Pt 1 Sweet Bakings--Cookies, Mostly

I've been blogging since September 2009. I'd started out with text content, later adding images. Over the last few years, I've accompanied articles with slide shows and videos that I've posted to YouTube.

Sweets seem to have piqued me, particularly from early to mid 2010s. This year has re-piqued me. In inventorying my recipe blogs, i came up with 28 cooky recipes and 19 cake and cake-ish recipes. In the cooky-centric video, I list my blog catalog number with the article title and finished-item image (newest at top).

In musing about sweets, I'd noticed similarities and differences in topic choice and execution over the years. (For cookies, I varied baking cake mix cookies but also baked scratch cookies.)

Dough Mixing

In the beginning, I used pastry blenders for mixing. More recently, I've used a tilt-head mixer for mixing to save on elbow grease. Never going back to pastry blender. BTW, oatmeal cooky dough is the hardest to manually mix, imho.

Dough Dolloping

In the distant past, I used a cooky press or measuring spoon and spatula. More recently, I used a 1 1/3 T cooky scoop, which is a bit more convenient than spoon/spatula. Downside of either method is one-at-a-time dispensing, which also requires travel time and effort between dough bowl and pan.

Even more recently, I've tried making some disks and funnel shapes to use my cooky press. I still have more experiments. Using a cooky press saves on dough travel between dough bowl and pan.

In one of my recipes, I shaped the dough into a rough rectangle, then used a metal spatula to cut it into squarish shapes. It was easier than one-at-a-time dolloping.

Problem Dough

I've wrestled with dough that's stiff, sticky, or both. Dolloping wasn't much fun. My mind's been percolating with thoughts of spray oil and my "slice solutions brownie pan".

The pan and compartments remind me of an ice tray. I considered buying one, but they seem pricey.

OK, Not Baked Cookies

I included some fudge recipes. Although not oven-baked goods, they're sweet items anyway. I felt they were more cooky than cake because of handling handiness. Yum!

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Related:
Pt 2 Sweet Bakings--Cakes, Cupcakes, and Mini-muffins
Sweet Bakings--A Few Re-peerings

Pt 1 Revisiting Simplest Scratch Oatmeal Cookies, Plain and Chocochip Batch

Almost 10 years ago, I blogged "Simplest Scratch Oatmeal Cookies". At that time, I included a few images, not having learned to make movies yet. My methodology was simpler but more labor intensive.

Back then, I used a manual pastry blender, and measuring-tablespoon-and-rubber-spatula method to dispense the dollops. This time, I used a tilt-head mixer, helpful for saving on elbow grease, and a cooky scoop for dispensing most of the dollops. (For the chocolate chip batch, I took a shortcut, flattening the dough, then dividing it with an icing spatula for most of the dollops.)

This oatmeal cooky recipe uses the minimal amount of ingredients, for those who want a nekkid cooky that has lots of oatmeal. The ingredients are simple—oatmeal, flour, baking soda, oil, eggs, and brown sugar. As a bonus, I include information for resoftening a brown sugar brick into its spoonable form.

Because I like chocolate chips in many of my cookies, I split the dough into two parts, plain oatmeal in one batch, and addition of four ounces of chocolate chips in the other batch. Tasty results, somewhat delicate. The yield was 25 for each batch. (Deviating from only scooping when dolloping the chocolate chip batch probably affected the number of cookies.)

Chocolate chips in 25 cookies: ¾ C (4 oz) contains 806 C/Cup for 604 among 25 cookies, so, 24 additional calories each chocochip oatmeal cooky. 88 + 24 → 112 C. No sodium.

Bottom line: Oatmeal-only cookies, 88 C each; oatmeal chocochip cookies, 112 C each

View the video for detailed info and process to bake the two kinds of oatmeal cookies. The process shown is not real-time, but you can see visual changes to the ingredients over time—mainly the dough increasingly dense. So glad to have my Cuisineart tilt-head mixer!

Note: Oops, I forgot to mention the oven temperature. Preheat oven 350, maybe near the end of dough mixing time(s). Baking time is about 10 minutes per batch.

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"Pt 1 Revisiting Simplest Scratch Oatmeal Cookies, Plain and Chocochip Batch"

"Pt 2 Revisiting Simplest Scratch Oatmeal Cookies, Closer Looks at Process"

"Simplest Scratch Oatmeal Cookies"

View more cooky recipes.

Pt 2 Choco Oatmeal Cookies Using Applesauce Not Butter or Oil

My batch of chocolate oatmeal cookies using unsweetened applesauce instead of butter or oil was tasty, but turned out to be a time-consuming adventure. The less-than-pleasant experiences were dough stickiness and difficulty of trying to use a cooky press. (For recipe-centric info, read  "Pt 1 Choco Oatmeal Cookies Using Applesauce Not Butter or Oil".)

My recipe at "Simplest Scratch Oatmeal Cookies", from July 2012 is indeed easy. This time, I wanted to try adding chocolate chips and also reduce fat calories by replacing oil with unsweetened applesauce. "How to Substitute Applesauce for Butter in Oatmeal Cookies" includes reasonable suggestions for the ingredients and process. The list of subs looked good.

Cookies that work well with an applesauce-for-butter substitution include chocolate chip, oatmeal and peanut butter, as long as you don't mind the cake-like texture. Applesauce would not work well in cookies that depend on butter for both flavor and crispiness, such as butter cookies or shortbread.

As in my previous recipe, I needed to soften a brick of brown sugar (this time, dark). I used the seventh bulleted suggestion from "10 Ways To Soften Hard Brown Sugar".

Need it soft now? Put it in a container and set in the microwave with a small bowl full of water beside it. Microwave for about 1 minute–check. If it’s still hard, try for another 30 seconds. You can keep doing this until it’s soft, but watch that you don’t melt it.

This time, I used a couple of two-minute heating times. After packing a cup of the sugar, I returned the remainder to its bag and fridge. (I'm guessing that by the next time I need brown sugar, I'll need to again resoften it.)

So, how'd my cookies turn out? I'd say B+. Reasonably tasty, chewiness similar to cereal bars.

Why not an A? One reason the dough was difficult to dispense—sticky, sticky sticky! The other reason for not an A was that my easiest oatmeal-cooky results looked nicer. Although the previous batch didn't have chocolate chips, I had anticipated this batch would look just as nice. Dang, wasn't so!

Dough Stickiness

Most of the sites that address dough stickiness talk about the amount of fat in the recipe, too little flour, and needing to cool the dough. Seems several pieces of advice pertain to roll-out dough. (Mine were drop kind of cookies.) As my recipe used applesauce instead of butter or oil, reasonable advice seems to be to lightly wet dough or try other means of dispensing dough.

"Cookie Dough Too Sticky – How To Fix It" recommends wetting hands.

You can handle the sticky dough with wet hands more easily. Keep in mind that you will need to wet your hands repeatedly until you are finished working with the dough to prevent it from sticking to your hands. ... However, don’t do this for too long, as this water will transfer to the dough and make it wetter and therefore stickier.

"Help! My Cookie Dough is Too Sticky & Wet: (exactly) How to Fix It" has some advice that might be helpful another time.

If you’re working with a sticky cookie dough and struggling to get it in the oven, don’t try and get it on the tray with your hands. ... Instead, use a spoon or ice cream scoop or cookie scoop (recommended) to get the dough onto the baking tray. ... This is great for doughs that are okay to be a bit more sticky and don’t need to be rolled out or cut-out.

Initially, I tried my cooky press. I gave that up within three dollops, as the dough stuck in the chamber all three times, which I needed to coax out with a spoon. I switched to using my 1 1/2 T cooky scoop. That worked, but slowly, as dough kept sticking to the scoop's exterior. The spring squeezer was a bit clunky to eject the dollops fast.

I've used the spatula-and-tablespoon method in the past for other cookies. It is a slow method because the dollops, besides, being one a time, requires two-hand scoop/unscoop.

The next batch, I'll try my adjustable measuring spoon. In any case, I'll keep a bowl of water and towel nearby in attempts to prevent dough superstickiness.

Oatmeal for Thought—Quick Oats, Non-quick Oats, ...

Google results for "can i substitute quick oats for old fashioned" show loads of info for contrasting oats and also includes q/a, whether you're curious, or readying to bake with oats.

"Oatmeal Cookies" advocates quick oats—"tend to make the cookie softer. ,,, it’s what I always have in my house. Instant oatmeal also cooks faster (even in cookie form)".

"What kind of oats do you use for baking?" describes rolled, quick, ground, and steel-cut oats. The author advises about making oat flour, with caution.

If using too much oat flour, baked goods may turn out dense, heavy and flat because the lack of gluten prevents the flour from trapping gases that give rise to the dough or batter.

"One-Bowl, No-Mixer, No-Chill Oatmeal Cookies" sounds promising for ease. The list of ingredients and instructions look handy for novice bakers. She advises against using quick oats, that they "have a much different texture than rolled oats and would act more like a flour in these cookies. Your homemade oatmeal cookies would wind up being too dry."

Good luck with feeling your oats!

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"Simplest Scratch Oatmeal Cookies"

"Pt 1 Choco Oatmeal Cookies Using Applesauce Not Butter or Oil"
recipe-centric info

"Pt 2 Choco Oatmeal Cookies Using Applesauce Not Butter or Oil"
closer looks, additional resources

Pt 1 Choco Oatmeal Cookies Using Applesauce Not Butter or Oil

The web has loads of recipes for making oatmeal cookies. My batch was meant to be about as low-calorie as I could make, but chocolate chips would be mandatory! (About a month ago, I made a split batch of oatmeal cookies—one portion being chipped and the other portion unchipped. Chipped were tastier.)

This article is more of a guide for the cooky recipe, intended for those who have cooky preparation experience. You should know about recipe utensils and equipment, ingredients, recipes steps, and reading between lines. For more elementary cooky preparation info, visit "Simplest Scratch Oatmeal Cookies",

Two Main Recipe Guides

"Oatmeal Cookies (with Oil instead of Butter)" lists the most reasonable number of ingredients. The methodology looked sensible to follow. I subbed applesauce for oil, bumped up the baking soda, and omitted the cinnamon. Note: My brown sugar was bricky, so I revived it by microwaving it in a bowl beside a bowlful of water for a couple of 2-minute sessions.

"How to Substitute Applesauce for Butter in Oatmeal Cookies" provides advice for the applesauce substitution. The site includes sections titled "The Method" (mixing sequence), "Find the Best Ratio" (1:1), "Cooking Time and Results" (descriptive differences), and "Other Considerations" (oatmeal cookies being suitable for applesaucing).

Ingredients (preheating oven 350 a good idea at this time)

1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups oats (I used quick-cooking type.)
8 ounces (1 1/2 C) chocolate chips
Spray oil, needed because the dough has no butter or oil

Combining Ingredients (tilt-head mixer advised)

1. Whisk together in a smallish bowl: flour, baking soda, and salt
2. Mix together in a larger bowl or tilt-head mixer bowl: eggs, vanilla, brown sugar
3. Stir flour mixture into the wet ingredients.
4. Stir in the oatmeal.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Dispensing Dough

Before dispensing, I used spray oil on each pan, except for one pan with 6 dollops that I forgot to spray. Oops! No surprise that those didn't easily lift off the pan after baking.

At first, I stuffed dough into a cooky press that I modified a disc for. However, the sticky dough was uncooperative, sticky to the cavity more easily than dropping onto the pan. Lost cause. I dumped the dough back into the mixing bowl. I settled on using a 1 1/2 T cooky scoop and, clumsily, rubber spatula, and fingers.

I then tried pressing dollops flatter—time consuming and stickiness ickiness. For a future batch, I'll try wetting fingers between dollop droppings (grin). Might also try my adjustable measuring spoon.

 

Baking and Results

I baked each panful 10 minutes. The yield was 72 (and tasty). The cookies didn't rise or expand by much. At least they were about 2" diameter. I wasn't sure if I should have put in more baking soda. They were a little crunchy outside and a little soft inside. In a few hours till end of cookies (5 days, refrigerated after cooling), they were still somewhat soft and chewy, similar to cereal bars.

Calories and Sodium

Initially, I used stats in packages, then suspected lots of potentially tolerance errors. Many of the stats referred to single-serving sizes, such as a portion of a spoonful or cup. I Googled for calorie stats for cupful of flour, brown sugar, and chocolate chips. Sure enough, my second set of numbers better reflected realistic amounts of ingredients used.

The recipe focuses on applesauce instead of butter/oil and includes chocolate chips. The sodium is the same for three options.

Comparison for using butter/oil instead of applesauce, add 1600 C, subtract 120 C.
3920 + 1600 - 120 = 5400
5400 / 72 cookies = 75 C each

Comparison for skipping chocolate chips, using applesauce instead of butter/oil, subtract 1209.

(Eight ounces of chips amounted to 12 cookies. Hypothetical yield = 60 cookies.)
3920 - 1209 = 2711
2711 / 60 cookies = 45 C each

Comparison for skipping chocolate chips, using butter/oil instead of applesauce, subtract 1209 and 120, add 1600.
3920 - 1209 - 120 + 1600 = 4191
4191/ 60 cookies = 70 C each

"Simplest Scratch Oatmeal Cookies", used similar ingredients as the last recipe, but differing amounts. The yield was 56 cookies, calculated to about 63 calories each. Those cookies actually came out prettier. Maybe my next oatmeal cooky session will be the use-oil recipe, with chocolate chips.

Hmmm, I don't recall dough stickiness being as difficult as the applesauce hack. Yeah, more calories/cooky, but maybe more easy to dispense. I'll try the cooky scooper and adjustable measuring spoon, hoping the dollops are reasonable handling.

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"Simplest Scratch Oatmeal Cookies"

"Pt 1 Choco Oatmeal Cookies Using Applesauce Not Butter or Oil"
recipe-centric info

"Pt 2 Choco Oatmeal Cookies Using Applesauce Not Butter or Oil"
closer looks, additional resources