Granola Cookies

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Lately I have been on a slight cookie bender. I think the people in my lab find this quite exciting. What happens most of the time is that I throw random things together and hope for the best. Generally this works really well (at least according to Torsten and Gina who I share an office with). Sometimes we learn things the hard way. Like that replacing all the granulated sugar in your cookie recipe with rapadura sugar is a stupid idea. Or that leftover peppermint bark pieces added to chocolate chip cookies is like my least favourite flavour of all times. Oh well.
Anyhow…a few weeks ago I made the granola cookies Todd and Diane wrote about on White on Rice Couple. And then I made them again. And again. And whenever someone in the lab hears the telltale rattling of my super awesome royal-wedding cookie tin they ask whether I have made the granola cookies again. 
So, what else can I tell you about these cookies. I think they are best still slightly warm. Depending on how long you bake them they are either still chewy or really nice and crispy. Because you soak the dried fruit in booze before you make them I have never managed to bake them so they were actually 'dry' (and I went for something resembling a member of the Jersey Shore cast in one batch because I completely forgot that I was actually baking cookies). The original recipe calls for rum or kaluha. I don't like kaluha for anything other than white russians and I didn't have any rum in the house so the first time I used bourbon and it was really really nice. A few batches later I moved onto southern comfort and I think that is what I'll keep using - the spices work really well with the dried fruit and give the cookies a bit of a kick.
Oh, and instead of apricots I'm using dates (cos dried apricots are evil and vile and gross…and I'm that grown-up…) and raisins but I have been thinking about using dried cherries for a while. I think they would be really nice. 
Are you convinced yet?
Make some cookies! :)

Granola Cookies (adapted from Porter & Chu)
70g dried, pitted Dates
70g Raisins
Enough Bourbon, Southern Comfort, Rum, or whatever else you like to cover the fruit
60g Walnuts
60g Almonds
155g Flour
1tsp Bicarb
1/2 tsp Salt
180g steel-cut Oats
170g Butter, at room temperature
175g Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
125g dark Chocolate Chips
125g white Chocolate Chips

Preheat your oven to 175˚C.
Cut the dates into 1cm pieces, put them into a small bowl with the raisins and cover them with booze.
Toast the nuts until they are starting to brown and your kitchen smells amazing. 
In a medium sized bowl mix the flour, bicarb, salt and oats and set aside.
Don't forget about the oven - take the nuts out of the oven and allow them to cool before you either chop them coarsely or simply crush them a bit using your fingers (you can probably guess which approach I favour).
Take out a larger mixing bowl or your fancy kitchen aid mixer bowl and beat the butter for a minute or so until it starts to fluff up a bit, add the sugar and keep beating for another two minutes or so. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and give things another 4 minutes or so. What all of this does is incorporate more air into the mixture and bond the sugar and butter together (at least that's what I'm told). Irrespective of how this whole thing works, what it does is give your cookies a certain lightness while also giving you crispy edges and an amazingly chewy centre. So ignore the fact that you are probably dying from boredom, listen to one of those new super long Justin Timberlake songs and you will barely notice all that waiting :)
Ideally the butter-mixture should have nearly doubled in size and will look a lot paler than before.
Switch to a spatula or wooden spoon so you don't overmix in the next few steps. 
Stir in the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Then add the chocolate chips, nuts, and boozy fruit (without the remaining liquid - save that to make a drink or dip the cookies into it later or whatnot). 
Scoop two tablespoons of dough (what I do is use my tablespoon measure and scoop up enough dough so it forms a dome on top of the filled spoon that is the same size) per cookie onto a cookie sheet, leaving about 3cm between them. I can normally fit 18 cookies onto my full-size baking sheet if that helps with the spacing between the cookies at all.
Bake the cookies for 15 minutes or until the cookies are starting to brown. 
Don't even think about letting the cookies cool completely, give them a few minutes before you transfer some of them onto a wire-rack, then eat the others while they are still warm on the inside.
I hope you have a fantastic rest of your weekend!
You could make some cookies :)

Blackberry & Oats Muffins

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There are flavours that remind me of home, of being a kid, of those long holidays, of my family.

I keep going back to those flavours.
When I eat rice pudding I think of the two summers my grandma and I spent on Sylt so I could breathe the sea air. There were sunny days as well, but most of my memories centre around the rainy days that we spent in this cafe overlooking the beach where they had rice pudding and Germknödel and milkshakes.
When I eat blackberries I think of sitting on my grandma's back-porch picking blackberries off the bush that extends all around the table as the heat radiates off the ground. The grown-ups are drinking instant coffee, the kids, drinking grain coffee, are feeling all grown-up. The cream for the coffee comes in one of those small plastic jugs you get at the supermarket. I think of how calm it always felt, how calm it always feels when I go there.
When I eat something with oats I think about these super fine oat flakes you can get in Germany and how my sister and I would eat those with milk and sprinkle (ok, it tended to be more than just a light sprinkling) sugar on top when our mum wasn't looking. I sometimes wake up at night remembering that flavour.
A few weeks ago I read Lisa's post on blueberry lime oatmeal muffins on Homesick Texan. And started thinking of all those things I just told you about. I thought about how I wanted to make muffins that would combine some of my favourite childhood flavours.
Shall we make some muffins?

Blackberry & Oats Muffins (makes 12)
100g Oat Flour (take porridge oats and whizz them in a blender or food processor)
200g Plain Flour
50g Almond Flour
100g Raw Cane Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Bicarb
1 tsp Salt
200g Blackberries, macerated in 1tbsp Sugar
125g Butter,  melted and slightly cooled
200ml Milk
100g Sour Cream
1 Egg


Preheat your oven to 175˚C and line a muffin tin with paper cases.
Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl and set aside.
Whisk together the wet ingredients and then fold the wet mix into the dry mix until the two are just combined.
Scoop about a tablespoon of batter into each muffin case, then distribute the blackberries evenly across the muffins. Top with the remaining batter. I ended up with 12 fairly full muffin cases. If you would rather have smaller muffins, you could also use more muffin cases but I wanted domed muffins of awesomeness.
Bake the muffins for 25-30 minutes until the tops are golden.
Allow the muffins to cool slightly before turning them out on a wire-rack.
Now, go and find some milk because it's gonna go really well with a muffin!

Oaty Ricotta Pancakes

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Last summer I got slightly obsessed with finding a nice ricotta pancake recipe after having some for breakfast at Five Leaves. I went through a few not so nice versions, one of which was followed by my friend Alex making some rather amazing Earl Grey flavoured ricotta pancakes, and me kinda giving up on the whole ricotta pancake thing and moving on to polenta pancakes.
After making another batch of ricotta pancakes for brunch today, I think I have finally found the combination of flavours I was looking for. Think all the flavourful goodness of the Orangey Oat Scones from last summer (just less summery thanks to some cardamom) combined with the airiness of a ricotta pancake. How much better can breakfast get?
Anyhow, I know the next weekend is horribly far away :) but if I were you, I'd definitely keep these in mind when you are searching your fridge for inspiration next Sunday.

Oaty Ricotta Pancakes
Dry mix:
1/2 cup Oat Flour (if you can't find any pulse some porridge oats in a food processor for a few seconds)
1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Bicarb
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp ground Cardamom

Wet mix:
1 cup Ricotta
1/2 cup Milk
Zest of 1 Orange
3 Eggs, separated (yolks go into the mix, whites are used separately)

Combine the dry mix and set aside.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form (you have no idea how much fun it is to write this).
Combine the remaining ingredients for the wet mix. Stir the wet mix into the dry mix and don't worry if there are still a few lumps left, if you mix things too much the pancakes will become chewy (in a bad way) rather than light and airy.
Fold in the egg whites. What I do when I want to fold egg whites into a batter is the following: I take 1/3 of the egg whites and stir them into the batter (no folding whatsoever), then I fold in the remaining egg whites and for some reason that means the two combine much easier without too much of the airiness of the egg whites disappearing.
Heat a skillet to a medium-low heat and grease it lightly with some butter. Spoon dollops of batter (I go for about 3 tablespoons per pancake) into the pan and allow them to brown nicely before flipping them over.

These pancakes really like maple syrup, and since you'll already have an orange lying around that will want to be used fairly soon, why not filet the orange so you can even have some vitamins with the pancakes - scary concept, I know :)

What did you guys have for breakfast this weekend?

Orangey Oat Scones

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This is not the recipe I have been going on about for ages now (no, that one is still not quite there) but I made these today instead and they were absolutely lovely with some butter and jam.
If you don't have oat flour, do what I did and take some porridge oats and whizz them in your food processor until you are left with something that resembles breadcrumbs.

Orangey Oat Scones (makes 6)
150g Oat Flour
125g Plain Flour
50g Butter, cold
1 tsp Bicarb
2 tsp Cream of Tartar
50g Sugar
A pinch of Salt
50g Yoghurt
100ml Orange Juice

Preheat your oven to 220˚C.
Mix the flour, sugar, salt, bicarb and cream of tartar. Then cut the butter into cubes the size of hazelnuts and rub the cubes into the flour mixture until the mix resembles breadcrumbs.
Then add the yoghurt and the orange juice and mix it in using a spoon or a knife (try to do this as quickly as you can),  transfer everything onto a floured surface and pat the dough until it's about 2 - 2.5 cm thick. Cut into rounds using a 6cm round cookie cutter, transfer onto a lined baking sheet and brush with some milk if you feel like it.
Bake the scones for 10-12 minutes, then allow them to cool on a wire-rack.
Enjoy your scones with some butter or clotted cream and jam and some tea while you sit back and relax with your friends :)
Oh, and once I get the oatmeal scones to cooperate I'll share that recipe with you as well :)