Crinkle Top Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies - a recipe experiment

Found on thekitchn.com

I know I've tried this recipe with butter, Crisco, lard and coconut oil.  This is closer to what I'm looking for than the other recipe I tried last night.  It's crisper.  While I'm not looking for a hard crisp, I want something stronger than what happened last night.  

First alteration will be chilling the dough, not sure what else.
 

Crinkle Top Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

Makes about 60 cookies
2 cups (11 oz) dark raisins
2 cups (10 oz) all-purpose flour, divided
1 cup (7 oz) shortening
2 cups (17 oz) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups (8 oz) old-fashioned rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
extra sugar for rolling

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment.

Toss the raisins with 1/4 cup of the flour. Grind in a food processor with a blade attachment for 20-30 seconds until the raisins form a very thick paste and come together into a ball (see photographs below). You can also use a blender or a meat grinder to mash the raisins into a paste.

(I tried the above step and did not like the result.  I prefer my raisins whole)

Cream the shortening and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs until the mixture resembles soft frosting. Beat in the ground raisins.

In a separate bowl, combine the remaining 1 3/4 cups of flour, oatmeal, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Beat this slowly into the egg mixture until a shaggy dough is formed and there is no more visible flour.
 
Use your hands to pinch off pieces of the dough and roll them into balls slightly smaller than ping-pong balls. Roll each ball in granulated sugar and arrange them two inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the cookies are crinkly on top and just starting to turn golden-brown around the edges.

Blonde Oatmeal Raisin Cookies: a recipe experiment (altered)

This is the second attempt at the recipe I found at Lady Bean .  This is the only recipe I have on my blog, so I thought it was close to what I wanted.  Nope.  I think I know what I searched for last time, and just have to find it again.

Preheat the oven to 350º

1/2 Cup of softened butter
1/4 Cup of brown sugar (previous 1/2 C)
1/2 Cup of white sugar (previous 1/4 C)

Mix

1 egg
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.

Mix

1 Cup AP flour (previous 3/4C)
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 Cup milk (previously not in the recipe)

Mix

1-1/2 Cups of oats (quick or old-fashioned oats) (3/4 Cup finely chopped in food processor)
1/2 Cup of raisins.

Mix

Stir until combined.

Chill dough for 1 hour

Drop a tablespoon of batter onto ungreased cookie sheets.


Bake for about 16 minutes

Weekend recipes: Buttermilk and Honey Whole Wheat

Another recipe from thefreshloaf.com

Ingredients
Whole wheat flour : 500 grams or about 4 cups
Bread flour : 500 grams or about 4 cups
Salt: 20 grams
Instant yeast: 6 grams
Water: 370 grams
Buttermilk: 370 grams
Honey: 84 grams
Unsalted butter: 28 grams or 2 Tbs

Mixing
Add the salt to the flour. Mix them thoroughly and then add the yeast, also mixing. Melt the butter (or, if you like, work it in later while kneading) and add the water, buttermilk, melted butter and honey to the flour, mixing well until everything is hydrated.

Dough development

Traditional kneading: Let it rise 2 to 2.5 hours in the bulk rise at room temperature.  (I think that was too long.  It more than doubled)

If you’re not retarding the bread, deflate the dough after the first rise with a stretch and fold, and let the dough rise once more before shaping. It’ll take about 1.5 hours or so.  ( I completely missed this step)

Shaping

This dough makes a great sandwich loaf, and I usually bake it in a greased 8.5” by 4.5” bread pan.  Let rise for an hour or so.

Scoring and baking

I scored the dough with a single slash down the center, but it’s not necessary. I baked at 350 degrees F for about 55 minutes.

I might try this again.  The bread came out quite dense, and toasts well.  I might try to add the second rise, and make the first shorter, and see what happens:

Weekend recipe - Hawaiian Sweet Bread with Tangzhong

Another recipe from Floydm at thefreshloaf.com.  Pretty simple recipe, but I had some issues with it.  I think the issue was due to using cold from the refrigerator milk. 

The first rise was supposed to occur in an hour.  When I checked, after an hour, nothing had happened.  Nada.  No change at all.  So, wanting to try the recipe again, I went out and got more supplies.

I suspected the issue was the temperature, so I warmed everything up do a decent temp before mixing it in.  The dough behaved better and looked better than the previous batch.  I set this batch off to rise, too.  The first batch had not been discarded.

After an hour passed, I checked on the second batch, and it looked good.  I checked on the first batch and it had tripled in size.  It was still alive.  So, I now have two batches worth of loaves to bake, plus my two sourdough loaves.

Now I had between 6 and 8 loaves to bake.  Each one would take a solo baking cycle in the oven.  Each of about 45 minutes.  4.5 - 6 hours.  Ugh.

I finally turned off the oven at about 11:30 p.m.  At least basketball games were still on TV.

Here's the recipe:

Tangzhong

2/3 cup pineapple juice

1/3 cup water

1/3 cup all purpose flour

Final dough

800g (around 5 C) all purpose flour

1/2 C sugar

50g (1/2 C) milk powder

1/2 C half and half

3/4 C milk

2 eggs

4 T butter

4 t instant yeast

1 t salt

1 t vanilla extract (optional)

1 t lemon extract or some lemon zest (optional)

1 t orange extract or some orange zest (optional)

all of the tangzhong

1 more egg, beaten, for the eggwash

Tangzhong preparation: 

1 cup of liquid (milk or water or juice) to 1/3 cup flour, or a 5 to 1 liquid to solid ratio (so 250g liquid to 50g flour) and mix it together in a pan.  Heat the pan while stirring constantly.  Initially it will remain a liquid, but as you approach 65C it will undergo a change and thicken to an almost pudding like consistency. 

Main bread:

I mixed the tangzhong with the milk, (I just realized I left out the half and half from both attempts!), half and half, and butter to get everything to a decent temp.

I then mixed that in with everything else.  Mixing for about 15 minutes.

Greased a bowl, formed the dough into a ball and put it in the bowl, covered, to rise for an hour.

I then divided one batch into 3 pieces and the other into two, and let them rise for an hour.

Glazed them with an egg wash, put them in a 350 oven on my baking stone.  Covered them for 10 minutes, then let them cook uncovered for 35 minutes more.

I got no puckering of the loaves as they cooled.  Maybe I'll try them again and not leave out the half and half and see what happens.

No pictures.  Bummer.

Weekend recipes - Struan

The second of this past weekend's breads was a Struan from Peter Reinhart's "Bread Baker's Apprentice".  Someone'd mentioned it on thefreshloaf.com, so I thought I'd give it a try.  It is a multigrain bread in a normal loaf form.

It uses a soaker as a pre-ferment.

It was well-received by the wife and works well toasted.

The quantities below are for two loaves.

Soaker

6 TB polenta
6 TB rolled oats
4 TB wheat bran
1/2 Cup water, at room temp

Mix the soaker the day before you want to bake.  Combine the ingredients in a bowl until everything is hydrated.  Cover with plastic wrap and let sit overnight.

Dough
 
6 Cups bread flour
6 TB brown sugar
3 tsp salt
2 TB instant yeast
6 TB cooked brown rice
3 TB honey
1 Cup buttermilk
1-1/2 Water

Mix the flour, brown sugar, salt, and yeast in a bowl.  Add the soaker, rice, honey, buttermilk and water.  Mix until they form a ball.  I had to add quite a bit of flour to get to that state.

Knead for about 10 minutes.  The dough will smooth out and pass the windowpane test.

Oil a bowl and transfer the dough to it, rolling to coat with oil.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Ferment at room temp for about 90 minutes

Rmove the dough from teh bowl, split it into two halves.  Press each half into a rectangle.  Form it into a loaf to fit your loaf pans.  Place the laoves into the oiled pans.  Mist the top of the dough with water.  Sprinkle with poppy seeds.  Mist again with oil, cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap or a towel.

Proof for about 90 minutes

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Bake for about 20 minutes.  Rotate 180 degrees and bake for another 20 to 40 minutes until golden brown.

Cool 2 hours before slicing.

Weekend recipes: Irish Soda Bread

I made an Irish Soda Bread this past weekend.  I think it turned out ok, but I'm not sure I like soda breads when compared to yeast breads.  The folks at work did not prefer it over the Struan alternative.

This recipe comes from "Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads".  It's his Royal Hibernian Brown Loaf.

2-1/2 Cups whole wheat flour
1 Cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 Cup butter, room temperature
1 egg
1-1/4 Cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400F

Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl.  Work the butter in until you get something that looks like breadcrumbs.

In a well in the center of the mixture, pour in a mixture of the egg and buttermilk.  Mix until you get a stiff dough.

Lift the dough from the bowl and place on a lightly floured work surface.  Mix with hands and dough knife until thoroughly blended.  Do not knead.

Shape into a plump round ball.  Pat the top down slightly and with a knife or razor blade, cut a 1/2" deep cross on the top.

Please the loaf on a greased baking sheet and bake until brown, about 45 minutes.

Weekend recipe - Dewberry cobbler

I went out into the backyard on Sunday and found some dewberries ready for picking.  I picked the obvious ones around the lemon tree and decided there weren't enough to do anything with.  With a little more searching around the creek, I found enough to use the recipe below.  It looks like I should be able to do the same thing over the next couple of weekends.  The dewberry patch is pretty extensive.

I found this recipe at http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2009/05/dewberry-cobbler-is-your-reward.html


Dewberry Cobbler
Crust ingredients:
1/2 stick of butter (2 oz.)
1 cup of flour (6 oz.)
1/2 cup sugar (3 oz.)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup of buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling ingredients
4 cups dewberries or blackberries
1/2 cup sugar (3 oz.)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Place the rinsed berries in a large cast-iron skillet or nine-inch round cake pan, and toss the berries with the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and lemon juice. Let them macerate for 20 minutes.

To make the crust, melt the butter on low in a pan, and then add the other ingredients. Dough will be slightly sticky, moist yet pliable.

Pat out the dough and place it over the berries.

Bake 40 minutes or until light brown and bubbling.

Serves six

Weekend recipe - Italian bread

I made Italian bread, I think for the first time, this past weekend.  From Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice."  It's a biga-based recipe.  It turned out fairly well, even though I could not use my current steam trapper because the loaves were too big.  I did alter the process a bit due to past experience working with a biga and the trouble I have mixing in a biga after everything is alerady mixed together.

Biga:

11.25 ounces  Bread Flour
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
8 ounces Water

Mix.  Knead.

Oil a bowl.  Transfer the dough to the bowl. Cover the dough with plastic wrap.  Let rise for 2-4 hours.  Degas slightly.  Put back in bowl.  Recover.  Chill overnight.

Main Dough:

All of the Biga
11.25 ounces Bread flour
1-2/3 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 ounces water

Process:

Remove the biga from the fridge, cut into 10 pieces, let them come to room temperature.

Mix the biga, water and olive oil together.  Add the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast.  Mix until the dough is soft and slightly sticky.

Knead for about 10 minutes.

Bulk ferment for about 2 hours

Divide the dough into two pieces.  Do an initial shaping of the loaves, degassing as little as possible.  Cover and let rest for 5 minutes.

Do a final shaping, cover and proof until about 1-1/2 times the original size.

Prepare the oven for hearth baking.  Preheat to 500 F.

Score the loaves, mist them and bake for about 20 minutes.

Cool for about 1 hours.

Weekend recipe - Croissants

The recipe from Richard Bertinet's "Crust" is what I used for croissants this past weekend.  They turned out, ok.  I made them too small, and cooked them too long.  This is a recipe I will try again.  Here it is:

20 g yeast
500 g bread flour
10 g salt
50 g sugar
1 large egg
125 cold milk
125 g water
200 g cold butter

1 egg with a pinch of salt for a wash

Flour in a mixing bowl with the yeast.  Add salt and sugar.  Add egg, milk, water and mix.  Turn out onto unfloured work surface

Form into a ball, cut a deep cross with a knife.  Back into the mixing bowl, covered.  Chill for at leat 2 hours and as much as 12 hours

Flour the work surface.  Peel the dough at the four corners of the cross to form a rectangle and roll out.

Open the butter into a freezer bag.  Flatten the butter into a square that will fit onto the dough diagonally.  Fold in the four sides of the dough over the butter.

Roll the dough out into a rectangle about 3 times as long as it is wide.  Fold the dough into thirds.  Mark it with one indent.  Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or longer.

Roll the dough out into a rectangle about 3 times as long as it is wide.  Fold the dough into thirds.  Mark it with two indents.  Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or longer.

Roll the dough out into a rectangle about 3 times as long as it is wide.  Fold the dough into thirds.  Mark it with 3 indents.  Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or longer.

Roll the dough into a rectangle about 12in x 30 in.  Cut the dough lengthwise down the center.  Cut each strip into about 6 or 7 triangles.  Make a small vertical cut in the base of each triangle to allow you to make the crescent shape more easily.

Roll the triangles up.

Preheat the over to 425-450

Glaze the croissants with the egg wash

Let the croissants rise for about 2 hours

Glaze them again and bake for 18-20 minutes.

Thursday recipe - Hokkaido Milk Bread

Another recipt from thefreshloaf.com


Tangzhong

1/3 C all purpose flour
1 C liquids (I used 2/3 C water and 1/3 C milk)

Final Dough

800g (around 5 C) all purpose flour
1/2 C sugar
50g (1/2 C) milk powder
1/2 C half and half
3/4 C milk
2 eggs
4 T butter
4 t instant yeast
1 t salt
all of the tangzhong

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl or standmixer and mix the heck out of it, 10 or 15 minutes, until the dough is silky and smooth.  I didn't initially add enough liquid so my dough was quite dry, but by adding more to the bowl and using wet hands I was able to work more milk and water into the dough.

Once you've needed the dough well, cover the bowl and let the dough rise until doubled in size, roughly an hour.

Divide the dough into smaller portions.  I divided the dough into 12 pieces and baked it in the 3 pans. 

Cover the pans loosely and allow to rise for half an hour, then glaze with milk or an egg wash.

Heat the oven to 350F while letting the loaves rise another 15-30 minutes.

I had to have K. put the pans in the oven as I had an aikido class to teach.  She baked the loaves at 350F for approximately 40 minutes.  If they are browning too much, you can cover them loosely with foil.

Wednesday recipe - Honey Whole Wheat Bread

Since I was getting the kitchen dirty with the Buttermilk Banana bread, I decided to add to the mess with a Whole Wheat Honey bread from thefreshloaf.com

Honey Whole Wheat Bread  
makes two loaves

1 lb whole wheat flour
12 oz hot water
 8 ounces bread or all-purpose flour
15 oz can evaporated milk (or milk, or more water or soy if you are vegan)
(I used 15 oz of buttermilk and water, by weight, which probably necessitated the extra flour)
1/3 cup honey
2 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons instant yeast
an additional 1/2-1 cup flour, as necessary, to achieve the desired consistency
(I ended up with 2 cups of bread flour and 1 cup of whole wheat flour extra)

Mix the hot water and whole wheat flour together in a bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic and set aside until around room temperature, at least 1 hour.

Add the milk, honey, salt, yeast, and bread flour to the original mixture and mix until well combined. Add additional flour and knead by hand or in a stand mixer until a tacky but not completely sticky dough is formed.

Place the ball of dough in a well-oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside to rise for 60 to 90 minutes.

Divide the dough in two and shape the loaves. Place the loaves in greased bread pans, cover the pans loosely with plastic, and set aside to rise again for 90 minutes. (I had them covered with plastic wrap, when I removed it, the loaves lost some of their rise.  Maybe they were over-proofed?  Not certain.)

During the final 30 minutes of rising, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. (My oven was still warm from the Buttermilk-Banana loaf)

Place the pans into the oven and immediately reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Bake for approximately 45 to 55 minutes, rotating the pans once so that they brown evenly, until the internal temperature of the loaves is around 190 degrees and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

---------------------------

These loaves turned out okay.  I need to try it again, use the evaporated milk, eliminate the negatives and see if I get a nice crown on the loaves.

Wednesday recipe - Buttermilch Bananen Brot (Buttermilk Banana Bread)

While toodling around www.thefreshloaf.com yesterday I came across a recipe for a buttermilk banana bread.  Given that we had part of a bottle of buttermilk in the fridge, and it often goes past expiration before being used, and a bunch of bananas that will go overripe before we use them, I was inspired to make this recipe.

Looking at my schedule over the next few days, last night was the night to do it.

Ingredients for 2 loaves  (actually just made one loaf)
10 g fresh yeast (I used instant)
1-2/3 Cups of room temperature butter milk

1 very ripe banana
500 g of  flour bread
15 g salt (if you like it sweeter takes only 10 g of salt) ( I used about 12g )

Preparation

Banana peel, slice and puree with the room warm buttermilk.

For the dough, mix the yeast with the buttermilk. Add the flour and the salt
and the dough with a spiral mixer 2 minutes to slow down and knead for 6
minutes faster level. (I mixed in most of the flour with the yeast, buttermilk, and banana, and then let it rest for 30 minutes.  Then added the salt and the rest of the flour)

Cover the dough and leave for 30 min.

Fold the dough 2-3 times. (I did the stretch and fold every 30 minutes for about 2 hours.  I think I could have added a little more flour and been okay)

Halve the dough and shape into two oblong loaves. Add the floured upside
down on the sheet with parchment paper, cover and let it go another 30
minutes (as the bread tears during baking to beautiful)


(I shaped all of the dough into one boule and lets it rest, covered with a towel, on my cornmeal covered bread peel)

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 450° F, prepare for steaming.

Score the loaves. Bake the bread for 10 minutes at 450° F, then turn
down the oven to 400° F and bake for another 20 minutes.

(I scored the single loaf, spritzed with water, and then placed it on my baking stone at 500 ° F and covered it with my steam retainer.  After ten minutes removed the steam retainer and reduced the temp to 450° F.  After another ten minutes, I rotated the loaf.  After another ten, I removed it from the oven and let it cool for 30)

The loaf came out with a nice thin and light crust.  It really exploded through the score I made, taking over 50% of the crust.  It has a nice impact of banana flavor as the crust touches your tongue.  The crumb is very tender with a hint of banana.  My wife declared this one a keeper, one of the few times that has happened.  She thinks a slice or two of this bread would be an appropriate addition to a meal at a small bistro.

Blonde Oatmeal Raisin Cookies: a recipe experiment

I've been trying to find a recipe similar to the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies that Fuddrucker's used to have in the early 90's (I think). They were nice and tasty, very blonde, and not very greasy. I've not had any luck replicating them. All of my attempts end up with very thin, very dark cookies.

I found this recipe at Lady Bean and hoped it would result in the cookie I've been searching for. The pictures on the blog certainly look like what I want.

But, they weren't what I got.

Preheat the oven to 350º

1/2 Cup of softened butter
1/2 Cup of brown sugar
1/4 Cup of white sugar

Mix

1 egg
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.

Mix

3/4 Cup AP flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix

1-1/2 Cups of oats (quick or old-fashioned oats)
1/2 Cup of raisins.

Mix

Stir until combined.

Drop a tablespoon of batter onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Planned alterations to attempt to get my desired result:

1. Add 1/4 C of flour.
2. Switch out half of the butter for shortening.
3. Freeze the scooped dough before cooking
4. Increase the granulated sugar to brown sugar ratio

Blueberry muffin recipe

After having lost the paper copy of the blueberry muffin recipe I've been using the past few years, I went searching for it again. It took a couple of days and a wide variety of search terms, but I found it. It wasn't on the same site as I first found it, but it's almost a twin to what I remember of the recipe.

Here's the recipe I found:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 beaten large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup melted butter
1 tablespoon grated orange peel optional
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen(not thawed)

Here's the recipe as I remember it:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
*1 teaspoon baking soda*
1/2 teaspoon salt
*1 beaten large egg *
3/4 cup milk
* 1/2 cup oil *
1 tablespoon grated orange peel optional
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen(not thawed)

So, the difference between mine and the one I found:

Mine has a teaspoon of soda which the new one does not
Mine has 1 egg, the new one has two
Mine used oil, the new one calls for melted butter. I'm pretty sure my original called for either one, but I've been using oil as it's easier.

Cooking directions:

Bake muffins in a preheated 350 degrees F oven for 35 minutes or until golden and centers test done (with toothpick). Cool for 5 minutes, then remove from tins and set on wire rack to cool completely.

So, this weekend, I'll try it with butter instead of my usual Canola oil and see if that gets the muffins to their normal color. The issue has been that the muffins *look* a little oilier over the past few weeks than they had previously.