Oatmeal Cookies

Today's recipe is Oatmeal Cookies! I got this recipe from a friend a few years back when I was looking for a good way to use up oatmeal quickly. These are quite tasty!
"It's just oatmeal in these?" Red sounds a little confused.
"No raisins or anything?" Black adds, agreeing with her twin that such a thing sounds strange.
"Yup! Just plain oatmeal cookies. Really good oatmeal cookies, though," I assure them.
"Hmm," Ruth remarks. "I suspect these might be popular with Centaurs and such folk..."
"Wouldn't you have to substitute something else for the butter and egg, though?" I asked.
"Why?" All four dragons looked a little confused. "What's wrong with egg and butter?" Ruth asked.
I squashed the slight sense of embarrassment--they're all quite well aware that I know very little about their world. "Um, nothing. I just... well, horses can't eat animal products, as far as I know, so I figured centaurs and such would be the same way."
"But the 'camel' thing the djinni brought liked cookies," Red told me. "I wonder if it would like these?"
"I shall have to keep a stock on hand, in case a djinni stops by again," Ruth said. "Then we could find out."
"You're going to have to tell me about the camel and the djinni at some point," I insisted. "Let's bake first, though."
"Lets," everyone agreed.

Here we have everything we need for the oatmeal cookies, except for the nutmeg. Somehow we all forgot to get the nutmeg. Black has decided that the oats make a good perch, from which she can see everything going on. Hi-chan has claimed the brown sugar for her perch. The copper canister in the center-rear is flour, while the one behind Ruth is white sugar. Ruth has brought the butter. Yes we actually need 2 1/2 sticks of butter. Tucked behind Ruth is the baking powder, with the salt next to and slightly behind it. Red has the egg, and next to him are the cinnamon and vanilla. It looks like a lot, but the recipe is actually pretty simple to put together.

Far less equipment to mess with. In the far back are the wire cooling racks, tucked behind a cookie sheet. It's a good idea to have at least two cookie sheets on hand for this, so that you can rotate them out. Ruth has the bowl and spoon. Make sure you have a big bowl, or you won't have enough room to stir everything in. Black is perched on the parchment paper, partly hiding behind Red with the measuring spoons. Hi-chan has brought the measuring cups.

Black gets us started by setting the oven to preheat. These cookies want to be nice and toasty, so warm the oven to 375°F (190°C). It's still chilly here, so I'm glad to have the oven going and warming up the kitchen.

Butter holds these cookies together, so Hi-chan starts by adding 1 1/4 cup (282g) to the bowl. Make sure you take the butter out of the fridge a bit early, so it has time to warm up a bit. Warm butter is softer and a lot easier to work with. If you don't have enough time, you can put it in the microwave for a few seconds, though more than half a minute will melt it and that isn't what you want right now.

Ruth breaks up the butter so that it'll be easier to stir everything together.

Black adds 1/2 cup (100g) of white sugar. Just normal granulated sugar, nothing special about it.

"It stays in the cup shape," Black observes as she finishes adding 3/4 cup (177g) packed brown sugar.
"It has been compacted into the cup," Ruth explains. "That is how one measures brown sugar."
"Why is it brown?" Red wants to know.
"Brown sugar contains molasses," I tell him. "That's what gives it the colour, as well as a slightly different flavor from regular, or 'white', sugar."

Uh, Hi-chan, do you really need to be right there while I'm stirring?

With all the sugar in the bowl now, Ruth creams it together with the butter, making sure it's all mixed as thoroughly as he can get it. Black seems almost as interested in the shadow of the bowl's rim as in the mixing.

I crack one egg neatly into the bowl, which Ruth promptly mixes into the sweetened butter.

Red's turn! He really loves the measuring spoons. In goes one teaspoon of baking powder, followed by...

...one teaspoon of cinnamon, not quite entirely leveled off because we like cinnamon a lot, and then...

...one teaspoon of salt, measured much more carefully. Adding too much salt by accident can really ruin a batch of cookies.

Hi-chan jumps in for a turn, managing to add one teaspoon of vanilla with no measuring-spoon mishaps.

Black claims the honor of adding the last bit of spice, one quarter teaspoon of the nearly-forgotten nutmeg.
Hi-chan is back up on the bowl rim again.

"Hi-chan, please get off," Ruth asks her. "I don't wish to hit you in the nose and I need to stir."
Hi-chan grumbles a little, but complies. "I like the view from the top better."
"Yeah, but from the side you're not risking a bruised nose," Red points out.

To stop Hi-chan's pouting, I convince her to come help me measure out the flour and add it in. She's quite pleased to add 1 1/2 cups (211g) of flour, especially as it gives her a chance to be up at the edge of the bowl again.

Now that Ruth has stirred in the flour, it's starting to look like cookie dough. Just one more thing to add.

Can't have oatmeal cookies without oatmeal! Ruth takes the honor of adding the eponymous ingredient. "Of course the star of the show turns up last," Black teases.
"It's the prerogative of the lead actor, since the show can't start without the star," I joke.
"Well, now we have all our players in place," Ruth says as he adds the last of 3 cups (275g) of oatmeal. "Time to get the show on the road, isn't it?"

One last session of mixing presents us with this nice cookie dough. Yum! This part is ready to go, but needs a place to go!

Everyone pitches in to roll parchment paper out onto the cookie sheet. This is the fastest and easiest way to prep a baking sheet, but greasing it works as well. The cookies will slide off the parchment quite nicely, though, so it's my first choice.

Pull out a couple of spoons and use them to plonk balls of dough about 1 to 1 1/2 inches (2-3cm) in diameter onto the tray, making sure to leave 1 1/2 to 2 inches (3-4cm) between them, as these cookies will flatten out a little and you don't really want to run them all together. It's a touch harder to share them if you have to cut them apart first. Uh, the littlest ones seem to have misunderstood slightly. These aren't shaped cookies...

Ruth slides the sheet of cookies into the oven to bake.

Black sets the timer for 9 minutes, to be on the safe side. The recipe calls for 9 to 11 minutes, but ours ended up taking more like 12 or 13.

Ruth pulls the first sheet of cookies out of the oven! "Mm, these look quite tasty," he says. "I am looking forward to trying them!"
"They're quite good," I tell him, "and they got rave reviews from Archi's coworkers the last time I made them."

We carefully piled the cookies onto the cooling rack. Hi-chan and the littles are trying to sneak bites, while Ruth points out that they'll taste even better accompanied by a glass of milk or tea... but no one seems interested in getting a drink. Yummy cookies!!

Tosca Cake

"Hey, we have a recipe that was requested by a reader!"
"Really?" Ruth asked, sounding excited. "Our first Reader Request?"
"Yes indeed!" I told him happily. "Kain has asked us to make Tosca cake. Here, she sent us a link." I pulled up the recipe to show him.
"Ah, the measurements..." Ruth trailed off, looking a little worriedly at the metric measurements listed.
"I can convert them, or just use the scale," I assured him.
"The temperatures as well?" Ruth asked, still a little concerned. "Those do not look like the temperatures at which your oven runs."
"They're not; these are in Celsius."
"Well, if you're sure it will work, it does sound like an interesting recipe to try." Some of his enthusiasm started to return. "I've never seen a recipe like this. Where is it from?"
"This is a Scandinavian recipe, from the farthest north-east part of Europe that isn't Russia. See, it says this cake is especially popular in Sweden and Finland."
"Ah!" Ruth smiled broadly, excited again. "It's always fun to try new recipes from far places. Let's get baking!"

Thank you, Kain-san, for requesting this recipe! Let's get started!

As with anything, we need our ingredients to get started! Red is playing with butter and the scale, while Ruth watches from his post atop the canister of flour. Apparently the bottle of milk makes a good resting-post. Hi-chan has the sliced almonds and an eye on Black chasing the eggs. The smaller canister is sugar, and the baking powder is in the middle with no one paying attention to it.

Since the recipe is in metric and I do have a scale and plenty of prep bowls, we opted to measure everything out ahead of time. Ruth has the milk and butter; Black is still chasing the eggs around. Red insisted on taking charge of the baking powder because it's in a measuring spoon. Hi-chan is attempting to sneak between the flour and sugar.

Here we have pretty much all the equipment we need for baking the cake. Archi is cutting out a circle of parchment paper, so that isn't here, but Ruth has the cake pan and whisk, while the others check out the glass mixing-bowl.

Before we get started mixing, let's preheat the oven!
"But what temperature does it want?" Black asks, confused. "It says 180 but your oven doesn't do that."
"350°F," I tell her. This one I know off the top of my head because a lot of things bake at 350°F (180°C).
"I have not seen a recipe in this 'metric' system of yours before, Miaka," Ruth explains. "All the recipes I've found in Draconaria are in the same Standard System of Measurement, the one you usually use."
"The Imperial System is confusing," Archi grumbles softly.
"Conversions are certainly easier in metric," I agree. "We have to live with what we've got, though. This is actually the only country that uses Imperial measurements much anymore. Everywhere else they use the Metric System."
The dragons all look a little perplexed and comment that this seems odd, so I promise to teach them Metric when we're not in the middle of baking something.

We need to butter the pan and line it with parchment. Archi cut the parchment out while we were getting things ready, so now the twins are maneuvering it into place. You do want to use the butter, even though you're putting paper over it, as the butter acts as glue, keeping the parchment paper in place. Otherwise it'll roll up or fall over.

And here we have the pan all set to go! Now we need to make the batter to put in it.

Red helps me pour in the sugar, about 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon (60g). Once that's in, I add two eggs.

Ruth takes up the whisk to carefully beat the eggs into the sugar. The picture actually shows the end of mixing, a nice light-yellow frothy sweet-eggs substance.

Red tips the half-tablespoon (1 1/2 teaspoons) of baking powder into the cup (100g) of flour. Black is keeping a close eye on the proceedings. Of course, it's more fun to watch the powders move around from the bottom of the bowl, apparently. Red carefully mixes the baking powder into the flour.

With the flour and baking powder sufficiently combined, Red adds some of the dry mix to the egg mix. Ruth suggested adding it in thirds so as to make mixing easier.

Black pours in 1/4 cup (50mL) milk. Liquids can be added all at once, since we don't have to worry too much about mixing them into this, and they'll help mix the dry ingredients in.

Hi-chan helps me tip in 1/3 cup melted butter (80g). It took about 30-40 seconds on high in the microwave to melt it.

With that all the way stirred in, it's time to add more dry mixture. Red has that under control.
(right) Now everything is mixed in and our batter is ready to pour. This is a slightly thicker cake batter than I'm generally accustomed to, but it flows well enough.

Hi-chan and the twins find good perches to watch from, and Ruth and I work together to pour the batter into our cake pan. The recipe calls for a 20cm (8 inch) cake pan, but the only ones I have are 23 cm (9 inch). We'll get a slightly flatter than intended cake, and possibly a thinner coat of topping. It shouldn't affect anything else, though.

Tap the pan on the counter a few times to encourage the batter to spread out evenly. Everyone is taking one last look at the batter before Ruth puts the cake into the oven.

Black sets the timer for 20 minutes. "This doesn't seem like enough time for a cake to get all the way baked," she comments.
"It's probably not," I tell her. "Twenty minutes will get it firm enough that we can pour on the topping and it won't sink, though."
"Oh, right!" Black giggles. "I forgot about the topping."
"Well, it's time to make the topping now, so let's get everything together," Ruth says.

Here we have all the ingredients for the topping, neatly measured out. Black is perched on the measuring cup of milk, while Hi-chan is keeping an eye on the sugar. Ruth has the sliced almonds and the butter. The butter doesn't need to be melted, but I was on a roll with the microwave. Red is keeping an eye on the flour, once again because it's the only item we're using a measuring spoon for.

We don't need much for mixing up the topping. The twins are keeping an eye on the ingredients at the back of the counter while Hi-chan and Ruth bring the saucepan and mixing spoon.

Ruth puts the pan on the stove while Red turns the correct burner on to low heat. We're not trying to cook this, just melt the butter and warm things up a little.

Now let's mix up the topping! Ruth is keeping the pan in place while Hi-chan helps me add 5 tablespoons (75g) butter. I probably shouldn't have melted it, but it isn't going to hurt anything.

Ruth helps me pour in 2/3 cup (100g) sliced almonds. The recipe calls for 'flaked' almond, but 'sliced' is the closest my local grocery store sells. I think it's the same thing, though.

Now for the sugar. We've measured out 1/4 cup (50g) and Hi-chan is enjoying helping to pour it in. "Now we have Sweet Almonds!" she comments, laughing.

Ruth keeps a close eye on Black as she adds 1/4 cup (50mL) milk. "Don't fall in," he warns.
"I won't!" Black insists. "It's fun to watch it pour out."

Red's turn at last! He happily adds 1 tablespoon of flour. That's everything we need for the topping!

I hold the pot still for Ruth while he stirs everything together. This won't produce a consistent mix, but you want to mix the flour and sugar in with the butter and make sure the almonds are all coated. Leave the completed topping to bubble softly on the stove-top until the timer for the cake goes off.

When the timer goes off, Black goes for the controls to raise the oven temperature to 425°F (220°C) while Ruth pulls the cake out of the oven. Time to put the whole thing together!

Ruth carefully pours the topping onto the partly-baked cake.
Once the topping is out, Ruth and I work together to spread it carefully over the whole surface of the cake, doing our best to make it as even as we can. I think we did a pretty good job of it, don't you?

Ruth puts the topped cake back in the oven, which hasn't quite finished heating up to the new higher temperature yet.

Still at the controls, Black sets the timer for 10 minutes, so that we can keep a decent eye on the topping. We're trying to toast the almonds and set the praline around them, but we have to be careful that they don't burn. It might take a bit longer than 10 minutes. I think ours actually took more like 15.

Everyone crowded around for a good look at the cake as soon as it came out of the oven. I let them stare at the top for a minute or so while I pulled out the wire cooling rack.

This cake is best served at room temperature, so everyone is admiring it while it cools. Well, Ruth and Hi-chan are admiring it. Looks like the twins are trying to decide if they can snatch a bite.

Mmm, yummy cake! This is fairly simple to make and really delicious. I see why it's such a favorite! {Om-nom-nom} All the dragons are too busy eating to say anything more than "Mmm!"