Toasty Browned Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Toasty Browned Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Toasty Browned Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies




My husbands favorite cookie is a plain old fashioned oatmeal raisin cookie. While I like them, they aren’t my favorite and because of that and cause my husband is diabetic yet would eat every single cookie made, I don’t make them often. But I had been craving some the last week or so and decided to see what I could do to change them up a bit. I love using browned butter in baking so that was one thought. It adds such a delicious nutty flavor to foods. But then I decided to take the nuttiness one step further and I toasted the oats for these cookies.

These turned out wonderfully. They have a yummy, toasty, almost butterscotch flavor due to the browned butter and toasted oats. The edges have that sought after crispness with nice soft chewy middles. I was rather tickled with myself on how these turned out and can’t think of anything I would change next time I make them. I wasn’t sure what to name them so I asked my facebook readers to help me. Unfortunately, though they made some awesome suggestions, none quite resonated with me so the above name is what we ended up with.

You know the drill… 🙂

Toasty Browned Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

  • 1 cup unsalted butter
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup wheat germ (I used the honey crunch flavored type)
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries (you can obviously sub out all of one or the other if you prefer)
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon orange zest (optional)
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 cups oats
  1. Preheat the oven to 350.
  2. Place the butter in a medium pot. Over medium to medium high heat, let the butter melt and cook, swirling the pot periodically, until the butter is a dark golden brown and has a nutty scent. Do NOT turn our back on it once it starts to color. This can go from browned to a smelly burned mess quickly. When done, set it aside to cool.
  3. While this cools, toast your oats. Pour the oats onto a cookie sheet and shake to settle them into a single layer. Toast them until they are a light brown color, stirring and spreading again a couple of times,  about 20 minutes. Cool for about ten minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, combine the eggs, orange zest if using and vanilla and beat well. Dump the raisins and cranberries in there and just let it sit while the butter cools. This gives the fruits time to soften a bit.
  5. In a large bowl, combine the cooled butter and the two sugars. Beat well to combine. Add in the flour, wheat germ, baking soda and salt. Beat on medium speed to combine. Add in the egg/fruit mix and beat just until combined.
  6. Fold in the oats. Make balls of dough about 2 inches in diameter (you can make smaller or larger but adjust the cooking time accordingly) and place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 8 to a sheet.
  7. Bake at 350 until the tops are firm and cookies are a medium golden brown, about 13 to 15 minutes, depending on size. Let cool on pan for a minute then transfer to a rack to finish cooling.

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Boozy Browned Butter Brownies

Boozy Browned Butter Brownies

Boozy Browned Butter Brownies




Heh. Title as tongue twister. I thought about Browned Butter Baileys & Kahlua Brownies, but that just wasn’t as fun. Then again, I’m probably just easily amused.

I posted on my facebook page earlier that I found it funny that bloggers are accused of *cough cough, I’m looking at you, Martha Stewart* not testing recipes and just generally not knowing what they are doing. Why did I find that funny? Because it took me more than one pan of these brownies to get it right, to get it to where I thought they were good enough. Mind you, my boys absolutely loved the pans that didn’t make the cut. Brownie overload. But I was NOT going to post a recipe/slash photo that wasn’t good enough. And I know I’m in the majority with that opinion. The majority of bloggers I know won’t post something that either doesn’t turn out magically wonderful on the first try or that they haven’t decided is great after the 73rd try (and fail). We take as much pride in our work as people in any other job. The ones that don’t are the ones that disappear after six months because blogging is work. The things we post don’t happen in five minutes. We spend hours a day creating (or recreating and making our own the recipes of others) recipes, photographing them, writing posts etc etc. Why? Because we love you *breaks into the Mickey Mouse Club Theme Song* And because we love to cook, and love to write and love the people we meet. Bottom line though? Find a decent blogger…and chances are you are finding someone whose recipes you can trust. I hope you count me among them. If for no other reason than my sons are over here getting nauseous and fat from too many brownies.

Boozy Browned Butter Brownies

  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp
  • 4 ounces good quality unsweetened chocolate (Again, Ghirardelli makes a good one), coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
  • 1 3/4 cup sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1 8 ounce package cream cheese, room temp
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 3 tablespoons Kahlua
  • 3 tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 inch square pan with foil; butter the foil.
  2. Place your butter in a medium saucepot. Over medium heat, melt the butter and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the butter is golden brown. Watch carefully, cause this can go from brown to black in a second and then all you’ll have is 3/4 of a cup of trash.
  3. Remove from heat and add in the 4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate. Let sit for five minutes, then stir to get a smooth mixture.  Stir in the brown sugar and a 1/2 cups of the white sugar. Add in the vanilla and 3 of the eggs, one at a time, and stir well after each one.
  4. Stir in the flour, then spoon half of the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
  5. In a small mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese and 2 tablespoons flour. Using a hand mixer, beat at low speed until well combined. Add in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the egg; beat well.
  6. Add in the liquors (you can btw, sub any favorite liquor for the Kahlua and Baileys. Using all of one of them would be yummy, as would something like Amaretto or Frangelico or maybe Peppermint Schnapps for a Christmas version) and beat well.
  7. Pour the cream cheese batter over the top of the brownie batter. Spoon portions of the remaining brownie batter over the cheesecake batter and use a knife or the back of a spoon to swirl the two batters together. The brownie batter is thick so don’t expect it to swirl easily.
  8. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out with just a few moist crumbs on it.
  9. Let cool in pan on a rack for about an hour, then use the foil to take the brownies from the pan. These will cut easier (and have a better texture) if you let them chill overnight. Slice with a hot sharp knife.

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Browned Butter Vanilla Bean Pound Cake

Browned Butter Vanilla Bean Pound Cake

Browned Butter Vanilla Bean Pound Cake


Years back, when I was still in the learning stages of baking, not to mention more broke than a Timex watch that was stepped on by an Elephant (I don’t care what the commercials said back in the day. if an elephant steps on your watch, it’s broken.), I used to use imitation vanilla. It was inexpensive, it smelled vanilla-y enough to me and I didn’t realize (nor would I have cared back then when I was young and stupid) that it is made from wood pulp. Yum. Vanilla wood cake. Wood ice cream anyone? Then, as I learned more and my budget expanded a little, I would get the real vanilla. If you’re one of those who thinks they are both ok, do me a favor just one time. Buy a bottle of real vanilla, then cover your eyes and have someone wave them, one at a time, under your nose. You will know IMMEDIATELY (unless you can’t smell, or are drunk, or have a cold, or forgot to take the clothespin off your nose when you were ten and trying to get a laugh and your mom was right; your face froze that way, in which case I’m sorry) which one is real and which is fake.

Now however, while I still use real vanilla extract in most things, I also have a stash of vanilla beans I keep around. I use those sparingly because they are as expensive as all hell, but oh so worth it for aroma alone. You can buy some on Amazon. Do NOT buy the ones in the glass bottle from McCormick at the grocery store. I normally love their products but not the vanilla beans. You may as well cook with a twig as hard and flavorless as those are.

This cake came about because of my love for both vanilla and browned butter. The two flavors make practically anything taste better. Except liver. Liver is hopeless. I used a basic whipping cream pound cake recipe and subbed in browned butter for the regular and vanilla bean (as well as extract) for just extract. I also added TOUCH, just a touch, of lemon. I wanted a complementary flavor to bring out the vanilla, but not overpower it. It is NOT a lemon pound cake so if you see lemon in there and think it will be, you’ll be disappointed. The lemon is there, but it’s subtle which is what I wanted. If you want more lemon, double the amount of lemon in the batter and use lemon juice in the glaze instead of cream. This isn’t a spur of the moment cake to make for dinner three hours before serving time. You need to chill the butter after browning plus the cake itself will taste better and cut better if you leave it alone overnight, same as with any pound cake.

You know the drill…

Browned Butter Vanilla Bean Pound Cake

  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
  • 3 vanilla beans
  • 2 1/3 cups sugar
  • 6 eggs
  • 2 3/4 cups flour
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
  • 2 teaspoons lemon zest
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • Glaze-
  • 2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  1. Place the butter in a medium saucepot. Cook over medium high heat, stirring frequently, until it is a golden brown color. Take off of the heat immediately as it can go from golden to black in a second.
  2. Pour the butter into a glass bowl and set to the side.
  3. Split the vanilla beans in half and carefully scrape out all of the seeds. Scrape all of the seeds into the bowl of butter and stir well to mix. Refrigerate the butter for about 45 to 70 minutes, just long enough where when stirred, it is the consistency of softened butter.
  4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour a a ten inch bundt pan or use Bakers Joy and spray the pan well. Scrape the butter into a large bowl, making sure to get all the little bits from the bottom of the bowl. Add in the sugar and beat well. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add in the extracts, lemon zest and lemon juice; beat well.
  5. Add the flour alternately  with the cream, about a third at a time of each, beating well after each addition.
  6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a skewer inserted into the center comes out mostly clean, with just a few moist crumbs on it, about 90 minutes.
  7. Cool for 30 minutes in the pan on a rack, then use a butter knife to loosen the cake from the edges of the pan and invert onto the rack to finish cooling.
  8. For the glaze, pour the vanilla into the cream. Whisk this into the powdered sugar in a small bowl until smooth and creamy. If it’s too thick, just add more cream, a tablespoon at a time, to get the desired consistency. Slowly pour over the cake.

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Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Caramel Pie With Salted Caramel Sauce

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie With Salted Caramel Sauce-001

I am one of those weirdos who owns enough cookbooks to fill a room. It would be a small room yes, but a room nonetheless. Adding in cooking magazines like those Holiday ones that come out yearly and old issues of Gourmet and Food And Wine, etc etc, as well as paper cookbooks like the ones Pillsbury used to put out monthly (do they even still do that?) I have over a thousand cookbooks. It’s a sickness. Honest. And in our modern era, it’s a sickness that has gotten worse. How? Because now, I can get a cookbook out of the library and if it’s one that I find I’ve put about 10 or more sticky tabs in to save the pages, that means it a keeper. That used to mean that I would have a bazillion overdue books lol. But now it means that I can find the same cookbook on Amazon and buy it, sometimes for as little as 4 bucks with shipping, and tab the hell out of that bad boy.

But a lot of my favorite cookbooks are older ones that have proved to be tried and true. My Fanny Farmer Baking Book is one that I use often as are, surprisingly enough, a handful of the old Pillsbury paper cookbooks. Probably because, back when I was still learning to cook for a family, I found many recipes that went into our traditional holiday routine from them.

Another that I use is an old spiral bound Nestle Toll House cookbook. I was looking through it for inspiration the other day when I saw a recipe for Toll House Pie. It’s one that many home cooks have made… a chocolate chip cookie dough set into a pie shell. Sounded like something I could play with. The first time I made it, I undercooked it. Plus, the recipe had NO vanilla in it at all and far too much butter, to the point where I had to clean my oven because it lefts puddles of scorched butter on the bottom of it.

This time, I did it MY way. I added in some vanilla extract, used less butter, browned the butter for a nutty flavor (on a side note, with the browned butter, this batter was good enough to just eat out of the bowl! OMG, it was yummy!), added some caramel bits and topped the slices with some salted caramel sauce and chocolate sauce. All in all, made that way, it can be either a special dessert for the family or something worthy of guests.

Don’t be tempted to add extra chocolate chips or caramel to this. You know you’ll want to (we ALL do it 😛 ) but I think that was part of the reason my first pie didn’t cook correctly. There was just too much in it for it to cook through even though it seemed done. Stick to the measurements here.

You know the drill. 🙂

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Caramel Pie With Salted Caramel Sauce

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, browned to a golden brown, then cooled to room temp
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup Kraft caramel bits (you can also use whole caramels; just cut into quarters to get the 1/2 cup measure)
  • 1 9 inch pie shell, unbaked (you can use store bought or homemade. I went the lazy route this time and used a frozen shell)
  • A half batch of this caramel sauce or you can use pre-jarred (I used Trader Joes Salted Caramel sauce because it’s amazing and almost as good as homemade) for drizzling…pouring…eating plain…bathing in…whatever
  • Chocolate sauce for drizzling
  1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
  2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs until foamy.
  3. Add in the flour, sugar, dark brown sugar and vanilla extract.
  4. Blend in the browned butter, then fold in the chocolate chips and the caramel bits.
  5. Spoon into the pie shell and smooth top with a rubber/silicone spatula. Eat what’s left on the spatula. Make sure it’s a lot. You can thank me later.
  6. Bake at 325 for 60 to 70 minutes. The top should be golden brown and dry looking. Let cool to room temp before slicing then use a hot sharp (preferably serrated) knife to get clean cuts. Cut this into VERY thin slices as it’s quite sweet and rich. You should be able to get ten slices from this pie easily.
  7. Top each slice with a (large) dollop of salted caramel and drizzle with chocolate sauce. Sprinkle each slice with a little sea salt if you’re so inclined. If you’re really into overkill and diabetic comas, spoon on some whipped cream too. I won’t judge.

Copyright Notice: From Cupcakes To Caviar images and original content are copyright protected. Please do not publish these materials anywhere without prior permission.

 

 

Just Because I Love You…

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip & Toffee Cookies

And you and you and you…and yeah, you too, even if you DO drink pepsi. 😀

Just because I love you all… well, maybe not you; you annoy me. But the rest of you are pretty darn cool. Soooo… as I was saying… just because I love you, I made cookies. Quite a few of them. And if you get a plane ticket, book a hotel room because if you stayed here you’d be clinically insane within three hours so that you can be all comfy, bring your own booze cause what I have would probably bore you and please make sure you have a Scrabble dictionary with you because I am going to force you to play Scrabble with me but no one can touch my Scrabble dictionary because it was my dads…. if you do all of this, I’ll feed you these utterly delicious cookies. I might even be persuaded to make some dinner for you and whip you up a cup of my famous hot chocolate. Continue reading