Tag: oatmeal

Categories
Dessert

This crisp lets fresh berries’ true colors shine ‘blue’

Blueberry crisp is a simple dessert with warm spices and lots of delicious, rich blueberry flavor.
Blueberry crisp is a simple dessert with warm spices and lots of delicious, rich blueberry flavor.

The past two weeks, every time I walked through the produce department at our local grocery store, pints of blueberries have been calling my name.

I tried to avoid eye contact with them, knowing that I didn’t have a good way to get rid of a lot of dessert. But when we were invited to have dinner with some friends this week, I knew I finally had my chance.

Blueberries are way up there on my list of favorite fruits, especially when they’re baked. They just look so pretty that even if you’re not the most skilled chef, blueberries make your creations seem more impressive.

That was certainly the case with the very simple blueberry crisp I decided to make this week. Of course, the fact that it was delicious didn’t hurt, either.

The recipe I used comes from the blog “Chelsea’s Messy Apron.” You can find the original post at https://www.chelseasmessyapron.com/blueberry-crisp/. I added extra vanilla and spices in my version.

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Blueberry Crisp

Blueberry crisp is a simple dessert with warm spices and lots of delicious, rich blueberry flavor.
Course Dessert
Keyword blueberry, brown sugar, cinnamon, crisp, easy dessert, fresh blueberries, lemon juice, nutmeg, oatmeal, summer dessert

Ingredients

Filling Ingredients

  • 2 pounds fresh blueberries
  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Topping Ingredients

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup oats old fashioned or quick
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup cold butter cubed

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an eight-by-eight-inch or nine-by-nine-inch baking pan by spraying it with cooking spray, and set it aside.
  • Rinse the blueberries and then dry them well (I spread mine on paper towels to let them really drain).
  • In a large mixing bowl, add all of the filling ingredients. Stir well to coat the blueberries evenly, and place the blueberry mixture in the refrigerator while you make the topping.
  • In another mixing bowl, combine all of the topping ingredients, except the butter, and stir well to combine. Cut in the butter with two knives, a fork or a pastry cutter until it’s well distributed and the mixture is in small crumbs.
  • Pour the blueberry mixture into the prepared baking dish, spreading it evenly. (Be sure to scrape the mixing bowl to get all the juice, too.) Evenly distribute the topping over the filling, and bake the crisp for 40 to 50 minutes, or until the topping is lightly browned.
  • Serve warm and refrigerate any leftovers in a sealed container.

I loved this blueberry crisp. It had just the right amount of spices to make it taste warm and homemade while also letting the blueberries shine.

It was also good as leftovers later on. If you wanted to keep the topping nice and crispy, I’d recommend reheating it in the oven, but we did ours in the microwave, and it was still phenomenal. Of course, pairing this with some ice cream wouldn’t hurt, either.

I was glad to finally give in to my blueberry craving, although I can’t imagine I won’t keep eyeballing them when I go shopping. Of course, as summer goes on and peaches greet us again, I’m sure my cravings will switch right along with the season.

This piece first appeared in print on June 2, 2022.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Cookies Dessert

You won’t have to ‘mull’ over trying this recipe

Oat “mull” cookies use mulling spices for flavor along with plenty of butter and oats to create chewy cookies.
Oat “mull” cookies use mulling spices for flavor along with plenty of butter and oats to create chewy cookies.

I have to confess to a new addiction. 

I’m hoping that if I say it out loud, I will have more of a will to fight it, but I’m pretty sure I’m in too deep.

In true addict form, though, I want you to know that it isn’t my fault. The blame lands firmly on the shoulders of a local business and supporter of ours: Main Street Co. & Kitchen Corner in Newton, Kan.

Owner Tina Ostrander has set up her website for extremely easy online shopping, and if there’s one thing I love more than shopping at local businesses, it’s not having to leave my house to do so.

On one of several recent shopping “trips” to their site to try to satisfy my Christmas shopping list, I, of course, found something on sale I needed to purchase, because not only did it sound delicious, but Tina promised a cookie recipe to come along with it. Not only that, but the title of the recipe was a pun, and if you’ve been reading my column for any length of time, you know how much I love a good food pun.

So this week’s recipe for oatmeal cookies comes from Main Street Co. & Kitchen Corner and uses the Aspen Mulling Spice they carry in store and online. I used the original flavor, but they also have caramel apple and sugar-free versions that you could totally use instead. I doubled the vanilla in my version below.

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Oat “Mull” Cookies

Oat “mull” cookies use mulling spices for flavor along with plenty of butter and oats to create chewy cookies.
Course Dessert
Keyword cookies, mulling spices, oatmeal

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cup butter
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup Aspen Mulling Spice
  • 1 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3 cups quick oats or rolled oats

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Beat the butter, vanilla, brown sugar, egg and mulling spice until it’s well combined.
  • Beat in the flour and baking soda. Mix in the oats.
  • For about two-inch cookies, drop by the teaspoonful about one-inch apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
  • Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.
  • Let cool for a bit before transferring to an airtight container.

These were so delicious. I’m guessing that had something to do with how much butter was in the recipe, but the mulling spices gave them a light, autumn-like flavor that we really liked. They were just a little crispy around the edges and were a good, chewy cookie.

Plus, the recipe made just over four dozen cookies, so if you are planning on a cookie exchange or giving some treats to folks this holiday season, you’ll get a lot of mileage out of this recipe.

Also, this didn’t use the whole container of mulling spice, which means I will definitely be making myself a nice steaming cup of apple cider one of these evenings.

Shopping locally is important all of the time, but it’s especially essential this year, if we want to make sure that our favorite local businesses are still around after the pandemic is over.

Getting into the stores is sometimes tough, especially for those who aren’t comfortable getting out and about right now, but there are plenty of local businesses who have adapted to the times and have online shops and will ship or let you pick things up locally.

Before you shop on “Amazon” or another online retailer, do a quick search for local entrepreneurs you can support with your dollars. Those big box stores are doing fine without your contribution, and they certainly aren’t going to send you a great recipe to try with your order.

This piece first appeared in print on Nov. 26, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Cookies Dessert

You’ll love these caramel apple cookies to bits

Caramel apple oatmeal cookies have bits of caramel and fresh apple sprinkled throughout a soft oatmeal cookie dough.
Caramel apple oatmeal cookies have bits of caramel and fresh apple sprinkled throughout a soft oatmeal cookie dough.

While hunting for something in the freezer recently, I caused a bit of an avalanche of frozen food and discovered a bag of caramel bits tucked away on the bottom that I was gifted a few weeks ago by someone cleaning out their pantry.

I’ve never used caramel bits in baking before, and although I was tempted to just open the bag and eat them like candy, I decided it might be better to transform them into something so I could share the caloric wealth with family and friends.

From what I can tell, Kraft might be the only vendor that sells something called “caramel bits,” but the recipe I found for some caramel apple oatmeal cookies could also be achieved by buying normal-sized caramels and chopping them up.

I will also admit that this is clearly more of a fall recipe, but I’ll eat caramel any time of the year.

This recipe comes from the blog “Brownie Bites” by Erin Browne. You can find the original post at http://www.browniebites.net/caramel-apple-oatmeal-cookies/. I doubled the vanilla in my version.

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Caramel Apple Oatmeal Cookies

Caramel apple oatmeal cookies have bits of caramel and fresh apple sprinkled throughout a soft oatmeal cookie dough.
Course Dessert
Keyword apple, cookies, oatmeal, salted caramel

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups old-fashioned or quick oats
  • 11 ounces caramel bits
  • 2 small Gala apples peeled, cored and diced

Instructions

  • (You’re going to refrigerate your dough, so no need to preheat your oven yet.)
  • Beat the butter and sugars until fluffy, then beat in the eggs and vanilla.
  • Mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and oats until everything is well combined.
  • Stir in the caramel bits and diced apples.
  • Refrigerate your dough for about three hours or overnight. (I sped this up by putting mine in the freezer for an hour instead.)
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare two baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper.
  • Scoop the dough in about two-tablespoon-size scoops and place them about two inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown.
  • Refrigerate the rest of the dough while the first batch bakes.
  • Let the cookies cool before placing them in a container. If they’re too warm, the caramel bits will want to melt out of the bottom of the cookies.
  • Using two baking sheets will let you keep going with the rest of the dough while each batch cools.

I normally advocate for putting warm cookies into an airtight container pretty quickly after coming out of the oven, but in this case, these are such soft cookies that they hold up better if you let them cool down before storing them.

I really liked the flavor of these, and while I thought at first I should add in a little cinnamon, too, these didn’t need it. They were great the way they were.

This is probably a good sign that I should clean out my freezer more often. Who knows what kinds of treasures are hidden away in there? More likely, who knows what kinds of strange, freezer-burned mysteries may be concealed beneath bags of frozen vegetables?

This piece first appeared in print on July 25, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Cookies Dessert

Simple oatmeal cookies are ‘raisin’ the stakes

There is nothing remarkable about these classic oatmeal raisin cookies outside of being a good, old-fashioned recipe.
There is nothing remarkable about these classic oatmeal raisin cookies outside of being a good, old-fashioned recipe.

A friend of mine recently posted on social media, “Raisin oatmeal cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason I have trust issues.”

I chuckled a bit, although I am a lover of both raisin-filled and chocolate-chip-filled oatmeal cookies. But then I started thinking about how good an old-fashioned, chewy oatmeal raisin cookie sounded.

With this column, I often try to get out of my comfort zone and try recipes I’ve never made before and sometimes with ingredients I haven’t ever used in my kitchen.

But the classics are classics for a reason.

So I pulled out my canister of oats and bag of raisins and whipped up a batch of just plain, delicious oatmeal raisin cookies. The recipe I used only adds nutmeg for spices, which I liked. While I love a good cinnamon-flavored oatmeal cookie, this lets the raisins be the star in the middle of the comforting flavor of oats and brown sugar.

The recipe I used is from the blog “Brown-Eyed Baker.” You can find it at https://www.browneyedbaker.com/chewy-oatmeal-raisin-cookies/#recipe. I doubled the nutmeg in my version.

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Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Course Dessert
Keyword cookies, oatmeal, raisin

Ingredients

  • 2 sticks butter softened
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats I used quick oats instead
  • 1 1/2 cups raisins

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two baking sheets by lining with parchment paper or greasing them with cooking spray and set aside.
  • Beat the butter on medium speed until it’s creamy. Beat in the sugars for about three minutes until the mixture is fluffy. Beat in the eggs
  • Dump in the rest of the ingredients except the oats and raisins and beat on low until everything is well combined. Stir in the oats and raisins.
  • Roll the dough into about two-inch balls and place them about two inches apart on the baking sheets. Place both sheets in the oven.
  • Bake for about 25 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are browned. Rotate the sheets (both front to back and top to bottom) halfway through baking to get an even bake.
  • Let the cookies cool for a couple minutes and then transfer them to an airtight container to keep them soft and chewy.

Once my cookies were done, I enjoyed a couple with a big glass of milk, and it was the perfect treat. I had to take the Tupperware to work to make sure I didn’t finish off the whole batch—it was completely what I was in the mood for.

I’m sure it wasn’t my friend’s intention to bring more oatmeal raisin cookies into the world with her social media post, but I appreciated the inspiration, no matter how it came my way.

And you could definitely swap out the raisins for some chocolate chips, if you’re not a fan—just don’t try to trick anyone. You don’t want to be the reason for someone’s trust issues.

This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 14, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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