Old Fashioned Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, just a little updated

Over the years, I have come to rely less and less on cookbooks, using the internet for lots of my inspiration. Still, I cannot give up a huge collection of hand-written recipe cards that have overflowed from that little card file box I started out with to three, then four, then five, long file boxes purchased from a library when they stopped using card catalogs. There are also perhaps half a dozen or so cookbooks that I still occasionally reference, and almost all of these are decades old, their pages marked with all kinds of spills and the spines of many broken with pages falling out every time they are opened.

One of those most cherished is The Brick Church Cookbook, 1931 edition; my copy is the one that belonged to my great grandmother, including her handwritten additions in the back.  I rarely use it for recipes, but just bringing this little brown spiral bound book reminds me of my mother when she would pull her copy down to make a cake, a batch of cookies, or homemade fudge or divinity.

There is one recipe, however, that I go back to repeatedly, even though I have adapted it greatly: "Short Cookies," an old-fashioned oatmeal raisin cookie that brings back all kinds of nostalgic memories. Even with the changes I've made, I hope this will take you back to the days of home-baked goodies too.

Short Cookies 

1 c raisins or dried cranberries
water
1 1/2 c brown sugar, packed
1/2 c butter, softened
1/2 c canola oil
2 large eggs
2 t vanilla
3 c flour
1 to 2 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t ground ginger
2 t baking powder
1 c chopped walnuts (optional)
3 c quick (not instant) or rolled oats

1. Press the raisins or dried cranberries lightly in a 2 cup measuring cup. Pour water over, just enough to barely cover the raisins. Place in the microwave on high for about 1 to 2 minutes, until the water is steaming and almost boiling. Set aside to cool.

2. Combine the butter, oil, and brown sugar and cream until well blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla and continue beating until light and fluffy.

3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and spices, and gradually add to the sugar and butter mixture.

4. When well blended, stir in the nuts and raisins/cranberries, and mix thoroughly.

5.  Add the oatmeal, a cup at a time, making sure the batter is evenly mixed.

6. These cookies are a "semi-drop" cookie. Using a spoon, scoop up about two tablespoons full of dough--about the size of a golf ball. Drop this onto a greased baking sheet and use your fingers to flatten and shape the dough to a cookie about 2 inches across. Allow a small amount of space between the cookies as they will expand a little in the oven.


7.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 14 minutes, until the center springs back when pressed lightly with your finger. Cool on racks before storing in an air tight container.

Makes about 4 to 5 dozen cookies*, depending on the size you make them. Smaller cookies may need only 8 to 10 minutes to bake.
 
* Or, if you are like me, when you get to that last small amount of dough, you just form it into one giant cookie and bake that all alone on the last pan. This could reduce the number of cookies by quite a few, but it is a nice "reward" for any child who may have been helping make the batch!









Variations:

• Substitute a cup or so of bran flakes for a cup of the oatmeal.
• Use dates instead of the raisins or dried cranberries or use any mixture of these dried fruits.
• If preferred, skip step 1 and just add the raisins without soaking them. Reduce the amount of oatmeal to 2  1/2 cups.
• A totally different texture can result (especially good for those picky kids who aren't sure about raisins!) if you put the un-soaked raisins and oatmeal in a processor or blender and process until the raisins are thoroughly chopped and the oatmeal is finer. Don't try to process the raisins alone, as they tend to just turn into a massive clump that is really hard to blend evenly into the batter. 
• If brown sugar is quite a bit more expensive than white sugar, you can substitute up to a cup of white sugar for that much brown sugar; the result will be a paler, less "caramel-flavored" cookie, but it will still be good.
• As with most cookies, up to a third of the flour can be replaced with whole wheat flour.

A Note on Using Oil in Cookies

The original recipe called for 1 1/2 cup "shortening" and only 2 cups oatmeal. The farm wives who were the main users of this Midwestern cookbook were likely to interpret this as butter, but I first made the recipe with margarine--remember when that was considered the most healthy choice? I quickly realized that the resulting cookies were very crisp but almost too greasy for our tastes. I soon began making the cookies with a cup of butter and kept upping the amount of oatmeal without loss of perceived quality on the part of my "taste-tester" family and friends.

A few years ago, I decided to try to move to oil for at least part of the fat in this favorite recipe.  I still wanted the nice buttery flavor but thought that at least a small amount of change to a "healthier" fat might be worth a try. The recipe above will provide a cookie that is more cake-like than crisp, but the flavor (especially with the added spices included) still comes through as buttery and rich.

"Soft" Fried Chicken

One of the dishes my mother made that was always popular with my family when we would go back home to visit was her "fried" chicken. This was not the Colonel's heavily breaded, crunchy and oily stuff, as good as that may be. No, Mom's was much more like a braised meat, moist, flavorful, falling off the bones good.

Over the years, I worked at duplicating her chicken and then began refining it, adding a few more seasonings and trying out different cooking methods.

When I was in grade school, she and Dad had succumbed to a door to door salesman's pitch and bought an entire set of West Bend "Lifetime" cookware, very expensive for our tight budget. However, the pans were wonderful, and the electric skillet was like nothing I have ever seen since, with double stainless steel walls and a way of cooking things like this chicken that was very difficult to duplicate. Thus, as I tried to duplicate Mom's fried chicken over the years, I had to try many different ways of cooking it, on top of the stove, in the oven, in a slow cooker.

Along the way, I started making a few other adjustments in the coating. Hers was usually just flour, salt and pepper, fine and certainly tasty enough. However, I like a little bit of crunch from corn meal and usually include some dried herbs and/or something peppery. These adjustments have, I guess, made the recipe my own, and it is now known in the family as Grandma's Fried Chicken. I think calling it "soft" fried chicken may be a little more descriptive, so that is what I am calling it here.

As usual, this is as much a guide as an ironclad recipe. The nice thing is that this can be made using only a couple of pieces of chicken for a serving or two or in quantities large enough for a dozen hungry people. You can use bone-in pieces or boneless, full chicken quarters or pieces cut to nugget size. (About the latter--I make this as chicken nuggets only about once a year. The smaller the piece of chicken, the greater the ratio of coating to meat, and also the greater the fat content as well.)

Soft Fried Chicken

Quantities are given for 6 to 8 pieces of bone-in chicken (my preference is thighs or drumsticks). The recipe is easily doubled or halved as needed. Because any leftover breading will have had raw meat in it, you should either discard it or freeze (NOT just refrigerate) immediately and use for another batch of chicken within the next month or so.

Coating:
1 c flour--you can use whole wheat, but plain unbleached flour will work as well
1 c yellow cornmeal
1 to 3 T chili powder, to taste (may substitute a smaller amount of cayenne or black pepper)
1 t Italian seasoning
1 to 2 t garlic powder
1 t seasoning salt
(other dried herbs you may want to try include basil, rosemary, thyme, marjoram or any combination of these)

1.  Combine all the coating ingredients in a flat bowl and stir well.

2.  Heat enough canola oil in a heavy (preferably cast iron) skillet to cover the bottom to an eighth to a quarter of an inch. The oil should be shimmering slightly before adding the first piece of chicken. Keep the burner at medium high to high, enough so that the chicken "sizzles" well throughout the browning time, but not so high that it begins to burn.

3.  If desired, remove the skin from the chicken.

4.  Using tongs or a cooking fork, place each piece of chicken in the coating mix, turning and pressing down to be sure the piece is coated evenly.  Place each piece in the pan, making sure not to crowd. When the pan is full, cover lightly--I use an old pizza pan for my cast iron skillet, so that there is some covering but not enough to build up steam and cause the chicken to poach instead of brown.

5. When all the pieces have browned well (about 5 to 10 minutes), turn with a spatula to be sure that all the coating is turned with the chicken. Again cover lightly and continue to brown the second side.

6. If you are cooking a larger quantity in batches, remove the first group of pieces and place on a platter (or directly in the roaster or slow cooker--see below for cooking method). Scrape any breading from the pan onto the chicken pieces. Add a small amount of oil if needed, heat to shimmering, and continue cooking the remaining pieces.

To finish:
In the frying pan: You should not have much oil in the pan at this point. However, if there is more than you like, pour it off but leave the "drippings" and crusty pieces in the pan. Return the chicken pieces to the pan, add a small (a tablespoon or two) amount of water, cover and continue to cook on low to medium heat--just barely simmering--until the chicken is very tender. Depending on the size of the pieces, this may take 15 to 40 minutes. Check occasionally and add just a small amount of water if needed to avoid burning but not so much that it begins to poach.

In the oven:  Place the well-browned chicken parts and all drippings from the pan into a heavy roaster. Add a quarter cup or so of water to the frying pan, scrape out every last bit of flavor, and pour this over the chicken as well. Cover and bake at 350 degrees about 30 minutes to an hour--the latter amount of time may be needed for a large quantity. The more pieces of chicken you are cooking, the more it will be important to turn the pieces every 20 minutes or so, so that all are exposed to the sides of the pan at some point. This will provide for a more even browning and tenderness.

In a slow cooker:  Place the browned chicken parts and all drippings from the pan into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on Low for up to two or three hours OR cook on High for about an hour or so. As with the oven method, you may find it worthwhile to move the pieces around once or twice to be sure they cook evenly.

Microwave:  If you are only cooking a couple of pieces, you could also put them, along with the drippings, into a microwave safe dish after browning, cover and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes per piece of chicken. In general, I don't find this to be much faster than just finishing a few pieces in the skillet, but it is an option.


Marinated Variation:

If desired, you can marinate the chicken with your favorite mixture. After the chicken has been in the marinade for a few hours, drain and roll in the crumbs as in the recipe above. (Unless your marinade is very salty, reserve the drained liquid and add to the chicken along with the pan drippings, at the beginning of the finishing phase, to heighten the impact of the marinade flavors.)

Two marinade ideas:

Any favorite salad dressing (generally not the creamy, ranch types however)--this is a good way to use up the last dregs of dressings--mix a couple of kinds together with some dried herbs, garlic powder, etc.

2 T orange juice (even better orange pineapple juice) concentrate, 1 t grated ginger, 1 to 2 t chopped garlic, 1 to 2 T soy sauce (preferably reduced sodium)--mix and place in a plastic bag or bowl just large enough for the chicken you are using. This should be enough for 4 to 6 bone-in pieces, 5 to 8 boneless pieces.

Serving suggestion:

This teams well with rice or mashed potatoes. Cole slaw or another tart salad is also a good accompaniment.

Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips

Friday was the last day of school for two of my grandsons and included a kindergarten graduation and presentation of the play, Little Red Hen. To celebrate, my granddaughter decided it would be fun to make a batch of cookies to share with all the family.

I had not realized that I had never put my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe on the computer, so we pulled out a wonderful piece of family history, a church cookbook from 1936. Inside the covers are some added recipes, some in the distinctive handwriting of my Grandma K and the others likely to be her mother's careful script. As we explored the cookbook's pages and looked at the old fashioned directions, I was glad we had an excuse to go to "the original source" and talk a little about family history as we stirred and baked.

Eleanor made note of the adjustments we had added and carefully copied our updated version on to another old-fashioned media, a 3 X 5 index card.  This was added to a cookbook the kids are putting together of things they have made at Grandma's house.  How wonderful to think that that recipe that may well have started out in the 19th century might still be making kids happy well into the 21st. 

Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips

2/3 c crunchy peanut butter (smooth may be substituted)
1/2 c butter, softened but not melted
1 c white sugar
1 c brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
3 T cold coffee
approximately 3 to 3 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
3/4 c miniature chocolate chips

1.  Cream the peanut butter, butter,  white and brown sugar. When thoroughly mixed, stir in the eggs and coffee.
2.  Sift about 2 1/2 to 3 cups of flour with the baking soda and baking powder. Add to the creamed mixture and combine thoroughly.
3.  Stir in the chocolate chips and blend. Add enough more flour to make a soft dough that can be formed into balls without being sticky.
4.  Roll into balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet, leaving lots of room between the cookies. (Eleanor's card includes this note:  "Warning! Cookies spread!) Then press each cookie down with a fork in a criss-cross fashion,

OR:

ELEANOR'S ALTERATION: 
Instead of using a fork, flatten the cookies slightly with a glass and then use a fork, knife or other utensil to make letter impressions. For our family, she made some Ss, Xs, Es, and As and discovered the straight letters were much easier than the curves. As you may be able to see in the photo, these letters were not too legible after baking, but they were clear enough that each of the kids were able to pick out their "own."

5.  Bake at 350 degrees about 10 to 13 minutes.

If you make the balls about the size of a ping pong ball or slightly smaller, you should have about 30 to 36 cookies that will be around 3 inches across when baked.