Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal

As I mentioned in a previous post, I wanted to try baked oatmeal with peanut butter instead of pumpkin. I figured this would improve the protein profile as well as possibly make this similar to an oatmeal peanut butter cookie in taste. Since peanut butter contains oil, I decided to forgo adding any oil to the batter this time around.

• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granular Splenda (or use white or brown sugar)
• 5 tbsp. peanut butter
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  
• 1/2 cup low-fat milk (or use whole milk)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F./175 degrees C. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

Put the egg, Splenda (or sugar), flour, salt, vanilla and peanut butter in a medium-size bowl. Whisk until the peanut butter is well mixed in. Add the milk and whisk until thoroughly mixed into a smooth, wet paste. Stir in the oatmeal and baking powder until evenly mixed. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes until set.

total for entire loaf: about 1100 calories
6 servings: 183 calories each

Since I'm concerned about sugar because of my husband's blood test results, and Skippy has added sugar, I looked into the nutritional information and determined that each serving of this oatmeal has only 1 gram of sugar (about 1/4 of a tsp.) of sugar from the Skippy. I can't imagine that is a dangerous amount of sugar or that it isn't offset by the amount of protein and fiber in the peanut butter. I also checked on oatmeal, and a 1/2 cup of dry oatmeal has 1 gram of sugar. That means each serving of this has around 1.5 grams of sugar and about 6 grams of protein (from the egg, oatmeal, and peanut butter).

When I tasted the batter for this, I thought it was very sweet compared to the pumpkin version. I used Skippy peanut butter, which has sugar added to it (because that was all I had), so I thought I could scale back the Splenda, but the truth is that the end product was not as sweet as the batter by a long shot.

This was okay, but I thought it came out too dry (note: my husband, who this is made for, was satisfied with the texture and didn't find it too dry). Part of the problem with sugar-free food is that the moisture-enhancing properties of sugar are lost. I think I might need to add some pureed bananas or apples to this next time to moisten it up a bit. It'd probably take about a half cup of either. When I give that a try, I'll post a modified recipe.

by Shari (Orchid64)

The Brownies that Weren't

Before I get started on this post, I feel I must mention that it's been a while since I actually created this recipe; in fact, I've managed to put off writing about it for the better part of three weeks thanks to a sizeable backlog that I managed to compile around labor day (as you've no doubt noticed). That being the case, I can barely remember how I put the recipe together, which is all the more unfortunate since it was a semi-original creation, and thus I don't have a recipe waiting in the ranks for me to reference. As such, I'll be working from my memory, which has been eroded by a steady diet of junk food and wine for the past several weekends. Who knows? Perhaps my memory will improve the results!

Due to a spontaneous lack of cocoa powder in my pantry, I was stymied when I felt like baking something familiar (like brownies, for example). Never being one to let adversity get me down, I decided that if I couldn't have chocolate brownies, I'd have peanut butter brownies instead. ... Er, blondies, I guess. Whatever they're called, I felt that if I had a brownie recipe and I had peanut butter, I could simply remove the chocolate, make some creative substitutions, and voila! Perfect blondies would result! As some might guess, this isn't entirely how things unfolded... (then again, the picture at the top looks good, right?)

Peanut Butter Blondies
(As adapted from my previous brownies recipe)

Ingredients
1/2tsp baking powder
1/3c butter, melted
1/3c peanut butter
1/2c cold milk
2c white sugar
2 eggs
2c all-purpose flour*
1tsp vanilla extract
1/4tsp salt

* Those familiar with my brownies may note that this is way more flour than usual. From my vague recollections, I decided to balance out the lack of cocoa powder with an increase in flour. I'm not entirely sure this is the ratio I used, but we'll go with it.

Preheat oven to 375F

Procedure
1) Mix all the dry ingredients (except the sugar!) in a large bowl with a whisk until well mixed.

Ok, I used a fork. Like it made a difference.

2) In a stand mixer (or another large bowl with a whisk), mix the eggs until lightened and aerated, as shown below:

They hardly look like eggs anymore...

3) While the eggs are mixing, attempt to mix the peanut butter with the melted butter. This step helps soften the peanut butter to a pourable consistency. Of course, the peanut butter doesn't always cooperate, especially when it's organic crap bought from Coscto that you're frantically trying to finish up so that you can never ever use it again. ... Just saying.

Stupid organic junk...

4) Slowly add the sugar to the egg mixture and allow to mix until combined.

It's worth noting that substituting 1c of brown sugar for 1c of white sugar in this recipe can make for added moisture in the end result; I might actually recommend this for future batches.

5) Add the butter/peanut butter mixture to the mixer and wait until combined.

6) Slowly add in the dry ingredients with the mixer on its lowest setting. Note that this step is saved for last because this is where gluten is introduced, which means that mixing time now makes the difference between peanut butter-flavored bread and peanut-butter flavored awesome. Mix only until the dry vanishes from the surface; better to have a few unmixed lumps than to have rubbery blondies.

I spout forth all this advice about gluten, but would you care to guess whether I remembered all this at the time?

7) Pour the mixture into a greased 9x9 pan and smooth out the top.

I actually used a 9x13, as I was making a double batch.

8) Bake at 375F for approximately 35-40 minutes, or until it looks like this:

Since mine was a double batch, I had to guess when they were done. I think it worked out all right.

9) Slice and serve as needed.

Lessons Learned
This was a great learning recipe, perhaps most particularly because I was mostly making it up as I went. That said, due to my mishap with my gluten mixing, my blondes were indeed more peanut butter bread than anything else. Still tasty, but the peanut butter was not strong enough (god I hate that organic junk), so next time around I'd omit butter entirely and substitute all peanut butter (e.g., 2/3c peanut butter). Another enhancement that occurred to me later on would be adding chocolate chips to the batch somewhere around step 6 above; chocolate is always friendly with peanut butter, and it could also add an interesting textural contrast. Nuts might also be acceptable.

Fahrenheit -451

I have a confession to make, my dear readers: I actually made this recipe before the Hostess fiasco detailed below. In my vanity, I chose to post the pocket pie disaster before this one so that I could swiftly cover up my failure with a subsequent success. I'd be ashamed, but somehow, I think I'm OK with it. That said, this recipe is not a complete success, so consider this my way of easing you back into my usual batches of perfection incarnate. I like to try and make things easy on all involved.

As many folks know, with the purchase of a KitchenAid stand mixer comes the opportunity to purchase a myriad of different devices to attach to said mixer in order to perform a variety of different tasks. When the mixer is upgraded with said attachment, one can grind meat, make pasta, juice veggies, and (presumably) produce quality food products by day and fight the forces of evil by night under the psuedonym "Voltron". (Note that I haven't attempted that last one yet, but it is indeed advertised in the KitchenAid attachment catalog. Go ahead! Check for yourself.)

This overly-verbose intro is my long-winded way of saying that, despite my resistance to spend additional money on products to continue cluttering up my kitchen, I decided to succumb to temptation and buy the KitchenAid ice-cream maker add-on kit (and for approximately the same price I paid for the mixer itself, I might add). As of late, The Kitchn has been running an ice cream making contest, asking readers to submit their best recipes, and after a week or two, I could no longer resist. At this point, I needed a maker, and rather than pay for an additional appliance, I figured getting the expansion for the mixer was a savvier (and more space-conservative) purchase.

Naturally, I was eager to get my device up and running, so after waiting the appropriate 24 hours to freeze the bowl, I readied up my first trial recipe, selected mostly because I'm well-known for having a penchant for all things peanut butter and chocolate oriented.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Ice Cream
(as adapted from Joy the Baker, although hers looks significantly prettier than mine)

Ingredients
2c 1% Milk
1c heavy cream
1c sugar
1/3c natural cocoa powder
1/4tsp salt
3tbsp Corn starch
1/2c semisweet chocolate chips
1/4c bittersweet baking chocolate chunks
1/2c organic smooth peanut butter

As you can see, I took some creative liberties with the recipe, none of which had any adverse affect on the end result, in my opinion. I still recommend reading Joy's entry, as she does a much better job of it than I do.

Procedure
1) Place a sauce pan on medium heat and add 1.5c of the milk and half of the cream. Allow the liquid to warm up (although do not bring it to a boil).

2) Add the sugar, cocoa powder, and salt, and whisk to combine.

The mixture will take some time to get incorporated.

3) Whisk steadily until the powder dissolves completely (although some chunks are always going to remain).


4) In a separate bowl, mix the remaining milk and the corn starch until it is smooth. Note that you can't let this sit for very long or else it'll solidify, requiring further mixing.

5) When the heated mixture begins to steam, add the corn starch mixture and bring to a low boil. Whisk steadily until the solution reaches a pudding-like consistency.

Note: Do *not* eat the pudding. It'll be much better as ice cream anyway.

6) Turn off the heat and mix in the remaining cream, chocolate chips, and baking chocolate. Stir until the chunks melt and are incorporated into the mixture. Pour the mix into a bowl and chill, covered, for at least 4 hours.

The chilling process allows for a creamier ice cream.

7) Once the mixture is well-chilled, assemble your ice cream maker and follow its instructions. Note that it's important to have the churner moving before adding the ice cream base, or else it may not incorporate properly.

...Yeah, so it was harder to pour in than I had anticipated. Look at how little clearance I have between the bowl and the beater!

8) After the mixture has thickened (generally about 30 minutes), disassemble the device and move the ice cream into a freezer-safe container.

9) Use a spatula to fold in the peanut butter. Do not overmix, as you want a nice streak of peanut butter running through it, not total incorporation.

10) Place your ice cream in the freezer and allow to freeze (or "cure") overnight. Yes, it takes that long (depending on your freezer--mine sucks); I only gave it 4 hours and it was still "pudding-y". Delicious, but not ice cream.

An example of improperly-cured ice cream. Yes, it was great, but it wasn't very well frozen, and was basically like eating frozen pudding.

Lessons Learned:
Contrary to Joy's instructions, I feel that adding the peanut butter during the churning process (even at the end) caused too much incorporation of my peanut butter. While this recipe tasted fantastic, as you can see from the images above, pouring something that's pudding-like in consistency into a very small opening can be difficult. As such, I don't know that corn starch-based ice cream recipes are my favorites; next time, I'll try a custard-based chocolate recipe and simply fold in peanut butter at the end. Still, this made for a very delicious semi-failure; one can only hope all my mistakes taste this good.