Recipe Dev: Oatmeal Cookies

I'm a cookie guy. It's an ideal dessert for a lot of people because it's self contained, portable, and scalable. A plated dessert might be fantastic, but would you order three of them if you liked the flavors? Almost certainly not! Cookies don't have that problem- you can have one or two for a nibble... or look around to make sure nobody's watching before you indelicately obliterate that box of Thin Mints you told yourself would last a month. No, I didn't see that- nobody did. Honest.

Another delightful point in the favor of cookies is their versatility. Depending on your ingredients, your scoop size, your baking time, and any number of other things, you can turn the same cookie recipe into very different results in a way you can't do nearly as easily with cakes, pies, and pastries.

Unless you're allergic to chocolate, you probably enjoy a good chocolate chip cookie. I certainly do, and put my personal recipe up here back in February. That one calls for a mixer, but but today I wanted to showcase a cookie that doesn't. The recipe here is one I sometimes send alongside my Almond Cookies in tins during the holidays- a pleasantly robust oatmeal cookie. A sorely underrated gem of a cookie that's easy to tinker with. A little on the soft side, not too sweet, perhaps a little crunch underneath, and absolutely NO FUCKING RAISINS EVER okay that's out of my system good yes hello there how are you? Ahem.

This recipe is quite simple, coming together in about ten minutes (before going in the fridge to firm up). I designed it specifically not to require a stand mixer since I don't own one, but I've found that having a hand mixer (or immersion blender for one step) does help yield a fluffier finished product, if that's your thing.

Equipment: 1x Medium Bowl, 1x Large Bowl, Rubber/Silicone Spatula, Measuring Spoons, Kitchen Scale, Half-Sheet Pan (~13"x18"), Parchment Paper, Oven

Ingredients: (Yields about 3 dozen cookies, but the recipe also halves perfectly)

275g Rolled Oats
225g All-Purpose Flour
2 Tbsp Cornstarch (this makes it more like cake flour)
230g Unsalted Butter (melted)
180g Brown Sugar
90g Granulated/White Sugar
2 eggs (L or XL are both fine)
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Salt
2-3 tsp Spice Mix (I use cardamom, allspice, black pepper, ginger, and nutmeg)

Process:

If you plan on baking these as soon as they're ready, preheat the oven to 375F/190C.

In the medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and spices. Set it aside.

In the large bowl, combine the salt and melted butter with both sugars, and mix with the spatula till well combined and slightly fluffy. Then add the eggs and vanilla and do the same. (Here is where I use the immersion blender for a few seconds to whip air into it and ensure everything is aggressively homogeneous.)

In 2-3 stages, mix the contents of the medium bowl into the large until just barely combined.

Use the empty bowl to weigh the oats, then add and gently mix until evenly distributed.

Refrigerate the dough for at least 30m, or ideally overnight.

Line the half-sheet tray with parchment. Using heaping tablespoons (or a #50 portion scoop if you have one), tray out cookies 12 at a time in a 3x4 configuration, refrigerating any unbaked dough until needed.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, and allow to cool for another 5 once out of the oven before removing them from the tray.

Recipe Dev: Beer-Braised Pork Chops

 

I think I end up putting a lot of dessert recipes on this blog because they're much more deliberate and precise. Savory recipes can be adjusted based on many things- primary ingredient, liquid amount, starch, cooking vessel, cooking method... the list goes on. Dessert recipes/formulae are more finicky but less fiddly- and more well-defined besides. You'll see that the recipe below has a lot of vagaries, but it's still coherent and readily workable.

Thick-cut pork chops are a quick easy blank canvas. Perfectly fine seasoned simply with salt and pepper, then thrown in an oiled pan or onto a grill, they also take beautifully to almost any spice or blend you can think of. Here, we have a vaguely Germanic version that takes about ten minutes of work and an hour and change of idle time.

Equipment:
Knife, cutting board, tongs, cooking vessel with lid- large enough for all the pork to lay in a single layer, wide saute pan (if the other vessel is not stovetop safe) spoon, oven.

Ingredients:
-However many pork chops you've got, ideally at least an inch thick.
-Beer, something fairly mild. My go to for this is Sapporo. ~One beer for every 2-3 chops, or enough to barely cover them in your pan of choice.
-1 Medium Yellow onion for about every 4 pork chops, peeled and sliced
-8oz mushrooms for every 4 pork chops, sliced 
-Brown Sugar (2Tbsp for every 12oz beer) 
-Mustard (~1 tsp per chop)
-Thyme, rosemary, or sage (1Tbsp fresh or 1 tsp dried for every 4 servings)
-Salt/Pepper/Neutral Oil
-2Tbsp Cornstarch (mixed with 1/4 cup cold water) for final thickening.

Oven- 325F (Stovetop is also possible)

Season the pork chops aggressively with salt and pepper.
Peel and slice the onion, then slice the mushrooms. Set aside.
Preheat the saute pan or other vessel and add 2-3Tbsp oil.
Sear the seasoned chops until aggressively browned on one side, removing from the pan afterward.
Add another 2-3Tbsp oil, then add the onions and mushrooms with a vigorous pinch of salt.
Stir rapidly to ensure they begin to release their liquid.
If the fond from the pork is still on the pan's bottom after ~90 seconds, add your herbs, stir for 30 seconds, then add your beer.
Scrape any browned bits off the bottom of the vessel. Stir in the brown sugar and mustard.
Taste for seasoning. Be mindful that this braising liquid will reduce, so it should be slightly undersalted at this stage.
Add the pork back in, browned side facing up.
Cover, and place in the oven to cook. If stovetop, lid the vessel and turn the burner as low as it'll go.
After 30 minutes, remove the lid, and let it cook for another 30-40 minutes.
Remove from the oven/heat source. Taste the cooking liquid.
Adjust it as needed with more salt, sugar, mustard, or herbs. (See? You can fiddle a lot!)
While still extremely hot, pour in half of the cornstarch/water mixture, stirring and watching over the course of a minute.
The sauce should thicken into a gravy-like consistency- enough to cling to the pork if spooned on top.
If it doesn't thicken enough to suit your needs, stir in more of the cornstarch mixture.
Serve with some sort of seasonal vegetable, and some rice, noodles, mashed potatoes, or other starch.

Recipe Dev: 'Gluten Free Almond Cookies'

 

    Yes, I know GF baking has a reputation of being not terribly palatable. Flour substitutes can yield crumbly or dusty results when it comes to cookies, or dense blocks when talking cakes. Lots of progress has been made in recent years though, and some tinkering at the cooking school yielded a rather nice result. I use it as a variant on Mexican Wedding Cookies.

    This recipe is quite simple, if a touch pricey due to the expense of almond flour. It makes about 3 dozen, and they'll keep on the counter in a box for most of a week, or even left out uncovered for a few days if you're feeling brave about it. Benefit of no gluten- nothing to go stale!

Ingredients

12 oz almond meal

8 oz sugar (superfine preferred)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp almond extract

Pinch kosher salt

4 egg whites

2 Tbsp honey

~8 oz pepitas

AND

2-3 cups powdered sugar.

Equipment- Large bowl (2), whisk, shallow dish or bowl (2), sheet tray, portion scoop (#50/2Tbsp is ideal), parchment paper, tablespoon, scale.

Instructions
Oven- 325F
Prepare two shallow dishes or bowls- one for the sliced almonds, another for powdered sugar.

In a large bowl, gently combine almond flour, sugar, salt, extract, and cinnamon.
In a second bowl, whisk the egg whites and honey until firm peaks form.
Gently fold the egg white mixture into the other ingredients.
This should result in a smooth, moldable paste.

Using a small scoop or your hands, gently form the dough into 2-tablespoon size balls. Roll them in the sliced pepitas to cover, then in the powdered sugar.

Place in neat rows on a parchment-lined sheet tray with at least 1-2 inches of room between.
Flatten each cookie slightly until it looks more like a disc than a ball.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until slightly golden but still very soft. Allow to cool on the sheet tray.