eat cookies for breakfast!

It's the new campaign I'm heading up. I'm already a big believer in eating cookies for breakfast, and I think I remember reading on the David Lebovitz site that he also eats cookies for breakfast when he has them around. Many people will be quick to tell you that they are not morning people, but a cookie would definitely brighten their days, especially the kind of cookie I'm talking about.

Many breakfast cookies are a cross between a cookie, a muffin top, and maybe a scone. This, however, is more akin to portable granola or oatmeal, as pointed out by my brother who said that crumbling the cookies into milk would most likely taste good. He then said these would also make a good ice cream and yogurt topping. He also requested that I should make these again only if I made about 100 instead of just two dozen.

To make this you first will need some leftover hockey pucks, or as I like to call them, oat-coffee crinkles. You can either heat up the milk, pour it over a few cookies (you probably will need at least 4 per half cup of milk) and let it sit for a few minutes to soften, or you could simply crumble the cookies into a bowl and pour cold milk on top if you'd rather eat them like granola. Either way, you have a caffeinated, protein packed breakfast to start the day! Toss in some fruit if you feel like being extra healthy.

One note: If you want to make these simply for portable breakfasts, decrease the sugar to 1/2 cup and add in a fourth egg white. To make life easier, mix the ground coffee in with the oatmeal. Portion the dough out into 1/3 or 1/2 cup portions and bake until the outsides are beginning to take on a golden brown hue, probably at least 15-17 minutes, maybe 20. Cook completely, then wrap individually in plastic wrap.

oat-coffee crinkles

I had an idea for a cookie that wasn't quite a cookie as we know it. These are the first take of this idea, featuring an oatmeal macaroon rolled in freshly ground coffee beans.

My idea was for a lighter cookie in texture that was still chewy, something a little off the beaten path. I've also been thinking about a cookie rolled in ground coffee beans, so I decided to add that component to these cookies as well.

For flavor, I toasted the oats until they smelled oaty. Yeah, I didn't time it. Then I processed them until the flakes were broken up, some pieces were large, others powdery, but mostly none were whole. I then briefly whisked egg whites with sugar, salt, and vanilla extract and stirred in the oats. The mixture was a bit sticky, though it probably would have been easier to form than after the dough had chilled overnight, probably just a 30 minute chill would have sufficed. The dough wasn't that difficult to shape, though I found that after you formed the cookie ball, I needed to lightly wet my fingers and moisten the cookie dough to get it to stay together and so the coffee bean-sugar coating would stick. My main concern was that the cookies would fall apart after baking, but it didn't.

How did I like them? I thought they were surprisingly good. I wasn't quite sure if the idea would be better than the actual production, so I was pleased when everyone else also thought they tasted good. The chewiness was definitely the best part of the cookies. The coffee bean coating was delicious, though it didn't pack quite the caffeinated experience I was hoping to taste.

These definitely are a work in progress, but so far so good!

Recipe after the jump.

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Print this recipe

oat-coffee crinkles
Recipe by Christina Provo

Makes around 2 dozen

ingredients ~

3 cups whole oats, toasted, then pulverized to a coarse powder
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 egg whites
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 cup whole coffee beans
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

directions ~

1. In a large bowl, whisk together egg whites, sugar, vanilla extract, and salt until frothy. Stir in oat powder and stir until mixed. Refrigerate for 1 hour, or overnight.


2. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Grind the coffee beans, 2 tablespoons at a time, for 6 seconds. Repeat with remaining coffee beans, then mix in a pie plate (or other shallow container) with the sugar. Add half back to the coffee grinder and grind for another 5 seconds; repeat with remaining coffee-sugar mixture.


3. Place a small bowl filled with water next to the baking sheet. Form and pack 1 tablespoon of the cookie dough, then using moistened fingertips moisten the dough, packing gently with your palm. Roll in the ground coffee and place on the baking sheet about 1 inch apart. Repeat until all dough has been used. Using the bottom of a glass, flatten cookies slightly into disks. If they break about at the edges, gently press back together.


4. Place sheet on the middle rack and bake for 9-10 minutes. Let cool on sheet for about a minute, then remove to cooling rack.

oh holey bagels

The last time I made bagels was a few years ago P.B. (pre-blogging) when I made cute little tasty mini chocolate chip bagels. So delicious with cream cheese. Since it had been a while, I decided to try out The Fresh Loaf recipe for bagels. The recipe is for a plain bagel and starts with a sponge, then after the bagels are shaped they rest in the fridge overnight, which further develops the flavor and also is flexible. These are also boiled, which is really the only way to make a bagel.

Besides the boiling before baking, the other difference between a regular bread recipe and a bagel recipe is that the dough for bagels is much thicker, and to give you a comparison, there is about 7 cups of flour for about 12 4 ounce bagels (for my bagels, I portioned the dough out into 3 ounce balls), vs two loaves of bread with around 16 slices a loaf. Yet while bagels are dense, they shouldn't be heavy. The crust should be chewy and a bit crackly and break away into a fluffy, sturdy, and chewy crumb. Bagels really are deceptive.

For further reading, I recommend an article from The New York Times (read it now for free before you have to pay), Was Life Better When Bagels Were Smaller?

While the dough rises overnight, let's play Cotton Towel Rorschach!

The first one reminds me of some strange human figure. Or maybe an amoeba.

The second figure looks like a freaked out ostrich. Maybe after it realized the size of eggs it lays.

Lastly, the figure reminds me of either a vulture or the bald eagle that tried to carry Fivel away.

Back to the bagels.

Once the bagels have proofed overnight, you carefully drop them in to a pot of boiling water mixed with baking soda. Unfortunately, maybe the dough wasn't as thick as it needed to be because my fingertips dimpled the bagel rings rather unattractively when I lifted them to plop in the pot. I was hoping the boiling might poof them back out, but no dice. Once placed on the sheet next to the risen bagels, they looked dimply and deflated.

Obviously they grew a bit, but they also deflated. Rather disappointing. I also played around with the baking temperature and time since I felt they needed to be baked longer to achieve a golden texture.

So how do you show a picture of bagels that didn't come out how you expect? You gather the best looking bagels to make it seem like they did!

As for the taste, they were pretty good, and definitely better than what you can find in the freezer section just by being homemade. For not having anything but flour and water (and salt), the taste was also good. The crust was a bit chewy and the insides soft and chewy, too, though overall they didn't remind me of my favorite bagel place, where they are also boiled in the traditional manner.

The innards shot was lovely since it had structured holes that I see sometimes in bagels.

I definitely need to work on bagel skills. Next recipe I try is a recommendation from my mom, who likes the bagels from The Joy of Baking.

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These bagels will be my contribution to YeastSpotting this week. Check it out to see some great bread ideas!