Oatmeal Cookies Both Ways

Oh how I've been wanting to make oatmeal cookies! Perhaps my memories of the Oatmeal Creme Pies I ate after school with my third grade friend are the reason they've actually become one of my favorite types of cookies. But I so rarely get to eat them nowadays unless my adulthood friends happen to buy and share an oversized box from Costco. But homemade are even better.

Now one question that always arises when making oatmeal cookies is that of add-ins. Do you put the classic raisins? Do you hate raisins? Do you need more chocolate in your life? Doesn't everyone? While I'm more of a fruit person, my boyfriend is all about the chocolate chips. What to choose? What to choose?

As my favorite "corny" tortilla commercial says:

Bam.

Thus I made my recipe twice, once with raisins and once with chocolate chips (dark chocolate chips, to be exact, since that's the type of chocolate I prefer to eat). Ah, but where did I get this recipe, and why? (More fun baking questions). The "why" was a request from coworkers to bring in delicious treats for some guests coming into the library the next day. The "where" was actually from two recipes I found online after searching for oatmeal cookie recipes that didn't require a mixer. I don't have a mixer. And I wanted oatmeal cookies. And I love to experiment with creating my own recipe, using other successful attempts as a basis. So I took those successful attempts and merged them.

The first was found on the Averie Cooks website. It's just a little overrun with cookie photos ("Where is the recipe??" you might ask as you scroll), but the photos were enticing enough to keep me scrolling until I finally found the ingredients and directions I was looking for.

The second recipe was found on a website called Bite This, containing fewer pictures but also fewer directions. I tried to take the best parts of both and add my own little twists (like the nutmeg and my inability to make decisions). It seemed to come together nicely, and I had all the ingredients on hand without doing any extra shopping. This might just become my classic go-to for Oatmeal Cookies.

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter, softened about 30 minutes in the microwave but not completely melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 cups old fashioned oats (not quick cooking)
1/2 cup raisins or 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Soften your butter in the microwave for about 30 seconds or less in a glass or otherwise microwave safe container. Add in both sugars and stir.

2.) Let your mixture sit a moment to cool the butter (you can also try putting it in the fridge or freezer for just a few minutes), then add the egg and stir again. Next add the vanilla extract, cinnamon, and nutmeg, stirring one more time.

3.) Pour the flour, baking soda, and salt on top of the mixture and slowly fold the dry ingredients into the batter until no more flour is visible. Slowly fold in the oats next, and finally, fold in the raisins or chocolate chips until they are fully incorporated throughout the batter.

4.) Drop the batter into rounded tablespoons (or small golf balls) on a baking sheet lightly greased with nonstick cooking spray. Bake about 10-12 minutes (more if you have more cookies on the sheet, less if you have a small baking sheet), then rotate the cookies so the ones in the front are now in the back and bake another 2 minutes until they all still look light but firm. Allow the cookies to sit on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack or ceramic plate to cool completely.

If these cookies fall apart when you try to take them off the baking sheet--wait! I know it's hard, but let them sit and rest and harden a bit before moving (or eating) them. Unless you like to eat your cookies in pieces. Hey, they're still cookies. I wouldn't blame you.

So overall, I'd say the result of my experiment was definitely "success." I mentally patted myself on the back after my first bite of this treat--and I rarely mentally pat myself on the back. Now perhaps my next experiment will be to put some Lactose Free Vanilla ice cream in between two of these to recreate another childhood favorite: the ice cream sandwich.

Pumpkin Nut Bread

It's dangerous this time of year.... Not because of upcoming ghosts, goblins, and T.P. house pranks that next month will ultimately bring, but because on August 29, before the last full month of summer was even over, my dad texted me seven precious words--and one smiley: "Pumpkin Spice Latte is back at Starbucks. =)"

Dangerous words.

I don't care if the high is 100 degrees (though this week's rain has brought the outside temperature down a few notches). I don't even actually order Starbucks lattes and frappuccinos all that often (quite a bit of sugar, sadly, because the coffee addict in me wants them bad). But if Pumpkin Spice is back at Starbucks, that means it's officially fall.

It's OFFICIALLY FALL. 

And my hands are rubbing together with pumpkin scheming already....

If you know me, you probably remember that fall and winter are my favorite times of year (baking for Halloween, baking for Thanksgiving, baking for Christmas, baking for Valentine's Day...). So naturally I am more than thrilled that stores are starting to pull out their Halloween decor (giving me ideas for upcoming costume parties) magazines are offering autumn themed recipes and Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Pumpkin is showing up on the shelves of grocery stores in a variety of forms. Canned, of course, (will need that for baking, thank you), in coffee (OMG, my favorite in K-cup form), as candy and even in granola (I miss this one, please let me know if you see it on the shelves of Trader Joe's).

And naturally, I must write an obligatory Pumpkin blog post to remind you just how Pumpkin crazy (you get the idea) I really am.

My first pumpkin dish of the year (don't worry, pies will come soon enough) was brought to me by my mom from her friend who offered up a recipe for Pumpkin Date Bread, promising that golden raisins could be substituted for the dates if I didn't have any (I don't).

While I'm typically not inclined to corrupt my pumpkin products with nuts, fruit, or even chocolate chips, I thought I'd try something different and keep the recipe's additions (though I did cut the original recipe in half to make one loaf instead of two). I call it Pumpkin Nut Bread so when friends try it they'll expect to bite into something more than just pumpkin. The original recipe comes from a Taste of Home magazine of unknown origin (though I can see the original page number was 42...spooky).

Ingredients:

1/2 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup canola oil
1 and 1/2 eggs (accomplished with one whole egg and one egg yolk)

1/4 cup fat free evaporated milk (original recipe just calls for milk but this was all I had on hand--ready for pies)
Half of 1/3 cup (I estimated) molasses
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 and 1/2 plus 1/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup chopped pecans (I broke them into pieces with my hands)

For topping:
1/8 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup chopped pecans (also with hands)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl (the largest mixing bowl you have), combine the applesauce, pumpkin, oil, eggs, milk, molasses, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking powder.

2.) Slowly (in batches) add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir after each addition to combine. Fold in the raisins and pecans. Then pour the batter into a loaf pan greased with nonstick cooking spray.

3.) In a new bowl (or you can wipe out the dry ingredient bowl), combine the brown sugar, extra chopped pecans, and cinnamon. Sprinkle the topping over the batter and bake for about 55 minutes (check with a toothpick after 45 minutes, just in case your oven is more powerful than mine). I also covered mine with foil for the first 35 minutes to prevent the pecans in the topping from burning.

4.) Let the bread cool about 15 minutes before serving.

My resulting loaf baked high, was fluffy soft with an occasional pecan crunch, and was rated highly by my taste-tester football-watching crowd (yes, I brought the bread to a Monday-night game. It's the most I have to contribute to the sport of football). Even a friend who claimed to dislike pumpkin bread took two (three?) slices and asked for the recipe to boot.

So this one's definitely a winner by itself, though if I were to recreate the recipe, I might adjust the topping--1/8 cup of pecans is just not very much. Or I may try a topping/nut/raisin-free version that's just for butter and jam spreaders.

While some Americans are hiding away this season in football hibernation "man caves," I'll be hiding away in my kitchen concocting fall recipes and planning crazy pumpkin spice purchases like an out-of-her-"gourd" mad scientist. Bwa ha ha--let's laugh in the face of danger.

Easter Treats--2012!

For me, holidays are all about tradition. Family, of course, and tradition, and often times religious backgrounds. I know the true reason Easter exists, but I'm here today to talk about the foods it has inspired me to make from such secular traditions as honoring the iconic animals that have come to symbolize a holiday right smack in the beginning of spring. How could I not dye eggs and bake something for bunnies? Thus I present to you first my recipe for Colored Easter Eggs (my traditional go-to every year) and then a new attempt using a box mix (gasp--yes, I was in a hurry) to create Carrot Cake Muffins.

Colored Easter Eggs

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon white vinegar

Hot tap water

Food coloring

Directions:

1.) Fill paper cups about 2/3 of the way full with hot tap water. Add the vinegar and stir.

2.) Place 10-20 drops of food coloring into each cup, stir again, and carefully submerge your egg into the colored water. To get the exact shade of a color you'd like, follow the number of drops recommended on the back of the box. My favorite brand is McCormick, and their food coloring drop tips can be found here.

3.) Leave in 5-10 minutes depending on how dark you want your colors to be. Carefully remove each egg with a plastic spoon and store in the egg carton. Refrigerate overnight and enjoy on Easter morning!

Carrot Cake Muffins

Ingredients:

1 pouch Duncan Hines Decadent Carrot Cake Mix

1 cup hot tap water

1 pouch of carrots and raisins (it comes in the box)

2 eggs

1 stick softened butter

1 cup oats

Directions:

1.) Follow the directions on the box for "Carrot Cake Cookies" but place in a muffin tin lined with paper cupcake liners instead (my cookie attempt did NOT end up tasting as delicious as when I put these into muffin form). First preheat the oven to 350 degrees and rehydrate the carrots and raisins by soaking them in the hot tap water for about 5 minutes. Drain and pat dry with paper towels. 

2.) In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, butter and eggs, stir in the oats, then stir in the carrots and raisins.

3.) Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 of the way full and bake approximately 12-15 minutes before removing from oven to cool.

Despite the "cookie" recipe, these really did taste best in muffin form. No frosting necessary--they were already quite sweet on their own. And, of course, presentation is everything. I used the Wilton brand Pink Petal baking cups as paper liners to make my muffins look like garden flowers. In the end, both my families (the one at home and the one at the library) were able to enjoy my favorite holiday tradition of all--sharing and eating delicious food together.

The back of the box--recipe at the bottom!

My cookie attempt--in the shape of carrots...kind of....

A beautiful garden!