Microwave test cookies

Sometimes, extreme hot summer weather coincides with the craving for freshly baked homemade cookies. I didn't want to turn on the oven to bake though. Just the thought of having a 350 F oven in the house was enough to make me sweat. But I couldn't leave that cookie craving unsatiated, so I looked for an alternative. Can cookies be baked in a microwave oven? I tested five different times and power settings...

Microwave used: 1200 watt Panasonic microwave

Flour for a small batch of cookies: whole wheat flour on left, peanut flour on right; sugar, salt, baking powder in middle

Dough with wheat bran stirred in

Cookie before "baking"

After baking 

Cookie bottoms after baking

Sample 1: heated at 70% power for 1 min 30 sec. Looked well baked and dry on top, but had a burnt patch on inside. 

Sample 2: heated at 50% power for 1 min 30 sec. Appeared light and dry on the outside with a small burnt patch inside. 

Sample 3: Heated at 100% power for 50 seconds. Burnt marks on the outside with centre converted into charcoal. Emitted acrid burnt smell; potentially carcinogenic. 

Sample 4: heated at 100% power for 30 seconds. Exterior looked slightly translucent, moist and soft. Inside texture resembled stale dry cake. 

Sample 5: heated at 100% power for 35 seconds. Appeared just like the one above but slightly drier.  

Overall, cooking at 50% power for 1 min 30 seconds appeared to give the best result. The cookie was crunchy through out , but I had to cut off the burnt patch. None of the power and time settings were able to achieve results a conventional oven would because the microwave cooks food from the inside out. Since my cookies were rather thick, I guess rolling them out thinner next time might help get a more even "bake". The microwave seems to be better at cooking food that remains a higher moister content after cooking and so maybe I should be trying a microwave cake recipe instead. Saving that for next time...

I guess this will have to do for now until the weather cools a bit and I can actually face using the oven. Hope you enjoyed this sequence!

Honey-snap cookies

I've been having trouble finding inspiration for stuff to write here lately, so lets just skip right to the cookies. I think I'm going through a "cookie phase" right now, because I just made those chocolate ginger cookies, and now I have a batch of honey-snap cookies in the kitchen. These have toasted millet, which are supposed to be very healthy due to its rather abundant B-vitamin content (look at the WHFoods: Millet page for more info). Here's how they were made...

The Recipe:
Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup minute oats (any rolled oat will probably work as well)
• 1/3 cup wheat bran (can substitute oat bran, small flaked coconut, or psyllium husk if you don't want gluten)
• 2 tbsp toasted millet (toasted in dry pan until they popped)
• 2 tbsp skim milk powder
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup honey
• (optional) 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Sift and stir together cornstarch, milk powder, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. In a small pot, heat honey and butter until the butter melts and mixture is runny. Take off heat, and allow to cool slightly. Add sifted mixture, oats, bran, millet, and egg, and stir to get an even mixture. Add cocoa powder if desired. Place spoonfuls of batter on a lined baking sheet, making sure to leave at least a 2 inch (~5 cm) border around each spoonful because cookies will spread while baking. Bake at 350F (or ~175C) for 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden brown. Cool on a wire rack and cookies will become crispier as they cool. 

Note: Cookies can be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature to preserve crispness; they will turn into a moist, cake-y texture if stored in the fridge. 

Millet and oats, with milk powder, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon on top

Spoonfuls of batter before baking (these ones have cocoa powder)

The baked cookies. Again, these have the cocoa powder and appear darker. 

Cocoa Gingersnap Cookies

The cookie monster in me came out this weekend.

The Recipe:
Ingredients:

•  1/2 cup whole grain brown rice flour
•  1/2 cup teff flour
•  3/4 cup buckwheat flour
•  2 tbsp pea fibre
•  2 tbsp dark cocoa powder
•  1 tsp baking powder
•  1/2 tsp salt
•  1 cup cottage cheese
•  1/2 cup low fat cream cheese
•  1 egg
•  1/2 cup brown sugar
•  3 tbsp fresh ground ginger
•  1 tbsp granulated sugar

Sift and mix flours, pea fibres, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Process cottage cheese or push it through a sieve, and mix with cream cheese, egg, brown sugar, and ginger. Combine dry ingredients into the wet to form a dough. Shape into small round dough balls and squash slightly. Roll in granulated sugar if desired and bake in a 350F oven for 20 to 25 minutes until cookie is crispy. Let cool a bit and enjoy (with a glass of milk)! 

Cookie dough. The white specks are bits of cottage cheese. They will not be visible after baking. 

yum yum!

Valentine's Cookie

If there's one food we have a lot of at home right now, it'd be cheap, store-bought biscuits. You know, the kind that's made in some factory, and comes wrapped in plastic with twenty-four other identical ones? Sure you can get four packages for a dollar, but they taste chalky and they have a bunch of ingredients you don't really want to eat in it (care for some trans fat shortening anyone?). So why do we have so many packages at home? My dad likes to be a smart shopper and when he sees a great deal, he just can't miss out on it. Plus, he enjoys his cookies. So my challenge was to make a batch of cookies that would be more flavourful, healthier, and not cost a whole lot more than those store-bought ones. Inspired by the upcoming Valentine's Day, I came up with these heart-healthy cookies.

They've got walnuts and flaxseeds (these are the only fats in the recipe), and oats and psyllium fibre (these are the only 'flours' in the recipe). They're crispy, nutty, and healthy. Here's the recipe...

The Recipe:
Ingredients:

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 2/3 cup psyllium cereal (I used All-bran Buds)
• 1 cup walnut halves (no shell)
• 1/4 cup flaxseeds
• 1/4 cup skim milk powder
• 3 egg whites
• 1/3 cup golden syrup (can add up to 1/2 cup if you prefer sweeter cookies)
• 2 tbsp skim milk
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• (optional: up to 1 tsp flavourings, eg. vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, coffee, cardamom...)

Toast walnut halves in the oven or a dry skillet. I find heating the oven to 350°F, placing in the tray of walnuts on a cookie sheet, and then shutting the oven door and turning it off works well. 

Pulse oats and cereal in food processor until it becomes the consistency of wholemeal flour. It's alright if small flecks of oats remain. Add salt and baking powder and pulse again to mix evenly. Empty into a large bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients into the food processor and mix until a smooth paste forms. Simply add the paste to the bowl of pulsed flours and knead until a dough ball forms. Roll out dough into a 1/8 inch thick layer, cut out the shapes you desire, and place on a lined cookie sheet. They don't rise or spread very much so you can place them quite closely. Bake in a 300°F (~150°C) oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until cookies have the slightest colour on the edges. Cool on a rack lined with paper towel. Cookies will crisp up as they cool. 

If you like, try spreading some jam on them and sandwiching two together!

The dough before kneading

Just out of the oven and cooling

Since it's almost Valentine's Day: a sweet treat for a sweet couple

Gingerbread Snaps

This is one of my holiday recipes this year. Find the other ones here: 

Green Roulade | Fruitcake Mini-muffins | Cornbread Muffins

Gingerbread Snaps

Honestly, I hadn't planned for these to be snap cookies. I was aiming for more of a chewy soft cookie, but I guess I rolled them too thin, and they came out from the oven snappier than I thought they would. After they cooled, they became tender crisp, almost like a shortbread texture. So I guess I really made some sort of ginger-short-bread. 

The Recipe

Dry ingredients: 

• 1 cup barley flour
• 1/4 cup oat bran
• 1/4 cup teff flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Wet ingredients:

• 1/4 cup milk (any fat content is OK, I used skim)
• 1 egg white (or about 2.5 tbsp liquid eggs)
• 3 tbsp dark brown sugar
• 3 tbsp very light margarine (not meant for baking, but I think it contributed to my lucky accident)
• 2 tbsp light cream cheese
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1–2 tsp fresh, ground ginger
• 1/8 tsp ground cardamom (optional)

Sift and stir together dry ingredients. Heat butter, margarine, and cream cheese to melt. Stir in sugar, ginger, and cardamom. Whisk in milk. Add egg white and whisk to mix. Pour over flour mixture and stir to form dough. Roll out into a thin layer, between 1/8 and 1/16 inch (or about 2 mm) thick. Cut out into gingerbread man shapes (or whatever shapes you desire), and bake in a 325 °F (~160 °C) oven for 6 - 8 minutes until top surface is matte and colour is slightly paler than dough. Allow to cool on a rack and decorate to make your gingerbread men come alive!

Note: for larger cookies, make sure to dock them with a fork or a docking wheel, before baking to prevent odd air pockets from forming. 

Measured out flour mixture - teff flour on top

Gingerbread men and women cut-outs

Baked cookies. Wish I could convey smells via Blogger. 

A cheerful looking plate, wouldn't you say?

Thought I'd show you some more of my icing fun. I just used a royal icing recipe. For the green icing, I added a bit of matcha green tea powder, and for the pink icing, I replaced the water with blackberry juice. 

Checkerboard Tea Wafers

If you've been doing any shopping lately, you must have seen how packed all the malls, department stores, and superstores are. I don't just mean packed with people in the line-ups. I mean, the parking lots are full; drivers are hastily dropping off passengers to get a head start in the store; and the aisles and shelves are stacked to the ceiling with products. Not to mention those huge, brightly coloured "sale" signs everywhere. Although I consider holiday shopping more fun than stressful, I look forward to a hot cup of tea after. What better to go with the tea than these tea cookies? They are thin and crispy like a wafer, and flavoured with two of my favourite kinds of tea: earl grey and green tea. I didn't want to mix the flavours, so I decided to do a checkerboard design. 

The Recipe: 
Sift and stir dry ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup wheat bran
• 1/3 cup chapati flour 
• 1/4 cup defatted soy flour
• 3 tbsp white sugar (if you prefer sweeter, you can add more, or dust with icing sugar after baking, or add a glaze)
• 1 tsp instant dry yeast 
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp crushed earl grey tea leaves (or 1 tsp matcha green tea powder)

Wet ingredients: 

• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 whole egg
• 2 tbsp butter

Melt butter and add to milk. Crack in the egg and whisk to get a fairly even mixture. Stir into flour mixture until a dough ball forms. Dough should be soft, almost like a bread dough. Wrap or cover and place in a warm place to let rise. In another bowl, repeat the recipe, but add 1 tsp matcha green tea powder. Allow both doughs to rest and rise for about 30 minutes. Roll out both pieces of dough in one layer to 1/8" (just less than 0.5 cm) thickness. Dough will be soft (this helps with rise and wafer texture) so dust with flour as needed. Cut out into a grid of squares. Go for any size you like here. Arrange squares in a checkerboard pattern on a lined baking sheet with edges just touching each other. Cut out large rounds with a cookie cutter. At this point, you can remove the scraps to just get the perfect circles, but I couldn't bring myself to waste the effort of lining them up, so I just left them there. They snap off easily after baking anyway. 

Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 15 – 20 minutes. Allow to cool on a rack and enjoy!

Note: You can cut into strips or make the two cookies separately (and have a bite of each at a time) if you wish. Green tea powder can also be found in Chinese supermarkets or tea shops. 

Dry ingredients for green tea cookies

Checker arrangement. I didn't figure to do this on the baking tray and had to flip this over. 

Fresh baked checkerboard tea cookies. 

Checkerboard tea cookies

Soft coconut oat cookies

The smell of coconut prompts me to conjure images of calm swaying palm trees and lazy sweeping sea waves. These soft cookies are made with oat bran and coconut flour. Both ingredients not only make it high in fibre, but also give it a wonderful texture and delicious taste. The chewy softness comes from using liquid forms of sugar like corn syrup and condensed milk.

The recipe: Measure 2 1/4 cups oat bran into a bowl and sift 1 cup coconut flour with 1/4 tsp salt and 2 tsp baking powder over it. In a separate bowl, heat 1/4 cup unsalted butter with 3/4 cup corn syrup and 2 tbsp low fat condensed milk over gentle heat until butter is melted, and corn syrup and condensed milk are runny. Take the wet mixture off the heat and whisk 1/2 cup room temperature milk into it. Then add 3 egg whites at once and whisk vigorously to combine. Pour all the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until combined with a spatula. There's no need to worry about over-mixing here because there's no gluten. Since the dough is very soft, shape it into small logs (~5 cm diameter) using cling wrap and freeze it for 45 min to 1 hour. With a sharp knife, cut dough log into ~0.5 cm slices, place on lined baking sheets and bake in a 300 F oven for 10-12 minutes. Feel free to bite in whenever they cool to a tolerable temperature!

Coconut Pillow Cookies

I made special coconut cookies this weekend. Being special, they were of course, unlike any other coconut cookie I'd tasted. These are soft, round, pillows with a crisp crust.

The Recipe (in case you are interested):
Dry ingredients:

• 1/2 cup chapati flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

Wet ingredients: 

• 2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce 
• 2/3 cup plain greek yogurt (I used 2%, but any fat content should be fine)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 egg whites
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar

In a skillet on medium heat, reduce applesauce until only about 1/3 cup is left and add  cinnamon and salt. Remove it from the heat and stir in greek yogurt. In a bowl, stir and sift together dry ingredients. In another bowl, beat egg whites to stiff peaks with sugar and cream of tartar. Now, gently fold the applesauce and yogurt mixture into the egg whites. Then pour all the sifted ingredients in at once and fold until a very soft but non-runny dough forms. I dust my hands with a generous layer of flour, scoop off 1-tbsp sized dough balls and roll them into a sphere. I place them on a lined cookie sheet and bake at 400 F for 8 minutes then at 250 F for another 20-30 minutes.

I rolled some of these in flaked unsweetened coconut for extra texture and flavour.
I meant for these to look like the smiling cookies (a traditional cookie used to celebrate Chinese New Year), but taste completely different!