Kitchen Mojo

[jarandhel]

There's something almost sacriligious about the idea of improving on certain recipes. Particularly old family recipes that have been handed down the generations. You know the ones, old favorites from when you were a child. Maybe things you only got to have once a year, around the holidays. For me, that was always my grandmother's Peanut Butter Christmas Cookies. They weren't anything special, really. Turns out she got the recipe off the back of a thing of Hershey's Kisses. It's the recipe for "Peanut Blossoms" on the back of every bag. I never knew that till I was an adult, or I would have been baking my little ass off let me tell you. I was addicted to those things. Still am.

So it is with great pride, and some sadness, that I must announce I have surpassed my grandmother's recipe. And this year my experimentation isn't just a minor cosmetic change like using rollos or white chocolate hershey's kisses as the topping. It's not even a small innovation like using a bit of honey as an added sweetener, or switching to organic ingredients where possible. I have fundamentally changed the nature of my grandmother's cookies: I made a batch using Whole Grain Oat Flour.

I gotta tell you, in my book the taste is out of this world. It's a richer flavor than the regular flour gives it, and it really compliments the peanut butter and chocolate nicely. Plus, certain people with Glutin Allergies *coughaekiycough* should hopefully be able to eat my cookies and not die. Sadly, I have not yet been able to locate shortening without soy lecithin, and I used a bit of soy milk in the recipe instead of regular milk, so they will still kill rialian. Sorry about that, Ri. Working on it. :) Does anyone know if lard is an acceptable substitute for shortening in baking recipes, and if so what proportions of it? Or otherwise know of a non-soy variant of shortening and where I would be able to get my hot little hands on some?

Next experiment: Corn Flour. I'm kinda afraid that batch is going to turn out disgusting, but my curiousity has gotten the best of me. 'sides, you never know unless you try. :) This is particularly true in cooking. :)

Comments

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

In things like cookies, lard should be directly substitutable for vegetable shortening with little or no adjustments to the recipe. (In some things, such as tortillas and pie crust, lard is actually superior, but has fallen mostly out of favour except in traditional cooking.) In pie crust or similar, where the amount of liquid in the recipe is crucial to the texture, you might want to experiment slightly with the amount of water, since IIRC lard has a small amount of water whereas vegetable shortening is pure fat.

Of course, using lard ruins your baking adventure for a different and much larger audience than people with certain allergies: vegetarians. (Not to mention people watching cholesterol, although that's not such a big deal in a few cookies as it is as a dietary habit.)

Non-soy milks: There are various nut milks that can work, like almond milk. If nut allergies are an issue, try also rice milk.

Corn flour can't be effectively substituted for wheat flour. Think of the difference between cornbread and wheat bread, or corn tortillas and flour tortillas, for example. The textures are entirely different. Trying to use corn flour in cookies will give them an unpleasant crumbly texture. They may not even hold together. Unfortunately I can't give good advice on what might be good gluten-free wheat flour substitutes.

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

Sorry, just noticed you said you used oat flour and that worked well. Yay oats! Oats are the most nutritious of the four major grains (oats, wheat, maize, rice), anyway.

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the oats really did turn out well. :) I need to make more with that recipe. :)

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the information on lard. :) I may end up using that... and there is a nice little mexican grocery down the road from me which definitely carries it. I've already made two big batches of cookies with the shortening, so the vegetarians can have those.

As for the milk, that's not a big thing, I'll just use regular milk for that... I only used soy 'cause I like soymilk and that batch wasn't fit for people with soy problems anyway. Now I just need to find a kind of chocolate similar to a hershey's kiss which does not contain soy lecithin, and I will be in business. :)

And yes, I've thought about those problems with using corn flour, but I think if I modulate the other ingredients I may be able to compensate somewhat for that tendency. When I made the oat version of these cookies, initially the batter was turning out much too runny and liquid. All it took in that case was adding a bit more flour till the consistency was correct. They may still turn out a bit crumbly, but these cookies are always crumbly anyway. It's more the flavor I'm concerned with... I'm not sure if corn will go well with peanut butter and chocolate.

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

"As for the milk, that's not a big thing, I'll just use regular milk for that... I only used soy 'cause I like soymilk"

OK. I was confused because you asked about "non-soy variants of shortening" and was like uhhh... soymilk isn't a shortening.. he must be asking about non-soy variants of milk. It only just now occurred to me that you meant "shortening not made from soybean oil" (good luck, although if you have access to a specialized health food store, you might try there, or ask if they know; maybe there is such a thing as shortening made from cottonseed oil, or something).

"When I made the oat version of these cookies, initially the batter was turning out much too runny and liquid. "

*nods* the different flours absorb different amounts of liquid. Even between whole and white wheat there is a difference. You have to mess around with it. Get a grasp on what is the right dough texture you are looking for, and aim for that.

"I'm not sure if corn will go well with peanut butter and chocolate."

Corn is fine with chocolate. Ask your friends at the Mexican grocery about that. ;) (Mole sauce on enchiladas, anyone?) I don't think there should be a problem taste-wise with the peanut butter either. Corn flour is a pretty neutral flavour IMO.

[dogemperor.livejournal.com]

As the previous commenter has noted, lard is directly substitutable for shortening (in fact, shortening was originally invented as an artificial substitute for lard). Also, whilst there is cholesterol in lard, at least lard is not chock full of trans-fats like Crisco is. :3

Pretty much you use identical proportions of lard, so you should be good (just like when we used lard for the fry bread--the original recipe called for shortening, but I actually prefer using lard--not only is lard actually slightly better for you if one counts the trans-fats in Crisco, but lard *tastes* much better--in the same way that real butter tastes *much* better than margarine and--despite the cholesterol--is still better for you than artificial trans-fat laden hydrogenated margarine crap). :3

And using whole oats...oooh, that actually sounds *really* nummy, almost like oatmeal peanut butter cookies :9

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's not how they turned out... there's a real difference between oat flour and oat meal, I think. There's still oaty flavor, but it's a much different texture from your normal oatmeal cookies.

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

Lard is perfectly acceptable for baking, and can be used just like shortening. However, it is uberhighfat, so the cookies would be unacceptable for Elven Princesses, supermodels, and other anorexic lifeforms.

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

Oooh, elven princess repellant... this has possibilities. ;-)

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

lol!