Oatmeal Cookies with craisins & toffee

The Chestnut Street Bakery makes a fabulous oatmeal cookie with cranberry, toffee & chocolate chips in it. Ever since having one after lunch the other day I've been thinking about making my own version. A lazy Saturday provided me with the perfect opportunity so I studied different recipes from Joy of Cooking, Alton Brown and Quaker Oats and came up with this batch. We couldn't find toffee bits at our Safeway though we know Hersey's makes them so we bought some Wether's Originals & smashed them into bits.

This gave us pieces of all different size & made for some nice big bites of toffee in the cookies.

Also most recipes said we needed to use regular slow cooking rolled oats but Quaker Oats said their Quick Cook Oats work fine for cookies. We used the quick cook because we have them around for breakfasts & they worked perfectly. We didn't use chocolate chips because we both felt they weren't necessary in this cookie but you could add a 1/2 cup to the recipe.



Oatmeal Cookies with craisins & toffee

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 sticks of unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup toffee bits
1 cup craisins (dried cranberries)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together, set aside. In a small bowl beat the eggs & vanilla together. In a mixture using the paddle attachment beat the butter to just bring it together. Add the sugar and cream until light & fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla & mix well. Add the flour mixture and mix until everything is combined. With a spoon stir in the oats, toffee and craisins. Line cookie sheets with either parchment paper or a silicone mat. Scoop out the dough in heaping teaspoons and place in cookies sheets abut 2 inches apart. Flatten each cookie slightly. Bake for 6 minutes. Rotate the cookies sheet. Bake for 6 more minutes. Cookies should be golden brown & slightly firm to the touch. Allow the cookies to cool for about 4 minutes on the cookie sheet before removing to a cooling rack, this gives time for the melted toffee to set.

makes 5 - 5 1/2 dozen cookies

I think these cookies are best once they are cooled & the toffee has re-harden.

Proverb

Slow Club window 3/30/07

Favorite things - Take & Bake Bread

I'm currently addicted to Grace Baking's Take & Bake Pugliese.

I love good crusty breads with soup or pasta but it goes stale so fast that if I do my shopping on Sunday its not good for dinner later in the week. The Take & Bake on the other hand I just throw in the freezer & pull it out the night I want to cook it. I bake it still frozen & it still comes out perfect after only 12 minutes. Plus the 8oz loaf it a perfect size for 2 or 3 people.

I've noticed something weird though lately, whenever I go to buy it on Sunday afternoon I am always getting the last loaf on the shelf. This has happened at Marina Super, Calmart and Safeways. Its happened so often that I can't help but notice, what could explain this strange phenomenon?

I wonder if you can par bake your own homemade bread to freeze and finish at a different time? I googled par bake bread & didn't really see anything on it, might be time to hit some of the cookbooks to see what they say. Since Matt is growing quite a sour dough starter right now we might have to do some experiments.

Braised Pork Steak

This is an entry for the Apartment Therapy: The Kitchen's Braising Week Contest. The recipe that we had planned make was Braised and Roasted Pork Shanks with Prosciutto and Porcini Mushrooms from the January 2007 Bon Appetit, but we discovered that the butcher at Laurel Heights is closed on Sundays. The butcher at Cal-Mart could special order the Pork Shanks, but that wouldn't be much help for dinner tonight. He suggested pork shoulder was a good substitution for the shanks, seeing as how we were planning to braise.

The following recipe is slightly adapted from the recipe in the magazine. We have kept the amount of vegetables the same while reducing the amount of meat in the recipe. We added slightly more prosciutto, and replaced the broth in the braising liquid with more white wine. Since the pork steak doesn't have skin that needs crisping up, we also skipped the roasting at the end.



Braised Pork Steak
3 Servings

Ingredients
1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1 cup boiling water
1 ¼ pounds pork shoulder steak
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped leek
1 rib chopped celery
¼ pounds proscuitto, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cups dry white wine
1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary



Place porcini mushrooms in small bowl. Pour 1 cup boiling water over and let stand until mushrooms soften, at least 30 minutes. Drain and chop mushrooms; reserve soaking liquid.



Preheat oven to 325°F. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in heavy large wide pot over medium-high heat. Add pork and sauté until brown on all sides, about 12 minutes. Transfer pork to rimmed baking sheet.



Spoon off and discard all but 2 tablespoons fat from pot. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion, carrots, leek, celery, and prosciutto. Cover and cook until vegetables are soft and beginning to color, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Mix in garlic and chopped porcini. Add wine and bring to boil, scraping up any browned bits. Add reserved mushroom soaking liquid, leaving any sediment in bowl. Mix in sage and rosemary.



Return pork and any accumulated juices to pot, arranging in single layer.



Bring pork mixture to boil, cover pot, and place in oven. Braise pork until very tender, turning over every 30 minutes, about 1 hour 30 minutes.



Break the meat into chunks, discarding the bone. Serve atop mashed potatoes.

Just in time for Easter

Ever wonder what to do with those Peeps from your Easter basket? Well, Tricia from Cheeky Attitude shared her recipe for Peeps S'mores with us.


Warning! Peeps were harmed in this photo, originally uploaded by Tricia@cheeky attitude.

Peeps S'more (makes 1 s'more)

One graham cracker broken in half
Peep
Square of dark chocolate

Put one half of graham cracker on a plate or napkin top with Peep. Put in microwave and set timer to about 40 seconds. Start. WATCH as Peep starts to puff up. STOP the microwave before it gets too big (about 20 seconds or so) Slap square of chocolate on to peep very quickly. Top with 2nd half of graham cracker. The heat of the peep melts the chocolate just enough and the Peep's sugar coating adds an extra crunch.