Happy 2nd Birthday, Dancer Bakes! {Oatmeal Banana Nut Muffins}

Pretend there's a candle in one of those muffins because the blog turns two today!!  WHOA!

It barely feels like this last year happened for me - graduation, marriage, and 6 months at sea dancing my little tush off made it fly by!  But even though I'm still in denial that it's really been two entire years since I started this little online journey, I couldn't be happier about where it's taken me.  I started my dance career, I lived in one of the most beautiful places in the entire world, I have a wonderful husband who helps and supports me in every way, and I've developed a deeper love of food than I ever imagined when I decided to start writing it all down.

This occasion really demands rich and delicious baked goods.  In lieu of rich, have healthy and delicious baked goods!

The other day, I got hit by a particularly strong urge to bake, fed in part by the appearance of a Nutella Swirl Banana Muffin recipe on my newsfeed - courtesy of Jessica over at The Novice Chef. I basically started salivating on sight.
However, I've recently tried to renew my commitment to eating a clean diet - high in fiber, vitamins, minerals, protein and healthy fats; low in sugar, saturated fat and processed chemicals.  The hardest part for me to cut out is sugar.  It's no secret that I love sweets, and I particularly like finishing a meal on a sweet note, so sugars - even natural ones - are hard for me to both limit and avoid altogether.
I couldn't shake the banana muffin craving, though, so I searched for a healthier recipe, and voila!  I found one!  Still sweet, but not a cupcake masquerading as breakfast.

These are oatmeal muffins, but not in the same sense as an oatmeal cookie.  In this recipe, the oats are ground into oat flour to form the base of the muffin.  I was a little low on oats at home, so I supplemented with a little white whole wheat flour and they still turned out great.  Also, these are basically the easiest muffins to make in the history of the world: all you do is process the oats, add all the rest of the ingredients, process until it looks like a batter, and bake!

In terms of the calorie count (if you even care), these beauties come to a whopping 135 calories per muffin!  Not bad at all.  If you're watching your sugar intake, you'll still need to balance these with low-sugar, high-veggie-and-protein meals, but eating one is nothing to feel guilty about!  Score :)

Oatmeal Banana Nut Muffins
Source: slightly adapted from this recipe by Michelle Hein
Yield: 1 dozen muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups old-fashioned oats
2 extra ripe bananas, cut into quarters
2 eggs
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp honey
3/4 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400˚F.
Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray, butter, or shortening (I used Baker's Joy).
Place the oats in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely ground. 
Add the remaining ingredients and blend until a smooth batter is formed.
Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin, evenly filling all 12 cups.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the tops of the muffins spring back when pressed lightly.  For me, it only took 15 minutes, so make sure to test them at the minimum baking mark - don't let them overbake and get tough!  Serve warm and enjoy - add candles if you're feeling celebratory :)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

I really need to practice making cookies.

But seriously.
I have cupcakes and layer cakes down.  Brownies? Check.  Biscuits, scones?  Super easy.  I can even do pie crust.
But cookies?  They're the first thing most kids bake!  The one thing that their moms will let them help with!  The foolproof dessert that can only get screwed up by not setting a timer!
I follow every direction, measure with extreme precision, set painstakingly exact timers...
And I CANNOT nail them!

I want to say I can blame my oven.  I probably need an oven thermometer so I can test what temperature "350˚" actually is.  And maybe I need to play with temperatures as well as times.

I'm just saying, for me, thick golden cookies that don't spread like the dickens are apparently a lot to ask for.
In the picture are the prettiest three cookies of nearly 3 dozen.  They just kept spreading and browning really quickly!
Grr.

At least they taste good!

Pretty will come with time.

I hope.

For now, I will accept any cookie tips and tricks that you lovely people have to offer me, and will also sit back with one of my poor dilapidated tasty cookies.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies
adapted from these cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp unsulphured molasses
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant or quick)
1-1/2 cups chocolate chips
scant 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl with a very sturdy hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until very light and fluffy - about 5 minutes.
In a separate bowl, combine the flours, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, whisking together thoroughly until no clumps of baking soda remain.  Stir in the oats, raisins, and pecans.
Returning to the mixer, add the eggs to the butter and sugars one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Stir in the vanilla extract and the molasses.  Gradually add the flour and oat mixture on a low speed to the creamed butter mixture until well combined.
Chill the dough, covered, for a few hours or overnight - optional, but recommended.
To bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350˚F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, a silicone baking mat, or (in a pinch) foil sprayed lightly with cooking spray.  For giant cookies, (cause who doesn't like a giant cookie??) drop the dough in 1/4-cup sized* balls spaced evenly on the baking sheet.  Place in the preheated oven on a rack centered in the oven.  Midway through the baking time, rotate the baking sheet so the cookies bake evenly.  If necessary, flatten the domes of the cookies with a spatula.  Bake the cookies for 20-22 minutes, or until the tops are just starting to brown - don't overbake them!  You'll be sad.  Remove from the oven, cool completely on a wire rack, and enjoy!

Oatmeal Raisin Pecan Cookies

I was not raised to be a cookie baker.

Strange, right?  Usually that's the first thing a kid will learn how to make.  But I grew up in a house with a mom who only made cookies once a year: at Christmas.  And those were cut-out sugar cookies.  Never (or at least hardly ever) was a homemade chocolate chip cookie seen emerging from our oven.

Instead, we made chocolate chip bars: from-scratch Toll House recipe cookie dough was pressed into a 9x13 pan and baked until still slightly gooey in the middle, then cut into squares or rectangles for consumption.

We were famous for those suckers.  With a hint of extra vanilla, two heaping cups of semisweet chocolate chips, and the precise right baking time that left them super soft and anything but dry for days and days, they were the perfect bake sale or party treat, and every friend I ever had in high school knew to be on the lookout for Angela's Chocolate Chip Bars.

But there's just something about cookies that you can't really replace.
As a form of baking therapy, the constant rotation of pans in the oven and the intoxicating scent of warm butter and sugar makes cookie baking immensely satisfying - when you have the time, that is.  And after visiting Levain Bakery in NYC, I knew I'd never be satisfied until I could make cookies anywhere close to that delicious on my own.

Now, the trouble for me is not in the dough - I've got cookie dough making down to a veritable science, complete with...um...quality control sampling :)  The trouble is in the baking time.  For someone who's used to sticking things in the oven and leaving them there for 20+ minutes at a time, short baking times and constant attention at the oven is, well, weird.  And a major guessing game.

It took me ages to photograph these cookies - not because I wanted to tweak the recipe at all, because I'm pretty sure what changes I made to an already excellent recipe made these the most addictive cookies of all time, but because I wanted to get the baking time exactly right for perfectly photogenic cookies.  I'm still not sure I've nailed it yet, but this third batch was by far the best - light golden brown and still super soft, so I have hope.  If you're experienced in the cookie world, feel free to leave me some advice!

Baking time correct or not, these cookies are definitely worth trying.  They're my husband's favorite kind - oatmeal raisin - from an excellent recipe that I found on David Lebovitz's blog, doctored up with a little whole wheat flour, molasses, sea salt, and pecans.  And my lord, are they tasty!!  Enjoy warm or at room temperature (or in a sundae? hmmm...).  If you don't want to risk consuming them all at once, bake a small batch, then roll the rest of the dough into balls and flash-freeze them, then store them in a freezer bag till a cookie craving hits!  A little self-imposed portion control never hurt anyone ;)

Oatmeal Raisin Pecan Cookies
Source: adapted from David Lebovitz, originally from Flour by Joanne Chang

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature 
2/3 cup granulated sugar 
1 cup packed light brown sugar 
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp unsulphured molasses
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant or quick)
1-1/2 cups raisins
scant 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl with a very sturdy hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until very light and fluffy - about 5 minutes.
In a separate bowl, combine the flours, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, whisking together thoroughly until no clumps of baking soda remain.  Stir in the oats, raisins, and pecans.
Returning to the mixer, add the eggs to the butter and sugars one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Stir in the vanilla extract and the molasses.  Gradually add the flour and oat mixture on a low speed to the creamed butter mixture until well combined.
Chill the dough, covered, for a few hours or overnight - optional, but recommended.
To bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350˚F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, a silicone baking mat, or (in a pinch) foil sprayed lightly with cooking spray.  For giant cookies, (cause who doesn't like a giant cookie??) drop the dough in 1/4-cup sized* balls spaced evenly on the baking sheet.  Place in the preheated oven on a rack centered in the oven.  Midway through the baking time, rotate the baking sheet so the cookies bake evenly.  If necessary, flatten the domes of the cookies with a spatula.  Bake the cookies for 20-22 minutes, or until the tops are just starting to brown - don't overbake them!  You'll be sad.  Remove from the oven, cool completely on a wire rack, and enjoy!

*If you make smaller cookies, you'll need to drop the total baking time.  Rotate them after about 7 minutes and check on their doneness starting at 15 minutes.