brown butter

brown butter oatmeal raisin cookies / biscotti al burro nocciola con fiocchi d’avena e uvetta

| Simona

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brown butter oatmeal raisin cookies / IMG_4545

just baked
(placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO)

Our current Cook the Books Club selection is Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. I had fun reading again Alice’s adventures. For example, I paid more attention to the way she talks to herself and about herself. Truly one of those books that tell us something more or a bit different each time we read them.

Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words “EAT ME” were beautifully marked in currants.

I knew immediately I’d make cookies for Alice: when I like a cookie, it’s like it has EAT ME written on it. Also, in my opinion, the best foods with tea are cookies and scones, and Alice really goes with cookies. After deciding to bake cookies, the question was: which kind? 

brown butter oatmeal raisin cookies / IMG_4553

the right size, the right shape, balanced flavor
(placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO)

Some time ago, I developed my version of chocolate chunk cookies, so I turned my attention to another traditional sweet morsel of goodness: oatmeal raisin cookies. They are made with ingredients I like, but not necessarily in a way that appeals to me. 

Guided on one hand by my Brown butter chocolate chunk cookies1 and on the other by the recipe for Oatmeal raisin cookies in Stacy Adimando’s The Cookiepedia2, I experimented with various versions until I settled on the recipe below, which includes a few steps to execute ahead of preparing the cookie dough: browning the butter, re-hydrating the raisins, and toasting rolled oats and sliced almonds. Additional personal touches include the use of coconut sugar, rye and whole-wheat flour (farina integrale), and okara flour3, a protein-rich, gluten-free flour derived from the soybean pulp (okara) generated during soymilk (latte di soia) production.

ingredients for oatmeal raisin cookies / IMG_4543

some of the ingredients, ready for use
(placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO)

The cookies are tender, sweet enough, with a contrast between plump raisins and crisp sliced almonds (mandorle). The rolled oats give the texture more body. I like them a lot.

Print-friendly version of briciole’s recipe for Brown butter oatmeal raisin cookies

Ingredients for 11 cookies:

  • 1/4 cup / 2 ounces  / 56 grams unsalted butter (to make brown butter, recipe below)
  • 1 1/2 ounces / 42 grams raisins
  • 1 tablespoon / 15 ml warm apple juice OR tea OR water
  • 3 ounces / 85 grams rolled oats
  • 1 ounce / 28 grams sliced almonds
  • Avocado OR other mild-flavored vegetable oil to add to the brown butter to obtain 2 ounces
  • 1 3/4 ounces / 50 grams sugar: 1/2 coconut sugar and 1/2 light brown sugar 
  • 1 egg about 2.1 ounces / 60 grams, at room temperature 
  • 1 teaspoon / 5 ml vanilla extract
  • 2 ounces / 56 grams total of a combination of flours:
    • 1/2 ounce  / 14 grams okara flour 
    • 1/2 ounce / 14 grams whole rye flour
    • 1/2 ounce  / 14 grams whole-wheat pastry flour
    • 1/2 ounce  / 14 grams sprouted whole-wheat pastry flour OR whole-wheat pastry flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (cannella)

Prepare the following four ingredients ahead of making the cookies: brown butter, plumped raisins, toasted rolled oats, toasted almond slices.

1) Cut the butter into small pieces and put them into a small saucepan. Melt the butter while stirring then keep the melted butter on the heat, stirring. The butter will foam as water evaporates then the solids will caramelize. Remove the saucepan from the heat, pour the brown butter into a ramekin and let cool. The process is fast and requires full attention as the solids go from brown to burned in a few seconds4.

2) With your fingers, separate the raisins that are clumped. Place the raisins in a ramekin. Pour the warm liquid over them and stir well. Stir again a few more times.

3) Heat the oven to 350 F / 170 C. Spread the rolled oats on an unlined baking sheet. Toast rolled oats in the oven for 4-5 minutes, shaking the sheet half-way through.

4) Toast the sliced almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat. Shake the skillet to ensure even toasting and prevent burning. Transfer the almonds onto a plate.  

Finally, make the cookies. Let the brown butter soften in a mixing bowl. Weigh the butter and add enough vegetable oil to get to 2 ounces / 56 grams. Add both sugars to the mixing bowl. Cream the butter and sugars. I do all the mixing with a spatula or wooden spoon, but you can use an electric mixer until otherwise noted. Add the egg and the vanilla extract and stir until combined.

Sift the flours into a small mixing bowl. Sift in the baking soda, then add salt and cinnamon. Add about half of the dry ingredients to the wet ones and stir briefly. Add the rest and mix just until the flour is incorporated. Add the toasted oats and incorporate them `using a spatula. Finally, add the raisins and incorporate them using a spatula.

Cover the mixing bowl and place it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so to firm up the dough (it will be easier to handle and the cookies will remain chubby), but not too firm, since there is one last ingredient to incorporate. 

Heat the oven to 350 F/177 C.

Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.

Take the cookie dough out of the refrigerator. Add the toasted almonds to the dough and stir to incorporate. Weigh approximately 1.2 ounces / 34 grams of dough for each cookie. Shape each piece of dough into a half dome, tap the top to flatten it slightly and place on the baking sheet, leaving 1 1/2-2 inches / 4-5 cm of distance between them.

Bake for 6 minutes. Rotate the backing sheet. Bake for another 6 minutes. The cookies will still be soft. The edges should be golden brown.

Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer them onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Store the cookies in a sealed container.

brown butter oatmeal raisin cookies / IMG_4550
hard to photograph them without nibbling on one or two
(placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO)

I imagine Alice’s EAT ME cake was prettier than my cookies, but they make up in flavor what they lack in good looks. I enjoy one in the afternoon with roiboos tea—and so far there has been no change in my height.

1 From briciole’s archive: Brown butter chocolate-chunk bookies and review of The Cookiepedia
2 Recipe for Oatmeal raisin cookies from The Cookiepedia by Stacy Adimando
3 The Okara flour I use
4 A more detailed post on how to brown butter

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

biscotti al burro nocciola con fiocchi d’avena e uvetta

or launch the biscotti al burro nocciola con fiocchi d’avena e uvetta audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

CtBThis is my contribution to the current selection of our Cook the Books hosted by Debra of Eliot’s Eats. (You can find the guidelines for participating in the event on this page.)

The roundup of the event.

FTC disclosure: I have received the table linen free of charge from the manufacturer (la FABBRICA del LINO). I have not and will not receive any monetary compensation for presenting it on my blog. The experience shared and the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.

cookies, oatmeal, raisins, oatmeal raisin cookies, brown butter

recipe: brown butter oatmeal raisin cookies

| Simona

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brown butter chocolate chunk cookies / biscotti al burro nocciola con pezzetti di cioccolato

| Simona

jump to Recipe

IMG_3888

the simple charm of chocolate chunks
(napkin by La FABBRICA del LINO)

Recently, during one of my customary browsing of the sale shelf of a local bookstore, I picked the mystery novel The Whispering City by Sara Moliner1 (pseudonym for the writing duo Rosa Ribas and Sabine Hofmann). The title and subtitle (Barcelona 1952) piqued my curiosity and the back-cover blurb made me decide to purchase the novel.

The story is set during the regime of dictator Francisco Franco, who was still alive when I was born. I remember his death in 1975 (after which Juan Carlos became king of Spain), so as dictatorships go, this one is clear in my memory. The civil climate described in the book is typical of dictatorships, where freedom of expression, information and thought are outlawed. Ana Martí Noguer is a young journalist aspiring to do more than write the society column for a newspaper that strives to maintain a certain amount of independence from the regime without running afoul of it. She is figlia d’arte, as her father was also a journalist.

Circumstances catapult Ana into the middle of a murder investigation and she ends up becoming entangled in it, together with her older cousin Beatriz, whom she had recently met. Beatriz is a linguist who has fallen on hard times due to her political leanings.

chocolate chunk cookies / DSCN0075

post-exercise energy recharge
(napkin by La FABBRICA del LINO)

I enjoyed the story and the historical setting. As the NPR review2 says

The mental sepia tones evoked (and used on the cover — good job, Pegasus designers!) aren’t just those of vintage photographs, but those of a city blanched of its color and vivacity by a right-wing regime.

One of the recurring themes in the book is scarcity, partly as a result of the time (post WWII in a dictatorship with mostly democracies as neighbors) and partly as a result of Ana’s limited economic means. Sugar (zucchero) is a luxury food item, so when she is in a coffee shop, she indulges in it, adding it liberally to her coffee and licking the cup clean after finishing the liquid.

While reading the novel, I spent a weekend on a bicycle ride around San Luis Obispo, on the Central California Coast. In the oceanside town of Cayucos, The Brown Butter Cookie Company3 makes cookies and shortbread. I don’t have a sweet tooth and was skeptical about the cookies, but after tasting a few options I had to admit that they are quite good. While nibbling on half of a chocolate chunk cookie (it was pretty big), I decided to try making my own version.

Serendipitously, a few days later, this recipe4 came to my attention and I chose to use it as my base because it was neither overly sweet nor overly buttery and also made a manageable number of cookies. Of course, I would change several things to make the recipe suit my taste. First of all, I use brown butter, like the bakery in Cayucos. Then, I substitute 3/4 of the white flour with whole-wheat / whole-grain flour (farina integrale). I decrease the amount of sugar slightly and omit the finishing sea salt. Finally, I choose good-quality chocolate and chunk it by hand.

I imagine Ana would dive in and enjoy my cookies. I have made them several times and everybody who has tasted them (my husband and some friends) has given them thumbs up. I like them a lot.

Print-friendly version of briciole’s recipe for Brown butter chocolate chunk cookies

Ingredients for 16 cookies:

  • 1/4 cup / 2 ounces  / 56 grams unsalted butter (to make brown butter, recipe below)
  • Avocado OR other mild-flavored vegetable oil to add to the brown butter to obtain 2 ounces
  • 2 tablespoons / 25 grams granulated OR superfine sugar AND enough light brown sugar to obtain 3 1/2 ounces / 100 grams total
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons / 1/2 tablespoon / 7.5 ml vanilla extract
  • 1 large pastured egg at room temperature
  • 6 ounces / 170 grams of a combination of flours:
    • 1 1/2 ounces  / 42 grams pastry flour OR all-purpose flour 
    • 4 1/2 ounces / 128 grams whole-grain flours: 1/3 whole rye, 1/3 whole-wheat pastry, 1/3 whole spelt AND sprouted whole quinoa
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 5 1/4 ounces / 150 grams extra-dark chocolate (I use 88%), cut with a knife into small pieces

Brown the butter5 in advance. Cut the butter into small pieces and put them into a small saucepan. Melt the butter while stirring then keep the melted butter on the heat, stirring. The butter will foam as water evaporates then the solids will caramelize. Remove the saucepan from the heat, pour the brown butter into a ramekin and let cool. The process is fast and requires full attention as the solids go from brown to black in a few seconds.

Let the brown butter soften in a mixing bowl. Weigh the butter and add enough vegetable oil to get to 2 ounces / 56 grams. Add both sugars to the mixing bowl. Mix with a spatula until the sugars are well blended into the butter. Add the egg and the vanilla extract and mix until well combined. While I prefer to mix butter and sugar with a spatula, I like to use the electric mixer to mix in the liquids.

Sift and weigh the flours into a small mixing bowl. Sift in the baking soda and baking powder, then add the salt. Add about half of the dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix briefly, using either a spatula or the electric mixer. Add the rest and mix just until the flour is incorporated. Finally, add the chocolate chunks and incorporate using a spatula.

Cover the mixing bowl and place it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to firm up the dough, longer if possible (it will be easier to handle and the cookies will remain chubby).

Preheat the oven to 350 F/177 C.

Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.

Take the cookie dough out of the refrigerator. Weigh approximately 30-32 grams of dough for each cookie. Shape each piece of dough into a half dome, tap the top to flatten it slightly and place on the baking sheet, leaving 1 1/2-2 inches / 4-5 cm of distance between them.

Bake for 12-14 minutes. Check the cookies after 12 minutes and bake longer if needed. The edges should be golden brown.

Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack and cool completely.

Store the cookies in a sealed container.

chocolate chunk cookies / DSCN0073

or enjoyed with a cup of tea
(napkin by La FABBRICA del LINO)

My cookies neither look like nor taste like those I ate in Cayucos: they are less sweet, softer, and have a fuller, whole-grain flavor. They are excellent. I have come to rely on them as energy recharge after a long run or bike ride.

1 The novel’s page on the publisher’s website
2 A review of the novel on the NPR site
3 Brown Butter Cookie Company
4 Recipe for Chocolate chunk cookies with sea salt on Culinary Ginger
5 A more detailed post on how to brown butter

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

biscotti al burro nocciola con pezzetti di cioccolato

or launch the biscotti al burro nocciola con pezzetti di cioccolato audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

Small_NFlogoThis is my second contribution to the 42nd edition of Novel Food, the literary/culinary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I started over 14 years ago and that I continue to host.

The roundup of the event.

FTC disclosure: I have received the table linen free of charge from the manufacturer (la FABBRICA del LINO). I have not and will not receive any monetary compensation for presenting it on my blog. The experience shared and the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.

cookies, chocolate, chocolate cookies, brown butter

recipe: brown butter chocolate chunk cookies

| Simona

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scone alle carote arrosto / roasted carrot scones

| Simona
roasted carrot scones

with the first pink rose from my garden

I have sometimes thought about the menu of my own small café. I don't believe it will ever exist outside my imagination, but I enjoy adding to the list something that I think would go well there, like these scones — or the ones with red beet, apple and pistachios I made recently.

I love scones, I always have, from the day, many years ago, when I tasted my first one during my first visit to the UK. They are flavorful and not sweet, nourishing and versatile. They prefer to charm you with their flavor and texture rather than polished looks. I could bake a batch every day. When I do bake a batch, I feel like the day starts on the right note.

The theme of opening a café is present in the book we are currently reading in our Cook the Cooks Club: The Color of Tea by Hannah Tunnicliffe. I wish I could find an elegant way to say this, but I didn't like the novel — and I don't like macarons, which feature prominently in it. The scones were inspired by the novel in the sense that they were a reaction to it. They are unadorned, crisp outside and tender inside, a bit rustic, a bit surprising with their nuanced flavor of carrot punctuated by the small pieces of candied ginger, simply irresistible. Scone are traditionally served with tea and without roses, but I was too excited about cutting the first pink rose of the season from my bush not to share it here. 

Today's scones start with two pounds of freshly harvested small carrots, which I prepared using this simple yet lovely recipe by Lynda of TasteFood with a couple of minor adjustments (see below). The result was very much appreciated at the table. As I was putting away the leftovers, I thought about using some to make scones.

The morning after, I had to solve the problem of turning the roasted carrots into a form suitable for scone-making. After some deliberation, I decided to chop them and add them to the food processor after the butter had been cut into the flour. It worked and the scones were a success, so the following week, when I found more carrots in my CSA share, I was ready to repeat the sequence of roasting followed by scone making. As an aside, this time I had a smaller amount of carrots, so I added to the pan a mix of baby turnips (rape novelle) and radishes (ravanelli), a great duo of root vegetables (I will soon share a recipe featuring them).

Ingredients (see my earlier post for additional information on the original recipe and the ingredients; overall, I halved the quantities):

  1. 3 ounces (85 g) leftover roasted carrots, chopped
  2. 3 1/2 tablespoons (1.75 oz. / 50 g) unsalted browned butter (or 4 tablespoons unsalted butter and no ricotta)
  3. 2 tablespoons buckwheat flour + 1 tablespoon cornmeal + 1 tablespoon teff flour + enough all-purpose flour to make 1 cup OR 1 cup (130 g) all-purpose flour
  4. 1/2 cup (65 g) whole-wheat pastry flour
  5. 1/4 cup finely chopped uncrystallized candied ginger (zenzero candito)
  6. 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
  7. 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  8. 3/8 teaspoon sea salt
  9. 1 teaspoon ultra-fine or granulated sugar
  10. 1/2 tablespoon ricotta or plain kefir cheese or cream cheese
  11. 1/2 cup (120 ml) homemade kefir; original recipe alternatives: buttermilk (latticello), plain yogurt or sour cream (low-fat or non-fat is fine)

How to roast the carrots
The evening before I baked the scones, I prepared the carrots using this recipe with the following minor adjustments:

  • I used thyme leaves rather than whole sprigs
  • I used only 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
  • I did not add the sugar in the last step

Since my carrots were more like toddlers than babies, I cut the bigger ones lengthwise and/or crosswise, and it took me some 25 minutes to get them to the tenderness I desired.

You can, of course, choose your favorite method for oven-roasting carrots.

The morning after, weigh the amount of carrots needed for the scones (making sure to incude a nice amount of thyme leaves) and chop them. Set aside.

roasted carrot scones

golden mix

How to make the scones
Preheat oven to 425 F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or a piece of parchment paper and dust the surface lightly with flour.

Take the browned butter out of the fridge and let it soften slightly while you prepare the other ingredients. Measure the flours and set aside a tablespoon or so to flour the pieces of candied ginger, so they stay separate when you add them to the dough at the end. Put the rest of the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar into the food processor fitted with steel blade. Cut butter into pieces and add to the food processor. Pulse a few times for several seconds until the flour mix resembles coarse meal.

Add the chopped carrots to the food processor and continue pulsing until you see that the carrots have been finely chopped into the flour mix, which will turn into a delicate golden color (see photo above).

Pour dry ingredients into a bowl. Add the floured candied ginger and stir to distribute. In a small bowl, whisk together ricotta and kefir, then add them to the drier mix. Stir with a spatula until ingredients are just combined.

Turn dough onto the lined baking sheet and, with your hands, shape into a 1/2-inch thick square. Dust surface of dough lightly with flour. With a bench scraper, cut into four lengthwise and then crosswise to get 16 small squares. With the help of the bench scraper, separate the pieces, so that they are at least one inch apart. If the corner pieces are much smaller than the rest, join them, so you'll end up with 14-15 scones of comparable size.

Bake for 16 minutes, then check the bottom of one scone: if it is golden brown, they are ready, otherwise, bake for another two minutes and check again. In my experience, these scones take a bit longer to bake than other types of scones I made with the same base recipe, so besides checking the bottom, I also tap on the top to make sure it is crisp, before deciding that the scones are ready and I let them sit for a minute on the baking sheet before moving them onto a rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature (temperatura ambiente).

These scones are perfect for breakfast and I like to serve them for dinner as well, as a bread substitute, with creamy homemade kefir cheese or a spread, like my roasted red pepper and almond dip. As I said above: they are simply irresistible.

Once cooled completely, the scones can be frozen. When I want to serve them, I put them straight in a 350 F oven for 8-10 minutes.

CtB This is my contribution to the current edition of Cook the Books, hosted by Deb of Kahakai Kitchen. You can find the guidelines for participating in the event here, and here is the announcement.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

I am contributing Baked-with-love-roxanashomebaking my scones also to the May edition of Bake With Love! (formerly Bake Your Own Bread) hosted by Roxana of Roxana's Homebaking.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

scone alle carote arrosto

or launch the scone alle carote arrosto audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

scone, carrot, ginger