Chewy Molasses Cookies

There's a department pot luck tomorrow, and I wanted to make something that I don't normally make for myself. A batch of cookies is a lot for one girl to go through (at least without feeling sick afterward), so I found a fall-spiced cookie and started baking. I was a little worried when they first went in the oven, since the dough seemed really wet, and I wondered if maybe I hadn't put in enough flour, but they ended up great. Crisp around the edges, but tender and chewy in the center. Don't bake them too long -- they'll seem overly soft right when they come out of the oven, but they'll firm up as they cool. They also spread out a lot while baking, so if you don't want them to end up touching, give them more space than you think you should.

Chewy Molasses Cookies
from Martha Stewart's Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 granulated sugar, plus more for rolling/sprinkling
2 large eggs
1/2 cup molasses
1 tbs vegetable oil
2 cups flour
1 tsp each baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, allspice
1/2 tsp salt

Mix butter and sugars with an electric mixer until well blended. While still mixing, add eggs one at a time, followed by molasses and oil. Mix flour, spices, and salt in a separate bowl, and gradually add to butter mixture. Freeze for about an hour.

Preheat oven to 325 and cover baking sheets with parchment paper. Form tablespoon-sized balls of dough and either roll in extra sugar, or sprinkle with sugar after placing on the baking pan, spaced 3-4 inches apart. Bake for about 17 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Cookies will be puffy and soft; remove from the parchment after they have flattened and become more solidified.

I'm an addict

Is looking for recipes online and imagining all the things you could make a bona fide hobby? Because that's what I find myself doing a ton lately. There's only so much I can cook because there's only so much I can eat, and I feel like I'm stockpiling recipes like a squirrel stockpiles acorns this time of year. It also doesn't hurt that there are a million awesome food blogs that I can only aspire to. Here's one a found today that's great if your usual sources just can't give you the fix you need: www.tastespotting.com

No-Knead Bread: The Slow Recipe

Ok, I know, I know, I'm way behind the times. In the two years since this recipe first came out for a wonderfully crusty bread that anyone can make, various other people have tried to improve upon it. The general idea is that the bread requires no kneading other than folding the dough a couple of times, but does require about 20 hours of forethought, which is something I rarely have. But last night at about 11, I was itching to do something, so I started the dough rising. Which took a whopping five minutes of my time, if that. I decided to try using 1/3 whole wheat flour (which ended up a good choice in my opinion). Then I left it until about 5 this afternoon. It's good that it didn't require any of my attention earlier today, since I had to go into work (apparently Colombus Day is not big in Wisconsin. I woke up today planning on enjoying a lazy Monday of a three day weekend, only to realize that no one else here thought that it was a three day weekend).

No-Knead Bread
adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery, via the New York Times

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Additional flour, cornmeal or wheat bran for dusting

In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Multi-Grain Waffles

I asked for a waffle iron from my parents last Christmas, and unfortunately that's the sort of thing that sounda great, but has the potential to go unused for long periods of time (such as my pasta roller). But luckily, the waffle iron has gotten lots of use. While regular white-flour waffles are great, when I want something a bit toothier and with a richer flavor, I make these. The recipe makes about 4-5 eight inch round waffles.

Multi-Grain Waffles
based on a recipe from Eating Well

1 cup buttermilk, or half milk and plain yogurt
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup whole-wheat flour
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 cup corn meal
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1/8 cup brown sugar
1 tsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix buttermilk or milk & yogurt with oats in a medium bowl. Let stand for 10 minutes, or if you're like me and slow at collecting the rest of the ingredients along the way, just go ahead with the rest of the recipe. Heat the waffle iron. Mix flours,cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla into the oat mixture. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until moistened. Spoon batter on to the iron. Since this batter is thicker than a lot of other waffle batters, you can put more on the iron without having it drip out over the edges.

Spinach Dip

I first made this a while back and liked that it's super tasty, and low fat, at least compared to other creamy dips. The recipe calls for cream cheese, which sometimes causes problems for me since I don't really eat cream cheese otherwise and therefore never have it in the house. After not having made it in many months I was committed to making it tonight without bothering to look at the recipe. I found that if you're in a pinch, it's ok to increase the amount of the yogurt a bit if you drain it in cheesecloth/a coffee filter/a paper towel for about a half hour and gently squeeze the excess whey out of it to thicken it up a bit. I also used a bit extra parmesan, and it ended up quite good -- a higher proportion of spinach to creaminess, but still satifies the cream dip craving. Here's the recipe that I usually make.

Low-Fat Spinach Dip

10 oz package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 cup plain yogurt -- low fat or fat free
4 oz low fat cream cheese
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan
2-3 minced garlic cloves
1 tbs lemon juice
salt, pepper, hot sauce to taste

Thoroughly squeeze out thawed spinach. Stir in yogurt, cream cheese and Parmesan. Add remaining ingredients, incorporate and adjust seasonings.

Bean Burgers

I likes me some meat. But recently I haven't been eating much of it at all, on account of my over-buying vegetables on a weekly basis at the farmers' market, and the mildly sketchy meat departments in the super markets I've been to here. I had seen this Minimalist recipe for bean burgers a while back, and I finally gave it a whirl. I made mine with black beans and added some leftover roasted red pepper I had. The bean mush was a bit too mushy, so I added some extra oats and some bread crumbs, and it was still a bit mushier than I thought it should be, but I went with it. It turned out that that the burgers were really moist, so I'd recommend erring on the side of too mushy versus too dry. Since originally making them a few days ago, I froze the extra burgers (raw) and cooked one up tonight, and I was pleasantly surprised with how well they do with the freezing.

Bean Burgers
from the Minimalist

2 cups well-cooked beans (white, black, red, chickpeas lentils), or one 14-ounce can, drained
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tablespoon chili powder or spice mix of your choice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 egg
Bean-cooking liquid, stock, or other liquid (wine, cream, milk, water, ketchup, etc.) if necessary

Combine the beans, onion, oats, spices, and egg in a food processor and pulse until chunky, adding a little liquid if necessary to produce a moist but not wet mixture. Let the mixture rest for a few minutes if time allows. Shape into whatever size patties you want and again let rest for a few minutes if time allows. Heat a nonstick pan to medium and after hot, add the patties. Cook until nicely browned on one side, about 5 minutes; turn carefully and cook on the other side until firm and browned.

Congratulations!

I've been a bit lax about updating recently. This past weekend I was down in North Carolina for Annette and Bobby's wedding, which amounted to a wonderful weekend. It was a bit stormy at first, with 15 foot waves, winds, and rain, but everyone got there safely, and the weather was beautiful for the entire day of the wedding. Congratulations!