Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies

My Brother in law turned 40 last weekend...my sister threw him a party!

picture collage idea from Martha Stewart

didn't want him to forget he was turning the big 4 0

I made lemon bars

I also made healthy cookies...they don't taste healthy!

loaded with oats and oat bran!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

recipe adapted from Heidi Swanson

2 3/4 cups of rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup of whole wheat flour
2/3 cup oat bran (you can also use wheat bran or wheat germ)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups of light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate bar, chopped and shaved into chunks

Preheat the oven to 350F 

In a medium bowl combine the oats, flour, oat bran, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. 

In another bowl, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar for 3+ minutes, scraping down sides a few times. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.  

Add the dry ingredients, and stir until everything barely comes together. 

Stir in the chocolate, mixing until it is evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Scoop the dough and arrange each cookie at least 3-inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Rotate the pans once about 2/3 the way through baking - back to front, top to bottom. Bake the cookies about 10-12 minutes (cookie will be chewy).  If you want a crispier cookie bake until deeply golden on the edges.

Pear Vanilla Bundt

I was cleaning out my kitchen drawer, the one stuffed with pens...markers...coupons...pieces of chocolate...playdoh...random recipes from magazine, blogs, books from the library. I came across a pear bundt cake recipe that I had worked on a while ago. I was trying to make it healthier (there is only 1/4 C of butter in the recipe). So I decided to give it another try.

chopped up d'anjou & bosc pears that I had

Pear Vanilla Bundt Cake

3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 cups vanilla sugar* or regular granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1/2 cup pear sauce or unsweetened apple sauce 

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 1/2 - 2 cups peeled, diced pear (1 large or 2 small)

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a 10 inch bundt pan.

1.  Sift all the dry (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon) ingredients in a bowl. 

2. In another large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time.  Then add the vanilla extract and the pear sauce.

3. Alternating add the dry and wet ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture. Stir only until just combined, then gently fold in the diced pears.

Bake for about 50 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. After the cake cools you can dust it with powdered sugar.

*You can easily make vanilla sugar.  After I use a vanilla bean (the seeds scraped out).  I throw the empty bean into a jar of sugar.  Just make sure the jar or container is airtight and voila you have vanilla sugar.

Have a great weekend! We have a fun Saturday planned...will blog about it on Monday!

It's Super Bowl Sunday....I loved Ferris Bueller's Day Off...Go Giants!

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

We went to Disneyland recently.  It was a bit crowded, but we had a great time!

with my sisters

Fail!

I made General Tso's chicken last week for dinner.  I forgot to take the broccoli our of the steamer so they came out like mush...fail! 

General Tso's Chicken

My friend loves Heidi Swanson.  I had some apples so I decided to make her healthy apple cake....looks okay...but it was tough...tasted like...well...cardboard.

looks can be deceiving

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

I love citrus!

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

recipe by Mark Bittman

3 tablespoons melted butter or neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn, plus more for the muffin tin

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 egg

1 cup milk, plus more if needed

1 cup of blueberries

1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest

1. Heat the oven to 375°F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin and line it with paper or foil muffin cups.

2. Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl. Beat together the egg, milk, and melted butter or oil in another bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it. Using a large spoon or rubber spatula, combine the ingredients swiftly, stirring and folding rather than beating and stopping as soon as all the dry ingredients are moistened. The batter should be lumpy, not smooth, and thick but quite moist; add a little more milk or other liquid if necessary. Fold in the lemon zest and the blueberries.

3. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins, filling them about two-thirds full and handling the batter as little as possible. Bake for about 20 minutes (about 30 minutes for larger muffins) or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before taking them out of the tin. Serve warm.

Biscuits & Jam

I am not sure what 2012 is telling me. I was sick the first week of January and now I've been hit with strep throat. It hasn't been fun. So I'll just think of last week when I was feeling good and rolling out biscuits!

i don't have a pastry blender, i just used 2 knives to cut the butter into tiny bits

after i added the buttermilk

ready for the oven

Biscuits

3 cups of flour

1 1/2 Tablespoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

9 Tablespoon of cold butter sliced

1 1/4 cups of milk

1 Tablespoon of melted butter

Preheat oven to 450.

In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, salt & baking soda).  Then add the sliced cold butter.  Using a pastry blender or 2 knives cut the butter into the flour (see picture above) until you get small pea sized pieces of butter (the faster you do this the better). Then add the milk. Stir just until the dough comes together. Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself about 3 to 4 times.

Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough (don't twist the cutter into the dough). Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. You can use the scraps from the leftover dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. Just to let you know, the biscuits from the second batch won't be as light and fluffy.  I throw the scraps away at this point. Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter.

Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, about 15 minutes.

Raspberry Bars

Happy Friday!

I wanted to make raspberry bars, but these raspberry bars tasted more like a breakfast cereal bar.  

Raspberry Oatmeal Bars

recipe Joy of Cooking

1/2 cup of butter at room temp.

1 cup of light brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats, divided

1 cup raspberry jam or preserves

1. Preheat the oven to 350.  Grease or line a 9x9 pan.

2. In the Kitchen Aid or hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, the baking soda and the salt.

4. Add to the butter mixture and mix until well combined. 

5. Stir in the 1 3/4 cups of the rolled oats. Press 2/3 of the dough into the bottom of the pan.

6. Spread the raspberry jam on top of the dough.

7. Add the remaining of the rolled oats to the unused dough and crumble it on top of the jam.

8. Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden brown.

 

Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

These cookies were a hit! They would pair well with vanilla ice cream. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the end product.

I used my kitchen aid instead of my fingers

Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

2 cups diced fresh strawberries
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Zest of one lemon
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2/3 cup heavy cream
Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

*I added the zest of one lemon

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

2. Combine strawberries, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add the lemon zest to the remaining 7 tablespoons of granulated sugar in a large bowl & rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers. Then add the sugar mixture to the flour mixture.  Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter, or rub in with your fingers, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in cream until dough starts to come together, then stir in strawberry mixture.

3. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheet, spacing evenly apart. Sprinkle cookies with turbinado sugar, and bake until golden brown, about 22 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool.

Note-Cookies are best served immediately, but can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 day.

Welcome 2012

2012 started out with me getting sick. I think I was on a holiday high and when everything was over I sort of crashed.

Not being able to do much I tried to get a lot rest, caught up on a few blogs, slept, and once again realized I am not very good at being sick. 

The first recipe I tried this year was a pancake one.  I really wanted to love it especially since I enjoyed the touching story that went with the recipe. But the pancakes came out well...not so well.  It happens to everyone...there is a recipe, a place, or even a person you want to like but things turn out...not as expected. Thank goodness for my trusty old pancake recipe. Here's to 2012 where I hope things turn out well!

Cranberry Orange Bread

frozen cranberries left over from Thanksgiving

Makes one 9-inch loaf
recipe from Cook's Illustrated
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon grated orange zest from 1 large orange
2/3 cup buttermilk
6 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted
1 large egg , beaten lightly
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups cranberries (about 6 ounces), chopped coarse
1/2 cup toasted pecans , chopped coarse


1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease bottom of 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Stir together orange juice, zest, buttermilk, butter, and egg in small bowl. Whisk together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in large bowl. Stir liquid ingredients into dry with rubber spatula until just moistened. Gently stir in cranberries and pecans. Do not over mix.

2. Scrape batter into loaf pan and spread with rubber spatula into corners of pan. Bake 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees; continue to bake until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean, about 45 minutes longer. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool at least 1 hour before serving.