Fruity Spiced Oatmeal Cookies

I am so in love with these amazing cookies.  They are thick and chewy, full of spices and oatmeal, and are loaded with dried apricots, figs, and currants.  Original recipe found here.

Fruity Spiced Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar (light works fine too)
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 cup old fashioned oatmeal
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon cardamom
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup diced dried apricots
1/2 cup diced dried figs
1/2 cup currants

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cream together the butter, brown sugar, and maple syrup until smooth.  Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.  Add the flour, oatmeal, salt, baking soda, cardamom, cinnamon, and allspice, and beat until just combined.  Stir in the apricots, figs, and currants until evenly distributed.

Scoop dough into tablespoon sized balls and place on the prepared baking sheet.  Bake for about 8 to 10 minutes, or until the tops are set.  Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.  Makes about 30 cookies.

Enjoy!  -Cardamommy

Sweet Potato Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm really not sure where I found this recipe, but I've had it for years and have never made it!  This is somewhat odd, because I adore sweet potatoes.  These cookies are soft with a perfectly spiced sweet potato flavor and are full of chewy oats.  I made these cookies a second time using chocolate covered raisins and chunks of heath bar and I loved them even more than the original!

Sweet Potato Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/3 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup sweet potato puree
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups quick cooking oats
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar.  Beat in the egg until well blended, followed by the sweet potato puree and vanilla extract.  Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg and beat on low until just blended.  Add the oats and chocolate chips and beat until evenly distributed.

Scoop the dough into tablespoon sized balls and place on the prepared baking sheet.  Flatten the tops of the cookies just slightly.  Bake for 8 to 9 minutes, or until golden brown at the edges.  Remove cookies from the oven and let cool on the pan for several minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.  Makes 36 cookies.

Enjoy!  -Cardamommy

Pumpkin Sandwich Bread

I have pretty much fallen into a bread making rut.  I make the same basic recipe every time I make bread.  Now, don't get me wrong, my recipe is absolutely delicious, and it is our favorite.  It is super versatile and I frequently add different flavors, spices, sweeteners, and flours to change things up.  Today, however, something new was calling to me.  So, I decided to jump on the pumpkin bandwagon (I love pumpkin, but September 1st is a little early for me.  I'm still in Summer mode!).  This pumpkin sandwich bread is adapted from a King Arthur Flour recipe, and we love it.  It is soft and moist and flavorful, with a hint of warm cinnamon that doesn't overpower.  This recipe makes 2 loaves, so I made one as is, and added raisins and a cinnamon swirl to the second.  You can do both plain, both raisin cinnamon swirl, or one of each!  Either way, you will love this bread.

Pumpkin Sandwich Bread

1/2 cup warm water
2 Tablespoons yeast
2/3 cup warm water
1/4 cup dry milk powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup mashed potato flakes
1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree (or use homemade)
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
6 cups all purpose flour
cinnamon (optional for creating a swirl)
raisins (optional)

Place the 1/2 cup warm water in a large bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top.  Let sit for a minute or two until the yeast softens and starts to get bubbly.  Add the remaining water, dry milk powder, eggs, mashed potato flakes, pumpkin puree, canola oil, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom, and stir until combined.  Add the flour and stir until the dough begins to come together.  When you can no longer stir it by hand, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, continuing to sprinkle flour on the work surface as needed.

Place the dough in large greased bowl, then turn the dough over to grease the top.  Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap, and let the dough rise for about 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in volume.  After the dough has risen, remove it from the bowl and place on a lightly greased or floured counter.  Divide the dough into two equal parts.  Form the dough into two loaves and place each in a lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf pan.  Or, to make one loaf a cinnamon swirl pumpkin bread, knead the desired amount of raisins (I used about 1/2 cup for one loaf) into one portion of the dough, then roll or pat the dough into a large rectangle.  Sprinkle the dough with cinnamon, then roll the dough like a cinnamon roll, tucking the ends under, and place the dough into the loaf pan.  

Preheat the oven to 375F.  Cover the loaves and let rise for 30 to 45 minutes, until the bread has risen over the top of the pan about an inch or two.  Bake the bread for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.  Remove the bread from the oven and immediately take the bread out of the loaf pans.  Cool the bread on a cooling rack.  Makes 2 loaves.  

Enjoy!  -Cardamommy

Indian Rice Pudding

I have a tendency to force recipes to work for me, whether I have the proper ingredients or not. Some believe this is a form of culinary blasphemy and thus warrants confiscation of apron and knives, but it's worked out pretty well for me so far, as was the case with this recipe. I had extra coconut milk from the Mango Chicken Curry, extra evaporated milk from a previous project, and no idea what to do with either. This food network recipe seemed to be a promising starting point, so I ran with it. And ran. And continued running. Then cooked, tasted, and then ran some more until I came up with the following recipe. I made a double batch and took it to a work party, where it was a huge hit and several people asked for the recipe. A small word of caution: if you're not fond of cardamom, do not make this recipe. Or simply leave it out and increase the amount of cinnamon.

1 C Cooked Basmati Rice
1 C Milk
1/2 C Evaporated Milk
3/4 C Coconut Milk
1/4 C Splenda
1/4 tsp Cardamom
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/3 C Golden Raisins
1/4 C Coconut

In a large nonstick pan over medium heat, combine the cooked rice and milk. Heat until the mixture begins to boil. Decrease the heat to low and cook at a simmer until the mixture begins to thicken, stirring frequently (about 5 minutes).

Increase heat to medium, add evaporated milk, coconut milk, splenda, and cardamom. Continue cooking until mixture again begins to thicken (about 5-10 minutes). Use a whisk to help prevent the cardamom from clumping. Once the mixture just begins to thicken, remove from the heat and stir in the raisins and coconut. Transfer the mixture to individual serving dishes or a glass bowl and place plastic wrap directly on the surpface of the pudding. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Mahlzeit!
-Coriaunty

Mango Cardamom Bread Pudding

I have found myself in possession of a mango. What does one do with a single mango? Bread pudding, duh! Ok, so maybe it's not quite that obvious. I really wanted to cook something besides some sort of smoothie, sauce, or roast duck with the mango salsa, but really had no idea what could be made. So I did a little research and discovered quite a few recipes calling for mango that sounded absolutely delicious. Unfortunately, most of them called for other strange ingredients that I have neither heard of nor know where to find. But out came one recipe--this one here--from the masses that sounded divinely fabulous. So I made it.

After surveying my pantry and reading the recipe reviews, I did a little modifying. Rather than white bread I used Great Harvest Honey Whole Wheat Bread. I also decreased the amount of cardamom so it wouldn't be too overpowering. That was a good choice. Because I am not really a fan of warm fruit, I wasn't fond of this when it first came out of the oven. It wasn't bad by any means, but it wasn't my favorite. However. I stuck the rest in the fridge and gave it another try the next day...wonderful! The bread on top had a slight crunch while the rest of the dish was soft, dense, and full of flavor. Who knew that cardamom and mango would work so well together?

6 Slices Honey Whole Wheat Bread, torn into small pieces
2 Mangos, peeled, seeded and diced
1/4 C White Sugar
3 Eggs, lightly beaten
2 1/4 C Milk
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
3/4 tsp Cardamom
2 T Butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter a 9x11 baking dish.

2. Toss together the pieces of bread and mango, and place in the prepared baking dish. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla and cardamom. Pour over the bread. Dot with small pieces of butter.

3. Bake for 45-50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until slightly puffed and golden brown.

Mahlzeit!
-Coriaunty

Cardamom Honey Cutout Cookies

These cookies have been on my "to bake" list for quite some time, since I found the recipe at Finecooking.  So, with Coriaunty in close baking proximity for a couple of weeks and her new interest in cardamom, the two of us got together and made these.  The dough is easy to work with, and the cardamom gives these cookies a distinct flavor with a touch of warmth from the honey.

Cardamom Honey Cutout Cookies

3 cups (13 1/2 ounces) all purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup (8 ounces)  unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup honey

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, cardamom, salt, and baking soda, and whisk until blended.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until well blended and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Scrape down the bowl and add the honey, egg, and vanilla.  Continue mixing on medium speed until well blended.  Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until no streaks of flour remain, and dough comes together in moist clumps.  Divide the dough in half, form into disc shapes, and wrap in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours until chilled and firm.

Working with one disc of dough at a time, roll the dough on a floured surface to about 3/16 inch thick (a little more than 1/8, but less than 1/4).  Cut dough with a 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter, and arrange the cookies about 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets.  Gently press the scraps together, re-roll and cut.  Repeat with remaining disc of dough.

Bake one sheet at a time for 11 minutes or until the edge of the cookies have a 1/4 inch wide light brown rim.  Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.  Decorate with frosting or royal icing.  The plastic-wrapped dough may be refrigerated for up to 3 days, or frozen for 1 month.  Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before proceeding with the recipe.  Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Enjoy and Mahlzeit!  -Cardamommy and Coriaunty

Pebber Nodder

I love trying out new things! Two of those things include foreign food and unusual/rare ingredients. This recipe tackles both. Recently I have become interested in the spice Cardamom (a very good description found here). I had heard of it but had never actually used, seen, or smelled it. Since I'm home for Christmas and now have access to my mom's extensive array of spices, I'm able to go through each one and examine it. So I found the cardamom, smelled it, tasted it, and became excited to begin experimenting.

Through my cardamom research I found a Danish cookie recipe. Since I've never made anything like this, I was uncertain if the recipe I had found was reliable (and legitimate). So I asked my roommate's mom, who is from Denmark, if that recipe was ok. She replied that it would work, but then gave me a list of things I could add to it. The following is my combination of her recipe and another recipe found here. These cookies produce a bite-size snack-cookie that are crunchy and slightly chewy on the outside while still being soft on the inside. The cardamom pulls through but is not overpowering. Pebber Nodder is very good, however, I didn't find it good enough to make a second time.

1 C Butter

1 C Sugar

2 Eggs

2 1/2 C flour

2 tsp Cardamom

2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Cloves

1/4 tsp White Pepper

1/2 tsp Mace

In a mixer combine butter and sugar and beat until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, stirring until light and fluffy. Combine flour, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, white pepper, and mace. Stir into sugar mixture until just blended. You may need to add more flour. Separate the dough into 6 balls and roll each, on a lightly floured surface, into a rope a little larger in diameter than your index finger. Cut into 1/2 inch pieces and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 or until lightly browned.

Mahlzeit!
-Coriaunty