HELEN FLETCHER’S OATMEAL COOKIES

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

A few months ago I started following the blog hosted by Helen Fletcher, a fantastic baker who has this to say about her site:

With 25 years experience owning and operating a wholesale specialty bakery servicing hotels, restaurants and caterers, I am going to share a wealth of information I’ve gained over those years with you.

That would definitely be enough to capture my attention, but once I started browsing her site one more thing became clear: Helen not only has tremendous experience in baking, but she is also a natural teacher. You know how some people have a special talent to explain things clearly, to emphasize what really matters? That is exactly what she does. She is also the author of three cookbooks: The New Pastry Cookbook, European Tarts, and Baking as a Business (available in PDF format).

Just to give you a glimpse of the recipes (actually they are more like tutorials) available on her site, here are some of the ones that tempt me: 27 Layer Tuille Torte, Chocolate Strawberry Mousse Torte, A Trio of Angel Food Cakes, Orange Almond Madeleines, and even the show-stopping Hungarian Dobos Torte calls my name, as her instructions are so detailed. Now, don’t hold your breath, I am not attempting that one… yet. Taking baby steps, I started with harmless cookies.

OATMEAL COOKIES
(recipe reprinted with permission from Helen S. Fletcher – Pastries like a Pro)

3 cups old-fashioned Quaker Oats (do not use the quick cooking type!)
1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour (160 grams or 5 2/3 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar (225 grams or 8 ounces)
1 cup sugar (200 grams or 7 ounces)
1/2 cup unsalted butter (114 grams, 4 ounces or 1 stick)
1/2 cup shortening (114 grams or 4 ounces)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pound total chocolate chips, raisins, dried fruit or nuts in any combination (454 grams)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together the oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Set aside.

Cream the sugars, butter and shortening until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until combined. Add the vanilla. If the mixture curdles, don’t worry about it.

Add the flour mixture half at a time, beating on low until completely combined. Lastly, add the nuts, chips or whatever you are adding in.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Drop the cookies using a #40 disher or 2 tablespoons spacing them apart. Double pan and bake for 9 minutes, turn and bake 8 to 9 more. They should still be puffy when you pull them out. They will drop and finish baking on the baking sheet as they cool. Cool for about 8 to 10 minutes and remove to a cooling rack with a spatula. Cool completely.

Yield: Approximately 50 – 3 inch cookies.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: What made me want to make this recipe right away was this statement by Helen: “I wish I had a nickel for every time someone told me how much they loved this oatmeal cookie. It is not your usual oatmeal cookie… This is a chocolate chip version that is not shy on spices.” Oatmeal, chocolate, and spices. Cannot go wrong with those. As the recipe says, you can add any combination of nuts, dried fruits, and the type of chocolate you like, as long as you keep the high proportion of add-ons. That is important to give the cookies their unique texture. I used white and dark chocolate chips, walnuts, and dried cranberries. Finally, how could I skip a recipe that includes this line in the instructions?

If the mixture curdles, don’t worry about it…
😉

If only cake baking could work smoothly like that! I would be making genoises as if they were going out of style… I exchanged a few emails with Helen, to get her opinion on halving the recipe: 50 cookies seemed like too many. She was very nice, and gently tried to convince me to make the full batch. I am a bit embarrassed to admit that she was right, and I should have followed her advice. My batch made 20 cookies, as I tend to follow Phil’s preferences, and make cookies a little larger than average. The cookies vanished too fast, a full batch would have been better. Oh, well. When a pro speaks, you should listen. That’s what I keep trying to convey to our graduate students, but sometimes my shockingly wise words fall into deaf ears. Which explains 57% of my gray hair.

If a pro speaks, pay attention. If the mixture curdles, don’t worry about it.
(free advice given to you by your bewitching hostess)

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12Aug2014

BEST THING I EVER MADE: CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

If you don’t watch FoodTV Network, you may think this is my own statement. Not the case. Best Thing I Ever Made is one of the shows I continue to tape, hoping that at some point they will air new episodes. Unfortunately, not much luck in the past year or so. What I love about it is that they ask chefs to share their recipes for the best thing they ever made in a certain category, like Family Recipes, Crowd Pleasers, Cheese, or this particular episode, Sweet Endings. I didn’t know Elizabeth Falkner, but was immediately smitten by her smile, energy and aura. Instead of a super complicated recipe that required you to find beet sugar smoked on the hills of Himalaya, hers was one of the simplest formulas ever. It’s a lot more about technique than anything else.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES STRAIGHT UP OR WITH NUTS
(recipe from Elizabeth Falkner)
.
8 tablespoons (4 ounces) butter, softened but still cool
3/4 cup (6 1/4 ounces) firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon (4 ounces) granulated sugar
1 large egg (1 1/2 ounces by weight)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 cups plus 3 tablespoons (7 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped the size of chocolate chips, or bittersweet chocolate chips (about 1 1/2 cups)
3/4 cup (3 ounces) chopped walnuts, optional
.
In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon, cream together the butter and brown and granulated sugars until smooth but not over mixed. (I do this by hand, but if you use a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a handheld mixer, beat on medium speed for 1 to 2 minutes, and then scrape down the sides of the bowl before continuing.) Add the egg, vanilla and salt and stir just until combined.
.
Sift in the flour, baking soda and baking powder and stir gently just until combined. Add the chocolate and nuts if using and stir just until evenly distributed throughout the dough. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes or overnight.
.
Position the racks in the upper third and lower third of the oven and heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
.
Scoop up 1-inch balls of the dough with a spoon or mini scoop and set them 2 inches apart on the prepared pans. Bake the cookies, rotating the pans after 7 to 9 minutes, for 13 to 17 minutes until the cookies are golden brown. If you like a very soft cookie, bake them for 13 minutes. If you like a crisp cookie, bake them for 17 minutes. Transfer to racks and let cool.
.
ENJOY!
.

to print the recipe, click here.

Comments: I always make cookie dough using my Kitchen Aid mixer, but watching Elizabeth mix hers by hand using just a fork seemed like so much fun, I gave it a try. It was not as hard as I anticipated, and made it easier to judge when the butter and the sugar were properly mixed together. Two things are important in this recipe: cutting the chocolate in uneven sizes, and refrigerating the dough, the longer the better, overnight is perfect. The larger chunks of chocolate will melt in your mouth in a way that no chocolate chip will do. Of course, use the best chocolate you can find and afford.

I made the cookie dough after dinner, left it in the fridge until lunch time next morning, baked the cookies and took them to our department still warm from the oven. They were inhaled quite quickly, which I think is a nice compliment to Ms. Faulkner… 😉

Flour, sugar, egg & butter: $5.00

Trader Joe’s Bittersweet Chocolate: $6.50

Unexpectedly including your dog in a food blog shot: PRICELESS…

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13Jul2014

WHITE CHOCOLATE MACADAMIA NUT COOKIES

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

I think I should add a new category to my recipes: PLEASE MAKE ME! This one would go right in, without a shadow of a doubt. Of course, if you are part of the team that hates white chocolate and rather goes for statements like “it’s not real chocolate“, and “any chocolate connoisseur should walk away from such abnormality“… then, maybe these cookies are not for you. I am not 100% sure, though. Something about the marriage between white chocolate and macadamia nuts might shake the convictions of even the most stubborn anti-white chocolate being. Please make these. As Mel described them in her post: these are absolute perfection.

WHITE CHOCOLATE MACADAMIA NUT COOKIES

(from Mel’s Kitchen)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
12 ounces white chocolate chips
1 cup macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until the mixture is well-combined.

Add the vanilla and eggs and beat until the mixture is creamy and light in color, 2-3 minutes.

Stir in the flour, salt and soda and mix until just combined; a few streaks of flour remaining are not a problem.

Add the white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts and mix until combined and no streaks of flour remain.

Roll tablespoon (or slightly larger) size balls of dough and place on silpat or parchment lined baking sheets, 1 to 2 inches apart.

Bake for 9-11 minutes.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Growing up, I did not like nuts. In those days, back in Brazil, they were awfully expensive, something reserved for special occasions, which in our family meant…. December, with Christmas and New Year’s Eve on the horizon. My Dad would buy walnuts and pecans, still in their shells, and every evening after dinner, would sit at the sofa, patiently cracking them, one at a time. He loved to show off and crack them karate style, much to my Mom’s despair, as pieces of shell would fly everywhere, and sometimes his hand would be hurt in the process. He never admitted to being hurt, instead acted as if he felt no pain whatsoever. If a nut resisted his blows, he would walk to the door that separated the living room from my bedroom, wedge the nut between the frame and the door, and crack it by attempting to shut the door close. Mom would not approve of that either, as it makes a royal mess on the floor. As you can see, anything but a real nut cracker was part of the game. Not that we did not have one, I vividly remember a beautiful silver gadget sitting over the table, neglected to a minor decorative role. Go figure. Dad probably thought that nut crackers were for sissies. After all that hard work, he would dig chunky pieces of walnuts from the shell, and offer me. Silly child that I was, I promptly twisted my nose.

But now that I am older and wiser, I find myself in love with every single type of nut, oddly enough maybe the Brazil nut is the one I like the least. But macadamia, pistachios, walnuts, almonds, pecans, hazelnuts… love them all! Roasted, salted, raw, in sweets, in sauces, in pestos… Dad would be proud.

Make these cookies sooner rather than later…

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12Feb2013

ALMOND BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

I am not very fond of peanut butter. Its sticky, gooey nature manages to turn me off. I like to cook savory dishes with it, but I shy away from desserts that call for it as an ingredient. Until now, I had placed almond butter in the same category. But, truth be told, I never bothered to try it. Then, I read Lynda’s post about Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. A quote about this nut spread made me re-evaluate my position. Here’s what she had to say about it:

It’s not as pronounced in flavor as peanut butter which can overwhelm a cookie. Almond butter is mellower with notes of deeply roasted nuts, adding a subtle, golden background to the dough.

It was worth a try… 😉

ALMOND BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
(from Taste Food)

makes 36 cookies

1 + 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsalted creamy almond butter (not raw)
1 cup dark chocolate chips or chunks

Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl; set aside. Cream the butter and both sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer for a couple of minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla. Mix well. Mix in the almond butter until smooth. Add the flour and mix to combine, then stir in the chocolate. Refrigerate the batter for at least one hour, or up to 24 hours.
Heat oven to 350 F. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough on baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake until light golden, about 14 minutes.

Optional: Sprinkle a few flakes of sea salt on the cookies before baking.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I am so glad I did not allow prejudice to prevent me from trying this recipe! Lynda was absolutely right, the almond butter gives these cookies a very unique flavor. You won’t quite know what it is, they just taste rich and intense. I omitted the sprinkle of salt on top. However, I think the flavor of the salt added to the dough was assertive enough for us. Now, for the best part… I fell in love with almond butter! It is creamier, has a much more pleasant texture and mouth feel. All of a sudden, a new favorite concoction in my life: Toasted Ezekiel Sprouted Grain bread + Almond butter + Banana Slices. It has it all, the crunch of the bread, the sweetness of the fruit, and the rich almond butter to tie them together…

Lynda, once again your blog pointed me in a tasty direction! Thank you!

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2Nov2012

JUMPING ON THE BISCOFF BANDWAGON

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

Every once in a while an ingredient takes the spotlight and it seems that every cooking magazine, cooking show, food blogger uses it. And oohs and aahs about it. Smoked paprika had its turn. Macha powder. Farro. Chia seeds. And then, there’s Biscoff. One of the reasons it took me a while to join this crowd was the realization that I would be powerless once that jar was open. As I mentioned in the past, Delta Airline cookies make me lose all my composure. And Biscoff, dear friends, is a Delta cookie in spreadable form. My knees go weak, my mind goes wild. Please make these cookies. They will use half a cup of the addictive spread, so you’ll have a little less left to tempt you every time you pass by your pantry. And if my own post doesn’t convince you to bring a jar of the spread home, click here to see what Jessica had to say about it over at Feastie.

Heads Up: Cookie dough must be refrigerated for 3o minutes before baking!

BISCOFF OATMEAL COOKIES
(from Two Peas & their Pod)

1 + 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup Biscoff spread
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the butter, Biscoff spread, sugar, and brown sugar and beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla extra and beat until smooth.Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the dry ingredients, beating only until blended. Chill the dough 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

As it cools, turn your oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.Form the cookie dough into rounded tablespoons and place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until cookies are golden and just firm around the edges. Do not overbake.

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then remove with a spatula onto a cooling rack

.ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

If you are new to Biscoff, open the jar, close your eyes and take a good sniff at it: such a heavenly smell! These cookies are very close to perfection in my book. The inclusion of oatmeal gives them that “I am good for you” aura, so that you don’t dwell on the number of calories packed in a teaspoon of Biscoff. Go for a run, join Tony Horton for a session of plyometrics, do whatever you need for damage control, but please, make these cookies!

Need more Biscoff inspiration?

Snickerdoodle Biscoff Sandwich Cookies

Biscoff Blossoms

Biscoff Swirl Muffins

Creamy Biscoff Pudding

Chewy Biscoff Blondies

Biscoff Molten Lava Cakes
(be very very still, my heart!)

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