Iced Molasses Oatmeal Cookies

You know, even when I'm trying to eat clean and healthy, I still demand treats. The last thing I eat before I go to bed has to be a sweet reward for making it through the day with sanity intact. Maybe there's a causal relationship between sweet treats and sanity. I think the reason I haven't gone completely off my rocker is because sugar is my prozac. Some say that sugar makes them hyper; I say it makes you calm. If you don't believe me, just try and withold my sugar tonight, and you'll see a crazed, bulging-eyed, thirty-something woman in agitated crisis. I think, anyway. I've never gone without, so this is all purely hypothetical. But why take any chances when marital bliss and a happy home are hanging in the balance? Feed me, Seymour.
Anyway, like every other woman in the America, I'm eating a little better knowing that swimsuit weather is in the forecast. But I'm also a member of Tuesdays with Dorie, my weekly baking club, that thinks nothing of nibbling on cubes of butter for an appetizer. OK, maybe a slight exaggeration, but this week, I found myself wanting to rev up the nutrition profile of our cookie assignment. (Chockablock Cookies-a molasses cookies packed full of mix-ins like chocolate chunks, coconut, nuts, and dried fruit. Umm, my cookie is only slightly related, by marriage.) By my calculations, my adapted Iced Molasses and Oatmeal Cookie, weighed in at a little less than a hundred calories, with a generous portion of fiber. But who makes a cookie because it's healthful? Make it because it's deeply yummy, especially with the sweet icing drizzled on top. And make it also because a couple of these waiting for you at the end of the night can help you make it through the laundry, homework projects, and work e-mails. And if you can do that and still look good in your swimsuit, well, you might even be able to avoid at least a mid life crisis or two.
Iced Oatmeal-Molasses Cookies
adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Chock a Block Cookies
Estimated Cost: about $2.00 for 20 cookies
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teassoon salt
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
For Glaze:
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1-2 teaspoons milk or orange juice
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add molasses, then egg. Stir in vanilla. Sprinkle in the powder, soda, and salt and mix well. Add oats and flour. Dough should be soft and only slightly sticky, like the consistency of playdough. If dough is too wet, add in more flour 1 tablespoon at a time. Roll cookies into balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes or until just set. Let cool for five minutes. Make the glaze by combining powdered sugar and milk in a small bowl. Drizzle on warm cookies and serve.
Next Up:
Grilled Steak Salad with Carrot-Ginger Dressing

Molasses Walnut Mini Loaves

This morning, my two little charges requested homemade bread for dinner. I'm not sure if they want homemade bread because they want to eat it, or if they simply just want to play around with the dough. I'm happy to indulge either activity. Mostly, I'm hopeful that they will have memories of kneading and stretching in the kitchen with their mother and that will help them forget the times when I am a frazzled housefrau. Bread baking doesn't require an immense amount of labor, but you do have to be around the house at the right moments.
Incidentally, this is isn't any old homemade bread. It's rich with molasses, studded with walnuts, and hearty with oats and whole wheat. If you are baking a special type of bread, like this one, you will be paying about a fourth of what you'd pay at the bakery. Today I'm baking the loaves in 6 disposable miniature loaf pans. Despite their "disposable" convenience, I reuse them over and over again. Making mini loaves means that we can share our healthful bread with the neighbors. If I've timed it right, we'll have hot homemade bread to eat with out supper tonight.

Molasses Walnut Whole Wheat Mini Loaves
Estimated Cost per 6 mini loaves: $2.75
1 cup boiling water
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 tablespoon butter
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup molasses
2 and 1/4 teaspoons active rise yeast
1/2 cup very warm water
2 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour, plus more as needed
1 cup chopped walnuts
a bit of butter and oats for the tops of the loaves

In a large bowl, combine water, oats, butter, salt, and molasses. Stir and set aside until warm, about 30 minutes. In a separate small bowl, proof yeast with water. (Basically, mix the two together and make sure the yeast has risen significantly after ten minutes. You can throw in a pinch of sugar for good measure.) Add yeast mixture, and flour a little at a time to molasses mixture. A free stand mixer with a dough hook is handy here, but not necessary. If you're making the bread by hand, stir in as much flour as you can, then remove the dough to a board and knead in the additional flour to form a smooth dough. When the dough is still slightly sticky, add in the walnuts. (I usually separate the dough at this point into two separate batches, since my children aren't nuts about nuts and I am. Oh, yes I am.)
Place the dough in a bowl, cover with saran wrap and let rise until doubled, about 1 and 1/2 hours. Punch down dough, transfer to 6 lightly greased miniature loaf pans. (You can use 2 standard sized loaf pans; bake for one hour.) Let rise, covered for 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake loaves for 25-30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes and remove from pans. Brush the loaves with butter and sprinkle with a bit of oats. This bread is at it's best warm with butter and honey.