Banana-Raisin Oat Muffins

When you’re clearing out your pantry, and have just over a cup of rolled oats left, make these delicious oat muffins.

During my search on line for a recipe, I found that bananas were often included in the recipes for moisture. This recipe seemed perfect as I had some peeled bananas frozen away for smoothies. The google results that suggested that two bananas would equal one cup, however, were inaccurate. At least once I thawed and mashed what ended up a soupy mixture. It was only about half a cup. So, I threw half a cup of raisins into the bowl and let the mixture sit for a while to plump up the raisins. The recipe seemed a bit bland so I increased the vanilla extract to one teaspoon and added half a teaspoon of cinnamon. Just because. I also used half a cup each of brown and white sugar.

I was very pleased with the result and would make this recipe again.

  

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Pantry/Freezer Clearout – Chocolate Digestive Biscuits

It’s always fun when you have all the ingredients for something that catches your eye.

I saw these delicious looking biscuits on one of the FB food groups I belong to. When I checked out the link I found that the recipe used whole wheat flour and fine porridge oats and not all purpose flour. I happened to have some leftover finely ground rolled oats, from a previous sourdough bread bake, in my pantry, so it was a win-win situation. Cookies/biscuits AND it used up another item from my pantry. The recipe, as posted by Paul Hollywood, seems to be similar to the McVitie brand of biscuits.

Paul Hollywood’s Chocolate Digestive Biscuits

 

  

Review: Just a touch of sweetness. I used a 72% dark cocoa chocolate for the coating but if you want something sweeter, a milk chocolate would be tasty as well.

Sometimes, my cooking choice is designed around using up a specific ingredient. Like  the cream of wheat dumplings (Hungarian grizgaluska) I made with the last 3/4 cup of cream of wheat in my pantry. And the pot of chicken stock made with a chicken carcass, a few chicken backs and about a dozen chicken thigh bones that I ran across, as I was transferring the contents of the upstairs freezer to the basement one. I served the dumplings in the resulting soup.

 

“Best” Oatmeal Ever

I didn’t grow up eating oatmeal for breakfast but, over the years, I’ve periodically given it a try in the interest of healthy eating.

My pantry door can barely close and, often, when I open it, things fall out. (Not that that’s a new occurrence.) Still, I DO try to clear things out periodically. So, when I ran across a mostly full jar of bulgur wheat, from making kibbeh, and a couple of jars of quick cooking rolled oats, I decided to do some net surfing and find a dish that would use them both.

And that’s when I ran across this recipe for what was called the “Best Oatmeal Ever”.

I don’t know whether I’d go that far in praise of the result, but it’s pretty good and it’s relatively fast and easy to make. I tried a half recipe and will refrigerate the second portion to see how it reheats. Cornmeal is also an ingredient in the recipe. Next time, I must remember to pour it in S-L-O-W-L-Y to avoid lumps. The oatmeal is already ‘lumpy’ from the rolled oats, but there’s no reason to be sloppy in your cooking technique.

Brown sugar and maple syrup, raisins and fresh strawberries were my add-ins and toppings before serving.

Barbie’s Super Simple Oatmeal Cookies (with Coconut)

I enjoyed the taste of the last batch of oatmeal cookies that I made … but the ‘look’ didn’t thrill me.

These, on the other hand, are very photogenic. And they taste good as well. Not overly sweet … next time, I’d use half the amount of salt though cause the margarine, which I used instead of butter, was salty enough.

This recipe also came out of Edna Staebler’s “Cookies and Squares with Schmecks Appeal”. The kitchen was a bit warm for September (77 deg F) so, by the time I had mixed up the dough and started shaping it into 1 inch sized balls, my dough was pretty sticky. I persevered and then refrigerated the resulting cookie balls.

After 30 minutes, I used the back of a fork to press down gently on the cookie balls in order to flatten them and baked the cookies for 14 minutes, instead of the 12 minutes recommended, in a preheated 350 deg F oven. I left the baked cookies on the baking sheet to cool for about 10 minutes, before using a thin metal spatula to transfer them onto the cooling rack, to finish cooling.

Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

Simple to make, with a crisp texture and just a bit sweet, a batch of these cookies can be put together while your oven preheats and the butter is melted.

Coconut Oatmeal Cookies – makes 5-6 dozen cookies

NOTE: 2nd amount is for a half recipe

2 cups oatmeal (rolled oats)                                  / 1 cup
3 cups Baker’s Sweetened Coconut                     / 1 1/2 cups
2 cups flour                                                                 / 1 cup
2 cups sugar, white                                                  / 1 cup
2 tsp baking powder                                                / 1 tsp
2 cups (4 sticks) melted butter**, cooled        / 1 cup
2 eggs, slightly beaten                                           / 1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract                                                 / 1/2 tsp

** used salted butter

Preheat oven to 350 deg F.

Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add the wet ingredients and make sure everything is mixed together. The dough will be wet and sticky.

Place teaspoonfuls of the batter on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. The cookies will spread so only add 12 cookies per sheet.

Bake for 12-15 until the cookies are golden brown around the edges.

Let cool on baking sheet for 10 min then transfer to a cooling rack using a thin flexible metal spatula.

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Trial 1 (cookies on the left): Cookies were baked right after the dough was mixed. It took 15 min for the edges to brown and the bottom to be golden. Spread quite a bit.

Trial 2 (cookies on the right) : In an attempt to reduce the spreading, the rest of the dough was shaped into 1 inch balls and refrigerated for 30 min. A second tray was baked at that point. Butter was observed to ooze out and pool around the cookie after about 5-10 minutes. As the cookies were not done after 15 min, they were baked for an additional 5 minutes. During this time, the butter disappeared. Next time, I might reduce the butter used, by 2-4 tbsp on a half recipe.

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