Granola

Granola (noun): a breakfast food consisting of rolled oats, brown sugar, nuts, driedfruit, etc., usually served with milk. Granola (noun): a person who enjoys nature, living free, and not showering more than necessary. Which definition do you like better? Which definition did I get off of dictionary.com? If you guessed the first, you are correct, but if you are about my age you remember that in high school there was a group of people that we referred to as the "granola's", kindof sub-par hippies I guess. And I am willing to bet that these so called "granola's", liked to eat granola. 

What does this have to do with this recipe? Absolutely nothing, just thinking about the two words, and wondering if a person is described as a "granola" and is eating granola, what does that make them? Hmmm....I'm just sayin'

Apple Crisp

Growing up in New York, I had some of the best tasting apples in abundance right in my backyard and on our family farm down the road. We made apple pie, apple crisp, applesauce (pink, if you believe it- my grandma believes in leaving the skins on), apple cider, apple juice, pork with apples, sauerkraut with apples, and apples in between every meal. This led me to become a bit of an apple snob; now that I live on the opposite side of the country, I can only find northwest apples which, please excuse my bias, just don't measure up to our New York varieties. Very few apples beat a good Cortland, Mcoun, or Empire (click here for an overview of New York State varieties). It makes me terribly homesick to think about it.

But even if I can't find my favorite apples, I'm not about to stick my nose up at a good dish of apple crisp. And this crisp is good. There are no weird ingredients (I once found a recipe that required bathing the apples in a wash of vanilla, which is probably amazing, but possibly unnecessary. I'll try it one day) or extra steps (like pre-baking the apples before baking the crisp). It's just plain simple delicious apple crisp.

Apple Crisp
Recipe by Kelly
Pictures by Kelly

4-5 cups apples, peeled and sliced
1/2 stick butter, very soft
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup quick oats OR 1/2 cup old fashioned oats and 1/4 heaping cup quick oats (I chose the latter method)
1/2 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
dash of salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease an 8 x 8 inch baking dish and pour apples into dish.
2. Combine butter, sugar, oats, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Sprinkle over apples. Bake 35 minutes, or until topping is lightly browned and apples have softened. Serve hot or cold.

Honey Oatmeal Bread

This is a soft, supple, mild bread due to the high oat content and the use of potato-flakes in the dough. I will admit that it does take a long time to make because it is a slow rising bread, but it is good. The hands on time is only the amount of time that it takes you to put the dough together, but unlike other yeast breads that only require about 2 hours of total rise time, this one takes double that. From what I understand that is also due to the high oat content. Either way though, it creates a loaf that sticks together well and cuts nicely. The look of it is rustic, with a crust that has some crags and valleys, which I think is nice.

Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

Today we offer a cookie recipe to remind you to send us a recipe for the cookie contest...which ends today! It also happens to be my (Kelly's) birthday, and aside from the Le Creuset 5 quart dutch, I mean French, oven I've been pining for, I'd like nothing more than to receive dozens of cookie recipes. So send us one!

And now moving on to our topic at hand: oatmeal cookies. Did you know that Americans used to have an aversion to eating oats? Before 1850, many Americans considered oats to be animal food only. No oatmeal for them, thank you very much. But around 1860, a brilliant German immigrant took his steel-cut oats and marketed them as a delicious, nutritious, and cheap breakfast dish. And then it wasn't long before someone realized that adding oats to butter and sugar would make an excellent cookie. And voila! The oatmeal cookie was born.


So here we have a traditional oatmeal-raisin cookie that is just about perfect. It's chewy, it's moist, it sets up well without being too flat. It's everything an oatmeal cookie should be.

If you're a raisin hater, replace the raisins with chocolate chips and omit the cinnamon and nutmeg (though I personally like having a bit of spice with my chocolate).

Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies
Recipe from the All-American Dessert Book
Pictures by Caroline

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons honey
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups old fashioned oats*
1 1/2 cups raisins

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease several large baking sheets (or use a non-stick mat like a Silpat, which happens to be one of the prizes for the best cookie submitted for our contest!).
2. In a medium bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
   
3. In a large bowl combine the butter and sugars. With a mixer on low, then medium speed, beat until the mixture is well blended and ligthened, about 1 1/2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the eggs, honey, and vanilla and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes longer.
4. Beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the oats and raisins until evenly distributed. Let stand to firm up for 10 minutes.
5. Shape dough into balls. Bake for 9 to 14 minutes, or until slightly darker at the edges and almost firm when lightly pressed in the centers. Let cool on cooling rack.

*This recipe calls for old fashioned oats. If you use quick oats instead, your cookies may be less chewy. But they'll still be good.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwiches

I've been on a hunt for a non "traditional" cookie, something a little different than your typical chocolate chip, or oatmeal, or plain peanut butter, but also something that wouldn't take me hours to make. And I think I've found it. All the reviews for this recipe claim the cookies (with a peanut butter filling- we made ours a chocolate filling) taste exactly like the Girl Scout cookie. Having never had the GS oatmeal-peanut butter cookie, I can't really say if they're right. But either way, they're really good and very sweet!

Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies

Don't be fooled- these cookies should really be called Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oats. They don't have any of the spice of regular oatmeal cookies, and raisins would be a very strange addition. And the dough might be even better than the cookies themselves. Just thinking about it makes me want to stuff a few more cookies into my already bulging belly...too bad our oven died midway through the second batch. I guess I'll have to settle for dough.

Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies

recipe from bettycrocker.com

Pictures by Caroline

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

2 cups quick oats

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg.
3. In a separate bowl, combine oats, flour, soda and salt. Add to butter mixture and stir just until blended.
4. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake 9-11 minutes or until light brown.

Peanut-butter Finger Bars

As a child, whenever I wanted to get on my dad's "good" side, I made him these. I found that sweetening my father's mood with his favorite dessert always increased my persuasive powers. Granted, it may have contributed to those extra pounds he found himself needing to work off 10 years later, but I had a grand time whipping up a batch just in time for his arrival home from work. My family grew up calling these Peanut-butter Finger bars, but my brother-in-law dubbed then"PBFBs" (pronounced "peebeefeebees"). My husband calls them peanut-butter oatie deliciousness.

These bar cookies have an oat-peanut-butter cookie crust with a chocolate-peanut butter frosting. I prefer them fresh out of the oven, just after the frosting has started to melt. They're super easy and tasty; I often make them when I need to bring a treat to an event, but am short on time or creative ideas. If you like peanut butter, and you like chocolate, (and really, how can you not, after the Milk Chocolate Chunk and Peanut Butter Brownies) these are sure to hit the spot.

Peanut-Butter Finger Bars (aka "PBFBs")
by the Hill Family

Cookie:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
1 cup quick oats

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
   
2. In a large bowl, Cream together butter, sugars, egg, peanut butter and vanilla.
   
3. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until blended.
4. Pat dough into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake 22 minutes, or until golden brown.
   

Topping:
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter
3-4 teaspoons milk

1. Sprinkle chocolate chips over HOT crust (it's very important for the crust to be hot!) Let chips melt slightly.
2. Meanwhile, mix powdered sugar, peanut butter and milk. Add more milk for a thinner frosting or less for a thicker frosting.
   
3. Pour the frosting over the melting chocolate chips (you may want to spread the chocolate chips out before adding the frosting; it will make it more even). With a spatula, spread frosting over entire pan, mixing the chocolate and frosting together.
   
4. Let cool slightly and serve.