TWD: Chocablock Cookies

Tuesdays with Dorie this week is all about the Chocablock Cookies, chosen by Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet. Do you remember the Granola Grabbers? What about the Chocolate Chunkers? Well, these Chocablock Cookies really remind me of both - except that I really liked both other cookies better.

Unlike many of the other TWDer's this week, I have no issues with molasses, which was a main component in these cookies, but I am really just not a fan of dried fruit. Period. I guess it is just a matter of taste.

Since I did have some dried apricots in my pantry though I decided to try it anyway and give them a chance. So, for my cookies, I used the basic recipe in the book, but used macadamia nuts instead of walnuts or pecans or something else. I used the dried apricots, included the coconut and all the chocolate chunks. Out of sheer curiosity with all the add-in's I actually dumped them all in a large glass measuring cup to find out that this recipe pretty much does equal out to a full 4-cups worth of add-ins. Therefore, it is safe to assume that if you are the type of person who doesn't like cookies full of 'stuff' then these are definitely not for you.

If however, you are a lover of the dried fruits in baked goods thing, well, then these should be right up your alley and since they were easy and quick to toss together you should just go make them right now.

So, why were these cookies just 'meh' for me? Well, like I said, it is just a matter of taste. If I had gone with my usual modus operandi and bagged the dried apricots, I would have really liked them just fine. Since I didn't, and I really couldn't stand all the bites with the apricots jumping out at me, I really didn't enjoy the cookie. It's a real bummer too because, did I mention, a full 4-CUPS worth of mix-in ingredients!!

Either way, the cookies won't go to waste. They will just be pawned off to friends and family who like dried fruit in their baked goods.

To see all the other variations (and if the P&Q was any indication there will be lots of versions out there) be sure to check the TWD Blogroll or check the main page for the new Leave Your Link (LYL) feature where members can leave their direct link to their post each week.

TWD: Chocolate Oatmeal Almost Candy-Bars

Another Tuesdays with Dorie and I'm just glad I was able to participate. This week's recipe is for Chocolate Oatmeal Almost Candy-Bars, as chosen by Lillian at Confectionia's Realm.

A bar cookie such as these would normally be right up my alley, but lately I'm just not that into really, really 'heavy' cookie type desserts like this one - perhaps because baby is making me feel plenty heavy all on her own. Since ultimately the recipe didn't really reduce all that well (no half-size cans of sweetened condensed milk around here that I could find - if they even exist) that I decided to forget about trying to reduce the size of the batch and just make the whole kit and kaboodle instead. Which made a lot of cookies.

I decided that, since we are now in the home stretch with this pregnancy (six weeks to go and looking good!) that I would just cut the bars and freeze the bulk of them for times in the near future when I need a little snack. While I haven't tried one straight from the freezer yet, they remind me of a similar cookie that a friend of mind makes that is delicious frozen, so why not. Otherwise, I'll just let them thaw a bit - maybe I'll even just end up taking a box of these with me to the hospital to share with the nurses and staff and visitors or something - I'm sure they would be appreciated there.

The only change I ended up making to the recipe was to just leave out the raisins in the chocolate layer, which worked just fine. I'm just learning to try to like raisins in the first place, but I still just can't seem to get behind the chocolate/raisin combo. Maybe someday!

Be sure to check out how the rest of the TWD Bakers faired this week - it seemed like there were a lot of substitution ideas bouncing around during the P&Q so there should be some interesting variations out there.

TWD: Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

Here we are again, with another Tuesday. This week, Stefany of Proceed with Caution chose the Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters - or in my case, a creamy version as I didn't have any chunky peanut butter on-hand this time. The cookie recipes for the next two weeks really couldn't have better timing for me.

Aidan had his very first soccer game last week and they sent around a snack sign-up sheet for parents to bring treats to the games. Since I got the sheet first, I hurried and snagged the next two games. Easy peesy - this week, take a wild guess what the Blue Dragons will be getting for an after game snack? Yup - these tasty cookies! They were a really great cross between an oatmeal cookie, had a light peanut butter taste and nice big chunks of melty chocolate.

While I am more of a chocolate chip purist, these were certainly easy to make and tasted great. They should be a hit at the game too! Make sure to check out what all the other Tuesdays with Dorie gals and guys were up to this week.

RFJ: Ginger Orange Madeleines with Fresh Orange Glaze

I was hopping around the food blogs on this rainy day and, since it is raining so much, I've been in a real baking mood. I decided to check out the ingredients for the Royal Foodie Joust and was instantly inspired when I read that the ingredients were whole grains, citrus and ginger. I love these ingredients and instantly decided it was time to whip together (ok, as quickly as they can be whipped together anyway) some madeleines using these ingredients.

I have been practising my madeleine making skills for a little while now, but this is the first time I've branched out and tried to adapt a recipe into my own creation. So, while this was meant to be my entry into the Joust, I think I may have been looking at the ingredients after the deadline (not sure) and missed the boat. Either way, these were fun to make and it was really fun to think outside the box for me.

For the citrus I used fresh orange zest (in the madeleines) and fresh orange juice in the glaze. For the ginger, I wavered between using ground ginger and fresh, but since I had fresh ginger and it is still (technically, weather aside today) still summer, I decided to go with freshly grated ginger as well. My whole grains of choice were whole wheat pastry flour (which I checked to make sure was whole grain, but did not mill myself) and old-fashioned whole oats (which I did mill myself). It was super fun to mill the oats myself and use some healthier ingredients in the madeleines. I also added some dark brown sugar, well, because I am a serious fan of all things brown sugar. I hope you will give these a try. They really turned out pretty wonderful!

Whole Grain Ginger Orange Madeleines with Fresh Orange Glaze
(Method and recipe adapted from La Tartine Gourmand)

Ingredients:
3 large eggs
2 oz whole oats, ground into flour
2 1/4 oz whole wheat pastry flour
1 stick salted butter (4 oz), melted and cooled
1 oz dark brown sugar
3.5 oz fine sugar
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:
Melt the butter and set aside to let cool.

In a small bowl, sift together the wheat and oat flours with the baking powder. Set aside.

Place the eggs in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until thick.

Add the sugars, orange zest and finely grated ginger and beat until very light in color and texture.

Remove the bowl and add the sifted flours and baking powder. Mix together gently with wooden spoon or spatula. Gently add the melted, cooled butter using the spoon or spatula. Mix until well combined.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat your oven to 420 F.

Grease madeleine molds and fill 3/4 full. Do not overfill.

Bake for 5 to 6 minutes (to get the bump); reduce the oven temperature to 350 F and continue to bake for about 4 to 5 minutes more.

Remove the madeleines from the oven and unmold to cool on a rack. Allow to cool almost completely before dipping the "shell" side into the glaze. Place back on the racks and allow the glaze to set.

For the Glaze:
2/3 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons fresh orange juice

Whisk together well til smooth and combined - glaze should be fairly thin. Heat briefly in microwave to melt sugar and warm the glaze.

Makes about 20 large madeleines or 30 minis.

Chocolate Oatmeal Cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream and a Book Review

Recently I was invited to join a small book club with a few other food bloggers (being called The Edible Word - and how perfect is that?!) by the lovely Cath of A Blithe Palate and wonderful Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness. The idea was to get together with a few others who like to cook or bake and who also love to read. You already know how I feel about food, but you may not have known that I come from a long line of avid readers. I pretty much go crazy if I don't have something to read.

For our first book we read the new book by Kate Jacobs called Comfort Food. Kate has a lovely website and you can even get a chance to win a tote bag, sign up for her newsletter and even see if she is going to be in a city near you.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Comfort Food. It naturally combined two of my favorite things and pulled it all into an engaging read. It is the story of a woman who is approaching her 50th birthday - and she isn't too thrilled about it. On top of that she is a food television star and life is getting a bit shaky there as well. It is a story about family, love, humor and grief - all mixed in with a great helping of lots of good talk about food and the passion for cooking.

The book follows Gus, our heroine, but it also follows the stories of the characters swirling around her as well so the pace never really feels like it bogs down at all. I'm not going to tell you much more because I don't want to ruin it, but I will say that it didn't take me long to read this book at all, just a couple of days, because I really didn't want to leave the story. I was enjoying being a part of their world too much!

You should definitely read this book if you are looking for an entertaining story with lots of emotion and passion, as well as interesting characters. If that doesn't sound like your kind of story, well, then, I don't know what is wrong with you! ; )

Now, the second half of the fun of being a part of The Edible Word is that, since the book we reviewed has so much great food in it, there is plenty of good culinary scope for the imagination too - so, we all had the challenge to make something from the book or inspired from the book.

I actually didn't have a hard time deciding what I wanted to make because I knew what it would be from the first line in the book (which you can read the first chapter on Kate's website). I just didn't know what kind it would until almost the end of the book. A birthday cake! A Chocolate Oatmeal Cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream to be exact.

Now, the surprise here is that I'm not going to tell you who the birthday cake actually ends up being made for. It isn't who you think from anything I've written so far though. As I mentioned, I knew it was going to be a birthday cake, just not what kind. Since it is supposed to be a dressed up celebration cake it is a decorated with cute little chocolate curls and white beaded frosting).

How did I decide on a Chocolate Oatmeal Cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream? In the book, there is an important scene which includes this cake. So, in Kate's own words straight from the book - here is the basis for the cake recipe I decided to create:

"What do you think?" Gus said, looking expectantly into their faces.

"Of what?"

"This," she said. "It's Sunday dinner like we used to have it." She led Aimee and Sabrina over to the counter, which was covered with mixing bowls holding oats, cocoa, chocolate chips, flour, and eggs at room temperature.

"We're going to make a birthday cake," said Gus... "

Now, I didn't have a recipe for any kind of cake even remotely like this to go off of since I've never had a cake with oats in it before, but I put my trust in Kate here, and she didn't lead me wrong with the cake idea (or her book)! I decided to try to come up with a recipe that included all the ingredients she named (and of course a few more) to make the cake.

The icing recipe comes from Gale Gand, but the idea also comes from Comfort Food and Kate.

" Together, as a family, they mixed the ingredients and greased the pans, put the batter in the oven, and then made a simple icing out of butter, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla beans. "

So, how was it? This cake was actually pretty perfect! Nothing about this was remotely fussy to make and the results were wonderful. The cake itself was dense and not too rich (but just rich enough) and had a great texture, not crumbly really at all. It doesn't rise much because it is a heavy batter, but it isn't dry at all. The icing was heavenly and could very well be my new easy go to recipe for a simple vanilla buttercream. When I started out to try to create this cake, I really had no idea what it would be like, but I am very happy with it. You could easily make this into a snacking cake for an afternoon treat or cupcakes too (oh, and I stole a little nibble still warm from the oven while the chocolate bits were still melty and let me just tell you, it was ridiculously good)!

It is definitely a new comfort food! Thanks to Kate Jacobs - for a great book, and a great new recipe idea! Thanks to Cath and Stephanie for inviting me in on the fun! Can't wait to get together again!

Now, you (yes, you) - go get Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs, then come home, make this cake and enjoy a nice big slice with a tall glass of cold milk and spend your afternoon sitting in a nice cozy chair reading and eating cake. Seriously, can life get much better?

Chocolate Oatmeal Cake
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup cocoa powder (preferably, Dutch processed)
1 cup buttermilk, well shaken
2 cups quick/instant oats (1-minute NOT old-fashioned)
3.5 ounces bittersweet chocolate (1 bar of 70% Lindt Bittersweet is perfect), chopped into "chip" sized chunks - or the equivalent of your favorite chocolate chips)

Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans (or one 9x13-inch pan) well. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment (or with a hand-mixer fitted with beaters in a large mixing bowl) cream together the sugar and butter until well combined and the sugar is mostly absorbed into the butter - will still be crumbly and somewhat dry looking. Add the eggs one at a time and mix in well, beating on medium-high speed for 1 minute after each addition. Add the vanilla and continue beating for 1 minute, or until mixture is well combined, light and fluffy.

In another bowl, sift and whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa powder. Add the flour mixture and the buttermilk to the sugar mixture in alternating additions: flour, milk, flour, milk, flour. Mix until just combined after each addition, finishing the last addition of flour by hand with a rubber spatula while you fold in the oats and chocolate chunks.

Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and spread with the spatula to even out the batter. This batter will be very thick, more like brownie batter. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes for the two round pans, or 35 minutes for the 9x13 pan, or until a toothpick comes out clean. The batter will have risen only slightly and will be very dense and heavy.

Remove the pans from the oven and place on a rack to cool completely. Remove the cakes and frost as follows: cake, approximately 1 cup of buttercream spread on top, layer with the other cake, frost with enough of the remaining frosting to cover the top and sides. Decorate as desired. I used some grated bittersweet chocolate (from another Lindt bar).

Easy Vanilla Bean Buttercream
(Adapted from this recipe, by Gale Gand)

Makes just enough for a not too thick layer (as shown) on this cake - if you like more frosting, you could make an additional half recipe of the frosting quite easily by using the alternate measurements in italics. There wasn't that much frosting to decorate with, so if you like decorating with frosting instead of chocolate shavings, use the alternate).

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (1 1/2 cup)
3 cups confectioners' sugar (4 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract (1 1/2 teaspoon)
1 to 2 Tablespoons heavy cream (1 1/2 to 3 Tablespoons)

In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla bean paste or extract and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency.

Weekend Breakfast Blogging - Healthy Eats (Yes, Me, Healthy)

Healthy. Yes, me. I know, hard to believe! I stumbled across this recipe a couple of years ago when I was looking for a healthier, non-dairy way to make pancakes for Aidan that would get him some better nutrition. When I found the recipe on this New York apples website I thought, well, we'll give it a try.



I really didn't know how they would turn out the first time I tried them. Though they are a bit more of a crumbly pancake once they have syrup on them, they are delicious. We all love them and Aidan especially does, whether I make them into waffles or pancakes - and a big hallelujah for anything that Aidan will eat that is remotely good for him.

These pancakes which include such ingredients as apple, oats, yogurt, milk, egg, wheat flour and cinnamon, have great staying power too, unlike a lot of pancakes that leave you hungry before lunch.



I've linked to the original recipe here because they have a lot of other good apple recipes on this website. I've given you my version below, which only differs in the addition of the cinnamon (I don't think the apple folks would object, after all apples and cinnamon go together like, well, apples and cinnamon, right?). Also, because of Aidan's dairy allergy I haven't ever actually made this recipe without vanilla soymilk and vanilla soy yogurt. Oh, and I also really like that this recipe doesn't have any salt added to it.

I thought that this would actually qualify as a vegetarian breakfast, though obviously not vegan. Either way, we love it and since we have much love and respect for our vegetarian/vegan friends, freely and openly admit we would die of starvation (why am I speaking in the royal "we" voice? I have no idea. Just humor me.). I know I could never live on veggies alone (mainly because, I really don't like too many veggies - I am trying to change this). So, I thought I would enter this into the Weekend Breakfast Blogging event being hosted this month by Tasty Palettes - this month the theme was for healthy breakfast eats. I hope that you will all agree, that this fits the bill.

Apple Oat Pancakes

1 large apple, cored, peeled and grated (I use Gala, because it is what we usually have on hand)
1 cup quick oats (yes, they have to be the quick 1-minute oats)
1 cup soy milk (we use vanilla, again, it is what we have on hand)
1 cup vanilla soy yogurt
3 eggs
3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour (I just like it because it is a little softer)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup canola oil

Combine the grated apple, oats, milk, and yogurt in a large mixing bowl.



Stir well to combine. Let sit and mingle for 15 minutes (don't skip this step, if you do the oats won't cook right - use the time to let your griddle heat up).

In another bowl combine the wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Whisk to combine well.

Add the eggs to the apple oat mixture and mix to combine well.



Add the dry ingredients on top of the wet and stir to combine well. Add the oil and stir that in well.



Ladle the batter onto a hot, light oiled griddle (unless non-stick) and cook til browned on the first side (about 1 1/2 minutes at 350 degree F). Cook on the other side. Serve hot with your choice of butter or, if you are like the boys at my house, your favorite peanut butter, and some maple syrup.



Enjoy!