Simple to make and simply delicious

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Following the current minimalist trend, Ontario baker-extraordinaire accepted the challenge of creating 101 recipes that taste great but use just three ingredients.

Yes, you read that right. Just three ingredients.

Charmian Christie, aka The Messy Baker, focused on ingredients, tools and pans with

widespread availability. Although the book is called The 3-Ingredient Baking Book, the recipes in the book run the gamut from squares, to cakes, pastries, chocolate, creamy things, candy, ice creams and sauces.

I always try every recipe before including it in a column and only those that meet my criteria of being easy-to-make and delicious make the grade. Sometimes a recipe becomes a new favourite as I find myself making it over and over again. These Buttery Oatmeal Squares are like that.

   Of course, with just three ingredients and taking only minutes to make from start to finish, it’s no surprise these squares with the taste of butterscotch are so appealing.

As a bonus, thanks to Charmian’s improvements on an old family recipe, these squares hold together well making them ideal for packing in lunches for school or field.

If sending them in lunches, Charmian suggests wrapping individual squares in plastic wrap, and then placing them in a resealable freezer bag prior to freezing. This makes it easy to pop individual frozen squares into lunch bags. (Charmian says the squares freeze well but I wouldn’t know as they have yet to last long enough at my house for me to get them into the freezer.)

For ease of use, Charmian includes sections in the cookbook on must-have kitchen equipment (including standard pan sizes), key ingredients to keep on-hand and the answers to her most frequently asked questions. Here is a sampling of those questions along with Charmian’s answers:

I’m dying to see how things are going. Can I peek at my baking?

Curiosity killed the cat − and the cake. Most baked goods don’t like to be disturbed. It’s tempting to open the door to see how things are going, but unless you need to rotate pans, let the oven do its job. Turn on the oven light and look through the window in the door. (If it’s too dirty to see through, that’s another issue.)

Why won’t my cream whip?

Whipped cream likes the cold. If your kitchen is really hot and you’re having trouble whipping cream, chill the bowl and beaters in the freezer for 10 minutes before whipping. This has saved me more than once during a heatwave.

How important are wet and dry measures?

Very. Wet and dry measures are not the same. Swapping one for another can result in up to 26 per cent inaccuracy.

Here is Charmian’s recipe for Buttery Oatmeal Squares, a variation of her Great-Aunt Bess’s recipe, which was sweet and crunchy but fell apart no matter how hard they pressed it into the pan. This version holds together better, thanks to heating the butter and brown sugar.

Buttery Oatmeal Squares

Courtesy of The 3-Ingredient Baking book by Charmian Christie © 2019 www.robertrose.ca

Reprinted with permission. Available where books are sold.

Makes 16 squares

Ingredients

  • 2 cups (200 g) quick-cooking rolled oats
  • 1⁄2 cup (115 g) salted butter, softened
  • 3⁄4 cup (180 g) packed brown sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and prepare an 8-inch (20 cm) square metal baking pan, lined with parchment paper

  1. Place the oats in a medium bowl. Set aside.
  2. In a small saucepan, heat the butter and brown sugar over medium heat, stirring constantly, until boiling. Boil, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Pour over the oats, stirring to combine.
  3. Press the mixture firmly and evenly into the prepared pan.
  4. Bake on the middle rack of the preheated oven for 20 minutes. The mixture will bubble at the edges.
  5. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Score with a knife into 16 squares. Let cool completely, then remove from the pan, using the parchment liner, and cut along the scored lines.

— Helen Lammers-Helps