Let me jump in with some homemade cookies. I will backtrack just a bit to share my ,dilemmas…… FYI I looked it up because I wasn’t quite sure what the plural of dilemma was….. my guess was dilemmas but I worried that a certain English major friend of mine might subtly correct me…..I have beer blogging adventures that I am behind on, garden blogging that I am also behind on – my beekeeping adventures are included in the gardening blogs. Then there are those times when I meant to post a gardening blog and I don’t pay attention and it becomes a beer blog post and obviously vice versa. This post will be kitchen focused and feature my award winning Oatmeal Raisin Applesauce cookies with Chopped Walnuts. Credit goes to my Aunt actually but read on.
No brag just fact…..When I was 11 years old, 1962, I was encouraged to submit some baked goods into the youth division of the Kern County Fair. My sister, a year younger was on the hook to submit baked goods in more than 10 categories, primarily cookies. I committed to one cookie recipe and a coffee cake recipe. I will post the recipe that won first prize, ribbon and cash……..I am a professional of sorts. Just to set the record straight my coffee cake also won first prize, how, I will never know. My coffee cake was a rectangular sheet type cake, all of my competition were works of art in various shapes, glaze covered and adorned with all kinds of goodies (almost gaudy looking……) alas, that winning recipe has been lost in the fog of time and and many moves.
The winning fruit cookie was from a recipe given to us by my mother’s oldest sister, my Aunt Lula. If you look back in my blogging history I posted the recipe but received feedback from a cousin that I must have missed an important ingredient. After digging through scraps of paper and handwritten recipe cards I managed to find a pink 3X5 card in my mother’s hastily written handwriting and a college ruled 8 1/2 X 11 sheet in my hand writing…..there were gaps between the two that I tried to reconcile. My taste memory of Aunt Lula’s cookie was pretty well imbedded so I made a half batch to test the reconciliation. It turned out almost perfect. I made a small adjustment and the full batch recipe was an overwhelming success.
Aunt Lula’s Oatmeal Applesauce Raisin Cookies with Chopped Walnuts
- 2 C applesauce
- 1 stick butter (1/2 C)
- 1 C brown sugar – I prefer the light brown
- 1 C raisins
- 1 tsp baking soda dissolved in ¼ C hot water
- 2 ¼ C all-purpose flour
- 1 C quick oatmeal
- 1 C chopped walnuts
- 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground Allspice
- I tsp ground cloves
- Pinch of salt (1/16 tsp)
- 1 Large egg
There is a method to my madness in making the line breaks in the ingredient list. My suggestion is to prepare the three steps in the process in advance. In a large sauce pan mix add the applesauce, brown sugar, butter and raisins. I use a microwave safe measuring cup with 1/4 C water and the Baking soda stirred into it but not yet heated. All the dry ingredients mixed well with egg sitting off to the side. It will be the last ingredient added!
Start heating the saucepan mixture up to a boil while stirring often. As it approaches a good bubbling boil, heat the baking soda water mixture to almost boiling. Remove the saucepan from the heat then quickly pour the baking soda and water into the hot mix. It will foam up so continue to stir until it settles. Pour into the dry ingredients, it will become a sticky mess, then mix in the egg stirring/mixing thoroughly. Don’t forget the egg……don’t forget the egg.….there I said it twice …… well, you can guess why.
The search it still on for the coffee cake recipe. My cookies won first prize two years running….
I really do need to give a lot of credit to my mom for giving me the love for cooking and baking.
TTFN
Bishop
Laying out some of the tools of the trade. Four cups of sugar minus 1/4 cup mixed with the pectin prior to cooking. I use the Sure Jell pectin for my jams, they are made with 1/3 less sugar than with regular pectin. A spoon to skim the foam and yes I rinse it off after every lick. Green handle magnet to save my pinkies. An 8 ounce ladle…It does help when filling 8 ounce jars. Jar tongs….indispensable for fishing jars out from the boiling hot water just prior to filling. Last but not least, my trusty old, at least 35 years old, canning funnel.
The start of the process; 1/4 cup sugar mixed with pectin and the measured volume of crushed strawberries, just a note here, follow the recipe very darned close!!!!! Too much of the fruit mixture or too little will impact the final results. I use a potato masher to, yes, mash up the fruit, so there are some nice chunks of berry in every jar, a dab of butter to help reduce the foaming. FYI – Not sure if it helps all that much but I can’t argue with the success of the final product.
Follow the recipe; bring the mixture to a full rolling boil, i.e., cannot be stirred down. Note the light pinkish foam around the edges. Then add remaining sugar – 3 and 3/4 cups, return to full rolling boil for one minute….I just slowly count to 75 and it seems to work for me.
Skim the foam but don’t discard. You have several choices, place in a bowl, refrigerate and use as you would any jam or preserve, or, as my wife does, spread across an egg white & oatmeal frittata, or dig in with a spoon and place directly into your mouth…..my personal favorite!
Ready to can, foam has been skimmed, jars are in a boiling water bath for sanitation purposes, ladle and funnel are ready, magnetic stick finger saver, spoon (recently licked and rinsed properly)….use however you want and the jar lids in a bowl of very hot water to soften the seals.
Grab a hot jar, drain and fill to about 1/4 inch of the topic the jar with the strawberry jam mixture. FYI, there is a tool made to gauge that space but I rarely use it, wipe any excess Jam from rim of the jar, place the lid on and screw the metal band on snuggly.
From My Backyard 