Sunday, October 2, 2016

Kitchen Sink Cookies - *Full* Batch

Kitchen Sink Cookies - *Full* Half Batch

I mentioned on Facebook about this recipe, and a couple of people asked about it, so here it is. I'll post the recipe for the full batch, but, well... You'll see.

This is the full batch recipe:

720g brown sugar
1kg sugar
500g butter
12 eggs
1 tbs vanilla
1 tbs golden syrup
1.5kg peanut butter
64g bicarb soda
1.8kg quick oats
720g chocolate chips
500g sultanas

Now, some notes.
  1. I use Australian measures in my recipes, which means 1 tbs = 20ml, or 4 tsp. 
  2. I use raw sugar by preference, but ordinary white/granulated sugar is fine. It's fine. Really. (sigh...)
  3. Golden syrup is magic, but if you're deprived of its wonderfulness, you'll have to make do with glucose syrup or light corn syrup. That is what the recipe called for originally, after all.
  4. Bicarb Soda is Baking Soda.
  5. I used chocolate melts, rather than chips, because that was on sale, and 720g, people. 720g.
  6. Feel free to substitute raisins or any other dried fruit for the sultanas. Or even nuts, if you're insane (I hate nuts in my baked goods. Just saying.) Or, if you're really eager, the recipe originally called for mini M&Ms, but I decided that was a little too much chocolate for something I was pretending was marginally healthy for my kids. It has rolled oats, enough said. (Okay, quick oats. Near enough.)


Procedure:
Get out your largest bowl. Then put it down, and scrounge for something bigger.

Choices, choices...
Then decide that - oops! - you need to halve the recipe. This is what 1.8kg of quick oats looks like:

That's a lot of oats.

So dump in your butter and sugars, and beat away. This is not your mother's cake recipe, or even a halfway decent sugar cookie recipe. This is a proper dump-and-mix. Don't bother creaming, just beat the butter and sugars until combined.

Butter, sugars, eggs, yum!

Dump in all the eggs, and beat. Now we're looking a bit better.

Nice

Add the vanilla and golden syrup. I tend to be a bit strict with my ingredients ("No, really?" says the woman who watched me weigh portions of dough so I had biscuits that were all about the right size.) but there are a couple of ingredients that I just tend to ... let loose with. Golden syrup is one of them. Look at it.

Golden syrup goodness

Look!

So good...

Excuse me while I wipe my drool.

(Also, really, this recipe? Not so necessary to be strict.)

Next, beat in the peanut butter, and then the quick oats.

Before

After

(The jar comes in 780g, not 750g, so that's what goes into the recipe. And see what I mean about strict. We're not making a sponge.)

If you have a half-way decent hand-mixer, it should still be fine with this, but this is where it's journey ends. Put is aside, and pick up the wooden spoon. You're going to need it.

Just about everything's been added. Time for the wooden spoon.

Add in the sultanas and chocolate. I did it one at a time, but you could dump in both at the same time. Fold them in. Work those arm muscles, because it gets heavy. Make sure you get them all through the mixture.

Sultanas & chocolate

I weighed my half-batch after this, and it weighed 4.125kg. A little heavier than my third child. (Just saying.)

Anyway, you can scoop it onto your lined trays with a cookie scoop, or just pour it onto the lined tray and pat it into place like a slice recipe. That's how I do the 1/4 batch: I press it into 2 lined slice trays - about 20cm x 30cm? - and bake it for 20 minutes. I can get 48 pieces out of that. Not sure what I'll get out of this one, though. Oh, and messy hands. Yuck!

Can't stand sticky, messy hands. But you do what you have to do...

I chose to press it into 1 45cm x 30cm baking tray that just fits into my oven (first time - yay!) and the rest were done with the cookie scoop. I'm having second thoughts about this size of scoop. Pretty sure I'm going to have to go back and get the next size down (or two.)

These are big suckers :o

I got 10 to the sheet, and 17 overall after making the slice.

If you're cooking it like a slice, cook for 20 minutes at 180C. If you're scooping out, cook for 15 minutes. I turned them at 10 minutes, but left them a bit longer - more 17 minutes total, and one of the cookies is a little brown for my tastes.

Very big suckers...

Let the slice cool in the tray, but the cookies can transfer after 10 minutes. One thing to note is that while the slice puffs up while cooking, it drops again when cooling.

Don't know if you can see, but it's sunk a bit. Still good.

Yep. The scoop is too big. Just had one - don't think I need dinner, now ;)

Or in the old money, 4"
I wanted to include PDF versions for you to print, but I don't think Blogger is up on that yet. Pity. Anyway, let me know if you want the PDFs. I have them for full and half batch amounts. Or, you know, you could just halve the amounts above.

Well, I've done my first half-batch. Had my cookie.Will get around to the next half batch ... eventually.

So... 6 1/2 Years...

It's been a while. A very long while. And I don't expect anyone's still lurking, but for the sake of continuity, here I am. And here's something of an explanation. Not long after my last post, my husband moved to New Zealand. There was a plan. He was going to get a job, get a house, we were going to move, it was going to be great. And none of that happened. Long story short, we separated, the kids and I settled elsewhere, and he's still a part of their life. The amount of their life he's part of is entirely his call, as I remain in good standing with his mother, even inviting her (and him) to stay with us for big events in the kids' lives. He never does, and she hasn't for a while, since the journey to where we are is quite long for someone of her age and health :(

Moving on.

Bethy is turning 20 next year. She has voted in 2 elections, and is looking at uni next year. Wow. Mark was diagnosed with Aspergers/Autistic Spectrum Disorder, and is in grade 11, and my baby is in high school. It's been a while.

I am looking at starting a cake baking and decorating business, so will be using a new website when it's ready. I will be doing one more post here (the Kitchen Sink Cookies *Full* batch) and maybe more. I might even keep this going with the more personal cooking stories, since not everything is perfect. (Never is :o ) Actually, if I'm quick, I'll post a snippet about my last adventure in chocolate buttercream. Well, at least it was tasty.
Well, for now I bid you adieu.