And I'm hazy too. The rush-rush-rush of moving is over and life is a little slower now.
So I'm getting back to what I love.
I'm reading a book so good that I'm doing what I did when I was ten years old: I'm walking down the street and reading. This is dangerous. Especially in Boston, where so many sidewalks are made up of uneven bricks. But, even when I stub my toe, I keep on reading.
I'm dancing. Yesterday, in a dance studio high above street level, with air so heavy that the fans didn't make a difference, I counted out eight counts and moved across the wooden floor. Chainé and soutenu turns are so amazing paired with hip hop music.
I'm baking. I made walnut granola with a little cinnamon and honey and, when I didn't really feel like a bowl of cereal, I turned the granola into cookies. Buttery, nutty cookies.
And then I did the clichéd thing you can do when you live alone. Between bites of cookies, I grabbed the milk out of the fridge and drank right from the pint.
Walnut-Honey Granola Cookies
For the granola:
2 cups old-fashioned oats
2 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 cup walnut pieces
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Combine the oats, walnuts, and cinnamon. Add the honey and canola oil and mix well.
Spread the oats evenly on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes, stirring frequently (at a minimum, every 10 minutes). Use a spatula to scrape the granola off the sheet and let cool for 10 minutes.
For the cookie dough:
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Canola oil (to grease baking sheet)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Mix the butter and sugar well. Add the eggs one by one, beating well with a fork after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and honey and stir well after each addition.
Sift the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon together. Add to the butter mixture and stir well. Add all of the cooled granola and stir well.
Drop 2 - 3 rounded tablespoons of dough onto a baking sheet lightly greased with canola oil. Bake for 10 minutes. Makes approximately 20 cookies.
Quick question: Do you bake this stuff from a recipe book, or do you bake by intuitively guessing at proportions/prep methods? I'm pretty solid from a recipe and can adjust basic ones to account for more complex variations, but I have trouble coming up with them on my own.
ReplyDeleteBtw, LockeFox = Jenn Tanaka's google blog handle :)
ReplyDeleteGreat question. It depends... I sort of have got a basic formula in my head for cookies (one stick butter, couple of cups of flour, etc) and I also have a basic idea of granola. So I start there. Then I taste it as I'm making it and look at the consistency. I'll tinker a little (add more flour, whatever).
ReplyDeleteThere are sometimes some awful mistakes made that I wind up throwing out. But since I write down all my ingredients and the amounts, I can look at my notes and decide how to do it differently next time.