Grandma's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

My last living grandma passed away this month. :(

It had been coming for a long time, but it doesn't make it too much easier to see her go. She was the sweetest grandma you could have ever asked for. Not even saying this because she was my own grandma, but she really was just one of those special little ladies that warms your heart everytime you see her. Sadly I didn't get to see her that much because Michigan is not very close to New Hampshire.

I dug through her recipe collection and found an old oatmeal carton top, the kind that had the oatmeal raisin cookie recipe right on it. My mom told me a story about how someone asked my grandma for her oatmeal cookie recipe (I don't remember who it was.. could have been her?) and my grandma responded something like.. "Oh sure. Go out to the store and pick up some oats. Follow the recipe that comes on the carton." Totally serious. I love that.

So these are NOT healthy.. which is not usually what I like to make. (You might not be able to tell from what I blog about, but I am kind of a health nut. I'm giving veganism some serious thought as well). But these cookies are so delicious, and they remind me of my grandma, so here you go. :)



"Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies" (Quaker)

2 sticks butter, softened (the updated version on the Quaker website says 1 stick plus 6 T, which shows how old this carton top must be!!)
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I actually used about three quarters whole wheat, and it was great)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt (optional.. I opted out)
3 cups Quaker old-fashioned oats
1 cup raisins (I soaked these in warm water to plump them up a bit first)

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.
Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown.
Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.


I also want to show off two of my new toys from my Christmas/birthday season!!



(I used both of these toys for the first time with this recipe!)

Zucchini Bread

I picked up a monster of a zucchini from a farmer's cart the other day outside of my work. It sat in my fridge for days, during which it was constantly coming up in my thoughts. It's been sort of like this.

Zucchini: "Why haven't you eaten me yet??"

Me: "I'm too busy!!"

Zucchini: "I'm going to go bad soon, and you're going to be wasteful!"

Me: "Aaaaaagh!!"

I hate wasting food, and I think I hate eating bad-for-you foods even more. But I had to get this Zucchini out of my fridge so I pulled up an old recipe card of my grandmother's. This is not the same grandmother who loved to cook, this one is still alive and kicking in a nursing home out in MI. I don't have too many of her recipes, and this was a new one for me. It was actually really good. Probably because of the two cups of sugar that went into it :) I didn't do the two loaves, I did three of the mini loaves and a bunch of mini muffins. I'm not sure that the batter really is enough for two loaves, but I'll update next time I try it.

Anyways.. I'll post now!



Grandma Dz's Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 cups grated zucchini
½ tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cinnamon
½ cup nuts
½ cup raisins (I subbed for chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine sugar, zucchini, flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder and cinnamon in large mixing bowl. Add eggs, oil and vanilla, blending all ingredients together. Stir in nuts and raisins/choc chips. Pour batter into two 9x5x2 loaf pans and bake for about an hour.

Yields: 2 loaves

Almond Joy Cookies

This one's an absolute treasure. I mean it - I cannot believe something so easy can taste so good. I found this recipe on an index card written out by my grandmother (the one who just passed away in May) and I thought I'd try it out. There wasn't much description on it; there was no ingredient list, just a few scribbles of instruction. So here goes..

Almond Joy Cookies

1 can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
2 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used Ghiradelli chocolate chips)
3 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1 tsp vanilla
Handful of almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat milk and chocolate on top of double boiler. Cook and let bubble for several minutes.

In a mixing bowl, measure out the three cups of coconut. Add vanilla. Once chocolate-milk mixture has heated through, pour on top of coconut-vanilla mixture and stir to combine thoroughly.

Use a small cookie scoop to drop on a well-greased cookie sheet. Press an almond into each cookie. Bake for about 8 minutes.

Allow these cookies to cool before removing. They are extremelyyyy sticky so I actually had to peel them off of the parchment paper. If the cookie got misshapen, it was easily fixed by just re-molding it back into shape. Keep these in the refrigerator -- if they are not cold, they will fall apart when they are picked up!

YUM!

First Crack at Shortbread

My grandmother passed away exactly two months ago to the day. She left behind an enormous collection of cookbooks, kitchen stuff, and really interesting food. I take after her culinary ways so I stepped up to the challenge of using up all of the food she left behind. This includes about 10 jars of jam. Using jam on toast can only get one person so far, so I have been digging through my cookbook collection (and hers!) to find new ways to use some of this stuff up.

When I went to school at Plymouth State, I would sometimes go in and look through the clearance books. I found a few interesting cookbooks for next to nothing. One of them is Shortbread by Jann Johnson. I had never even tried shortbread before but it looked interesting, so I paid the two bucks and put it on my shelf for about 6 months while I finished school. It's actually a really cute book - I wish I had looked through it sooner!




I was scanning through it last night before bed (my pre-bedtime relaxation ritual is to browse through cookbooks) and I discovered a few interesting shortbread recipes. ONE of which used jam. YES!




This recipe called for black raspberry jam, interestingly enough, one of the few jams my grandma did not have. Or maybe she had already used it. Anyways, I made a substitution of strawberry, and I also didn't measure it out. Just smeared it on. Here's how I modified the recipe:


White-Chocolate & Strawberry Shortbread

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) + 2 tbsp butter, softened
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
About 1/3 cup jam
A handful of white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line an 8-inch round cake pan with plastic wrap, leaving some to hang over the edges. With a mixer, beat the butter on low speed about one minute. Mix in the sugar, salt, and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Mix in the flour gradually until just combined.

Press half the dough into the lined cake pan creating a round of dough. Press into the dough with the back of a spoon to spread and smooth. Lift the dough out using the plastic wrap, and flip onto parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Lay more plastic wrap down and repeat the process of spreading the dough out in the cake pan.

Spread the jam on the first dough round until covered, leaving about a half inch on the edge of the circle. Sprinkle with white chocolate chips, as many as desired. Lift the second dough round out of the cake pan and carefully layer it on top of the first dough round, jam, and white chocolate. Let it sit for a few minutes, then combine the edges of the rounds. A fork can be used at this stage to put designs around the edge.

Bake for about 45 minutes until shortbread has set but has not browned. Let sit out of oven for a few minutes, then carefully lift the parchment paper onto a cooling rack. Cool shortbread completely before slicing. Cut into 16 wedges with a sharp, thin knife.










Voila! My first attempt at shortbread! It turned out really tasty. I will have to try a new shortbread recipe from this book again soon!