Healthiest Oatmeal Cookies

Yields 18 medium-sized cookies

I am in forever search of a "perfect" oatmeal cookies. And the word "perfect" means no-fuss, fool-proof, chewy and packed wholesome flavours of oat and whatever-you-have-on-hand ingredients kind of recipe. And I finally found it!

Even thought I have made many oatmeal cookies following recipes from the joy of cooking, Epicurious and Martha Stewart (all of my favorite recipe sites, they still are) but I was unable to find the "perfect" recipe that suits my oatmeal cookie taste bud.

Initially, I was rather skeptical about this recipe that I found from Whole Grain Gourmet, but I told myself that the only test to a good cookie recipe, is to bake and eat it!

So one fine weekend, I gathered all the ingredients the recipe calls for and with only a spatula and mixing bowl, I managed to prepare the batter in matter of minutes, plus a bit refrigeration, less than 20 minutes of baking... voila, the world's healthiest oatmeal cookies.

The recipe calls for natural and healthful ingredients such as honey to replace sugar, vegetable oil to replace butter.

The cookies look a little darker than usually because of honey and molasses, but these ingredients provide a healthier alternative to sugar and have a deeper flavour and colour.

I usually share half of my oatmeal cookies with my colleagues in the office, but I was rather "selfish" in sharing these, LOL! However, those who managed to sample them, raved about them. Now, I must fore warn you about these cookies, if you are looking for super sweet and buttery oatmeal cookies, this cookie may not be of your liking.

Ice-cream scoop is a useful tool in shaping the cookies before baking.

I would really like to thank LCheliak for sharing this recipe. I only tweaked it a little bit by adding ground flaxseeds and wheat germ but I really love the simplicity of the original recipe. If you are a novice baker, give this recipe a try. Bon appétit!

Ingredients:
Dry ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour (a pinch more depending on the moisture of the mix)
• 1 1/2 cups of rolled oats or instant oats (smaller variant)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsps ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsps ground flaxseeds
• 2 tbsps wheat germ

Wet ingredients

• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (corn, sunflower seed, grapeseed) * you can also use applesauce to replace some of the oil if you wish*
• 1 tbsp molasses
• 1 egg (beat with 1 tbsp water)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Flavourful ingredients

• 1/2 cup dried cranberries or raisins
• 1/2 cup roasted pecans or walnuts

Combining flavourful ingredients like roasted pecan and dried cranberries makes these cookies irresistible!

Preparation:

1. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together.
2. In a medium bowl, mix all the wet ingredients together. (Hint: measure out the oil first before honey, so the measuring cup will be coated with a thin layer of oil and your honey won't stick).
3. Mix the wet stuff with the dry stuff. Add the raisins and walnuts and mix. If the mixture seems too wet, add a bit of flour. If it isn't binding together very well, you may wish to add more egg white.
4. Keep the dough for 30 minutes in the fridge.
5. Preheat the oven to 170°C (because honey burns more easily at high temperature).
6. Scoop the dough with an ice-cream scoop onto your baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Press down with a fork to ensure even cooking.
7. Bake for about 16-18 minutes or until golden. The cookies store very well in a container for and make a great snack! Enjoy.

When stored in air-tight containers, these cookies are good for 2-3 weeks.

The Making of Christmas Gingerbread Men

When I was taking the Children Literature class, I am always fascinated by the story of Gingerbread Men, even though the story has a tragic end but it's always fun to read, especially for young children.

Since then, I always think of the making of gingerbread men cookies a Christmas tradition. And I read it somewhere that in UK, gingerbread men are traditionally given to single ladies in hope that they will find decent men to marry in the coming year.

This Christmas, I have decided to give the gingerbread cookies a try and the next chore is to choose the recipe that is simple and yields the best results. So I have started browsing for recipes from various sites and cookbooks, and the ingredients they have in common are molasses and mixture of spice such as ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice and clove, one recipe's spice ratio varies from another, and everyone's spice tolerance/acceptance differ.

So, I have decided to combine a few recipe from Martha, Epicurious and my collection of cookbooks to make the gingy.

Essential tools for making these cookies--cookie cutter, baking trays, rolling pin and etc.

Oh, before I forget, before you make these cookies, be sure to have a few essential tools such as baking tray, rolling pin and gingy cooking cutter. I have to warn you that you need quite a bit of patience with this recipe because it can be time-consuming because the rolling of the dough and cutting the cookies into shape you desire.


So, without further a do, here's the recipe, enjoy making, baking and eating them!

Gingerbreadmen Cookies
(makes 20 - 30 cookies, depends on your cutter size)

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ cup or 125 g unsalted butter
• ½ cup loose brown sugar
• 3 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoons ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon finely ground pepper
• ½ teaspoons coarse salt
• 1 large egg
• ¼ cup unsulfured molasses, widely available at organic stores

Directions

1. Sift all the dry ingredients such as flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl, set aside.

2. Cream butter and brown sugar in the bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy, about 5 – 8 minutes. With a lower speed, mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Add flour mixture in 4 batches and mix until just combined. Tip: The dough consistency should be of dry play-dough but still plyable.

3. Divide dough into halves, flatten like a disc and wrap each in plastic, refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour or overnight to 3 nights (in a container).

4. Preheat oven to 180°C, roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to about ½ cm thick. Cut into cookies with a floured gingerbread men-shape cookie cutter. Space 2 inches apart on baking trays lined with parchment paper.

5. Bake cookies until golden, 10 to 12 minutes (if you like chewy cookies), 12 – 15 minutes (if you like crispy cookies).

6. Let cool on sheets on wire racks before piping the icing.

7. Pipe your favorite icing, royal icing preferrably. Let icing set completely at room temperature, about 1 hour. Tip: For lazy people like myself, I used readymade white decoration frosting (but it doesn’t dry as well as royal icing)

Everybody loves piping frosting onto the cookies.

All cookies piped, dried and ready to be sent for Christmas gifts.

Tiny Chocolate Chip Cookies

I secretly call these gems the better-than-Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies because they are so adorably tiny and did I mention how delicious they are... be careful... they are quite addictive.

This recipe is originally from epicurious but I did some modification. It takes about 2 hours to make 240 tiny cookies, premium butter and high quality chocolate morsels are the keys to this recipe's success.

These cookies are so fabulous that they can make you famous... like Amos.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened or at room temperature

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar (but if you are conservative about sugar intake, cut it to 1/2 cup)
1 large egg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla essence
1 cup all-purpose flour (sifted)
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups imported semisweet tiny chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 400°F or 175°C.
2. Beat together butter and sugar, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy, then beat in egg and vanilla
3. Add flour and mix until just combined and then fold in chocolate chips
4. Place parchment paper on a tray
5. Use a measuring spoon to scoop up 1/2 teaspoons of dough and use a chopstick to roll out the dough, place them about 4 cm apart
6. Bake in batches in middle of oven until golden brown, 6 to 7 minutes
7. Transfer cookies as baked to a rack to cool.

For afternoon snack, dunk these cookies in milk... it's simply heavenly!!!