“In the cookies of life, friends are the chocolate chips.”
Author Unknown
I bake snacks for the kids 3-4 times a week. It takes care of their ‘tiffin’ or snack box, & caters for their snack when they come back home. Lunch is served in school, & the kids are usually ravenous when they get back around 3 in the afternoon. I endeavour to add variety from time to time ranging from banana chocolate-chip muffins, oatmeal cookies, pound cake, sandwiches, pasta, but often find myself reaching out for the cocoa.
This was one such ‘cocoa moment’, where I put together a number of different recipes to make these cookies. The primary thought was to add oatmeal / fibre to the cookie. Almonds entered the list of ingredients as I had no walnuts. Came out to be yummy, wholesome cookies, with a crisp exterior & a cake-like interior. Enjoyed by the kids & their friends, I’ve now finally got down to posting the recipe. I think walnuts would work very well here, & possibly a tbsp of coffee might work some magic. That’s what I intend to do the next time!
Double Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients:
Flour – 1 cup
Oats – 2 cups
Baking Powder – 1/2 tsp
Baking soda – 1/2 tsp
Cocoa – 3 tbsps
Salt – 1/4 tsp
Almonds – 1/2 cup; chopped
Butter – 1/2 cup
Granular Sugar – 1/2 cup
Brown Sugar – 1/2 cup
Egg – 1
Egg yolk – 1
Honey – 1/4 cup
Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp
Almond Extract – 1 tsp
Chocolate chips – 1/2 cup
Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly grease 2-3 baking sheets.
Stir together the dry ingredients i.e. flour + oats + cocoa+ baking powder + baking soda + salt.
Beat the butter & both sugars, followed by the egg & egg yolk. Next beat in the honey & both extracts. (Omit almond essence if using walnuts).
Stir in the dry mix & chocolate chips till well mixed in.
Drop tbsps on sheets & bake for about 15 minutes / until done.
Cool on rack & store in an airtight tin.
Makes 2-3 dozen cookies depending on size.
Lore @ Culinarty has a monthly event called ‘Original Recipes’, & I’m sending this to her. Do check out her previous round-ups which throw up plenty of very interesting originals!
“I always fear that creation will expire before tea time.”
Sydney Smith
A sweet beginning for October. A new month, a fresh bunch of challenges, a load of activity across blogs…& food, glorious food! Winter is creeping into the Northern hemisphere, while Spring is springing into the Southern. What better time to enjoy some warm scones for tea but now?My first exposure to authentic scones was back in the 80’s when a bunch of us girlfriends had gone over to stay in a castle up in North England which was being restored by a Scottish lady. The memories are quite faint now, but I vividly remember a couple of things… the huge gate-posts made of stone with carved lion heads, early morning mist, beds of lavender, the beautiful guest rooms in hues of pastel pinks & lavenders–done up in hand-made lace linen made by Irish nuns, & fresh scones for tea! The pastels in this post are reminiscent of those connections long gone…but the clotted cream is missing!!Found this perfect recipe for scones to enjoy the change in season & nip in the air; it’s from a wonderful blog that I love visiting. Baking & Books is authored by Ariela, a talented lady who says she loves coffee, cooking, baking, traveling, running with Oreo, books & music..& more. The recipe was a winner though I had some minor problems with a sticky dough, & ended up not using all the buttermilk. That said, the scones eventually formed beautifully (after the addition of extra flour), were delicious & had a delicate crumb. Gentle flavours of nutmeg combined beautifully with the dark chocolate chips & coffee glazing. I cut the scones with a 2″ cutter instead of a 3″ one, since I knew the kids would go for seconds! Smart ole me…or mean ole me…whatever!! Ariela served some Iced Cardamom Coffee with these…I didn’t have time to get that far, though I do wish I did. Will try that one day!! Pretty portulaca or moss roses…the last of the summer flowers… Coffee-Glazed Chocolate Chip Scones from Baking & Books Makes 8 large scones or 16 smaller 2″ ones like I made
Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon light brown sugar, both packed 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips 1 large egg 3/4 cup buttermilk (I didn’t use up all of it) About 1/4 cup whole milk For the coffee glaze: 3/4 cup confectioners sugar 1 tablespoon + 1/2 teaspoon freshly brewed coffee (I brewed 3 tsps medium roast coffee in 1 1/2 tbsps of hot water)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Add the butter pieces. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the mixture until it resembles coarse bread crumbs. (I used the food processor).
Stir in the chocolate chips.
In a small bowl, gently whisk the egg and buttermilk together. Add to dry ingredients and mix until the dough comes together in clumps. Coat your hands with flour and gather the dough into a ball. (If the dough is too sticky to handle you can sprinkle flour on it about 1/2 teaspoon at a time, just enough for you to handle it. Don’t add too much or you’ll dry out your dough!)
Turn your ball of dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Gently press into a circle about 8 inches in diameter.
Use a medium, round 3-inch cookie cutter to shape the scones. Dip the cookie cutter into some flour, then press into the dough, twisting as you press down. Repeat this process for each scone. You can gather extra bits of dough up into another ball, then flatten and repeat to get a couple extra scones out of the batch.
Brush scones lightly with milk, then bake for 20-24 minutes or until they are golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
While the scones are cooling, in a small bowl combine the confectioners sugar with the coffee. Mix until you can’t see any little lumps of sugar. Then drizzle over the scones and allow 10-15 minutes for the glaze to set. (Of course, you don’t have to wait for the glaze to set, you can just gobble these right up if you want!)
Sprinkle some flaked almonds on the wet-glaze if you like.
There’s something about a square of paper which takes me back to my days in school. Each time I have nothing to do & find some waste paper, I set to making these little paper baskets…wonder if anyone else remembers making these!
“Yield to temptation…it may not pass your way again”
Lazarus Long
On the 5th of September every year, schools across India celebrate this day as Teachers Day. Every attempt is made to make teachers feel special, & the kids make cards etc for them. Both mine always take some cookies for their class teacher, & a few others. The daughter voluntarily makes about a dozen cards, while the son struggles to make 1! She is like a card factory in herself, & in the span of an hour turns out about a dozen well made, similar looking cards, with intricate art-work; the writing looks like it’s been printed. Trying to desperately keep pace, the little fellow somehow manages to almost complete his one card, with writing like spiders taking a walk, but is amazingly creative in his own way!! (Didn’t manage to take pictures of the cards though….). My job is to take orders for cookies from the kids. It’s usually chocolate-chip cookies or shortbread. This year I had a bee in my bonnet to make biscotti. I was suffering serious ‘biscotti making withdrawal symptoms’…& so got online to look for a new chocolate biscotti. I found this neat recipe for Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti on Food Network…the head said YES, but the silly heart pushed for more.
Firmly put the heart into place & made notes of the recipe. But the head was stubborn too now, & wanted to go further. Before I knew it, I had doubled the dough & was subconsciously working towards a 2 toned biscotti!! Never heard of it, but wanted to try it & firmly had a plan in mind.
Glad I tried it because it came out great…very pretty too. Next time will increase the coffee to get a much deeper coffee flavour. Otherwise a great recipe; the reviews on FN were very helpful & whatever thoughts I had about crumbly/broken slices were put to rest. Many folk commented that a serrated knife is not the reason for crumbly/broken biscotti.
You’ve just got to use a good quality knife with a sharp cutting edge. I used my magical Santuko knife, in sharp, swift motions…no problem at all. Clean cuts for once & non crumbly biscotti!! Very yummy too!!
COFFEE CHOCOLATE BISCOTTI as adapted from Food Network Ingredients: For Chocolate portion: Flour – 2 cups all-purpose Cocoa powder – 1/2 cup unsweetened Baking soda – 1 teaspoon Salt – 1/2 teaspoon Unsalted butter – 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons), softened Granulated sugar – 1 cup Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp Eggs – 2 large
For coffee portion: Flour – 2 1/4 cups all-purpose Baking soda – 1 teaspoon Salt – 1/2 teaspoon Unsalted butter – 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons), softened Granulated sugar – 1 cup Eggs – 2 large Instant Coffee- 2 tbsps (I used 1; but should have used 2) Coffee extract – 1 tsp (optional) Mini chocolate chips – 1/2 cup
In a bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
In another bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs and beat until combined well.
Stir in flour mixture to form a stiff dough.
For the COFFEE portion:
In a bowl whisk together flour, coffee powder, baking soda, and salt.
In another bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs and beat until combined well.
Stir in flour mixture & chocolate chips to form a stiff dough.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and butter and flour 2 large baking sheets/or line with parchment.
To finish:
Divide each dough into 4.
On prepared baking sheet with floured hands, form 8 long ropes 12″ X 1″ & join together to form a half chocolate/half coffee slightly flattened logs, each 12 inches long and 2 inches wide; 2 logs on each sheet. You should a total of 4 logs. I f you like, you can twist 1 or 2 to give some other effect too.
Sprinkle with vanilla sugar. (you can use confectioners sugar instead).
Bake logs 35 minutes, or until slightly firm to the touch. Cool biscotti on baking sheet 5 minutes.
On a cutting board, with a sharp knife, cut biscotti diagonally into 3/4-inch slices. Arrange biscotti, cut sides down, on baking sheet and bake until crisp, about 10 minutes. Cool biscotti on a rack.
Biscotti keep in airtight containers 1 week and , frozen, 1 month.Am sending this off to Ben’s @ What’s Cookin US as the ‘sweet’ entry for his ‘I Love Baking’ event.
When we were little girls , many many moons ago, a favourite winter pass-time was to make little dolls out of the bright red poppies that grew in our garden. The petals would fold down to make bright red dresses, & the capsule on top would look just like the head. Gave us hours of fascinating pleasure, whiling away time with silliness of this sort.
Cut back to now…a bag of black poppy seeds has been demanding my attention from time to time. In India we get a lot of white poppy seeds, known also as khush–khush, which are often added to kebabs & curries. Black poppy seeds as far as my brain worked, were harvested from fields of poppies grown in Afghanistan to make opium! Was intrigued & pleased as punch when I was the happy recipient of a bag of black poppy seeds from Ukraine. Man, I love that country. I’ve got bagfuls of sunflower seeds, coffee beans, black poppy seeds & sachets of vanilla sugar, limoncella sugar & other such exciting things in the bag from a friend. Just goes to make life more interesting. Now a while ago I made lemon poppy seed cookies from a cookie cookbook I own. There was something drastically wrong with the recipe because the dough flowed, & how! Probably a printing error, but I ended up adding double the flour & wept through the not so passionate day of baking. The cookies eventually got made, polished off by the kids & their friends, but me, I was cured of poppy seeds for a while. A month later, the poppy seeds began calling out to me again…this time I made some lemon poppy seed muffins. Came out very nice, but were the sort that tasted best out of the oven, warm. Never got down to blogging about them; even Picasa found them delicious enough & gobbled up the pictures. *SIGH*
And then one day I saw Patricia’s post about Lemon-Poppy Seed Cookies @ Technicolour Kitchen; it had me singing a heady poppy song. I had a mission on my mind & the time was NOW! Dived into the cupboard to locate the bag of poppy seeds, grabbed it, grabbed a sachet of vanilla as well, & began squeezing limes. Time to make these wonderful,citrusy bites.
Since antiquity, poppies have symbolized honor. Women in second century Crete cultivated poppy plants for opium and Hippocrates suggested opium in medicine. Islamic and Arabian countries used opium as a medicine and narcotic in the sixth century. By the 17th century, Asians used the poppy plant as an opiate. Europeans began trafficking the drug in the 19th century, culminating in the Opium Wars, in which China lost control of the industry. The Greeks used the seeds as flavoring for breads in the second century, and medieval Europeans used them as a condiment with breads.
Poppy Seeds are used to flavor breads, cakes, rolls, and cookies in European and Middle Eastern cooking. In Turkey, they are often ground and used in desserts. In India, the seeds are ground and used to thicken sauces. The seeds are also used in noodle, fish, and vegetable dishes in Jewish, German, and Slavic cooking.
What did I like about the recipe?Hmmmmmmm…everything actually. I loved flavouring the sugar.
Very Alice Merdichkind of thing…I did a similar thing for the Orange &Olive Oil Cake below & fell in love with the method!
The ‘Lime Poppy-seed Cookie’ is an elegant tea cookie, with a beautiful citrus flavour & a crispness that is endearing. It’s also a great cookie toinelegantly throw some nutella or praline-ganache mix on & munch on the go.
Also made for a handsome bite if you sandwiched a pair with chocolate ganache. YUM!! Left the kids begging for more!
Recipe forLemon Poppy Seed Cookiesfrom Patricia Scarpin @Technicolour Kitchen Ingredients: ¼ cup (60ml) lemon juice (I used lime juice) 1 cup (226g/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature 1 ¼ cups (250g) sugar 1 large egg 2 teaspoons vanilla 4 teaspoons lemon zest (I used lime zest instead) 3 cups (420g) all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon poppy seeds + extra for topping
Method:
Preheat oven to 175ºC/350ºF; line 2 large baking sheets with baking paper.
In a small saucepan, bring lemon juice to a simmer and let reduce by half. Once it has reduced add ½ cup of butter (113g) and let melt, remove from heat and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. In another bowl whisk remaining ½ cup of butter (113g) and 1 cup of sugar (200g) together until smooth and creamy. Beat in egg and melted lemon-butter mixture, beat on medium-high with an electric mixer for 3 minutes, or until very light and pale in color. Mix in vanilla, poppy seeds and 3 teaspoons of lemon zest; once combined, add dry ingredients and mix on low until smooth, you may need to stir in the last 1/3 to 2/3 of a cup by hand. Blend until smooth.
In a plate, combine the remaining ¼ cup of sugar (50g) with 1 teaspoon of lemon zest – rub the sugar and zest between your fingertips to obtain a lemony sugar. Roll leveled ½ tablespoons of dough into small balls and place on a prepared cookie sheet, 5cm (2in) apart. Using a very slight moist glass, dip the bottom into sugar mixture and flatten cookies, follow by sprinkling a few poppy seeds and a pinch of the sugar+zest mix over the top of each cookie. (I sprinkled on some vanilla sugar as well).
Bake for 11-12 minutes (mine needed 14) or until perfectly golden around the edges. Let cool for a few minutes before transferring the cookies to a wire rack.
Makes 70 (I got about 50 because I think mine were slightly thicker or bigger)
“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It’s what sunflowers do. “
Helen Keller
I LOVE baking, which is quite obvious I’m sure…& baking sometimes seems to be the best escape for me. Even when I’ve been run ragged, rushing the kids up & down & across town, doing grocery, laundry & every other silly thing under the sun, I come back home & am always ready for some baking therapy.
Found some lovely sunflowers growing at a friend’s place, & couldn’t resist the offer to take a few. So home I came, clutching a pretty buncha flowers in giddy excitement. Sunflowers just do this to me.
I think they are quite the brightest & most cheerful flowers; for Mondays, or any day for that matter!! The minute I saw the sunflowers, I just knew I would head home & bake sunflower seed somethings!
I was back to what I like doing best! Have been meaning to use a bagful of sunflower seeds for a while now, which my friend brought for me from Ukraine. She keeps carting these interesting ingredients across each time she visits coz she knows it’ll trigger some more baking passion in me.
She also brought along some yummy sachets of vanilla sugar. How could I not do justice to what was in the bag!! Browsed around the net & found these Sunflower Oatmeal Cookieson All Recipes, a site I often explore. The reviews were enough to send me baking…
Ingredients: White sugar – 1 cup Brown sugar – 1 cup, packed Butter – 1 cup, softened Eggs – 2 Vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon All-purpose flour – 1 1/2 cups Whole-wheat flour – 1/2 cup (I substituted 1/2 cup plain flour with whole-wheat) Baking powder – 1/2 teaspoon Baking soda – 1 teaspoon Rolled oats – 2 cups Roasted and salted sunflower seeds – 1 cup Flaked coconut – 1 cup (optional) / I didn’t use this Vanilla sugar – 1 sachet/ 2 tsps ( part of my change to the original recipe)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a large bowl, cream together the white sugar, brown sugar, and butter until smooth.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.
Combine the flour, baking powder, and baking soda; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended.
Mix in the rolled oats and sunflower seeds. Stir in coconut if desired. Drop dough by heaping teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Leave room for spreading. Sprinkle with some seeds & chocolate strands if you like.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the cookies begin to brown around the edge.
Allow cookies to set for a few minutes on the sheet before removing to wire racks to cool completely
Of course I have to do something different…& often. So while dropping the cookies on the sheet, I thought, hmmmmmmmm, HOW ABOUT A COOKIE CAKE! Have long been fascinated by a chocolate chip cookie cake picture I once saw, & this seemed a good time to try it. I think I made about 3 dozen cookies & the rest of the dough went into the cookie cake. I pressed some cookie dough firmly into a lined 8″ Victoria sandwich tin & baked it for about 30-35 minutes, just until it became golden brown. Marked the segments as soon as it came out of the oven & let it cool in the tin. I left a small rim of paper coming up around the edges of the base to aid easy removal.
Got this brilliant dessert serving idea from this Cookie Dough Dessert by Ruth @ Ruth’s Kitchen Experimentswhere she had posted a similar dessert. Just the right way to serve this yummy cookie cake!!
“If life is a bowl of cherries, then what am I doing in the pits?” Erma Bombeck
Mixed Berry & Nut Clusters
Aaaaaaaargh…it’s just another of those days when time begins to run out on you even before morning has nicely broken!! Day before was a busyish day. I made cookies out of dried berries & I made chocolate chocolate-chip muffins from Nigella’s recipe @ Food network…asking for trouble to tell you the truth!
The muffins were not nice at all, so not worthy of being posted. Had my dear friend’s kids over from Ukraine, so then made chocolate morsel cookies too. The kids are complete chocolate addicts & will not touch anything even remotely ‘berry’! Manggy, your brother’s got company!! To make matters worse…no cake in the fridge for early morning indulgence. Donno what I’m talking about? Check out this at Cakespy…to all ya folk who feel guilty at sneaking a slice of cake out for breakfast, cupcakes, muffins included..we’ve got proof. IT’S OK!!Jessie says so & Bill Cosby always said so!! Since the muffins were a disaster, I quickly made a Zebra cake.
Coffee with the Zebra…
As always, this is one fascinating looking cake (recipe HERE), & a cuppa coffee makes it even better. Which gave rise to thoughts in the direction of CLICK July ’08 Coffee / Tea @Jugalbandi…
Back to the cookies in question. I’ve had some dried berries lying around for a while. Actually bits & bobs of all sorts, so I decided to clear them one fine day…came up with quite a treasure.
Some craisins, some dried blueberries,currants, raisins etc. Better use ’em up before it’s too late…books opened & a recipe found. ‘Mixed Berry & Nut Clusters’ turned out to be yummy, healthy cookies, best devoured the day they are made or the next. I think they taste best fresh, warm out of the oven with a glass of chilled milk. The kids had 4 each just after I made them. Home made cookies always taste better; it’s been eons since I bought cookies from the store. These cookies had oats too…
Mixed Berry & Nut Clusters…
Adapted from ‘Cranberry & Orange Clusters’, ‘The Colossal Cookie Cookbook’, pg 277 Ingredients: Butter – 1/2 cup Sugar – 1/2 cup
Grated rind of 1 orange Egg – 1 Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp Rolled oats – 1 1/4 cups Dried cranberries, currants, nuts etc – 3/4 cup Flour – 1 1/4 cup Baking powder -1/2 tsp Pinch of salt
Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets.
Beat butter + sugar + orange rind till fluffy.
Add egg & beat again.
Stir in the oats & berries, nuts etc.
Sift the flour + baking powder + salt into the bowl & mix until evenly combined.
Put spoonfuls of the mixtures on the sheets, leaving space for spreading in between. Flatten slightly with a fork. Sprinkle with a little vanilla sugar or coloured sprinkles.
Bake for approx 15 minutes until risen & golden brown.
Cool on rack. They will be soft when you take them out of the oven, but will become firm as they cool.
Dressed up a few with sprinkles I had on hand…just to give the kids happy smiles!
