Ancient Grains & Modern Gadgets, My first giveaway

 There comes a time in every bloggers blog life when they announce that first giveaway & this is my moment. I’d like to say a big Thank You to OXO tools for sponsoring the gift, a digital kitchen scale that is indispensable for baking  great cakes & cookies.

I’ve been an ardent fan of OXO products ever since my graduate school days. My dad bought me a set of kitchen knives & peeler  from Bloomingdales way back in 1996 when I first moved to New York City. 15 + years later, the peeler works as great as ever. In time I’ve gone on to collect a vast arsenal of OXO from strawberry hullers to spatulas and have never been disappointed with any of them.

Perhaps, one of the reasons I’ve stayed away from creating recipes that involve weighing out ingredients was because I never bothered to invest in a good scale.Using one simply elevates the culinary experience to a refined high. And keeps you wanting more of the same. I’ll definitely be posting more recipes that call for weighing ingredients, that’s for sure!

 A big Thank You is in order to Zester Daily and Maria Speck for a wonderful giveaway gift that I received in the mail a couple of days ago. A copy of Ms. Specks new book ‘Ancient Grains for Modern Meals’. I’m so in love with this book for all the wonderful information it contains and the awesome recipes. There will be a proper review of this book in the next couple of weeks, I promise. In the meantime, I’ve picked an amazing recipe to showcase from the book this week, a Greek Lenten cookie that was the highlight of my weekend baking.

Orange-Rosemary Cookies with Olive Oil
(Recipe Credit: Maria Speck, I’ve taken the liberty of writing the steps in my own words)

You need:
4 1/4 ounces white whole wheat flour (1 cup)
1 3/4 ounces Almond meal (1/2 cup, lightly packed
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 cup  packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh Rosemary
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons turbinado sugar for topping

Method:

Measure out the Flour and almond meal . Add to a large mixing bowl along with the baking powder and salt.

Whisk to combine evenly and break up any lumps of almond meal in the mixture. Make a ‘well’ in the center. to add the wet ingredients.

Grate the zest of an orange to obtain 1 teaspoon. Squeeze the orange to obtain 1/4 cup of juice. Mince the fresh Rosemary and set aside.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the light brown sugar and olive oil and vigorously whisk for a minute till the sugar starts to dissolve and the color of the mixture lightens (about 1 minute of brisk arm cranking). Add the Orange juice, zest, rosemary & vanilla extract and whisk to combine.

Pour the oil/sugar mixture into the center of the flour mixture and combine with a wooden spoon until just mixed. DO not over mix, you do not want to activate the gluten in the wheat flour.

Place a sheet of parchment paper or plastic wrap in from f you on the work surface. Gently transfer the doughto the paper/wrap. Shape the dough into a log with your hands and roll the  paper/wrap around to completely wrap it. Twist the ends.

Place the log into the freezer for about 2 hours to chill & firm.  Preheat oven to 350 F. Place two oven racks in the lower and upper third of the oven. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Remove the ‘log’ from the freezer and cut it into thin slices less than 1/2 inch thick (this is tricky since the dough is still quite soft. I cut out thin portions of equal volume using a butter knife and basically flattened it on the baking sheets). Sprinkle liberally with the turbinado sugar.

 Bake both the sheets at the same time, one on the top rack, the other on the lower rack, swapping it half way through the baking, for about 16-18 minutes (8-9 minutes on each rack), until the edges & bottom of the cookies turn a golden brown. Transfer the cookies onto a wire rack to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container. The cookies tun crisp as they cool

Bon Appetit!

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Coming back to the Giveaway by OXO…

This giveaway is open only to residents of the United states (sorry, no overseas shipping possible).  just follow the instructions on the rafflecopter below.

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