Raisins and Almonds

Orange–scented, chocolate chip oatmeal cookies

[posted by Ann]

Having withdrawal pangs from the previous week’s triple ginger cookies, but not enough powdered ginger left for another batch, I turned to oatmeal cookies, using a blend of 3 different flours, 3 different shortenings, and 3 different sweeteners, along with grated orange zest and dark chocolate chips. The results were equally addictive. This recipe is based on "Big and chewy oatmeal raisin cookies," from the Cooks Illustrated Cookbook. (But mine were a crispy medium-size, with chocolate chips instead of raisins.)

Preheat oven to 350
Line metal or ceramic baking sheet with parchment paper

Mix the dry ingredients in bowl:
¾ cup flour mix—I used ½ cup whole wheat pastry flour, ¼ cup all purpose flour, and 2 tablespoons spelt flour
1 tablespoon ground almonds or almond flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Cream the shortening and sugars, using an electric mixer (hand or stand) in a larger bowl at medium speed:

4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons coconut oil
1-tablespoon olive oil
¼ cup turbinado sugar
¼ cup coconut sugar
1-tablespoon dark (grade B) maple syrup

When shortening and sugars are well-blended and creamy, beat in one egg and mix until incorporated. With the mixer at low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients until just combined, don’t over mix.

Stir in the final additions by hand, using a Swedish whisk or rubber spatula:

1-1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats,
¾ cup bittersweet chocolate chips (I used 70% ),
grated zest of one orange plus (optional) a scant ½ tsp minced candied orange zest (added because I had homemade candied peel already).

Forming the cookies:

Drop 1 tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart, they will flatten and spread. Bake until starting to darken around the edges, about 24 minutes. If browning unevenly, turn the pans halfway through. Cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a board or rack. The cookies will firm and become crisp.

Unforgettable triple-ginger cookies

 

[posted by Ann] 

The unforgettable flavor comes from three different forms of ginger, enhanced with more spices and the fragrant zest of Meyer lemon. This recipe is based on Triple Ginger Cookies from Heidi Swanson’s blog, 101 Cookbooks. I mader a few substitutions for ingredients that I didn’t have, and now I will probably always want to repeat this version. 

Dry ingredients for dough:

2 cups light flour (spelt and/or whole-wheat pastry, white whole-wheat flour, or all-purpose; I used half whole-wheat pastry flour and half spelt flour.)

2 tablespoons ground almonds

1 tsp baking soda

1 teaspoon Chinese 5-spice powder

½ teaspoon nutmeg (Penzey’s West Indies is perfect)

4-1/2 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp fine sea salt

Ingredients for wet dough

½ cup shortening: I used equal parts butter, coconut oil, and olive oil

¼ cup dark (Grade B) maple syrup

½ cup natural unrefined sweetener, (Alter Eco’s Moscobado sugar is my favorite)—reserve two teaspoons to mince with the crystallized ginger and lemon zest)

1-1/2 tablespoon FRESH ginger root, peeled and grated

1 egg, well-beaten

Ginger/lemon mix

1 cup crystallized ginger

zest of 1 Meyer lemon (in strips)

Finishing sugar

 Approximately ½ cup turbinado or other large-grain, unrefined sugar (final surface embellishment) in a low dish or prep bowl –not part of the dough mixture

 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet or ceramic pan with parchment paper.

Whisk flour, ground almonds, baking soda, 5-spice powder, ground ginger, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl.

In a food processor or mini-prep, pulverize the crystallized ginger along with the lemon zest and 2 teaspoons of the sugar. Process until the ginger and zest are finely minced.

Heat shortening in a saucepan until just melted. Remove from heat. Stir in maple syrup, remaining sugar, and fresh ginger root. Let cool briefly until mixture is warm rather than hot, then whisk in the egg.

Add this wet mix to the dry ingredients, then add the crystallized ginger-lemon zest mixture, and stir until just combined, with no sticky clumps.

To form each cookie, take up a ball of dough, about 1 rounded teaspoon, and press the top into the turbinado sugar, making a small, round, 2-inch cookie. Bake for about 10 minutes, until the cookies are puffed and the dough has cracked on top. The cookies will be very soft to the touch but they firm up after sitting out a bit. Don’t be tempted to over bake!

 

Here is a link to the original recipe: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/triple-ginger-cookies-recipe.html