Toffee is good. You can’t deny it, so don’t even try. That being said, is there a better way to improve a regular ol' oatmeal cookie than to toss in some toffee? I submit that there is not. Let’s see, shall we?
Here are the players, most of them familiar faces by now:
Fresh out of the gate, I hit a snag. I found my mixer, but where were the beaters? I looked in all my many drawers and cabinets, pulled out boxes of stuff I didn’t think I’d ever use, looked in my Goodwill pile…nothing. No one warned me that there was a beater thief in the area.
I panicked for a moment. How was I supposed to cream the butter and sugar without beaters? I opened my cabinet doors, hoping for inspiration, and my eyes came to rest upon the answer to this dilemma--my miniature food processor. (Thanks KASS!)
Henceforth, it shall be known as Lancelot, for it was my knight in shining armor.
Onward! With Lancelot’s help, I creamed the butter, brown sugar, and vanilla:
He did an excellent job.
I added the egg…
…and blended it in.
Wet team, done.
In a separate bowl, I combined the ingredients from the dry team…
…and stirred ‘em up:
Being sure to “leave no batter behind” (which wasn’t easy with Lancelot…he wanted to hold on to some)…
…I scraped the wet team into the dry team and mixed them together forming a lovely but boring batter:
Yes, some toffee was definitely needed. I guess you could use toffee bits (as the source of this recipe did), but I opted for chopped up hunks of Heath bar. Yum-diggity.
So, I added the toffee and stirred it in:
Much better.
I plopped tablespoon-sized mounds of the dough onto my cookie sheets…
…and stuck them in my oven, preheated to 350 degrees.
[Disclaimer: Sometimes, you're forced to lick the bowl to ensure that no batter gets left behind.]
After ten minutes...
...(rotating the pan half-way through), out they came.
Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.
Yes.
Homer?
That’s what I thought.
Eat that, beater thief!
Toffeed-Up Oatmeal Cookies
(from Coconut & Lime)
3/4 c light brown sugar
3/4 c flour
1/2 c old fashioned rolled oats
1 c toffee ingredient of choice
4 tbsp butter, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg, at room temperature
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl or teeny food processor, cream together the butter, vanilla, and brown sugar. Add the egg, beat until fluffy. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and oatmeal. Mix until well combined. Fold in toffee. Place tablespoon-sized blobs of dough on cookie sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes or until they look "set" and the bottoms are just golden. Carefully remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes about 2 dozen cookies.
Interestingly, my cookies look nothing like those made by Coconut & Lime (owner of an awesome glass!):
Perhaps I overdid it with the toffee—she only used 1/3 c.
Nah…
January 20, 2008
toffee is the tops!
Yum
January 16, 2008
baaa...
Yum
I've found something that I can contribute to the upcoming nuptials of TGM and her sweetheart:
Since they met at a convention for sheep-lovers, I think it would be completely appropriate, perhaps even expected, that they have little fondant sheep to sit atop the wedding cake and oversee their union.
Whaddya say?
January 15, 2008
a tribute...
Yum
...to Big Brother.
For some reason, everything I see online today is reminding me of the big fella.
Take this cake, for instance, which is reminiscent of his latest hobby:
Or how about these salt and pepper shakers, which are reminiscent of one of his old hobbies:
He likes eggs. He likes guns. Thus...
One last thing, a pi pie:
It reminds me of my calculus teacher more than anything else, but I can also associate it with BB.
I shall include these final pictures for the little brother so he doesn't feel left out. This is a special spaghetti plate with a little dip in the middle so you can twirl without a spoon! It may very well be his next birthday present:
Neat, right? It's a little bit too small for LB-sized portions though...
January 14, 2008
the delicious dictionary
YumI've stumbled upon a hilarious dictionary of foodie terms. So many of them apply to me that it makes me laugh out loud.
I've picked out a few that are particularly applicable to lil' ol' me or are just flat out hilarious.
(my additions are in green)
ADD--"Attention Deficit Dining," a disorder in which a person takes 45 minutes to decide where to eat (yeah, that's typically an all-day process for me...), then changes her mind at least 4 (possibly 14) times before ending up at the original choice (spot on, right Little Brother?)
ex. Don't ask her where she wants to eat; we should just pick and tell her. She has ADD.
baby bear--inspired the fairy tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears, someone who eats anything and finds it "just right";you should not eat with this person because clearly he has no taste
ex. "It doesn't matter where we eat. He's a baby bear."
dining disorder--a general term for any of several mental conditions including ADD (see above), OCD, chronic brunchitis, and semi-homemade cooking, among others
firrhea--GI syndrome that results in a burning release from the bottom that is often as explosive as a volcano; most likely the result of eating too-spicy foods (come on, most of us have been there...right?)
Goldilocks--derived in the same way as "baby bear" (see above), one who is never happy with what she is eating--everything is "too hot" or "too cold," never "just right" (I will now answer to "Goldilocks" from here on out)
mental bakedown--handling a mental breakdown, extreme stress, or a mid-life/quarter-life crisis by withdrawing into the kitchen and making ridiculous amounts of fattening baked goods (usually followed by eating at least half of them)
I hope you got a chuckle out of some of those.
January 13, 2008
friendly apple bread
Yum
Rise and shine, Ebenezer--your services are needed once again!
Today, I called upon ol' Eb to help me make some apple bread. Technically, the name is Amish Friendship Bread because the original recipe uses an Amish Friendship Bread Starter. Ebenezer is similar to that starter (except that there's nothing friendly about him), so I was able to use him instead of hunting down some Amish folks and asking for some starter. (Ironically, it wouldn't be hard to find an Amish person to ask--they frequently ride their horse-drawn carriages up and down the main street in Canajoharie. But I digress.)
This is a typical quick bread, made special by the addition of apples and, of course, the sourdough starter. The instructions weren't entirely clear about feeding the starter, but since Eb was due for some eats, I went ahead and fed him his sugar-potato flake concoction last night. He grew so much that this morning he had oozed out of his jar!
Here are the players:
I combined the dry ingredients in one bowl...
...and mixed them:
I added the wet ingredients (minus the apples) to a separate bowl...
...and gave them a good whisking:
(I used a metal whisk--I hope Eb didn't mind too much...)
I poured the wet ingredients into a canyon in the dry ingredients and gave it a stir...
...and added the apples:
These are special apples, peeled, cut, and cooked by my grandpa. They are, if you will, a taste of home:
After a good mixing...
...I poured the batter evenly into my two loaf pans:
I made sure to stick to my personal credo--"leave no batter behind":
Those wasteful chefs on the Food Network could learn a thing or two from me. Hooligans, rapscallions, and ne'er-do-wells, the whole lot of 'em.
There I go, getting sidetracked again. The lovely loaves-to-be were then popped them into my preheated 350-degree oven.
I set the timer for 50 minutes...
...but halfway through...
...I rotated the pans.
When my unbelievably shrill timer went off...
...I gave the loaves the trusty toothpick test, and since they both passed with flying colors, they were taken away from the heat.
They aren't much to look at, but the smell, friends...the smell is amazing. I can't get enough cinnamon, and in my personal opinion, the best fruit-spice combination EVER is apples and cinnamon.
Ebenezer is very proud:
And he should be:
I cut 'em up and piled them onto my fancy new plate from the Christmas Tree Shop so I could share with my co-workers:
Peekaboo:
Apple Bread
(makes 2 9x5" loaves)
2 c all-purpose flour
1 c sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 c Ebenezer
3 eggs
2/3 c vegetable oil
1 tbsp vanilla
1 c cooked apples
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray down two 9x5" loaf pans. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Form a crater in the center and set aside.
In a separate bowl, drown Ebenezer in the eggs, oil and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and stir until just blended. Finally, add apples and stir to combine. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans.
Bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
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