WHAT’S COOKING? OATMEAL COOKIES!!!

In the interest of responding to requests for my recipes – and to practice my food photography – I present this month’s yummy moment!

INGREDIENTS

My step-son, Luca, is allergic to eggs. And I’m allergic to wheat. A yummy cookie can be hard to make under these maddening conditions. Mostly, they are dried rock-like substances that fall apart and taste like sand.

But ever-tenacious, I merged a bunch of recommendations and experimented until I came up with THESE! They are delicious.

Here’s what you need for a dozen cookies:

• 3/4 cup gluten-free flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
• 1 tbs ground cinnamon (I prefer ground Ceylon from The Spice House)
• 1/2 tbs ground nutmeg (I prefer whole from The Spice House)
• 1/4 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 cup butter @ room temperature (very important)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (light works best, but I’ve used dark)
• 1/2 cup maple syrup (use good stuff…Runamok is perfection)
• 1 tbs vanilla extract

• 1/8 cup water

• 1 1/3 cups old fashioned rolled oats (stop eating that instant stuff)
• 3/4 cup raisins (optional)
• 3/4 cup walnuts (optional)
• 3/4 cup cacao nibs (or chocolate chips if you insist on being a rube)

I use ALL the optional ingredients!! Because it’s decadent.

MIXING STEPS:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F (180 C). (And for the love of all that’s decent, get yourself an over thermometer because I guarantee your retail oven is NOT calibrated – so what you read on the digital is off by 50 or more degrees.)
2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. (Don’t – whatever you do – get lazy and cheap out and spray nonstick cooking spray all over the place. Yuck. And don’t every spray that crap so overspray reaches the kitchen floor and you slip and fall on your ass with a trap full of cookies. Yeah. Don’t do that.)
3. Mix the dry ingredients (flour, spices, baking soda) in a small bowl.
4. Add the sugar to the room temp butter and whisk or beat or use a hand mixer to whip the crap out of it. The idea is to end up with a really smooth mixture. You are going to see some of the sugar crystals – and that’s okay. Just make sure it’s not lumpy.
5. Add the vanilla to the sugar-butter mix and make sure it’s blended well.
6. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet. Use a spatula. Don’t beat the crap out of it. FOLD it in.
7. When it looks evenly distributed, add the oats. Take your time folding it in.
8. Last, fold in your optional ingredients. It should look like this:

ROLLING STEPS:

1. Refrigerate the mix for at least 30 minutes. It will be hard as a rock and you will think: “Well, this can’t be good.” But it is, grasshopper!
2. Remove the batter from the fridge. (It’s too hard to do these next steps inside the fridge.)
3. You can use an ice-cream scoop or melon-baller, but I use my hands to form slightly than larger golf-sized balls. Just roll, roll, roll. This is exceedingly boring and I become distracted easily. So, I typically play some decent musical so I can sing and annoy the family.
4. Place your balls as you form them onto your prepared baking sheet. Don’t handle your balls for too long – the heat of your hands will make them melt. Be quick. Like anytime you are handling balls. It should look like this:

BAKING STEPS

1. Take your fingertips and press each ball until it’s about 1/2 inch thick.
2. Pop the tray(s) into the 350 oven.
3. They are done when a little crisp on the sides – a warm brown color. Like this:

ENJOY!

Make cocoa. Or a hot toddy. These go great with Jack. Or crumbled over ice cream. With Jack.

SO FREAKING GOOD!!

If you have a restaurant, bake, have a food blog – reach out for a free consult! I’d love to discuss your food photography needs. I will work for food.