Oatmeal Cookies

Ever go through your pantry and see something that needs to be used up?  I do, and this weekend, I found my tube of instant oatmeal.

This tube also included a good recipe for oatmeal cookies and just enough instant oats to bake said cookies.  

I really like oatmeal cookies, especially during this time of year.  They taste much heartier, and they have the illusion of being healthier.  However, when you start a recipe out with 1 cup of softened butter, you really should know better than that!

So, mix the cup of butter with 1/2 cup of white sugar and 1 cup of brown sugar.  Beat until combined.

Add 2 eggs and a tsp of vanilla extract.

Next, beat in 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 st cinnamon and 1 1/2 cups of AP flour.

Instead of the typical raisin, I added my favorite chocolate chips, as well as dried cranberries.

And then the oats, 3 cups to be exact.

Stir to combine.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.

But what's this? My cookies are all melty.

And resemble little piles of cat sick...

I'm not quite sure what happened with these...maybe the butter was too soft, and the fat didn't properly distribute in the cookies.  Or, it could be that I didn't full incorporate the oats in the cookies.  Who knows.  These cookies looked ugly...but they tasted great!

Upside-Down Plum Cake

Today was cold.  Bitter cold.  This weekend I'm going to a party to say goodbye to the summer.  I told the hostess that I would make some kind of dessert for the occasion.  I thought a dessert using a delicious summer fruit would be appropriate.  This is a recipe I first found on a knitting website of all places.  Ysolda Teague posted a recipe from Smitten Kitchen on her knitting blog.  Her's was slightly different from the recipe found on Smitten Kitchen.  The original is here, the one I used is here.

First melt 1 stick of butter.

Grind 1/2 cup of almonds.

Mix with 1 cup AP (all purpouse) flour, 3 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 cup brown sugar.

Add 1/3 cup of thick yogurt, I used 0% fat plain yogurt.

Then 3/4 of the melted butter

2 eggs and a "generous amount" of vanilla extract.  I used about 1 Tbsp.

Mix thoroughly.

Now, the rest of the butter gets poured into a 9 inch springform pan lined with parchment paper to reduce leakage.

Sprinkle 2 Tbsp of brown sugar on top of the melted butter.

Then it was time to handle the plums.

I bought these a couple of weeks ago, and kept them in the crisper for this recipe.  I wanted them to be ripe, but not spoiled.  And slicing them, you can see the beautiful difference in color which will show up in the final product.

Once they're sliced start lining the bottom of the pan with the plum slices from the outside in.  I did mine in circles.

Cover with the batter, and bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Looks good as is.

But flip it over...

And it's even more lovely!

Switching It Up!

Often times, I find myself making the same things over and over again.  There's nothing wrong with that, per say,  but sometimes you just need to do something different.

Take the chocolate chip cookies and triple chocolate chip cookies I've made.  I make these cookies a lot.  They're always gone within a couple of days, and they're fun to make.  It's relaxing to bake something you can do in your sleep.

I made these cookies again, but I split the recipe so I could have half regular and  have chocolatey.  And then I did something different...I added chili powder to the chocolate batch and sprinkled a little bit of kosher salt on top of the regular cookies before baking.

I believe this was a successful experiment!

Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles are a delightful cookie coated with cinnamon and sugar.  I decided to switch up my cookie routine and go with something different this time around.  The recipe I used is from the Better Homes and Gardens cook book.

We start by beating 1 stick of butter for 30 seconds or until it gets a lighter color.

Next beat in 1 cup of sugar, 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1/4 tsp cream of tartar.

Cream of tartar is tartaric acid, and is often used in baking to stabilize the mixture when used with baking soda, allowing it to rise properly while baking.

After that we beat in 1 egg and 1 tsp of vanilla.

Now it was time for the last of the dry goods.  Beat in 1 1/2 cups of flour until combines.  If your hand mixer craps out then it's time to use a spoon to fully incorporate it.

Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for an hour.

Why stick the cookie dough in the fridge?  These cookies need to set up.  They're going to be shaped into balls, rolled in cinnamon and sugar and then baked.  Chilling them for an hour will help the butter, which has been at room temp for a few hours, then had the snot beat out of it, sieze up, making shaping easier, and getting less melted butter on your hands.

Once they've chilled for an hour, use a cookie scoop or a set of spoons to scoop out the dough and roll in your hands to make a uniform sphere-oid shape.

Place the ball into a bowl filled with 2 Tbsp of white sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon and coat lightly.

Place on the cookie sheet.

Once they've all been treated with the cinnamon/sugar coating bake them in a 375 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!