Crispy Oatmeal Cookies

Now this is a perfect afternoon...

Okay, now before you all get jealous on me, the tea cup was empty, the cookies were still frozen and I was up to my eyeballs in chilli. I made so much I couldn't fit it in the pot. Actually, this happens every time I make chilli, so I should not be surprised. And I have yet to crack open that book.

These cookies were originally called Ranger Cookies. My mom remembers eating them when she was a wee lass. Not these particular ones, of course. I changed the ingredients considerably, so I thought they should have a new name. That, or the fact I've never seen a ranger or his cookies.

1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups crisp rice cereal
2 cups large flake oats
1 cup unsweetened coconut

1. Cream butter and sugars.
2. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
4. Get your hands in there and mix in the cereal, oatmeal and coconut.
5. Drop onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350 F (180º C) for 8 minutes.

The original recipe called for raisins, which I detest in anything baked, but you may not have the same sentiments, so feel free to add some. I cut out some of the sugar from the original recipe. Feel free to experiment there. You could use all white or all whole wheat flour in this recipe. I wouldn't substitute quick oats. It does horrible things to recipes calling for large flake oats. Crisp rice cereal, AKA Rice Krispies. I was trying to be all 'brand name free'. Which leads me another rabbit trail. The No Name version makes for a ghastly batch of Rice Krispies Squares. Don't do it!

Chocolate Almond Cake

Now I know why Betty Crocker became famous for her cake mixes. 'Just add water' sounds like a great alternative to 'I think I'll hide in the the kitchen for half the day so I can have this cake for supper'...until of course you sit down and take that first bite...

Cake
2 1/2 cups ground almonds
1/2 cup butter
180g chocolate
1 cup sugar
5 eggs, separated
1/4 tsp salt

Glaze

250g chocolate
1/2 cup butter
5 tbsp water

Fresh berries
Shaved chocolate

1. Line the base of a round 9” (24cm) springform pan with parchment paper.
2. Toast almonds at 350 F (180°C) until pale golden, about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring about halfway through baking time.
3. Melt butter, chocolate and sugar in a double boiler. Cool to lukewarm.
4. Whisk egg yolks and add to chocolate.
5. Add almonds.
6. Beat egg whites and salt until soft peaks form.
7. Add to chocolate 1/3 at a time.  Don’t over mix.
8. Bake at 350 F (180°C) for 35 minutes. Keep the cake in the pan as it cools.
9. For the glaze, melt chocolate, butter and water in a double boiler. Let it cool to lukewarm
10. Remove the cake from the pan and put it on whatever you plan on serving the cake in. Pour the glaze over the cake, letting it run over the sides.
11. Decorate with fresh berries and shaved chocolate - or get creative and do something different. Recipes are made to be altered!

Notes

• The darker the chocolate, the richer the end result. Go dark! 
• Don't have a double boiler? Me neither. Just put water in a large pot and put a smaller pot on top. Whatever you do, don't attempt to melt chocolate in the microwave. Disaster awaits those who do...
• I read somewhere you should never mix water with chocolate because the chocolate will clump and never melt. To the person who made that statement, you don't know everything.

Shortbread

No Christmas festivity is complete without shortbread. Three ingredients, my friends. It doesn't get any simpler than this!

1 lb butter (454g), at room temperature
3/4 cup icing sugar (confectioner's sugar)
4 cups white flour

Mix it all together with your hands. (Don't forget to wash your hands first!) Sprinkle a flat surface with flour and roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters. Bake at 325 F (160°C) for 10-15 minutes, until the bottoms are starting to turn golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool and let the fun begin!

Royal Icing
3 tbsp meringue powder
4 cups icing sugar
6 tbsp water, approximately

Beat all ingredients until thoroughly mixed. The icing will be very stiff. I blew the motor in my mixer attempting to make icing. If you have really strong arms, I guess you could stir it with a spoon. Don't add all the water at once. Once you add water, you can't take it back. To colour the icing, it is best to use paste instead of liquid food colouring. You can get both meringue powder and paste at Michael's or the Bulk Barn. Use an icing bag or Ziploc bag with a tiny hole in one corner to decorate your cookies. Some people use egg whites instead of meringue powder. I have a healthy fear of bacteria and will stick to meringue powder.

Now if you are adventurous like me (or crazy as I was labelled last Christmas by my loved ones), you can do this:

The white icing needs to be thinned with water until a toothpick can easily slide through and the line will disappear rather quickly. If the icing is too thin, it will run right off the sides of the cookies. Do the same with the coloured icing. Spread the white icing on a cookie and then using an icing bag (or Ziploc bag) immediately apply dots and/or circles on top and run a toothpick through it.

Lemon Squares

2 cups flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 cup margarine
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

• Mix together flour and icing sugar. Cut in margarine.
• Press into a 9"x16" pan lined with parchment paper. Don't skip this. I promise you will have regrets.
• Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
• Mix together remaining ingredients and pour over crust. Continue baking for another 20 to 30 minutes, until the top is starting to turn a light golden brown.
• Cool before slicing to prevent the filling from running everywhere you don't want it to go.
• Sprinkle with icing sugar before serving. If you do this too far in advance, the icing sugar may just melt and disappear altogether.

Banana Bread

The most important ingredient in banana bread is bananas. If they're not turning black, don't use 'em!

1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 very large or 4 medium sized bananas, mashed
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup walnuts, pecans or chocolate chips (optional)

• Cream margarine and sugar. Add eggs.
• Stir in mashed bananas.
• Add dry ingredients. Stir until just mixed. Don't over-mix! Expect the batter to be lumpy. If you over-mix any batter that uses baking powder, i.e. pancakes, muffins, loaves you end up with a finished product that is tough, dry and not worth the calories.
• Spread into a greased and floured loaf pan. Bake at 325° for about 1 hour, 15 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Brownies

Not to be confused with blond brownies, which is a ridiculous concept. "Hey, did you see my friend's new hair colour? It's called blond brunette." Therefore, let it be known that brownies, in my world, are brown, the colour of chocolate. For the record, white chocolate contains no chocolate. In case you were wondering. So without further ado, I bring the recipe that has been changed over the years several times. (Apparently our taste buds change as we age.) It has met the approval of friends in three countries. (Not that I'm bragging.)

1 1/2 cups margarine

2 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup cocoa

4 large eggs

1 tbsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups white flour

1. Melt margarine and sugar in a microwave or on the stove. Remove from heat source. Did you know that the shiny tops on the brownies come from having the sugar completely melted? If you don't melt the sugar granules, the tops of your brownies will be dull. Then it's just soggy cake.
2. Stir in cocoa. If it's not cooperating, use a whisk. Lumps of cocoa are not fun to eat.
3. Add eggs and vanilla. If the mixture is too hot, you will have to let it cool for a bit or you'll cook some the egg white. Chunks of cooked egg whites are not our friends.
4. Stir in the flour until just mixed. 
5. Pour into a 9"x13" pan that has been lined with parchment paper. (You'll thank me later.)
6. Bake at 350° until it's done, anywhere from 35 to 45 minutes. If the contents of the pan jiggles, it's not done. If a toothpick comes out clean, you've gone too far. There will be some batter on a toothpick but the toothpick will not be completely coated. Hope that helps. Overcooking is the easiest way to mess up a great brownie recipe.
7. If you can, let the brownies cool before cutting them. I guess if you're eating them all yourself in the privacy of your own home, it won't matter what they look like. If you are letting other people see them, let them cool completely. Just trying to save you some embarrassment.

Yogurt

Warning: Once you make your own yogurt you will never be able to go back to commercially prepared yogurt. Contrary to popular belief, homemade yogurt is simple. If you can boil milk, you can make yogurt. This recipe makes 2 litres of yogurt. Yogurt will keep for at least 3 weeks. You can make half the recipe.





Preliminary Yogurt-Making Tutorial 

• You can use any kind of fresh milk from skim to 3%. (I use 1%)
• Gelatin? Are you kidding me? It is optional, but the yogurt will be runny with lots of whey sitting on the top. Worse ingredients go into store-bought yogurt, trust me! Besides, gelatin is good for your hair and nails.
• Never, never, NEVER add the yogurt starter to hot milk. You will kill all the bacteria in the starter and the end product will be a large batch of warm milk. (I speak from experience on this one.)
• Yogurt starter - you can buy this at a health food store but I just found it at Superstore in the refrigerated organic food section. Alternatively you can use a small container of store-bought plain yogurt. I've used both. I like the powdered starter better. The results are more consistent as you have no control over how the commercial yogurt has been stored previously to purchasing, hence no guarantee of how many bacteria are still living. You can also save about a 1/2 cup of homemade yogurt to use for a starter on the next batch. If you choose this route, eventually you'll have to stop. It's like making a copy of a copy - it won't last forever.
• Growing the yogurt - you need a warm environment. There are several ways you can accomplish this. If your oven door seals properly, you can pour the yogurt in a glass baking dish (or two) with lids and let it sit in the oven for 8 hours with the oven light on. I purchased a yogurt maker. I'm very happy with it. It makes yogurt in 4 to 4 1/2 hours. I have a friend who wraps her yogurt in an electric blanket. Interesting.

Ingredients

2 L milk
1 1/2 cups skim milk powder
1 package unflavoured gelatin
2 packages yogurt starter


Instructions

1. Pour milk into a pot. Whisk in skim milk powder.
2. Dissolve gelatin in a little bit of milk and add it to the pot.
3. Heat the milk until it just starts to boil. You will have to stir it constantly or it will burn on the bottom. If you have a low quality pot, it might burn despite the constant stirring. You can avoid this by using a double boiler or visiting my mom. She has a good pot and a gas stove top. My milk doesn't burn at her place!
4. Place the pot of boiled milk in a sink of cold water to cool it to 42-44 degrees. This will take about 10 minutes.
5. Dissolve yogurt starter in about 1/2 cup of the cooled milk and then stir it back into the rest of the milk.
6. Pour it into the yogurt maker, glass dishes or ...the electric blanket. I'm assuming it goes into a dish before going into the blanket. Let it incubate as described above.
7. To serve, it can be sweetened with Splenda, honey or flavoured syrup. Regular sugar won't dissolve properly. You can add vanilla, fresh or frozen berries, jam, granola, etc. Be creative. You can use it unsweetened in recipes that call for sour cream or plain yogurt.

Yogurt starter - available at health food stores and some grocery stores in the refrigerated organic food section 

This is my yogurt maker. I purchased it from greenhealthcanada.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe has oatmeal and whole wheat flour. Healthy stuff. I promise!

Ingredients
1 cup margarine or butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups large flake oatmeal (not 'instant' or 'quick oats')
1 cup chocolate chips (feel free to be liberal - I never measure)
1 cup pecans (optional but very yummy, coming from someone who doesn't like nuts in baking)

1. Cream margarine and sugars. You can cut back on the sugar if you want to. I never pack the brown sugar into the measuring cup. Keep it loose!
2. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. Add remaining ingredients.
4. Bake at 350 F (180°C) for 8 to 10 minutes. Cookies should look underdone. Let them cool on the baking sheet for about a minute or they'll fall apart when you lift them off the pan. They should stay chewy when cooled. If not, you baked them too long.

Apple Pie

The first time I attempted pie I vowed I'd never go through the torture a second time. Obviously, I lied. I stuck it out, had many disasters and countless pie crusts were 'pieced' together. You know what? When it's baked and smelling absolutely divine, who really cares?! This recipe fits a 10" pie plate.

Pie Filling

6 - 8 apples
1/2 cup flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp milk
1-2 tsp cinnamon

1. Peel, core and slice the apples. I use Mac, Spartan, Granny Smith but stay away from Red Delicious because they shrink too much when they're baked. 
2. Toss apples in remaining ingredients. For the sugar, I usually eat an apple slice and determine how tart or sweet the apples are and then adjust the added sugar accordingly. I never measure the cinnamon. I just keep sprinkling until it looks like apple pie filling. 

Pie Crust
I got this off a box of Tenderflake Lard years ago. When I made this particular pie (I hadn't made one in years), I noticed the recipe on the box was different. I've also used Crisco Shortening, but I find the dough harder to work with. Maybe I was having a bad day? Sometimes pie crust does that. It could be raining in Kazakhstan and all of a sudden your pie crust freaks out. Can't help you there.

5 1/2 cups white flour
2 tsp salt
1 lb (1 package) shortening or lard
1 tbsp vinegar
1 egg
Cold water

1.  Mix together flour and salt
2. Cut in shortening. You can use a pastry blender, a large fork or a potato masher. Usually part-way through I give up on utensils altogether and use my hands. A faux pas, I realize, but I'm just not that coordinated. When it's finished, it should be crumbly.
3. In a measuring cup, mix the vinegar and the egg. Add enough water to make one cup.
4. Add about 3/4 of the liquid to the dough and mix together. If its not sticking together, keep adding small amounts of liquid. You want it to just barely stick together. If the dough is too wet, you'll end up with a tough crust. The less liquid you use, the flakier your crust will be.
5. Divide the dough into 5 equal-sized balls. You have enough dough for 2 double crust and one single crust pie. If you're really good, you can divide the dough into 6 portions. I'm just not that good ;)
6. At this point, you can wrap the extra dough in plastic and then put it into a freezer bag and throw it in the freezer in the event you ever want to attempt to make another pie.

Rolling out the Dough
So far so good, right? Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come. This is where, after the first attempt at pie-making, many people give up and run to Safeway. There are countless tricks and different ways of rolling out the dough and successfully getting it into the pie dish. This is how I get the dough from Point A to Point B.

1. Run a dampened cloth over your countertop and immediately spread a piece of wax paper over it. It keeps the wax paper from sliding all over the place.
2. Sprinkle flour over the wax paper. Roll the rolling pin over the flour you just sprinkled. Make sure the rolling pin is well-coated in flour. 
3. Place the dough on the wax paper and give it a good slap. You know you want to. You're about to get very angry with it. You might as well slap it at the beginning and be done with it. Seriously, flatten it with your hand and sprinkle flour over the top.
4. Begin rolling out the dough. Don't use a back and forth motion. Always start from the centre and roll towards the edges. Lift the rolling pin off the dough and start in the centre and roll out each time. Sprinkle more flour along the way, over every inch of the counter, your face, the cutlery drawer, the kitchen floor and halfway down the hall. In other words, never bake pies after you've cleaned the house. Pies first, then clean the house. 
5. Keep rolling the dough until it's several inches bigger than the pie plate. Fold it lightly in half and then in half again. Lift it gently into the pie plate, centering your 'triangle' of dough in one 1/4 of the pie plate. Unfold the dough, and voila, your dough has made if from Point A to Point B. Put a few slits the bottom of the crust with a knife. This should keep it from blowing bubbles when it bakes.
6. Add your pie filling and then start all over again at Step 1.
7. Fold the top crust under the bottom crust all the way around the edges and then flute them. You can clarinet them if you like, but it might not work as well. I don't know how to explain fluting. Google it!
8. Stab your pretty pie crust with a knife. Not because you hate the pie crust and want to kill it. It needs some steam vents.
9. Take a pastry brush and brush water over the top and then sprinkle sugar.
10. Bake at 350 F (180°C) until it's golden brown. Can't give you a time. Anywhere from 40 minutes to 2 hours? Just keep watching it.
11. Try to let the pie cool a little bit before slicing to let the filling set.

Sugar Cookies

Okay, so I totally stole this from Martha Stewart, so the link is below. If you're wondering what a stick of butter is, I'll save you the googling time: 1/2cup. I used margarine instead of butter, and I certainly didn't follow those high maintenance instructions. Cream margarine and sugar. Add the wet stuff followed by the dry stuff. I think I made them smaller, but her picture looks like my picture in terms of size. I baked them for ten minutes. Martha's oven must not be very efficient.

Giant Sugar Cookies

Vanilla Syrup

You know those bottles of syrup lining the shelves at your favourite coffee spot? (Unless you're a redneck and the most exciting thing at your favourite coffee spot is roll up the rim.) I accidentally made it one day while I was making baklava. It's a long story. You can use whatever flavour you can find. Vanilla, of course, is the easiest get. However, if you know someone who sells Watkins products, the sky's the limit! I use this syrup to sweeten homemade yogurt.

4 cups water
8 cups sugar
1/2 cup vanilla

1. Boil water and sugar to 100°C (use a candy thermometer)

1. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

1. Pour into glass bottles. This recipe will fill two bottles like the one shown below.

Chocolate Crinkles

I found many different versions of this recipe on my favourite recipe websites. This version is my favourite because it uses oil instead of margarine, butter or shortening. (Just because oil is quicker to measure and my life is too busy.) Sometimes, substituting oil for margarine changes the taste and makes cakes or cookies bland in comparison. This is an exception.

Ingredients
1 cup cocoa
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup oil
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Icing sugar (confectioner's sugar) for coating

1. Mix together cocoa, sugar and oil.
2. Beat in eggs one at a time.
3. Stir in vanilla,
4. Add flour, baking powder and salt.
5. Chill two hours.
6. Roll dough into balls and coat with icing sugar.
7. Bake at 350 F (180°C) for 8 to 10 minutes. It's difficult to tell when they're done because of the chocolate colour. Take them out the oven sooner rather than later or they'll be hard.

Ginger Cookies

Ingredients

3/4 cup margarine
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup molasses
2 1/4 cups white flour
2 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Extra white sugar for coating

1. Cream margarine and sugar.
2. Beat in egg, then water and molasses.
3. Add dry ingredients.
4. Shape dough into balls and then roll them in white sugar.
5. Place them on a cookie sheet and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand.
6. Bake at 350 F (180°C) for 8 to 10 minutes, depending how big you make the cookies. They shouldn't turn brown on the top or around the edges. If they are over-baked, they will be hard.