[Cookie 084] Oatmeal Bars with Dates and Walnuts

Eighty-four. 84. Feels good. Nice number. Still powering on, though--no stopping! I will finish this project! Eighty-four isn't even half (AH!!!!!), but 87.5 is, so let's just hold off the enormous celebrations and parades until then, okay? Great.

Now on to something more related: Dates. Do you like them? I had my first date (fruit! I'm referring to the fruit) just when making these Oatmeal Bars with Dates and Walnuts, though I have had date-flavored and date-filled sweets before. This was just my first time eating one whole and unfettered. And pitting one.

Does anyone else get totally grossed out by them!? Something about them really really grosses me out. I don't want to get into the specifics for fear of ruining this recipe for you (or even dates entirely), so I'll just let this picture do the talking.

It's just...icky. I'm not a huge fan. And the thing is, if it was just the pitting that bothered me, it wouldn't be so much an issue--but I'm not the biggest fan of how they taste either. I dunno, I suppose they just aren't my cup of tea. That being said, these bars would go great with a cup of tea as part of an afternoon snack! Maybe it will all just work out in the end!

These bars have a few bits of chopped up dates in them, but they work really well in tandem with the walnuts. It's a crunchy-savory and chewy-sweet combination at work. I also really like how Martha has you grind up some oats to make oatflour, which is used in addition to whole wheat flour--very wheaty indeed. These are super hearty, soft, sweet, and tasty bars; they actually seem more like a cake to me, though. Not a bad thing! I liked them. But then again, I could eat only granola for my entire life and be pretty happy.

The only issue I had with these was that my dad didn't like them (he's not so much a fan of the whole-wheaty, grainy, oatsy, hippie stuff. This meant that the entire batch rested on the shoulders of my mom and I, which is just too much to handle! I ate more than my fair share, but after sitting on the counter at room temperature for nearly a week, my mom kindly suggested that they might not be...safe...to eat. I thought they still tasted good! Maybe mold is just a natural flavor pairing with dates! Whatever. I retired the rest of the batch to the trash can. Moral of the story: make these bars for bake sales, parties, and for large gatherings of people. They are hard to eat a lot of in a short amount of time.

Yep, that's it. My foray into the world of dates was a little disturbing, but yielded tasty results! (Haha, remember that Simpson's episode where Marge is watching soap operas on TV and keeps writing down "with Sexy Results!" Ah memories...)

[ Oh, and a little bit of shameless self-promotion: I just started another blog solely for my photos and other little bits of nonsense. It's a Wordpress blog, because I figured WHY KEEP IT SIMPLE AND EASY, when you can make your life slightly more convoluted by using multiple websites for the same purpose?! Oh, well whatever, this is the URL: zziee.wordpress.com Drop by and say herro! ]

Oatmeal Bars with Dates and Walnuts

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients

1 cup finely ground old-fashioned rolled oats

3/4 cup whole-wheat flour

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon allspice

2 cups packed light-brown sugar

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

3 large eggs

2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups walnuts (5 1/2 ounces), toasted and chopped

1 cup dates (5 ounces), pitted and chopped

Vegetable-oil cooking spray

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together ground oats, flour, 1 cup whole oats, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and allspice in a large bowl; set aside.

Put brown sugar and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Mix in eggs and vanilla, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

Reduce speed to low. Add oat mixture, and mix until just combined. Mix in walnuts and dates.

Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Spread batter evenly in dish. Scatter remaining 1/2 cup whole oats over top. Bake until golden and a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.Cool completely in pan on a wire rack; cut into bars.

****

{End Results}
Baking Difficultly: 3/5
Ingredient Accessibility: 3/5
Tastiness: 3.5/5
Attractiveness: 2/5
Is it worth it?: Yeah, for an afternoon snack, bake sale, road trip, whatever. They ain't dainty though, so don't say I didn't warn you (?)

{Pairings}
Drink: Irish Breakfast tea or Apple Cider (despite the time I year I chose to make these, I think they are an autumn cookie for sure!)

Song: I Wanna Be Sedated -- The Ramones (SORRY bad pun, great song)
Activity: You come home from school, it's October, the leaves are changing, wind is blowing a little, breezy and cool. You've got your lil' JanSport backpack filled with brand new Lisa Frank folders and jelly pens. You throw your stuff on to the floor in your bedroom and run downstairs to tell your mom/dad how your day went, and SURPRISE, kick-ass oatmeal bars waiting for you on a tray, complete with a cup of apple juice and some carrots or celery. You take the snack over to the TV, turn on some late afternoon cartoons and zone out before you have to go do homework. Ah, yes, that would have been great...

[Cookie 078] Lemon-Apricot Sandwiches

So, things have been a little hectic round these parts, which I'll use as my excuse for lack of posting (I'll always have an excuse...always). My brother is getting married next weekend, and in our very own backyard no less, so we've been going crazy prepping and setting up for a party of 120+ guests, which will all be catered by Kogi Korean BBQ (taco) Truck. Which will be parked in our driveway. Can't wait for the entire block to smell like kimchi!!!!! But really, as any other LA eater will attest, this taco truck is off the hook.

Right, anyway, last weekend was the bridal shower, so I of course jumped at the idea to make a batch of cookies for the party. I think and I think--what would be the perfect bridal shower/girly brunch cookie? Something not too intense and decadent, something easy to eat and pick at, dainty, pretty, girly, tasty. Oh, I've got it! Lemon-Apricot Sandwiches: they are light and fluted, dusted with powdered sugar, and have the perfect summery flavors.

I turn to the page, and what do you know, the description even suggests making these for bridal and baby showers! Martha, girl, you and me are two peas in a pod baby! I think I am finally starting to channel her twisted wisdom. I smell a collab project!! I'll have my people your people, aiight Big M? Good.

The recipe for the dough is simple and straightforward. You need to have almond flour (which is the same as almond meal, which is what I used), but that can be a little bit pricey depending on where you shop. You can always grind up raw almonds in a food processor to get the same product, but that's probably even more expensive. But don't substitute it with regular flour: the almond flour gives the cookie a great flavor that without it would leave the cookies really bland.

Okay, so the dough's chillin' in the fridge, and now you're ready to make the filling. One thing: I bought Apricot PRESERVE which is most definitely not the same thing as jam. Not advisable. Preserves are way more syrupy and, at least with the kind I got from Trader Joe's, will drip out of the sandwiched cookies and get all over your hands and be disgusting. At this point, after I had strained the preserves and added the lemon, I realized I had a major problem on my hands, and elbows and forearms and mouth (heehee). My mom and I tried everything: boiling and reducing it down; adding cornstarch; refrigeration. Nothing worked. So we pitched it and used some straight up marmalade from the jar, and added the lemon juice. This worked perfectly, but we had to avoid scooping up too much orange rinds because it made the cookies hard to sandwich. Other than that, it made a really tasty cookie and was the perfect consistency for sandwiching!

By this point all that needs to be done is the final dusting of powdered sugar on top. Tres jolie. Oui. And off we went to the bridal shower. Cookies were a hit. Alongside some divine coconut cupcakes. Perfect combination. Perfect little party. Good good good! Now I gots to make some more cookies for the visiting guest's gift bags. Busy lady, I am.

Oh, and one last thing! Once you fill the cookies, they really should be eaten that day. That being said, you can store the dough (before baking) in the freezer for a good long while, and even keep the baked cookie rounds in an airtight container for up to 3 days without the filling in them. They store/stack adorably too:

In conclusion, as long as you use a good hearty jam for the filling, you'll end up with some really lovely cookies to snack on. I suggest you give it a try. I do I do. But now I shall leave you in peace, Tu es vraiment dégueulasse.

Lemon-Apricot Sandwiches

Makes 20

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more for dusting
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• Finely grated zest of 2 lemons, plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup apricot jam

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk flours, cornstarch, and salt in a medium bowl.
2. Put butter, sugars, lemon zest, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, mixing well after each addition.Cover dough with plastic wrap; refrigerate 30 minutes.
3. Place cold dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper, and roll out to 1/8 inch thick. Transfer dough on parchment to a baking sheet; freeze 10 minutes.
4. Using a fluted 1 7/8-inch round cutter, cut out dough; transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets. Reroll scraps, and cut out (you should have 40 rounds). Bake until pale golden, 10 to 11 minutes. Let cool slightly on sheets on wire racks. Transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.
5. Using a rubber spatula, press the jam through a fine sieve into a small bowl. Stir in remaining tablespoon lemon juice. Spread 1 teaspoon jam mixture on flat side of half of the cookies, and sandwich with the remaining cookies. Dust with confectioners' sugar.

****

{End Results}
Baking Difficultly: 3/5
Ingredient Accessibility: 2.5/5 (just the almond flour and proper jam!)
Tastiness: 4/5
Attractiveness: 4.5/5
Is it worth it?: I'm sure you'll have an event that these are just perfect for, but even if you don't, they're worth it!

{Pairings}
Drink: A Mimosa! Or maybe just some light tea...

Song: Dracula's Wedding -- Outkast (cool video!)
Activity: Definitely an outdoor brunch, with quiches. Something painfully girly...

[Cookie 060] Lemon Madeleines

For my birthday, my brother was kind enough to give me an ample gift certificate to the chic gourmet foods mecca that is Dean & Deluca. Awesome. Lord knows that in no lifetime of mine, or of yours, or of the entire universe's for that matter, would I ever be able to actual afford to shop there purely out of my own pocket. Let me elaborate: 27 Chocolate-Dipped Mint Sandwich Cookies = $65.00. Uh. Twenty seven total. Uh. Okay, maybe they're dipped in platinum, or infused with unicorn blood, or made by ghosts of dead presidents (????????)--the point is, good thing I made that EXACT COOKIE already, and am going to post about it next week! But be forewarned, I did infuse mine with unicorn blood.

Okay, sorry about the tangent. What I'm getting at is that while I was perusing the store today, meandering through their aisles of Truffle-infused Sea Salt (yes, really) and Sage Jam (drool), I took a quick glimpse at their produce prices. Pale, wan tomatoes were going for $5/lb, and all I could think about were my Mom's amazing tomatoes that we enjoy every summer. And when winter rolls around, her Meyer Lemon tree goes crazy producing copious amounts of this citrus fruit. So when I'm at home, I don't get depressed about not being able to shop for ingredients at Dean & Deluca, because I can just grab some FOR FREE (practically) from her garden, and I don't even need to try Deluca's because I'm sure my mom's produce is better. End of story. Don't even try to argue me on this one.

Plus, how awesome is it to not only make your own fancy cookies like Lemon Madeleines that would probably sell for $18/lb at a high-end gourmet food store, but to make them also from ingredients that you grew yourself?! It's all you in your cookies! It takes the term "made from scratch" to a whole new level, and most likely will give you better tasting cookies in the end anyway! How proud you will be of the treats you make!

Now, not all of you have lemon trees in your back yard, this I know. But I still strongly suggest that you give this recipe a go. It's a quick and fun recipe and you can really up your British aristocratic snob-status by bringing them to a party. The recipe is easy peasy and I nearly drank the batter by the bowlful, but I dare say that's a sure-fire way to absolutely demolish your British aristocratic snob-status, and I simply just can't have that. Pish-posh!

(One minor thing to note: I forgot to stir up the batter after I let it sit for 30 minutes (see recipe) so as you can see in the picture above, the top 2 cookies have smooth batter and the bottom are thicker and chunkier. The chunkier ones turned out better! Stir it up!)

Okay, so what if you don't have a madeleine pan. Well, you're screwed. You really should just go and buy one, because if you try to pour the cookies into any other mold/pan, they might still taste good, but Queen Elizabeth will spit on you (notice the first name similarity--ahem). No, you don't have to buy your pan at Dean & Deluca. Just get one. You could even get a mini-Madeleine pan and be extra cute!

In conclusion, I love Dean & Deluca. Oh, you didn't get that vibe from my writing? Yeah, they're way crazy pricey, but their White Bean & Duck Confit soup kicks ass. Wait, wrong conclusion. In better conclusion, growing food is way more awesome! Even more awesome than that soup! Wait, I've got. The real conclusion is: you should make these babies. Yeah, that's it. Good!

Lemon Madeleines

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted, plus more for pans
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted (not self-rising)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 3 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (2 to 3 lemons total)
• Confectioners' sugar, for dusting (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter two madeleine pans; set aside.
   Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl; set aside.
2. Put eggs, egg yolks, granulated sugar, vanilla, and lemon zest and juice in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and thickened, about 5 minutes. Mix in butter. Using a spatula, fold flour mixture into egg mixture. Let rest 30 minutes.
3. Pour batter into buttered pans, filling the molds 3/4 full. Bake cookies, rotating pans halfway through, until edges are crisp and golden, 7 to 8 minutes. Let cookies cool slightly in pans on wire racks. Invert, and unmold. Dust with confectioners' sugar, if desired. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to one day.

****

{End Results}
Baking Difficultly: 2/5
Ingredient Accessibility: 5/5 (Even if you don't have a tree, I doubt you'll have a problem getting any of these ingredients)
Tastiness: 4/5
Attractiveness: 4/5
Is it worth it?: Yep!! Don't forget to dust them with powdered sugar (I forgot).

{Pairings}
Drink: English Breakfast Tea, or any other type of tea

Song: English House -- Fleet Foxes (ooh I love this song so dearly)
Activity: Gardening! Take a gander at my Mom's blog for some handy tips and gorgeous photos!

[Cookie 035] Gingersnap-Raspberry Sandwiches

Greetings, earthlings. How's life? Eat anything particularly delicious lately? I hope your making the most of your end of the summer and grabbing up every last stone fruit and veggie from the farmers' markets (and perhaps, your own garden?). I definitely have, and aside from just eating them straight, I've been trying to incorporate as much fresh fruits into the cookies I make as humanly possible.

Take, for example, these Gingersnap-Raspberry Sandwich cookies. I did a little tweaking to the recipe and used some homemade jam that my mom made from the grapes that we have growing on our fence in our yard. I love using 100% homemade/homegrown ingredients--when it's possible of course--but let me just say, making jam isn't easy for me. I tried to make the jam the first time around, and everything was going swell, but as soon as I turned my back on the simmering jelly to find a perfectly adorable little Mason jar, I burnt the sugar! It all caramelized and ended up turning into an inedible hard candy. Boo. My mom tried again, and succeeded at not burning the jam, but her homemade pectin didn't solidify the mixture of grapes and sugar, so she had to add some store-bought pectin. It was hard for us, but at least we got to use up our excess of baby grapes that we get every summer!

Anyways, back to the cookie. I've been meaning to make a sandwich cookie for a while, so I thought that with our newly made jam this recipe would be perfect. The cookies baked up absolutely perfectly and beautifully, holding their shape and forming perfect circles. I think the reason for this is that the recipe calls for vegetable shortening, which has less water than butter and therefore causes the dough to spread less while baking.

So the gingersnap is perfect. Spot on. Chewy, gingery, perfectly shaped and lovely all around. However, I baked them a little too large, and thus when I spread them with jam and sandwiched them together, the resultant cookie was massive. Plus, my jam was a little too wet and made the cookie sandwich so messy that you could barely eat it without making it look like you had just murdered something on your plate (anyone see that True Blood episode where they eat that souffle made out of a human heart? haha, sorry...). And don't even think of eating this without a plate, because if you do, you might as well just start an ant farm in your lap to begin with. Be careful, eaters, this is a messy business.

In the end, we ended up eating the cookies plain, without jam, a lot of the time. One recommendation I would give would be to dip them in some coffee--it's completely divine. Or, if you want to make a fancy little dessert for a dinner party or something, you could put 1 or 2 on a plate with some homemade whipped cream and some berry compote or something. Maybe some poached pears or nectarines? Oh, roasted peaches with some honey drizzled on top? Okay, I'm going to get carried away if I continue.

So yeah, these are tasty, without question. A little hard to eat, but the cookie itself is another example of how Martha can really nail the classic recipes. Now that the cookies are all gone however, I have a lot of leftover jam...any suggestions?

Gingersnap-Raspberry Sandwiches

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 cup raspberry jam with seeds

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees with one rack positioned in center of oven; line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter, shortening, and 1 cup sugar on medium speed. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger.
3. Add maple syrup to butter mixture; beat to combine. Beat in egg until well combined. Reduce mixer speed to low; slowly add the reserved flour mixture, a little at a time, until well blended.
4. Place remaining cup sugar in a bowl. Measure 2 teaspoons dough; roll into a ball. Roll dough in sugar; transfer to sheet. Repeat, spacing balls 3 inches apart. Bake until golden, about 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. Form and bake the remaining dough.
5. Spread about 2 teaspoons jam over half of the cookies; place a second cookie on top of jam-covered ones, making sandwiches. Serve.

****

{End Results}
Baking Difficultly: 2/5
Ingredient Accessibility: 2.5/5
Tastiness: 4/5 (Tastes like what you expect them to)
Attractiveness: 4/5 (Even the messiness looks great)
Is it worth it?: Yeah! You can really take the basic gingersnap recipe and do crazy stuff with it, too. Dip them in chocolate? Add fresh fruits? Ice cream sandwiches! You get the idea...

{Pairings}
Drink: Coffee! Dip it in your cup--it's so seriously good!

Song: For the Dishwasher -- Grandaddy
Activity: Washing your hands, which will be uber-sticky with jelly, trust me.

[Cookie 032] Dark Chocolate Cookies with Sour Cherries

Well, I am back. I realize I forgot to mention that I would be gone in the first place, so let me make amends. I went on a 6 day backpacking trip up in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada with my mom and dad, trekking on a 40-mile loop near the John Muir Wilderness. We explored the Rae Lakes, climbed a mountain (Glenn Pass), and smelled terribly. For more on this, please check my other blog some time this week, where I'll be posting pictures and more details! It was beyond fabulous!!

Anyway, in the world of cookies, all was silent on the western front. Except I had made a batch of cookies before I left that I failed to post about until now. So without further ado, I bring you my foray into the world of the Dark Chocolate Cookie with Sour Cherries.

Ever since I first used dried cherries in a recipe, I was completely addicted to their tart flavor and perfect chewiness. You get so accustomed to raisins as the go-to dried fruit in cookies, so switching it up with the dried cherry was a very exciting thing for me. Because I get very excited about cookies. As you can probably tell. Often.

Anyway, concerning the cookie itself, I'm all over it. It's great. Fab and fantastic. Intense--like, "I can only eat 1 at a time even though I want to eat 7" intense. They are extremely chocolatey, rich, and chewy, and with the added sour cherries you really get something to write home about (if you do that). This is a cookie that comes with a mandatory glass of milk, which trust me, you will need. Get my drift yet?

And what's more, the recipe is simple and fun to make, and produces a dough that can be frozen for up to a month! So you can bake a few today, a few tomorrow, and maybe a few the next day, but I doubt you'll have any dough left after that. But wait, back to the specifics of the recipe. As I was saying, it's a lot of fun to make because--like most drop cookies--you just throw together a bunch of ingredients and plop the dough onto the baking sheet. You end up with a dough that is so rich in unsweetened cocoa that it is nearly black save for the dark reds of the cherries and lighter browns of the semi-sweet chocolate chunks. Very beautiful indeed.

However, Martha instructs you to roll balls of dough that are about 1/4 cup volume. Now, take a moment to envision that. That is completely, absurdly, ridiculously GIGANTIC! I'm as much a fan of the oversized cookie as the next person, but with a cookie that is so intensely flavored, you really won't be able to finish a whole cookie in one sitting! I eyeballed it and made the balls into what size I thought would be good (about 1" diameter). Then into the oven, then onto the cooling rack, then into my mouth. Perfection.

So in conclusion, this cookie is for the dark chocolate lovers out there--but specifically those who are looking for a little bit more in their life. A little something extra, a little kick in the butt. You know. Now stop reading this and go buy some sour cherries and get on it!

Dark Chocolate Cookies with Sour Cherries

Makes about 3 dozen

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup firmly packed dark-brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups dried sour cherries, firmly packed (9 ounces)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla extract; beat until well combined. Add the flour mixture, and beat on low speed, until just combined. Do not overbeat. With a wooden spoon, fold in chocolate and cherries. (Dough can be frozen at this point, wrapped well in plastic, up to 1 month; thaw completely before baking.)
3. Form balls of dough, each about 1/4 cup; place balls on baking sheet about 3 inches apart. Bake until puffed and cracked, 9 to 11 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container, at room temperature, up to 3 days.

****

{End Results}
Baking Difficultly: 2/5
Ingredient Accessibility: 2/5 (Unfortunately, dried cherries can be a little pricey)
Tastiness: 4.5/5 (But I'm a devoted dark-chocolate lover...)
Attractiveness: 4/5 (Black and red cookies?! Yes!)
Is it worth it?: Yes, duh.

{Pairings}
Drink: Milk, and lots of it.

Song: Chocolate Milk -- MF Doom
Activity: Midnight snackage!