Origami Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Each week at my church, a local college supplies both students to help out this the service and also provides food for the fellowship meal.  One of the items they bring is a batch of these delicious oatmeal raisin cookies.

During a recent boring conference call at work, I folded this small origami box, made from 8 sheets of paper.  I realized that it is the right size for a small cookie gift box (holds 3 cookies).  Directions to the make the box are in my public DropBox folder.

 Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients

• 1/3C raisins
• 2 1/2C quick oats
• 2C flour
• 1C brown sugar
• 1t salt
• 1t baking soda or 2t baking powder
• 3/4C oil
• 2/3C apple sauce
• 1/3C water
• 2t vanilla

Directions

1. Place raisins in a small bowl and cover with water.
2. Combine remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir until well combined.
3. Drain water from raisins.
4. Add raisins to cookie dough and stir until raisins are distributed evenly throughout the dough.
5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
6. Drop cookies by tablespoonful onto the baking sheet.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
8. Remove cookies from baking sheet and cool on rack.

Propaganda Classic Apple Pie

In his book Propaganda, human relations expert Edward Bernays described how businesses and government effectively use a variety of techniques to sway public opinion.  In the early 20th century, hard cider manufactured from apples was banned.  What were apple growers to do? 

Some believe that the Apple Marketing Board may have developed the slogans "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" and "As American as apple pie" to keep apples in the consciousness of the American public and thus in their shopping carts.

This recipe is easier to make than it looks like from the long list of directions below.  Basically, mix up the pie crusts, mix up the apples, and put it all together.  This pie crust seems oily when preparing it, but bakes flaky and crisp.  You don't need a food processor or fancy techniques to create this crust. 

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Pie Crust Ingredients

• 2C flour
• 2/3C olive oil
• 5T water

Apple Filling Ingredients

• 6C apples, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1/2C sugar
• 2T flour
• 1t ground cinnamon
• 1/4t salt
• 1/8t nutmeg
• 1T lemon juice

Directions

1. Place sliced apples in a large mixing bowl.
2. In a small bowl, combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg.  Pour over apples.
3. Add lemon juice to apple mixture.
4. Mix well to ensure all apple slices are coated with mixture.  
5. Set the bowl of coated apples aside and prepare the pie crusts.
6. To make the pie crust, combine pic crust ingredients in a bowl and mix/knead until formed into a ball.  Divide into two pieces and reform as balls.
7. Take the first ball and roll out between sheets of wax paper.  
8. Peel off top sheet of wax paper and flip the crust over into a pie plate.  Peel off the remaining piece of wax paper.  Press the crust until it conforms to the pan.
9. Transfer the apples into the pie plate.
10. Take the second ball of dough and roll it out between two pieces of wax paper.  Peel off the top layer.
11. Flip the dough onto the apples and gently peel off the wax paper.
12. Cut off the excess dough, but leave a little bit hanging off the edge of the pie plate.
13. Form the overhanging dough into a border.  This will also ensure that the bottom and top crusts are sealed (otherwise they will separately slightly during baking).
14. Use a knife to cut slits or decorative designs into the top crust.
15. Cover the pinched border with strips of aluminum foil.
16. Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes.
17. Remove the strips of aluminum foil and bake an additional 20 minutes.
18. Serve with Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream.

Micro Batch Granola

One of my friends, Marites, has a recipe blog, Recipes from Eden.  Earlier this year she shared her recipe for granola.  Marites makes granola in large batches using 12 cups of oatmeal.  We don't eat that much granola, so needed to downsize the recipe.

One of my daughter's friends told me about TumblinBumblinCrumblinCookie, the Instragram account of Lin, a blogger in Singapore. You will be inspired by her creative photography and eloquent prose that accompanies each photo on Instagram and post on her recipe blog, SoFineWasTheMorning.

Lin's granola recipe was right-sized for my needs, and so I incorporated elements from both recipes to create the one below.  Micro Batch Granola is best served with homemade almond milk.

Preparation

• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees (F).
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2C rolled oats
• 2T unsweetened coconut shreds
• 2T flour
• 1/4C slivered almonds, slightly crushed
• 1/4t cinnamon
• 2T water
• 2T coconut milk (use the remaining milk to make vanilla ice cream)
• 3T brown sugar
• 1/2t vanilla extract
• pinch salt
• 3/4C dried fruit (for example, raisins and craisins)

Directions

1. Combine rolled oats, coconut shreds, flour, almonds, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl.  Stir to mix well.
2. Combine water, coconut milk, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and salt in a small bowl.  Whisk to combine.
3. Pour the liquid mixture over the dry mixture and stir until all of the dry ingredients have been coated.
4. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Spread evenly.
5. Bake at 300 degrees (F) for 35-40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.  For my oven, 35 minutes was perfect.
6. Remove from the baking sheet to a large plate and mix in the fruit.
7. Allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Easy 3 Ingredient Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

Growing up, I ate a lot of homemade ice cream. My mom made it for church socials, family events, outings to the lake, and so on. Mom had a number of recipes including her classic vanilla, rich chocolate, peach, and many others. My parents owned a White Mountain hand-crank freezer which required ice and rock salt to successfully transform a liquid mixture into delicious ice cream. Every one took a turn at the crank. The whole operation was well-supervised, because if the salty ice leaked into the canister of ice cream, the entire batch was ruined. Usually, the ice cream came out perfect and delicious for a hot summer day.

No more cranking

Today, while you can still buy White Mountain ice cream makers, the trend seems to be towards ice cream makers that are easier and more convenient to use. Many different models exist that feature a bowl with insulated sides. The bowl is placed in the freezer overnight. Because the bowl is insulated, ice and salt are not needed. Kitchen Aid makes an ice cream maker ($99) attachment for the mixers, and Oster makes an inexpensive one ($30 at Walmart).

All of my mom's ice cream recipes included copious amounts of heavy cream, whole milk, and eggs, things we typically don't eat at home. Yet, nothing still satisfies like homemade ice cream. Thanks to the miracle of the Internet, I came across this recipe which is just as delicious as more complicated recipes and only has three ingredients. Best of all, this ice cream does not crystallize in the freezer, and retains just right softness to easily scoop on to a warm brownie or as the foundation for a sundae.

Warning: Quality control needed

You may find that you need to sample the product throughout the production process - when transferring from the blender to the ice cream maker, when transferring to the freezer-safe container, and every hour until the desired consistency is reached.

 

Preparation

To achieve a better result when preparing the ice cream, place the cans of coconut milk in the refrigerator over night (or at least 4-6 hours).

Ingredients

• 2 cans unsweetened coconut milk
• 1C sugar
• 2t vanilla extract

 

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in the blender and blend until mixed.
2. Pour mixture into an ice cream maker. Let the machine stir the ice cream for about 30 minutes.
3. Transfer to a freezer-safe container. Cover with plastic wrap (with the plastic wrap pressed against the ice cream). A foil, one-time-use, bread pan works great.
4. Place in freezer over night for best results.

This recipe makes about 1 quart of delicious homemade vanilla ice cream.

Douglas G Pratt, 2014