There’s one recipe that is passed down through the generations in my family: oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

The baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, also called the German Slayers.

(See just the recipe here)

It’s such a simple recipe, and yet, it creates the most delicious cookies, but after years of baking them in a multitude of states, jobs, ovens and countries, I have found a few tips, tricks and tweaks to make them just a little bit better.

There is one caveat with my cookies. They’re not pretty or picture perfect. They are delicious.

I first started perfecting the recipe when I lived as an au pair in Dresden, Germany. While my German guest family had heard of cookies, nothing like the American confection existed.

The bakeries had dark breads, black breads, tart breads, thick breads, thicker breads and nut breads but no cookies. Nothing even came close.

These oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, which I lovingly refer to as German slayers, took them by storm.

In addition to being an au pair, I was also going to a language class every day with students from around the globe, including Europe, Asia and the middle east. To most of them, the cookies were a novel experience.

Baking these cookies in Germany was a lot harder than should be expected. Brown sugar didn’t exist so I had to substitute molasses, since there were no chocolate chips I had to cut them off of large blocks of baker’s chocolate and imitation vanilla came in tiny vials.

Rolled-out cookie before baking. Quarter for size comparison.

White flour, too, was complicated. Germans have plenty of flour but plain white flour is not one of them. Eventually, I shifted my flour use to whole wheat, which is the first change I’ve kept.

Whole wheat flour gives the cookies a little more texture and a slight nutty flavor. Sometimes it’s desirable and sometimes it’s not.

Next, I experimented with spices to match the cookies to the hot mulled wine served in winter called Glühwein. That included ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and other spices. In this recipe, I’ve listed them as optional. After I came back stateside, I started to add shredded coconut.

Next on the big list of tips is to freeze the batter before baking it. This helps the cookies retain a rounder shape when baked. When taking them out of the oven, they may seem a little undercooked, but once they cook down, they will be nice and soft. I’m also a full convert to the use of parchment paper on baking pans. I don’t know what I would do without it.

Last, I stress that the flour and baking soda should be mixed together before being added to the rest of the batter. That makes mixing everything evenly that much easier.

Guten Apetit!

German-slaying oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

These oatmeal chocolate chip cookies use a little less sugar, white or whole wheat flour and are delicious.
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time8 minutes
Time in freezer/refrigerator1 hour
Total Time1 hour 48 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: cookies
Servings: 25 cookies
Author: Wheeler Cowperthwaite
Cost: $5

Equipment

  • baking sheet
  • large mixing bowl

Ingredients

  • 2 sticks unsalted butter 250 grams
  • 1 cup brown sugar (firmly packed) 232 grams
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar 112 grams
  • 1+ tsp vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 220 grams
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 3+ cups oatmeal 265 grams
  • 1 cup chocolate chips 200 grams

Optional ingredients (spices)

  • 1 tsp Ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 cup shredded coconut add with oats

Instructions

  • In a medium bowl, mix the butter and sugars together until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix together.
  • In a separate mixing bowl, combine the whole-wheat flour, baking soda and optional spices until well mixed. Add to the bowl of creamed sugars and mix well.
  • Add the oats and, if using, shredded coconut to the bowl and mix well. Add the chocolate chips and stir in until combined.
  • Refrigerate or freeze for 1 to 8 hours.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • Using a spoon, or hands, make roundish balls of dough, about the size of a half-dollar, and put them on the baking sheet, spaced about an inch and a half apart.
  • Bake for eight to 10 minutes.

Notes

Use parchment paper instead of greasing the cookie sheet.
Spices will make the cookies taste . . . spicy.
Whole-wheat flour gives the cookies a slightly nutty flavor and more texture, but white flour can be used as well.
Refrigerating or freezing the dough keeps the cookies from flattening in the oven.
The more oats, the better!

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, which means you need recipes! I am here to provide a few. Click the links for the recipes.

Alternately, all the recipes are listed here.

The sides

Sage sausage stuffing with sourdough bread.

Tastes fantastic.

Stuffing before being placed in the oven. Although cast iron is great for baking, it tends to burn the bottom of the stuffing. Glass is preferred.

Stuffing before being placed in the oven. Although cast iron is great for baking, it tends to burn the bottom of the stuffing. Glass is preferred.

Bacon Brussels sprouts

If the skillet isn't large enough do it in batches.

If the skillet isn’t large, cook the sprouts in batches.

Ugly beans

The gravy

Make-ahead turkey giblet gravy

Make-ahead turkey giblet gravy infused with port

Dessert

Pumpkin dump cake

pumpkin-dump-cake-with-cool-whip-900x600-3

Dump cake with non-dairy whipped topping, which looks like ice cream.

Cobbled pumpkin pie

For this dish, consider using the pumpkin mixture recipe in the dump cake.

Pumpkin pie after being baked.

Pumpkin pie after being baked.

Key lime pie (needs to be frozen)

It's the pie! Pre-freezer, though.

It’s the pie! Pre-freezer, though.

Boozy apple crisp

The boozy apple crisp is good. Not amazing, but good.

Really, just choose any dessert.

Drinks

The Holiday Mule

Sparkling Wine and Cranberry Cocktail

sparking-wine-cocktail-4-of-9-900x600

Cranberry juice and sparkling wine make a great combination for those who do not like the bubbly by itself.

The Ginger Beer Shandy

The ginger beer shandy casts a pretty shadow.

The ginger beer shandy casts a pretty shadow.

Glühwein

Way too hot. My bad! No boiling allowed!

Way too hot. My bad! No boiling allowed!

Boozy apple crisp

I’m a big fan of the apple crisp. That should come as no surprise, considering I written about two crisps/hybrids and consistently use the crisp (aka crumble) topping as a basis in other recipes.

There’s the original, double sided crisp which is just a crisp on both the top and bottom and then there’s the hybrid cobbler crisp with raspberries.

I’ve since used the crumble/crisp topping in an apple coffee cake (the crumble/crisp is also called a streusel). It’s the search for inspiration for that coffee cake that brought me to a recipe by Monique at the Ambitious Kitchen.

There were two things I took away from her recipe, both of which I incorporated into the apple coffee cake: the addition of liquor in the baking process and mixing the streusel topping into the middle.

I recently made the Ambitious Kitchen crisp with the addition of, and more, liquor than called for in the original recipe and eliminated the nuts.

I also substituted my streusel topping for hers, which I found to have too much sugar. Finally, I used semi-sweet apples from my co-worker’s orchard.

Finally, I didn’t deal with the the vanilla bean the recipe and conceded to the use of butter on the apples. I don’t know that it added anything and I found the apples needed a bit more sugar.

My last note is that it really does need to be heated back up before serving and it might actually be better a day later, after being reheated.

With that, I give you my modified recipe:

(If you want just the recipe, it’s on my website, here.)

Ingredients

Streusel topping

1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup oats

1+ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1+ teaspoon ground/powdered ginger

The apple filling

Optional: 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter

1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

6 medium-sized Granny Smith apples to 5 pounds, cored and very thinly sliced

1/3 to 1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1+ tsp. cinnamon

1+ teaspoon ground/powdered ginger

1/4 cup spiced rum

1/4 cup brandy

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×13 pan.

Peel the apples if desired. Cut the apples into very thin slices.

Melt the butter for the streudel topping. In a medium-large bowl, mix the bottom’s melted butter, brown sugar, flour and, if using them, spices. Mix in the oats.

Place the apple slices, the 1/3 to 1/2 cup brown sugar, cinnamon and liquor in a very large bowl and toss to combine.

Take 1/2 cup of the streudel topping and mix it into the apples.

Pour the apples into the greased pan.

Cover the apples with the rest of the streudel mixture and lightly pat down.

Either put the pan on a baking sheet, or put it directly in the oven, and bake for 50 minutes to 60 minutes (an hour).

(Recipe adapted from the Ambitious Kitchen, “The best apple crisp you’ll ever have.”)

boozy-apple-crisp-1-of-8-900x600

This spiced apple crisp, baked with booze, gets better after the first couple of days. Serve warm or hot.

 

See, use, whatever you want, because all the photos are here on Flickr.

Note: This post originally ran on my blog from many years ago, wheeleringermany.blogspot.com. I posted to and updated it during some of my tenure as an au pair in Dresden, Germany.

Wine-Fruit sauce for Brownies

Adapted from: Rebekah in Germany

Note: This recipe is a work in progress

I invited my former Volkshochschule classmates to the house for dinner on Saturday night. The family was out for the weekend; I had the entire place to myself. Only Ingrid, a classmate from Columbia, replied. She brought her husband and son along.

We started out with a beef stew made with a ¾ to ¼ red wine to water base. As a side I’d roasted Kohlrabi. However, in trying to keep them warm I managed to burn most of them to a crisp. Note to self: don’t leave Kohlrabi in the oven while baking anything else. Also, I learned NOT to use sea salt on roasted kohlrabi. The sea salt adds too much saltiness in too little space. Ingrid’s husband seemed to like them though; we had an entire conversation revolving around Kohlrabi. It’s a cousin of the turnip. I’ll write its recipe later.

I also picked up .40 Euro cents garlic bread baguettes. Quite delicious by themselves and go great with the beef stew.

After the stew we moved on to a “Bavarian Apple Torte,” which did not turn out as planned, and brownies coupled with the subject of this recipe: a syrupy wine-fruit sauce. As I wrote, brownies. Gotta love ‘em.

The definition of a perfect brownie changes from person to person. To me, perfect is on the just-cooked, fudgy side; the cake side is reserved for cake. However, this recipe is not for brownies. It’s for a sour, sucker-slapping syrupy fruit-wine sauce that goes with, on or next to a brownie.

The wine to use changes with the fruit. Peaches and nectarines go well with a white wine, possibly with a splash of red. Strawberries and raspberries go better with a red wine, possibly with a splash of white. But, ultimately, the cook should make the decision on wine-and-fruit paring. I’m no wine authority. It doesn’t hurt to remember that red wine usually goes great with chocolate. However, a glass accompanying dessert is probably better than putting peaches in a red wine sauce.

Wine, wine, wine. Wine is a beautiful thing. And wine is an inexpensive thing here in Germany. I find myself using it all the time when I cook now. The not-very-good tasting wines are downright cheap. They’re close to the price of organic milk, if not cheaper in some cases.

I used terrible-for-drinking (and downright cheap) boxed wine for the sauce. Not space-bag boxed wine but honest-to-god, wine in a box. Much like milk comes in a 1-liter container, so does crappy wine. It cost under a euro. 9.5% alcohol content.

The sugary taste of the sauce gets both chopped down and spiked with the lime. I’m very much a chocolate and fruit person, so this recipe is love to me. The sour, with the wine, really brings a new taste to the brownie.

My personal favorite matching is raspberries with anything chocolate. When I made this with nectarines and juice of about ½ a lemon it contrasted beautifully with the sweetness of the brownie. Ingrid’s husband and I were in love with the combination. Ingrid and her son didn’t like the sauce because of the sour. I loved the sour. The recipe and pairing are, alas, not for everyone.

The recipe calls for boiling or cooking/reducing the wine to about half of where it was. One can reduce it more, or less. The alcohol taste was gone from the sauce when I called it quits on reducing.

I’ve yet to work on presentation. You’re on your own for that.

This recipe/concept came (to me) from a fellow expat who’s living on an Army base here. In a previous life she cooked professionally. We’re in good hands.

 

Ingredients:

2 cups chopped fruit, separated into 1 cup each

2 cups red, white or rose wine

1-2 tablespoons white granulated sugar, to taste

Juice from ½ a lime or lemon

 

Directions:

In either a deep sauce pan or a small pot add 2 cups of chosen wine. Bring to a boil, mix in the desired amount of sugar until its dissolved and half the fruit. Boil or cook/reduce the sauce until it’s about half the amount it was before boiling. The previously strong (warm/hot) alcohol taste should be gone. Add the rest of the fruit and serve with the brownies or other dessert.