I recently purchased Small-Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos and have tried 2 cookie recipes out of it so far and both have worked out quite well. I enjoy baking and yes I know that cookie dough can be frozen and baked a bit at a time or baked cookies can be frozen too but sometimes frozen is not a deterent for some of us who shouldn't leave ourselves tempted by stuff we shouldn't have a lot of. I like to have the occasional fresh baked goody for my son to take to school in his lunches and decided to try this approach. I have made chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal. Here is the oatmeal cookie recipe which I have now made several times and each time they seem to turn out a little different but every time they have been good! The blurbs in the book warn to measure ingredients carefully (which I am not sure I do and hence the turning out a little differently) since a little off in such small amounts can translate into being a lot off with regards to success of the recipe. The book recommends spooning dry ingredients into the measure since scooping packs it and can potentially have a major impact on how things turn out. These small batches go together very quickly and are done in what seems like a blink of an eye.
Irresistable Oatmeal Cookies
4 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp well stirred sour cream
1 tbsp well beaten egg, or egg substitute
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup plus 3 tbsp all purpose flour
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon, optional
pinch of salt
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup chopped toasted pecans, optional
Preheat oven to 350 F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
Cream together the butter, sugar and sour cream until blended and creamy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until well blended.
Place the flour, soda, salt and cinnamon into a small bowl and whisk to blend. Add to the creamed mixture and stir well with a wooden spoon. Stir in the oats, raisins and pecans if using. Divide the dough into 8 equal portions and drop onto the parchment lined pan allowing about 2 inches between them. Bake about 15 minutes, until they are golden.
Slide the parchment onto a wire rack and let cookies cool completely and remove from the parchment when cool. Book indicates that if you like thinner crisp cookies to reduce flour by 1 tbsp and leave out the sour cream.
My notes: The book recommends the creaming be done with a hand held electric mixer but I only did this once and now do it by hand since it is easy with such a small amount and seemed easier than scraping the creamed stuff off the beaters since there is so little of it. I use part brown sugar and part white, I don't measure but eyeball about half with the white sugar and pack in the remaining space with brown sugar. I use part quick oats and part old fashioned. The book recommended old fashioned oats. One batch I used an extra tsp of egg instead of sour cream and another batch used buttermilk. I have made two batches with butter and two with margarine and both worked well but flavour was slightly different. I think any dried fruit could be used in place of the raisins. I didn't do the sliding the parchment onto the cooling rack thing since the cookies didn't seem so delicate that they would suffer with the use of a lifter, at least not with the way I put the dough together.
Enjoy.
Irresistable Oatmeal Cookies
4 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp well stirred sour cream
1 tbsp well beaten egg, or egg substitute
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup plus 3 tbsp all purpose flour
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon, optional
pinch of salt
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup chopped toasted pecans, optional
Preheat oven to 350 F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
Cream together the butter, sugar and sour cream until blended and creamy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until well blended.
Place the flour, soda, salt and cinnamon into a small bowl and whisk to blend. Add to the creamed mixture and stir well with a wooden spoon. Stir in the oats, raisins and pecans if using. Divide the dough into 8 equal portions and drop onto the parchment lined pan allowing about 2 inches between them. Bake about 15 minutes, until they are golden.
Slide the parchment onto a wire rack and let cookies cool completely and remove from the parchment when cool. Book indicates that if you like thinner crisp cookies to reduce flour by 1 tbsp and leave out the sour cream.
My notes: The book recommends the creaming be done with a hand held electric mixer but I only did this once and now do it by hand since it is easy with such a small amount and seemed easier than scraping the creamed stuff off the beaters since there is so little of it. I use part brown sugar and part white, I don't measure but eyeball about half with the white sugar and pack in the remaining space with brown sugar. I use part quick oats and part old fashioned. The book recommended old fashioned oats. One batch I used an extra tsp of egg instead of sour cream and another batch used buttermilk. I have made two batches with butter and two with margarine and both worked well but flavour was slightly different. I think any dried fruit could be used in place of the raisins. I didn't do the sliding the parchment onto the cooling rack thing since the cookies didn't seem so delicate that they would suffer with the use of a lifter, at least not with the way I put the dough together.
Enjoy.