Remembrance Day Poppy (Seed Bars)

When I was in grade five, we memorized In Flanders Field by Colonel John McCrae and held a small memorial service in our classroom on November 10th (November 11th was a civic holiday and we were expected to attend the parade.) I recall spending days making wreaths out of red construction paper for the occasion. Add a pair of safety scissors and a gallon of Elmer’s white craft glue, and we had everything required to make mountains of wobbly-edged poppies and stick them to even wobblier cardboard rings. While I no longer make wreaths, I can still recite the poem by heart and wear a red poppy on my jacket — although it always manages to fall off somewhere between the grocery store exit and the car.

It used to annoy me that engineers could send a man to the moon but no one could design a lapel flower that stayed put. But I’ve changed my mind. I now approve of these plastic poppies’ ephemeral ways. We need to see how quickly things get lost, and buying these reminders again and again and again just might keep Remembrance Day in the front of our minds better than one minute of silence or a 24-hour civic holiday ever could.

In honour of the poppy and all it symbolizes, here’s a recipe for poppy seed bars. Easy to make and absolutely addictive, they’re guaranteed to last as long as your last Remembrance Day poppy purchase.

Lemon Poppy Seed Bars
Printable recipe

Bar Ingredients

2 eggs
1 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup poppy seeds

Icing Ingredients

1/3 cup butter
3 cups icing sugar, sifted
2 tbsp lemon juice
rind of 1 lemon
1 tbsp water (approximately)

Instructions

Beat eggs.
Gradually beat in sugar until dissolved.
Beat in oil and vanilla.
Sift remaining bar ingredients together to remove all lumps.
Add to egg mixture and blend well.
Spread in 15 x 10 jelly roll pan.
Bake in preheated 350F oven for 15 minutes
While bars are cooling, mix icing ingredients together, adding just enough water to make a spreadable icing.
When bars are cooled, spread with icing and cut into squares.
Refrigerate leftovers — if there are any.