Brown Sugar Butter

Hey, nerds. Just wanted to give y'all a follow-up on my last couple of posts. I did try making some brown sugar cinnamon butter. Ate it in my Cream of Wheat this morning. Delicious! Also great on toast.

This was a little different kind of process than the other butters. I used a double-boiler set up (really just my metal mixing bowl on top of a saucepan) to melt the brown sugar down. This breaks down the crystals so it ain't so grainy. I added some cinnamon, melted the butter and then poured it into this perfect little Pyrex dish I'm so fond of.

Once it sits in the fridge for a while, it hardens back up to butter consistency.
Brainstorm!

• hot cereals, of course: Cream of Wheat, oatmeal
• meats?? ham - a la Honey Baked Ham
• many different kinds of desserts - cinnamon apple pie, for instance ... melted sugar butter... mmmmm
  

Cereal cookies, Trial (and error) 1

I love recycling food. It all started one day when I was cutting up some broccoli and realized that I always just throw away the stalks. I saved them and experimented. Next time I have fresh broccoli, I'll share my pickled broccoli medallion recipe.

I always buy cheap bagged cereal -- frosted shredded wheat, to be exact. There is always tons of crumbly bits at the bottom, but I really think frosted shredded wheat is the worst when it comes to leftovers. I decided I would find a way to recycle it all.

I scoured the Internet looking at cookie recipes, and I actually did find a cereal cookie recipe, so I'm not quite a pioneer on this one (though I thought I was going to be when I thought of it). I started with about 1 1/2 cups of frosted shredded wheat shreds, butter (1/2 cup), one egg, baking powder (1 tsp) and some flour (1-1 1/4 cup). It needed moisture, but I didn't have any orange juice, which is what most healthy, natural, trendy cookie recipes are using lately for moisture and sweetener -- so I used some mango peach V8 Splash (maybe 3-4 tblsp). I didn't put any sugar in the recipe since the shredded wheat is frosted in it.


I made one batch of cookies like this before adding a bunch of sliced almonds. Yes, I'm baking cookies on a broiler pan; my (really nice!) cookie sheets are too big for my tiny tiny oven.


I've got to say, I consider this trial kind of a bomb. They were edible, but were a lot more like scones than cookies. They were incredibly dry. I ate them with Earl Grey and a dollop of jam -- raspberry on some, blackberry on others.


I ran out of time while baking because they ended up taking longer in the oven than I thought they would. I don't actually remember how long they took... maybe 15-20 minutes at 350? But I had some leftover 'dough,' so I rolled it up in some wax paper and stuck it in the fridge for later baking. Phydeaux was impressed.



I've got some more leftover cereal now, so expect another trial soon.