Oatmeal Craisin chocolate chip cookies

Craisins are apparently my new favorite food. They are basically dried cranberries coated with sugar, with a raisin-like consistency. You can eat them directly out of the bag, but they are great on salads, trail mix or baked into cookies. We had a ton left over from Passover and I've been snacking on them pretty much every day.

On Sunday afternoon, as my wife and I were on the porch relaxing after a day of yard work, I happened to notice a recipe on the back of the Craisins bag. Realizing that we had all of the necessary ingredients (well, almost) we whipped these together for an evening snack. I say "almost" because the original recipe calls for 2/3 cup white chocolate chunks. We had less than 1/3 cup of regular chocolate chips, but I don't think the cookies really need the extra chocolate. They are sweet enough, especially when you get a Craisin-filled bite! Here's how to make them . . .

Beat the brown sugar and softened butter together until the mixture is light and fluffy.

After adding the egg and the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda, and oats) the Craisins and chocolate chips are folded in.

The dough is dosed out by teaspoonfuls, leaving about an inch or two between each cookie.

After about 10 minutes in the oven the cookies are allowed to cool on a rack.

Oatmeal Craisin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Modified from the back of the Craisins bag
Makes about 30 cookies

2/3 cup softened butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 ounces Craisins
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then add eggs and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine oats, flour, baking soda and salt. Add this to the butter mixture in 3-4 additions, mixing well between additions. Add Craisins and chocolate chips, then drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Passover charoset cupcakes

Making a decent Passover dessert (where flour is forbidden) is hard enough. Making a Passover dessert for someone who is also allergic to milk products (as was one of our guests) is nearly impossible. These cupcakes fit both bills, and aren't half bad! My coworkers loved them and didn't even notice the lack of flour, milk or butter.

The recipe starts with charoset, the traditional Passover mixture of apples, dried fruits, nuts, ginger, cinnamon and grape juice or wine. Since it's only made once a year we mix up a huge batch and eat it as a snack for weeks.

The cupcake batter is quick and simple, until the addition of the beaten egg whites. These are folded in slowly and carefully, making sure not to deflate the batter.

The batter is dosed out and topped with a spoonful (or two) of the charoset.

Here's what they look like just before popping them into the oven.

And here they are fresh out of the oven! The charoset on top cooks slightly, intensifying the fruit flavors.

The smell of these cupcakes in the oven had our cat, Cinderella, ready for the Passover seder!

Passover Charoset Cupcakes
From cupcakeproject.com
Makes about 16 cupcakes

5 eggs, separated
1 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup safflower oil
Juice of 2 lemons
Grated zest of 2 lemons
1 1/4 cup matzo cake meal (not matzo meal)
About 2 cup charoset (I'll post our recipe soon)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix egg yolks and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, combine oil, lemon juice and zest. Add matzo cake meal and oil mixture to yolk and sugar in alternating doses (we added about 1/3 at a time). Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Using a rubber spatula, fold 1/4 of the beaten egg whites into the batter until well blended. Carefully fold in remaining beaten egg whites. Fill cupcake liners about halfway with batter and top with a spoonful of charoset. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Momofuku crack pie

Do you ever eat an apple pie and think, hey, this would be great without all those pesky apples? Well, that's pretty much the idea behind Momofuku crack pie - an oatmeal cookie crust filled with, well, filling. Take a look at the central ingredients - sugar, brown sugar, salt, milk powder, butter, heavy cream, vanilla extract and egg yolks. That's it. No redeemable healthy fruits or nuts. No crumb or pastry topping. Just tons of the most deliciously unhealthy stuff imaginable.

Not surprisingly, this pie is awesome. It has a buttery, caramely, slightly salty taste. Despite having no binder, it manages to somewhat hold together, as long as its served chilled or at room temperature. Topping with some powdered sugar matches nicely and helps to cut through the sweetness (UPDATE - Ok, this doesn't seem to make much sense, but there is something about the powdered sugar that really makes the pie that much better!). I know it sounds weird and time consuming, but it's totally worth it (not to mention much cheaper than the selling price of $44 at Momofuku Milk Bar). On to the recipe!

First, a giant oatmeal cookie is made - this will be crushed to form the pie crust.

The cookie crust is composed of rolled oats, brown sugar, sugar, butter and an egg.

The final step in the cookie-making process is the addition of the rolled oats. The cookie dough is then spread on a large baking pan and cooked for about 20 minutes.

The edges of my giant cookie were a bit burnt, but the rest was perfect. This is the half remaining after I made the crust - it tastes pretty good on its own as well.

After the cookie has cooled, it is broken up and mixed with butter, brown sugar and salt in a food processor. Then the crust is pressed into a pie tin (or in my case, a Pyrex dish) and set aside while the filling is made.

Making the filling is extremely simple - just whisk together sugar, milk powder, butter, heavy cream . . . oh, and a crapload of egg yolks. Hey, I didn't say this was healthy.

The filling is poured into the crust and baked, first at 350, then 325. After the final cooking stage, my pie was still very jiggly, so I left it in there for another few minutes. From all the blog posts I've read about this pie, the actual cooking time is variable. If I made this again I would probably add at least another five minutes (even after a long cooling period the filling was still a bit too gooey).

Here is what the pie looks like when "set."


Momofuku Crack Pie
From Momofuku for 2

Cookie ingredients (enough for 2 crusts):
2/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup softened butter
1/3 cup light brown sugar
3 Tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 cup rolled oats

Heat the oven to 375. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar and sugar until light and fluffy. Whisk the egg into the butter mixture, then stir in the flour mixture until fully combined, and then stir in the oats. Spread the mixture onto a 9-by-13-inch baking sheet (it might not fill the entire pan) and bake until golden brown and set, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to the touch on a rack. Crumble the cooled cookie to use in the crust.

Crust ingredients (for 2 crusts):
Crumbled cookie for crust
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/8 tsp salt

Combine the crumbled cookie, butter, brown sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse until evenly combined and blended (a little of the mixture clumped between your fingers should hold together). Divide the crust between 2 (10-inch) pie tins. Press the crust into each shell to form a thin, even layer along the bottom and sides of the tins. Set the prepared crusts aside while you prepare the filling.

Filling ingredients:
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup plus a scant 3 Tbsp light brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup plus 1 tsp milk powder (non-fat dry milk)
1 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup plus a scant 2 Tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 egg yolks

Heat the oven to 350. Whisk together the sugar, brown sugar, salt and milk powder. Whisk in the melted butter, then whisk in the heavy cream and vanilla. Finally, gently whisk in the egg yolks. Divide the filling evenly between the 2 prepared pie shells. Bake the pies, one at a time, for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325 degrees and bake until the filling is slightly jiggly and golden brown, about 12 minutes (it really won't look done, but the pie will set after some time in the fridge). Remove the pies and cool on a rack. Refrigerate the cooled pies until well chilled. Serve cold, and the filling will be gooey. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

My dad's 11 layer cake

My dad doesn't cook. At all. This is why my mom was quite surprised when he came home from work last week saying that he wanted to make a 12 layer cake. Not "have made for him," but "make." My dad's love of his family is only surpassed by his love for the New York Times, which is where the cake in question was featured. It told the story of a 400 year old Southern woman who has made this cake by hand every day of her life (or so my dad relayed the story to me). My mom figured, OK, we'll make four cakes and cut them each in thirds. However, the article clearly stated that the traditional method was to bake each layer individually, and my dad believes in doing things the right way. Three hours later, the monster was complete (only 1 layer short). All that was left was to make the frosting - a gallon of sugar, cocoa powder and condensed milk.

The taste? Somewhere between pure sugar and, well, more sugar. Good, though! Here's the link to the recipe:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/dining/161brex.html?ref=dining