Chocolate Chip Banana Oatmeal Cookies

My toddler LOVES food. It is not uncommon for her to wake up in the morning and her first words be, "I want !". Then she'll start to whine, cry and whimper (while still half asleep) repeating the food she wants.

So cookies were high on her list a couple weeks ago. She must have been influenced by Cookie Monster on TV because I don't buy pre-made cookies and I rarely make them. I had pinned this chocolate chip banana oatmeal cookie and one fine Sunday morning, decided that it was the day she and I were going to give that recipe a try.

Here is the original recipe link: http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/08/chocolate-chip-banana-oatmeal-cookies.html

And here is the recipe:

Chocolate Chip Banana Oatmeal Cookies Recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1 large)

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside.  Place butter and sugars into a mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low.  Add egg and vanilla and mix until combined.   Mix in banana.  Add flour and mix until just combined.  Stir in oats and chocolate chips. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop or cookie scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets spacing about 2 inches apart.  Bake cookies until golden brown and just set, about 12 to 13 minutes.

 

On the original website, the photo of the cookies make it appear as if the cookies turn out quite flat. I know that some recipe indicate that you "drop" the cookie batter onto the sheet and as they cook, they melt a bit and come out flat. With this one I dropped the cookie batter and they melted a little bit, but not that much and the cookies were quite... plump (see photo).

 

I didn't have the 2 cups of chocolate chips that it called for. Instead I used whatever I had leftover in the house which was 3/4 cup of large chocolate chips and 1/2 a cup of white chocolate chips. It was okay. You can taste the bananas in the cookies and the cookies themselves are quite soft. They were largely consumed by my husband with glasses of milk to accompany them. My daughter ate a few but she mainly zoned in on the chocolate chips. I don't normally like cookies but these were pretty good. 7.5 out of 10.

Homemade Crumpets

I like crumpets. They remind me of my mother who use to have them with butter and jam. So when I came across this recipe on Pinterest, I read through it, realized I had all the ingredients and figured I'd give it a shot.

Ingredients:
3 Packages Active Dry Yeast
3/4 Cup Warm Water
3 Teaspoons Sugar
1 Cup Warm Milk
3 Eggs
3 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Salt
Butter
Makes 25 Crumpets*
1. Mix the Yeast, Warm Water and Sugar in a glass bowl.  Let the yeast "proof" (get foamy) for 5-10 minutes. 

2. Into the Yeast mixture, whisk the Warm Milk, Flour, Eggs and Salt until no longer lumpy.  Cover with a towel and let rise for 30-45 minutes.

3. Cut 1/2 Tablespoon of butter and melt it on your griddle/frying pan at Medium-High Heat.  Scoop out about 4 Tablespoons of batter and pour it on to your griddle for each crumpet.  You can "eye" it up - pour enough batter to make the size of crumpet you'd like! 

4. Cook the crumpets on one side until they bubble through and appear mostly dry on the tops.  Then, flip them and cook for another 15 seconds

So this is what mine looked like:

Sorry, blurry picture of the batter - very elasticy

crumpets on the griddle.

They were ugly but tasted ok and we didn't need to freeze any because we all ate them within the next few days. I wish I had my homemade butter to go with it.

I tried making some in a circular form I had but it was impossible to pop it out without having some of the batter cake to the sides. I even tried a mason jar lid that someone on the blog had suggested. I gave up on that idea.

While making them, they reminded me of mini-pancakes. The yeast I used had expired back in December but it still foamed. I wonder what the results would have been like if I had used fresh yeast.

Wouldn't mind trying this recipe out again. Maybe with lactose-free milk (or maybe even leftover buttermilk from making real butter) and gluten-free flour.

Garlic Parmesan pull apart bread

I kept seeing all these post about pull apart bread on Pinterest (damn you, Pinterest) so last night I finally gave in and tried one out since I was making chicken soup for dinner. Here is a recipe for Garlic Parmesan pull apart bread:  http://smells-like-home.com/2012/09/garlic-parmesan-pull-apart-bread/

Garlic Parmesan Pull-Apart Bread
source: adapted from Pastry Affair

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) instant yeast
• 1 1/3 cups warm water
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 tbsp (1/4 cup) salted butter, melted
• 1 tbsp dried parsley flakes or 2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

The dough after the first proof

Butter, parsley, seasoning, and mmmm garlic!

1. In the bowl of the stand mixer, stir together the yeast and water. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes until yeast is somewhat dissolved. Mix in the olive oil, salt, and flour. Using the dough hook, knead the dough for 5 minutes, or until elastic. (Alternatively, you can mix the ingredients in a large bowl then knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is elastic, 7-10 minutes.) Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until it has doubled in size.   

 2. In a small bowl, combine melted butter, parsley, Italian seasoning, and minced garlic. Set aside.

 
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Ready to go in the oven

4. Gently push the air out of the dough. Tear off a golf ball-size piece of dough, roll in the butter mixture, and place in the bottom of a Bundt pan. Repeat this process until you have one layer of dough balls. Sprinkle on 1/3 of the Parmesan cheese. Continue layering the dough balls and cheese until you have 3 layers. (Note: We ended up with only 2 layers but the bread still turned out fine.) Cover the pan with a clean towel or plastic wrap and allow the dough to double in size, 20-30 minutes.

5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until bread is golden brown. Let the pan cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes then invert the pan onto a large serving plate and let the bread fall out of the pan.  Serve hot.

the end result

My notes: Since you have to proof it twice, it actually took a lot longer than I thought it would. But with my Kitchenaid mixer, this recipe was a snap. And fresh out of the oven? Heaven and loveliness. I modified the recipe by putting FOUR (yes, count them FOUR) cloves of garlic because the husband is Romanian and a bigger garlic lover than I (who would have thought it possible, but it is). I also used Trader Joe's romano parmesan instead of fresh because I was too lazy to actually grind it up in the food processor. I'm not sure if I had "Italian seasoning" (it's an Italian spice mix), so for good measure, I threw in a few dashes of Johnny's Garlic spread and seasoning. I use that stuff on EVERYTHING (goes great with roasted potatoes) and available at Costco in of course, Costco-size.

I don't own a bundt pan so I used my tube pan instead. Hopefully I didn't ruin it by spraying Pam all over it. It didn't make three layers of dough, just one and a few balls in the second layer. Still took about 20 minutes to bake.

The end result was a little salty but tasty! It was fun pulling it apart and dipping it into our soup. To store, I put in a plastic bag and knotted the top to seal the air out. Had another piece today and it's still soft and lovely and yes, very garlicky. Will make this again but will consider using another pan instead of the tube pan. Maybe a loaf pan instead?

Lemony Lemon Brownies

Damn you, Pinterest. It's visual crack and I can't stop pinning!

A friend Victoria recently pinned a recipe for "lemony lemon brownies". Sounds gross, right? Brownies to me mean chocolate. Don't worry - this recipe doesn't have any of that. It's more a lemon-bar, really. Anyway, wanted to bake something to take to a Christmas party and this recipe seemed super simple.

The original recipe site:
https://sites.google.com/site/beckycharms/cakies/lemony-lemon-brownies

The "Brownie" Batter

3/4 cup all-purpose flour {King Arthur All-Purpose Flour}

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt {Sea Salt}

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons lemon zest

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Tart Lemon Glaze

1 rounded cup powdered sugar

4 tablespoon lemon juice

8 teaspoons lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease/Spray an 8-by-8-inch baking dish with butter/cooking spray and set aside. 

Zest and juice two small/large lemons; set aside. {whatever you have}

In the bowl of an electric mixture fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the flour, sugar, salt, and softened butter until combined. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, lemon zest, and lemon juice until combined. Pour into the flour mixture and beat at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. 

Pour into baking dish and bake for 23-25 minutes, or until just starting to turn golden around the edges and a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before glazing.  Do not overbake, or the bars will be dry. {even with the yummy glaze}

When brownies are cooled completely, make the glaze...sift the powdered sugar, add lemon zest and juice, and whisk together all three ingredients. Spread 1/2 the glaze over the brownies with a rubber spatula.  Let glaze set.  Spread the remaining glaze over the bars, and let it set.  This glaze does not harden like most.  Cut into bars, and serve!

The batter looked heavenly after it was mixed. I wanted to eat the whole thing! It was like whipped lemon heaven. 

 

Unfortunately, I don't own an 8x8 pan only a 9x9 one and so the end result was kind of thin (like a little over a cm) after about 18 minutes. It didn't rise any. I used a silicone pan which made the brownie/cake tear when I popped it out. The glaze was runny (as warned) and it took about 4 small lemons to make it. Anyway, I used one of those flat scrapers to try and cut it and what a mess that made. I switched to a pizza cutter about 3/4's of the way through and that was a much, much better idea. Less mess and clean cuts!

 

The husband said it was tasty and my 2 year old toddler kept sneaking in and taking them. The people are the party I went to gave it high reviews too. Next time I make it I'd like to try and find a smaller pan.

Update March 3 2013: I've made this three more times since my initial attempt. I use my rectangular baking pan lined with parchment paper which works a lot better. Especially since I can just lift the parchment and put into a re-purposed chocolate tin. 

The first time I took it to a friend's house for her Oscars party. Either the lemons weren't super fresh or I stored them too close to a squash or used a knife that I had used to make squash soup (which I admit I made that same day), because it had a squashy flavour about it. Or maybe it was just the piece I got? One guy couldn't stop eating them. Nica said the last time I made them the bars were better.

The second time I took them into work. Weren't bad. I think I still overcooked them by a minute but the frosting really saved it. I selectively gave them out so had leftovers and when Nica and I ate them a couple of drunken nights later they were AWESOME. 

The third time I made them I used Trader Joe's gluten-free flour which you can use "cup for cup like real flour".  I wasn't sure of the chemistry of everything because after beating the butter, flour, sugar and salt, the resulting mixture was more solid and moist than crumbly like it normally is with regular flour. And after adding the lemon and egg mixture, it wasn't fluffy and creamy and almost looked like the lemon curdled. But I baked it anyway and it turned out super moist!  Thumbs up gluten-free recipe and in fact, I think I almost prefer it to the regular flour kind. Upping the rating from 8.5 to 9 out of 10. 

So my tips with this recipe?
* Use parchment paper to line whatever you're baking it in. Easier to transfer out of the pan (and clean), easier to hold in the glaze and easier to cut.
* Use a pizza cutter to slice the cake.
*  I used a KitchenAid mixer to mix everything. Probably not a tip since I'm sure you can still use an electric beater. I just wanted to point out that you don't HAVE to.
* You will need 6 (small) lemons to make this recipe and you will have leftover juice that you can freeze in ice cube trays for future use. 2 lemons for the cake, 4 lemons for the icing.

This is a super simple recipe that I can even get my toddler involved in. The hardest part is getting the rind off the lemons.