Food Storage Friday: Breakfast Cookies

Using your food storage at dinner time is great and all, but if you were to be living off your food storage, I certainly hope that you would be eating more than once a day. You need to plan for breakfast and lunch as well. So let's do a few breakfast recipes, shall we?
Today's recipe comes from my very own mom. The smell of these cookies brings back memories. My mom used to make a big batch of these, freeze them and send a few with me on field trips. And they're certainly healthier than many other quick breakfast options. (The original recipe calls for 1 cup of Crisco, and although the characters in The Help raved about it's greatness, I find the stuff revolting. They still taste great with mashed beans and applesauce instead.)

Breakfast Cookies

Food Storage Ingredients

1 cup extra crunchy peanut butter
3/4 cup cooked and mashed white beans

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup wheat flour

1/2 cup oat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 3/4 cups oats

1 cup raisins

1/3 cup dried grated carrot
3/4 cup dried apple pieces (broken up)

1/4 cup flaked coconut
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup apple sauce

(1/4 cup apple juice)
(1/4 cup water)

Fresh ingredients

(grated carrot and apple if you don't have the dried variety)
 2 eggs

1.If using dried carrots and apples put in a bowl with apple juice and water. Heat oven 350 degrees. 2. Mix peanut butter, bean puree, apple sauce, vanilla, and sugars with eggs. 3 Mix powder ingredients and gradually add to wet. 4. Mix in apples, carrots, raisins and coconut. 5. Bake 9-11 minutes or until brown around the edges.

They taste even better than they look.

 A few notes:  When I made this I added an extra 1/4 cup of apple juice to the apples and carrots because I put my raisins in the mix and they were really hard. The original recipe calls for only all-purpose white flour. I used the different kinds of flour to make it healthier, but if you don't want to bother, that's cool. The original also called for fresh carrots and apples. I used dried because I had them and it meant that I didn't have to grate anything and I hate using my grater. For the mashed beans I previously took a can of cooked white beans, rinsed them, mashed them, measured them into 1/4 cup blocks, and froze them in some Tupperware. It made things a lot quicker. I was inspired by this recipe.  I promise that you can't taste the beans. But if you would rather use Crisco instead of mashed beans, go ahead ;).

"Engagement" Lemon Bars

 

Random story about my mother-in-law and myself: When we were in high school my husband's house was the place to hang out. I think a part of this was because my mother-in-law is a such a cookie queen. (Slightly related secret: If you want to know what your kids are doing, provide food. The teenagers will show up and sometimes they'll even talk to you.) It certainly wasn't because their house was centrally located. Usually she made chocolate chip cookies and brownies, which aren't so much my thing. Then one day she made these amazing lemon bars. I told her that I would almost marry her son for the recipe. We weren't even dating at the time. She gave me the recipe and made me a batch of them for my birthday every year until I did marry her son. (Now she makes cheesecake for my birthday which is even better.) I heart my mother-in-law.
 I can not count how many times I have made these. It has become a tradition that whenever my best friend and I have a girl's night we make these. They are also my go-to thank you gift for anyone who has helped me move. They are so yummy, especially if you are of the persuasion who craves lemon over chocolate, like myself. When I make them I cut down the butter and white sugar from the original recipe. What you see is the lowest amount of butter you can get away with without changing the results. I also took out a 1/2 cup of white flour and substituted oat flour. It seems to work better. If you want your lemon topping to a slight crunch to it, substitute one tablespoon of wheat flour for one of the tablespoons of white flour (Don't worry you won't lose its characteristic yummy gooeyness, it will just have thin crunchy layer on top.)


Engagement Lemon Bars

Crust:
1 1/2 c all purpose white flour
1/2 cup oat flour
3/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt


Lemon Topping:
Juice and rind of one lemon
4 Tablespoons all purpose white flour
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder


powdered sugar for dusting


1. Spray 9x13" pan with nonstick spray. Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit 2.Mix together crust and press into pan with a fork. 3. Bake for 8 minutes. (Crust won't be completely done, but it will cook more later.) 4. While crust is baking beat lemon topping ingredients with a hand mixer.5. When crust is done pour lemon topping over it and return to the oven for 30 minutes. 6. Once cooled dust with powdered sugar. Served best chilled.

Helpful Hints for Baking Cookies

This Sunday's paper (Salt Lake Tribune) had a whole section on holiday cookies plus lots of baking and party tips. Am I ever excited to try them! Here's one article that I thought looked helpful.

"Cookies are some of the simplest items to bake. But failing to use the right ingredients or baking techniques can mean the difference between an ordinary cookie and a great one.
Here are some things to ponder:
Butter vs. shortening » The best thing about butter: It adds flavor. It also adds fat, which creates tenderness. But butter can melt quickly and create a flat cookie. Shortening provides significantly less flavor, but has a higher melting point, so cookies come out puffy. Cookies made with butter will maintain their shape simply by chilling the dough before baking.
White vs. brown sugar » White granulated sugar is the most commonly used sweetener because it adds no additional flavors. It makes cookies brown and helps them stay crisp. Brown sugar, which is white sugar mixed with molasses, adds an additional layer of flavor. The acid in the molasses helps eggs to set up and cookies are more likely to hold their shape. Brown sugar also helps keep cookies moist and soft. So don't use brown sugar in crispy cookies.


Unbleached vs. bleached all-purpose flour » Unbleached all-purpose flour has a higher protein content. Protein prevents crumbly cookies and contributes to browning and chewiness. Bleached flours, with their lower protein content, create tender, puffier cookies, but they will be pale.
Creaming » Beating the sugar and butter together until creamy is the first step in making many cookies. But overbeating will add bubbles to the batter. Air bubbles will make the batter spread and will result in flat cookies.
Altitude » Cookies are not affected by altitude as much as cakes, but the batter can spread at certain elevations, creating thin, tough cookies. If this is a problem, raise the oven temperature 15 to 25 degrees. Reducing the baking time also can help. Cooks can add a little bit of flour or reduce the sugar to slow the spread. Another option is to reduce the amount of leavening (baking powder, baking soda or cream of tartar).
Source: The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet; and Pie in the Sky: Successful Baking at High Altitude, by Susan Purdy"

Best Sugar Cookies Ever

Fall is in the air and I feel like cooking. Here's an awesome recipe that I got from my best friend. Honestly, best sugar cookies ever. Soft and chewy, like the pink cookies from the store/vending machine, but without the thick layer of pink frosting, and they taste even better.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2/3 cup shortening
  
• 2/3 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar for decoration (or 1/4 cup sprinkles)
  
• 
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, shortening and sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, stir into the creamed mixture until dough comes together. Roll dough into walnut sized balls (or bigger if that's what you're going for) and roll the balls in sugar/sprinkles. Place them on an unprepared cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
3. Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until bottom is light brown. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks.