Sunday, March 19, 2006

Simply Recipe's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies




These cookies taste just like the bakery counter cookies, amazing. It's a must try recipe. You won't regret it.

Makes about 18 large chewy oatmeal raisin cookies.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups rolled oats
11/2 cups raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Direction:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper or waxed paper.

Either by hand or with electric mixer, beat butter until creamy. Add sugars; beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla.

Mix flour, salt, baking powder, and nutmeg together in medium bowl. Stir dry ingredients into butter-sugar mixture. Stir in oats, raisins and optional walnuts.

Working with generous 2 tablespoons of dough each time, roll dough into 2-inch balls. Place balls on parchment-lined cookie sheet, leaving at least 2 inches between each ball.

Bake until cookie edges turn golden brown, 22 minutes. Let cool on cooling at least 30 minutes before peeling cookie from parchment.

Friday, March 17, 2006

Dessert Tonight: Cocoa Fudge Cookies

You can mix these incredibly easy, fudgy cookies right in the saucepan. When freshly baked, these thin cookies have crisp edges and chewy centers. You can make them with either Dutch process or natural unsweetened cocoa powder; we opted for the latter.




Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons butter
7 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup dried cranberries or chopped walnuts
Cooking spray


Method:

Preheat oven to 350°.
Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, soda, and salt; set aside. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat; stir in cocoa powder and sugars (mixture will resemble coarse sand). Add yogurt and vanilla, stirring to combine. Add flour mixture, stirring until moist. add dried cranberries. Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 350° for 8 to 10 minutes or until almost set. Cool on pans 2 to 3 minutes or until firm. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

Yield: 2 dozen (serving size: 1 cookie)

NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 78(31% from fat); FAT 2.7g (sat 1.6g,mono 0.8g,poly 0.1g); PROTEIN 1g; CHOLESTEROL 7mg; CALCIUM 12mg; SODIUM 54mg; FIBER 0.5g; IRON 0.5mg; CARBOHYDRATE 13.4g

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Chiffon Cake with Red Bean Paste









Ingredients for chiffon cake:

2 Egg whites
3 TBS sugar
2 Egg yolks
1 1/2 TBS milk or water
1/4 tsp lemon juice
1 TBS sugar
1 TBS plus 1/2 tsp oil
1/3 cup cake flour, sifted
1/4 tsp Baking Powder

For red bean paste:
1/2 cup red bean
1/2 cup water

Method:

For chiffon cake:
1. place 2 egg yolks in a medium bowl beat with 1 TBS sugar, add milk or water, well blended.

2. add sifted flour & baking powder into egg yolk mixture, stirred evenly.

3. place egg whites & lemon juice in a small bowl, using electric mixer beat for about 5 minutes or until bubbles. Then add 3 TBS sugar, until it firms like a whipping cream texture.

4. scoop out 1/3 of egg white mixture into the flour mixture, blended. Repeat twice with the rest of the egg white mixture.

Bake at 350 F. for 25-30 minutes.

For Red Bean Paste:

1. wash the red beans.

2. prepare a rice cooker or using the stove top with a medium sauce pan(medium-low heat). Place washed red beans in the pot with 1/2 cup water cook for one hour.

3. mash the red bean, add 1/2 cup sugar ( depends how sweet you like), mix well.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

My work

I have been working with this company nearly a year. We work a lot since we don't have a big company. This is a company with 25 dancers, basically, I feel like a slave at times. Don't really like working here, but love the dancers in the company, everyone is friendly & down-to-earth. It would be sad to leave them tho.

o