Grandma's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

 Grandma's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

    Oatmeal raisin cookies are not my favorite type of cookie, but I absolutely adore this recipe. The recipe card in my late mother's recipe box is so stained and the ink the recipe was written with is so lightened, that I had to take a photo with my phone, so I could blow it up to be able to read it. I copied it onto a new card for future use. Grandma had added a note that she always used "...one cup of any cheap oleo." Oleo is another name for margarine. I make the recipe as below with butter and shortening. Using my cookie scoop, I got six dozen cookies (I LOVE my cookie scoop). Try these!!!!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup lard (shortening)

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of salt

2 cups flour

2 cups oatmeal

1 cup raisins, cooked

1 tsp baking soda (you'll put this on top of the cooked raisins)

2 eggs

Directions:

Cook raisins in one cup of water, drain, add to a small bowl and sprinkle baking soda on top. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream butter, shortening and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, incorporating completely. Add eggs, then the rest of the ingredients.  Drop by spoonfuls or use a cookie scoop onto cookie sheets and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until slightly browned. Remove from the oven. Cool on a cooling rack and enjoy!

Grandma's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Bonus Recipe - Coffee Cake

 Bonus Recipe

Coffee Cake

    I decided to make myself some coffee cake for breakfast this morning and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I used the "Coffee Cake" recipe from my copy (1969 printing) of the Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book, originally published in 1968. I recently tried to make a recipe called "Scotch Teas", a cookie recipe from a different cookbook and it did not turn out how it was supposed to. I had regular flour and not self rising flour. I thought about that, but didn't worry about it. I should have. I ended up with what I've been calling my "accidental granola". Two main ingredients of the Scotch Teas are oatmeal and brown sugar. I  had added about 1/3 cup mini-chocolate chips as well.  I've had my accidental granola in plain, non-fat yogurt (delicious) and snacked on some larger pieces, but had always planned to use on coffee cake or muffins. 

    So, that brings me to the "Coffee Cake" I made today. I made the batter as directed, but used my granola topping instead of the called for "Spicy Topping", which got that name because it has cinnamon in it. After putting the batter in my greased 9x9x2, I sprinkled the granola on top, which I'd added some cinnamon to, and patted it lightly into the batter. I baked my coffee cake for 25 minutes at 375 degrees.  After cooling a bit, I enjoyed some with my second cup of coffee.  Try this with the original topping in the recipe or with some of your favorite granola and enjoy with coffee or tea. Changes in italics.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup salad oil (I used canola)

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt 

Spicy Topping (I used homemade granola with a teaspoon of cinnamon added)

    In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 tablespoon melted butter and 1/2 cup broken nuts (the nuts are totally optional). 

Directions:

 Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees and spray a 9x9x2 square baking dish with cooking spray or grease with oil/butter. Combine oil, egg and milk in one bowl and sift the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder and salt) into a separate bowl. A little at a time, stir the dry mixture into the wet oil/egg/milk mixture. Thoroughly combine and pour into your baking dish. Spread the batter so it entirely covers the pan.  Sprinkle your topping over the batter and lightly press into the batter. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove and cool for however long you can wait, but at least five minutes. Enjoy with coffee or tea (we don't want tea to feel left out). 

Coffee Cake Time!

Coffee Cake Fresh From The Oven

Coffee Cake Close-Up

Week 2 - Five-Grain Buttermilk-Cranberry Bread

 Five-Grain Buttermilk-Cranberry Bread

Recipe 2 of 52 in 2022

Bread #1

    This week's category was "Bread" and I chose this Five-Grain Buttermilk-Cranberry Bread from the Betty Crocker: The Big Book of Bread, published in 2013.  I tend to gravitate towards old and/or well used cookbooks. I've only made a couple recipes from this book (the Zesty Cheddar Bread on page 124 is a favorite), but I really like this book.  The cover, the pictures and everything. It's just a pretty book and includes more traditional recipes with gluten-free and bread machine recipes.  

  So, what did I think of this bread? I learned that the crust was a bit 'crumbly' when I cut pieces, but otherwise the texture of the bread was good and I liked the flavor.  I served myself warm bread with butter. This bread would be good as is or cut slices and use it for flavorful French Toast.  Let me know if you try it and what you think.   

Ingredients:

1 cup 5-grain rolled whole-grain cereal or old-fashioned oats (I used oats)

3 cups white whole wheat flour

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup sweetened, dried cranberries, cherries or raisins (Although I actually have home-dried cherries, I used store-bought cranberries)

1 egg

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Directions:

Heat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a cookie sheet with shortening or cooking spray. I used cooking spray and a Pampered Chef stoneware pan. Save and set aside, 1 tablespoon from your cup of oatmeal/whole-grain cereal. In a large bowl, mix your cereal/oatmeal, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Cut in butter using a pastry blender or a fork, until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Stir in your cranberries/cherries/raisins. 

In a small bowl, beat the egg and buttermilk, using a whisk or fork, until well blended. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the buttermilk and egg mixture. Stir the rest of the buttermilk and egg mixture into your dry ingredients and stir until mixture is moistened. The dough will be soft. Remove the dough and on a floured surface, knead the dough 5 or 6 times on a floured surface. *Note: the dough was really sticky and I 'kneaded' it a few times, but didn't really concentrate on the 5 or 6 times, because of how sticky and messy it was. In my humble opinion, it wasn't 'kneadable' (I just made that up), so I just mixed it around on my floured surface a few times and shaped it.* Transfer the dough to your cookie sheet and shape into a 7-inch round loaf. Use a sharp knife to cut an "X" into the top of the loaf. Brush the reserved buttermilk and egg mixture on top of the loaf and sprinkle the oatmeal/cereal mixture you set aside at the beginning. *Note: I forgot that part, but it was fine.*

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown. I did 35 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack and cool for 30 minutes.  Use a serrated knife to cut slices.  You can get about 12 slices or wedges. 

   

Five-Grain Buttermilk-Cranberry Bread

Five-Grain Buttermilk-Cranberry Bread w/butter

Betty Crocker "The Big Book of Bread"

Goody-Pie

 Goody-Pie

    This recipe is the last of the choices I gave when I had a poll to see what I should make.  The winner was Vegetable Dish, so I made the Spanish Lima casserole, then it was the Meat Dish (Donna James' Salisbury Steak) and now this, Dessert.  Reading the recipe, it is clear it is not a pie, but more of a "crisp".  It's a pretty easy recipe and I enjoyed making it. However, although it tasted good, I wished I had not chopped the apples so small and it was way too much sugar. And, I was on FaceTime with a friend and accidentally put 1 teaspoon each of baking powder and baking soda instead of 1/4 teaspoon of each.  I figured at least they were equal amounts; at least I was consistent with that. *It didn't really affect the taste* I plan to try this recipe again, only I will double the amount of apple, and will use less sugar.  I'll take out the single cup of white sugar mixed with the apples before the topping with has more sugar in it. Because I'll be doubling the amount of apple, I'll also use a bigger baking dish.  

    I started by melting the 1/3 cup butter, so it could cool while I was fixing the apples (cutting, peeling and chopping) and mixing the dry ingredients for the topping.   The recipe says you can also sprinkle lemon juice over the apples, which I didn't do, to help prevent the fruit from turning brown.  I used two decent, good sized honey-crisp apples, which were just a tad over 3 cups. You can sprinkle cinnamon over the apples in the dish, if desired.  I chose to mix 1 teaspoon cinnamon in with the white sugar and then poured that over the apples, which I had spread in my round baking dish.  I combined the dry ingredients for the topping together in the order listed and stirred in the cooled butter with a fork at first and then used my clean hands to make sure it was completely mixed.  Next I spread the topping mixture over the apples and put it in my oven for 45, which I had pre-heated to 350 degrees.  The recipe says "a moderate oven" and I figure 350 degrees is pretty standard. My kitchen started smelling really good pretty quickly. It was awesome!!

    When my baking time was up, some of the topping still looked "dry", but I think that happens with a lot of crumbles/crisps. It was a nice, dark brown bubbly color around the outside though.  I served myself a small dish with some whipped topping and then remembered I had maple flavored whipped topping in a can, so I tried some of that also and it was awesome!!!! I will say though that I did not eat all of the gooey goodness on the bottom of my bowl, but that wasn't because of the taste, it was because it was just so sweet.  I hate to say it, but I didn't save what was left, because of the overpowering sweetness.  After I did that though someone I talked to about it suggested using bits of it on top of oatmeal and then I was kicking myself, because I thought that would have been a great idea to be able to at least use some of it. 

    Anyhow, like I said up top, I liked this dessert and will make it again, but with less sugar and more apples.  If you try it, let me know if you like it.  You may be okay with the full amount of sugar, so it's up to you if you want to try it. Using more apple and a bigger pan might help.  

    This recipe was submitted to the cookbook which started this all by a Mrs. W. O. Abram.