Everyday Oatmeal Cookies

I've switched from always having a loaf of banana bread around to always having oatmeal cookies around. They bake more quickly, have whole grains (kind of), and besides, I use all my bananas in smoothies these days.

This recipe is really flexible, you can substitute in whatever dried fruit, nuts, and spices you have on hand. My favorite combo is cranberries, walnuts and coconut, and my second is cherries, apricots, and prunes. The only version that we couldn't finish was white chocolate chip, raisin and ginger, I don't know what I was thinking, but they were still good enough to be polished off in the break room at work in less than a day.

These are great with tea or soy milk, and make really good ice cream sandwiches with vanilla ice cream too.

Everyday Oatmeal Cookies

makes about 2 dozen

1 stick butter, room temperature

3/4 cup light or dark brown sugar

1 egg, room temperature

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup whole wheat flour (or you can use all white flour)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (you can add whatever other spices you like too)

1 1/2 cups rolled oats (not instant, they come out gummy)

1 1/2 cups dried fruit (I like 3/4 cup coconut, 3/4 cup craisins)

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 and grease 2 baking sheets. Using an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar, then beat in egg and vanilla: these are your wet ingredients. Sift together flour, salt, nutmeg and baking soda: these are the dry ingredients.

In 2 batches, add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Do not overmix. With a large spatula, gently mix in oats, fruits and whatever other add-ins you're using.

Drop tablespoon sized hunks onto your baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches in between. If you want flatter, crisper cookies, smoosh hunks into thinner rounds with a fork.

Bake 8-10 minutes until golden brown on top. They will still be soft to the touch, and may seem underdone, if you like chewy cookies, take them out anyway and when they cool they will be perfect.

Strawberries are Here!

Well not here exactly, because apparently the spring in Arizona is too short for strawberries, but California is pretty close by, and they churn out some yummy berries. I've been eating at least a pint a day, it just doesn't make sense not to when they're $1/pint. I've thought about making a strawberry tart or cake, but that's just too much work when they're so good plain. Buttermilk scones, biscuits, shortbreads, whatever you want to call them are pretty easy though, and make delicious strawberry shortcakes, or are great plain with butter and jam for breakfast.

Buttermilk Biscuits

makes 6

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2-3 Tbsp sugar (depending on your tastes)

5 Tbsp cold butter, cut into bits

1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. With your fingers, combine butter with dry ingredients until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk and stir until a soft sticky dough forms. Drop dough into 6 mounds on ungreased baking sheet. Bake until golden, about 12-15 minutes.

My Sexy Bundt!

After a long day of shopping for nursery bedding, my resolve was weakened and I gave in and bought this totally unecessary bundt pan from Williams Sonoma:

Then I came home and baked this amazing banana cake and felt like a domestic goddess:

And I was trying to be a kitchen minimalist, doh.

Classic Banana Bundt Cake

adapted from Dorie Greenspan, Baking From My Home to Yours

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 sticks butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

4 very ripe bananas

1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 350. Generously butter and flour your bundt pan (or other 12 cup capacity pan).

Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.

Cream together sugar and butter with hand mixer or paddle attachment of stand mixer. Beat in vanilla and the eggs, 1 egg at a time. Add in the bananas, half the dry ingredient mixture, then the sour cream/yogurt, and finally the other half of the dry ingredients mixture.

Bake for 65-75 minutes. Let cool for ten minutes before unmolding to prevent breakage.

New problem: now I "need" a totally unecessary cake stand to show off my Gehry-esque creations!

Movin' to the country, gon' eat me a lotta peaches...

It's May 10th. In Arizona, that means peach season is halfway over. Insane, believe me, I know. However, as I have chosen to live here, I should be able to adapt to the seasons, so yesterday I woke up at 7:00 and BEFORE EVEN ONE CUP of coffee I was in an orchard elbowing mean Korean ladies out of my way, jockeying for dappled red Earligrande beauties. Lucky for me, I am taller than the average bear, because while I thought I loved peaches and would do anything to get some juicy, ripe supermarket-impossible goodness, the crowd at 7:30 was out for blood.

I came home with 9 pounds of peaches, promptly ate 7 in two hours, and figured it was time for some baking. I wanted to keep it simple and not get in the way of my amazing ingredients, so I opted for that minimalist American classic, peach cobbler. Paired with some homemade vanilla ice cream, it made a delicious Mother's Day dessert.

Peach Cobbler

6 perfect peaches, peeled and sliced into thin wedges

1/4 cup brown sugar

sprinkle cinammon

sprinkle nutmeg

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tbsp cornstarch

Combine in a 8X8" baking dish and bake at 425 for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the topping:

1 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

3/4 stick butter

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 buttermilk

Combine all ingredients and cut butter into the dry ingredients using 2 knives, or a mini food processor (the quantities fit perfectly). When peaches are done, carefully spatula topping onto the fruit and bake another 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve hot, with vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream.

Empanada Night

Empanada Night!! They took forever with my two left hands, but were delicious. Some things are worth waiting for an 8:30 dinner time. Maybe this is why Argentina eats so late.

Empanadas de Carne
makes 12-16

Dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 stick unsalted butter
1 t salt
1/2 cup milk
1 egg

Put everything in the food processor and pulse until crumbles are formed. Ball the dough into a, well, ball, and put in fridge while you work on the other stuff.

Picadillo:
1 lb ground beef
1 onion, diced
1/2 cup roasted red peppers, chopped finely
6 seville olives, halved
2 t paprika
2 t dried oregano
1 t cumin
1 t red pepper flakes
salt and pepper

Brown the ground beef, drain fat. Saute onions until translucent, and add to beef. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Set aside to let cool.

Putting them all together:
1 egg, white and yolk separated (white=glue, yolk=varnish)

Preheat oven to 400.

Roll out the ball of dough into a thin layer and then using a small bowl, or a cutout if you're dorky enough to own proper tools, cut circles of about 3-4 inches in diameter.

Spoon about 1 tablespoon of picadillo onto each dough round, making sure to top each with an olive half. Dip your finger into the egg white and run it around the circumfrence of the dough. Fold the dough over and press edges together to seal. Feel free to do something fancy with the edges and fork tines, I didn't bother. Brush the tops with the beaten egg yolk.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until tops are nicely golden brown. Empanadas are best piping hot, right out of the oven. Thanks to Miriam in CA and laylita.com for my empanada education.

My Saturday

Fun with Flatbreads

So, after 2 tries, I am officially concluding that homemade pita bread is pretty easy, and better than the store-bought version. Store-bought pitas are pretty good when toasted, but they are either crispy or doughy. I like my pita with a bit of a crunch in the darker parts, but still soft and yielding inside. Sheesh, I sound like a romance novel.

Getting back to the bread, I've read a lot about recreating a baker's oven with hand misting, or pans of water to create humidity, but this time I just stuck the rolled out dough in the oven, on a cheapie baking sheet, on the lowest rack, and it came out just as nicely as last time, when I drove myself crazy trying to clean out Windex spray bottles, etc, to try and humidify my oven. Plus my pockets held their puff better this time. So if you want to mess around with the fiddly stuff, go for it, but if you don't have time, no worries.

Pita Bread

from the Joy of Cooking

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 Tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 packets active dry yeast

2 Tbsp melted butter

1 1/4 cups room temperature water

Combine everything in your mixer's bowl and turn with a spatula to combine ingredients. Knead on low with your mixer's dough hook for 10 minutes, or until dough is "smooth, soft, and elastic."

It is fun to play around and add a splash of water, and then a pinch of flour to see how that affects the dough. I'm by no means an expert, but I think I know what I'm looking for- you don't want to dough to be so dry that it sticks to the sides of the bowl, nor so wet that it doesn't travel up the dough hook. It's an eyeball thing, and ten minutes is a long time to watch stuff spin, I'm sure you'll figure it out if I did. Joy says the dough should be "slightly tacky but not sticky."

After ten minutes, place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set in a dark place to rise for 90 minutes. When you have 10 minutes left in the rise, preheat your oven to 475, and put the baking sheet, pizza stone, or whatever you'll be using in the oven to preheat too. When your 90 minute rise is up, the dough should have doubled in size. Punch it down, marvel at how cool yeast is, and cut into 8 pieces with a pizza cutter. Roll the pieces into balls, and let rest another 20 minutes, then roll out into a thin 1/4 inch round. (Joy says 1/8, but it puffed better when a little thicker).

Bake 2-3 at a time, or as many fit on your pan at once. Stay close to the oven, and start checking them after 3 minutes. Mine took about 5-6 min each.

I made bread!

I made bread! It is delicious, and the house smells great. I used the Cinnamon-Rasin Milk Bread recipe from Joy of Cooking and I couldn't be more pleased. Or maybe I'm just glad it's finally done. I didn't read the recipe thoroughly so started baking at 8 PM, so after a double rise, it's past midnight and I'm just pulling it out of the oven now.

Blondie v. Brownie

The last blondie I had was at a bake sale circa 1990, and it wasn't very good. Not so with this batch, which I made according to my new prophet, Dorie Greenspan. These are so good, they are going in the monthly rotation for sure. I may even like them better than brownies. I'll get back to you on that one. They are moist, and full of vanilla, butterscotch, chocolate and coconut flavors, with a hint of salt to put them over the edge into gluttonhood. Here's a link to the recipe online, I followed it almost exactly, except I subbed almonds for the walnuts, so I won't bother retyping it.

Screw the diet, I'm baking!

This week we're hitting 90 degrees here in Phoenix. If I don't start baking soon, it'll be summer before I know it. I broke out my favorite baking cookbook to celebrate, Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan and made something I've been eyeing for a while, her Russian Grandmothers' Apple Pie-Cake. The recipe is easy to find online, and I followed it exactly, except I halved it, so please follow the link so I don't have to retype the whole thing. I would highly recommend the recipe, the pie-cake was delicious, homey, comforting, old-fashioned, and easy to make too.

Greek Muff

Usually I prefer fruity (fruited?) muffins but now that berry season is over, these are my new favorite winter ones. This is my kind of baking recipe, no electric mixer or goddamn creaming of butter or Frankenstein yeast involved, just buttermilk, which I swear is magic, and I hear is low fat. From Nigella Lawson, hence the weird quantities, they're converted from metric.

Baklava Muffins
makes 12

Mix together for the filling:
1/2 cup chopped nuts (such as walnuts, pecans, almonds)
3 T melted butter
1 1/2 teaspoon cinammon
1/3 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 400, and line a 12-er muffin pan with paper liners

Whisk together the wet:

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk

1 egg

3 tablespoon melted butter

Sift together the dry:
1 cup plus 7 tablespoon flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar

Combine mojados y secos gently until just barely combined. Fill each muffin cup 1/3 way full with batter, then scoop in 1 teaspoon of the nut filling, then top with more batter. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Banana Bread

This is my world famous banana bread recipe, as requested. I make it every weekend and cut myself a piece for breakfast as I run out the door on weekday mornings. It's delicious because, without spices, the pure banana flavor shines through. Sometimes when I'm feeling cheap or healthy I cut out some of the butter, but its best with the full amount.

2-3 very very very ripe bananas
5 T buttermilk, sour cream or plain yogurt
1 t baking soda
1/2 cup butter, preferably room temperature, ok to melt in microwave if you have to
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla (up it to 1 1/2 t if you have the good stuff)
1 1/3 cup flour
1 t baking power

Mash together bananas and buttermilk. Blend butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla. Combine everything, sift in the flour and baking powder and mix, but do not overmix. Pour into 4x8 buttered loaf pan and bake 50-60 min at 350.