No Bake "Haystack" Cookies

No Bake “Haystack” Cookies

 

Ingredients:

 2 cup white granulated sugar

½ cup whole milk

½ cup unsalted butter

1 cup creamy peanut butter

3 cups old fashioned oatmeal

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Optional: Pinch salt

Optional: 1 TBsp vanilla

 

Directions:

1. Line two cookie sheets with waxed paper or parchment.

2. Put sugar, milk, and butter into a medium saucepan.

3. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it comes to a full boil.  Stir and boil 1 minute exactly. This is basically a ‘candy’ at soft-ball stage, very similar to fudge.

4. Remove from heat.

5. Stir in peanut butter.

6. Mix in oatmeal and cocoa powder.

       [[at the Mom’s Day party, I did not use salt or vanilla]]

7. Drop by teaspoonful onto papered cookie sheets. Do this quickly as the ‘candy’ will start to set as it cools and the cookies will not hold together well.

8.  Cool at least 30 minutes.

Chocolate Cake - Gluten Free

 

Chocolate Cake – Gluten Free with texture of old Duncan Hines boxed cake mix        

 

Preheat oven to 350f

Grease and paper two 8” round cake pans

 

Ingredients:

2 cups white granulated sugar

1 cup rice flour (white or brown)

¼ cup sweet rice flour

½ cup cornstarch

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 cup whole milk

½ cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

¾ cup warm tap water

 

Directions:

1. In large stand mixer on low speed, mix together dry ingredients until well blended.

2. Add remaining ingredients. 

3. Mix at medium-high speed for at least 5 minutes.

4. Pour into the two 8” prepared cake pans.

5. Check for doneness after 35 minutes.  Cook up to 15 minutes longer until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.

6. Cool in pan for 10 minutes then turn out onto serving plate

7. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

 

Notes:

The batter is very thin and needs the full 5 minutes to whip air into it.

The cooking time seems to vary – I think it has to do with the rice flour not being exactly the same each time – maybe ambient humidity...  The original recipe called for 1 cup of warm water but that has always been too much liquid for my kitchen.

 Frost as desired.  I tend to do half at a time in different flavors.  You can pour a few tablespoons orange or coffee flavored liqueur over the top before icing.

 Peanut butter: 2-3 TBspn softened butter, peanut butter (?~1/2 cup), powdered sugar, a tsp or so of milk, a couple pinches of salt.  Mix well with hand mixer adding PB, sugar, or milk to get desired texture.  Garnish with shaved, unsweetened chocolate or small chocolate chips.

Orange: Finely grate most of peel of one orange into small bowl. Cut orange in half and squeeze juice of one half into the bowl. Add a couple pinches of salt.  Mix in powdered sugar until you get desired consistency.  Mix well with hand mixer.  If very thin, it can be drizzled over cake.  Or add 2 TBsp softened butter to get a creamier frosting. If the flavor is just ‘sugar’, add a titch more salt to bring out the orange flavor.  Garnish with sliced strawberries.