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Q. My favorite candy bar has always been Oh Henry, but I can’t find it anymore. Last week I was at a potluck at our church and one of the desserts tasted almost like an Oh Henry, but it was a bar cookie. I never figured out who brought it but I knew I could ask you and you’d find a recipe for me. I have been following your work for many years but never had a question before. By the way, I am from Chicago where the Oh Henry was first made.
J.J. R., Miami
The Oh Henry bar, first made in Chicago in 1920, is still available, but I could not find a South Florida retailer on the Nestle website. You can get the candy by mail order from Amazon and other online shops that specialize in nostalgic tastes such as candyfavorites.com. In the meantime, here’s a recipe from my files that I believe is what you had at the potluck; it echoes the caramel-chocolate-peanut flavor of an Oh Henry.
Q. I’ve lost a favorite recipe that I cut out of a magazine or whatnot a couple of years ago. You make a savory kind of monkey bread, where you put dough rolls in a Bundt pan and then when it is baked, you pull it apart. Do you have this recipe?
E.M.
You don’t mention what was in the recipe, but I think this spinach pull-apart recipe is worth a shot. It is from the 2010 Pillsbury Bake-Off. Let me caution that it is time-consuming, but it can be prepared in advance and refrigerated to bake and serve. I made it as the recipe states, but I think next time I’d consider reducing the garlic salt and using half garlic powder instead. You could make it heartier by adding tiny diced bits of ham or pepperoni to the filling.
CORNER FEEDBACK
“I had to chuckle about your authentic Swedish meatball recipe,” writes Janet Fisher, who recalls once asking her Swedish grandma how to make them. “Now, you need to know she came to Minnesota from Sweden in 1910 at the age of 19. By the time I got to ask her, I was a young adult and wanted to start making the meatballs for Christmas for my own young family. What did grandma say?
“ ‘Oh, I don’t know, I usually use cream of mushroom soup.’
Fisher took the advice on the shortcut for the sauce, but for years made from-scratch meatballs she browned and baked.
“Now I am the old one and I made them for this past Christmas,” she says. But like her grandmother before her, she has found a shortcut: “Go to Sam’s and buy a bag of meatballs, the small ones. Pour about 3/4 of them into the large crockpot. Convert the Italian meatballs to Swedish by mixing about a good teaspoon of ground allspice (I grind it myself) and some fresh grated nutmeg, about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon, into two cans of cream of mushroom soup. Thin it with a little milk, but not too much. Pour over the meatballs and stir up a bit. Turn the crockpot on low for 4-5 hours, maybe more, then switch to warm until ready to serve.
“We had over 30 friends and neighbors for Christmas Eve and they raved about them. Might not be authentic, but they were good.”
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