Cookies for Santa's Spicy Side

With Santa coming this weekend, it’s definitely time to start thinking about cookies.  So many people put out super sweet sugar cookies, or rich chocolate chip ones, sometimes he needs a change of pace.  Let’s serve him up something that will wake up his taste buds.  My spicy oatmeal cookies are crisp around the edges, chewy in the middle, and filled with a warm blend of cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg.  A delight for anyone who might find themselves placing presents under the tree a few short hours before Christmas dawn.   

Here’s what you’ll need:

½ cup butter, softened
¾ cups sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup flour
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon cardamom
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ cups rolled oats

Cookie dough comes together fairly quickly, so go ahead and preheat your oven to 375° before you begin.  As with most cookie recipes, this one starts by creaming together the butter and sugar.  Be sure to scrape down the bowl at least once.

When that’s done, add the egg and vanilla.

Beat those together until they are fully incorporated. 

That’s it for the wet ingredients, so now for the dry.  Sift together all the dry ingredients except the oats.  Yes, I know you don’t have cardamom on hand, and yes I know it’s expensive.  But we’re talking about Santa here.  I mean, with all the cookies he eats on the big night, you want yours to be memorable, don’t you?  Not interested in impressing Santa, or really can’t get your hands on some cardamom?  I suppose you could replace it with ½ teaspoon of ground ginger, but it won’t be the same.    

If they end up looking like this,

Just whisk them together before adding them to the wet ingredients.

Don’t over mix once the flour goes in, but make sure you do get everything incorporated. 

It’ll be quite soft for cookie dough, but that’s ok because a bunch of oats are going in.

Stir those in and the dough is done. 

Line a sheet pan or cookie sheet with parchment if you want easy cleanup and easy cookie removal.  Now, usually in the world of cookies, I prefer small ones.  However, with these, I think the texture is better when they’re a bit larger.  Basically just scoop a big spoonful. 

Mine is probably about 2 Tablespoons, if I had to guess.  This dough is a bit sticky, so I’m not sure how well a cookie scoop would work here, but if you have one the right size, have at it.  Me?  I just scrape the dough off of the spoon with my finger. 

I know it’s not pretty, but it won’t matter after a trip into the oven.  Just make sure you leave plenty of space between them and try to get them relatively the same size. 

Into the oven for 12 – 15 minutes.  They should be just barely starting to brown on top and around the edges. 

They might look a little wet in the cracks, but that’s ok.  This is perfect. 

Allow them to cool on the pan for 2 minutes and then move them to a cooling rack.  (if you have one)

So there you go, Santa.  A cookie that’s not covered in icing and artificial colors or filled with chocolate.  Enjoy! 

Santa sent my gift a little early this year, via UPS.  A KitchenAid food processor!!  I’d call it the Ferrari of kitchen gadgets, but with its size, I think Cadillac might be more fitting.  I’m sure I’ll be showcasing it sometime in the near future.  Now I just have to find a place to put it. 

What do you want Santa to put under your tree this year?

perfect little snack

Roasted garlic is freaking awesome.

And on a holiday cheese platter, it looks really fancy.

Even if that's a little snack platter you make for yourself late at night while doing laundry in preparation for packing for your much needed winter break now that exams are over. (I don't want to talk about it)

The usual cheese and cracker plate looks fabulously impressive with a bulb or two in the middle, and it can also dress up a sausage and pickle tray too.

Unbelievably easy to make as well. And despite what some kitchenware stores would have you think, you don't need any fancy tools or single purpose gadgets to make it. (seriously, who the hell has the cupboard space for this shit?)

In a pure minimalist fashion, all you need is tinfoil.

What you need:

• garlic
• olive oil

believe it or not, this ingredient pic is not missing anything

if you want, you can add salt and/or pepper and/or oregano and/or rosemary and/or crushed dried red chili peppers depending on what flavours are on the rest of your platter, but absolutely none of these things are necessary (I do like a bit of rosemary on mine sometimes though)

What you gotta do:

Rub the bulb with your hands until most of the loose, dry, papery skin is gone. You should be able to see each of the outer cloves individually, but they should still have their skins on them.

Newer bulbs seem to hold on to the skin a bit better. Don't worry about getting it all off; you'll just have to work a bit more to get the yumminess inside. And don't worry if you accidentally bare a clove of garlic, it'll cook just the same without it. You could even actually peel them all and roast them bare, but that doesn't look as nice on the appy platter, and it's way too much work.

Set the bulb on some foil and turn up the edges to make a little bowl.

Drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the top.

More oil than that. I just wanted to post this pic because it's an action shot and I actually caught a tiny perfectly round drop of oil.

Yeah, more like that.

Fold the foil around the bulb.

Leave an opening in the top, and put this into a 400F oven. Dammit. Got all the ingredients in the pic but forgot the oven preheating step.

This will need about 45 minutes.

It isn't as long as you think. And if you've got 3 or 4 in there, you may need up to an hour. Your goal here is to caramelize the garlic a bit, much the same way you would with onions, but at a bit higher heat.

After about half an hour, your mouth will water at the smell. Sharp and garlicky, but slightly sweet as the delicious sugars start to ooze out of the papers (that's the popping sputtering sound you hear). Give it another 10 or 15 minutes and the sugars will do this:

Oh man, this is going to be fucking tasty.

With a bit of crusty french bread, some spicy sausage, a mild cheese, and omg you have to try pickled asparagus, this is a perfect miniature version of a nibbly tray.

What do you like to put on your nibbly trays?