Oatmeal Crumb Bars {Recipe!}

 I'm going to share a really easy recipe. Because who has time for complicated recipes? Well, I do. But I don't really have much of a life.

If you have a food processor and ten minutes, then you are halfway to bliss. These oatmeal bars (which were featured in my fourth of july post) taste healthy enough to eat for breakfast! 

 

Ingredients: 

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup almond flour (if you don't have this on hand, don't buy it because it's super expensive. You can use 1/3 cup almonds, 1/3 cup walnuts or pecans, or 1/3 cup of additional flour. Just use what you have! This is a forgiving recipe)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

Throw all of these ingredients in your food processor and give it a few pulses so that it's well blended.  Then add

• 1 stick of unsalted butter (cubed)

And whir it until the mixture clumps up and looks like this: 

Finally add

• 1 cup oatmeal

And give it three more pulses. Voila!

 

Take a 9x9 pan and line it with parchment (if you don't have parchment, use tin foil).  Spray or butter the parchment.  Then, take half your oatmeal mixture and smoosh it into the bottom of the pan. LIke, really smooth so that it makes a crust.

 

Then, get your filling. You can use pretty much anything - a pie filling or even jam will work (these are amazing with raspberry jam!)  I had some peach and blueberry pie filling left over from the weekend, so I wanted to use that up.  Spread the filing on your oatmeal crust, fairly thin but enough to make a delicious fruity layer. 

Scatter the remaining oatmeal crumb on top of the fruit. Gently press the topping into the fruit (no smooshing!)  Bake the bars in a 350* oven for 50-60 minutes. Allow the bars to cool completely before slicing. 

 

*If you don't have a food processor, you can still make these. Just whisk all the dry ingredients together, and then rub in the butter like you were making biscuits or pie dough.  Easy peasy!

 

 

 

Savory Shortbread {Recipe}

Oh em gee. I just made the most delicious snacks. I'm endangering my own welfare  by OD-ing on these gorgonzola and pecan shortbread.

Last night, we watched about 800 episodes of The West Wing, because neither my husband nor I have ever seen it (side note: I can't believe how dated that show seems now! Their ginormous cell phones and laptops are almost as awesome as their highwaisted pants and baggy trench coats. I love you, 90s).  Obviously a cheese plate was in order. At the end of our West Wing-athon, we had a smidgen of this delicious blue cheese left over. It's called Rogue River Creamery Oregonzola, because It's gorgonzola from Oregon. HA! Cheese that uses puns? It must be made for me. 

I didn't want to throw away this tiny scrap of delicious cheese - have you SEEN the price of cheese lately? My secret is to scrounge through the discount bin at Whole Foods, where you can buy the weirdly-shaped cheese butts left over after they cut the nice, pretty pieces of cheese. They usually cost only $2-3 and are the perfect size for a two-person cheese plate.  I'm annoyed that I told you that. Don't go stealing all of the good cheese butts, now. 

I thought I'd try making a savory shortbread to go with tonight's cheese plate.  It's like the cheese plate circle of life. 

These are so tasty, like a light and crispy cheese straw with the meatiness of the pecans. The cornstarch seems like a weird ingredient, but it adds a delightful melt-in-your mouth feel.  

Gorgonzola Pecan Shortbread

In a mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the following on low speed.  It's ok if it's lumpy (the blue cheese won't totally break down), but just be sure that all of the ingredients are incorporated well.

• 1.25 ounces of high quality blue cheese (that's just what I had - you could use a little more or less based on your tastes)
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• A few grinds of black pepper 

When those are creamy, dump in the following and mix  on low speed until it comes together: 

• 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup flour
• Pinch of salt 
• 1/4 cup toasted pecans, chopped

Put the dough in plastic wrap and form it into a log.  Pop it in the freezer for 30 minutes or the fridge for a few hours. It will stay fine in the fridge for a few days or the freezer for a few months. When you're ready to bake, hack off a few slices and put them in a preheated 350* oven for about 10 minutes.

DELICIOUS!

In other news, these roasted cherry tomatoes are making my house smell Ah-MAZ-ing: 

They're like tomato gummy bears. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have at least six episodes of West Wing to watch before this day is through. 

One dough, three ways (part 3)

Are you all sick of butter cookies yet? The answer to that question is obviously no.  Today marks the climax to a thrilling trilogy of baked goods… if you missed the nutella pinwheels or Linzer cookies, be sure to check those out. 

The last cookie of the bunch is simple to make - as soon as you master Royal Icing.  I made these fun Valentine's cookies and handed them out to my coworkers at the restaurant. I immediately wished I had used slightly less provocative catch phrases on the cookies… there are a lot of "studs" and "hot stuffs" who have big heads over there now. Hopefully they didn't get the WRONG IDEA (don't laugh. If anybody is the type of girl who would try to hit on someone via a witty cookie, it's me). 

For the cookies, follow the recipe below and roll out the dough just as you would the Linzer cookies (obviously, you can use any shaped cookie cutter you desire!). Bake them at 350* for 8 minutes and allow them to cool completely. I actually made mine several days in advance (when I made the Linzers) and let them chill out in a tupperware.

Blank canvas. 

Royal icing is kind of gross, but it's really the only way to make these classic sugar cookies.  Basically, you take some powdered sugar (I probably used about a pound) and then mix in a bit of egg whites to get the consistency that you want. A little bit of egg white goes a long way, so start with just a few drops.  I used my mixer to avoid any lumps. 

Ta da!

It's a good idea to buy those little cartons of pasteurized egg whites because 1) you don't have to separate eggs and 2) they are pasteurized so it's safe for little kiddos and old people to eat. No salmonella on my watch, jokers. 

So the concept of Royal Icing is to make a dam with stiff frosting and then "flood" the inside of your dam with much jucier frosting. I made the thick white icing first and put it in a piping bag with a small tip. 

Dam, girl. 

I made the heart outlines on my cookies and then made my "flood icing", which I did by adding more egg whites and red food coloring to the icing I already had. Make sure you save some of your thick icing so you can write provocative sayings on your cookies as you see fit! (FYI "Stud Muffin" is way too long to fit on a cookie. If you can do this, you are amazing)

To flood the cookie, place a spoonful of runny icing on the center of the cookie and then tilt it around so it drips to the edges. If it's not drippy enough, add more egg whites. If it's too drippy, add more sugar. It's not exactly rocket science. A toothpick can help you get the frosting all the way to the edges. 

Ooh - Here's a fun trick that will help you make heart shaped decorations on your cookie.  'Tis the season, right? First, fill the cookie with a light colored icing. Then, add a few drops of darker colored icing on top.

With a toothpick, drag a straight line from just above the red circle to the bottom of the red circle. You want to catch some of the pink icing on your toothpick, because this will give the heart it's v-shaped top. Check it out! 

Hearts on hearts. Swoon.

Of course, my favorite way to decorate cookies is to dump a ton of sprinkles on them. SPRINKLES!  That looks good here too.  If you want to pipe a design or write something on your cookies, just be sure that you give the icing ample time to dry (30-60 minutes).  Nothing is more frustrating than spending tons of time making beautiful cookies and then smooshing them because you try to touch them before they are dry. Take it from one who knows. 

And there you have it! Three different cookies with one batch of cookie dough. Go forth and impress your neighbors, friends, and significant others this Valentine's day. 

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1-2-3 Dough (Recipe)

• 4 ounces sugar (aka 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon if you don't' have a scale)
• 2 sticks butter
• 12 oz (2 2/3 cups flour) + 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg + 1/2 tsp vanilla

Instructions: 

1. In a mixer, cream butter and sugar on low speed until light and fluffy
2. Add egg and vanilla and mix to combine. Scrape your bowl and mix a bit more.
3. Dump in flour and salt mixture all at once and mix on low to combine.
4. Proceed with recipe as described above! 

 

 

 

 

One dough, three ways (part 2)

Hopefully you are stuffing your face with Nutella pinwheels are you are reading this.  If not, please read this post immediately and then we can talk.  Good? Ok. Let's talk. 

Cookie #2 is a riff on my favorite cookie of all time, the Linzer Cookie.  Linzer cookies are raspberry sandwich cookies the that have hazelnut dough.  This version uses a butter cookie (the 1-2-3 dough) as the base, but I've actually found that this combination is pretty delicious. Plus little kids tend to like the butter cookies better. And by "little kids" I naturally mean "my boyfriend". 

So to make these cookies, you'll mix your dough the same way you would for the pinwheels (see below for ingredients and instructions).  Immediately after mixing the dough, you'll want to break it up into a few "bricks" and roll them out between parchment, just like the nutella swirls.  If your can clear off a shelf in your fridge, just pop the whole sheet of dough in there for 20-30 minutes. Warm cookie dough = no bueno.

Move over, brewskis. It's cookie time. 

After the dough is nice and chilled, take it out on the work surface and cut out a bunch of circles.  

Since Valentine's day is coming up, I made little heart cut outs on my cookies. 

 

Again, bake these for 8 minutes at 350*.  Once they are cool, move them to your work surface and pair each top cookie with a bottom cookie. 

Spread a thin layer of raspberry jam on the bottom half (I use Bon Maman brand, because it's amazing).  Make sure it's a pretty thin layer, or else the jam will come squirting out the sides when you bite into it. That's not classy.

Before you build your sandwiches, move the top cookies aside and dump powdered sugar on them.  Like, a lot of sugar.  Check out the aftermath of my cookie sprinkling:

LIKE A BEAUTIFUL SNOWSTORM! Then just set the tops on the jam and gently press down. Voila!

These cookies make a great valentine's treat for that special someone. Wink. 

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1-2-3 Dough (Recipe)

• 4 ounces sugar (aka 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon if you don't' have a scale)
• 2 sticks butter
• 12 oz (2 2/3 cups flour) + 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg + 1/2 tsp vanilla

Instructions: 

1. In a mixer, cream butter and sugar on low speed until light and fluffy
2. Add egg and vanilla and mix to combine. Scrape your bowl and mix a bit more.
3. Dump in flour and salt mixture all at once and mix on low to combine.
4. Proceed with recipe as described above! 

 

 

 

 

 

One dough, three ways (part 1)

I could be alone in thinking this, but eating one kind of cookie is never enough. What good is an oreo without an EL fudge to balance him out?  Have you ever had a peanut butter cookie sandwiched in between two chocolate chip cookies?? Amazing! 

While one type of cookie is good, three kinds of cookies are way better. Duh. But luckily for you, I have the secret on how you can wow your guests with a great cookie platter and only have to make one batch of cookie dough!  This cookie dough is one of the first things you learn in pastry school and it's called 1-2-3 dough.  Not because it's easy as 1-2-3 (even though it is!), but because that's the ratio of ingredients in the recipe. 

• 1 part sugar
• 2 parts butter 
• 3 parts flour
• Add four eggs for every pound of sugar
• Add a splash of vanilla (or almond, etc) and a pinch of salt

Ok, so the egg part kind of breaks the trick. But still, this is way easy to throw together, especially if you have a scale! And this cookie dough is infinitely versatile. It's easy to roll for cutouts and easy to add mix-ins for different drop cookies. Over the next few days, I'll show you a couple of different ways to use it.

The first cookies I made were Nutella pinwheels. These cookies look much more difficult than they are. Here's what you need to do. 

1. Mix the dough (use the instructions below).
2. Pull out half the dough and pop it in the fridge for a minute.
3. Throw a big glob of Nutella into the remaining dough (use your judgement/love of Nutella to guide this.)  If your dough looks too sticky, you can add in a tablespoon or two of cocoa powder to balance that out. 
4. Roll out both squares of dough. The best way to do this is to put the blob of dough between two sheets of parchment paper or wax paper. This way, you can move the dough around easily and it won't stick to your rolling pin or work surface. Move as quickly as you can, because you don't want the dough to get too warm!
5. When you have two similar sized squares, rip one of the pieces of paper off each square and sandwich them together.  Lightly roll the dough with your pin to ensure that the chocolate and vanilla dough are nice and stuck together. When you rip off the top paper, it should look something like this: 
   
   
6. If you want, you can trim the edges a bit so that they line up nicely. We're going to slice 'n' bake these cookies, so there's no need to be a perfectionist here. I'm sure you have a "friend" who won't mind eating the janky end pieces. (PS That friend is me. Send them over.)
7. Starting with the edge closest to you, roll up the dough, like so: 
   
8. After I had a big log of cookie, I sprinkled a bunch of crushed up hazelnuts on the counter and rolled the whole log in the nuts.  You could use sprinkles instead of nuts, if you're feeling extra zesty.  You should end up with something like this: 
9. At this point, you're going to want to wrap your cookie log in plastic, pop it in the freezer, and forget about it for a bit. If you try to slice and bake the dough while it's warm, it will mess up your perfect pinwheels.  Then you've wasted, like, twenty minutes of energy for nothing. Lame.

 

 Come back in a few hours, slice up your frozen cookies with a sharp knife, and bake them right away in a 350* oven for about 8 minutes. You don't want them to get brown!  Baking the cookies while frozen helps them keep their shape.

 

As you can see, the unbaked cookies (above) look pretty similar to the final product.  These cookies are amazing with a cup of coffee for breakfast, or as with an espresso as dessert after a rich meal. Disclaimer: my opinions may be influenced by the fact that I really want a cup of coffee right now. Enjoy! 

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1-2-3 Dough (Recipe)

• 4 ounces sugar (aka 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon if you don't' have a scale)
• 2 sticks butter
• 12 oz (2 2/3 cups flour) + 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg + 1/2 tsp vanilla

Instructions: 

1. In a mixer, cream butter and sugar on low speed until light and fluffy
2. Add egg and vanilla and mix to combine. Scrape your bowl and mix a bit more.
3. Dump in flour and salt mixture all at once and mix on low to combine.
4. Proceed with recipe as described above!