Oatmeal cookies

These are a classic, a perennial favorite. My children have come to expect them on Wednesday afternoons, when I don’t teach and can whip up a batch in just a few minutes. I make them for class parties and picnics. I started this recipe by working from one in the Good Housekeeping Cookbook called"Grandmother's Oatmeal Prune Cookies" and have seriously detoured from there. Not only was I slightly dissatisfied with that version, but I never had prunes on hand (who does?). The resemblance to those is only slight, but I must credit the inital inspiration.

Here’s the recipe as I make it:
1 1/2 cups rolled oats (absolutely not quick oats)
1 cup whole wheat flour
¾ cup brown sugar (packed)
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt (and a pinch more)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/3 cup vegetable oil (preferably canola)
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract (the real stuff—no imitations)
1 T molasses
2 T of apple juice or applesauce or prune juice (no sugar added) 1/2 cup raisins or other dried fruit

Combine all dry ingredients well in a large bowl. Combine all wet ingredients except juice in a large measuring cup or small bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry until thoroughly combined, but don’t overmix. Add apple juice if dough seems too dry. Add optional ½ cup raisins (or other dried fruit) or chocolate chips, folding in gently. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 9 minutes, or until medium brown. Watch carefully! Let set for a minute or two on the baking sheet before removing to a rack to cool completely—if you can wait that long to eat! Very perfect with a cold glass of milk. Makes about 2 dozen.

These cookies can be made gluten free by replacing the whole wheat flour with rice flour, but the brown sugar must be reduced by about ¼ cup.
Alternatively, you can try oat flour. I make this by grinding up oats in coffee or spice grinder. Increase the flour by about a quarter of a cup---the oats are more delicate than wheat flour, and the dough will be much wetter. You will most likely NOT need to add juice to these. Add the extra oat flour a bit at a time until the dough is manageable. These cookies will spread out quite a bit more, but are delicious.

"The" not "A"

I wanted this blog to be called "The Constant Baker" because I like the way it sounds, and because it recalled one of my favorite novels, John LeCarre's The Constant Gardener. The protagonist gardens through everything, and misses a lot because of it. I can relate to that.
The name is taken, however. "The Constant Baker" is a woman named Connie Martin whose bakery in San Jose, California, bears that name. Her blog looks fantastic, her food looks fantastic and I hate her.
She gift wraps, by the way.



My food will never look that good, but I am not a professional. I am just a constant baker.

Why blog about it? Writing is important to me for many reasons, and essential to my work, as I am a writing teacher. What better to write about than what I do all the time? Often, too, I am asked for, and ask for, recipes quite often. I would like a spot to put these recipes and to have others exchange theirs. I also believe that everyone can bake, and can find joy, or utility in it.
This is also an attempt to find the meaning in the quotidian, the purpose in that which is our everyday. I find it enriching to live in the details, to cultivate mindfulness, even when baking--or especially when baking, since I spend so much time at it.
I had not realized until writing this, that I spent so much time baking. Like a good hausfrau, I’ve been shaping loaves, cutting cookies, frosting cakes. I’ve been kneading, mixing, stirring, and whipping for countless hours. I enjoy it, yes,—most of the time. Most of the time I am listening to NPR, which I believe saved my life when I was home with babies, and contributes to my ongoing sanity. I also find baking productive. My family has to eat, and they eat a lot, and they eat a lot of bread.
I am a constant baker, but an improbable one. I think of myself more as a cook, who also makes cookies and bread and scones a few dozen other things, only because I cannot follow a recipe exactly to save my life. I have to diverge. I am committed to being uncommitted. My fear of commitment notwithstanding, I find myself in mid-life with a husband, children, cats and a mortgage—somewhere I didn’t necessarily aim for. Yet I am happily here and one remnant expression of my long-held distaste of anything that smacks of permanence is a refusal to adhere to a written recipe. Okay, I do follow some bread recipes to the letter (mostly!). I have found out the hard way that you can really blow it when changing up a cake or bread recipe. For the most part, though, I find it impossible to stick to the formula.

So, to begin, a really good recipe for a bread I am getting ready to make right now, bread that I have adapted from the fabulous book, titled, simply Bread by Beth Hensperger. It is a wonderful resource; I have made many, many of the recipes in this book and have never, ever been disappointed. The sunflower oatmeal bread makes three medium-sized, extremely satisfying loaves, best toasted with honey or jam, or good for a peanut butter sandwich.
I am giving options for a dairy-free version of this loaf, but I will admit it is not quite as rich as the original version. I have also slightly switched the order of operations to reflect my own process. The first time or two you make it, it seems complicated, but thereafter it is a snap, and you have bread for days. I typically give a loaf to a friend if we aren't going to eat it all, since this makes a lot and is best within 3 days of baking.

Sunflower Oatmeal Bread
baking time: 40 mins
total time: approx 3 1/2 hours
active time: approx 25 mins


1 T yeast
1 1/4 cup warm water
1 1/4 cup milk or buttermilk--(I use rice milk for a dairy-free version. Soy milk or almond milk will work as well.)
1/4 cup honey
2 T molasses
2 T butter (for a dairy-free version, substitute 2 T of vegetable oil)
1 cup whole wheat
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 T salt
1 egg, beaten
4-5 cups unbleached flour

1. Combine ww flour, oats, seeds, and salt in a very large bowl. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl combine yeast, sugar and warm water. Stir to combine and dissolve dry ingredients. Let stand until foamy (5-10mins)
3. Combine the buttermilk, honey, molasses and butter (melted) in a small bowl.
4. Add both bowls of wet ingredients, plus egg to the large bowl (#1) and whisk until smooth. Start to add the unbleached flour about 1/2 cup at a time with a wooden spoon until a soft, proper dough forms.
5. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead it until springy and smooth. This takes 5-8 minutes. Place it in a greased bowl and cover the top with plastic wrap or a lightly moistened towel. Set in a warm place to rise for about 1-2 hours.
6. Turn the dough out on a floured surface and deflate gently. Cut into three equal part and place on parchment or baking peel, sprinkled with oats or a little ww flour, to rise again for 20-40 minutes. Catch it when it has almost doubled in size and place in a 375 degree oven for about 40 minutes. It will be nice and brown. Cool on a rack before slicing open.