Improve your KitchenAid mixer

Chewy oatmeal raisin cookies

4/26/2021

Who doesn't love an oatmeal cookie? It's a classic in every grandma's kitchen. But is your grandma's recipe chewy? Does it have great texture? This one does!

We've slightly adapted a recipe by Rebecca Firth for National Oatmeal Cookie Day, April 30. She has tons of great and reliable recipes in her book The Cookie Book and on her baking blog, displacedhousewife.

These oatmeal cookies - made with bread flour for a better chew - are the ultimate in comfort food. We made our cookies with golden raisins and toasted, chopped pecans. Feel free to substitute the raisins for your favorite dried fruit (or leave them out all together). You can also add nuts and/or chocolate. Consider this a wonderful, oat-y base for whatever flavors strike your fancy - or whatever is in your pantry right now.

The recipe makes about 24, 3-inch cookies. They should keep around 3-4 days at room temperature in a sealed container. You can also freeze for up to 3 months.

NOTE

We highly recommend chilling the dough before baking and using a cookie scoop to form the dough after it is chilled. It's super-sticky and is easier to handle when it's cold.

ingredients

8 Tablespoons (114g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (210g) light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup (96g) granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup (118ml) neutral flavor oil, like canola or sunflower seed
1 Tablespoon (15ml) vanilla extract
1 cup (128g) bread flour
1 cup (128g) all-purpose flour
1-1/4 teaspoons (3g) cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
3 cups (273g) old-fashioned rolled oats
2-1/2 cups (365g) golden or dark raisins
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans or walnuts (optional)
1 cup chocolate chips (if not using raisins. If raisins, try 1/2 cup)

directions

If using nuts, we recommend toasting them. Do this first in a skillet on medium heat until they smell toasty, just a few minutes. Set aside to cool.
In your stand mixer fitted with SideSwipe or your flat paddle, add butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar. Mix on medium to medium-high speed until light and fluffy. With SideSwipe, about 3 minutes. Up to 4 with standard paddle.
With the mixer on low, add the eggs one at a time, making each is incorporated before adding the next.
Still on low, add the oil and vanilla and mix until incorporated, 30 seconds to a minute.
In a small bowl, whisk together the bread flour, AP flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt and nutmeg. We like to use flexible silicone measuring cups to make it easier to pour into the mixer.
Pour the flour into the mixing bowl before you turn it on. Turn the mixer to your lowest speed and mix the dough until it is almost blended. It is fine to have small streaks of unmixed dry ingredients at this stage. Turn mixer off.
Add the oatmeal, raisins and other add-ins into the mixer bowl. Again on lowest speed, mix until just distributed throughout. You don't want to overmix or you could end up with tough cookies.
Heat oven to 350F (177C) and put dough in the refrigerator to chill for 30-60 minutes. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone liners.
Using a 2-Tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop dough onto lined cookie sheets, leaving about 2 inches (5cm) between the cookies. With damp hands, press down the balls to form a flatter disk.
Bake one sheet at a time in the center of the oven for 12-13 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 15 minutes before moving to a rack to finish cooling.

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salted peanut blondies

4/4/2021

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We in the SideSwipe kitchen have a (small) obsession for super-crunchy peanuts we buy from Costco. And we looove salty-sweet snacks. So when we saw this recipe in Valerie Gordon's book Sweet, we had to give it a try (with a few tweaks, as per usual).

The unusual ingredients create a symphony of textures and flavors that makes these little blondies really sing. Salty and sweet! Soft and crunchy! In some of the photos, you'll see we added a drizzle of melted chocolate. Double chocolate and a final sprinkle of salt really dresses up these bars for a party.

We like this as a small (half) batch bake, and we include baking directions below in our notes section. Enjoy!

Ingredients & Equipment

2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
12 Tablespoons (1-1/2 sticks, 6 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups (12 ounces) light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste (can sub with extract)
2 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup (4.13 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup (3.5 ounces) high quality, extra-crunchy Virginia peanuts**
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel (add more if you want extra salty)

Optional Chocolate Drizzle

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips for melting and drizzling

Directions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F
Coat 9 x 13 inch pan's bottom and sides with cooking spray. You can also use a sprayed parchment sling.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with SideSwipe or a flat paddle, cream the butter and brown sugar on medium to medium-high speed until light and fluffy. This takes a while, several minutes with SideSwipe and longer with a standard beater.
Add the vanilla bean paste and mix on medium until incorporated.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition until blended.
Add the dry ingredients, one half at a time, and mix on low speed until just barely incorporated. You may see some little white streaks. That is fine.
Add the chocolate chips and mix on low until distributed throughout the dough.
Spread the batter into the prepared baking pan. The dough will be sticky, so it is best to use your fingertips to distribute into corners and making it level.
Sprinkle the chopped peanuts over the top, patting gently. Sprinkle the fleur de sel over the top as well.
Bake for 45-55 minutes, until the edges appear crisp, the top is lightly golden, and a toothpick comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Watch when you get close to the time. We overbaked ours. It went from underdone to VERY golden in about a minute. :) Let the blondies cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before cutting with a sharp knife.
Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days. You can freeze a partial or full sheet of blondies, double-wrapped in plastic, for up to 2 months.

Notes

SMALL BATCH: We made a half batch in an 8 x 8 inch pan. Baking time should be 21-23 minutes. We went 23 in our well-calibrated oven and it was just a bit too much.
These blondies are a little thinner than many recipes. The photos show the 1-inch height.
Please find some high quality extra-crunchy peanuts for this recipe. We used Virginia peanuts, which look a little blistered, but are fabulous! We find them in a big metal tub at our local Costco.

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BUNNY COOKIES

4/1/2021

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These cookies are the perfect not-so-messy project to bake with your kids or grandkids for the Easter holiday (or if you just want to make cute little bunnies). These tender cuties come together in a flash in your stand mixer with only six ingredients you probably already have in your pantry. It's up to you and your co-bakers to decide which colors to use, which flavor you like best and if you want to make them into cats instead!

Allow two hours total to mix, form, refrigerate and bake these cookies. Recipe makes about 36 bunny cookies.

ingredients & special tools

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or another flavor (we like 1/2 tsp almond extract)
1/4 teaspoon Morton kosher or table salt
1 large egg white
3 cups all-purpose flour
Gel food coloring (about a pea size of each of pink and violet) or liquid colors
Small, fine bladed scissors like sewing scissors (we used herb shears)
Round toothpicks

directions

In your stand mixer fitted with SideSwipe or a flat beater, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy, 1-2 minutes.

Beat in salt, egg whites and vanilla on medium speed until fully combined.
Add flour about 1 cup at a time and mix on lowest speed until just moistened. You'll want the dough to look unfinished after the third addition so it won't be overmixed after you color it. If you are not planning to color the cookies, continue mixing until the dough just comes together into a ball.
Divide the dough into sections for each color.
Add the smaller dough ball back into the mixer with your food coloring. Mix on lowest speed until color is fairly well distributed. You may want to give the colored dough ball a few kneads after removing to finish the coloring process. Repeat with other colors.
Put the dough into bowls or onto parchment or wax paper and chill for 15-30 minutes to make it easier to handle. You can skip this step, but we found it to be helpful.
Using a 1 Tablespoon cookie scoop or a measuring spoon, scoop dough and roll gently in your hands using a circular motion to form a ball. Once the ball is formed, roll the ball in one direction to form a rounded oval/egg shape.
Hold the blades of fine bladed scissors at a 30-degree angle to the oval ball, scooping downward a little as you snip the ears. The cut should be about 2/3 the length of the dough ball. Be sure not the snip all the way through the dough. We used our finger to gently press the point of the ears inward to blunt the snipped point so it looked more like bunny ears.
With a toothpick, poke holes for eyes and mouth if desired.
Transfer to a parchment- or silicone-lined baking sheet. The chilled cookies spread very little, so leave only about 1 inch between them. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
Heat oven to 350°F.
Bake the cookies for 14-17 minutes, until the bottoms turn a golden color. Ours were perfect at 15 minutes.
Cool on the pan for 3-5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Cookies can be stored in an air-tight container for up to 3 days at room temperature.

NOTES

If you don't like the bunny ears you made, just re-roll the dough and try again. The best ears take a little practice. You may want to help your littlest ones if they are budding perfectionists. We did this a few times, then just decided to be happy with them. It's modern art, not a Michelangelo :)
You can substitute extracts for different flavors. If you'd like, add the extracts in the coloring stage and you will have a different flavor for each color.
We have a videos in the works that show the mixing and the forming of the bunny. We'll provide a links here soon.

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no-spread sugar cookies

3/3/2021

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Looking for a new sugar cookie recipe? this one checks a lot of boxes. Almond-y flavor? Check. Soft texture? Check. Won't spread? Check. In fact, this is the perfect recipe for when you need to use a dough that won't spread and distort the shapes in your cookies. You'll notice there's no leavening other than what's provided by the egg.

We're not sure this was needed for these cookies - we might have liked the shamrocks to spread a little to connect better. But we think these photos illustrate how well the dough keeps its shape.

This recipe requires chilling, so it's not a super quick one. But it keeps in the fridge for a few days, so there's no reason not to make the dough one night and do the cutting and decorating with the kiddos the next day or later. Like they'd wait. :)

You have the option of keeping the cookies plain, as shown, or decorating with crusting buttercream, royal icing, or a simple glaze. Feel free to add color to the dough as we did. And of course, sprinkles. You can always use sprinkles.

These cookies are best in the first couple of days if not iced; maybe 4 days if iced. We usually freeze half the cookies after we cut them out. Our preferred method: first freeze on a tray, then transfer frozen cookies to a zip bag. They will keep in the freezer for a couple of months and make it easy and fast to bake and decorate cookies with your family. Or just for you.

ingredients

1 cup (114g) unsalted butter , softened to room temperature
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1-1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon table salt (half that for kosher)
3 cups (375g) all-purpose flour

directions

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and salt and set aside. We like to use a flexible silicone bowl.
In your stand mixer fitted with SideSwipe or your flat paddle, cream together butter and sugar. Begin on low speed, then increase speed to medium high. This should take a couple of minutes and is done when the butter is lighter in color and appears fluffy.
Add egg and beat on medium until combined.
Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix until combined.
On your mixer's lowest speed: add the flour, about 1/3 of the total (1 cup) at a time, adding the next cup when the flour is mostly incorporated. After the final cup, mix until just combined. The dough will be quite heavy and will stick to your bowl and beater.
Remove the dough from the mixer. If you plan to color the dough, divide into portions and color.
Roll the colors separately onto parchment paper, dusted with a little flour, to about 3/8 inch (.95cm) thick. Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes or up to two days.
Heat oven to 375F (190C). Arrange racks so you can bake in the center of the oven.
Cut cookies into the desired shapes and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. They can be placed fairly close together as they spread very little. Reroll and re-refrigerate extra dough before cutting additional shapes.
Bake cookies for about 8-10 minutes. For soft cookies, you will want to bake only until the bottom edge barely turn a golden brown. For us, that was 8 minutes. You may want to check your cookies a little early if you don't use an oven thermometer. If you like a crispier cookie or think our cookies look a bit underbaked, bake 9 minutes.
Cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes to allow them to set up.
If using frosting, icing or glaze, wait until completely cool. Decorate over a piece of wax paper on your countertop.
Remove to a plate or container to enjoy.

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Chewy oatmeal raisin cookies

NOTE

ingredients

directions

salted peanut blondies

Ingredients & Equipment

Directions

Notes

BUNNY COOKIES

ingredients & special tools

directions

NOTES

no-spread sugar cookies

ingredients

directions

Recipes and mixing tips

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