Super easy and deliciously delicious…
This week I’m sharing my latest experience that I’m happy to call successful.
I love playing with traditional recipes and trying something new. I’m not sure if this hasn’t been done before, but it’s a first for me.
Easy, tasty, a little traditional, this is one I will make again AND again.
For starters, I’m a self-confessed homemade cookie addict. It’s not usually the first in the dessert lineup, but I drool over freshly baked sweet gems.
My all-time favorites include shortbread, sables (French shortbread), my great-grandmother’s oatmeal, and my paternal grandmother’s peanut butter cookies. All the recipes I shared in the previous spoons.
This week I decided to try my hand at making a bread that tastes like an oatmeal cookie.
To shed some light on this favorite, my great-grandmother’s oatmeal cookies start the day before. A recipe often shared here; I’ll just touch on the highlights. Mix the oatmeal (still old fashioned) with sugar, salt and oil – I use olive but any vegetable based oil will do.
Mix and set aside overnight. The next morning, mix with the flour, salt, eggs, vanilla and arrange in small piles on baking sheets to bake. If I’m making these around the holidays, when cranberries are in season, I always add fresh ones to the mix.
Another tip, double the recipe, divide it into three, add mashed banana to one, cranberries to another and chopped mini chocolate chips to the third portion. Chopped and toasted nuts are optional.
Everything is delicious, but the top is the batch of cranberries. These bombs with a tangy, sweet and soft taste swell when cooked, burst and release their juice.
While most bakers add raisins, my family isn’t crazy about them. They’re fine, but they just don’t want them to be IN anything. Fresh berries are a perfect accent.
In fact, I’ve gotten into the habit of replacing dried cranberries (craisins) with fresh cranberries (depending on the season) in any recipe calling for raisins.
This week I decided to make mini loaves with oatmeal cookie flavors, and it worked!
By the way, my basic recipe calls for oil instead of butter. I always use olive oil in any recipe that calls for oil.
Another ingredient, buttermilk, gets a little troublesome.
Why milk distributors don’t offer buttermilk in pint or half-pint containers is a mystery. This makes it easier to use powder than to end up with three cups left. Solution? I use powdered buttermilk. Keeps forever, by the way.
If you don’t have powder on hand, add a tablespoon of white vinegar to a cup of regular milk. Mix, set aside, at room temperature, for at least five minutes.
Speaking of buttermilk powder, it’s not easy to find. Valley markets offer milk in all forms, from goat’s milk to oatmeal, but powdered buttermilk is hard to find.
Besides, I found it at Nielsen.
Also, any recipe calling for raisins yields raisins in my house.
OAT BREAD
1-3/4 cup flour
1 cup oatmeal
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup cooking oil
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon of vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup raisins
coarse sugar for garnish, optional
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, lightly butter and flour 4 mini loaf pans, set aside. Mix flour, oatmeal, cinnamon, salt and baking soda, set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the oil with the sugars until the mixture is light and slightly foamy.
Add the egg and vanilla, mix well. Add half of the dry ingredients. Once combined, add the buttermilk followed by the remaining dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides and mix on low until completely incorporated. Incorporate the grapes. Pour the batter into buttered molds and sprinkle with coarse sugar if using.
Place on a baking sheet and bake for 22 to 23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool for 30 minutes before slicing.
