Crunchy Chocolate Almond Cranberry Batons

These cookies are just amazing! They are crisp, crunchy, not too sweet because of the dark chocolate, and just are a great accompaniment to a cup of coffee! Although the dough is difficult to work with, and slightly messy, the taste makes it all worthwhile. According to an on line calculator for nutrition, each cookie has 6 grams of sugar and 16 grams of carbohydrate. This is not to be taken as scientific but I guess the numbers are close enough. Before baking, the rolled "Sausages" or "Cigars" look pretty unappetizing (yes, they look like exactly what you are thinking, but after baking, the take on a Biscotti like appearance).

Ingredients

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

3/4 cup rolled oats

¾ cup Scottish oatmeal

1/3 cup sesame seeds

1/3 cup white sugar

4 tablespoons water

¼ cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup almond butter

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped

1/2 cup almonds, chopped

1/2 cup unsweetened dark chocolate chunks (1/2 will be melted in the sugar syrup, and ½ chopped and mixed with the cranberries)

Directions

1.      Mix the brown sugar, butter, and water in a small saucepan. Boil to a thin syrup stage (approximately 212 degrees Fahrenheit on a candy thermometer). Put ½ of the chocolate chunks in the syrup, allow to melt, mixing well. Allow to cool to room temperature

2.      In a small bowl, whisk together flour, oatmeal, sesame seeds, oats, salt, baking soda, and allspice. In a large bowl, beat white sugar, cooled sugar syrup/chocolate mixture, and almond butter until well combined. Beat in eggs, and vanilla. Add the cranberries, and chopped chocolate, almonds, stirring to combine. Fold in the dry ingredients all at once. The dough will be very stiff, and difficult to work with.

3.      Preheat oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

4.      Use your hands (lightly oiled or floured to make handling the dough easier) to roll balls of the dough into cigar or sausage shaped “batons”4”long by ½-3/4” wide (see photo, and yes, they look like "turds")

. Bake 15-20 minutes on lined baking sheet, until lightly browned and firm to the touch. Cool for 20 minutes, the cookies will harden as they cool. 

5.      Lower oven temperature to 275 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for another 15 minutes. Remove from oven, turn cookies over and bake for another 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

Walnut Date Crispbread Pudding

I like bread pudding but not necessarily all the calories and richness that goes along with a "traditional" bread pudding made with white bread. I also like a sticky toffee pudding but again, have to stay away from the sugary sweetness associated with that delicacy. This is a compromise to provide me with the fiber, sticky toffee pudding taste, and all rolled into a bread pudding. I opted to use Scandinavian type Crispbread because it has a lot of fiber, and probably less carbohydrates than ordinary bread (I cut the pudding into 18 squares, and according to one of the online calculators (not to be taken as scientific), each square had 18 grams CHO, and 10 grams sugar. I like the taste of Wasa brand Multigrain but I'm sure any other brand would work just the same. The most important step in this recipe is allowing the crispbread to soak in the custard mixture, in the fridge,until the bread "rehydrates", and becomes soft and spongy. Only then will you put it in the oven.

The recipe is a very flexible one, and the dried fruit, nuts, and spices can be varied to match your taste e.g instead of dates/walnuts, you can use cranberries/almonds/nutmeg/cinnamon/coriander. The type of Crispbread may also be altered, using either a dark or light variety. The pudding may be topped with yogurt or your favorite sauce (toffee, chocolate, butterscotch, whiskey, brandy, rum,etc).

Ingredients 

About 15 pieces of WASA Multigrain Crispbread (use less if you want more "custard" than "Bread"

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup dates, chopped or sliced

½ cup chopped walnuts

4 eggs, beaten

2 cups half and half

1/2 cup white sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons water

 ½ teaspoon ground allspice

½ teaspoon ground cardamom

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions 

1.       Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

2.       Bring the brown sugar and water to a boil then gently simmer to the stage of simple syrup (about 200 degrees Fahrenheit on a candy thermometer. Thin with a little water if it gets too thick on cooling) Allow to cool to room temperature

3.       Lay the crispbread slices in 2 layers to cover the 8x8 area (if you prefer bread pudding with more custard than bread, just use 1 layer).

Melt the butter, then drizzle over crispbread slices.

4.       Sprinkle dates and nuts as evenly as possible over the crispbread. Cover with a final layer of crispbread.

5.       In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, milk, sugar, allspice, cardamom, and vanilla. Beat thoroughly. Pour egg mixture over bread. Lightly push bread down with a fork.

Place in fridge but occasionally (every ½ hour or so) keep using the fork to force the bread under the surface of the liquid. Allow to sit in fridge until bread has become soft and spongy, and almost completely soaked up the milk/egg mixture.

6.       Place in a hot water bath and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 45-60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool on a rack before cutting into squares and serving.
 

Baked Oatmeal Breakfast Pudding Squares

This is an oatmeal breakfast “thing”, with a texture that’s like a heavy rice pudding. It is based on a recipe that used to be on the Quaker Oats site but which I have modified quite significantly. It’s kind of a combination between that original recipe, a recipe for All-Bran cake that used to be on the Kellog’s All-Bran site, and my own taste. It will “stick to your ribs” and keep you feeling full for a long time. It’s not a particularly “healthy” breakfast as you only get 9 squares, and each square or “serving”  has a lot of carbohydrate,35 grams and sugar 16 grams (there were other recipes out there that were even worse, some with sugar content of 30 grams per square, and a much higher "carb" count). However, it is a portable breakfast and freezes well, and warms up well in a microwave. To freeze, wrap each square in plastic wrap, then wrap in aluminum foil, sealing well, then put all in a plastic freezer bag. To defrost, do so by putting it in the fridge overnight, then warm up in the microwave AFTER removing the foil and plastic wrap. This is a very flexible recipe as the dried fruit can be altered to suit your taste (dates, mango, banana,figs,apricots, etc), the spices can be adjusted to match/compliment the fruit you use (cardamom with dates and figs, coriander with apricots or mangoes etc), the type of milk (whole, skim, almond, soy, coconut), and the nuts altered to match the dried fruit (walnuts or pecans with figs and dates, almonds with cranberries or apricots etc). Honey, golden syrup, maple syrup, can be substituted for the molasses, according to your taste and preference.  For those who like things a bit sweeter, the sugar may be increased to 1/2 cup or simply pour a little maple syrup over the square. It's also good when topped with a healthy serving of plain Greek style yogurt.

Ingredients

1 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats, uncooked

1 cup Scottish oatmeal

1/2 cup flax meal

2 tablespoons dry, shredded coconut

1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons molasses

2/3 cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruits)

1/3 cup slivered almonds

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

2 teaspoons grated ginger root

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

2 large eggs

1 medium Granny Smith or other slightly tart apple, peeled and coarsely shredded

2 cups milk

1 1/3 cups half and half

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

1.      Heavily grease a 8x8x2 inch baking tin or Pyrex dish (If I’m using Pyrex, I put about 1-2 tablespoons of butter in the dish, microwave to melt, then swirl around to coat the bottom and sides just like you would do when making a bread pudding. Alternatively, you can also use a square of parchment paper that is larger than the baking dish, and pour the mixture directly on this. After baking, just lift the paper to take it out of the dish).

2.      In a large bowl, combine the oats, oatmeal, chopped cranberries, chopped nuts, cinnamon, allspice, flax meal, coconut, soda, and salt. 

3.      Mix the sugar and molasses with the milk and half and half, mixing well to dissolve the sugar.

4.      Add the shredded apple, vanilla, and grated ginger to this.

5.      Whisk the eggs, and add the milk mixture to this.

6.      Pour into the bowl with the dry ingredients, and mix well. Then pour all into the prepared baking dish, using a spatula to distribute the solids evenly. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight for the dry ingredients to absorb the wet mixture. 

7.      Bake for 55 to 65 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, until the center is set, firm to the touch, and a cake tester inserted comes out relatively clean (there may be some liquid on it but that will be absorbed as the baked oatmeal cools). To get a nice "crust" on top, place under the broil element for 5-7 minutes, watching carefully that it does not burn. Let cool. If you have used the parchment paper technique described earlier, lift the "pudding" out of the dish by the parchment paper. Place on a cutting board, and cut into squares.

Serve warm, or let it cool before freezing. Wrap squares for freezing as indicated above.