EllenFork

New Year, New Whatever

Well well well, here we are again at the beginning of a new year. I had just started to get used to the last one and now 2010 just comes out of nowhere, the jerk. Much like the rest of the populace, I am vowing to quit wallowing around in my own filth (figuratively of course). Naturally I am trying to eat healthier and exercise more, but I think everyone feels that way after swimming through the veritable pools of butter, wine and lard that come along with the holidays. Seriously, I'm on a lean meat, cruciferous veggie, cheese-reduced lifestyle bender and so far I feel way less sluggish. Additionally, two more realistic goals for this year are to BE POSITIVE!!!! and to TAKE ACTION!!! You know, do what I say I am going to do... kind of like the millions of times I swear up and down that I'm going to write a blog post (even going to far as to make and photograph something! There are many lovely posts waiting to debut in 2010...) and get distracted by something shiny. Shiny like my brand new RED KITCHEN AID ARTISAN MIXER! Boyfriend S. has scored major brownie points. And yes, that's a pun because I'm totally gonna make him BROWNIES WITH IT! God, I'm hilarious.

ANYWAY, who cares about my personal trials and tribulations. This post is about COOKIES, y'all. Yeah, yeah, I know I just said that I'm cutting down on the crap, but these cookies are actually good for you(ish). Cooking Light magazine says so. (PS- Has anyone noticed how much better that mag has gotten lately?? The pictures, the recipes, the columnists, it's all so much more readable. Many less Mom-ish articles (sorry moms) and ads for incontinence drugs)

The following recipe is one I snagged from this month's Cooking Light, but I've used various other oatmeal cookie recipes through the years to create chocolate-cherry oatmeal cookies. So, if you have your fave oatmeal cookie recipe, just throw in some cherries and chocolate and you're in biz. The actual title of these cookies is "Chocolate-Cherry Heart Smart Cookies", but I don't want to sound too healthy. I'm renaming them to...

Choco-Cherry Oatmeal Chompers

(by Marcie Dixon, featured in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue)

Ingredients:

1.5 oz (or 1/3 cup) all-purpose flour

1.5 oz (or 1/3 cup) whole-wheat flour

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

6 tbsp unsalted butter

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1 cup dried cherries (I used Bing)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg, lightly beaten

3 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used semisweet chunks)

Cooking spray

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine flours and the next three ingredients (through salt) in a mixing bowl (the bowl of your pretty red stand mixer, if that's what you're using...). Stir with a whisk.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a small saucepan until melted. Remove from heat and add brown sugar, stirring until it becomes smooth. For me, they never fulling incorporated, but that doesn't seem to matter. Then add sugar mixture to the flour mixture and beat with a mixer at medium speed, until well blended.

Add cherries, vanilla and egg, beating until combined. Fold in chocolate. Drop the dough onto a silpat or greased cookie sheet by the tablespoon, 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. Remove pans from oven and let sit for 3 minutes; then remove cookies from pans and cool on wire racks.

Yield: 30 cookies (although for some reason I only got 22...not sure why)

And because this is Cooking Light, here is the nutritional info!

Serving size: 1 cookie    Calories:94 Fat: 3.2g Protein: 1.5 g Carb: 15.7g annnnd who cares about the other values, these are enough. And, they're not so bad! So enjoy one of these lil cookies for breakfast or a quick snack during the day without feeling like a slob. You deserve it.

Happy New Year!

For Butter or Worse

Firstly, I'd like to apologize for my compulsive use of puns. I've really tried to control it within the confines of this blog, and for the most part I feel I've been pure. Hopefully this time it won't freak you out too much to read about what this post is about...COOKIES.

Secondly, regarding desserts, I do not have much of a sweet tooth. Don't get me wrong, I like desserts, but I don't have the craving or necessity for sweet things the way many people do. I am no chocoholic. I much prefer savory treats, so a SWEET and savory treat is right up my alley. Something like salted caramels, or ROSEMARY BUTTER COOKIES.

This is a Martha Stewart recipe. I love her, ok? You might not, but let's all be honest- that lady gets things done. Naturally I looked to her wisdom for a relatively foolproof cookie recipe. And it turned out deliciously! Here is how I did it:

Rosemary Butter Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg white, beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 cup fine sanding sugar

Put butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in whole egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour, rosemary, and salt, and mix until combined.

Halve dough; shape each half into a log. Place each log on a 12-by-16-inch sheet of parchment. Roll in parchment to 1 1/2 inches in diameter, pressing a ruler along edge of parchment at each turn to narrow log. Transfer to paper-towel tubes to hold shape, and freeze until firm, about 1 hour. The point here is to get a really round, evenly shaped log of dough. Also, these are small cookies, don't be scared of their size.

Preheat oven to 375. Brush each log with egg white; roll in sanding sugar. I used red, which was very cute. Cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake until edges are golden, 18 to 20 minutes. Make sure that you do not let them burn! I left mine in 45 seconds too long and they got too brown, seriously. Because they're so thin, they will cook quickly.

 Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Store in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

Enjoy these savory and sweet holiday treats!