Use-It-All-Up Cookie Bars . . .

Yesterday morning I opened the fridge and found myself face to face with a hefty container of homemade oatmeal raisin cookie dough, pretty much thawed. I'd mixed the dough about a month ago, frozen it the same day, and had taken it out of the freezer a few days ago. I removed the lid and looked at the dough with limited enthusiasm. It peered back at me blankly, as if to say, "Well? You're the one who took us out of the freezer. Now you have to bake us. Honey, we're defrosted, so get moving." Okay, I thought, point taken.

But, you know how some days the very notion of scooping a zillion individual cookies just seems like too much effort, even if your dough is all ready and rarin' to go? That was my mood. You really have to be in the right frame of mind for mass cookie production to be joyful, and I guess I just wasn't feelin' it. So I began browsing the cupboards, wondering how I could transform this dough into something that would only require about 15 minutes of my time start-to-finish. Nothing fancy or exotic. I just needed to get the job done in a tasty way. Prowling around, I pulled out a quarter-sheet pan, lined it with parchment, and set the oven to 350. Then I grabbed a dinner fork and started breaking off rough chunks of the frigid dough, scattering them over the parchment.

Still not knowing exactly what would evolve, I discovered a little bag of sweetened coconut, about 3/4 of a cup of the stuff leftover from who-knows-what Christmas cookie project, and sprinkled that over the top of the dough. Same thing with a small pouch of leftover chopped pecans, maybe 1/3 of a cup, max. Then, behind a box of baking soda, I found a sandwich bag holding a random mixture of dark- and semisweet chocolate chips, and sprinkled that--perhaps 1/2 a cup of chips or less--over it all.

And finally, I grabbed a cellophane wrapper filled with several remarkably soft and completely adorable homemade marshmallows, prepared by one of my fellow culinary-students from my bakery merchandising class this spring (they're her specialty, and boy are they divine; she makes them in strawberry and chocolate too!). I cut several of the marshmallows into small chunks with kitchen scissors and scattered them over everything else. They sealed the deal. Problem solved. Anything else thrown on there would have been overkill.

Into the oven the whole thing went. I baked it until the dough layer seemed kind of firm in the middle, and the top was golden all over. I used up all those little bags of leftover stuff, did it super fast, and ended up with really good cookie bars. Can't ask for more than that!

Use-It-All-Up Cookie Bars

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Preheat oven to 350. Line bottom and sides of a 9" x 12" x 1" (that's a quarter sheet pan) pan with parchment paper.

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. almond extract
1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, unbleached
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 pinch ground nutmeg (optional)
3 cups uncooked oats (old fashioned or quick)
3/4 cup raisins

About 3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut, loosely packed
About 1/3 cup pecans, chopped small
About 1/2 cup mixed chocolate chips (mine were dark and semisweet)
About 1/2 cup chopped marshmallows (If you want to use homemade marshmallows, go for it; try this reliable recipe!)

Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg (if using) in a medium bowl with a whisk. Set aside.

In the large bowl of your mixer, cream together the butter, shortening, and the two sugars on medium speed. Add in the eggs, milk, and the two extracts; beat on medium speed until very well combined.

On the lowest speed, add in the flour mixture. Beat just until combined. Add in the oats and the raisins, again beating only until combined.

Roughly plop chunks of the dough more or less evenly atop your parchment lined baking pan. Sprinkle atop the dough first the coconut, then the pecans, then the chocolate chips, and then the marshmallows.

Bake for at least 25 minutes, until golden all over and no longer jiggly in the middle. Let the bars cool on a rack before cutting them with a sharp knife.

Scotch Oat Crunchies . . . Sandwich Cookies with Raspberry-Key Lime Jam

Somewhere along the line in my evolution as a typical female, I veered off the path and began to loathe massive shopping malls. Oh sure, I roamed them like a free-range sheep when I was much younger, often along with a small flock of friends. We'd meander happily, a little cluster of girls window shopping just for fun.

But I rarely venture into them now, preferring instead to hunt for exactly what I need online, or in the sort of free-standing stores that hold the potential for incredible bargains and unique discoveries. I'm talking about places like TJMaxx, HomeGoods, Tueday Morning, Marshalls, and the odd second-hand shop. Of course, many of these establishments are neatness-challenged and a few of them lack every semblance of organization, so it's advisable to be completely okay with that before you ever set foot in the door.

In prowling for treasures, the potential for causing an avalanche is ever present. Gotta keep an eye out for that Kilimanjaro-like pile of cartoon-print pajama pants to your left, the ones that someone slung hastily atop a leaning tower of bone china dinner plates. Successful navigation through the labyrinth of aisles, each one stuffed to the gills with goods, requires nimble maneuvering and a light touch. But, such drawbacks aside, these joints do cater fairly well to the average gal's yen to forage. And when the hunt yields up something worthwhile, there's that little ping of satisfaction, that feeling of Oh, good! This errand was definitely worth my time. Do you know what I mean?

In one such store a few days ago, I unearthed a nicely discounted jar of  Sarabeth's Kitchen raspberry key-lime jam. Tucking it into my floppy shopping pouch, I remembered that this crunchy sandwich cookie recipe, which I planned to try out, recommends using a tart jam to augment the pleasant but humble flavor of the cookie wafers themselves. The recipe suggests using cherry jam, which I like, but given the choice I'm more of a pushover for raspberry. This jam's bright flavor gives it a comfortingly homemade quality, and it's not overly sugary (I realize I keep referring to it as jam, but the label on the jar actually calls it "spreadable fruit").



This cookie recipe, dating back to January 1943, comes to us from the new Gourmet Cookie Book: The Single Best Recipe From Each Year 1941-2009. These cookies are very crunchy indeed, so their title is apt. This is the kind of sweet that goes hand in glove with a good cup of hot tea--the perfect cookie for a frosty December day.

I reworded the recipe, adding in more detail, but not altering the time-tested formula.
 
Scotch Oat Crunchies with Jam Filling

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Preheat oven to 350 shortly before you're ready to bake. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
2 and 1/2 cups pastry flour (This is hard for home bakers to find in most grocery stores so, alternately, Gourmet suggests the use of White Lily brand flour--that's what I used. Another alternative you might try is to use a 50/50 mix of All Purpose flour and cake flour--that's a typical substitution for pastry flour. Gourmet also suggests using cake flour alone.)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 and 1/2 oats (I used quick oats.)
1/2 cup cold water
3 drops almond extract and 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup jam/preserves of your choice

In a very small container, stir together the water and extracts. Set aside.

In the large bowl of your mixer, cream the butter on medium speed until it's almost white; this may take  several minutes. Add in the brown sugar gradually, and continue creaming until completely blended.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then sift this mixture again one more time. Stir in the oats.

With the mixer on its lowest speed, add in the dry ingredients alternately with the water. Mix just until fully combined. Cover the dough and chill it for at least half an hour before attempting to roll it out (or chill it overnight, if you prefer, then let it soften slightly before using).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

On a well floured work surface, roll a portion of the dough out to a thickness of 1/8" (I rolled my dough a little thicker than this because it was pretty sticky. I didn't skimp on the flour for the work surface.) Use a 2" cookie cutter to cut out rounds or squares, using a thin metal spatula to place them on the parchment lined cookie sheet(s).

Bake the cookies until lightly golden, perhaps 10 to 12 minutes or so. Let them cool before trying to handle them. Fill the cookies with a generous half teaspoon of the jam of your choice, and sandwich two of the wafers together gently. Let the jam set for a while before serving the cookies.

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Fail-Safe Oatmeal Cookies

Last week's post on my fail-safe chocolate chip cookie recipe made me think I should likewise share my fail-safe oatmeal cookie formula, so here it is! It's one of those recipes you can confidently customize with added ingredients as you see fit.

My sixteen-year old son likes these with raisins only--he's a minimalist with this kind of food. My twelve-year old son likes them best with big milk chocolate chips--he's not a big fan of raisins. I like them in just about any incarnation and so does the hubby. Today I made a big batch of dough and divided it up before putting in any of the add-ins. Then I made about two thirds of it into the boys' two favorite varieties, and to the remaining third portion I added raisins, toasted chopped pecans, and sweet shredded coconut. Yum.

This recipe makes a lot of cookie dough (you'll get dozens of cookies out of it). If your mixer bowl is not very large, you might want to halve the recipe or be ready to takeover and do the final mixing steps by hand.


Jane's Fail-Safe Oatmeal Cookies

(For a printable version of this recipe click here!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
A few drops of lemon extract (optional, but I think it helps brighten the flavor very subtly)
A few drops of almond extract (optional, but " ")
3 and 1/2 cups AP flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 and 1/4 tsp. salt
1 and  1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
6 cups oats (quick or old-fashioned, either will work)
2 cups raisins, moistened if they are very dry (per recipe below)


Measure the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a medium bowl. Combine lightly with a fork or whisk and set aside.

Measure the oats into a medium bowl; set aside.

Measure the raisins into a bowl. Especially if you're using sun-dried raisins, I recommend you spread them out in the bottom of the bowl and cover them completely with warm water, or fruit juice. Let that soak for about ten minutes. Drain the raisins and gently squeeze them with paper towel to remove excess water. Set aside.

Measure out any additional ingredients you want to add in--like walnuts, pecans, coconut, or any type of chocolate chips--in whatever reasonable proportions you prefer, and set those aside.

Beat the sugars, butter, and shortening for no more than about two minutes at medium speed, until well mixed.

Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla, still at medium speed until well combined.

Slowly add in the flour mixture, on low speed until it's just blended.

Add in any raisins, nuts, chips, etc. mixing on the lowest speed (or by hand if your mixing bowl seems too full).

At this point, if I were you, I'd divide the dough into a few clumps, wrap each in plastic, and freeze or refrigerate them for at least an hour, until firm. Also, I recommend you chill your cookie sheets in the freezer or fridge for at least 15 minutes before using them.

Cover your cookie sheets with parchment and portion the cookie dough about two inches apart. If you want hefty cookies use a no. 24 scoop (that's about a three-tablespoon scoop). Or, just roll the dough into balls with your hands; make the balls about the size of big walnuts, working quickly so as not to warm the dough. If you want smaller cookies, feel free--just be sure to bake them for a shorter amount of time. For flatter cookies, versus a puffier and more rounded-on-top version, press them down a bit before baking--not too much.

Bake for at least 13 minutes, checking as needed to prevent over-browning. The longer you bake them, the crispier they'll be. I like to have partly chewy, versus completely crispy, oatmeal cookies so I always try to remember--not always successfully--to take them out before they get very dark.

Let them cool on the pan for five minutes, then complete cooling on racks.

Now, go get a glass of milk, or a cup of coffee, or a nice glass of iced tea. Sit down, relax, and have a cookie.



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