Baked Oatmeal

Fall comes to subtly to Southern California. Summer lingers as long as possible, however, come September, our days are warm but the mornings and evenings have a nice chill to the air. While we enjoyed quick bowls of cereal and ice cold smoothies for breakfast during the summer, it is time to shift to warm, hearty fall breakfasts.

This baked oatmeal is a perfect breakfast for the upcoming autumn mornings. Hearty oats, fruit, and nuts combine to make a tasty and pretty healthy start to your day. We like to sprinkle brown sugar on our oatmeal, so we topped ours with a brown sugar streusel before baking so you don't need to add anything but some milk or cream if you like. The leftovers do reheat well for an easy breakfast you can make once and eat all week although we definitely liked the leftovers much better with that drizzle of milk or cream.
   

Of course, once we hit on a good basic recipe, we start planning all the variations we would like to try. Apples and cinnamon came to mind for an "apple pie" oatmeal, perfect since it's almost apple season. We all like peanut butter on our oats and will definitely try swirling in some peanut butter before baking one morning. Although summer is just about over, a version full of fresh peaches and berries would be delicious, and Boy Mimi (one of the coconut lovers) suggested some toasted coconut, chopped fresh mango and a dollop of vanilla yogurt on top for a tropical version. The choices are endless, and this easy breakfast will be making many appearances on our table year round.

Baked Oatmeal

3/4 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped and lightly toasted

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup maple syrup, plus more for serving

1 cup milk

1 large egg

1 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 ripe bananas, sliced into 1/2-inch thick pieces

¾ to 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

**you can use any combination of fruits that you like, just put some on bottom and some on the top to distribute evenly**

Streusel Topping

1/2 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter, cold, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup flour
generous ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
pinch salt

 

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl or food processor until it is the texture of coasre meal. Store in the refrigerator so the butter stays cold.

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make streusel and put in refrigerator.

2. Grease or spray a 1 and 1/2-quart casserole dish with either butter or cooking spray.

3. In a medium bowl, toss together the oats, half of the nuts, the baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

4. In a separate small bowl, mix together the maple syrup, milk, egg, melted butter, and the vanilla.

5. Place the sliced banana pieces in a single layer in the bottom of the prepared casserole dish.

6. Sprinkle about two-thirds of the blueberries over the top of the bananas, then cover the blueberries with the oat mixture.

7. Drizzle the milk mixture over the oats, making sure to distribute the milk as evenly as possible.

8.  Sprinkle the remaining blueberries over the top of the oats followed by the streusel topping.

9.  Bake the oatmeal for 35-40  min, until the top is golden brown and the oats are almost set, but slightly soft in the center. They will continue to firm up as they cool, and still be creamy. 

Printable recipe

 
Links:
This Chick Cooks
Foodie Friday  at Designs by Gollum

Candy Corn Cookies

 Candy Corn is one of those things that you love it or you hate it. I am definitely a candy corn lover. It's one of those treats from childhood that I looked forward to each fall, because the only time I got them was in my trick or treat bag. Even though as a kid, we ate all we possibly could in one night, I do have to admit that they are really sweet and a little goes a long way. These Candy Corn cookies have the pretty, layered look of the candies and just the right amount of sweetness. I saw these cookies all over the internet last fall, but got this recipe form Julie at The Sporadic Cook. Since sugar cookies ship pretty well, I know these will be the perfect fall treat to send to Mini Me to help her with her studies.

Candy Corn Cookies

via The Sporadic Cook

1 cup butter softened

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 egg

1 to 2 tablespoons orange zest

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Orange and Yellow gel food color

In a large bowl, beat butter, powdered sugar, egg and orange zest with an electric mixer on medium speed. Stir in flour, baking soda and cream of tartar.

Divide dough into thirds. Tint one portion orange and one portion yellow; leave remaining portion plain.  Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap and press the yellow dough into the bottom of the pan in an even layer. top this with the orange dough followed by the white dough. Chill until firm, about 1 hr.

Heat oven to 375. Using the plastic wrap remove the dough from the pan. Slice the loaf into 1/4 inch slices. Then cut each slice into triangles.(I didn't take any how-to picture so I made the diagram below to illustrate the process. I took the two end pieces (A) and placed them together along the straight edge to form a 4th triangle. I lightly rolled over the seam with a rolling pin). Place triangles on ungreased cookie sheet, about 1 inch apart. Sprinkle with coarse sugar. 

Bake 7 to 8 minutes or until edges are set. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.
printable recipe

Links: Foodies Friday at Designs by Gollum
These Chicks Cooked

Triple Chocolate Cookies

Back to school is cookie time at Mimi's Kitchen. When the kids were younger  cookies were a great surprise in their lunch box or a quick after school snack.  Although everyone is pretty grown up now, we are still busy baking cookies- some to send to Mini Me when she is away at college and some for Boy Mimi to grab on his way to soccer practice. Eric at Quirk Books was nice enough to offer me a new cookie book to review, and we can never say no to a new cookbook around here, especially one filled with cookies. The Cookiepedia by Stacy Adimando was the perfect book for us here at Mimi's Kitchen since everyone likes to bake cookies (except for Mr. Mimi, who just enjoys his title as official taste-tester).  

Stacy sure knows her cookies, The Cookiepedia got thumbs up from all four cookie bakers in the kitchen. Boy Mimi made the chocolate chip cookies and they really were perfect- crispy on the edges and chewy throughout, without being cakey or undercooked in the center. Mini Me made the Cornmeal Cookies with Rosemary. We all love anything made with cornmeal and these were no exception. They were light, buttery and crunchy, and the rosemary garnish complimented the lemon zest without tasting too floral.  Mimi Jr. and I made the triple chocolate cookies as the final test recipe. These cookies were a family favorite, fudgy and moist almost like a brownie, with a deliciously crackly top.

What we liked about this book beside the delicious and easy to follow recipes was that it included the required classics, like chocolate chip, as well as some new cookies that we can't wait to try, like the pistachio butter cookies. It was well organized by cookie category, from "buttery" to "fruity" to "fancy", and on the insides of the of front and back cover were helpful conversions and substitutions. All the cookies have a picture, so you know that your matcha cookies are actually supposed to be bright green, and the spiral binding allows the book to lay open flat to your recipe without the pages flopping over.

 

Triple Chocolate Cookies

     The Cookiepedia

1/34 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

12 Ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup unsalted butter , room temperature

1 1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup (8oz) semisweet chocolate chips

1. Sift the flour, cocoa powder. baking powder, and salt into a bowl and set  it

2. Set a small pot of water on the stove and bring it to a simmer.  Place choppe4d chocolate in a metal or heatproof blass bowl and set bowl top the pot. Stir the chocolate until it's fully melted and looks smooth. Remove from the heat. (We melted our chocolate in the microwave)

3. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed for several minutes, until they're light and fluffy.  Add the eggs and the vanilla and mix to combine.  Pour in the melted chocolate and continue beating.

4. Add the flour mixture and chocolate chips half at a time, and mix on low speed, until just incorporated.

5. Cover the dough and refrigerate for about 15 to 20 minutes, until it's firm enough to scoop.  Line several cookie sheets with parchment paper or siilicone baking mats.

6.Roll the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and place on the sheets about 2 inches apart.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.  They'll appear soft, but they'll firm up once cooled.  Set the sheet on a wire rack for a few minutes, then transfer the cookies directly onto the rack to cool completely.

Makes 5 dozen cookies

printable recipe

We all thought this was a great book to add to our cookbook shelf and would be a great gift for anyone, from a beginning baker to someone who wants to add some new recipes to their collection.  You can find this book at http://www.quirkbooks.com/, Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Orange Sherbet and Lime Ice Cream

Summer is winding down, some of the local schools are already in session, but in Southern California our hot weather is really just beginning. Late August thru mid September are some of our hottest days so there is still plenty of time to enjoy a cool, fruity treat. If we are lucky we will have warm weather until late October and we can continue swimming and eating on the patio almost until Halloween. This Orange Sherbet comes from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook and the Lime Ice Cream is from the blog  La Casserole Carree. Vibi has a beautiful blog and I knew that this ice cream would make it to the freezer in record time, since we had a bag full of limes just waiting to be squeezed and zested.

Orange Sherbet

The America's Test Kitchen Family cookbook

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh orange juice

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoon Triple Sec or vodka

2/3 cup heavy cream

1. In a  bowl add sugar, salt and orange zest. Rub with your fingers to release the oils in the zest.  Your sugar with be moist and orange colored. Add the orange juice, lemon juice and triple Sec and stir until sugar is dissolved. Refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour.

2.In a second chilled bowl whip the cream to soft peaks. While whisking constantly, pour the chilled juice mixture down the side of the bowl into the whipped cream. Once the juice is completely incorporated into the cream transfer the mixture to your ice cream machine and churn according to manufacturer's instructions.

printable recipe

 

All ice cream is welcome around here, especially the ones made with fresh fruit juice. The sherbet was just like all those 50-50 bars that we ate as kids and who can resist the fresh orange/sweet vanilla combo? The lime ice cream quickly became a new favorite, with its perfect balance of sweet, tart, and citrus flavors. The zest is the most flavorful part of these fruits, and that one simple addition makes such a huge flavor impact without adding more ingredients or more work, so don't skip that part! These both have just a few simple ingredients and are a tasty way to cool down as we head into some of our warmest days yet.

Lime Ice Cream

adapted from La Casserole Carree

2 large eggs

⅔ cup sugar

Zest of 2 limes, finely chopped

1 cup whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

⅓ cup freshly squeezed lime juice

In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat eggs, sugar and lime zest until pale and thick, about 5 minutes.

Add milk and cream, beat until well mixed. Transfer the mixture to a heavy saucepan and cook on medium heat to 170 °, stirring regularly.

Remove from heat and let cool .

Add lime juice, mix well. (My mixture looked a little curdled so I pureed it with my immersion blender.)

Transfer the mixture to a clean bowl, cover and refrigerate until well chilled
When properly cooled, pour into ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's directions.

printable recipe

Dig in!

Ice Cream Sandwich

The dog days of summer are the time when memories are made. School is out, the kids are free to run and play, and whenever we look back on that stretch of scorching days (or weeks, sometimes) we always remember the things we did trying to stay cool- running through the sprinklers, spending days at the beach, hours in the pool, and eating every kind of popsicle, ice cream and frozen fruit imaginable. Although we haven't had weeks of 100 degree weather here, it is still hot enough to devour our favorite homemade ice cream treats. This time around we made ice cream sandwiches. We used Dorie Greenspan's Carmel Crunch Bars as a buttery brown sugar base for vanilla ice cream.

The tasty shortbread cookie is flavored with espresso, chocolate, and bits of rich toffee, and becomes the perfect portable (and edible) container for our favorite vanilla ice cream. Since there are usually only three of us at home, I halve most recipes, but this time I made the whole thing, and was glad I did. I made a bunch of mini sandwiches and it was nice to have a pre-made stash of cold treats in the freezer that we could snack on for the week. I know we will be making these again this summer, trying lots of other combinations of cookie and ice cream!

Carmel Crunch Bars

Baking:from my home to yours- Dorie Greenspan

Bars

1 1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon instant espresso powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 sticks unsalted butter

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 ounces bittersweet or milk chocolate, finely chopped

Topping:

6 ounces bittersweet or milk chocolate, finely copped

3/4 cup Heath Toffee Bits

Prepare pan: butter a 9x13 pan, line with foil, butter foil. Pre heat oven to 375degrees F.

Whisk together flour, espresso powder, salt and cinnamon.

In a mixer bowl  beat butter for 3 minutes until smooth.  Add sugars and beat for another 3 minutes, until the mixture is light and creamy. Beat in the vanilla. Add dry ingredients, and mix until they just disappear into the batter. Add chopped chocolate and mix quickly just to incorporate.

Scrape the dough into your prepared pan and smooth into a thin even layer.  Bake for 20-22 minutes or until the base is bubbly. Remove pan from oven and turn off the oven.

Scatter the chopped chocolate evenly over the top of the  hot base and pop the pan back into the oven for 2-3 minutes, until the chocolate is soft. Remove from oven and immediately spread the chocolate over the bars using an offset spatula. Sprinkle the toffee bits over the chocolate and press them down lightly with your fingertips. Cool to room temperature.

Using the foil edges lift the bars from the pan and place on a cutting board and cut into desired sizes. We made our sandwiches about 2x4

For ice cream bars: Line a 9x13 pan with foil.  Spread and even layer of your favorite ice cream over the bottom of the pan.  Place in freezer and chill until firm. Using the foil liner lift the ice cream sheet from the pan and cut to match the dimensions of your crunch bars. Layer ice cream between two crunch bars. place bars on a rimmed cookie sheet and return to the freezer until firm.

printable recipe

Stay cool and enjoy the rest of your summer.

White Chocolate Mousse

When the temperature heats up it is nice to have cool sweet treats to enjoy. We do make a lot of ice cream, but sometimes we want something a little different. Most of all we don't want to spend a lot of time in a warm kitchen.

This simple and deliciously silky mousse fits the bill. It comes from Claire Robinson's Five Ingredient Fix cookbook and couldn't be easier to make. If you dress it up with some fresh fruit you have an easy and elegant dessert in just a few minutes, with no oven required. I am not usually a fan of white chocolate desserts, as I find them too sweet, without much of a flavor other than sugar. This mousse, however, was not to sweet and with some fresh blueberries on top, it was a nice cool dessert we enjoyed on the patio after dinner. It is also nice that this is entirely make ahead, perfect for when you have some guests, and don't want to go back to work in the kitchen after dinner.

White Chocolate Mousse

via Five Ingredient Fix by Claire Robinson

Ingredients:
7 ounces white chocolate chopped into small pieces
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
fruit for garnish

Directions

In a large glass bowl, place the chopped white chocolate and set aside.

Add the egg yolks and sugar to a small bowl and whisk until pale in color.

In a saucepan over low heat, bring 1/4 cup of the cream to a simmer and slowly add the cream into the yolk and sugar mixture to temper. Pour the creamy mixture back into pan and stir with a wooden spoon until it coats the back of it.

Pour hot mix into a fine mesh sieve placed directly over bowl with the chopped chocolate. Stir until completely smooth.

In another bowl, whip remaining 1 cup of the cream to almost stiff peaks. Fold half the whipped cream into the white chocolate mix to lighten and then fold in the remaining whipped cream.

Spoon the white chocolate mousse into 4 serving cups and refrigerate until set, approximately 1 hour. *We thought you could definitely stretch this to 6 or even  8 small  servings with some fruit*

Strawberry and Peach Blender Ice Creams

 In Southern California, it is really ice cream season year round, but it always tastes just a little bit better on a hot summer's day.  When we were children it was a special treat to make ice cream. We had to have plenty of ice, rock salt, friends willing to turn the crank, and of course my Dad, who would do the final turns when it was too difficult for our tired arms. After all that work, there was nothing better than that first bite of homemade ice cream. Although making ice cream the old fashioned way is fun, I love my new, no pre-freezing required ice cream machine. The only wait time is chilling the custard, but the great thing about both of these ice creams is that they are made in the blender and do not have a cooked base, so they can be ready to churn in minutes. These kind of desserts are perfect for those summer days when it is too hot to turn on the stove and you can't wait 24 hours for your ice cream.

Nothing is easier to make than this peach ice cream. It is light, delicate and silky smooth, and is really nothing more than peaches and cream. Since we have a large crop of peaches, we did make two versions- one with diced peaches marinated in amaretto and one without. We were split on which was better. Mr. Mimi and I liked the chunks of peaches, while Boy Mimi preferred the smooth one, so it is just a matter of personal ice cream taste.

Peach Ice Cream

This is really just a method and we make it with almost any type of fruit.

Peaches

Lemon

Sugar

Cream

Amaretto, or almond extract

Peel and pit peaches, add to blender with the juice of one lemon. Puree until smooth. To 2 1/2 cups of peach puree we added 1/2 cup sugar, but the amount of sugar depend on the sweetness of the peaches so adjust as necessary, remembering that when frozen it will taste less sweet. We added 1 cup cream and pureed until thick. Taste your ice cream and if the flavor is too mild add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon almond extract or a couple tablespoons amaretto.  Freeze in your ice cream maker according the manufacturer's directions. If you like, chop up some additional peaches to add at the ending of churning for a chunky peach ice cream. We let our peaches sit in a tablespoon of amaretto while the ice cream was turning.

printable recipe

The recipe for the Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream comes from my friend Kim at Stirring the Pot. It is also a blender ice cream, creamy and smooth with a fresh strawberry flavor balanced by the slight cream cheese flavor in the background. Next time we might bake a graham cracker crust, and add some crumbled pieces to make it even more like a cheesecake.

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream
Adapted from Food.com and Stirring the Pot
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup fresh pureed strawberry
1 cup half and half or cream


Blend all ingredients until smooth. Chill ingredients for about 1 hour, or until cold, and freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

printable recipe

Links: Foodie Fridays at Designs by Gollum

Double Blueberry Tart

Nothing says summer more than the abundance of fresh fruit available in Southern California. We are spoiled with piles of fragrant strawberries, perfectly ripe peaches, and dark sweet cherries, to name a few. When you can get several baskets of fresh blueberries for just a few dollars, you have the chance to try some new recipes- if you can stay away from the old favorites!

 

This double blueberry tart is one of our family favorites. Everyone loves the fresh blueberry flavor, and I love that it is one of the fastest desserts to put together. It travels well and is perfect for a BBQ or a picnic at the beach during the long summer evenings.

 This tart only has a few simple ingredients and comes together quickly. The filling gets thick and sweet, and is excellent stirred into some Greek yogurt in the morning, and spooned over some ice cream after an afternoon of swimming. The recipe comes from The Best of Sunset published 1987, and I have been making it every summer since then!

Double Blueberry Tart
adapted from The Best of Sunset (1987)

6 cups blueberries
9 tablespoons sugar- you can use a bit less if the berries are super sweet
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1  tart crust
Slightly sweetened whipped cram

1. Combine 4 1/2 cups of blueberries, sugar, lemon zest and juice in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring often until the berries are as thick as soft jam, 12-15 minutes. Let cool. When filling has cooled, pour into a fully baked tart crust, spreading evenly over the crust. Top with remaining fresh blueberries to completely cover the surface.
Serve topped with whipped cream.

Sweet Tart Dough
via Baking: from my home to yours

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
9 tablespoons butter
1 beaten egg yolk

Combine flour, sugar, salt and butter in the bowl of a food processor, pulse until mixture is crumbly. Add the egg yolk and process until dough just comes together. Turn the dough out on your work surface and lightly knead until all the dough comes together. Gently press dough into a 9 inch tart pan. Freeze for 30 minutes. Press a lightly buttered sheet of foil against the crust (the freezing eliminates the need for weighs).  Bake in a 375 degree oven for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake an additional 5-8 minutes until golden brown.