English Toffee

This is my grandmother's toffee.  I remember a few years ago being horrified at a good friend's great aunt refusing my toffee.  That had never happened before.  I was absolutely appalled.  Fortunately, her niece and rest of the family stepped in exclaiming the fabulousness of my toffee and crisis was averted.  I believe she took the rest of my toffee with her. :)  Not so long ago I discovered why she had refused my toffee.  There is a recipe going around that involves saltines, microwaving, and chocolate. I have tasted this toffee (as apparently had the great aunt) and to me it's gawdawful.  As my Aunt Sue says, once you have the real thing you never go back.

Now I understand that like many things, making candy requires time and patience; of which, both are in short supply these days.  Making toffee is not terribly difficult, once you get the hang of it.  Making toffee has even gotten easier over the years.  We have always made it with Land of Lakes salted butter, McCormick's vanilla, and Hershey's Milk Chocolate. - I tell you this because this is the way we do it, this is the taste I know and remember.  You are welcome to make it however you wish. - The Hershey's used to only come in bars and Kisses.  It is a PAIN (and much cussing is involved) in shaving a bar (one must shave with a sharp knife and not melt the chocolate in the process of shaving) or chopping down Kisses (you'd be amazed at how hard those suckers are) to the appropriate size for melting.  You can find (with some searching, it took me 5 stores this year) Hershey's milk chocolate bits/morsels, which work exceptionally well.

I believe I learned to cuss over the English Toffee recipe (just kidding Mom).  I distinctly remember (with a smile and a laugh) the many Christmases of making toffee with Mom, various aunts, and Grandma.  It often appears to be a 3-ring circus.  We'd start making the toffee, but no one would've gotten the walnuts chopped, which the toffee goes over.  Someone would have to chop them down and get enough of them spread correctly (thin layer, all parts of the pan covered) on the pan.  The walnuts were first chopped with a knife, then a nut grinder, someone tried a food processor (pulsing is best of you go that method, you don't want to end up with "flour"), I use a "quikchop chopper".

Toffee takes about 20 to 30 minutes on the stove, so you can imagine the rush in the earlier methods.  I was a kid and will always remember my mother and grandmother's "Stir! Stir! Keep stirring!! Whatever you do DON'T STOP!" while they rushed to do something else. I recommend a heavy bottom skillet/pot, non-stick or stainless steel doesn't really matter (be warned that on a non-stick it will slide out onto the nuts in a great rush).  I also recommend a candy thermometer.  I got mine at Wally World for about $2, it's not fancy, but it is short enough to go on pan/pot so I don't have to hold it and it's not so tall as to fall off the side of said pan/pot b/c there's not enough "side" to anchor it to.  You could I suppose grow a 3rd arm to hold on to the pot should you be so inclined. 

The idea is to reach "hard crack stage", which is just above 300F, on the candy thermometer.  To test that you've reached the hard crack stage, you take a little bit of candy and toss it in cold water, you should be able to hear it crackle and it will instantly turn hard.  You can also tell by color once you've done it enough, but I'm a fan of going with all three methods b/c it's a real shame to screw up toffee, not to mention it looks, smells and tastes bad (if you get it too hot).  Once you burn sugar let it go and start over.  If it's not hot enough, it won't set right and is just a big messy disappointment.  Yes, we've all experienced both.

So without further adieu, English Toffee making in pictures:

chopped walnuts to cover a little over 1/2 a jelly roll pan (or any pan w/ sides)

the only time you can probably get away with not stirring long enough to take a picture is when everything is melting and combining

Pour/spread the toffee over the nuts

Toss the chocolate chips on top and wait for them to heat and begin to melt

Spread chocolate over toffee and wait for all to harden

final product in a cookie tin (photo courtesy of Julia Huffman)

Candy Bar Cookies

I distinctly recall my mother telling me over the last couple of years the reason she never made these cookies was because they are a pain in the ... and because she could never make them the way my Aunt Jean did.  So yes, this is a recipe I found in my grandmother's box, but it really came from my Aunt Jean.  I did not know my aunt very well and certainly not as well as I would have liked.  She was the oldest daughter and my mother the youngest with about 16 years between them.  Grandma used to say she had two families because of the age gap.  My distinct memory is a day-trip my aunt, mom, and I took to see "the living dinosaurs" (they still travel the country, although I expect they're a little more life-like and less "mechanical" now) when we'd come up for vacation one summer.  I cherish that memory because shortly after (I was a kid so it could've been anywhere from a month to a couple years) she became very sick and deteriorated to spending most of her last years in a nursing home. 

I understand that cooking is "a labor of love", baking I think is even more so.  I am often disgruntled by the messages today that you shouldn't give baked goods at Christmas because, well, everyone's trying to loose weight.  To me cookies (and candies, but that's another post) are a tasty symbol of love, comfort, and happiness from the baker to the recipient.  Trust me, no one would make these cookies if they didn't love you and were hoping to give you a little bit of happiness.  I also don't recommend trying to eat a whole bunch of them at one time, tends to make you a little sick (kind of like eating that bag of candy at Halloween).  Moderation people! Moderation! (soap box done)

I modified the heck out of this recipe, which admittedly was probably my downfall.  The recipe in Grandma's Recipe Box is the original version.  I decided to modify it for a certain Christmas cookie exchange in the hopes of wow-ing friends and winning first prize for my baking expertise.  (Yes.  I'll admit my pride (they sayeth it goes before a fall).) As I cleaned my kitchen of my giant mess last night I felt like I was in a scene from a play or end of tv show, where you see someone cleaning the set with a sense of reflection.  These are a few lessons I learned:

• Keep it simple.  It doesn't matter how much expertise you may/may not have, your friends/family will always appreciate your effort - though it's preferable not to serve burned chocolate.
• When you need help, ask.
• Sprinkles make everything better.

The recipe calls for making bars, even says it in the title (yep, there's a reason for that).  And like any candy bar (think Twix especially) it's basically in layers.

In the spirit of Christmas I decided to cut out the dough bases into trees.

The "base layer" is essentially a shortbread cookie

The middle layer is caramel.  The original recipe has you melting down the caramels that you find in the store.  I didn't feel like unwrapping 1.5 lbs of Brach's caramels (though I imagine there might be others) and melting them down and then adding a bunch of stuff.  I decided to make my own caramel (that pride thing).  From reading the caramel recipe and some of the comments it seems that the caramel should get hard, but the 2 or 3 times I've used it, it's always stayed soft.  The first time I tried the CBC recipe I used the caramel recipe and added the evaporated milk, butter, and powdered sugar the CBC recipe calls for.  This makes it very soft and the powdered sugar gives it a slightly lumpy/gritty texture not to mention making it ridiculously sweet!  I am not sure if this would be the case with melted caramels or not. 

As writer/photographer/baker, I chose not to photograph my giant mistake of not using a rack and pouring the caramel onto the bases in a pan.  I imagine this would be less of a problem when making bars, since you can make one big rectangle/square to pour and spread the caramel.  I might still put them on a rack for the caramel to "drain" over the sides (make sure you put something under the rack to keep the liquid-y caramel from going all over the place).

Caramel covered cookies, after I pried them up with a knife and scraped off the sides

Finally, I have no experience with chocolate.  Not melting it, not tempering it, not making stuff (truffles, candies, etc) with it.  I followed the recipe the last time, but the chocolate was so soft and never hardened that I was afraid I'd have to give out these cookies with a wet-nap.  I was determined to figure out a way to get the chocolate to harden.  I found a website "for analytical minds" that explained tempering chocolate or at the very least melting chocolate.  I also learned that adding anything to chocolate will cause it to go soft and stay soft.  Chocolate melting in the microwave is fairly easy and fairly easily burned.  Burned chocolate looks and smells fairly awful.  Thanks to having acquired several bags of Hershey's milk chocolate bits, I chose to melt the chocolate (a few attempts were made) and then dip my cookies.

For fun and color I finally added sprinkles.

I did each layer on 3 separate days to let the cookies cool, caramel harden as much as it was going to, and the chocolate to harden (This actually happened surprisingly fast, to the point where some cookies do not have sprinkles b/c by the time I finished dipping the last cookies the chocolate had already hardened on some of the others.).

 A labor of love for sure, and a tasty one at that.

Sugar Cookies 2 : Me 1

This blog has been on hiatus since May and has had several demands to get on with the program.  It seems rather fitting then to start back at the beginning with the sugar cookie war.  I did not take photos this time (yes, I know some of you will be sad), imagine the same mess as in the beginning but on wax paper and only a little on the countertop.  I managed to make 5 sugar cookies before everything went to "too sticky-ville".  This time I used the flour smuggled in from Nebraska and reduced the sour cream by half and used the reduced fat variety.  They don't seem to be quite as sticky as they've been in the past.  Taste pretty darn good too.  Further research is required to peacefully and tastily end this war.  I am not yet defeated.

I have decided it is much too hot to bake in the summer in the South and I imagine Grandma would agree.  I have, however, made a few recipes here and there, sadly without pictures, but recipes will be put in Grandma's recipe box. 

Ok, I got unlazy enough to take a picture of 4 cookies (I admit to eating the star)...

Remain 4 of 5 cookies, 2 stockings, candy cane and a drum.  Yes, I was too lazy to sugar them and make them pretty.

Strawberry Surprise

I LOVE strawberries.  Strawberry season is my favorite time of year.  In our house growing up, strawberry shortcake was dinner and the end of the school year, the start of summer, going to camp and summer swim team.  Maybe I was a little too addicted to that Strawberry Shortcake scent in my formative years, which would explain a lot – you know those 1980s toys…   I had the Strawberry Shortcake rag doll complete with the cat, whose name I’ve since forgotten.  In the current edition she looks like a quasi-Barbie teenager and has a dog name Pupcake (really??).  Thanks to Wikipedia, the cat’s name was Custard (at least that’s better than Pupcake and makes more sense). 

Back to the fruit, which is not a fruit at least not botanically speaking.  Heck, it’s not even a berry botanically speaking.  It’s a pseudocarp, which is definitely not a fish.  The strawberry is essentially a whole lot of little fruits stuck together to make one, well, psuedocarp (The Strawberry: A Multiple Fruit).  Strawberries are high in folic acid, vitamin C, and fiber and are actually grown in all 50 states if you can believe it.

I only managed to find one recipe using strawberries in the whole assortment of recipes, which makes me a little sad.  I’m guessing though that strawberries were eaten or made into jam and occasionally a nice dessert. 

I used an 8x8 baking dish for my Strawberry Surprise.  I imagine if you make it in a smaller dish you won’t have the “problem” I did.  The recipe (for me and my dish) makes one layer each of the strawberries and dough.  I could not make it into multiple layers if I tried.  So I decided I’d make the recipe again.  This leads to my next point about strawberries – buy fresh, from a farm or farmer, they are infinitely better. 

Local berries are picked at the peak of ripeness.  Commercial berry farms go through the fields with machines and harvest, package, and ship to your local store however many miles away.  Now, depending on where you are this might be your only option.  I get that.  However, it’s worth the mild inconvenience to once and a while go to a farm (take the kids, they’re short and have easier access to the ground) and pick your own or go to a farmer’s market or roadside stand to get strawberries.  Berry picking and choosing is well explained on the StrawberryPlants.org (http://strawberryplants.org/2010/06/strawberry-picking/) site.  PickYourOwn.org (http://www.pickyourown.org/index.htm) is a handy way to find a strawberry picking farm near you.  So, my first very nice 2 pints of strawberries were well picked by a farmer down the road in Knightdale, NC and the second batch wasn’t quite as nice as it came from somewhere in FL or CA before it reached my grocery store and didn’t generate nearly as much in mashed quantity as the first. 

Nonetheless, Grandma’s Strawberry Surprise is very tasty, much like a strawberry cobbler.  Served with ice cream or whipped cream it’s absolutely fabulous.

Forgotten Cookies

I made these cookies a couple of weeks ago (same time I made the Ranger Cookies) and I hadn't really forgotten to post about them, just got lazy.  First, these cookies are ridiculously easy.  You make a batch lay 'em out on a cookie sheet, toss them in the preheated oven, turn the oven off and forget about them until the next day.  Now, this might take a little planning on your part, you can't really make them until you're done with your oven for the day and I don't suggest waiting (as we did) to make them at 11 at night after you've had a lovely adult beverage.  While this is a forgiving recipe, it's still a shame to mess up a good thing. 

I'm told these cookies are a meringue cookie.  Having never made a meringue of any variety in my life I'll take their word for it.

Since it is a forgiving cookie, I tried a variation of 1 tsp orange extract in place of the almond.  Because the orange flavor was SO strong, I would cut it back to 1/2 tsp in the future.  Another lesson learned, egg size matters, it calls for 2 egg whites and it really needs about 2.5 adding the extra egg white in the orange flavored cookies seemed to help the cookies hold their shape a little better.  Also, Grandma made a note that mini-chocolate chips seem to work best since it's such a small cookie and I would agree.

Thanks to Carole I had a  helping hand and got a few more pictures than usual in.



Cookies go in the oven...


 

Cookies come out the next day



Orange flavored version with extra egg white and mini chocolate chips made for a nice round cookie



Ranger Cookies

This week, I had the help of Carole to make 2 treats.  The first are Ranger cookies.


There are rangers of all varieties: U.S. Army Rangers, Park Rangers, Texas Rangers, Ranger Rick (my personal hero when I was a kid and in my personal bias way better then than now), and so on.  I suppose these cookies might have been for them as I feel they're much like a trail mix cookie and our first introduction to the wonderful world of coconut flake.  If these recipes could have themes through the last several decades, I think it might be when certain ingredients became popular and more available to the masses. 

These cookies have oatmeal, rice krispies, and sweetend coconut flake to make them crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  The cookies were fairly quick and easy to make and had great results.  Again, go with Grandma and do not doubt the wisdom on the recipe card.  It is a little hard to tell when these cookies are done.  I think they're best if they look a little crispy on the edges.  Also, the instructions tell you to make dough balls "about the size of a walnut" - to me this means a little more than an inch diameter give or take.

English Walnuts in shell without the husk.

These cookies do have a nice spread so leave some space and remember the larger the "ball" the larger the cookie and the more space you need.  If I never mentioned it before, any walnuts used or referred to are English walnuts (Juglans regia) and are the type most commonly sold in stores.  Black walnuts (Juglans nigra) are different entirely, from the GIANT pain to get them open (talk to a squirrel), the black/purple dye it leaves your hands (not easily gotten off either), and the rather different flavor.  My grandmother was allergic to black walnuts, hence the reference to English walnuts in most recipes.



Walnut-sized balls added to the cookie sheet




Carole rolling walnut-sized balls





Mmmm, fresh cookies




Cookie!



Butternut Chewies

Another butterscotch brownie a.k.a. blondie or blonde brownie.  This type of brownie predates chocolate brownies (as brownies are typically known today).  According to the Food Timeline website, blondies are typically composed of ingredients that make butterscotch, popular in the mid-19th century.  Brownies were introduced in the early 20th century, when chocolate and cocoa powder were more readily available to the masses.  Supposedly, National Blonde Brownies day is January 22nd (it is not an official holiday).  Guess I missed it by a few months, but better late than never.

This recipe was declared to be better than the Butterscotch Brownies (January 7, 2011) if not eaten within say the first day of baking (but really, unless you're trying to save them to share, who isn't going to eat them immediately?!?!).  So, Butterscotch Brownies are immediate-out-of-the-oven tastiness and maybe a few hours later, these hold their flavor and texture if you need to take them to work the next day (or two); just make sure to keep greedy blondie eating paws out of the pan.  Be warned all those with children - these equal an immediate sugar high!

Once again, this recipe reads like a run-on sentence in my grandmother's handwriting, but after going slightly cross-eyed is definitely worth making and pretty easy too.



This is the whole 13x9 pan.  I took it to work on Monday and my coworkers were only able to sample slightly less than half...



Sugar 'N Spice Cookies

Also known as Oatmeal and Raisin with Spice Cookies.  This would have been a great moment to show how far I've come in actually rolling out dough.  I actually did it, but failed (naturally) to take a picture of the moment.  I have come to the conclusion that non-stick is great except when using it on anything that is remotely sticky and glutenous.  The problem with non-stick is that something will eventually stick (I don't care how much Teflon there is) and then something will stick to the thing that stuck to begin with and then it's just downhill from there.  I have a "non-stick" rolling pin.  Some advice good old-fashioned WOOD is the way to go.  Flour finely coats wood and is fabulous for non-stickiness.  Flour does not stick to non-stick.  Sticky dough does stick to non-stick.  All together equals big giant mess.  Especially when combined with the flour I put down on my counter top (the fancy silpat-ish thing I have to roll dough out on will not A) stay flat on the counter or B) be taped down).  I have seen people toss flour down on a Formica counter top and roll things out easy-peezy.  I am destined to not be one of these people.  The flour went down the dough rolled.  The dough, when cut, stuck to the counter.  This is why I resorted to the make a ball and flatten into a circle method (originally using a "non-stick" spatula and then flouring my hands). 

This was all after discovering - while reading the recipe after sifting together the dry ingredients - that the recipe called for shortening.  I had been a little confused when I read the ingredients list last night to determine if I needed softened butter and discovered that no butter or shortening or oil was listed, but I moved on.  So I called my aunt, who was not home.  This is always the way it works when you need the answer to the question now.  It's like phoning the friend who won't pick up and it's the $600,000 question.  Then I called my mother, she told me to call my aunt.  After establishing that this had been my first course of action, we hemmed and hawed over the amount of shortening based on the flour amount.  I was guessing about 1/2 C shortening, my mother guessed about 2/3 C and so we settled on 1/2 C and adding more if it "didn't look right".  It turns out that 1/2 C is just about right. 

3" cookies that do expand slightly make for somewhat monstrous cookies.  I got about 27 big ones and 9 more little ones.  Remember to adjust the time if you make littler cookies.  These are mostly a crunchy outside, slightly chewy inside cookie.  It's like eating an oatmeal raisin cookie and getting a spice cookie aftertaste. 

Again, there are supposed to be cookie pictures...



cookie dough



Sugar N Spice Cookies



Pineapple Nut Bread

Continuing in the pineapple theme I actually made this bread a week ago.  It was so dense that it would hurt if you dropped it on your foot, you might actually burn a few calories trying to chew it, and all in all it didn't really have the pineapple flavor I'd hoped for.  I attribute most of this to a single ingredient -1 C of All-Bran (Original).  It and the nuts (I chose walnuts) gave the bread a very nutty flavor.  The density I attribute to the quantity of fiber in the cereal.  Overall, the cereal and nuts really masked the flavor of the pineapple.  All-Bran (according to the bastion of current knowledge Wikipedia) has about 20 different varieties sold in various countries, and not all found in the same country.  I found 3 varities at the grocery store, was entirely confused, and went with the rabbit pellet looking Original.  The All-Bran website touts the benefits of fiber and a single serving (1/2 Cup) contains 10g of fiber.

According to the All-Bran website and several others (although I could not find it anywhere on the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 - and the USDA DGA did not pop up in my Google search, although you'd think they'd be the first?) the recommended (again not sure by whom, but supposedly the USDA) daily allowance is approximately 25 - 35 grams of fiber.  Apparently most people get about 15g per day.  Doctors and other healthy do-gooders often recommend increasing my fiber intake (I have no idea what my current intake is).  According to the Harvard School of Public Health website, fiber helps lower the risk of all manner of things beyond constipation including, heart disease, diabetes, and diverticular illness.  I'm not sure I'm willing to eat rabbit pellets just yet, but I am willing to increase the fiber and decrease those risks. Whole fruits and veggies, whole grains (see below), and legumes.  Check.

Since the first batch didn't exactly pan out and we ended up tossing about half the loaf, I decided to experiment.  This second recipe I used whole wheat flour, ground flax seed, and pecans.  I got a nice, moist loaf about the consistency of banana bread (and I think I just got another bright idea).  Very tasty, has fiber, won't injure myself if dropped (except maybe in the dive to catch it before it hits the floor). 

(I have a picture, but it refuses to show up. :( ) 

Pineapple Drop Cookies

Well, I'm not adventurous enough to try the prune cake originally slated for this week.  Not to mention, the whole stewing, mashing, but "not too much" process seemed a little daunting.  Instead I decided on the pineapple cookies.  This is a lesson in read directions thoroughly and trust in Grandma.  Although I failed to read the 1/2 C crushed and drained pineapple, it didn't hurt the recipe too badly.  Just so you know 1/2 C is slightly less than a full small can.  The pineapple flavor is a little on the subtle side so I don't know that it would hurt to add the full can, but draining would be a bigger issue as it may muck with the liquid v dry ingredients ratio.

The recipe also calls for a 425F oven.  I scoffed at this notion and tried 350F first.  Silly me.  The cookies at 425F are softer and "fluffier" than those at 350F.  Always trust in Grandma.

I must say I love pineapple.  We're even attempting to grow our own pineapple, although it's time for a pot expansion I think.  If you've ever wondered about the history of pineapple, Perdue's horticulture department has a pretty interesting page.  For instance, "Caribbean Indians placed pineapples or pineapple crowns outside the entrances to their dwellings as symbols of friendship and hospitality."  The practice was then followed by carving pineapples in doorway entrances in Spain, England and later New England. Did you know hummingbirds aren't allowed in Hawai'i (there's a big sign hanging in the sky)?  They're primary pollinators of the pineapple plant and could produce inferior seeds for fruit growth. 

Since there are no pictures of last week's creation, I took a few extra this week.

Nice and sticky pineapple cookie dough

16 per tray x 4 trays = 64 cookies



Turn your head sideways to view this one! These are the 325F oven cookies

 

These are the 425F cookies



Left 3 columns = 325F Right 3 colums = 425F
All are tasty!!



Orange Kiss-me Cake

First, let me say I have no idea where the name came from.  However, this is one tasty cake, perfect for brunch, dessert or any other time.  It does have raisins and, had I been thinking about it, I might have substituted Craisins (something not available at the time this recipe was created) since I love the cranberry-orange flavor combination. 

Reading this recipe is a bit like reading one long run-on sentence. Grind 1 large orange, pulp, and rind (reserve juice for topping) 1 C raisins and 1/3 C nuts sift 2 C flour 1 tsp soda 1 tsp salt 1 C sugar... 
This is another one of those occasions when reading the entire recipe helps.  You need to reserve 1/3 C of juice for the topping.  Billy, who took charge of the orange portion of this recipe poured the orange pulp, rind, and juice through a wire mesh strainer into a measuring cup.  We had just barely 1/3 C.  I am not sure if you could use OJ for this or not, but I believe you'd need to remove the excess liquid anyway - waste not! 

Finally, I used the topping from the recipe and then I put a cream cheese frosting over that.  Instead, I would probably mix in the cinnamon to the frosting and sprinkle the nuts on top of the frosting.  I would still drizzle the extra orange juice over the hot cake.

No pictures for this one, sorry!

Beau-Catcher Cookies

So in honor of Valentine's Day, I searched (a little) for a fun, somewhat representative cookie.  I found these cookies.

Beau is an interesting word and not heard too often.  Dictionary definition:

Beau - (via dictionary.com) –noun

1. a frequent and attentive male companion.

2. a male escort for a girl or woman.

3. a dandy; fop.

–verb (used with object)

4. to escort (a girl or woman), as to a social gathering.  

I had to hunt for the pudding.  Jell-O makes a lot of instant/sugar-free varieties, which according to the recipe is NOT (in specific capital letters) what you want.  However, it is exceptionally difficult to find NOT instant pudding, especially when the handy grocery store employees (and the rest of the general public) aren't paying attention and mix them all together.  For the record the NOT instant Jell-O brand pudding is called 'Cook 'n Serv'.  It comes in 3 varieties: chocolate (easy to find), vanilla and butterscotch (not found with the chocolate at the grocery store I went to). I finally (after some panic) found the butterscotch pudding and bought an extra box or two just in case.

The butterscotch pudding lends the very tasty flavor to the cookie, and also turns it bright orange thanks to the yellow 5, red 40 and blue 1.  Beware of this if you go the traditional "roll into balls" route.  In addition to the lovely orange coloring it is also a very sticky dough.  We gave up and used a cookie scoop. 

The cookies spreeeeaaaaaaaad and become nice and thin.  The orange turned a caramel brown. 

I did discover that there is a bit of finesse in the timing of these cookies.  In my oven it was exactly 11 minutes for 12 to 16 (the 16 tried to merge together) cookies.  The last 8 or so were left in for 11 minutes and got a little crispy.  They might also have been a little smaller than the first rolled balls.

 

Coffee Spice Cake

Sorry I'm a little late in posting, life happens.

I made this cake for "breakfast duty" two weeks ago. The recipe called for 1.5t "mixed spices".  Let me tell you, "mixed spices" is not made by McCormick.  After some debate I decided to go with 1 tsp cinnamon and a quarter each of cloves and nutmeg.  The overall flavor was pretty good, although very light and kind of non-descript.  The cake does, interestingly enough, call for half a cup of black coffee - you can't really taste it though.  I used a Bundt cake pan and adjusted the time a little and sprinkled powdered sugar over it to serve.

Chocolate Square Oatmeal Cookies

I can't say that this is a cookie recipe that I will want to make over and over again.  Sorry Grandma, but I think there are slightly better, less touchy, similar recipes out there.  Fortunately I did read the whole recipe (including ingredient quantities) this time.  The ingredients do not mention anything about chocolate.  You actually have to get to the back side of the recipe, before you figure out that you need chocolate squares - yes, I suppose from the title it's a given, but square could also mean the shape of the cookie - and pecan halves, in addition to the chopped pecans. 

I did discover in reading the whole recipe that this is a rolled cookie that must "chill thoroughly".  I took "chill thoroughly" to mean overnight.  I'm honestly not sure that it matters, but if you are going to roll and slice chunks chilling does help.  I think you could just roll 1" balls and flatten to about a 1/4" thickness and bake just as easily.  I suppose slicing helps preserve some roundness, but I'm not Martha Stewart so my roundness had a definite flat edge that had to be re-shaped - you guessed it - by rolling into a ball and flattening.  FYI - for keeping the round shape while chilling MS does suggest putting the dough into glasses or mailing tubes (b/c I have those just lying around).

I think yield is variable depending on the size cookie you want.  The recipe says to roll into a 12-inch long roll.  This makes for about a 3-4" diameter cookie, because there is some definite spread.  I got 25 cookies out of my batch.  Also, because they spread and get thin, temperature and timing is a little on the finicky side.  Doesn't take a whole lot to burn them.

All-in-all not a very exciting baking day, but another recipe tried...



Attempting to cut the dough roll



These cookies spread a lot!! Small(ish) with lots of space





Add a chocolate square to each while still on the cookie sheet




Add a pecan half on top of the chocolate once the chocolate is a little melty (so it'll stick)



All cookies lined up to cool



Delicious Cream Cookies - Variations

So my encouraging office mates suggested that I consider varying the flavor of these cookies just a bit.  Being something of a scientist and loving a good experiment I decided to give it a try.  I quartered the recipe - yes, that dreadful math thing - and gave it a whirl.  I only got through 1 experiment before inconveniently running out of baking powder.  :-(

*Keven's hint - to quarter something like 2/3 cream, use a food scale to weigh the 2/3, take that measurement in ounces and divide by 4.  Then use the scale to measure the quartered amount.

instead of raisins, nuts, and lemon extract:

Experiment #1 - Cranberry Orange

1/2 t orange extract (I discovered orange isn't quite as strong a flavor as lemon)
1/2 C dried cranberries
1/4 - 1/2 C pecans

Experiment #2 - Dark Chocolate Cherry

1/2 t almond extract
1/2 C dried cherries, diced a little they're kind of big
1/2 bar chopped 70% dark chocolate (I used "Theo & Jane Goodall 70% (cacao)" chocolate bar. Theo Chocolate is the only organic fair trade certified chocolate in the U.S.)

Experiment #3 - Blueberry Lemon

Experiment #4 - Orange Chocolate

1/2 t orange extract
1/2 C mini chocolate chips

Delicious Cream Cookies

The lesson of this recipe is to always read the ENTIRE recipe before starting.  I thought I was doing good reading (and finding, more on that in a minute) the ingredients.  I failed to read the quantity of the ingredients.  Four and a half cups of flour would have been a good clue.  Clearly this recipe was created by someone who needed to give a sugar high to their entire church, school, or mass gathering of every friend ever made.  So far this recipe has made 56 cookies and counting.  That's A LOT of cookies.  And yes, it can probably be halved, although my use of 5th grade math skills and fractions usually fails me. I don't think I'd come up with any difficult fractions, like half of 1 egg, since there are 4. 

The most difficult part of this recipe, oddly enough, is finding the cream.  Yes, there's heavy whipping cream, creamer, soy cream, half and half, buttermilk, milk, cream cheese, creamed corn, etc.  But finding straight-up cream is actually rather difficult.  I conveniently had to go to Whole Foods for coffee, so I decided to check and see if they had such a thing.  My options were Light Cream and Heavy Cream.  Heavy cream is used for whipping, so I opted for "Light" cream.  The label suggested use in my coffee and it indicated that it was good for use in my favorite recipes.  In 20/20 hindsight, I looked up the definition of "cream".  The Food Substitution Bible (FSB) says it's "The luscious milk fat that rises to the top of milk that hasn't been homogenized."  Hrmm, mine is labeled homogenized and pasteurized.  So in the end, mine is still basically coffee creamer.  *sigh* 

Another ingredient of issue was the 1 tsp lemon.  I went out on a limb and guessed that it meant lemon extract.  Turns out I was right. 

Properly defined ingredients or not, the cookies are nice and light with just a hint of lemon flavor. 

Yield: 103

Jeez, you don't put pictures up of a little non-descript cookie and everyone wants to see them.  Sadly (or not depending on who you are) the cookies are all gone, but I did take pictures of the quantity of dough.  I got a little distracted and didn't get pictures of the cookies.



Amount of dough left after 2 dozen cookies



Amount of dough left after 6 dozen cookies

Applesauce Nut Bread

What does one do with a random "day off" during the week?  Bake of course!

My next project plan was for a cookie, but I lack necessary ingredients and don't have the substitutions either (from The Food Substitution Bible (best "cook"book EVER): lemon oil + vodka = lemon extract).  So I decided to hunt through the recipes for one that included ingredients I actually have on hand.  I found this Applesauce Nut Bread recipe, which will conveniently get rid of the large quantity of applesauce I bought for another project that didn't work out.  The recipe is pretty basic, flour, egg, baking powder and soda, applesauce, sugar and some nuts.  I put it together as instructed in the recipe, which says to combine dry ingredients and then add the wet.  This is somewhat foreign to me since it normally goes in reverse.  Well, Grandma hasn't been wrong yet so I gave it a try (there are 10 minutes to go in bake time).  I also decided to make a second loaf - the recipe only makes one loaf at a time - and combine the ingredients with dry into wet.  I also added some cinnamon and cloves - I'm apparently out of nutmeg - just for fun. 

I know my grandmother made her own applesauce, so I'm guessing that's what she used.  I don't know if her applesauce had any spice in it, or if it was just apples.  My aunt cannot stand the smell (or taste) of cooking apples to this day b/c she'd have to remove the skins as the apples cooked.  Having made apple butter - applesauce becomes apple butter once you add brown sugar and other spices - this fall I can tell you that I cannot imagine having to remove the skins by hand. We used a food mill and that was hard enough. 

Bread is out of the oven!  Oh, I do have to admit to nearly botching the whole thing by forgetting to add the sugar to the "original" recipe. 

Back to the applesauce.  My applesauce says "applesauce made from real apples" and no sugar added.  Ok, I could maybe see adding sugar, after all that's what we did to ours for apple butter and apples can get a little tart in the cooking process.  I recall looking at the different brands for one without a bunch of extra stuff in it, i.e. corn syrup, water, something else I can't pronounce.  There were 2 and I wanted (for some reason) the bigger jar, thus my need to get rid of it.  But really, only two products in a standard grocery store that don't have a bunch of extra crap in the applesauce???

I think I have as much of a problem with the slogan "applesauce made from real apples".  Really??  Exactly what else would applesauce be made of??  Yes, yes.  Anything else resembling an apple, like pears, but still.  What happened to the good old days of food?  I read an article in the paper recently that quoted a book by Michael Pollan, if your great grandmother wouldn't know what the ingredient is, don't eat it.  I think I can get behind that. 



left one is the original version, right one is mine



Grandma's loaf, a little crusty on the outside, moist on the inside, highlights the applesauce and nuts



My loaf, cinnamon and cloves complement and dampen the applesauce a little, don't notice the nuts as much.  Moist w/ chewier crust.



Mmmmmmm