Breakfast Thumbprint Cookies

This semester I am in a class called Ingredient Interactions.  Throughout the lectures and labs we're looking at the affect different foods and compounds have in a recipe.

For lab this week we explored substitutions in muffins: applesauce for oil, soy flour for the egg, oat flour for the all-purpose flour, and Equal for the sugar.

Whether we make substitutions to make a recipe healthier, to avoid an allergen, or just for fun; these changes have affects on the success of the recipe.  The oat flour muffins were crumbly because the oats have no gluten, the applesauce muffins browned a little more because they had more sugar from the applesauce.

I had so much fun trying the muffins and discussing the differences with my classmates and professors.  I look forward to what I'm going to learn throughout the semester!

Today I set out to make Blueberry Cereal Bars.  Of course that's not what I ended up with.  Along the way I add a little of this, a little of that until  I have something completely different, but wonderful: Breakfast Thumbprint Cookies.  These cookies are  perfect with a cup of coffee for breakfast or an afternoon snack.  The cookie is tender and not overly sweet, it is well-balanced by the refreshing cherry blueberry compote accented with just a hint of orange zest.

Breakfast Thumbprint Cookies

based on Wonderland Kitchen's Blueberry Cereal Bars

Cookie Dough

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1 cup flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

6 tablespoons cold butter, cubed

3/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon almond extract

Compote

1/2 cup dried tart cherries

1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

1/3 cup apricot preserves

1/3 cup water

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

Preheat oven to 375F.  For the cookie dough: add oats to food processor and pulse until oats are coarsely ground.  Remove half the oats and save for later.  Add the flours, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder to the oats in the food processor and pulse until well mixed.  Add butter and pulse until mixture looks like cornmeal.  Pour in milk, vanilla, and almond extract and pulse until a dough ball forms.  Refrigerate dough for 15-20 minutes.

For the compote: add all ingredients to a small saucepan, bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes or until compote liquid is syrupy.  Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes.  Add compote to a blender and puree.  

To assemble:  Form dough, by heaping tablespoons, into balls and roll in reserved ground oats.  Place balls on a greased or lined cookie sheet and press the center of the cookie down with your thumb or the top of a wooden spoon.  Fill the indentation with 1/4 teaspoon of the compote.  Bake on 375F for 12-15 minutes or until edges are golden brown. 

Extra compote is wonderful stirred into a bowl of oatmeal or plain yogurt, for dipping with cinnamon sugar pita chips, or on a piece of buttered toast.

Pecan Pie Brownies

This weekend we had some family friends over and I had a lot of fun planning the menu. 

I marinated pork chops with orange juice and some mesquite seasoning, chicken in a soy sauce and garlic marinade, mashed sweet potatoes with french onion sour cream dip, and made pesto swirl rolls  (the website is in Turkish, so I just took inspiration from the photos).  But the highlight of the evening was Pecan Pie Brownies.

How can you go wrong with pecan pie on top of brownies?  You can't.  Rich chocolate brownies topped with crunchy caramel coated pecans was the perfect ending to a fun filled evening with great friends.

The recipe comes from Dinners with Julie and I made relatively no changes, so I won't copy the recipe here. Instead of baking them in square pans, I did mine in a 9" pie plate.  2 cups of pecans seemed excessive, so I only used 1. 

Pecan pie brownies is a genius recipe and I will definitely be making them again, even without the pecan pie part the base is a simple and superb chocolate brownie recipe I'll keep close at hand.