Baking 101

Sweet Jesus, is it actually possible? Could it be true? Is this week really over? Oh, how I've longed, how I've pined for this day!!! Dramatic? Sure. Hyperbolic? Maybe a little. But generally accurate? Absolutely. I know I fibbed a little about being busy last post, but trust me when I say this week it's been pure fact.

You see, friends, this week was my last, I repeat LAST, week of restaurant block. What a miracle of biblical proportion! From day one the thought of restaurant block had me shaking in my steel-toed kitchen boots. I was so nervous. Plated desserts weren't what I was looking forward to and I was certain I'd, for lack of a better word, suck. And then there was the final. Four plated desserts (each with a minimum of five components) in twelve minutes. AAAHH! The twelve minute plate-up time wasn't even the scary part. We were given a total of twelve hours (spread over three days) for all of our production. And four desserts with five items each (more like seven or eight for people like me who get sick thrills from living on the edge and have pastry ambition running through our veins) in twelve hours is intimidating. Not to mention each dessert has to be completely different and repeating flavors is a no-go. Plus we had menus and portfolios due on the same day and a portfolio for restaurant block is ridiculously extensive/tedious/annoying/the-reason-i-spent-fifteen-dollars-at-kinkos/i-hate-it.

The idea of working in a restaurant has just never appealed to me. I don't want to quinelle ice cream and sorbet all night, or sauce plates for hours on end. Sit me in front of a cake stand and give me some fondant and I'm a much happier camper. But I was lucky. I had an awesome chef instructor named Michelle Antonishek who was encouraging and patient and so so talented (after all, she was the executive pastry chef at NYC's famous Gramercy Tavern). She made the class I was dreading into something fun and, as it turns out, I'm good at it! It's still not something I wanna do for the rest of my life, but now I know I can and I'm walking away with some pretty valuable skills in my back pocket. You can look at my plates here! I'm such a proud papa. Or mama. But I prefer alliteration over gender accuracy. :)

ANYWHOOOOO, after all this hip, modern, plated dessert madness the only thing I really want right now is some good, down home, simple oven love. Mayhaps in the form of a cookie? As in...an oatmeal-pecan cookie? Yeaaaaah. I'm a cookie girl at heart, it's true. The smell of them wafting through the house, the growing warmth of the kitchen as the oven heats up, the tongue-burning satisfaction of chowing down as soon as they hit the cooling rack, it all just screams home to me and I miss home today. Plus, cookies are a pastry basic. Baking 101, if you will. One of those things that everyone should know how to make and make well. It's just a good life skill. I know I've held tight to the sentiment that if there was no picture then there would be no post but gimme a break, people. The craving hit and I started typing. I've made them so many times that I wasn't concerned with the possibility of a crash-and-burn scenario. You'll just have to trust me on this one. They r0xb0x.

I found this recipe in my mom's little recipe collection about two years ago and it turned out that it came from a not-so-nice lady who I'm definitely not-so-fond-of. I guess when you make cookies like these it's easy to accumulate friends even if you're sort of a bitch. Sorry...As mom would say, truth hurts. Back to the cookies! They're amazing. Thin and crispy and sweet and oh I can almost taste them right now! Please make these cookies. And then make another batch to share with your friends and family. They're that good. So that's the why, here's the how:

Ingredients

• 1 cup Shortening (I know lots of people shy away from it, but it really does have it's place in the kitchen so give it a break)
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
  
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract (Just a word to the wise, Mexican Vanilla trumps everything else, and whenever a recipe calls for a tsp, I usually make it two)
• 2 Eggs, well beaten
• 1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour, packed down (which is usually a baking no-no but this time we're making an exception)
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 3 cups Old Fashioned Oats (the regular stuff, not the quick-cooking kind)
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup (depending on your tastes) chopped pecan

Go ahead and preheat your oven to 350

Step 1
Thoroughly cream your shortening and and both sugars together until it forms a smooth paste.

Step 2
Combine your eggs and vanilla and slowly add to shortening/sugar mixture, beating well after each addition.

Step 3
Using a metal sieve, sift together your flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture in three stages, mixing after each until just combined.

Step 4
Fold in oats and pecans.

Step 5
Now here comes the only difficult part in this recipe. You have to somehow manage to get the dough from the bowl onto the baking sheet WITHOUT EATING IT ALL! I know, it's tricky. But I have faith in you. And if you happen to lose a few spoon-fulls in the process, well so be it. I don't think there's a soul out there who could fault you for it. Just place the rest on an ungreased sheet pan in rounded tablespoons and bake for 10 minutes in your 350 oven.

Depending on your personal preference you can take them out a minute early for chewier cookies or leave them in a minute longer for crispy ones. I'm a chewy gal, myself.

And that's it! They're amazing. So soothing. I love them. And I love you. Thanks for hanging out and reading. I'm sorry about not having a picture for you, but I'm hoping you'll like the cookies enough to forgive me. Have a beautiful Saturday and an even better Sunday and I'll be back sometime next week!

XOXO,
Mindy