Nikas Culinaria » baking

Chocolate: thou art heavenly (and lucky?)

Nika — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:19:00 +0000

Visit my new page with a Ghirardelli chocolate wonderland and chance to win a $100 Visa gift card here -> LINK

I will also be sharing a recipe for chocolate chip cheesecake and for these delicious caramel chocolate covered apples you see below.

Make the jump!

Apple Pie, lazy Sunday fall mornings – Pillsbury pie crusts

Nika — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:00:32 +0000

[Details on the Pillsbury pie crust prize pack giveaway pack at the bottom of this post. This giveaway closed as of 10/26/10 at 9:00 pm EDT]

I live in apple country here in the Northeastern part of the US (central Massachusetts) so I am situated in the middle of many thousands of acres of apple orchards the year round. In the spring we are surrounded by the most beautiful white flowering trees who later bless us by their sweet and tart bounties. We usually go and make an afternoon of picking apples in the fall.

As a fun way to celebrate the fall, I have been given this neat pack of tools and ingredients one can use to make a splendid apple pie by Pillsbury and MyBlogSpark. (I received the sample pack for free but was under no obligation to write about my experience with these products).

Pie crust can be a challenge for beginning cooks but that should not completely bar you from making an amazing pie for your upcoming holiday dinners (impress the in-laws! your mom!). I have tried the cheap store brand crusts and have always been let down. Having received this free pack, I tried the premium Pillsbury crusts and can report a real, honest, qualitative difference between store brand and Pillsbury. If you are not going to make your own, give these a try, let me know if they work out for you.

In the prize pack, which I am giving away to one entrant in the contest shown at the bottom of this post, one gets:

Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts
set of measuring cups
apple corer/slicer
apple timer
red apple shaped trivet
pot holder
pie plate

I am going show how I made this delicious pie below!

Pre-heat your oven to the temperature recommended on the package.

Allow your Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts to come to room temperature (about 15 minutes on the counter top) and then carefully un-roll one of the crusts. Put that crust on the bottom of your pie plate.

I added a pie bird because a) I have one and b) I thought it would look neat with it.

Add your filling.

Carefully un-roll your second pie crust and prepare it the way you would like. The following illustrates how I did my decorations.

Cut out windows and use extra crust to decorate second layer.

Put the top crust on the pie, brush where the two crusts meet with some egg wash.

Crimp the top and bottom crusts together, not allowing the edge to get too thin (will burn too easily if it does)

Apply an egg wash over the top crust and sprinkle with large chunky sanding sugar crystals.

Bake as recommended for your filling!

Remove and cool some what before serving. – I recommend serving it with a slice of sharp cheddar as we do here in New England.

Giveaway Details:
To enter for a chance to win a Pillsbury pie prize pack (as seen above) you must do at least one of the following and may do all three to enter up to three times:

Leave a comment below telling me about your family’s most treasured fall harvest tradition
Tweet about this giveaway with this specific tweet ” I entered to win a Pillsbury Apple Pie prize pack @ Nikas Culinaria visit http://bit.ly/bS6YDQ to enter! #pie #myblogspark RT pls! ” MAKE CERTAIN to comment below to let me know about the tweet
Blog about this giveaway and about your most treasured fall harvest tradition and then let me know that you blogged it (with valid link) in the comments below

Closing date for this giveaway is 10/26/10 at 9:00 pm EDT

After the contest is closed, I will choose the winner with a random number generator.

To Die For Lemon Cream Crepes

Nika — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:25:12 +0000

Betty Crocker related posts:

My two amazingly action packed days at General Mills and the Betty Crocker kitchens still boggle me – we got so much done! From the moment we arrived at GM, I am visualizing those first few moments walking through their front door, we were enveloped by a well oiled and very welcoming machine composed of the nicest people who seemed honestly excited to see us.

One of the first things we saw in the lobby was a welcoming sign in spanish as we were a sub-group of a larger group of bloggers – the latina bloggers (blogueras if you will).

That sign was similar to the one you see below that welcomed us on the second day.

I am going to go a bit backward in this post and share with you a recipe we cooked, in teams, on the second day in the kitchens you see below.

Notice the film crew? Yeah, I did too.

I tried to duck them as much as possible but I fear there is video out there, of me – if you find it, dont tell me, I just cant watch!

There is a lot more about the beautiful GM campus but I will leave that for another post.

Today I am going to share this easy but beautiful recipe for crepes made with Bisquick, filled with a delightful lemon cream and raspberries.

When we were making this in the test kitchens, we had a lot of fun making the delicate crepes.

They look delicate but are actually quite easy to make. You get a great sense of satisfaction making these because they come out so pretty – very photogenic.

For those of you following from homes where you might make your own bisquick mix or might wish to use a whole wheat alternative I will blog a similarly delicious flip/side to the delicious crepes you see above – whole wheat buttermilk crepes with homemilked goats milk custard and blueberries.

Here is a sneak peek at that recipe:

Stay tuned for that post.

Lemon Cream Crepes
(recipe link)

Ingredients:

Crepes

1/2 cup Original BisquickÂ® mix
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 eggs

Filling

2 cups sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 box (4-serving size) vanilla instant pudding and pie filling mix
2 cups fresh raspberries
Powdered sugar
Additional fresh raspberries, if desired

Directions:

In small bowl, beat Bisquick mix, sugar, 1/2 cup milk, the melted butter and eggs with whisk or fork until blended. Grease 6- or 7-inch nonstick skillet with shortening; heat over medium heat until bubbly. For each crepe, pour 2 tablespoons batter into skillet; immediately rotate skillet until batter covers bottom. Cook until golden brown on bottom side. Run wide spatula around edge to loosen; turn and cook other side until golden brown. Stack crepes as you remove them from skillet, placing waxed paper between each; keep covered.

In small bowl, beat sour cream, 1/2 cup milk, the lemon peel, lemon juice and pudding mix with whisk or fork until blended.

To assemble each crepe, spoon about 1/4 cup of the filling on one end of crepe; top with 5 raspberries. Roll up; sprinkle each crepe with powdered sugar. Serve with additional raspberries.

Enjoy! Let me know if you try these – they are sure to impress your friends and family.

Nutritional Information:

1 Serving (1 Crepe) Calories 240 (Calories from Fat 120),Total Fat 14g (Saturated Fat 8g,Trans Fat 1/2g), Cholesterol 75mg; Sodium 300mg; Total Carbohydrate 23g (Dietary Fiber 2g, Sugars 15g), Protein 5g; Percent Daily Value*: Vitamin A 10%; Vitamin C 8%; Calcium 15%; Iron 4%; Exchanges:1 Starch; 1/2 Fruit; 0 Other Carbohydrate; 0 Skim Milk; 0 Low-Fat Milk; 0 Milk; 0 Vegetable; 0 Very Lean Meat; 0 Lean Meat; 0 High-Fat Meat; 2 1/2 Fat; Carbohydrate Choices:1 1/2; *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

(Disclosure: General Mills paid for my travel and hotel stay for this blogger event but did not at any time require that I or any other blogger must reciprocate with reviews or blog posts in exchange for this experience.)

Marta Darby, Brownie Goody Bars and Betty Crocker

Nika — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:01:51 +0000

Betty Crocker related posts:

As you know, I got a chance to go visit the Betty Crocker test kitchens at General Mills this week and I had such fantastic fun!

There is quite a lot to talk about, photos to share, video to taunt you with, various topics like recipes, kid friendly adaptations of more traditional recipes, and a walk through of the food photography studios at General Mills. All of this will take a few days to post so stay tuned!

I am not going to just taunt you with photos but I am also going to share the recipe for this delicious treat below.

Brownie Goody Bars
(link to Betty Crocker recipe page)

Ingredients:

1 box Betty CrockerÂ® Gluten Free brownie mix
Butter and eggs called for on brownie mix box
1 cup Betty CrockerÂ® Rich & Creamy vanilla frosting
1/2 cup salted peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Heat oven to 350Â°F. Make and bake brownies as directed on box, using butter, eggs and any of the pan choicesâ€”except line pan with foil, then grease foil on bottom only for easier removal. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
Spread frosting over brownies. Sprinkle with peanuts. Refrigerate while making cereal mixture.
In medium microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips and peanut butter uncovered on High 1 to 2 minutes, stirring once, until melted. Stir in cereal. Spread over frosted brownies. Cool completely before cutting, about 1 hour. For bars, cut into 4 rows by 4 rows. Store tightly covered at room temperature.

Betty Crocker listed the following nutritional information:

1 Serving (1 Bar)Calories 370(Calories from Fat 160),Total Fat 17g(Saturated Fat 7g,Trans Fat 1g),Cholesterol 35mg;Sodium 210mg;Total Carbohydrate 47g(Dietary Fiber 1g,Sugars 34g),Protein 5g;Percent Daily Value*:Vitamin A 4%;Vitamin C 0%;Calcium 2%;Iron 25%;Exchanges:1 Starch;0 Fruit;2 Other Carbohydrate;0 Skim Milk;0 Low-Fat Milk;0 Milk;0 Vegetable;0 Very Lean Meat;0 Lean Meat;1/2 High-Fat Meat;2 1/2 Fat;Carbohydrate Choices:3;*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Stay tuned for more decadence!

(Disclosure: General Mills paid for my travel and hotel stay for this blogger event but did not at any time require the I or any other blogger must reciprocate with reviews or blog posts in exchange for this experience.)

Going on a blogger outing to Betty Crocker

Nika — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:42:18 +0000

Betty Crocker related posts:

The very friendly people at General Mills and particularly Betty Crocker have invited me to come out to their test kitchens to take a stroll about, sit in on some classes they are running for us, and generally take a peek into a company that has been a part of American Food Loreâ„¢ for a very long time. You can learn a bit more about Betty Crocker and the kitchens below.

From their site:

Since 1921, the Betty Crocker name has symbolized General Millâ€™s continuing tradition of service to consumers. Although Betty was never a real person, her name and identity have become synonymous with helpfulness, trustworthiness and quality. It all began when a promotion for Gold Medal Flour offered consumers a pin cushion resembling a flour sack if they correctly completed a jigsaw puzzle of a milling scene. The Washburn Crosby Company, a forerunner of General Mills, received thousands of responses and a flood of questions about baking.

“Betty Crocker” was created as a signature to personalize the responses to those inquiries. The surname Crocker was chosen to honor a popular, recently retired director the company, William G. Crocker. Betty was chosen simply as a friendly sounding name. Female employees were invited to submit sample Betty Crocker signatures; the one judged most distinctive is the basis for the one still in use today.

During this same time period, the company expanded its commitment to consumer service and product quality by sponsoring cooking schools across the country. In fact, the company launched a radio show in 1924. Later named “The Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air” the broadcast became one of the longest running shows in radio history. The growth of consumer demand for information necessitated the hiring of 21 home economists. They were employed to carefully test and demonstrate the companyâ€™s gold medal-winning flour. This was the beginning of the Betty Crocker Kitchens.

First housed in the Washburn Crosby A mill, the kitchens were full of then-modern facilities such as running water and gas stoves. The kitchens formally changed their name to â€œBetty Crocker Kitchensâ€ in 1946. When General Mills moved its headquarters to Golden Valley, MN in 1958, seven new kitchens were built, each one representing a different area of the United States: Arizona Desert, California, Cape Cod, Chinatown, Hawaiian, Pennsylvania Dutch, and Williamsburg.

With the re-model of the kitchens in 2003, the entirely new facility features more than 7,000 square feet of kitchen space with 19 fully equipped individual kitchens designed for over 50,000 recipe tests each year.

After the trip early next week, I will be coming back to blog about it here, share my photos and video, my impressions.

Stay tuned!

Here is a little more information about the kitchens!

Facts and features:

The entirely new facility features more than 7,000 square feet of kitchen space with 19 fully equipped individual kitchens designed for over 50,000 recipe tests each year.
Ergonomically designed workspace to accommodate the various needs of theBetty Crocker Kitchens staff.
More than 1,500 linear feet of cabinets and storage rooms, including a walk-in pantry in which to store dry foods.
Americaâ€™s largest corporate cookbook library, complete with 1,260 feet of high-density rolling book shelves for easy access.
Eighteen tons of granite countertops.
A uniquely designed conference room with a complete kitchen station in which to hold presentations and cooking demonstrations.
A specially designed media kitchen that offers flexibility for a variety of broadcast uses and that features GE Profile appliances, Thomasville cabinetry and Corian countertops, all provided by The Home Depot.
Makore, an African cherry veneer, on appliances and cabinetry, creates a warm and inviting atmosphere throughout the kitchens.
A 375-square-foot, walk-in refrigerator and a 222-square-foot, walk-in freezer.
Located in the newest addition to the General Mills, Inc., world headquarters, the space features a glass-encased observation balcony to view the Betty Crocker Kitchens staff at work.
Atrium windows reaching two stories high to create an open and roomy atmosphere.
The existing five state-of-the-art photography studios that handle the companyâ€™s extensive food photography bring the total number of General Mills cooking facilities to 24.

Here is a video from inside the kitchen where GM food tasters are evaluating new recipes.

Homemade non-kosher matzoh

Nika — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:08:11 +0000

Sometimes a recipe inspires me to jump up, spend way more energy than I have, to make it immediately. This recipe today was that for me.

I watched Mark Bittman’s video on making these non-kosher matzoh which seemed quite easy to make and they look fantastic.

There are several things which make a matzoh kosher (and then another layer of rules to make it kosher for Passover). These include the composition of the flour used, the type of liquid used, the careful handling of the dough so that it doesnt begin to ferment, the time from starting to make the dough to the time of baking (18 minutes max), and supervision by a rabbi.

I think this recipe is likely non-kosher in every way except the use of relatively pure flour. Bittman says that this recipe is essentially the same as Sardinian “carta musica” or “pane carasau” although this recipe for matzoh is not baked twice.

If you live in the USA and are not Jewish you may not know much about matzoh other than that you have likely seen matzoh in the stores around this time of year – this is because Passover is coming!

In very short – Passover is the Jewish holiday that commemorates the escape of the Jews from slavery to the Pharaoh in Egypt. A ritual meal is eaten on the first night of Passover, called a seder. For an extensive description of this meal visit this wikipedia link – Passover Seder.

Remember that Jesus was Jewish so it makes sense that what is celebrated in the communion rite of the Christian Mass as the Last Supper was actually a passover seder, which it was. In art that depicts the last supper you often see hunks of bread but the reality is that the bread at the last supper would have been unleavened bread like matzoh.

In some ways, it was a masterful stroke by the writers of Christian theology to add meaning to the already heavily ritualistic and extremely important Jewish holiday by adding the ritual of Jesus giving bread as his body and wine as his blood – the mystery of the transubstantiation.

Think about the communion wafer or eucharist – its a flat unleavened wafer barely recognizable as bread and much more like a matzoh.

A handmade and expensive especially kosher matzoh called a shmura matzoh

The machine made matzoh that you see in stores.

Homemade non-kosher matzoh (This is Mark Bittman’s recipe)

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup water
Sea salt, optional

Directions:

Heat the oven to 500 degrees. Put flour, salt and olive oil in a food processor. Once the machine is on, add water. Continue to run the machine until the dough forms a firm ball, rides around on the blade and is not at all sticky. (If you prefer, whisk together the water and oil and add this to the machine all at once.) [This is the way Bittman does it in the video. I put the water and oil in a canning jar, put on the lid and shook the heck out of it, well emulsified that way]

Cut the dough into 12 small balls â€” this is easiest if you cut the ball in half, then half again, then into thirds â€” and flatten each into a 3- to 4-inch patty. On a well-floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll each patty into a 6- to 8-inch circle. The shapes can be irregular, but the dough should be so thin you can almost see through it.

Put the dough on ungreased cookie sheets, sprinkle with sea salt if you like, and bake for about 2 to 3 minutes, keeping a very close eye on the breads â€” they can burn very quickly. Once they begin to puff up and brown, flip and cook for another minute or so on the second side. Repeat with all the dough and let cool completely.

Yields 12 servings.

Whole Wheat Cheddar Cheese Kefir Irish Soda Bread

Nika — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:39:48 +0000

I am part Irish so I have always felt an affinity to St Patricks day. I like it as a mom because its a holiday in early cold spring when you really need it BUT its not all about candy!!

I adapted a traditional recipe from this European Cuisines site, it is quite delicious. This site will give you some background on this traditional bread!

Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Cheddar Cheese Kefir Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients:

4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached white flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
2-3 cups medium thickness kefir (amount depends on how dry your flour is!)
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions:

Put all dry ingredients in large bowl and mix completely. Add 2 cups kefir and then mix with your hands. If it seems really dry add enough kefir (or milk if you run out of kefir) to make a wet “loose” dough.

Shape into mound on a baking sheet (I spray parchment with olive oil first.

Indent a line or an X on it to help with portions later.

Bake at 400 F for 45 minutes, until a tap on the bottom sounds hollow and it is lightly golden/tan on the top.

Take it out, let it cool a bit, enjoy!

I used ours with our Sous Vide Corned Beef as blogged here: St. Patricks day brisket â€“ sous vide style.

Here is a shot of the bread, under some corned beef.

Have a lovely St Patrick’s day!

Making Sprouted Whole Wheat Flour

Nika — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:52:22 +0000

(Freshly ground sprouted wheat flour in a Vita Mix blender container)

I grew up eating rather dense loaves of homemade whole wheat bread that my mom made for us with love. It was the 1970s after all! I NEVER feed my family white bread (pure sugar bombs, straight into the blood) and always brown bread, preferably with flax added.

I make our own bread when I have the time and I have usually used King Arthur whole wheat bread flour and also whole wheat pastry flour.

If your a foodie of any sort you likely do these things too, not hard to do.

The thing is, these are STILL a problem with these “healthy breads” and I didn’t even realize or, put better, know it until very recently.

It all comes down to the grain and the obvious fact that we humans are NOT ruminants and do not have the 4 stomachs (rumens) necessary for the proper digestion of grains.

(Wheat Grain Anatomy – source)

Grains are seeds of grasses and they are the genetic carrier that is tasked with getting the genetic legacy from one growing season to the next. The grain must be able to foster growth, rapid growth, once the correct conditions have been met. The grain is exquisitely evolved to jump into action. Upon sprouting, various grain components are acted upon by enzymes to change from one form to another.

One of those things is called phytic acid, found in all parts of the grain plant but especially in the bran (there are three parts to grain: bran, endosperm, and germ).

The problem with phytic acid, as found in the unsprouted grain, is that it is like a sponge (a chelator) of critically important minerals such as calcium, zinc, magnesium and iron. It also sucks up niacin (a B vitamin). Heating can knock down this activity slightly but industrial bakers side step this issue by doping these minerals and vitamins, in synthetic form, back into the bread but this doesnt mean that that whole grain bread you are eating isnt still robbing you of needed minerals and vitamins. The “enrichment” that the bread companies do is mostly legal CYA action so that we dont sue them for pellagra.

(Some mornings I wake up feeling JUST like this guy looks but I am just getting old, not pellagra – wiki source)

This process takes a little of time but it is WELL worth it. I didnt shoot the first bread I made with this (was night time and the family ate the bread before morning) but I can tell you that the bread was VERY different from other whole wheat breads I have made. The sprouting process makes the grain sweeter and the bread had more loft than other loaves I have made.

I hope you will give this a try soon!

How to make sprouted whole wheat flour

Step 1

Soak wheat berries at room temperature overnight. Rinse a couple of times and then drain. Put into a drainable container (mason jar, bean sprouter, etc) and keep at room temperature until the smallest of sprouts, say about 3 mms, have formed.

(Sprouted wheat berries)

Step 2
Spread the wet sprouted wheat berries out onto a dehydrator tray with a teflex sheet. Dry overnight at the lowest heat setting (95 F), until dry.

(Wheat berries going into dehydrator)

Step 3
Decant dried berries and use to make flour or freeze immediately.

(Dried berries)

(Pouring off the berries, notice the cat, he was fascinated by all this)

(Berries ready to grind)

Step 4
Add no more than 2 cups of dried berries to the smaller dry container for your Vita-Mix. Read and follow the directions for grinding flour. Essentially, you turn it on to high for no more than 1 minute. It comes out beautifully!

(Berries ready for grinding)

(Berries in mid-grind)

(Done grinding!)

Step 5
Either use your freshly ground flour or freeze it, it can go rancid quickly.

(Ready for bread making!)

Let me know if you try this or if you have other ways of doing this!

Vita-Mix blender

Homemade Pita Bread

Nika — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:27:06 +0000

There is nothing like fresh baked bread to make your house seem like a home. It is also the best to be able to make bread that completely lacks all preservatives and especially toxic high fructose corn syrup.

Making bread by hand can be therapeutic and, with a bit of practice, most of us can have great success with it.

Some breads require a lot of rising and kneading, things that most people find daunting or tedious.

Pita bread is a nice middle of the road recipe because it yields a delightful bread (that almost all of us have familiarity with) with a minimum of fussiness.

I searched through various YouTube videos for a recipe and came across one by OutPostNaturalFoods. I followed the video recipe wise and found it to work well for me.

If you have any problems making your pita, let me know! I MIGHT be able to help.

Let me know if you make it and if you enjoyed this fresh bread as much as we have.

Homemade Handcrafted Pita Bread

Ingredients:

2 1/2 c warm water
1 tsp sugar
3 1/2 tsp yeast
5 1/2 c All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

In large bowl, dissolve sugar in the warm water. Add yeast, let sit for 5 minutes (to proof). Add flour, salt, oil to bowl and mix with hands until it comes together. Put out onto a board and knead for 5 minutes.

(Before kneading)

(After kneading)

Clean mixing bowl and add 2 tablespoons olive oil. Pick up dough, pinch and mold it so that one side is smooth. Put dough down into oil smooth side down, push around a bit to oil ball and bowl well, flip dough over so that smooth side is up.

Cover tightly with plastic wrap.

View this epicurious YouTube video for an excellent overview of the rounding method.

Allow to rise to double in volume.

Preheat oven to 500 F or higher.

Punch down.

Portion dough out into about a bit bigger than a golf ball. Again, pinch and mold the ball so one side is smooth, flatten with palm of hand.

Roll out on floured board or cloth until something like 6 inches across, not too thin!

If you have a pizza stone use it (make sure to pre-heat). Put pita doughs onto hot stone or cookie sheet. Bake until puffed and slightly brown, something like 5 minutes in my oven at 500 F.

Oatmeal Coconut Scotchies

Nika — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:00:11 +0000

(Don’t forget to enter Lou Manna’s â€œBest Looking Food of 2009 contestâ€ to win everything you could possibly need for food photography! See my previous post for details. Contest ends February 16th, 2009)

We made the usual sugar cookies this year but I do not have any photos, was so dark at the time and, well, who needs ANOTHER sugar cookie shot!

When shopping for cookie making ingredients, I picked up a bag of butterscotch chips without any particular plans for them. I made a couple of test sugar cookies studded with the chips but they seemed too plain. I took a peek at the recipe on the bag and found that I was latently craving oatmeal cookies, just like the ones in the bag’s recipe (amazing coincidence huh?)!

I changed the recipe to include sweetened coconut flakes because, well, they were on hand in my pantry and I love how they lend moistness.

I highly recommend these cookies. They pack a LOT of flavor and the flavor layers itself, delivering a long lasting experience. They also hold their flavor and moistness well on the counter, the few days until they are all gone. You can make them softer by not baking the full recommended period. Experiment with it.

Oatmeal Coconut Scotchies (Adapted from this recipe which you may find on your bag of Nestle Butterscotch chips)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or grated peel of 1 orange
3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
1 2/3 cups (11-oz. pkg.) NESTLÃ‰Â® TOLL HOUSEÂ® Butterscotch Flavored Morsels
3/4 cup Sweetened coconut flakes (I used these)

Directions:

PREHEAT oven to 375Â° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats, coconut flakes, and morsels. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 7 to 8 minutes for chewy cookies or 9 to 10 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

PAN COOKIE VARIATION:
Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan. Prepare dough as above. Spread into prepared pan. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until light brown. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Makes 4 dozen bars.

Have you ever noticed that your cat WILL be in the best spot for shooting? This is because they like it warm and sunny. If in doubt of where to shoot in a hurry, find your cat. We have 5 so I usually have to kick one out of the best spot. Sometimes, the cats just WON’T move.

Leo is tenacious.

Let me know if you make these and how they work out for you.

If you are a chocolate fiend, I don’t see why you can not pitch in a couple of tablespoons of powdered baking cocoa into the flour part, mix well before adding liquids.

Buen Provecho!