A classic cookie

I like a good old fashioned cookie recipe.  Simple and classic.  All the ingredients are on hand.  How can you lose?

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup whole-wheat flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened but still cool
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1½ cups semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 and put foil on at least 3 baking sheets.  In a small bowl, mix flour, b powder, and salt.  In the bowl of a stand mixer cream the butter and sugars.  Add eggs one at a time and mix.  Add vanilla and mix.  Add the flour in two additions with the mixer off, then turn it on and watch out for flour spray.  When flour is combined add the oats and chocolate chips and mix to combine.  Spoon walnut-sized balls of dough onto the baking sheet leaving at least 1½ inches between cookies.  Bake for 12 minutes and then check them, if you like a chewier cookie you can take them out, if you like a browner crunchier cookie you can leave them in for 3 minutes and check them again until they are your desired shade of brown.  I like mine pretty brown.

Makin' bread on the weekend

Bread is really fun.  I have found a few really easy recipes that turn out pretty much every time and are big crowd pleasers.  I'm adding this one to the list.  This recipe was a little off for me, I had to add a significant amount of white flour to the dough to get it to come together.  I added 1/4 cup at a time and probably added about one additional cup all together.  I also had to throw away my first starter because my yeast didn't turn out.  It didn't foam so I had to start all over.  No biggie I just hate to waste all that honey.  Anyway...

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Raisin Bread
Recipe adapted from Naturally Ella

Ingredients:

• 1½ cup warm water
• 1 package yeast
• ½ cup honey
• 3 tablespoon canola oil
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1½ cup whole wheat
• ½ cup white flour (plus more)
• 1 cup raisins

Method: 

Start by placing water, yeast, and honey in the bowl of stand mixer. Stir with a wooden spoon to dissolve yeast and honey, let sit for 5-10 minutes or until mixtures begins to foam. (If this does not happen your yeast was either old or your water was too cold or hot or your yeast was no good.)  Once yeast is ready, add oil, salt, oatmeal, and 1 cup of the whole wheat flour.  Add raisins.  Begin to knead with dough hook, adding the rest of the whole wheat flour and white flour as needed until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.  I had to add about 1 cup of extra white flour at this point, this may be different for you so don't take my word for it (dough should still be kind of soft, just not sticky.)  Continue to knead for 10 minutes.  Once done kneading set in a warm spot to rise.  If there are no sunny spots outside I turn the oven on to the lowest degree for a few minutes and then turn it off and make sure it's just warm and let it rise in there.  Let dough rise until doubled in size- usually about an hour.  Turn dough out and shape into a loaf or some rolls and place on a parchment-papered baking sheet. Again, place in warm spot and let rise until dough doubles in size-this is usually about 45 minutes.  Heat oven to 375˚, spray loaf lightly with water, sprinkle oatmeal on top, and spray with water again. Bake for 45 minutes or until bread is golden on top and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Let cool and slice.

Chocolate chip oatmeal coconut cookies and why I haven't been baking as much

First of all it's been hot.  When it's above 90 degrees no one feels like turning on the oven.  And even though some people are clever enough to bake on a BBQ, mine is pretty crappy so that's not an option.  So if I'm not baking what am I doing?  Well catching a lot of toads apparently.  Also a lot of gardening and I got to the beach a few times with friends.

But as the temp drops and the oven becomes more tolerable I start thinking about cookies and muffins again...

Chocolate Chip Coconut Oatmeal Cookies
Recipe adapted from Thyme of Taste

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 C of flour
• 1/4 tsp of baking soda
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 4 Tbsp of unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 1 C of brown sugar
• 1 C of dark chocolate chips 
• 1 C oatmeal
• 1 C shredded coconut

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 and put tin foil on 2 baking sheets.  In a small bowl mix flour, b soda, salt, and oatmeal.  Melt butter in microwave and then add to it the egg, vanilla, and sugar.  Mix into the dry ingredients and then add the chocolate chips and coconut and stir to combine.  You might have to use your hands if it gets stiff.  Make walnut-sized balls of dough and place on baking sheet.  These don't spread too much because of the coconut.  Bake for at least 15 minutes or until golden brown on the bottoms.  

Vegan Whole Wheat Oatmeal Cookies

I had a BBQ last night. Very fun. I made these cookies for my vegan friend Ben and everyone else ate them all!! They are so easy to make and you know I love that there is no mixer required. I guess that's the upside to not using butter, it's the same method as making muffins- mix dry together, mix wet together, combine them. This is also the first time that I have used a flax egg in a cookie. I have tried it in muffins before but not in a cookie- I think it worked well, the cookies are crispy on the outside and a bit chewy on the inside from the honey.

The recipe is from What Would Cathy Eat? I did change it a little: honey instead of molasses and walnuts instead of toasted pecans.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon ground flax seed mixed with 3 tablespoons water

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 ¼ cup rolled oats (old fashioned, not quick)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Scant ½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

½ cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons unsulphured molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup organic canola oil

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350.
Make your flax seed egg by mixing the flax seed with the water and microwaving for 30 seconds, set aside.
Combine all dry ingredients and walnuts in a small bowl (2nd paragraph), set aside.
Combine all wet ingredients in a larger bowl (3rd paragraph).
Add dry to wet and stir to combine.
Spread cookies (about 1 tbsp balls) on 2 cookies sheets and then squish them down a little flat because they don't spread and melt quite like regular cookies.
Bake about 15 minutes or until they are set and crisp on the edges.

Coconut Banana Oatmeal Bars

I was feeling adventurous today... I took a simple bar recipe and made it into a delicious combination of natural sweetness with a butterscotch surprise.

So if you leave out the peanut butter and the butterscotch chips this recipe is crazy healthy- no added sugar, no gluten, no animal products. It's vegan, gluten-free, and sugar conscious. You can definitely add nuts, chocolate chips, any kind of seed or other fruit you want, a tbsp of molasses would make it darker and richer, I think the possibilities are endless. Next time I want to try baking it in a smaller pan so they come out thicker, because they don't rise they stay short and dense. It might be nice to have them thicker and crustier on the outside with a soft inside. Some sort of crusty top might be nice too, like coconut or oats on the top that will get toasted and brown. Hmmm...

Ingredients:

2 cups rolled oats
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/3 cup raisins
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butterscotch chips

2 large, ripe bananas
2 apples, peeled and grated
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp peanut butter

Method:

Preheat oven to 350
Line a 9x9 pan with tin foil and brush foil lightly with canola oil
In one bowl combine all dry ingredients- 1st paragraph
In another bowl combine all wet ingredients- 2nd paragraph
Combine wet and dry and pour into pan
With a fork press the mixture flat into the pan
Bake for about 35 mins or until the bars are brown and toasted on the edges
Let sit for a few minutes- they do taste really good warm so you can eat them right away
Keep in tupperware in fridge because of the fruit

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Coconut Oat Cookies

I knew I was going to see my friend Maya tonight so I searched gluten-free cookie recipes on food gawker (basically just like taste spotting) and came up with a few interesting returns. I liked the looks of this recipe because it uses generic gluten-free flour (which I buy in bulk from the Co-op) and oat flour which I can make in the food processor. However it calls for Xantham Gum and Gwar Gum but I read that you can just sub ground flax seed so I did. I added the chocolate chips to make this the best gluten-free cookie that I have made to date.

1 cup all purpose gluten free flour (like Bob’s Red Mill Brand)
1 cup oat flour
1/2 cup shredded coconut
3/4 tsp ground flax seed
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup oats
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Measure out the flours, coconut, flax seed, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices into a bowl and whisk to incorporate.
2. In a separate bowl cream the butter with the sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
3. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet, then stir in the oats and chocolate.
4. Scoop 2 tbsp-sized balls using a spoon, form into balls, flatten slightly and place on a cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 350°F for 15-18 minutes. You may need to slightly flatten out the cookies before baking to avoid weird shapes because the oat flour is so dense that it doesn't melt into a perfectly shaped cookie like regular AP flour.

The cookies are done when they have a nice brown color and are set to the touch, they will bake more on the sheet once you pull them out of the oven so don't overdo it in the oven.

Stressed Out Baking: Compost Cookies

Oh my god I am so stressed ouuuuuuuuuut!! So much stuff to do for school and so little time and patience. I wanted to make these cookies- I sort of got the recipe from The Yum Yum Factory but changed a lot of the ingredients in the end.

I've been downloading compost cookie recipes and "kitchen sink cookie" recipes for a while now so the ideas have been piling up in my head. The idea behind this cookie is sweet and salty combined in a pretty basic cookie dough. The Yum Yum Factory recipe calls for pretzels, some people used salted peanuts, potato chips, you name it. I used blue corn chips because that's what I had and I've seen them used before with good results. For the sweet you can use your typical chocolate chips, other chocolate candy like heath bar pieces, butterscotch or toffee bits, coconut, raisins, whatever you want. You can't really go wrong with this recipe. Here's what I did:

Ingredients:

1 stick Butter
1/2 cup Sugar
1/4 cup tbsp Brown sugar
1/2 tbsp Corn syrup
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 large Egg
3/4 & 2 tbsp cups All purpose flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 cup Dark chocolate (some easter eggs and the head of a dark chocolate bunny coarsely chopped)
1/4 cup Old fashioned oats
several handfuls of crumbled Blue corn chips
1/2 cup Sweetened coconut
1/2 cup Raisins
1 1/2 tbsp Coffee grounds (yes- freshly ground coffee beans)

Method:

First cream the butter, sugars, and the corn syrup in your stand mixer on medium high for 2 or 3 minutes, until it's nice and fluffy.

Next, throw in the egg and vanilla and mix for another 10 minutes.

In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Add the flour mix to the butter mixture with the mixer on low speed. Mix just until combined.

Now you add in the sweet and salty ingredients that you chose.

Use a big spoon to form your cookies - it should be about 3 tbls in each cookie. Put them on a tin foil lined cookie sheet, making sure that there is at least 3" between each cookie so they can spread. Put the sheets in the fridge for at least one hour.

Preheat to 375F

Bake for 14-18 minutes depending on the size of the cookies and your oven. They are done when they start to brown around the edges but we left ours in longer because they're good when they're extra brown.

Nora's Oatmeal

Nora is making her signature oatmeal:

1/2 C Regular cut oats
1/4 C Water
1/2 C Skim Milk
1 Tbsp Flax seed meal
1 Tbsp Peanut butter
1/2 Apple- cubed
Handful Raisins
1 Tsp Brown sugar
Dash Cinnamon

Note: Nora likes her oatmeal extra mushy so you can back off on the liquid if you like it more solid. We were thinking you could add a handful of chocolate chips and some nuts if you are feeling particularly sinful. All you have to do is heat the water, milk, oats, and flax seed until almost done then stir in the other ingredients. Stir your mixture or it will stick to the bottom and you'll be pissed off.

Nora and Phil decided- last night as we were hanging out with Maya and cousin Arthur- that peanut butter and banana oatmeal is the best thing ever. Unfortunately my bananas are black for baking and this creeped Nora out. So we tried the apples instead and it's a bangin substitute- although no match for the bananas.

Martha Stewart Gold Standards

So let me share with you a few Martha Recipes that I have made many times with good results. These cookies are delish and always come out great- unlike a very crappy corn muffin recipe of hers that I tried the other week. I ended up feeding that one to the neighbor dogs. Very disappointing Martha. I am in the process of finding a new cornmeal recipe that will make a bangin muffin. I have one to try later this week possibly. But I digress... back to Martha:

Healthy Oatmeal Cookie:

This cookie is for anyone who likes a honey taste. It is also made with oil instead of butter so it's a dense, heart-healthy cookie.

Ingredients

1/2 cup whole-wheat flour (spooned and leveled)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
1/2 cup dried currants or raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours and baking powder; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together oil, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Add flour mixture, and stir to combine; mix in oats and currants.
Using two tablespoons of dough per cookie, roll into balls; place on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper, 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until lightly browned, 15 to 17 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through.
Cool 5 minutes on sheets, then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Lemon Cornmeal Cookie:

I have made this cookie a hundred times. It is a huge fave at work, even with non-sweet lovers. It's really easy to make and comes out perfect every time. Sometimes I add chocolate chips to it as well.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, very soft
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, lemon zest, and salt.
In a large bowl, mix butter, sugar, and egg until combined. Gradually add dry ingredients until moistened.
Pinch off and roll dough into balls, each equal to 1 1/2 tablespoons; place on 2 baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. With fingers, flatten balls to 3/4-inch thickness.
Bake until lightly browned around edges, 20 to 25 minutes; transfer to racks to cool completely.

Outrageous Chocolate Cookies:

These cookies are a lot like a "brownie cookie" so I have made them on request for my best friend, Lauren. This is a recipe that takes melted chocolate and chocolate chips, if you replace a couple of Tbsp of flour with cocoa powder they would be a triple chocolate treat!! This is big crowd pleaser too but I tend to make them sparingly because I bake on a budget and they require a lot of chocolate. You could probably do the cocoa and melted chocolate and leave out the chocolate chips at the end and they would still be great while saving some choco-money.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, very soft
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, lemon zest, and salt.
In a large bowl, mix butter, sugar, and egg until combined. Gradually add dry ingredients until moistened.
Pinch off and roll dough into balls, each equal to 1 1/2 tablespoons; place on 2 baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. With fingers, flatten balls to 3/4-inch thickness.
Bake until lightly browned around edges, 20 to 25 minutes; transfer to racks to cool completely.

Cook's Note

Don't worry if the batter seems thin. It should look more like a brownie batter than a cookie dough.

Photo Credits: Martha Stewart

Jenn's Didn't Have Any Eggs In the House Oatmeal Cookies

Question: what happens when you bake at Jenn's house and she doesn't have any eggs in the fridge? Answer: you google an eggless oatmeal raisin cookie recipe and pray for the best.

Ingredients:

1/3 C Butter
1/4 C Brown Sugar
1/8 C White Sugar
1/3 Tsp Vanilla
1/2 C AP Flour
1/4 Tsp Salt
1/3 Tsp B Soda
1/8 C Boiling Water (we used cold and it didn't matter)
2/3 C Oats (we used actual granola)
1/4 C Raisins
1/2 C Chocolate Chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 350.
We melted the butter in the microwave and then mixed it with the butter using Jen's wand mixer. Then we added the vanilla, salt, b soda, water, and last the flour and oats and choc chips. This recipe only makes about 6 nice big cookies because we were just baking a small batch for fun. Put them in the oven for 12 mins to start then add 2 mins until they're starting to get brown, but take them out of the oven while still a little soft because they are going to harden up and get crispy once you remove them from the oven.

America's Test Kitchen: Salty Oatmeal Cookies

So these are some of the best cookies I've ever made. Of course it's an America's Test Kitchen recipe, they pretty much always have the best recipes. They don't put any raisins in these but I actually think they would be really good with raisins, golden raisins, or currants.

INGREDIENTS

1 C unbleached all-purpose flour (5 ounces)
3/4 Tsp baking powder
1/2 Tsp baking soda
1/4 Tsp table salt
14 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks), softened but still cool, about 65 degrees
1 C granulated sugar (7 ounces)
1/4 C packed light brown sugar (1 3/4 ounces)
1 large egg
1 Tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 C old-fashioned rolled oats (see note)
1/2 Tsp coarse sea salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 3 large (18- by 12-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl.

2. In standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter and sugars at medium-low speed until just combined, about 20 seconds. Increase speed to medium and continue to beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute longer. Scrape down bowl with rubber spatula. Add egg and vanilla and beat on medium-low until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl again. With mixer running at low speed, add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated and smooth, 10 seconds. With mixer still running on low, gradually add oats and mix until well incorporated, 20 seconds. Give dough final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that no flour pockets remain and ingredients are evenly distributed.

3. Divide dough into 24 equal portions, each about 2 tablespoons (or use #30 cookie scoop), then roll between palms into balls. Place cookies on prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 1/2 inches apart, 8 dough balls per sheet (see note above). Using fingertips, gently press each dough ball to 3/4-inch thickness. Lightly sprinkle sea salt evenly over flattened dough balls before baking.

4. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are deep golden brown, edges are crisp, and centers yield to slight pressure when pressed, 13 to 16 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely on sheet.