Tag: oats

Whole wheat Oatmeal cookies

9 Comments

1oatmeal_chocochips BM #105: Week 2, Day 2
Theme : One country, One category

Here is another popular sweet treat from USA- cookies! My son is a big fan of homemade cookies. I used to bake these a lot when I was in India, but after moving to US, I find it easier to buy this from Costco than to make it at home. The main reason I hesitate to make is that the quantity is almost always huge. It’s hard to overcome the temptation when you have to spend the whole day at home with these delicious treats right in front of you!

Anyway, these cookies are also from my drafts folder. I had made these awhile back. It was a Christmas gift for some of our friends. Home baked treats make excellent gifts in my opinion. We had received whole flour oatmeal cookies with coconut as a gift from my husband’s colleague that year. Those cookies were delicious and that was the trigger for me to bake the ones here. I have followed the recipe from King Arthur Flour and didn’t make any changes to it.

Read on for the recipe.

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Recipe source: Basic Whole grain cookies

Makes : 4 dozen plus cookies

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup (113 gms) butter, at room temp.
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg
  • 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
  • 3/4 cup oats
  • 2 cups nuts, and/or dried fruit, optional

Method:

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, using paddle attachment, beat the butter, both the sugars, salt, baking powder and soda until the mixture is smooth and fluffy.
  2. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat again until well combined.
  3. Add flour and oats, combine at the lowest speed possible, or better- fold it in using a spatula. That prevents the flour from spreading all over the kitchen.
  4. Add the dry fruits and /or nuts, if using. I have used chocolate chips here. Refrigerate the dough if not baking right away.
  5. When ready to bake, heat oven to 375F. In a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, drop a tablespoon of dough leaving enough space to spread. Don’t crowd the pan. The cookies might spread and fuse together otherwise.
  6. Bake one sheet at a time for about 10-13 minutes or until the edges start to turn brown in color. Take of the oven, let it cool on the pan for a few minutes. Move to an airtight container once it’s cool. Repeat the baking with the rest of the dough.

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Sending this entry to Kid’s Delight – Anniversary party.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this Week

Instant Pot Ginger Almond Oatmeal

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BM# 97: Week 2, Day 1
Theme : Vegan recipes

When I bought Instant Pot almost three years back, a friend of mine told me that I would stop using my regular pressure cooker shortly. I didn’t believe her for a single minute – How could I? I had been using my stove top pressure cooker for almost 2 decades! There was not a single day I wouldn’t use the cooker. So…No. No way that I would stop using my stovetop cooker.

Fast forward a couple of years and I can see what she meant. I have ditched my stovetop cooker for its electric counterpart. The only time I use the old one is when instant pot is not free.

I have resisted buying cookbooks for instant pot till now. Between the library and the internet I have never felt a need for it. But these books always have a long waiting period at the library. And now, there are so many Instant pot cookbooks just for Indian cooking that I finally felt compelled to buy one :D. I ended up buying The Essential Indian Instant Pot Cookbook and I absolutely love it.

This recipe is from the book and I have made it with homemade almond milk to make it vegan. Pressure cooking oats is not something I have done before and I couldn’t believe how creamy it turned out to be. I have already made this a couple of times and I love the taste and the texture a lot. Ginger, almonds, saffron and cardamom with oats…oh it’s delicious!

Recipe source: The essential Indian Instant Pot

Ingredients:

    1 cup rolled oats
    2.5 cups almond milk, divided
    1 tablespoon brown sugar
    1 teaspoon grated ginger
    1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
    A pinch of saffron
    A pinch of salt
    1 tablespoon each almonds and walnuts

Method:

  1. Add a cup of water inside the instant pot and keep the trivet inside.
  2. Keep 1 cup of milk aside. Add everything else into a steel bowl or Pyrex bowl that will fit inside the instant pot. Give a stir to combine everything and place the bowl in the trivet.
  3. Secure the lid and make sure it’s in sealing position. Set the timer for ten minutes in Manual setting. Let the pressure release naturally.
  4. The oatmeal would be thick. At the time of serving, add in the reserved cup of milk and mix everything. Serve with a teaspoon of maple syrup if desired.
  • Note:
    • You can use pot in pot method or cooking everything directly in instant pot.
    • If using regular cooker, about 8 whistles would do.

    Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#97

    Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

    18 Comments

    All I can think of now, is bears and hybernation. One – I am sleepy right now. Two – this space will go into hibernation for the most of the coming two weeks.

    Don’t worry if I come back here anxious, worried and low spirited for the next Blogging Marathon – that would just be the effect of my son’s vacation on me. Its going to be half day school from coming Monday. Its almost like preparing the parents for the impending doom – full day vacation – which starts a week after that. I always have a suspicion that teachers do a jig after the kids leave the school premises on the last working day. Can’t blame them, though!

    And so the countdown to keeping myself sane is just less than 15 days. Cannot imagine keeping a five year old engaged for 24 hours a day, for TWO whole months. Oh God! Wish me luck everyone!

    Easy meals are going to be part of the menu then. Like this oatmeal here. Cooked in the microwave.  But that 2-3 tablespoons of  pumpkin purée and a dash of cinnamon and ground ginger, makes all the difference.

    Try this whole grain dish for yourself, when you need a change from the usual. Or like in my case, you have a lot of pumpkin purée left over after making those melt in the mouth pancakes.

    Recipe Source : Craving Chronicles 

    Ingredients:

    • Oats                                                 :             1/3 cup
    • Pumpkin Puree                             :             3 tbsp
    • Water                                              :             1/4 cup
    • Milk                                                 :              1/4 cup 
    • Sugar                                               :              1-2 tbsp (brown, if possible)
    • Vanilla Essense                             :              1/4 tsp
    • Ground Cinnamon, ground ginger, ground allspice  : a dash of each , optional
    • Dry Fruits and nuts                      :             handful

    Method:

    1. Mix everything , except the dry fruits, together and microwave for about 2 minutes.
    2. Mix and microwave for a furthur minute or until the desired consistency is required. Top with raisins, walnuts, dried cranberries and almonds and serve.
    3. You might have to adjust the liquid propotion a bit to get the preferred consistency. Serves one.

     

    Linked to:

    Passionate about Granola

    6 Comments

    Granola is a must in every blog I guess :-)! Almost all the yummy food blogs that I go through has at least one entry for this recipe. I don’t know why there is a strong attraction to Granola- but if you have a blog, you gotta include this in your recipe list.

    So here I am – determined not to be left out. Mission now is to find that perfect recipe, which will make me the Granola queen of the neighborhood. And you know what? This one did! At least three people asked me what I cooking because of the wonderful aroma coming from my kitchen :). My son finished a bowl of these with milk, as soon as it was cool enough to eat. What more can one ask for! A true case of ‘Neighbor’s envy! Owner’s Pride’.

    I had already zeroed down on the Granola recipe, when I came across the tried and tested event for this month. The event was started by Zlamushka and is now taken care by Lakshmi of Kitchen Chronicles. This month the event is hosted by Jayasri of Samayal Arai.

    And the blog for this month is Deeba’s Passionate About Baking. What a coincidence for me! I wanted to make the Granola anyway and now I can submit it for the event too. Two birds, one shot!

    I had made slight changes in the recipe.  You can find the exact recipe in Deeba’s blog. But thought I will pin it down here for lazy people like me.

    Ingredients :

    3 cups oats
    1/2 cup wheat germ
    1/2 cup slivered almonds
    1/2 cup seedless dates, chopped fine
    1/2 cup raisins
    1 tablespoon unsalted butter
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    2 tablespoons sugar
    1/3 cup honey
    1/3 cup water
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    1/2 cup chocolate chips or shavings*

    *chocolate doesn’t last more than 3 minutes in this house, so I didn’t use this.

    Method: 

    1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a large baking tray covered with parchment paper.
    2. Mix oats, wheat germ, dates raisins and chopped almonds in a big bowl.
    3. Heat a small pan, add the butter, salt, sugar, honey,water and vanilla together.
    4. Stir and cook till the sugar dissolves completely.
    5. Make a well in the oats mix and add the liquid ingredients and mix thoroughly.
    6. Transfer into the prepared baking tray and bake for 30 minutes.
    7. Stir in between with a wooden spoon to ensure even browning.
    8. Once its cool, add the chocolate chips to the granola and store in an air tight container.
    9. Serve with milk or just snack it up

    Note:

    Remember the step which said “Stir in between with a wooden spoon”? Well, they really mean it! Luckily, the enlightening happened before the entire batch was burnt.

    And now I know why Granola has a spot in every food blogger’s menu. Its easy and economic to make at home and the result feels like a luxury item :)

    Sending this to Taste Junction’s Drive Me Nuts event too.