Pumpkin pie bars. Made as dessert for lunch and my husband’s on his 3rd helping (mid-afternoon snack, topped with whipped cream) so the 8x8 pan won’t last long. The pat-in crust of butter, brown sugar and flour was easy to assemble, and par-bakes for 10 minutes which is just enough time to to mix together the pie filling (assuming your can opener doesn’t malfunction like mine did). I increased the (homemade version) “pie spice” slightly to 2 tsp and doubled the listed additional 1/2 tsp cinnamon to 1 tsp.
My hardworking OXO can opener’s malfunction came close to cancelling today’s baking. After 15 minutes of searching various storage spots for “extra” kitchen gadgets - ones that don’t fit in the drawer - I found my old Brookstone opener beside the funnels, pastry fork and hamburger press.
@Aubergine, the local Greek club, which sells their cookies to raise funds for the club and support the homeless, is selling their almond shortbread (kourambiedes) at $10/dozen(83 cents each), and the honey cookies (melomakarona/ finikia) for $12/dozen.
Stella Parks oatmeal cookies. The combined sugars are now down to 240g versus the 400g in the original recipe and they are still more than sweet enough. That’s a 40% reduction in sugar. None of the jammys realized I took another 20g off the already reduced total. To be fair, I run oat groats through a roller attachment just before mixing the dough so they are as fresh as they can be. That gives the sweetness a tremendous boost.
I’m wondering if the larger ratio of sugar to flour and butter in her recipe is to make her oatmeal cookie a crispier one.
I want to make these oatmeal lace cookies which probably have a higher sugar to flour ratio and higher butter to flour ratio relative to some softer oatmeal cookies.
Thank God it’s the only thing I hoard. At least I can throw away the recipes that don’t turn out well! Yesterday when my friend and I ate the Tuesday lunch special at Original Joe Westlake, turkey dinner, my friend told the waiter my recipe for Bourbon cranberry sauce was better. He said he wanted it so I emailed it to him along with a bonus … my beloved stuffing/dressing recipe.
@CaitlinM has it right. More sugar means more spread, more caramelization and more moisture. The reduced sugar bake makes them crispier and crunchier with less spread. Even though everyone here enjoys the texture of chewy cookies, we prefer to taste more than just the sugar in a recipe.
I recently bought a second pack of homestyle baked oatmeal cookies while my DC and I were on a road trip to Neustadt, ON because I didn’t like the first pack of homestyle oatmeal raisin cookies I bought that day, at a general store , which were too chewy and not crispy enough for me. LOL
The Bakery Café where I purchased the crispier cookies called their cookies Oatmeal Shortbread. They were more buttery, decadent, sweeter, slightly saltier, thinner, and crispier than a Cape Breton type oatcake.
The first pack of oatmeal raisin cookies I bought were thrown into the freezer when I got home.
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I remember experimenting with lower fat cookie recipes that replaced butter with apple sauce 20 years ago, resulting in soft doughy cookies.
I just made these and they are very crispy but extremely thin and fragile.
I made a half batch and I would consider chilling the batter a bit prior to scooping, or chilling the melted butter prior to adding to the oats. I did not find them too sweet as they were a deep golden brown and as jammy mentioned similar to florentines. I added a couple of tablespoons finely chopped almonds, a 1/4t~ almond extract along with the vanilla.
