Blueberry Crumble Bars

Baking is the love of my life for many reasons. First and foremost, baking to me is about giving to other people through food. To me, there's no greater feeling than feeding someone and making them happy with what you have given them. I often make something, taste it to see if I approve and then happily give it all away for consumption. My friends look at me like I'm crazy, as if to say, You made this for us? You're not going to have any of it? You're nuts. And then they dig in. Having not baked anything but bread for a while and it being smack in the middle of studying for finals, I figured, let's cheer some people up. I knew I wanted to make some sort of crumble bar but I couldn't find a recipe that I liked. So I made one up, using some left over no-sugar-added blueberry jam that I doctored based on the flavorings of blueberry pie. There really isnt a recipe, its more of a concept. Feel free to use whatever flavor jam you have on hand and doctor the flavoring of it accordingly. I didn't add thickener to the filling, although I think it might help to add a small amount of flour so that the filling sets up better while cooling. These bars got rave reviews.... in fact one of my friends, who is fruit-phobic, ate most of them!

50% Whole Wheat Bread

My weekly bread comes from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads, the latest addition to my growing baking book collection. In Israel, there is certainly no shortage of good bread but it's just not the same as making your own and it's an excellent way to be on top of eating lots of genuine whole grains. The intoxicating smell of bread wafting from the kitchen down the long corridor is certainly reward enough.

Shalom!

After living vicariously through various bloggers I decided to jump in and create my own blog!
I'm a country music loving twenty one year old university student living and learning in Israel after making her way from New York and baking is my life. I love baking anything and everything and will try anything once but lately I've had bread on the brain. This is where I'll post about my ventures in my tiny dorm kitchen, so welcome and hope you come on back!