My journey of cooking, gardening, preserving and more
C’mon…I had you at chewy, right? I like to fool myself into believing that the oats, raisins and nuts make these better-for-you cookies. I doubt that’s true but if it makes you feel better, I say go for it. Chewy Oatmeal Cookies with Raisins and …
If someone said to me: “you can make an easy and delicious cookie bar by putting it together right in the pan you bake it in and it involves chocolate, peanut butter and coconut” I’d say “Sign me up”. Here you go folks – you …
If you’ve been following my blog then you’ve figured out by now I’m not much of a baker. I was born without a sweet tooth, so taking the time to make something that I’m probably not going to eat seems a little pointless. My husband, however, loves sweets, so occasionally I cave in and make him something sugar-laden.
Christmas and the holidays often make me want to bake, so this year I decided to make some cookies. Nothing real fancy or complicated, just satisfying, chewy and gooey.
Full disclosure: I burned one batch. Argh! But I suppose, given my lack of time in the baking sector, I shouldn’t feel too badly about one little cookie sheet worth of burned cookies, right?
Right!
Burnt cookies aside, the rest of them came out pretty damned delicious: my husband insisted on taste testing them all. These are chocolate chip cookies that have a goodie-packed dough and come out nice and chewy. I sprinkled a little coarse sea salt on them while they were still warm, for that salty/sweet mix.
Preheat oven to 325
I made a few batches of these, using different variations of nuts and chocolate chips. Here’s a shot of ones with semi-sweet chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and pecan pieces:
Enjoy at least one while it’s still warm and gooey; a great chef always tastes their work.
Oh yeah. I went there. I can homemade salsa every fall with all of the tomatoes, peppers and cilantro from our garden. This year we had ghost chili peppers, so I thought “what the hell.” I add a mix of jalapenos and ghost chili peppers, …
A few years ago I made an extravagant dinner for my husband’s birthday. Along with that dinner, I served a cocktail that we immediately fell in love with: the Sidecar. Warning: potent cocktail. May cause giddiness. Sidecar Cocktail Recipe 1 cup good brandy 1/2 cup …
I always say I’m not a bread person but if you give me a great loaf of warm, crusty bread that’s still soft and chewy in the middle, I’ll probably gnaw your arm off to get some.
The beauty of this bread is it takes full advantage of fast-rising or quick-rising yeast. This makes it possible to knock out a loaf of French bread in less than 2 hours.
I’ve made a lot of homemade bread and this one is 3 of my favorite things in the kitchen:
Are you with me?
This only makes one loaf so feel free to double this recipe if you want 2 loaves. It keeps and freezes well, I just love it fresh out of the oven.
In a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour, salt and yeast.
Add the hot water all at once and mix well.
Drop your dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes, adding your extra cup of flour a little at a time. The key here is this: keep adding your extra flour just enough to keep the dough supple but still a little sticky. It shouldn’t be a sticky mess – if it is, keep working in your extra flour reserve – but don’t add so much flour that it becomes dry and flaky. A little moistness is good here.
Once it’s reached a firm but slightly sticky ball, cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
In the meantime, grease a baking sheet. If you’d like, sprinkle with a tablespoon or two of cornmeal on the oiled pan.
Once rested, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to about a 10″ x 15″ rectangle. Rolling from the 15-inch side, roll the dough up like a jelly roll and pinch the end together to seal. Place on baking sheet, seam side down.
Cover and let rest for about 45 minutes, or until doubled in size.
Using a sharp knife, slice a few diagonal cuts about 1/4 inch deep across the top of the loaf.
Bake the loaf in a 425 oven for 25-30 minutes. Let rest if you can wait that long, otherwise, if you’re like me, slice right in and enjoy.
Now you know you can customize this a bit if you’d like:
I hope you’ll try this! Imagine it warm out of the oven with some lovely jam or fruity olive oil. Again, it’s easy, fast (for bread) and absolutely delicious.
The second the weather starts to cool off, I kick into comfort food mode. I love making braised dishes and soups in the fall and winter, don’t you? Beef brisket with root veggies in a tomato and red wine sauce is a perfect recipe to …