I love a good oatmeal cookie. Had a bag of dates & thought I’d do a date & walnut something. Surfed the net for ages looking for something ‘cookie’ to make with dates & walnuts. Obviously & predictably, got hopelessly distracted, & ended up making these tasty morsels … without using dates of course! Not really sure if I would like dates in my cookies, I played around with ingredients in an old oatmeal cookie recipe I had. Ended up with these delish cookies, using some crystallised ginger & dried cranberries I had on hand. What I like about this recipe is that it gives me the freedom to use up whatever extras I have on hand, &, it makes a generous 5 dozen cookies. Else, 4 dozen cookies, & a COOKIE PIZZA!!The cookies keep well for 2-3 weeks in an airtight box, & I’ve made them several times over the past few months. I love them because they use ‘healthy’ oats, & refer to them as my ‘World Oatmeal Cookies’ … because they got born with inputs from across the globe. I used crystallised ginger that I made from a Levobitzrecipe, one that I have come to love. Nothing like home made crystallized ginger; it’s addictive, it’s beautifully flavoured, & keeps well. I’ve used it in Ginger Florentines & Candied Ginger & Tangerine Shortbread cookies, & in the Daring Bakers Yule Log too. Something else went into the cookies … dried cranberries from a big bag that Nic mailed from Kent! Also in there, walnuts that my Mom’s friend sent in from Kashmir, & finally on top, a sprinkling of vanilla sugar that a dear friend constantly gets in from Lviv, Ukraine. I’ve made these cookies SO MANY TIMES! Feel free to use what you like in them … chocolate chips, pistachio nuts, chopped dates, dried cherries, mixed winter berries…I’ve even used crystallised orange peel on one instance! A store house of energy, the kids love them!
WORLD OATMEAL COOKIES with dried cranberries, crystallised ginger & toasted walnuts Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup wholewheat flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 1 cup sugar 1 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract 3 cups rolled oats (I use Quaker oats)
1/4 cup crystallised ginger, chopped
1/2-1 cup dried cranberries or dried cherries (cut roughly with kitchen scissors if you like) 1 cup chopped toasted walnuts (untoasted are fine too)
1/2 cup raisins
Vanilla sugar for sprinkling (optional)Method:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 2-3 baking sheets.
Mix the flours, baking soda, baking powder & salt in a bowl. Keep aside.
Beat the butter & both sugars in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in the eggs & vanilla.
Mix in the blended flour mix. Stir in the oats, dried cranberries, crystallised ginger, walnuts & raisins (or whatever you fancy).
Drop tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets, 2 inches apart.
Flatten cookies slightly with a fork. Sprinkle with vanilla sugar (optional) … OR
Make a cookie pizza, & then use the rest of the dough for cookies. I got about 4 dozen cookies, & 1 pizza. If you plan on making a cookie pizza, make sure you score the sections prior to baking.
Bake cookies until golden brown, about 10-12 minutes. remove from oven & leave on baking sheet for a minute.
“Every oak tree started out as a couple of nuts who decided to stand their ground.” Unknown
Doing rounds of blogs is never easy when you have to run a regular life too, full of routine stuff like laundry, grocery & school trips galore. Junior goes to a new grade in another week, so half the days were scheduled with PTA’s, orientations, new books & uniforms etc. The past week has been even more hectic with the kids at home (Spring Break), & I’ve had little or no time to blog hop. One blog that I often attempt to stop at is Heidi @ 101 Cookbooks because it’s always got some path breaking stuff that you get hypnotized to try. The pictures are mesmerising, & the gentle persuasive nature of her posts have you literally eating off her blog. The ‘Nut & Seed Biscotti‘ or jewelledbiscotti was such one case which I chanced by about a month ago. Heidi posted a ‘cracker’ of a biscotti, the‘Nut & Seed’ Biscotti which looked very pretty & maybe easy to slice thin, or so I thought. Should have known better, because nuts are nuts after all, but she had me chopping the nuts of my bookmarked recipe at a frantic pace the next morning after the kids left for school. The recipe itself is simple & ‘packed with nuts’…very jewel studded indeed, like the Queen’s crown. However, it wasn’t as simple to slice thinly as the jewels had a mind of their own. I managed fairly well, but didn’t get anywhere close to the thin, gorgeous slices that Heidi did. Maybe it was because I added raisins too, or my knife wasn’t good enough, or the loaf was undercooked, though it tested done. As Helen says in the recipe “Bake for 45-50 minutes – or until the loaf tests done. If you under-cook the loaf at this stage, it makes slicing difficult.” I shall definitely give this a try again as it was deliciously studded & very YUM! Healthy & hugely successful with the kids too.
My nut mixture was a blend of 1 cup lightly toasted almonds, 1/3 cup each of lightly toasted pistachio nuts, and pumpkin seeds, and 1/2 a cup each of green & black raisins. We don’t get wholewheat pastry flour here, so I used a third cup of oatmeal flour. NUT, SEED & RAISIN BISCOTTI
1/3 cup oatmeal flour 2 cups mixed nuts,raisins etc (almonds, pistachio nuts, pumpkins seeds, green & black raisins)
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt 2 large eggs 2/3 cup light brown sugar, fine grain 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Method:
Preheat oven to 150C. Lightly butter or oil a 1-pound loaf pan and line with parchment paper.
Combine the flour, nuts and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. In a separate large bowl whisk together eggs and sugar.
Add the flour-nut mixture to the egg mixture and stir until combined. The dough will be quite thick. Scoop into the prepared pan and press the dough into place using damp fingertips.
Make sure everything is nice and compact, level on top, with no air bubbles. (I sprinkled some left over oatmeal flour on top).
Bake for 45-50 minutes – or until the loaf tests done. If you under-cook the loaf at this stage, it makes slicing difficult.
Remove loaf from the oven, and turn the oven up to 220C.
Immediately run a sharp knife around the perimeter of the loaf, remove it from pan, and set the loaf upside down on a cutting board. Using a thin serrated knife (or the thinnest, sharpest knife you have), slice the loaf into 1/4-inch thick slices.
Place the slices on a baking sheet. brush tops with a bit of olive oil and bake for 3-4 minutes or until the bottoms are a touch golden and toasty. Pull them out of the oven, flip each one, and brush the other side with olive oil. Bake for another 4-5 minutes or until nice and crisp. Let cool.
“Variety’s the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor” William Cowper
Leafing through the Australian Women’s Weekly book on CAKES that my friend recently brought for me when she was visiting from the UK, I stopped at this Cardamom-spiced Cake. Not that I’m a huge fan of cardamom, (though the hub & boy certainly are), but because it had a little note that said this cake was a new take on the Armenian nutmeg cake. Reading the note took me right back to when I began blogging...
When I began this blog in August 2007, for the want of nothing better to do, it was the first cake I made specially for my blog, my inaugural bake as I chose to refer to it as. It had turned out to be a warm & wonderful cake, the Armenian nutmeg cake. This new take sounded entirely enticing .
I think this is a tea cake, full of spices, quite perfect for ‘chai‘ or tea, warm with spicy flavours. The method is also entirely different from most of the cakes I’ve tried before. It’s got a crumb base, & then the batter on top that makes the cake. The boy loved it & couldn’t stop asking for me (tch, tch), but the daughter wasn’t too excited about it to begin with. But I guess it grows on you, as it grew on her, & soon enough she was back asking for seconds & thirds.Browned Butter Caramel Frosting, (recipefrom an earlier Daring Bakers challenge) on top added to it’s appeal, or then the dollop of chocolate ganache within, which ensured runaway success. I think this is a pretty versatile cake indeed. The original recipe used pistachios,my favourite nuts (for colour, taste & beauty), but I used almonds here as an alternate as the recipe suggested. Pistachios are quite highly priced here, & I didn’t want to weep over precious wasted nuts just in case the cake was a disaster. Other nut substitutes suggested are walnuts, hazelnuts or pecans. If you aren’t a huge fan of cardamom, I think the cake might work well with just cinnamon & nutmeg, in which case just omit the cardamom to make a ‘Spiced cake’. Another idea might be toomit the spices altogether, & add some chocolate chips with the nuts to make an entirely different version. Think on…
CARDAMOM-SPICED CAKE
An updated version of the Armenian nutmeg cake, this cake uses different spices and is more like a slice having a cake-like topping.
As adapted from Cooking Class CAKES, The Australian Women’s Weekly, pg 103 Ingredients:
1 cup self-raising flour (I used 1 cup flour + 1 tsp baking powder + a pinch of salt)
1 cup flour
1 1/4 cups brown sugar, packed
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp ground cloves (Iforgot this completely)
125gms cold butter; chopped
1 egg
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup almonds; chopped
Method:
Preheat oven to 180C/moderate oven. Grease a 20cm X 30cm Lamington pan, & line the long sides & bottom.
Process the flours, sugar,spices & butter till the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Transfer to a bowl. firmly press 1 1/2 cups of the flour mix into the bottom of the pan.
Use a fork to combine the egg, soda & milk in a jug, add to the remaining flour mixture with nuts, mix well with a wooden spoon. Pour mixture over base in pan, & spread evenly.
Bake cake for about 1 hour (mine took about 45-50 minutes). When done, cool on rack for about 10 minutes. then turn out of pan gently. Cut when cool.
“It isn’t bread that feeds you; it is life and the spirit that feed you through bread.”
Angelus Silesius Moroccan Holiday Bread
…The addition of maize meal & a cornucopia of seeds gives this superb loaf an interesting flavour & texture.
Sundaymorning woke up with a mission; BAKE BREAD! There was no meal idea in mind, the morning loomed large, the kids were out of bed & running wild…&I had to bake bread. While the kids squabbled over the remote & hot-house eggs (which I shall blog about another day), I emptied my bread baking bookshelf onto the table & wondered where to begin. Winter is almost here, the weather isn’t warm enough for a confident rise in yeast…yet, I had to bake bread. I juggled a couple of choices … a Tuscan Schiacciata, a Greek Olive Bread, Portuguese Corn Bread…& eventually settled for a Moroccan Holiday Bread. I had all ingredients on hand, just enough time for the dough to double & rise again…& a bag of sunflower seeds to use. Happily enough, by sheer coincidence, the bread belonged to Morocco, a country in North Africa.
What’s the fuss about? Why bake bread on a Sunday morning with the kids running wild? Actually, time was running out. I’ve been tagged to bake bread by Jeanne @ Cook Sister. Yes, the South African blogger, nibbling at the world, based in London, but found all over the globe at amazing speed. She’s a trained criminal lawyer, & now an avid photographer & food blogger. More about this interesting lady here. I was touched & thrilled to be tagged by her for a cause close to her heart…read on
BAKE BREAD – GIVE DOUGH – FEED AFRICA!
Breadline Africa is a South African-based charity that is seeking to put a lasting end to poverty South Africa (and further afield in Africa) by breaking the cycle of poverty and helping communities to achieve long-term self-sustainability. Breadline Africa was founded in 1993 when a group of community and social workers in South Africa (who had first-hand knowledge of the uniquely African problems that they faced) formed an alliance with like-minded colleagues in Europe (who were well-placed to source donations in valuable foreign currency). Armed with this unique combination of skills, Breadline Africa has been able to raise funds in Europe and use their local knowledge to identify which small, ground-level projects in Africa are most likely to succeed with a financial boost.
On Blog Action Day, Breadline Africa launched their Worldwide Blogger Bake-Off campaign. The aim is to raise $1 million in funds for a project to convert shipping containers into locations for food production and distribution in Africa. It is hoped that these sustainable community kitchens will not only provide food such as bread and soup to those in need, but also opportunities for skills development within poor communities.Bloggers can download the Blogger Bake-off widget and tag five other bloggers to do the same – I am tagging these five to bake bread: Val @ More Than Burnt Toast Aparna @ My Diverse Kitchen Manggy @ No Special Effects Rosie @ Rosie Bakes a Peace of Cake Nuria @ Spanish Recipes
If you want to get involved in the Blogger Bake-off, check out their website here.
YES WE CAN…there is such great optimism in these 3 words. Ever since I heard Barrack Obama’s speech, the words have stuck to me. Three words, such great hope. They can move people, a nation, the world! Yes we can…bake bread & change the world too!
.
MOROCCAN HOLIDAY BREAD
Adapted from‘The Practical Encyclopedia of Baking’, by Martha Day , pg 483
(Classic Breads From Around The World)
Ingredients:
Flour – 1 1/4 cups
Maize Meal/Cornmeal – 1/4 cup
Salt – 1 tsp
Yeast – 1 tbsp
Lukewarm water – 100ml (orig. recipe has 120ml/4fl oz)
Lukewarm milk – 100ml (orig. recipe has 120ml/4fl oz)
Sugar – 1 tsp
Sunflower seeds – 4 tbsps
Black sesame seeds – 2 tbsps
White Sesame seeds – 2 tbsps
Method:
Lightly grease a baking sheet or line with parchment.
Sift the flours & salt into a bowl.
Cream the yeast in a 100ml warm water + 100 ml warm milk, with a tsp of sugar. proof for 5-10 minutes.
Pour into the flour mix & make a fairly soft dough. Knead for 5 minutes until smooth & elastic. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap & leave to rise in a warm place, until doubled in size, for about an hour.
Turn out on a lightly floured surface, knock back, & gently knead the seeds into it. eave a few seeds for sprinkling on top. Shape into a loaf (original recipe has a round ball), flatten slightly, & place on prepared sheet.
Leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 200C.
Brush the top of the loaf with water, sprinkle seeds on top, & bake for 30-35 minutes until it’s golden, & makes a hollow sound when tapped. (I placed a bowl of water under the tray, & spritzed the oven twice).
Transfer to a rack to cool. We had it warm, & it was wonderful. Tasted great on it’s own, & even better with a brush of butter. The kids loved it too, both without, & later, with butter!
“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!
