The Go-To Cookeh

Or, to be more accurate, Erin's. Last week, I was looking for a good cookie to send off to Karen, and once again I found solace in The Happy Baker cookbook. It did not fail to satisfy my qualifications in a cookie: the salty sweet combo of peanut butter and chocolate chips, the chewiness from the oatmeal... Ahh. (It calls for coconut, but I omitted it to my own taste.) What's best of all is that it's super quick, and you can whip these up in absolutely no time.

Erin's Go to Cookie

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 smooth peanut butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 cup quick cooking oatmeal
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup coconut

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (175)
2. In a large bowl, mix butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add peanut butter, vanilla and egg; mix well.
4. Stir in flour, oats, baking soda, and salt; then, stir in chippits and coconut.
5. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto lined baking sheet, 2 inched apart. Flatten with fingers.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
7. Allow to cool on wire racks.

Then, take a glass of milk or tea and devour soon after!

The Ultimate Ginger Cookeh

I rarely have ginger cookies. But I love them. And it's even more of a rarity when I have them home made. Well, seeing as it is December, and seeing as I was swamped with school stuff, and seeing as I was craving ginger cookies, I took the opportunity to try out a recipe. And you know what? They were fantastic, and pretty much how I always have remembered them to be--sweet, spicy/gingery goodness, and definitely not those generic bland things you get in the grocery store. Nuh-uh. This recipe is one I would definitely go back to in the future, although with a few minor changes I'd like to see if they would make a difference: one would be adding both orange and lemon zest, and adding lemon juice instead of orange.

Ginger Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup margarine, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 tablespoons white sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Ps: I'm home, finally! After three solid months of work+ study, I can breathe easy, and read nothing school related. Ahhh. Will be back (soon!) with more updates!

Halloween Weekend, and a new cookie

Alas, apologies! School has kept me busy this week (and the foreboding signs of an oncoming cold), so I was unable to get to quicker posting. It continues to keep me busy this weekend, but the good news is that the cold is gone! Really, it wasn't much of one, but it certainly can bring down your stamina (not to mention your sense of smell/taste).

Halloween was good last weekend; didn't end up going out and dressing up, but my housemates and I still handed out candy. And still got leftovers!! And we carved pumpkins, see the pics below for your viewing pleasure.

Have you ever seen a happier looking bunch of pumpkins?

And of course, the cookie recipe!

They are called "Me and my cookies are so over you", from an awesome, fun to read little cook book called "The Happy Baker: A Dater's Guide to Emotional Baking", by Erin Bolger. I made them as part of a goodie package to send off to someone. Look her up, she's awesome. If you are ever in the midst of a breakup (or are single and just enjoy baking, like myself) this is the strong minded independent ladies' cookbook for you. Enjoy!!

"Me and My Cookies are So Over You"

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup toffee baking bits
1 cup almonds; put almonds in a plastic freezer bag, gently smash with a hammer (I prefer the almonds to be a bit chunky). Roast at 325* F (160*C) for 5-7 minutes.

-Preheat oven to 375*F (175*C)
-In a large bowl combine sugar and butter; beat until light and fluffy.
-Add vanilla and eggs; blend well
-Mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir in chocolate chips, almonds and toffee bits.
-Drop by tablespoonfuls on a lined cookie sheet; bake for about 10 minutes until golden brown. Cool on wire racks.

When life hands you Quaker Oats, make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

What started off as 30+ cookies last Friday went down to 3 1/2 by Sunday

If there's one thing better than homemade chocolate chip cookies, it has to be homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Honestly, it beats every store brand oatmeal cookie out there; there's nothing quite like biting into an oatmeal cookie that's soft rather than crunchy, and with a satisfying amount of chippits rather than just a few or none. Rarely do I have them, but for the past few weeks, I've had a fervent desire for some homemade oatmeal goodness. So I skimmed the net and some cookbooks for a half decent recipe, and I settled on an old Hershey recipe, found here. I don't know if it was the best oatmeal cookie recipe out there, but it was pretty darn good, and the cookies turned out really nicely! Not dry at all. I was a bit worried that they would be under or over baked, but neither happened. I would say just time them to how you like your cookies, soft or a bit crunchy--next time I would do mine a minute or so longer, because I found them a bit soft.

*Try not to over bake them! Even though they don't look quite done when the timer goes, they definitely are. Just so long as they look set. Once you take them out, they'll continue baking for a bit, and they'll harden up as they cool.

CHOCOLATE CHIP OATMEAL COOKIES

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (250 mL) butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) lightly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/3 cups (325 mL) all-purpose flour
• 2 cups (500 mL) quick-cooking oats (not instant)
• 1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) salt
• 1 package (350 g) CHIPITS® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (2 cups/500 mL)

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F (180°C).

2. In large bowl, beat butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs until creamy.

3. In medium bowl, mix flour, oats, baking soda and salt. Stir into butter mixture. Stir in semi-sweet chocolate chips.

4. Drop from 1 tbsp (15 mL) measure onto lightly greased baking sheet.

5. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

Springtime comes to Halifax for a day

Today was so lovely outside, I could have sworn it was March. I didn't even need to wear a hat or a heavy scarf! It brought me back to that delightfully nostalgic state of mind with the day's warmth, scent in the air, the sun, yadi-yada... But then I heard that we are supposed to go into a deep freeze in a few days. Ahh, that's January for you!

Last week was considerably more proactive for me than usual, and I'm feeling quite pleased with myself. It's only four things, but just the fact that they were accomplished made me happy:

1. I booked an emergency first aid course for this past Saturday

2. I made a spontaneous late night batch of banana cookies (see below)

3. I completed my emergency first aid course and am now qualified for my summer job (and of course qualified to save someone's life)!

4. Caught up on my school readings

And there you have it. So far this week is going well (less proactive), but next week will (hopefully) be even better. Particularly, next Thursday:

YES YES YES YES YES FINALLY!!!!!!

Whew. I am sooooooo excited for it to start up again. I just wish they had better promos on television! All the better to tease us with, heh heh heh. If you're a Lostie also, I'll meet you in spirit on the couch with the popcorn.

Another show I'm excited for?

Click here for link

Ahh yes, I mentioned it in a recent post, but I've been really into it lately! I think it's the new Lost for me.

Speaking of food, last week I was letting my curiosity go browsing on the super cool Alicia's blog Bread and Honey, and it wandered on to what she had labeled under "banana". Lo and behold, the recipe for banana cookies was the first thing posted. Naturally, I had to try them out. And they were quite good! They tasted like banana bread... Only in the form of a cookie, and much lighter and chewier. Plus, the cinnamon and nutmeg added to the flavour. I would make them again most definitely!

Banana Cookies

Ingredients:



1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, room temperature


1 cup of sugar
1 egg, room temperature


1 cup of mashed bananas (about 2 1/2 large bananas)


1 teaspoon of baking soda


2 cups of flour
pinch of salt


1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon


1/2 teaspoon of ground mace or nutmeg


1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves


1 cup of pecans (walnuts and chocolate chips are good alternatives)



Directions:
1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. In a bowl, mix the mashed bananas and baking soda. Let sit for 2 minutes. The baking soda will react with the acid in the bananas which in turn will give the cookies their lift and rise.

Mix the banana mixture into the butter mixture. Mix together the flour, salt, and spices and sift into the butter and banana mixture and mix until just combined.



Fold into the batter the pecans or chocolate chips if using. Drop in dollops onto parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until nicely golden brown. Let cool on wire racks.

*If you don’t have any baking soda on hand, you can substitute with baking powder; just use two teaspoons.

This recipe is also from the Simply Recipes website.

**Teeny error: I thought Lost would be on Thursday, like it usually is, but it turns out that it is premiering on Tuesday. Oopsy-doodles. But on the other hand, huzzah!