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Orange Banana Oatmeal Cookies

By Love & Flour in Cookies No Comments Tags: , , ,

Orange Chippers 005 Edited Orange Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Two oatmeal cookie recipes in one week was not the original plan. This happened, as near as I can tell, because there was no original plan. I suppose sometimes this is just the way it goes. And really, what does it matter?

That question has been fueling my modus operandi lately. Does it really matter that I did not get to X , Y and Z (a.k.a. dishes, laundry and blogging) as often as I would have liked this week? Given the sun continues to rise and set regardless of my to do list, I have learned my plans are not nearly as important as I think they are. Time keeps on ticking, so I may as well enjoy it. And if the form that enjoyment takes is stuffing my face with oatmeal cookies all week, then so it goes.

Orange Chippers 012 Edited Orange Banana Oatmeal Cookies

I have had this recipe on my short list for what seems like months. It simply took a while for me to get to because the ingredient list called for things like whole wheat pastry flour and sunflower seeds. These items are not overwhelmingly difficult to find, they just are not things I tend to keep on hand. Depending on how you tend to bake, you may be saying that same thing about the ripe bananas and orange extract that is required.

There are a two primary reasons I like this cookie. First, it does not contain butter. Have I ever baked a cookie that does not contain butter? Flourless Chocolate Cookies come to mind, but those are about it. Second, I feel good about eating them for breakfast.

Orange Chippers 020 Edited Orange Banana Oatmeal Cookies

I am not about to claim these cookies are healthy. They contain an entire cup of sugar and a few chocolate chips. The last time I checked, those were not exactly health foods. However, they also contain whole wheat flour, oats, fruits and seeds. Couple that with the fact they are portable, and I have a breakfast on the go.

After making two oatmeal cookie recipes in the past 10 days, I realized something I did not expect. An ingredient in each recipe - dried cranberries before and sunflower seeds today – are two of my favorite salad toppings.  Add a sprinkle of goat cheese (not yet in a cookie!), and they make lettuce worth eating. But for now, it’s just cookies. Enjoy!

Orange Chippers 025 Edited Orange Banana Oatmeal Cookies

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Orange Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Serves: 16
 

Ingredients
  • 1½ cups old-fashioned oats
  • 1⅔ cups whole wheat pastry flour
  • ¼ cup sunflower seeds
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
  • ¾ cup mashed banana (two ripe bananas)
  • 2 large eggs, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon orange zest (one orange)
  • ½ teaspoon orange extract
  • ¼ cup mini chocolate chips

Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, sunflower seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  2. In a separate bowl, beat the brown sugar and banana until the sugar is mostly dissolved.
  3. Add the eggs (be sure to beat them before adding), the orange zest and the orange extract.
  4. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated.
  5. Fold in the chocolate chips.
  6. Drop two tablespoons of dough per cookie onto onto parchment-lined baking sheets.
  7. Bake at 375 F for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Notes
As suggested in the original recipe, those who prefer a more traditional oatmeal cookie taste can omit the orange zest and orange extract. Use 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon, to flavor the cookies instead.

 

Tropical Pound Cake French Toast

By Love & Flour in Cakes 1 Comment Tags: , , ,

Pina 003 Tropical Pound Cake French Toast

Using Bundt pans, or loaf pans for that matter, is just not my thing. Every time, I wait too long or not long enough before I try to remove whatever it is I baked from the pan. This inevitably leads to problems getting the delicious stuff out of the pan in one piece.

Baking things in pans is sort of like the role softball plays in my life, while baking things on sheets is like volleyball. If I have to put some sort of equipment between myself and the task at hand – a bat to connect with a ball or a pan to protect a cake - I can’t do it.

If I can make a direct connection – like smacking a volleyball with my hand or picking a cookie right off a sheet – I’m good. I suppose this will remain one of life’s many little mysteries.

Pina 004 Tropical Pound Cake French Toast

Adding to the “tough pan” aspect of this pound cake was the pain-in-the-buns recipe itself. Sixteen ingredients. Two types of flour. Potato starch. Is all this really necessary?

Why do I need to add two tablespoons of whole-wheat flour to a recipe that already calls for 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour? Is it really going to make that much difference? Why not just add an extra two tablespoons of the all-purpose flour I already have out?

And potato starch? What else am I going to use that for? Since I do not typically keep potato starch on hand, I used cornstarch instead. However, I have it on semi-good authority that Bob’s Red Mill makes a good potato starch  in case you are in the market.

As you have likely deduced, this cake took a good bit of time to pull together. In addition to making it while you are in a patient mood, I also suggest waiting to mix things up when you have help with the dishes. You’re going to need it for the no less than three dirty mixing bowls that will happen. A stand mixer will also come in handy, but I used a hand mixer with relatively little inconvenience.

Pina 015 Tropical Pound Cake French Toast

Despite all the negativity, this pound cake was just too good not to share. It’s soft, yet dense, and the pineapple, banana and orange bring the flavors of Hawaii-meets-Florida to your kitchen. That’s pretty hard to argue against at the end of a dreary February.

The original recipe suggested adventurous types slice the pound cake and make French Toast. I was feeling more of a need to figure out what to do with a semi-mangled pound cake than an adventure (baking this cake was adventurous enough), but I took heed of this suggestion as well. For my French Toast batter, I simply mixed one egg with a quarter cup of milk and a dash of salt.

If you have it in your mind to bake this recipe solely for the French Toast aspect, you may want to split the batter between two, six-cup loaf pans. The pound cake called for a 12-cup Bundt pan, so the two loaf pans should work.

The Joy of Baking Pan Size list is helpful for figuring this out. While you are there, the Joy of Baking Ingredient Substitution list is also a good go-to source of information. Then come back and start to work on this little taste of sunshine. Enjoy!

Pina 019 Edited Tropical Pound Cake French Toast

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Tropical Pound Cake French Toast
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Ingredients
  • ½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
  • 1½ cups granulated sugar
  • 5 eggs (3 whole eggs, 2 egg yolks)
  • DRY Ingredients
  • 2½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
  • ½ cup dried pineapple, roughly chopped
  • 1 tablespoon potato starch or cornstarch
  • 2 teaspoons orange zest
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
  • WET Ingredients
  • 2 large and very ripe bananas, mashed (about one cup)
  • 1 orange, peeled and segmented
  • ¾ cup milk
  • ¼ cup sour cram
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract*

Instructions
  1. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
  2. Separate two of the eggs, and one at a time, add only the yolks to the butter and sugar mixture.
  3. Next, add in the remaining three eggs, again one at a time, and continue to beat until well incorporated.
  4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour through nutmeg).
  5. In yet another separate bowl, stir together the wet ingredients.
  6. Starting with the dry ingredients followed by the wet ingredients, add these ingredients to the butter, sugar and eggs in three separate additions. Continue to mix to incorporate the ingredients into the batter after each addition.
  7. Pour the batter into a greased Bundt pan. If desired, you can sprinkle the pan with coarse or Turbinado sugar after greasing.
  8. Bake at 325 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

Notes
*The original recipe called for 1 tablespoon of dark rum and two teaspoons of vanilla.

 

Orange Agave Chocolate Chip Cookies

By Love & Flour in Cookies 1 Comment Tags: , ,

January Blog 002 Edited Orange Agave Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies. How can one little cookie lend itself to seemingly countless interpretations? Neiman Marcus has a chocolate chip cookie recipe. The New York Times has a chocolate chip cookie recipe. I have a chocolate chip cookie recipe. Funny, that last one does not hold quite the same intrigue.

Over the life of this blog, I have made chocolate chip cookies with blue cornmeal, pumpkin, and cornflakes and marshmallows. Though some were better than others, all were worth the experience.

More often than not, when I bake cookies for no other reason than my own personal enjoyment, I turn to a recipe that calls for a package of dry pudding mix in the batter. The cookies that recipe yields are wonderfully soft, and I can adjust the flavor with either vanilla or chocolate pudding mix.

These orange agave chocolate chip cookies provided a new way for me to enjoy one of my favorite flavor combos: chocolate and orange. The cookies are made with agave nectar in place of sugar, so as far as healthy cookies go, these are not as bad as others.

January Blog 008 Edited Orange Agave Chocolate Chip Cookies

Agave nectar is known for a glycemic index lower than that of sugar, so it is less likely to cause a rapid spike in blood sugar. I am not a nutritionist, so that is the extent of my expertise on the health front. I am a person with a fairly active sweet tooth, so I can say these cookies are plenty sweet despite their lack of sugar.

Please do not let what may sound like an unusual ingredient – agave nectar – turn you away from these cookies. I often discard recipes when I have never heard of an ingredient or do not know where to find it. Though many of us do not likely have agave nectar in our pantries right at this moment, it is relatively easy to find. At my local grocery store, agave nectar is shelved in the baking aisle along with the other sweeteners.

There are plenty of uses for agave syrup beyond these cookies. A reference guide on substituting agave syrup for other sweeteners is available at All About Agave. Vacation Cookies are another cookie recipe that make use of both agave nectar and chocolate chips.

I am starting to think there may be as many uses for agave nectar as there are interpretations for chocolate chip cookies. Enjoy!

January Blog 006 Edited Orange Agave Chocolate Chip Cookies

4.0 from 1 reviews

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Orange Agave Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Ingredients
  • ⅔ cup agave nectar
  • ⅔ cup canola oil
  • 1 egg
  • 1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon orange extract
  • zest of one orange
  • 2½ cups all-purpose flour
  • ¾ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, mix together the agave nectar, canola oil, egg, vanilla extract
  2. orange extract and orange zest.
  3. Add the flour, baking soda and salt to the wet ingredients and continue to mix until thoroughly combined and a soft dough forms.
  4. Fold in the chocolate chips.
  5. Drop batter by rounded tablespoons onto parchment-lined baking sheets.
  6. Bake at 325 degrees F for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies are light golden brown.
  7. Allow to cool on a baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Notes
To return this recipe to its original vegan state, substitute 2 tablespoons water or non-dairy milk and 1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds for the egg.

 

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