Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

• Servings: 6-8
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

• 1 cup of butter
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp of ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp of freshly grated nutmeg
• 3 cups of old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup of raisins

Directions:

Preheat oven 350 degrees F.

Cream together the butter and sugars till light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat till smooth. In another bowl combine the flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves, and nutmeg. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar.

Stir in the oats and raisins just until combined. Drop by tablespoon unto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 min till golden brown.

Apple-Fig Cookie with Caramel Icing Drizzle

Apple Fig Cookies

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 1hr
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of butter
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp of vanilla
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of cloves
• 1/2 tsp of nutmeg (I used freshly grated nutmeg)
• 2 granny smith apples peeled and grated (should equal 1 cup -1 1/4 cups)
• 1 cup of finely chopped dried figs

Directions:

First off,  turn your oven on to 400 degrees F. Beat the butter, sugar, and egg until smooth. Add the vanilla and the grated apples till combined. Stir together the dry ingredients (flour, salt and spices) and add them to the wet ingredients. Lastly add your figs and stir just until the ingredients come together.   Over stirring will = tough cookies. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Cook for 10 min. Allow to cool to room temperature on a rack before adding the icing.

 

Caramel Icing

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 15min
• Difficulty: easy
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Caramel Icing:

• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 1 tbsp of cream
• 1 cup of icing sugar

Directions:

In a small saucepan brown the butter until a medium golden color. Off heat add the vanilla and cream. Whisk in the icing sugar and stir till smooth. Drizzle over cooled apple cookies.

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies with a Twist

As promised here is the recipe from my knitting class.  I was inspired by Egos and Buffaloes and her love of Orange/Chocolate combinations.

She has some wonderful baking recipes.

Ok so the twist is I put Orange zest and a squeeze of fresh juice in the batter.  It is wonderful! Hope you enjoy!

• Servings: 8
• Time: 1hr
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of butter
• 3/4 cups of sugar
• 3/4 cups of brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp of fresh orange zest and 1 tbsp of fresh orange juice ( I zested 2 oranges)
• 1 1/4 cups of flour
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 1/4 tsp of baking soda
• 2 cups of bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup of pecans chopped small

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream the sugars and butter together untill fluffy, add the eggs, vanilla, orange zest and orange juice. Cream well untill light and fluffy.  Take all the dry ingredients and mix well, then add to your creamy mixture. Mix just until the flour is incorporated. Add your nuts and chocolate chips and give it a few more stirs to incorporate them in the dough. Drop by heaping tbsp onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or till the edges start to turn golden brown. Let cool and enjoy 🙂

Rugelach Cookies

This recipe is an adaptation from the Barefoot Contessa’s recipe.  These are extremely delicious but also a lot of work to make.  I add lemon zest to the pastry dough and it is a delightful clean fresh taste that helps break up the sweetness! Cinnamon, raisins, and walnuts are also shining stars in this cookie.

Dough Ingredients:

• 1 package of cream cheese
• 2 sticks of butter(1/2 pound)
• 1/4 cup of granulated sugar
• pinch of salt
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract
• zest of one lemon
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour

Filling Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of white sugar
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 3/4 cups of raisins
• 3/4 cups of walnuts(chopped medium)
• 1/2 jar of apricot preserves

Top off Ingredients:

• 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water
• 3 tbsp of sugar combined with 1 tsp of cinnamon

Directions:

With a hand-held mixer or electric mixer with paddle attachment mix together the cream cheese, and butter till light. Add the sugar, vanilla and lemon zest and mix till fluffy.

Add your flour and mix only till combined. DO NOT over mix you will develop gluten in the flour and you will get a tough dough. Plop mixture on a floured surface and divide dough in 1/4’s.

You can see the flakes of lemon zest in the picture above…yum

Ok so as you see I store them in plastic wrap and pop them in the fridge for at least an hour to firm up.

In the mean time I mix all ingredients together for the filling minus the apricot preserves, I also get my cinnamon sugar ready for the topping of the cookie:

When you are ready to roll the dough out turn your oven on to 350 degrees. On a well floured surface you will spread the dough out as you would for a pie crust.

Next add the apricot preserves approx 2 heaping tbsp and spread over dough with pastry brush. Next sprinkle on your sugar, raisin, nut mixture in even layer. You will divide this circle in 12ths or 16ths depending how big you want your cookie to be.

 

Starting at the large end roll up your cookie and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or silpat.

 

Brush the tops of the cookies with your egg wash and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top. Place in 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes till slightly golden.

Enjoy and have a great week 🙂

PS: I also think these cookies would be great with fig preserves or orange preserves instead of the apricots.

Rugelach Cookies

• Servings: 8
• Time: 2hrs
• Difficulty: medium
• Print

Dough Ingredients:

• 1 package of cream cheese
• 2 sticks of butter(1/2 pound)
• 1/4 cup of granulated sugar
• pinch of salt
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract
• zest of one lemon
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour

Filling Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of white sugar
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 3/4 cups of raisins
• 3/4 cups of walnuts(chopped medium)
• 1/2 jar of apricot preserves

Top off Ingredients:

• 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water
• 3 tbsp of sugar combined with 1 tsp of cinnamon

Directions:

With a hand-held mixer or electric mixer with paddle attachment mix together the cream cheese, and butter till light. Add the sugar, vanilla and lemon zest and mix till fluffy.

Add your flour and mix only till combined. DO NOT over mix you will develop gluten in the flour and you will get a tough dough. Plop mixture on a floured surface and divide dough in 1/4’s.

I store them in plastic wrap and pop them in the fridge for at least an hour to firm up.

In the mean time I mix all ingredients together for the filling minus the apricot preserves, I also get my cinnamon sugar ready for the topping of the cookie.

When you are ready to roll the dough out turn your oven on to 350 degrees. On a well floured surface you will spread the dough out as you would for a pie crust.

Next add the apricot preserves approx 2 heaping tbsp and spread over dough with pastry brush. Next sprinkle on your sugar, raisin, nut mixture in even layer. You will divide this circle in 12ths or 16ths depending how big you want your cookie to be.

Starting at the large end roll up your cookie and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or silpat.

Brush the tops of the cookies with your egg wash and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top. Place in 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes till slightly golden.

Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy 🙂

Easy Chinese Dinner at Home

My kids love Orange Chicken from Chinese restaurants and a lot of the time this chicken is deep-fried and overly saccharin missing the clean taste of its prized title “ORANGE” !  With an improved orange chicken I also make a very super easy, fool-proof yummy oven fried rice, and stir fryed veggies. The stir fry veggies is “the cheater method” because I buy the veggies in bulk at Costco. Nonetheless these veggies are delicious and I don’t have to spend an hour Julienning them!

Orange Chicken

Ingredients:

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken
• 3/4 cup of orange juice
• zest of one orange
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 3/4  cup of chicken stock
• flour for dredging the chicken pieces in (I add salt and pepper to the flour)
• 1/4 cup of soy sauce
• 1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1 clove of garlic minced
• 1 tbsp of corn starch
• 2 tbsp of sesame seeds

 

Directions:

First off I put a few pieces of the chicken breasts in a gallon size zip lock bag so I can pound the heck out of these bad boys! DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!! There is a reason behind my violence. The chicken breasts here in the USA are ginormous compared to the breasts I used to buy in Canada. This does not mean that Canadians are allowed to skip this step either! The pounding of the chicken thins it out and makes it uniformly thick for pan frying.  So grab what ever you have to abuse your meat. Grab a hammer from the garage if you have too.  Get your work out on! It relieves stress and it’s liberating to some degree lol.

This is your workout phase! Slam on those suckers!!

Ok I guess I got carried away!! lol 😉

Next we are going to make the orange concoction for our chicken so it has some time to develop all the flavors.

Mix together your orange juice, zest, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes,  and sesame seeds in a bowl.

Now I prepare a plate of flour for dredging and I add a bit salt and pepper. Oh ya looking at these photos it seems like I also added some onion powder and garlic powder.  Adding these to the flour starts the process of adding flavor to the chicken right away. Just mix the flour mixture up a bit with your hands or a spoon.

I cut these giants in thirds to prepare for cooking 🙂

Now dredge them in the flour mixture and heat a skillet on med-high heat with a bit of vegetable oil in the pan. You will cook them till you get some nice color on both sides. I cook them probably 3 minutes per side. You will have to do this in batches.

Tip: Once you drop the chickens in your pan leave them alone for the few minutes they are cooking! If you move them around and peek they will not get the great color on them and less color = less flavor.  So step away from the stove! (For 3-4 minutes anyway;)

Once all your chicken is cooked use the drippings to your advantage to add more flavor to your dish. I took a shallot and minced it finely, then added it to my hot pan and scraped the fond off the bottom of my skillet! That is great flavor right there 🙂

You will then add all your chicken back to the skillet and pour in your orange concoction we made earlier. Let this simmer for 10 minutes and at the very end mix your cornstarch with a bit of water to make a sleury and add to the gently boiling mixture. This will thicken your sauce up quite nicely.

 

Oven Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of white rice
• 1/2 cups of water
• 4 tbsp of soy sauce
• 4 tbsp of vegetable oil
• 1 package of dried onion soup mix

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in a casserole dish and cover. Place in a 325 degree F oven for 1 hour

 

To make this more like chinese fried rice you can add 1/4 bag of frozen corn and peas to the mixture and even add 2 eggs whisked  half way through cooking. Just add the eggs and stir it will start to scramble amongst the hot liquids and rice.  My kids are über picky so I can’t get to fancy 😉

Done! Bob’s your uncle! Let’s move on to the stir fry shall we?

I add a bit of vegetable oil to a deep skillet and turn on high heat. Add the amount you would like to make and sauté till warmed through. I also add a bit of Teriyaki sauce to the pan.

One Chinese inspired dinner done!

 

WTH!!

Absolute disastrous kitchen AKA my sous chef (my dad) is gone back to Canada!  🙂 I miss them already!

Orange Chicken

• Servings: 6
• Time: 1 hr
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Ingredients:

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken
• 3/4 cup of orange juice
• zest of one orange
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 3/4  cup of chicken stock
• flour for dredging the chicken pieces in (I add salt and pepper to the flour)
• 1/4 cup of soy sauce
• 1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1 clove of garlic minced
• 1 tbsp of corn starch
• 2 tbsp of sesame seeds

 

Pound out your chicken breasts flat 5/8 of an inch or so would work.

Next make the orange concoction for the chicken so it has some time to develop all the flavors.

Mix together your orange juice, zest, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes,  and sesame seeds in a bowl.

Pour some flour out on a plate add salt and pepper to taste. Cut your chicken into large pieces.

Now dredge them in the flour mixture and heat a skillet on med-high heat with a bit of vegetable oil in the pan. You will cook them till you get some nice color on both sides. I cook them probably 3 minutes per side. You will have to do this in batches.

Tip: Once you drop the chickens in your pan leave them alone for the few minutes they are cooking! If you move them around and peek they will not get the great color on them and less color = less flavor.  So step away from the stove! (For 3-4 minutes anyway;)

Once all your chicken is cooked use the drippings to your advantage to add more flavor to your dish. I took a shallot and minced it finely, then added it to my hot pan and scraped the fond off the bottom of my skillet! That is great flavor right there 🙂

You will then add all your chicken back to the skillet and pour in your orange concoction. Let this simmer for 10 minutes and at the very end mix your cornstarch with a bit of water to make a sleury and add to the gently boiling mixture. This will thicken your sauce up quite nicely.

Serve over rice and enjoy!

Fried Rice

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 1h 10 min
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of white rice
• 1/2 cups of water
• 4 tbsp of soy sauce
• 4 tbsp of vegetable oil
• 1 package of dried onion soup mix

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in a casserole dish and cover. Place in a 325 degree F oven for 1 hour.

To make this more like chinese fried rice you can add 1/4 bag of frozen corn and peas to the mixture and even add 2 eggs whisked  half way through cooking. Just add the eggs and stir it will start to scramble amongst the hot liquids and rice.

Enjoy