishes and sliced apple.
Add to that cubes of sharp cheddar cheese and sweet and tangy dried cranberries.
Now top it all off with scrumptious little bits of shredded chicken breast that have been coated in a spice mixture and fried until crispy golden brown.
And lets not forget the toasted cashew nuts. Have I captured your interest yet??? How about adding a drizzle of a lush sweet and tangy honey Dijon mustard dressing?
Combine all of those things and you have a salad made in heaven! Filled with plenty of taste, crunch and color! Its phenomenal, and its sized for just two. You can however double it to feed more.
Not only that but it is the perfect way to use up leftover cooked chicken, or you can cook chicken specifically to use in the salad. I like to poach mine, and if you freeze your chicken breasts singularly its not that hard to do it from frozen.
I do it all the time and haven't killed myself yet. I either poach the whole lot and freeze it that way, or I freeze the breasts individually so that I can take one out at a time to use.
This makes perfect sense when you are a singleton like myself or a couple of empty nesters. You just take your chicken breast (and with this salad one breast is ample enough for two people) and pop it into a saucepan, cover it with water, or stock.
You can add a few peppercorns and a bit of salt if you want. Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer. Simmer for five minutes, then remove from the heat, cover and let sit until it cools down enough so that you can handle it.
Presto chango! Perfectly cooked, tender, juicy chicken breast meat. Ready to cube or shred and use in whatever dish you want to use it in.
I love, LOVE the dressing for this salad. It is a simple honey mustard vinaigrette and has only a few ingredients.
White wine vinegar, olive oil, honey, Dijon mustard and seasoning. That's it. Whisked together and you have a scrumptious dressing that is sure to please.
It is so tasty that you may want to double it. Just a suggestion. Especially if you are making two salads.
Its always nice to have a bit extra to drizzle over the salad a bit later on if you need to.
Of course the star of this salad is that crispy chicken. Its such a simple make. You will need one cooked chicken breast, which you need to shred coarsely.
I just use two forks for that. You can have some big pieces and some smaller pieces, and maybe even some eensie teensie pieces. Nothing will be wasted.
You will be mixing a quantity of corn starch (corn flour) in a bowl along with some seasonings. Salt, pepper, paprika, garlic and onion powders. The chicken gets tossed in this and coated with it.
It is then fried in a tiny bit of hot oil in a skillet until it is golden brown and crispy. You may want to do it in batches. I did. That way you can control it a bit better and make sure every piece is perfectly crisp and golden brown.
Its so easy to do, I don't know why I don't do it more often! (Yes, I do, its very naughty. 😋 But very nice.)
That's the hardest part of the salad, other than the chopping of the vegetables. I have julienned my vegetables because I like the way they look.
I like to do this by hand. You can use a mandolin if you want to, but for this small a quantity, a knife works just fine.
If your knifes are really sharp it doesn't take long, and is very easy to do. I have never minded hand shredding vegetables. Its a kind of mindless job that you don't really have to put a lot of thought into.
My mom always did her shredding by hand as well. Especially coleslaw. I like a thicker cut with coleslaw than you get with a grater. I do grate the carrot on a grater for coleslaw however.
This is a really nice mix of vegetables, giving you plenty of texture and color. That is what you want in a good salad. Plenty of texture and color. Never boring, and because all of the vegetables are julienned, none of it is hard to chew.
You should also never have to cut your salad with a knife and a fork. That always really irks me when I am in a restaurant and they serve me a salad with huge leaves that you need a knife and fork to cut.
There is a reason why you have a salad fork, not a salad knife and fork, its because you need to be able to eat your salad with just a fork. Everything should be bite sized for the most part.
I used a mix of baby salad greens today. Again, there was a variety of colors and textures. I love salad greens that come in a nice mix like that.
It makes salads much more interesting when you have some lettuces which are brilliantly green, and some read. Some frilly and some smooth. Some slightly bitter and some sweet.
I used a strong cheddar for this because that is what I had. I can tell you a gruyere or a swiss also work very well with the chicken and the fruit. Both have a nutty sweet flavor.
I have used toasted cashew nuts as well. Easy to toast. Just a few minutes on a tray in a hot oven does the trick beautifully.
Toasted pecan nuts would also be nice as would toasted pistachios. You could also add smoked roasted almonds, which would add another layer of flavor.
To be honest, I think crisp bacon bits would also be a nice addition and I had thought to add them, but forgot completely. That's me! I get so excited when I am doing something like this, its a wonder I don't forget more!
Anyways, this is a truly delicious salad. Perfect for a lunch or a light supper, especially if you add some garlic bread or crusty rolls. I am not sure how healthy it is with the fried chicken and the cheese, but meh!
Once in a while something like this really does the spirit good.
This was incredibly enjoyable. I highly recommend. I hope that you will be inspired to want to make one for yourself! Enjoy!
Crispy Chicken Salad
Yield: 2
Leftover cooked chicken is shredded and coated in a spice mixture before briefly frying to perfect crispness. It is then served on top of a delicious mix of greens, fruit, cheese and toasty nuts. With its honey mustard dressing, this is a pleaser all round!
Ingredients
For the crispy chicken
- 2 TBS vegetable oil
- 1 cooked chicken breast, shredded roughly
- 1 1/2 TBS cornstarch (cornflour)
- 1/4 tsp each of salt and black pepper
- 1/8 tsp each of garlic and onion powder
- 1/4 tsp paprika
For the salad:
- 3 cups of mixed salad greens
- 1/4 small red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 spring onion, trimmed and julienned
- 3 inch piece of cucumber, unpeeled, seeded and julienned
- 3 inch piece of carrot, peeled and julienned
- 2 radishes, trimmed and quartered
- 1/3 of a red pepper, trimmed and thinly sliced
- 1/4 red apple, unpeeled, seeded and cut into thin pieces (toss with a bit of lemon juice to keep from turning brown)
- 1 piece of sharp cheddar, the size of a matchbox, cut into small cubes
- 3 TBS dried cranberries
- 3 TBS roasted cashew nuts
For the dressing:
- 2 TBS olive oil
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar
- 1 1/2 TBS runny honey
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- To make the dressing, whisk all of the ingredients together and set aside.
- Divide the lettuce between two bowls.
- Prepare all of your vegetables. Divide between two bowls, placing them in a decorative manner on top of the lettuce.
- Scatter the cranberries, nuts and cheese over top.
- Mix the cornstarch and all of the seasonings for the chicken in a bowl. Shred your chicken and toss it together with the cornstarch mixture to coat.
- Heat the oil in a skillet until hot. Add the chicken and cook in the hot oil until crispy, turning it to make sure it all gets crisped. (You may need to do this in batches) Scoop out to a paper towel lined plate to drain.
- Divide the crisp chicken between both salad bowls, placing it on top.
- Whisk the dressing together again and then drizzle it over the salads, dividing it between both. Serve immediately!
Notes:
This dressing is delicious. You may want to double it.
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