Multigrain Pancakes with Buttermilk Syrup

With several grains, a little brown sugar, and a big old dollop of plain yogurt in the batter, you have got a healthy but super palate-pleasing plateful in these pancakes. A massive slathering of my Aunt Pat's buttermilk syrup doesn't hurt, either. Mmm....enjoy!


Multigrain Pancakes
from Cooking Light, March 1997

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup quick-cooking oats
2 T yellow cornmeal
2 T brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup 2% milk
1/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt
1 T vegetable oil
1 large egg

Combine firs 7 ingredients (dry); stir well. Combine remaining ingredients; stir well. Add to flour mixture, stirring until smooth. Spoon by 1/4-cupful onto heated skillet/griddle; cook until just right. Makes about 12 pancakes.

Aunt Pat's Buttermilk Syrup

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp light corn syrup
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Blend everything except the vanilla in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla.

Double Coconut Pancakes with Vanilla Pear Sauce

Happy Official International Pancake Day!!!

I have always loved the flavor and moist texture buttermilk lends to pancakes, but I never would have guessed coconut milk could do the same. And with the unusual but delicious compliment of vanilla, pear and cardamom in the sauce, you've just got a real special treat on your plate. While I liked all the pancakes posted this week, I think this recipe was my favorite.

Double Coconut Pancakes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 T sugar
2 T flaked sweet coconut
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 (13.5-ounce) can light coconut milk
1 T butter, melted
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl. Combine coconut milk, butter and egg; stir well. Add wet mixture to dry, stirring until smooth.

Pour about 1/4 cup batter per pancake onto a hot nonstick griddle or nonstick skillet. Cook 3 minutes or until tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked. Carefully turn and cook 2 minutes more or until bottoms are lightly browned.
Makes 4 servings of 3 pancakes each
Per serving: Calories 300, Fat 9.7g, Chol 60mg, Protein 7.6g, Fiber 1.4g

Vanilla Pear Sauce

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tsp butter
2 cups sliced peeled pear (10 ounces)
1 T fresh lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
Dash freshly ground black pepper

Combine sugar and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan over med-high heat. Cook 3 minutes or until sugar dissolves, stirring constantly. Transfer syrup to a small bowl; set aside.

Melt butter in pan over medium heat. Add pear to pan; cook 3 minutes or until soft, stirring frequently. Return syrup to pan; stir in fresh lemon juice, vanilla, cardamom, and pepper. Cook 5 minutes or until sauce is slightly thickened.
Makes 2 cups (serving size 1/4 cup) Per serving: Calories 131, Fat 1g, Cholesterol 3mg, Protein 0.2g, Fiber 1.3g

Both recipes from Cooking Light, December 2006

Apple Pancakes with Cinnamon Syrup

Of course yummy any time of year, these would be especially delicious in the fall with fresh apples you picked yourself. But no one is saying you have to wait that long!

With fresh chopped apples inside, these flapjacks are thicker than others so they require a longer time to cook through than normal pancakes.
Apple Pancakes

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 T sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 cup evaporated milk
1 T butter, melted
2 medium apples, peeled and finely chopped

Sift dry ingredients. Combine egg, milk and butter. Add liquid ingredients gradually to dry ingredients. Stir only until batter is smooth. Fold in apples. Batter will be thick. Drop by 1/4 or 1/3 cupfuls onto very hot greased griddle. Serve with cinnamon syrup. Makes 10-11 pancakes of 1/3 cup batter each.

Cinnamon Syrup

1/2 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup evaporated milk

Mix syrup, water, sugar and cinnamon in saucepan. Bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes. Cool 5 minutes and stir in milk. Makes 1 3/4 cups.

Recipe from Shanna Stratton

Batter Up: It's Pancake Week!

Earlier this month I read in a magazine that National Pancake Day is February 24th and on that day you can go to IHOP and get a free short stack. Intrigued by this holiday, rather than the prospect of waiting in line for free sawdust cakes at IHOP, I Googled it and discovered that Pancake Day is always on Mardi Gras, which as all good Mormons know, is the last day to live it up before Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, 40 days before Easter. Historically, this day, also known as Shrove Tuesday, was the last day to use up fat and eggs from the pantry before Lent, and pancakes are a great way to do that.

A few slightly sketchy sources also promised that this is actually National Pancake Week, from February 22-28. And hey, that's good enough for me. Pancake Week is a concept I can really get behind, and I know you can see where this is going. Every day this week on DMTotW you will find a new awesome, yummy, easy recipe for everyone's favorite breakfast. All of which I've tried. All of which are really, REALLY good.

I've become so accustomed to just using Trader Joe's mix that I'd forgotten how easy it is to make pancakes from scratch. Not only that, but trying this week's recipes really opened my eyes to some fabulous and delicious variations that are just as easy. Just to let you know, we'll be sticking to the traditional, rather than broad, sense of the word pancake here. The weekend breakfast sense of the word: batter cooked on hot greased griddle, topped with something sweet. Can't you just smell them now?

So without further ado, let's start the week off with a delicious buttermilk-banana bang:

Buttermilk-Banana Pancakes
with Pomegranate Syrup
from Cooking Light, November 2005

Pancakes:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 T sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 (1-ounce) package uncooked instant farina (like Cream of Wheat)
1 1/4 cups low-fat buttermilk
1 T canola oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup mashed banana (about 1 large)

Syrup:
1/2 cup pomegranate juice
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 T pomegranate juice
2 tsp cornstarch

Combine flour and next 6 ingredients (through farina) in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Combine buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and egg; add to flour mixture, stirring until smooth. Fold in banana.

Spoon 1/4 cup batter per pancake onto hot greased or nonstick griddle. Turn when tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked.

To prepare syrup, combine 1/2 cup juice and syrup in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over med-high heat. Combine 2 T juice and cornstarch in a bowl; add to pan. Cook 1 minute or until thickened; remove from heat. Serve with pancakes.

Makes 6 servings (3 pancakes and 2 T syrup each)
Cal 315, Fat 4g, Chol 37mg, Prot 5.7g, Fiber 1.4g

DM Takes on the Baking Cupboard

I rarely deep clean or organize anything. I'm a horrible housekeeper and obviously not bothered enough by it to change more than once a quarter or so. But on occasion I can take on a small project: a pile, a corner, a surface that can be fixed up quick and make me feel all satisfied and accomplished.

The other night while dinner was cooking and random items had fallen out of the baking cupboard onto me for the third time while I put the salt away, I decided to organize it. As you can imagine, it is my most-used cupboard and therefore, becomes a mess the most easily. But it's also only three shelves; doable.

Pulled out the bags of nuts, the jars of sprinkles, the extracts. Baking soda, powder, salt, powdered sugar, chocolate chips, baking bars, dried fruit, coconut, shortening, paper muffin liners, corn meal, oatmeal. Ran upstairs to the stash of organize-y small baskets under my computer desk from my last big organizational project, and grabbed a few. Checked on dinner, combined the three half-full bags of chopped pecans. Stacked nuts in one basket, extracts along one side. Bars here, chocolate chips there.

Voila! The Baking Cupboard, organized:

So while my laundry room,
and the rest of my house, and life, look like this:I can now make chocolate chip cookies blindfolded.

And isn't that what really matters?

Fast Sunday Banana Pops

The girls have both had the stomach flu this weekend, so we didn't take them to church. Ed went to help with nursery and I stayed home. Dinner's going in the slow cooker and filling the house with tummy-grumbling aromas. So what's a Mom to do on fast Sunday afternoon with two sick girls? Make food, of course!

I got this idea from my visiting teacher Heather (of the Black & Brown Chocolate Chip Cookies.) She and I share a love of cooking and always have lots to talk about, usually followed up by emailing recipes. Heather has kids in elementary school and she said they've had PBJ in their lunch boxes all year so she was trying to branch out and get creative with their lunches. One idea was frozen bananas, dipped and rolled in a variety of things. We brainstormed until my mouth was watering and I have been wanting to make some ever since.

What we did today -

4 bananas, peeled & cut in half

8 wooden craft sticks (lollipop sticks from the candy-making aisle at Michael's; could also use the straight end of plastic spoons)

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 to 3 T vanilla yogurt

Handfuls of puff cereal, graham crackers, oats, flax seed, and some stale danish butter cookies leftover from Christmas, finely crushed in food processor

Jimmy sprinkles and mini M&M's, also leftover from Christmas

Cut bananas in half. Spread a banana half with peanut butter/yogurt mixture, then roll in crumbs and sprinkles. I had sprinkles on one plate and crumb/M&M mixture on another. I had to mix the M&M's with the crumbs because if any part of the banana were to have only M&M's on it I know the girls would just eat them off and abandon the rest of the popsicle. This way we have a fighting chance.

Lay on cookie sheet and carefully insert a pop stick in the bottom of banana half. Freeze for 3 hours or until solid.

(Hazel insisted on one plain one)

Other things to try -

Dip/spread any of the following or combinations of them:

Peanut butter

Yogurt

Honey

Melted chocolate

Cream cheese

Fruit puree

Roll in:

Sprinkles

Crushed cookie/cracker/pretzel crumbs

Wheat germ or flax seed

Granola/oats

Coconut
Mini chocolate chips /M&M's/candy

Coarsely crushed Rice Krispies/corn flakes/cereal

Chopped nuts

One of my favorite treats to get on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, CO was a chocolate-dipped frozen banana at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Frozen bananas are creamy like ice cream, mmm. And what's great about making them at home is they can be a healthy snack or a sweet treat, depending on what you use. Either way, they're mostly banana, a whole food that most kids like.

I haven't asked Heather if she's sent these in lunches yet. I worry they would thaw in the lunch box and then be kind of messy, but maybe if you packed them in foil with an ice pack? I don't know; I welcome thoughts. And I also welcome the next 2 hours passing quickly so I can gobble up one of these bad boys. After ending my fast, of course.

VGP Summary

I'm pretty sure I've just made a major contribution to keeping butter, egg and parchment paper producers in business. Actually, I really lucked out on the eggs since Safeway has had a buy one get one free deal all month on cartons of 18. We've gone through lots and lots of eggs around here.

I cooked up this idea of the Virtual Goody Plate in the summer, and thought it would be no problem to get 31 goodies baked and written up in time, so I started making some old favorites and finding a few recipes in books and online. I was way ahead in the fall!

But I didn't account for all the holiday cookie magazines that would start showing up on the racks in November and December. Each one I looked at had at least 5 to 10 I wanted to try, and the math was overwhelming. So I made a list and checked it twice, and reprioritized, and went back and forth on a few. For the last 6 weeks or so I have been making 3 to 4 different cookies a week. Some good ones didn't make the cut, mostly for variety's sake, and some were so good I made them more than once. I don't know what I'll do with all my spare time now. Maybe I'll actually get back to losing weight!

Ed and Mom and I tried all of them and came up with our Top 5 lists. I found it amazing that we had no overlap - just goes to show how good all the cookies were!

Kari's Top 5
Chocolate Marshmallow Meltaways
Chocolate Peanut Blow-Out Cookies
Chocolate Turtle Cookies
Chocolate Chewies
Turtle Candies

Ed's Top 5
Black and Brown Chocolate Chip Cookies
Hazelnut Chewies
Cranberry-Orange Pinwheels
Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
Kari-Can't-Stop-Eating-This Bark (and now neither can Ed)

Mom's Top 5
Peppermint Bonbon Cookies
Lemony Bonbons
Buried Cherry Cookies
Brownie Waffle Cookies
Citrus-Drizzled Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
Bonus ('cuz she can't pick just 5): Raspberry Almond Cookies

So, OK, the month is over, the year is over, the VGP is over. But I figured I've got all these recipes with all my notes and all the pictures - why not make a book so they're all in one place next time I want to make them? Plus I could toss in the other few that were really good but didn't get a VGP appearance, like Cocoa Fudge Cookies and Maple Walnut Spice Cookies. Dave even flattered me by saying he would give it as gifts to friends. So I checked out a couple cookbook-making sites and found Blurb had the best quality and lowest price. I've already ordered my copy of Disco Mom Takes on Christmas Cookies, and now you can, too. I don't make a profit because then I'd have to get copyright permission and everything, but if you want to order it at cost click here. It is $24.95 for softcover, $35.95 for hardcover with dust jacket, and $37.95 for hardcover image wrap. It is 78 pages with 36 recipes and pictures. And I'm just a little proud of it.

It's my final goody...from me to you. Happy New Year!

VGP #31 The King

Earlier this fall I took a plate of various cookies I was trying to my friend. "Oooh," she exclaimed excitedly, beginning to peek under the foil, "are there chocolate chip cookies in here?" Uh, no, I thought. I can make chocolate chip cookies in my sleep. Here I am chopping nuts, rolling balls, zesting lemons, melting caramels, and she wants chocolate chip?

Another time another friend told me of a man from church who could use a goody plate. "Perfect," I said, "I have more than I know what to do with in my freezer." I got his name and my friend said, "Are you going to bring him chocolate chip cookies? Those are his favorite." Again, I was like, sorry, I only have Peppermint Bonbons, Citrus-Drizzled Cranberry Oatmeal, and Chocolate Turtle cookies. Guess he's out of luck.

I finally took the hint when a fresh warm batch came out of the oven one afternoon. Hazel asked if she could have a cookie, and I was excited for her to try it, so I gave her one. She took a bite and said, "Mmm, delicious!" and walked off to the living room. I turned back to my task with a proud little smile on my face, until a moment later she returned. She handed me back the cookie, still with only one bite taken, and said, "Mommy, I don't like these cookies because they don't have chocolate chips in them."

I get it. And I agree. After months of trying fabulous recipes, the fact of the matter is that NOTHING beats the chocolate chip cookie!

So with that in mind, but still in the spirit of the Virtual Goody Plate, here are four variations on the King of cookies.

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
(even Maren can make them!)

This is my everyday, all-time perfect chocolate chip cookie. It's kind of a combination of the recipes from the Ghiradelli and Nestle chocolate chip bags. Comes out great every time.
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup oats, optional
1/2 to 1 cup chopped pecans, optional
As many chocolate chips as you can cram in

Preheat oven to 375. Cream butter, shortening and sugar until fluffy, like 4 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating each time, and vanilla, mixing well. Add soda, salt and flour a little at a time, mixing until all combined. Stir in oats, nuts and chocolate chips. Use a spoon or cookie scoop (I love my cookie scoop) to drop dough onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake for about 10 minutes (every oven is different.) Cool on baking sheet about 2 minutes before moving to wire rack to cool completely. Makes about 3 or 4 dozen.


Crispy Rice Chocolate Chip Cookies

How could I not try a recipe for chocolate chip cookies with Rice Krispies in it? What a fun addition - a great way to add some crisp in a new way to soft cookies. Delicious.
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup crisp rice cereal
1/4 cup oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Stir flour, cereal, oats, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt together in a bowl; set aside. Cream butter with both sugars in a bowl with mixer until light and fluffy. Add the oil, egg and vanilla, then beat until blended. Stir in chocolate chips and flour mixture just until flour is incorporated. Drop dough by cookies scoop or 3 T mounds onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake 12 to 14 minutes until cookies are set and golden around edges. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to rack. Makes about 4 1/2 dozen


Chocolate Chip Orange Drops

My mom cannot help herself sometimes, so I wasn't really surprised when she handed me a tattered book called The Big Chocolate Cookbook, copyright 1968. She got it off the free cart at the library. My first reaction was, there's not going to be anything good in here. But I decided to peruse anyway, and came out with this little gem. I do love chocolate and orange together. The almond extract is good, too, but I would just as easily use vanilla to let the orange shine more. The book wants you to top these with orange cream cheese frosting, but I don't usually frost chocolate chip cookies.
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond or vanilla extract
1 cup sifted flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 T grated orange rind
1/2 cup ground almonds
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. Cream butter and sugars well and beat in egg and extract. Sift dry ingredients and add them, orange rind, ground almonds and chocolate chips to creamed mixture. Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, until brown around edges. Move to wire rack to cool. Makes about 2 dozen.


Black & Brown Chocolate Chip Cookies

My aptly-named friend Heather Baker is a talented domestic artist. She even enters her creations in the Arlington County Fair...and wins. This particular recipe came about when she took her awesome Double Chocolate Chip cookie recipe and tried substituting black beans - that's right - for part of the fat. The cocoa powder hides the bean flecks, and you get a little extra protein, fiber, iron, manganese and antioxidants, without sacrificing any flavor. In fact, these cookies won 1st place in the entire chocolate chip cookie category at the county fair. Taste them and you'll see why. This is one of Ed's very favorite cookies of the whole month!
1 (14 oz) can black beans (white beans work as well)
½ cup shortening
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
½ cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
½ tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
3 T cocoa powder
Nuts and chocolate chips

Drain and rinse black beans. Puree in blender with a little water to make a thick paste (about the consistency of yogurt). Cream bean puree, shortening and sugars. Add vanilla, salt, soda and eggs. Mix well, then add everything else. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

VGP #30 Almond Joy Bites

Kudos to friend and fellow sweet-tooth Rebecca Yeates for this gorgeous and super yummy confection! Unfortunately I don't have a picture. I had them at a party (without my camera) and therefore know they're good, but just picture a one-almond bite-size Almond Joy and you've got it.

2 cups flaked sweetened coconut
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 T butter, softened
25 raw whole almonds
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 T shortening

1. Cream together the coconut, powdered sugar, sweetened condensed milk and butter until well combined. Form into balls and press one whole almond into each ball.

2. Melt the chocolate chips and shortening carefully, stirring until smooth. Either drizzle over coconut bites or dip them. To dip, break the middle two prongs off of a plastic fork so there are only the outer two prongs. Place a candy on the fork and dip into the chocolate, using a spoon to cover completely. Place on wax paper to set.

Makes about 25 bites

VGP #29 Fennel Pistachio Cookies

These cookies stopped me in my tracks while flipping through my trusty Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Cookies magazine. First, I love pistachios. Second, I have fennel in my spice cupboard but have only used it once, and never for cookies. I found the combination highly intriguing. And third, the recipe was not part of the magazine but in an advertisement...for butter. So I figured if, out of all the cookie recipes out there, butter was using this one to advertise itself, it was worth my time. And I was right.

Fennel (warm and licoricey), pistachio (nutty), lemon (bright and tart), and almond extract (sweet) are the main flavors in here; they are a great ensemble cast. I was afraid the called-for 2 Tablespoons of almond extract was a typo - I've never seen a recipe call for that much. Just in case, I used only 1 Tablespoon, but in the end the other flavors are strong enough to counter the almond so 2 would be ok. These are soft but not too soft, sweet, nutty, and wonderfully flavorful!
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
2 T almond extract
1 T lemon zest
1 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup pistachio nuts, chopped, plus extra for garnish, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350. In bowl of electric mixter beat butter until creamy. Gradually add sugar; mix well. Add egg; beat well. Add almond, lemon zest and fennel seeds; mix to combine.

2. In separate medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add butter mixture; beat well. Stir in pistachio nuts; dough will be stiff.

3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. If desired, flatten balls slightly and sprinkle with additional chopped pistachios. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly on sheets; remove to wire racks to cool. Makes 3 dozen.

VGP #28 Brownie Biscotti

I guess not everyone likes biscotti, but that's only because those people are crazy. I know it's crunchy and dry, as opposed to chewy and gooey, but these ones in particular are so dense and flavorful you can't lose. Just get a glass of milk or mug of cocoa and let the dunking begin! These are especially lovely as gifts wrapped up in colored cellophane bags with pretty ribbons and a hot chocolate packet.

I don't usually put nuts in the dough because it's harder to make even slices in step 5. Instead, I used chopped nuts, crushed cookies, sprinkles or candy to dip them in after the chocolate dip. There's some room to be artistic here. Pistachios are especially festive because of the green color. Recipe from Brownie Mix Bliss by Camilla Saulsbury.

Biscotti:
1 (19.5 to 19.8 oz) pkg brownie mix
1 cup all purpose flour
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment.

2. Combine brownie mix, flour, melted butter, eggs, and nuts. Blend with an electric mixter set on low until well blended. Scrape down sides (mixture will be stiff.)

3. Transfer dough to prepared cookie sheet. With floured hands, shape dough into 2 rectangles, each 14 inches long by 3 inches wide, and ¾ inch thick, spacing abt 4-5 inches apart on sheet. Mound dough so it is slightly higher in the center than at the edges. Place cookie sheet in oven.

4. Bake 30-35 minutes, until firm to touch; remove from oven and cool on sheet for 10 minutes (leave oven on.)

5. With spatula transfer logs to cutting board. Use a sharp knife to slice each rectangle into ¾ inch slices on the diagonal. Return slices to sheet, cut sides down.

6. Return sheet to oven. Bake biscotti 10 minutes. Turn oven off and let biscotti remain in oven until crisp, about 30 to 40 minutes longer. Remove from oven and transfer biscotti to a rack. Cool completely. If desired, prepare Chocolate Dip and with a butter knife or small offset spatula spread over one side of each biscotti. Dip in crushed candy, nuts or cookies if desired. Place on waxed paper-lined cookie sheet and refrigerate at least 1 hour to set chocolate. Store in an airtight container or plastic ziploc bag for up to 3 weeks.

Chocolate Dip:

1 cup semisweet, milk or white chocolate or cinnamon baking chips
1 T vegetable shortening

Melt chips and shortening in a small heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring often to avoid scorching. Makes about 1 cup melted chocolate.

VGP #27 Citrus-Drizzled Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

I'm thinking of the Friends episode in which Phoebe told Rachel she makes the best oatmeal raisin cookies in the world. Rachel takes a bite, loves them, and wants to know why she's never had them before.

Phoebe's classic answer: "Oh, I don't make them a lot because I don't think it's fair to the other cookies."

Well I don't make oatmeal cookies a lot either, mostly because if it's a choice between making cookies with chocolate or without chocolate, I always choose the chocolate. Sometimes I put oatmeal in my chocolate chip cookies. But as we've seen this month I've branched out a little, and this citrus-y cookie from Cooking Light (December 2006) caught my eye. I do like dried cranberries better than raisins, and I do also love a lemony glaze.

You couldn't ask for more in an oatmeal cookie. The spices are just right, the cranberries are tart and festive, and the drizzle gives you a zing on the tastebuds before you even take a bite. They are crisp on the outside, soft inside, and overall a delicious addition to any goody plate or glass of milk. Mmmm...

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup sweetened dried cranberries
Cooking spray

Glaze:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 T fresh lemon juice
2 tsp grated orange rind

1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with knife. Combine flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in a bowl.

2. Combine brown sugar, granulated sugar, and butter in a large bowl; beat with mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add vanilla and eggs; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture and cranberries; beat at low speed until combined.

3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls (or I like to use a cookie scoop.) Place balls 2 inches apart on baking sheets coated with cooking spray or parchment paper. Bake for 15 minutes or until almost firm. Let stand on baking sheets 2 minutes. Remove cookies from baking sheets, and cool completely on wire rack.

4. To prepare glaze, combine powdered sugar, lemon juice and orange rind in a small bowl, whisking until smooth. Spoon mixture into a ziploc bag and snip the corner; drizzle glaze over cooled cookies.

VGP #26 Apricot-Sage Cookies

Wow. Are these cookies ever elegant! My store didn't have sage so I used rosemary (you can also use lemon thyme.) I was not sure how a rosemary cookie would taste, but it was lovely - not too sweet, and apricot is just the right fruit flavor to go with fresh herbs. These are to be wrapped in tissue paper in a simple white box and big silver bow or something similar, to show someone they are really, really special.

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup yellow cornmeal

1/2 cup butter

2 T snipped fresh sage, lemon thyme or rosemary; or 2 tsp dried sage or rosemary, crushed

3 T milk

1 egg white

1 T water

Fresh sage leaves, optional

Sugar

2 T apricot preserves


1. Preheat oven to 375. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar and cornmeal. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs and starts to cling. Stir in herb. Add milk and stir with a fork to combine. Form mixture into a ball and knead until smooth. Divide dough in half.


2. On a lightly floured surface roll half of the dough at a time to a 1/8-inch thickness. Use a 2 1/2-inch round or oval cookie cutter to cut out dough.


3. In a small bowl combine the egg white and the water. Brush half of the cookies with the egg white mixture and, if desired, top with one or two small sage leaves. Brush leaves with egg white mixture. Sprinkle with sugar. Place plain and leaf-topped cutouts 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.


4. Bake in preheated oven about 7 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are very lightly browned. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; cool.


5. Snip any large pieces in the fruit preserves. Spread apricot preserves on the bottom of each cookie without a sage leaf. Top preserves layer with a sage-topped cookie. Makes about 20 sandwiches. Store at room temperature up to 3 days or freeze unsandwiched cookies and thaw before assembling with preserves.


Recipe from Better Homes & Gardens 100 Best Cookies