Summer Baking: Custards, Meringues, and Pate a Choux {Classes 3 & 4}

This summer I'm enrolled in the Culinary Lab: Baking course as part of my graduate program - the Master of Liberal Arts in Gastronomy at Boston University. For 6 weeks I'll be spending 2 nights a week in the professional kitchen learning all about baking. The course requires students to keep a journal of the experience and I've decided to record my adventures here on the blog. I hope you enjoy! You'll get the calorie-free version of my decadent baking experience.
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Classes 3 and 4 introduced the class to some classic dishes. The menu for our third class included Pavlova, clafouti, and almond orange bread pudding. These three recipes provided us with an introduction into the world of custards and meringues. How interestingly different egg yolks and egg whites can be! 

Before we headed to the kitchen we learned about all the different options for puddings (starch thickened, baked, steamed), custards (stirred or baked), Bavarian cream, mousse and souffles. Similar ingredients - very different results!

The Pavlova was first on the prep list. This graceful dessert is named for a ballerina and her signature role as a white swan. These are not a traditional meringue that crumbles when you bite into it. The addition of vinegar makes the inside chewy while the outside is crisp. The whipped egg whites are spread into circles on parchment with a slight well in the center. These don't puff up when baked and the well is the perfect spot to layer in fresh berries with raspberry sauce and fluffy whipped cream. The individual size bakes in half the time and also makes for an elegant presentation. Imagine a summer luncheon with these individual Pavlovas - no one has to share! 

The next recipe is courtesy of Julia Child, one of the founders of the program at BU. Clafouti is a custard dessert traditionally made with cherries. Custard and fruit are cooked together until it puffs and browns. A sprinkle of powdered sugar is added before serving. The dish is pretty straight forward, but Julia has a great technique that she incorporates. Rather than just dump and bake, she instructs the reader to pour 1/4" of batter in the bottom of a pie plate and hold over moderate heat until the batter has just set. The cherries are set on top before the remainder of the batter is poured in. This prevents the cherries from sticking to the bottom of the dish. Another interesting note - the cherries are added whole (don't serve this to children!). The pits contain a chemical that when baked have the scent of almonds. I have to admit, this one was not my favorite. The soft custardy texture is not my preference. But it was easy to make and would make for a great party dish as it can be served at room temperature.

A last minute addition to the night was Zabaglione. We each got a double boiler, egg yolks, sugar, sweet Marsala, and a whisk. Over a slight simmer, we whisked and whisked and whisked until the mixture was aerated and slightly thickened. It took more than the 4 minutes called for in the recipe and I felt the burn! Proper whisking technique is definitely a learned art. Thankfully my eggs didn't scramble and I ended up with a delightfully smooth custard to pour over fresh berries.

Here's a look at the group at our end of class tasting. The casserole dishes contain David Leibovitz's recipe for almond orange bread pudding. Pictures and then tasting!

It was hard to contain my excitement over class four - Pate a Choux! This is the base for some really great pastries. Pate a Choux is one of those things that I thought was going to be a real challenge to make. We used a recipe from Jacques Pepin that was easy to follow and produced fantastic results. We elevated these with a craquelin topping and a generous filling of pastry cream and nougatine. Making Pate a Choux requires a lot of observation. Adjustments have to be made depending on the size of the eggs, the dryness of the flour, or how much the dough dries when you cook it (and even the weather). The beauty of these profiteroles is how the eggs and steam puff them up leaving a perfectly hollow inside waiting to be filled with something creamy.

Before we baked them we topped them with craquelin - butter, sugar and flour that is rolled out and cut into circles to top the profiteroles. These bake into a crisp, sugary topping. This reminded me of Japanese melon bread - a delicious airy bread that is topped with a sugar cookie like crust. Now that I made these I see the resemblance and I am inspired to see if I can recreate them.

Gougeres are made in a similar way, though these got a dash of bacon, thyme and Gruyere before being piped into adorable little blobs on the baking sheet. They baked up light and fluffy and perfect for any occasion. Knowing that all of these freeze well is dangerous. I might be eating up all my frozen vegetables and filling my freezer with profiteroles and gougeres to have whenever the urge strikes!

It is a lot of fun to learn the basics and building blocks of pastry - from the doughs to the pastry creams to even just a good whipped cream. The good news for my family is that I'll have to keep making these so I don't lose the knowledge!

What dessert have you always wanted to learn how to make?

Summer Baking: Cookie Night {Class #2}

This summer I'm enrolled in the Culinary Lab: Baking course as part of my graduate program - the Master of Liberal Arts in Gastronomy at Boston University. For 6 weeks I'll be spending 2 nights a week in the professional kitchen learning all about baking. The course requires students to keep a journal of the experience and I've decided to record my adventures here on the blog. I hope you enjoy! You'll get the calorie-free version of my decadent baking experience. 

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Cookie night! There are infinite cookie recipes out there. Probably many in your family and an endless array of choices in cookbooks and online. Tonight's task in class was to tackle some of the more variety of cookie techniques and produced a set of delicious delicious results. From mix and drop cookies to precisely piped cookies. We produced a delicious sampling of cookies to taste.

First up was cookie that was pretty much just chocolate and macadamia nuts. These drop cookies are exactly as they sound  - mix and drop! Start with smooth melted chocolate and butter, stir in a minimal amount of flour (3 tablespoons), a little sugar, and then a generous amount of macadamia nuts. Drop on the tray, cook for about 10 minutes and eat immediately.

 They almost had a brownie like consistency with that shiny exterior. These could last a day or two, but realistically you'll finish them off pretty quickly with no need for storage.

Our next task was a sheet of cantuccini - or what we think of as biscotti. These are from the Tuscany region and traditionally would be dunked. They are twice baked and especially hard and crunchy. 

It was hot in the kitchen - we opted out of our formal chef coats for the night.

One thing to note on these cookies - notice the different colors of almonds in the photo below. Even though the instructor ordered raw almonds, the supplier delivered a batch that included both raw and roasted notes. While that might not be a problem in some recipes it was a problem here. Because you are baking these twice, by the time the final cookie is done the roasted nuts are overcooked. This leaves a bitter flavor behind. As a result these cantuccini were not as good as they could have been. The bitter flavor was just too much.

My absolute favorite cookie of the night started off not looking like a cookie at all. These Jan Hagels combine butter, sugar, brown sugar, an egg, flour, and vanilla and almond extracts. The dough is pressed into a jelly roll pan, topped with frothy egg whites and sprinkled with sliced almonds. A generous sprinkle of cinnamon sugar completes the cookie.

According to the recipe, these are a traditional Dutch holiday cookie that is light, thin, and flaky. After baking the cookies are cut into diamond shapes before eating. It was hard to stop eating these! These were simple to make but would impress as a gift for the holidays. 

The last cookie of the night was a late addition to the menu. We had worked so fast that we had time to try out one more cookie type - piped cookies! This is one type of cookie I have not had any experience with and was a little nervous about. It turns out that it wasn't as hard as I thought. The recipe we used was from Pierre Herme. The Viennese Sable Cookies are shaped into a W in homage to the Wittamer Pastry Shop from Brussels.

We decided on this recipe at the end of the night but it calls for very soft butter (in order to have pipe-able texture). A great tip we learned - grate the butter! By grating it on a box grater cold butter will soften very quickly and be ready for a spur of the moment baking urge.

Not bad for a first attempt!

It was a lot of fun to make 4 different cookies that I have never made before. When I make cookies I usually make something from my tried and true recipes. I experiment with a lot of different savory dishes, but when it comes to cookies I usually have a specific craving. How about you? Do you try a lot of new cookies?

After tonight, I'm looking forward to adding these Jan Hagels to my cookie recipe rotation.

Delicious take home work.

What is your favorite cookie? Do you have a tip that helps you be more efficient in the kitchen? I'd love to know!

Summer Baking: Learning the Basics with BU Gastronomy {Class #1}

This summer I'm enrolled in the Culinary Lab: Baking course as part of my graduate program - the Master of Liberal Arts in Gastronomy at Boston University. For the next 6 weeks I'll be spending 2 nights a week in the professional kitchen learning all about baking. The course requires students to keep a journal of the experience and I've decided to record my adventures here on the blog. I hope you enjoy! You'll get the calorie-free version of my decadent baking experience. 

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Back to the kitchen! No I haven’t been eating only takeout  –  it’s back to the professional kitchen at Boston University to continue learning. Following up on my fantastic experience two years ago in the culinary lab for cooking, this summer I am enrolled in the culinary lab for baking. For the next 6 weeks I will be immersed in the sweeter side of the kitchen. This course focuses on pastry basics – all the building blocks for a world full of delicious goodies. My classmates and I will work on recipes that span the globe – from Paris to Texas to Turkey.

Even as an adult, the first day of school jitters are still there. Will I forget my chef coat? Did I buy the right size offset spatula? The agenda for the first night included crepes and a delicious filling to turn them into Gateau de Crepes a la Normande. I’ll admit, the prospect of crepes had me a little scared. I always imagined that you needed a special pan and special talent. Thankfully, my fears were allayed as we moved through the process (and a foolproof recipe from Jacques Pepin).

We started with a rapid-fire lecture on the building blocks needed for baking. Did you ever stop to think about all the ingredients? Good old all-purpose flour and white granulated sugar are just the tip of the ingredient iceberg. There are multiple classes of wheat that get transformed into flours and a seemingly endless amount of alternative flours (think chickpea, oat, nuts, and more). Sweeteners come in many varieties too. Even what you might think of as sugar can come from either sugar cane or sugar beets. Next was a whirlwind tour of the options for fats and leavening agents.

With our heads filled with all this new information we donned our chef coats and hats and headed to the kitchen to transform these simple building blocks into something impressive and delectable.

As you can see in the photo of the recipe, there isn't much to a crepe batter! The secret lies in how you mix the batter and how you handle the pan. We learned that when you are making a batter it is important to mix only until combined. When mixing a batter with flour and liquid the more you mix, the more gluten is developed. That means that more mixing equals more gluten. The trick to keeping these crepes light and tender lies in the method. By mixing in only half of the milk at first, you can work out the lumps with less mixing. After the batter is smoothed out the remaining milk and melted butter are added in to reach the desired consistency. This would also be a good trick for mixing up your pancake batter at home to keep them light and fluffy.

The secret to turning this perfect batter into a perfect crepe lies in the wrist. The thickness of the crepe depends on the speed with which you swirl the batter into the pan. The faster the batter is spread the thinner the crepe will be. My first crepe came out a little pale, uneven, and ripped from a flipping mishap. However as I continued on I started to get the hang of it!

The great thing about crepes is that they are a perfect vehicle for just about any pairing you dream up. Nutella and jam? Yes! Peanut butter and marshmallow sauce? Definitely! Turkey and brie? Tasty! We went the fancy route - a layered crepe cake! Inside our layers of mostly-successful crepes we spread apples cooked with Calvados, cream, and almond flour. To top off this already decadent stack we poured on melted butter, sprinkled sliced almonds, and sprinkled granulated sugar for a little crunch.

The ingredients for this are pretty ordinary - and not too expensive. We learned that some bakeries charge $50 or more for a cake like this! Sadly I don't see this as a viable income source for me, but at least now I can wow my friends and family with a fun dessert!

Stay tuned for new posts after each of the classes. Next up - cookie night!

Best of Intentions: Make it happen with Glenwood Garden

I find myself having the best of intentions to write blog posts, but with kids, life, and work blogging always seems to get pushed aside. I also have the best of intentions to support independent producers and try new foods. Sure, my local grocery store carries a few things, but what about all those great handcrafted artisan foods out there that aren’t at my store? While I’d love to have the time to find them on my own, it just isn’t a possibility. That’s where the e-commerce site Glenwood Garden fits in. They do the hard work of sourcing and bring it all together into one place.

Glenwood Garden contacted me to see if I would be interested in learning more about them and trying out a product from one of the artisans featured in their online market. I was intrigued by the possibilities- maple syrup, jam, shrubs – what to choose? They bring a wide variety of artisan products from around the country together into one online marketplace. Not only do they provide a distribution channel for these producers, they also have a shop-for-cause model where a large portion of the profit from each sale is donated to a specified non-profit. At checkout you choose one of the participating non-profit organizations to receive a portion of the profit of your sale. The organizations are focused on sustainability and food security. A triple-whammy! New discoveries, supporting independent producers, and contributing to good causes all at the same time.

I decided to try some jam and in just a few days received a well-packaged trio of jars. After passing the bubble wrap over to my appreciative two and a half year old, I found three unique flavors of jam from the Jam Stand in Brooklyn, NY: You’re My Boy BLUE-berry Bourbon, Drunken Monkey, and Not Just Peachy Sriracha. I wouldn’t have dreamed these flavors up on my own but they sounded incredible. I tweaked a few of my favorite recipes to incorporate the jam. First I put a twist on my grandmother’s apricot chicken wings. Swapping out the apricot jam for the Jam Stand’s Not Just Peachy Sriracha resulted in a sweet and spicy appetizer. For a sweet treat with a kick, I glazed my mini-banana bread with the Drunken Monkey. The combination of sugar coated bananas, splash of rum and a dash of lime makes for a fun twist on a classic recipe. We don't cook pork at our house, but I can imagine that the BLUE-berry Bourbon might be good on a roasted pork tenderloin or as a topping for pork chops.

There are items at many different price points, the process is simple, and the joy of discovering new products is thrilling. It doesn’t hurt that you are also supporting good causes. Thanks to Glenwood Garden for providing me with a free delivery of a trio of fun jams. I would encourage you to do a little browsing of the site and discover something new and exciting to try for yourself. On to the recipes!

Not Just Peach Sriracha Glazed Wings 

True to grandmothers everywhere, this recipe is measured by eyeballing and intuition. And if I’m being totally honest, I forgot to jot down my adaptations to the recipe while I was cooking. The basic instructions are to make a glaze of dry white wine (or chicken broth) and jam and set aside. Season chicken wings generously with salt and pepper and bake, covered, at 350 for 45 minutes. Remove cover, toss with glaze, and bake for another 15 minutes. If you want to crisp up the outside a little more, broil for a few minutes and serve. Sweet, spicy, messy, and delicious! And look at those slices of peaches in the jam.

Drunken Monkey Banana Bread with Drunken Monkey Glaze. 
I finally got to make this over the weekend with the help of my toddler sous chef. You’ll see his influence in the styling for the photos.

I had a little help on this one, using a tried and true recipe from King Arthur Flour: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/banana-bread-recipe.   I added in 3-4 heaping tablespoons of jam to flavor the bread from the inside out. Instead of one big loaf, the batter was divided into four smaller baking dishes.

Mini desserts are always more fun! For the glaze I mixed about 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar, a tablespoon-ish of jam, and a few splashes of milk to get the desired consistency.

I was provided with free product by Glenwood Garden. I was not compensated for this post and all opinions are honest and belong to me. 

Pizza Dough, Two Ways (Plus a bonus recipe!)

It is hard to believe that it’s time to start planning for Thanksgiving already, and this year is the added bonus of a joint Thanksgiving and Chanukah celebration. While I was poring over my stack of Thanksgiving themed food magazines, I came across a welcome distraction. In the November 2009 issue of Food & Wine there was an article entitled “Asia Comes to America.” Joanne Chang from Boston’s Flour Café and Bakery (and Myers and Chang) contributed a handful of recipes for traditional Chinese items made from non-traditional ingredients. The one that caught my eye was for scallion pancakes using store-bought pizza dough. Since I have been eating scallion pancakes almost every Thursday for the past few months (maybe year...), I thought I would give the recipe a try. (Recipe here, I quartered the recipe to make 1)

Does scallion pancakes every Thursday seem a little odd? Not when the delicious Mei Mei Street Kitchen truck parks across from your office every Thursday. When dumplings aren't on the menu, my next choice is whatever they are serving on a hot griddled scallion pancake. Some week’s it is braised beef, cheese, and pickles others it is roast beef, potato salad, cranberry hoisin and Swiss chard, or sometimes the double awesome. I know I can’t recreate the full Mei Mei experience at home, but the scallion pancake seemed like a good thing to try.

With a 22 oz. ball of pizza dough from the store, I didn’t need to use all of it for the scallion pancake. Earlier in the day I turned 3 pounds of local apples into an apple butter flavored with maple and pumpkin pie spice. This apple butter was packed with as much New England fall as I could find! Apples from Shelburne Farm (Stow, MA), pumpkin pie spice and apple cider from Bolton Spring Farm (Bolton, MA), and granulated maple sugar from The Warren Farm and Sugarhouse (North Brookfield, MA). I thought about making a batch of warm biscuits to slather it on, but then I remembered the leftover pizza dough in the refrigerator. Perfect for a no-fuss dessert!

I tore up the remaining dough and tossed the dough balls in a generous amount of cinnamon sugar. After arranging them in a Bundt pan they got smothered in a mix of my fresh apple butter and melted butter. Thirty minutes and a flip later, maple-pumpkin pie spiced-apple butter monkey bread! There is no recipe for this one, tear up your favorite pizza dough (or even refrigerated canned biscuits), toss in cinnamon sugar, top with melted butter and apple butter, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Cool for a few minutes, invert onto a plate, and watch it disappear in no time at all.

One ball of dough plus a few great sources of inspiration equals a delicious day in the Good Cook Doris kitchen. Hope your fall is just as tasty!

Maple Pumpkin Pie Spiced Apple Butter
Inspired by Overnight Apple Butter, Domenica Marchetti, Cooking Light, October 2004

1/2 cup granulated maple sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup apple cider
1 ½ tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
10 medium apples, peeled, seeds removed, and cut into large chunks (2 ½ - 3 pounds apples)

Add all ingredients in a Dutch oven or large, heavy bottomed pot
Cover and cook over medium-low heat 1 – 1 ½ hours or until apples are very tender, stirring occasionally
Place a large fine-mesh sieve over a bowl; spoon one-third of apple mixture into sieve. Using a spatula, press the apple mixture through sieve. Discard pulp. Repeat with remaining apple mixture.  (This took a little while to do, you want to get as much apple goodness as possible in the finished product)
Return  the apple butter mixture to the pot and cook over medium low for approximately 15 minutes, or until desired thickness.

Time: 
10-15 minutes prep time, depending on your apple peeling speed
10-20 minutes sieve time, depending on your arm strength
Total cook time: 1 ¼ hour – 2 hours

Equipment:
Peeler, measuring spoons and cups, knife, Dutch oven or heavy pot, and spatula

Notes:
This recipe is not sweet – if you like your apple butter sweeter you can add up to double the amount of sugar and honey. I prefer a less sweet apple butter, to let the apples’ natural sugars determine the final sweetness.  

I used a variety of apples from our recent apple picking outing: Cortland, Red Delicious, Empire, Golden Delicious, Rome, and a few others I can't remember. 

Fatty Friday: Flour Sticky Sticky Buns

All these Healthy Snack Wednesday posts have got me craving a little sugar! Enjoy this Fatty Friday post as a little treat! 

On a trip to the bookstore last week, I noticed a delicious looking book on the corner of a table by the register. I didn’t expect to see it there, but as soon as I saw it I knew I had to bring it home. The book? Joanne Chang’s Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery and Café. Since the book came out, I’ve been seeing pictures of all the beautiful creations being made in kitchens across the internet.

I brought the book home and couldn’t decide where to start. I narrowed it down to breakfast treats and asked the hubby to pick a page number between 40 and 102. After the first pick that landed on a story page, the second pick was a definite winner. Page 85 is full-page color spread of the world famous, Throwdown winning sticky sticky bun.

I studied the recipe, and the required basic brioche recipe, and planned my baking schedule. When you add in the brioche making, proofing, rolling, rising, and baking this is quite a time commitment. I broke up the recipe into a few different steps. First, making the goo (unbelievably delicious caramel sauce). Second, making the dough and letting it proof overnight. Third, making half into a brioche loaf and setting it aside to rise. Fourth, rolling and assembling the sticky sticky buns and letting them rise before baking. Finally, baking the sticky buns and then the brioche loaf a few hours later. Rather than repost the recipe, you can find it over on the Food Network. Instead, I’ll show you how much fun I had tackling this baking challenge!

For daily cooking I usually add a dash of this and a splash of that. But for a recipe like this I wanted to be as precise as possible. My new digital scale came in handy for measuring all of the dry ingredients for the dough. I did my best to follow the well-written instructions and the results were fantastic.

Not too much to report on the aptly named goo. A few sticks of butter along with brown sugar, honey, heavy cream, and a few other ingredients makes for a dangerously addictive substance. The goo is sweet, salty, rich, and just plain delicious.

I measured out all my ingredients for the brioche dough and fired up the KitchenAid Mixer. What the book fails to mention is that your mixer might seem like it’s going to catch on fire as you work the dough. The sturdy dough gave my trusty red KitchenAid quite a workout and I stood and watched it to make sure it didn’t burst into flames! I set the dough aside to proof overnight in the refrigerator and got some rest before the big baking day.

The next morning I took out the dough and split it for the recipes. Using a rolling pin and all my upper body strength, I rolled out the sticky sticky bun dough into the appropriate size and thickness. Then, I coated the dough with a mix of sugar, brown sugar, and toasted pecans.

I surprised myself by how well I was able to roll the dough into a tight log. A few quick slices with a sharp knife and the rolls were ready for another rise.

While the rolls puffed up in the dish, I got in a pre-sticky sticky bun workout. I followed the baking and cooling instructions and patiently waited for the buzzer indicating it was time to eat. I think I actually drooled over the sticky sticky buns as I put them on a serving platter for photos.

This was the most incredible sticky sticky bun that I have ever eaten. So incredible that I saved one to take to work and packed the rest for the hubby to take to work. These could easily wipe out the results from Healthy Snack Wednesdays.

Lunch

Whenever I bake, I always pack up a piece or two for our letter carrier, Dennis. We still get our mail delivered to a box right next to the front door. When we first moved in four years ago, Dennis introduced himself and told us that he had been on the route for over 20 years. He knows the ins and outs of the neighborhood and is around when we're at work. When you've got someone like that, you want to treat him right. I leave him Halloween candy, brownies, cookies, or whatever else I’m baking. He usually scribbles a thank you note on the back of a piece of junk mail, or says thanks when we see him on Saturdays. This week I left him a sticky sticky bun and a few napkins. Judging by the note I got in the box today, I think this baking project was a success!

Thanks to Joanne Chang for such a beautiful, well-written recipe (and book). I can’t wait to pick a random page and try out the next treat! Although I might skip straight to the cornmeal lime cookies I bought the last time I was in Flour 3.

P.S. The brioche came out fantastic too! I've been enjoying it for breakfast all week with a little goat cheese and a fried egg.

Feeling a little over-sugared after that post? Don't forget to enter the MultiGrain Cheerios giveaway! Winner announced next week on Healthy Snack Wednesday!

Healthy Snack Wednesdays: Heart Healthy Oatmeal

We made it through week one of our biggest loser style challenge! Renee and I didn't have a 'big number' on the scale at our second weigh-in, but we did have a successful first week. We stopped taking the elevator and walked up four flights of stairs instead. Lunch hour included healthy dishes and a 20 minute walk each day.  It's an 8-week challenge so what really counts is the long-term result.

Being at Boston University, there are a lot of resources available to faculty and staff. One great resource is access to the BU Nutrition and Fitness Center. They work hard to make healthy choices available on campus and to educate the University about healthier living.  One of their nutritionists came to give us a brief talk about healthy eating last week.  Inspired by their talk and some recipes they sent over, Renee and I decided to choose oats as our ingredient for this week's healthy snack.

Oats are a versatile, and healthy, ingredient! Part of the grains group on the food pyramid, they are heart healthy and rich in fiber. You can use them in every meal: oatmeal for breakfast, granola for snack, mixed into meatloaf for lunch and dinner, and as a topping for fruit crisps for dessert. There are many different choices for oats at the store. Be careful when selecting oatmeal - many of the flavored instant oatmeal packets have a lot of sugar.  Instead of getting the flavored packets you can pick up the original instant and make your own flavors. This allows you to control the amount of ingredients you add in.  A few of my favorite oatmeal mix-ins include:

-Brown sugar
-Maple syrup
-1 teaspoon of peanut butter
-Dried fruits like cranberries, cherries, or raisins
-Fruit preserves or jam
-Bananas and a few chocolate chips

For Healthy Snack Wednesday, I decided to try one of the oatmeal cookie recipes sent over from the women at Sargent Choice (at BU Nutrition and Fitness).  They are not no-calorie and no-fat cookies, but they are more nutritious and less-bad for you.  Unless of course you eat all 3-dozen at once!  The key to healthy eating is really moderation.  I find that I don't have to give up my favorite foods, I just need to eat the appropriate portion size.

These cookies have heart-healthy oats and flax seed. Flax seed adds a good dose of nutritional value to the cookies with omega-3 (good fat) and additional fiber.  I did add a little extra antioxidants to the original recipe with a few mini-dark chocolate chips. Using mini-chips gives you a little chocolate flavor in each cookie without adding too much additional sugar.  If you make 1 tablespoon sized cookies this recipe will yield 3-dozen heart healthy cookies to share with your family, friends, or co-workers.  Thanks again to Sargent Choice for the recipe and nutrition information. Please note, the nutrition information does not account for the mini-chocolate chips. I also swapped dried cherries for the raisins which might change the sugar content as well.

Heart Healthy Oatmeal Cookies
Yields 3 dozen cookies


1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups Quick oats (NOT instant or regular)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 stick salted butter (equal to 1/2 cup or 8 tablespoons)
1/3 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup ground flax seeds
1 cup dried cherries (or raisins)
1/4 cup mini-chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper
Add butter, oil, vanilla, granulated sugar and brown sugar to your mixer bowl (or large bowl)
Cream butter and sugars with a mixer until butter is smooth
Add eggs and mix until smooth
Add flour and baking soda and mix until incorporated
Add ground flax seed and mix until incorporated
Stir in oats, adding 1 cup at a time until combined
Stir in dried cherries and mini-chocolate chips

Using a greased tablespoon, drop cookie dough 2" apart onto parchment-lined baking sheet
Using your hand or the back of the spoon, press the balls of dough down, flattening them slightly
Bake for 8-11 minutes, until golden brown and the look slightly under-done
Remove from the oven and cool on a wire cooling rack, the cookies will harden after cooling

Notes:
The dough will be dry and somewhat crumbly
Do not overcook the cookies. It is important to take them out of the oven when the center still seems slightly undercooked
You can also use unsalted butter and add in salt separately (I have not tried this yet for results)
The addition of orange zest would give the cookies a nice zing (Planning to try this for the next batch)
The cookies tasted better after they had cooled (and even better the second day)

Flax seeds might be something you have never bought before.  At Whole Foods you can find whole flax seeds in the bulk foods aisle.  You can also find them in the baking aisle near the flours.  Bob's Red Mill brand offers flax seed meal.  At the regular grocery store, you can look for them in the organic/natural foods aisle.  If you can only find whole flax seeds, you can grind them using your coffee grinder. The whole and ground seeds look like the photo below:

Cookie Nutrition:

How is your healthy snacking and eating going? Any tips or tricks that you use to be successful?

Now for some healthy snacking fun! Tribe Hummus and Pretzel Crisps have generously offered to giveaway healthy snacks to some lucky readers. Winners will be chosen at random using random.org. One winner will win a case (12 packs) of Pretzel Crisps in the flavor(s) of their choice. Three additional winners will win 2 vouchers for their choice of Tribe Origins Hummus. Entries due by midnight on Tuesday, January 18. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, January 19, 2011. 

You can enter up to three times (you can do any combination of the entries below):

Entry 1: Visit both of these snacks’ websites, and comment below on which flavor Pretzel Crisps and which flavor Tribe Origins Hummus you would like to try.

Entry 2: Become a fan of Pretzel Crisps and Tribe Hummus on Facebook, and leave me a comment below.

Entry 3: Tweet about the contest or mention on Facebook and leave a comment below (be sure to include @goodcookdoris, @pretzelcrisps and @tribehummus in your tweet)

Bonus entry: Leave a comment letting me know if you subscribe to the blog. If you would like to add the blog to your reader or subscribe, leave a note letting me know you did!

Full disclosure: Tribe Hummus and Pretzel Crisps are responsible for fulfillment of the contest prizes. I was not compensated for promoting this contest, except for a sample of crisps and hummus delivered by Pretzel Crisps (see last Wednesday's post for details).

Daring Cooks Challenge: The Magical Soufflé

Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge! Dave and Linda provided two of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.

The soufflé is an item that is found in the ovens of experienced pastry chefs. It inspires awe from diners and fear from the novice home baker. This was my first attempt at a soufflé. Baking in the Good Cook Doris kitchen is usually biscuits, breads, and the occasional batch of cookies. I was excited to try something new and searched for a recipe that caught my fancy. I settled on a coffee soufflé, mainly because I wanted to make individual servings in my coffee mugs. Now doesn’t that sound fancy?

Using a recipe I found at Cook Almost Anything I set out to create a beautiful, flavorful soufflé. I read through the Daring Cooks challenge tips, and made sure to prepare all my ingredients carefully. I should point out that the recipe is in grams. Without a high tech scale, that meant some mathematics conversions and a few best guess estimates on amounts.

With everything out and ready, I got to work. First up was making the custard. I had set aside some coffee from my morning pot and added that to the milk and sugar to create the liquid. After melting the butter and whisking in cornstarch to thicken, I added in the coffee flavored milk and set it aside to cook and thicken. I successfully added in the egg yolks without scrambling them. Success #1!

The last time I tried to whip egg whites I ended up with bowl of bubbly liquid egg whites. I made sure to follow all the tips this time – clean bowl, room temperature egg whites, and high speed mixing. After just a few minutes I had soft peaks! Success #2!

At this point, the recipe called for mixing in ¼ of the egg whites to ‘slacken’ the custard mixture. I probably could have looked that up, but figured I would gently mix them in and it would be okay.

The next step was to gently fold in the remaining egg whites into the slackened custard. I folded as best as I could and until I was satisfied with my effort. Because my coffee cups were differently shaped than those in the recipe I used, I estimated the amount of soufflé batter to pour in. The recipe said ¾ full and that’s what I did. I filled 2 prepared mugs ¾ full and then spooned the remaining batter into the third mug. I figured it would still rise, it just wouldn’t rise above the rim.

I carefully and delicately placed my soufflé mugs onto the heated baking sheet in the oven. I pulled a stepstool up to the oven and plopped myself down with my phone and camera to watch the soufflé magic happen.

After 10 minutes there was no action. I reset the timer and pressed my face back against the oven door window. 10 more minutes pass…I think I see something starting to happen. The soufflés are rising. And rising. I start to feel great about my first soufflé attempt. I try to take a few pictures, but they don’t come out through the door. So I continue to watch and wait. I see bubbles…and steam…and then it happens. The soufflés really come to life and instead of rising into the sky, they start pouring down the sides. I don’t think this was part of the recipe?

As I sat watching my soufflés bubble over, I just started laughing. Over the last year I’ve developed a new attitude in the kitchen. I find myself taking on more challenging projects inspired by Daring Cooks, personal interest, and inspiration from fellow bloggers. This soufflé challenge illustrated my new philosophy perfectly. I could get really upset and beat myself up for screwing up or I could laugh and appreciate the hilarity and enjoyment in failing at trying something new. I chose #2. Instead of crying over exploded soufflés, I let them continue cooking until the drips down the sides of the mugs looked golden brown and set. I removed my creative interpretation of the soufflé from the oven and proceeded with my photo shoot.

They may not have set and they may not have tasted exactly right, but I successfully whipped egg whites! And I didn’t scramble my yolks! And I had a blast trying something new. And that’s what it’s really about - being confident in your abilities and not being afraid to let your soufflés flop every once in a while.

I dumped them in a baking dish and tried to salvage them.