Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Last night Super G and I had an interesting phone conversation. She was complaining that I was anticipating not just one snow day, but two if the full 12 inches of snow hits like it's supposed to. It started at 7am this morning. Right on schedule! (As it turns out, Super G can no longer whine about there being no snow days in New York City. School is cancelled for her tomorrow too!)

To make her feel better Super G and I were discussing the benefits of living in New York City. Not that I really know, because I've only lived in what seems like every major metropolitan area in the Midwest not the East Coast. So I pointed out things like being able to find rice flour, or marscapone cheese and being able to go to places like fancy chocolate shops and Murray's cheese shop, and if she wants Indian food she doesn't have to cook it herself. Super G then started to feel better because, as she pointed out to me, she was able to have some Scharffenberger cocoa powder delivered to her house with her groceries.

I don't think I can find Scharffenberger cocoa out here. Well certainly not in this county anyway. Askinosie isn't available either. I have to admit that I was starting to feel a little blue. The best cocoa I can find is whatever Walmart carries. But then I started to think of the advantages of being out here in the middle of Nowhere, Ohio. For example, all of our meat is raised lovingly by little kids and is pretty near organic. Also, the secretary at the school I'm doing my student teaching at sells farm fresh brown eggs from her very own chickens.

Super G may have access to fancy expensive specialty foods, but I know where mine comes from. I know the 15 year old 4H "farmers". And sometimes you just don't need fancy specialty foods. Some good old fashioned oats will do. And some raisins. And there you have an iconic cookie. The Oatmeal Raisin cookie.

Sometimes when I'm lying awake at night trying to go to sleep I create impossible stories in my head. Nothing that will ever come about, but fun to think about kinds of things. Like owning a bakery. That would be fun. Well except for the whole employees and taxes and inventory and rent and electricity bills and stuff like that. But if I ever did own a bakery, these would be the oatmeal cookies I would sell. They are sturdy and yummy and yet down-home and delicious. I think the oatmeal cookie recipe from the Quaker Oats box has just been bumped from my recipe collection!

The recipe comes from a Christmas present cookbook from my brother and his beautiful wife. The Grand Central Baking Book. The recipes are easy to follow. The photos are drool-worthy. And frankly, if every recipe in the book is as good as the oatmeal cookies, then I may have to make a trip to Portland (or Seattle) and eat at the Grand Central Bakery. As it turns out, they celebrate the same food philosophy I do. They are all about foods that are locally grown, artisan breads, and homemade scratch cooking. Yum! (If you perhaps live out in the Pacific Northwest, you should really check them out. The bread is apparently in grocery stores, and there are bakery locations in both Portland and Seattle.)

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

from The Grand Central Baking Book

1 3/4 cup (8.75 ounces) all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 1/4 cups (11.5 ounces) rolled oats

1 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 5 baking sheets with parchment paper (or if you don't have that many sheets, only line 2, but you will have to wait while cookies cool on the baking sheets.)

Whisk to combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, and sugars on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Scraping the bowl occasionally. While the mixer is running, crack the eggs into a liquid measuring cup and add the vanilla extract. Reduce the speed to low and pour the eggs, one at a time, into the batter. Allow the first egg to be fully incorporated into the dough before adding the second. Scrape the bowl again.

Add the dry ingredients in 2 or 3 additions with the mixer on low speed. Scrape the bowl again. Mix the oats and raisins in the now empty flour bowl and then add them to the dry ingredients. Mix just until everything is well distributed.

Weigh out scoops of dough that are approximately 1.5 ounces each. Roll these scoops into balls. Place 6 balls on each cookie sheet and then gently flatten them to about 1/2 inch thick. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through cooking time. When they are done they should look a little underdone in the middle, but golden at the edges. Pull the sheets out of the oven and let the cookies cool on the cookie sheets. (The cookies continue to bake on the hot cookie sheets.)

These aren't the quickest batch of cookies to make, but they really are worth the time spent making them!

Please Sir, I'd Like Some More

I am a lucky girl. I have a great mother in law. I know I've let this be known several times, but really, I mean it. Back in early January, she asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told her I wanted a bread baking book or some athletic socks. She tried to get me an artisan bread book a friend of hers had, but she could only find it used. Instead, she gave me the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook. I Love it. Really. Madly, deeply, love it.

See, I'm a fairly big dork. And I love to read cookbooks. I look at the recipes and the descriptions and I imagine how it would taste and whether the Brain would eat the recipe and whether I could get the ingredients here. Sometimes I try to imagine how fattening things are and whether my butt could really take any more expanding. But being that this is really a crazy fantastic cookbook, it has the nutrition information for almost all of the recipes.

As of right now, I've managed to get through the breakfast section. While things like quinoa pancakes look unbelievable, I'm not sure where I'd manage to get some quinoa flour out here in Nowhere, Ohio. Especially with this snow/ freezing rain blend we've gotten today. I did pick up some quinoa in Michigan this weekend, but I don't know if I can make my own flour. But I digress. In the midst of this baking book, there was a recipe for porridge.

Porridge? Porridge brings to mind cold and rainy weather and orphans and tasteless gruel and musicals about poor people. Or at least it used to for me. This was the most amazing breakfast EVER. I haven't wanted a second helping of breakfast since I was a kid and my mom once in a while bought a sugar cereal, like Graham Crackers, or Honey Nut Cheerios. Not only was it delicious, but it was packed with fiber and whole grains. The porridge, not Honey Nut Cheerios. I happened to have almost all of the ingredients on hand too. I didn't have the exact fruits the recipe called for, and I only had about 1/4 cup of heavy cream for the Maple Cream. But really I don't think the Maple Cream is necessary. Don't get me wrong, it was soooooo good. It was rich and tasty and made my eyes roll back in my head. But the porridge with the fruit would be a very good breakfast with just a sprinkle of brown sugar. Way more healthy too.

And the porridge was a great way to start a day with such miserable weather. It even kept me full through shoveling. Too bad I forgot to pack my own lunch. Such a healthy breakfast did make me feel better about going next door to the local coffeeshop for a brownie for lunch though. And oh yay! I get to have leftovers for breakfast tomorrow! The Brain didn't want any. Silly man.

Irish Oatmeal with Dried Fruit and Maple Cream

from King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking

2 servings

1/2 cup steel-cut oats

1 1/2 cups water

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp dried prunes, chopped (about 3)

1 Tbsp currants

1 Tbsp golden raisins

2 Tbsp craisins

The night before you want to serve the porridge, soak the oats in enough water to cover them plus an inch. The next morning, drain the oats and place them in a saucepan with 1 1/2 cups water and the salt. Bring the oats to a simmer over medium heat and simmer, stirring, until they're tender, about 10 to 12 minutes total cooking time. Stir in the dried fruits and let the porridge sit for 5 minutes. To serve the porridge, divide the oatmeal between 2 bowls and serve with a sprinkle of brown sugar and the maple cream (recipe follows).

Nutrition Information per serving (3/4 cup porridge): 39g whole grains, 190 cal, 3g fat, 6g protein, 37g complex carbohydrates, 5g dietary fiber, 271mg sodium, 269mg potassium, 64RE vitamin A, 2mg iron, 31mg calcium, 184mg phosphorus

Maple Cream

Yield: 1 cup, 8 servings

1 cup heavy cream

1 cinnamon stick

1 small strip orange peel

1 star anise

1/4 cup maple syrup

Combine the cream with the cinnamon stick, orange peel, and anise in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick, orange peel and star anise, and whisk in the maple syrup. Increase the heat and simmer, stirring, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes more. Serve with porridge.

According to the cookbook this cream "keeps well in the refrigerator, and a quick zap in the microwave warms it just enough to serve."

They didn't give the nutrition information for the Maple Cream.