Besides Dad complaining about the quick disappearance of our egg supply, Mom also complained about our monthly supply of LPG (we have a gas stove-oven) barely lasting for 3 weeks because of my baking. But my parents are supportive enough to not totally ban me from the kitchen; besides, all of us have a sweet tooth, they couldn't resist the stuff I bake. So, I can still mess up the kitchen, as long I keep it to a minimum, a day or two a week. Ehehe...
Today happens to be a "clearance day"; everything that is near their expiration date would need to used ASAP. Mom has this habit of keeping things in stock, so she'll never panic when she needs them. It's a good habit, but only applicable to staple kitchen ingredients.
Mom urged me to cook Pasta Carbonara for lunch since mushrooms, lean bacon and pasta noodles have been sitting by their lonesome for the past months; the bacon actually had a seal that said "Best Before February 2011". She told me my siblings and nephew are not a fan of lean bacon; they want fat. Sigh.
We also have a cream cheese bar that's about to expire by the end of next week and still some oatmeal left. So I thought, what to do with these? Online I went and found a recipe by Anne Burrel from FoodNetwork.com which made use of cream cheese, oats, lemon and butterscotch chips. I checked the pantry and thought one word: "improvise". No butterscotch chips - have dark and white chocolate chips instead. No lemons, but we have lots of Calamansi. Hmmm... wonder how it fares with the recipe?
Oh, did you know that our Calamansi is Calamondin orange in the west? And it's more sour than a lemon, though lemons have more juice because of its size. It's also called acid orange or panama orange. Though it's sour, the zest/peel is a bit sweet and fragrant.
I was confused as to how to zest such a small fruit. I could skip the Calamansi and just settled for vanilla; yet I thought that was such an easy way out. It must be done. So after I squeezed the amount of juice I needed, I scraped off the insides of the Calamansi until the pit is off and chopped it into tiny little pieces. Voila! Calamansi zest.
I tweaked a few ingredients for added character to the bars. A decadent sweet treat with citrus (juice) and floral (peel/zest) hints hidden in the middle.
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| Sweet sour and salty... Chewy, gooey and crumbly... |
OATMEAL CREAM CHEESE CALAMANSI BARS
INGREDIENTS
Cookie layers:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups uncooked oatmeal/rolled oats
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup dark and white chocolate chips
2 sticks of salted butter, cold & cubed into pea-sized pieces
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
Cream Cheese layer:
1 (8oz) package cream cheese (room temp)
1 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 tbsp calamansi juice
1 tsp finely minced calamansi peel
1 tsp vanilla
PROCEDURE
Preheat oven to 350F; line a 10x14 inch rectangular pan with foil overlapping the sides for easy pull out from the pan.
1. In a big bowl, combine flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and chocolate chips. Mix well.
2. Add in shortening and butter and mix using an electric hand mixer until it becomes crumbly and forms lumps when pinched.
3. Take half of the oatmeal mixture and pressed evenly on the bottom of the pan. Make sure it's well packed. Bake for at least 15 minutes or until it is set and golden brown along the perimeter. Let cool while still in pan.
4. In a clean bowl, cream the cream cheese and slowly add the condensed milk. Mix until smooth.
5. Mix in juice, peel and vanilla. Once done, spread evenly on top of the semi-baked layer.
6. Top the cream cheese with the remaining oatmeal mixture and bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until the top becomes golden brown.
7. Let cool completely before slicing into bars. It is recommended to store in the refrigerator for about 2 hours before slicing and serving so cream cheese layer will become firmer.
As soon as I pulled it out of the oven, my sister exclaimed that our house smelled like Starbucks and ran over to the pan to get a piece. I had to shoo her and her son away because it wasn't cool enough to slice through yet. And when it was, my sister was the first one to grab a piece, and her son followed. She then brought out a food container and said to reserve pieces for her. Her son asked: "Yes Tita Kai, reserve some for my baon.", to that she replied "No, it's my baon.". Sigh.. like mother, like son. :)
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