A banana is stolen and Horchata bars are born...

     Here is something I have learned about life.  Sometimes you want to make Banana Pecan Pie Bars so, you get everything together and assemble your dry ingredients only to discover that your banana is not there because, your daughter has eaten it.  When you also discover that the only liquid you have in your house aside from water is Horchata you end up with Cherry Horchata Bars with co-co nut butter frosting instead.  Which really isn't so bad because these bars are pretty good.
     Sometimes my daughter and I will come up with a plan and make some really great food however, quite a few of my recipes are born because I forgot something, have something extra I need to use up or because I have no money and a collection of weird ingredients.
     The above mentioned Horchata bars  are from a recipe for banana pecan pie bars which used to be the macadamia nut blondies in Vegan with a Vengeance.  Horchata is a drink made from rice and cinnamon in Mexico.  The Horchata I used I think may have been rice dream.  The frosting in this recipe is my first attempt at vegan white chocolate which did not go quite as planned.  This recipe is not perfect. This is the first time I made it. If I make it again I will add a little more cinnamon, take out some of the sugar and add some walnuts or pecans.

The Bars
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 - 1 cup horchata
1/3 cup canola oil
2 cups sugar
1 Tsp vanilla extract
1 cup dried cherries

1. Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease 9" by 13" baking pan.

2. Assemble and stir all dry ingredients in mixing bowl.

3. Assemble sugar, horchata, canola oil. and vanilla in another bowl.

4.  Add wet to dry and stir until it forms a big lump somewhere between dough and batter add cherries.

5. Spread in baking pan, bake I think it was about 35 minutes.

 I bought this co-co nut butter because I was going to try to make white chocolate and I needed some kind of fat that would be solid at room temperature.  Let me say co-co nut butter is really good but kind of expensive. Also it is only solid if the temperature of your room is not very warm.  I didn't write this down right away but, I think I can remember how to do it.

1 1/2 TBSP coco nut butter
3 TBSP margarine
4 TBSP  sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp starch
add a TBSP of water at a time until it is smooth, shiny and pourable.

1. Melt margarine, vanilla, butter and sugar in double boiler on medium heat.

2. Add TBSPs of water at a time until it is smooth shiny and you can pour it. I think it was about 6 TBSPs

3. The starch should be dissolved in a little bit of water and added with the water.  However, we had to cook it for a long time to make it not taste like starch.  So my daughter and I decided that next time we make it it should not have the starch so you might want to try it without. I don't think the starch is really necessary. Also like I said I did not write this down right away so you may need to make some adjustments.  I plan to make these again some day and when I do I will post an updated version.  Coming soon my daughter's grilled portabella and some veganized Jamaican Jerk pies...