Working on Oatmeal Raisin Cookies - 1st Attempt

I received some excellent input from my friends about what an oatmeal raisin cookie should be like. The only universally loved quality seems to be a chewy center with crisp edges. Desired spice levels, sweetness, nut inclusion/exclusion, and overall healthiness vary.

Since my standard menu of cookies will probably look something like this - chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, peanut butter, oatmeal raisin, ginger - I think I do need to include walnuts in the oatmeal raisin cookie. Some people really love nuts. Folks who hate them can either pick a different cookie (the chocolate chip cookies will be nut-free) or pre-order a special batch without walnuts. Also, I feel that if you're looking for a healthy cookie, maybe you shouldn't eat a cookie. I'll try it with applesauce for some of the fat, but only because I feel like that could lead to good flavor and texture for this particular cookie. If full fat tastes better, so be it. Since there will be a ginger cookie - and likely a highly spiced one - I will aim for mild cinammon in the oatmeal raisin cookie. As with all my cookies, it will not be too sweet, and it will be small.

For chewiness, I'll try melted butter (rather than creamed butter and sugar) and brown sugar. For crispiness (on the edges), I'll be sure to include some white sugar. The walnuts shall be toasted so they taste awesome. The raisins shall be soaked in some sort of hot liquid so they're plump. Maybe orange juice.

My first trial recipe

Ingredients

3/4 cup raisins
juice of one lemon (couple tbsp, at least)
hot water (enough to cover the raisins)
4 oz (1 stick) butter
3.5 oz (1/2 cup) brown sugar
3.5 oz (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
2 oz (1/2 cup) walnuts, chopped
3.75 oz (3/4 cup) all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups rolled oats (not instant)

Steps

1. Boil the water, pour the lemon juice over the raisins, and then pour enough hot water over the raisins to cover (in a shallow bowl). Let stand while preparing the rest of the dough.
2. Melt the butter. Once melted, combine it with the sugars in a large bowl. Stir and let stand.
3. Toast the walnuts in a dry skillet over medium low heat until they smell really good. Don't burn them.
4. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
5. Once the butter/sugar mixture is no longer hot to the touch (warm is OK), add the egg and vanilla and stir to combine.
6. Dump the flour mixture into the butter mixture and stir well to combine. Squeeze the liquid out of the raisins before adding them to the dough. Add the oatmeal and walnuts and stir everything well to combine.
7. Put the bowl in the freezer while you pre-heat the oven to 350° F. Good time for some cleaning, checking email, petting cats, or whatever you like.
8. Use a #40 portioner to drop dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Flatten gently with the palm of your hand. Bake for 10 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. You want to see light browning on just the edges of the cookies. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack as soon as the cookies are firm enough to move.

Results

I tried the first pan exactly as written. They came out very soft and flat and had to cool almost completely on the pan before they were strong enough to move. They still fell apart quite readily the next day.

For the second pan, I did not flatten the dough, and I baked for 12 minutes instead of 10. These held together a bit better - I was able to transfer them to a rack after maybe 3 minutes - but they were still too crumbly. There was more browning on these cookies from the longer bake time, but not flattening them out led to inconsistent shapes. I was worried that they would be hard when cool, but this wasn't the case.

Both versions had excellent flavor and the right level of sweetness, but they were soft all the way through and did not hold together. 

Tasters remarks were 80% enthusiastically positive. The only real feedback I got had to do with the crumbliness and lack of any crispiness. One person said she'd have liked more cinnamon.

This recipe was a good start, but I'm going to make the following changes to the next attempt:

• Increase ratio of white to brown sugar in an effort to get crisp edges.
• Increase amount of flour and stir longer to develop gluten and hopefully help the cookies stay together better.
• Increase cinnamon.

Chocolate croissant and monkey bread from the Wedge

I stayed home sick today and decided to venture a couple blocks away to the Wedge to buy ingredients for lemon lentil spinach soup. As always happens, I ended up with more than was on my list.

I stood in front of the sweets case at the deli for about five minutes, but none of that stuff looked appealing to me. I don't know why, but that happens every time I go to the Wedge. Maybe I'm afraid that everything is too sweet. Maybe all of it just seems too decadent. Eventually, I want to try one of their cupcakes to see if they're not horrible, but I don't have high hopes. It seems like all bakery cupcakes are horrible.

Anyway, I headed toward the registers by passing the bread area and was unable to resist a chocolate croissant and a monkey bread. I fought with myself about it for about three minutes.

The chocolate croissant was really good. Light, crispy texture without being dry; buttery flavor to the pastry; rich, not-too-sweet, smooth chocolate. I should do a head-to-head of chocolate croissants in the area to be sure, but I think this is my favorite one.

The monkey bread was much better than I expected it to be. It was perfect. The size of the pull-off pieces was just right (about half a tablespoon), and nearly every piece had a mixture of textures—tender interior, slightly chewy/crispy exterior where the sugars caramelized. The dough was buttery without being greasy, until I got to the pool of butter in the bottom of the cupcake liner. It was sweet and cinnamon-y in a delicate way. It will be a serious challenge not to buy one of these every time I'm at the Wedge. I almost want to walk over and get another one right now.

I asked a woman working behind the deli counter if they bake everything there, and she said yes. I asked if they bake overnight, and she said no, they simply have a super-efficient crew of bakers who start at 4:00 a.m. I think I'll write to them to see if I could either work part-time or volunteer 4:00–8:00 a.m. a couple mornings a week.

Ultimate chocolate cupcakes with ganache filling and creamy malted milk chocolate frosting

I made Cook's Illustrated's Ultimate chocolate cupcakes with ganache filling with creamy malted milk chocolate frosting for Aaron's birthday party, and while gorging on the frosting decided that it’s what I want to eat right before I die. These cupcakes make me so angry at all other cupcakes for being inferior. I don’t understand why, if cupcakes can taste like this, anyone puts up with cupcakes that:

• Have a huge, chewy, muffin-like crumb
• Have sandy, greasy frosting
• Are way way way too sweet
• Look infinitely better than they taste
• Are dry
• Taste like chemicals
• Taste like nothing

My love for these cupcakes has shot my future-plan of being a baker to the head of the list of options. Seriously. I’m going to look for a job in a bakery.