Foodening Friday – September 13, 2013

Happy Friday the 13th!

This post is pulling double duty this week.
I decided to toss my name (blog?) into the mix on the Pintester Movement – hosted on The Pinterester blog. If you haven’t run across her website, the posts are hilarious if occasionally (ok, frequently) containing language which *might* not be safe for work. The Pinterester Movement is really exactly what it sounds like – readers are encouraged to pick a Pin from Pinterest and then write up a blog about the results.
Since this is almost exactly what I do on Fridays (although the movement isn’t just limited to food pins), I figured I’d do my part and save anyone who is interested the time and energy of deciding if the following recipes were worth making or not. Enjoy fellow readers!

Healthy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

First up! I was on the hunt recently for a healthier oatmeal cookie, to make for a friend’s birthday. Catch was, I’m not a huge fan of oatmeal raisin, so I wasn’t actually sure what would (or wouldn’t) make for a good recipe. In the end, I went with something that I could calculate as being healthy, and just hoped for the best taste-wise. (The recipe made about 14 mounds, which I calculated at about 75 calories per.)

I stay away from baking projects in general because they’re complicated when it comes to ingredients – and it if you leave out or incorrectly measure a SINGLE ingredient…disaster. I’ve also experienced more unintended results when baking – and these oatmeal cookies were no different. The ingredients were quick to combine (although I almost forgot the almond milk!), and I easily scooped them onto the pan. I assumed they’d flatten out during the baking process – like any normal cookie. They didn’t.

As the baking time got closer to being finished, I peaked in to check to see if I needed to keep them in longer – and noticed they had retained their scooped shape. I immediately became worried that the middle of the mounds weren’t cooking properly. So I ‘smooshed’ four of them, to see if they were doing ok in the middle. The texture seemed to the same throughout, so I gave them until the end of the 20 minutes then let them cool.

Since I’m not a fan of the cookie type, I asked my housemate to test and at first, she wasn’t sure about the texture. But as evidenced above, she rose above her hesitation and bravely tested them. Going by how quickly six of them disappeared over the next day, I’m going to say they were a win. Maybe misnamed, but definitely a win. #TasteVerified!

Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

I made these about a month ago, for a friend who was having a bad day. This was one of two cookie recipies I’d looked at, but the only one that actually USED Oreo cookies. Now, if you’re going to call something by a brand name, at least have the decency to INCLUDE the item in the actual recipe. I’m sure I’ll attempt the other recipe at some point, just for comparison. But really, it’s the principle of the thing.

The original blog (and pictures, because I don’t have a great track record of remembering to take pictures either during the cooking process nor the results) can be found here, just scroll down past the original author’s thoughts and frustrations regarding buying shoes.

When I made the cookies I used the type of cream cheese I had in the house, low-fat Philadelphia spreadable cream cheese. Because it’s so smooth in texture already, everything combined REALLY easily in the bowl. Which didn’t immediately raise issues, until it came to the step of trying to scoop the cookies and “roll” them in the cookie crumb. They wouldn’t roll in to a ball. They wouldn’t hold SHAPE of any kind, they were just too…mushy. So I got creative. I grabbed two spoons; scooping with one, did some fancy turning and scooping out of one with the other and with a third spoon, pressed Oreo crumbs all over the “ball”. They went into the oven on a parchment lined sheet, because that’s how I roll – er, bake.

When they came out, I was super concerned – they were incredibly floppy and gooey, and I figured using the spreadable cream cheese had messed it up badly. But I left them to cool and hoped for the best. Thankfully, once they had cooled off enough they formed up quite nicely. Holy crap were they sweet however. You definitely didn’t want to eat more than one or two at a time. I wasn’t too incredibly impressed with the bottom of the cookies – they turned out a little caramelized/burned, which I think came from having them on a piece of parchment instead of a silicone baking sheet – need to get some of those again. But definitely in the WILL MAKE AGAIN category! #TasteVerified!