"The Best" Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

"The Best" Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough May 14, 2016 from Averie Cooks

Whenever a cookie claims to be the best in its title, I always have to place the words in quotes since that’s not my claim but someone else’s, typically the person whose blog I got the recipe from. It isn’t meant to cast aspersions on their claim and they could have a super stupendous cookie. But I don’t like to make a personal claim about it being “the best” because what makes something the best cookie to one person doesn’t necessarily make it the best for someone else.

In the case of oatmeal cookies, some people might like thin, crispy cookies. In which case, this soft, chewy cookie wouldn’t be for them. Some might consider cakey cookies the best. This chewy cookie wouldn’t be for them either. But if you like good, chewy, moist oatmeal cookies with a nice brown sugar overtone complemented by semisweet chocolate, then, heck yeah, this is a really good oatmeal cookie.

They spread a bit more than I cared for, even though I did the frozen dough ball thing before baking, but that didn’t detract from their taste. I like oatmeal cookies well enough and this was a good one. I don’t know that I’ve quite found my personal “best” oatmeal cookie just yet but I certainly enjoy the search.

1 large egg

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned whole rolled oats

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon, to taste

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch salt, optional

1 heaping cup chocolate chips

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream egg, butter, sugars and vanilla. Beat on medium-high speed until creamed and well combined, about 4 minutes.
2. Scrape down sides of the bowl and add oats, flour, cinnamon, baking soda and optional salt; beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.
3. Add chocolate chips and mix briefly to combine. Do not overmix.
4. Portion dough into golf-ball-size balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line several baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space frozen dough balls on baking sheets. Bake 11-12 minutes or until edges have set and tops are just set, even if slightly underbaked, pale and glossy in the center. Do not overbake. Cookies firm up as they cool. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before serving or removing to wire rack to cool completely.

Southern Tea Cakes Revisited

Southern Tea Cakes - made June 5, 2016, recipe from Dianne Vickers

Although I have a backlog of posts to put up, I'm blogging out of order to address a recent issue. My blog posts occasionally get featured on the Stir It Up! food page of the Christian Science Monitor and last week, they had included my post on Southern Tea Cakes. There’s an option for readers to provide feedback which then gets forwarded to the blogger. One such feedback I received from the post had a very negative reaction as a Southerner took exception to my interpretation of what a Southern Tea Cake was like, claiming I had “killed these” (not in the millennial slang sense) and that my picture was “nothing like a large, soft cookie which is what our Tea Cake is suppose [sic] to be. Why would you tell people to roll it in a ball and freeze it and lump it up like this? Just make up your own recipe and name it something else rather than using a long named, part of a long well loved recipe and try making it into something it is not.” The reader admitted to being a “hater of people missing [sic] around with my Southern Traditions” and went on to agree with my admittance of not being from the South and never having heard of Southern Tea Cakes with an emphatic “OBVIOUSLY”.

I will admit to being taken aback at the vehemence greeted by a cookie post, a recipe that I had found on pinterest and made according to the original blogger’s post and naming convention (as opposed to creating it on my own and subverting the name). I will further admit my initial reaction would not have done credit to my West Coast upbringing, my Filipino-American heritage or my Christian religion. Fortunately, one or all three factors prevailed and stifled the knee-jerk impulse to respond to dislike with further dislike. That accomplishes nothing but to breed more ill will and wouldn't honor my values.

My second, more pragmatic reaction was to think what a shame this person missed a teaching opportunity to educate me and others on what a real Southern Tea Cake is, obviously something important enough to her to write in and give her opinion. I am teachable and when I make an error, I not only want to find out about it but I also would like to know how to do it correctly so that the error doesn’t continue and won’t be further propagated by me or anyone else.

Fortunately, someone commented on the post directly on my blog, also informing me my version of the Southern Tea Cake wasn’t what she, Dianne V, grew up with but she didn’t stop there and instead helpfully supplied her Grandmother’s recipe which she said was very old and welcomed me to try it. In addition, a personal friend, Melvina, who’s also from the South, passed along her mother’s recipe to me after I related the story. I decided to try Dianne’s recipe first and that’s what you see pictured here. I did halve it since I didn’t need so many cookies. Turns out I portioned it a bit generously since my half recipe only yielded just over a dozen cookies whereas the full recipe was supposed to make 3-4 dozen.

I wasn’t sure how much a “small bag” of self-rising flour (as written in the recipe) was since self-rising flour isn’t as common in my area as it is in the South. Melvina told me it was typically 2 pounds. I researched online and translated a pound of all-purpose flour is equal to 3 1/3 cups. My digital scale confirmed that, using the dip-and-sweep method of measuring flour. You can make your own self-rising flour by adding baking powder and salt. 1 cup of all-purpose flour + 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder + ¼ teaspoon salt = 1 cup self-rising flour. Or so say multiple sources on Google. Which is what I used since I don’t normally buy self-rising flour and they didn’t have small bags of it at the store.

Using those adjustments, I made the recipe. The dough was beautifully easy to work with and I patted it into thick discs, bypassing the directions to roll it into a ball and flatten – same results. I wasn’t sure how long to bake it for since the bottoms of the cookie turning golden brown signal they’re done but it’s hard to check the bottom of a baking cookie. The proxy is to watch the edges and take them out as soon as they show a little color. The tops will also “dry” and show some cracks. It’s easy to overbake these so watch carefully. Baking time also depends on the size and thickness you make the cookies. I didn’t refrigerate or freeze them but they had enough flour in them that they didn’t really spread which was nice.

I ate half of the taste test cookie while it was still lukewarm and it was delicious. I loved the texture. Normally I don’t like cakey cookies but I’ll make the exception for a good vanilla butter cookie that’s thick and chubby. I ate the second half of the taste test cookie when it was completely cool and it was still good. The butter and vanilla flavors really come out. So it’s important to use fresh butter and real vanilla extract. Don’t settle for imitation anything or margarine.

I love old recipes that have withstood the test of time so thank you, Dianne, for sharing your grandmother’s recipe and educating me on what a real Southern Tea Cake from a Southerner is like.

Below is recipe as posted by Dianne, except what's in blue are my edits
2 eggs
4 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
1 small bag (2 lbs) self-rising flour (see blog post for substitutions)
2 tablespoons vanilla

All Ingredients Should Be Room Temperature.
No Substitute On Butter. Use Butter.

Preheat Oven To 350 Degrees. Use Ungreased Cookie Sheet.

Using Hand Mixer Beat Butter And Sugar Together, Add Eggs, Beat Well. Add Vanilla Beat Well.

Add Flour A Little At A Time Until Hand Mixer Begins To Struggle (You can mix the whole batch by hand if you want to. My Grandmother never had a mixer so she mixed by hand). Continue To Add Flour A Little At A Time Mixing By Hand. Dough Should Not Stick To Hands Or Feel ‘Packy’. (SOFT BUT FIRM) Depending On Weather, May Not Need WHOLE Bag Of Flour Or May Need A Little More Than A Bag. 

Pinch Off Dough In Golf Ball Size Pieces, Roll In Hands And Flatten. Put On Cookie Sheet, Pieces Not Touching. Bake Until Sides Of Bottoms Begin To Color. Bottoms Will Be Nice Brown, Tops Will Be Pale. Should Make 3 – 4 Dozen Tea Cakes Depending On Sizes Made. 

Perfect Soft and Chewy Snickerdoodles

Perfect Soft and Chewy Snickerdoodles - made dough May 6, 2016 from Beyond Frosting

I have a favorite snickerdoodle recipe so I don’t know why I try new ones since nothing has ever unseated my favorite nor is it likely to. Wait, that’s a lie. I do know why. I just like making snickerdoodles and even if a new recipe isn’t better than my favorite one, I have an excuse to try a new recipe because it might be better and even if it isn’t, I end up with a batch of snickerdoodles. Win win.

The downside is when the new recipe isn’t as good as my favorite, my hopes are dashed when I take the first bite. But it’s all relative because the minor (and frankly, expected) disappointment is offset by, you know, biting into a snickerdoodle.

These were good but spread more than my favorite recipe and were just a tad too sweet for me. Next time I’d probably add a little cinnamon to the cookie dough itself and more cinnamon to the rolling cinnamon-sugar mixture. I also ran out of cinnamon from Penzey’s and instead have been using Spice Island cinnamon I received as a gift. It’s good but I have to admit, the Penzey’s cinnamon is better and more cinnamon-y. When making snickerdoodles, having great cinnamon is key.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

1. Combine butter with sugar and beat on medium speed until well creamed together.
2. Add eggs, vanilla and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Slowly add into batter and beat on medium-low speed until just combined and dough forms.
4. Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and chill or freeze several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon in small bowl. Roll dough balls into mixture, coating completely. Evenly space dough balls on baking sheets.
7. Lower temp to 350 degrees F and bake cookies for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool for several minutes then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Sweet Potato Biscuits - made May 7, 2016 from A Pretty Life in the Suburbs

I love sweet potatoes. I love biscuits. So you would think I would love sweet potato biscuits, right? I want to, I really do. This is my second attempt at making them with two different recipes. But either the recipes aren’t right or I’m doing something wrong but I just have not been able to make a sweet potato biscuit to die for.

I know, I know, it’s “just a biscuit”. But still. At work, our culinary team made to-die-for regular buttermilk biscuits last month and I still think about them. Let’s let that sink in for a moment. Given my love of sweet potatoes, you’d think these would have a fighting chance against those “plain” biscuits. Nope. Not even close.

I didn’t get the same texture I wanted and frankly, the sweet potato taste just wasn’t there. Sigh. And they were nothing special to look at either. The ones on the original blog I got the recipe from looked much better. Double sigh. Oh and it was initially too floury so I also had to keep adding a little more buttermilk, a teaspoon at a time, until the dough came together enough to even be shaped into biscuit-like structures.  So maybe biscuits just aren’t my thing or I just don’t know how to make sweet potato biscuits to perfection. These were edible, especially warm with butter melting over them. But that’s all I’ve got.

1 3/4 cups flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup sweet potato puree
1/3 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F and lightly spray a 8" baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
3. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in chilled butter until it resembles coarse meal with some pea-sized butter pieces remaining.
4. In a separate bowl, combine sweet potato puree with buttermilk. Add mixture to dry ingredients and incorporate with a fork; do not overmix. Add a few drops of buttermilk if mixture is too dry.
5. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead into a ball. Flatten ball into a disc shape, about 1 inch thick. Using a biscuit cutter, cut out 8 biscuits. Form any remaining dough into a round biscuit.
6. Place in prepared pan with sides touching and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies - made dough May 14, 2016 from Oh Sweet Basil

I’m am SO behind in putting up my blog posts. I actually have a stack of recipes I’ve tried and need to get the write ups done and up. So you may see me posting more frequently just to try and catch up. For anyone keeping score, you’ll notice I haven’t dropped my blog very much or at all, although I’ve been waffling about it for well nigh a year now. Hard habit to break so…..on to the next recipe.

If you want to know what baked peanut butter tastes like, make these cookies. But you have to take them out at barely the 10-minute mark or they’ll be baked to cookie-like texture instead of creamy baked peanut butter texture. Not that there’s anything wrong with that either but it’s not the same.

The dough was a dream to work with; not too sticky or wet, not too dry or crumbly. It formed perfectly into dough balls. I chilled them for 30 minutes after making the dough balls before I pressed the pointy side of the meat mallet to make the “cross hatches”. I always give full credit to that to my friend and culinary school classmate, Annie the Baker, for teaching me that trick. That’s how I mark all my peanut butter cookies instead of the criss-crossed fork tines. The meat mallet press just looks better and more uniform. But chilling the dough balls before making the indents makes them a little sturdier so you can be a bit more firm with the meat mallet. Press, don’t pound; they don’t get that firm.

You also don’t want to press too much or the cookies will thin out. Make the dough balls about the size of a golf ball, chill briefly then press with the pointy side of the meat mallet just until the indents are clearly visible and the dough ball has flattened into a thick disc. Then freeze for several hours or overnight. These cookies don’t spread much so they’ll end up as thick as you make them, post the encounter with the meat mallet. That thickness is also what helps give them the baked peanut butter texture, soft, smooth, creamy.

I’m not a big peanut butter fan but I want to try this recipe with cookie butter and see if I get similar results. Because we know how I feel about cookie butter.

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 large egg
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar, for rolling

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars for 1 minutes on medium speed; increase to medium high for an additional 30 seconds. Add the peanut butter and mix for another 30 seconds. 
2. Add the egg, vanilla and milk; mix until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add to wet ingredients and beat until just combined.
4. Portion dough into golf-ball size dough balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough balls in granulated sugar and evenly space on baking sheets, Bake for 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake.

Banana Bundt Cake

Banana Bundt Cake - made May 7 from Crazy for Crust

I ruined my streak of baking successes with this cake. I’m not quite sure where things went wrong as usually the recipes I get from Crazy for Crust’s blog are on point. But I suspect this cake went south when I either didn’t beat enough air into the batter or, more likely, I didn’t bake it long enough.

I expect bundt cakes to have a more dense, pound-cake-like texture. They wouldn’t be fluffy like a chiffon (and I don’t care that much for chiffon cakes anyway), not airy like a mousse nor creamy like a cheesecake. But they also shouldn’t be a brick and sadly, this was a bit brick-like. I thought I had baked it sufficiently because the edges were brown, the toothpick came out clean, and when I turned it over, the surface of the cake was a nice golden brown.

But alas, the cake was not only dense but it didn’t have that much flavor, another sign it was underbaked. It wasn’t raw; it just didn’t taste right and the texture wasn’t very cakey-good.  Eep. I did bake it for 45 minutes but it could’ve probably used at least another 5-8 minutes more. It didn’t look much like the picture on Dorothy’s blog in terms of texture so….my bad. I didn't even want to post this as I have more successful recipes in the line up still waiting but I've always said I would post what I make, success or "failure" and be honest about it so here you go.

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 overripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
5 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup buttermilk

Frosting
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
pinch of salt, optional
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 12-cup fluted bundt pan.
2. Whisk together flour, salt and baking powder in a medium bowl.
3. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Stir in mashed bananas and vanilla.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. With the mixer on low, alternately add half the flour mixture, the buttermilk then the remaining flour mixture. Beat until just combined; do not overmix.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, 45-55 minutes. Let cool in pan for a few minutes, loosen cake with small spatula and overturn onto serving plate. Let cool completely.
6. Make the frosting: mix melted butter and cream cheese. Mix in powdered sugar, salt if using, and vanilla. Frost cooled cake.

Southern Tea Cakes

Southern Tea Cakes - made dough April 16, 2016 from Jam Hands

Not being from the (US) South, I’d never really heard of Southern Tea Cakes. When I saw the recipe, it seemed like Mexican Wedding Cakes without the nuts and instead of a coating of powdered sugar, it was covered in a glaze. Is that “the South” they were talking about? My friends who are genuinely from the South say “nah”. So this West Coast baker will have to interpret Southern Tea Cakes as a melt-in-your-mouth vanilla cookie with vanilla glaze.

Which is what I got with this cookie. What I love about the ubiquitous Mexican Wedding Cake is the soft, moist texture with the crunchy texture and flavor of toasted pecans. The Southern Tea Cake almost but not quite mimics that texture sans nuts but isn’t quite as melty in your mouth because it isn’t rolled in powdered sugar which contributes to that melty mouthfeel. Still, this is a good cookie especially if you want a simple vanilla cookie. The glaze adds a nice sweetness. You can leave it off if you choose but I recommend adding it for a little bit of elegance just to dress it up a bit.

The dough is easy to work with and, as always, I recommend portioning it into chubby dough balls and freezing first before baking. It won’t spread as much. Err on the side of just underbaking or just baking until done. The bottoms will be a light golden brown. I couldn’t quite capture the texture in the picture on the original blog where I got the recipe from so that may also be why mine weren’t as melty in the mouth as a traditional Mexican Wedding Cake but it was still quite good.

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour

Glaze
2 cups confectioners' sugar
3-4 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together for 1 minute until combined. Add eggs and vanilla; mix until incorporated.
2. Whisk together baking powder, salt and flour; add gradually to butter-sugar mixture, beating until just combined. Do not overmix.
3. Portion dough into 2-inch balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Evenly space dough balls on baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden. Do not overbake. Cool on wire rack while preparing glaze.
6. For glaze: whisk ingredients together in a bowl. Pour over tea cakes. Allow glaze to set before eating.