A Berry Good Baked Pancake

Some of you may have seen the King Arthur baked pancake post on face book the other day. This is the link I saw. Blueberry pancakes cooked in the oven. Brilliant!! But does it work? I'm happy to say in capital letters, "YES, YES it does". Great for breakfast, brunch, dinner or anytime. I had 12 ounces of fresh raspberries and thought I'd go for it. I think this recipe should feed 6 people, but after my two helpings I snuck in a third one. So plan on a meal for 4, just saying... So simple and ready in a half hour.

King Arthur Inspired Baked Raspberry Pancakes
Serves 4

1 T unsalted butter for greasing a 9" x 13" pan (I used a glass dish)
2 cups Bisquick original pancake/baking mix (any pancake mix will do, or from scratch)
2 eggs
1 cup milk (I used 2%)
12 oz fresh raspberries divided

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tsp maple extract
Approximately 1/4 cup milk
dash of salt

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease your pan with butter. Set aside and make your pancake batter according to package directions. Add in 6 ounces of the fresh raspberries and pour into baking dish. Place on middle rack in oven. Set timer for 35 minutes.

While the pancakes are cooking make the glaze. With whisk, combine the confectioner's sugar, maple extract and 1/4 cup of milk (or even less, depending how thick you like your glaze). Set aside and wait for pancakes to come out of the oven.

When pancakes are done (test them as you would a cake, with a toothpick) set aside and let cool a bit. When warm and not too hot anymore, brush with at least half the glaze. Slice into 12 squares, garnish with the additional berries and drizzle on some more of that decadent glaze.

Since this was a test recipe for me, I pretty much followed King Arthur's directions to the letter. I'm thinking next time a little orange or lemon zest would be a happy addition to the batter. And call me crazy, but even some mini chocolate chips in the batter would work nicely, with a small little squirt of chocolate sauce on the side. Thanks King Arthur, I'm a happy gal tonight.

Cream-Filled Oatmeal Walnut Raisin Cookies with a Twist

The twist. Ahh the twist is the addition of Maple Extract. I don't bake with it often enough, and it's the perfect addition to so many fall and winter dishes (both sweet and savory).

I know some people are not fond of maple anything, and then some go wild over maple everything. Both my parents were fanatics about maple walnut ice cream and maple walnut coffee cake. So that was my inspiration when I decided to put this experiment together last night. There are a few steps to making these little darlings, but the results are so worth it. And as usual, I've tried to cut some calories and sugar. There might be some future tweaking, but for now...this is a yummy cookie your maple lovers will adore.

Cream-Filled Oatmeal Walnut Raisin Cookies
makes approximately 20-22 sandwich cookies

Filling
8 oz Neufchatel cheese softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter softened (1 stick)
1/2-3/4 cups confectioners sugar
1 T Splenda Brown Sugar Blend (or 2 T regular brown sugar)
1 tsp natural maple extract
1/3 cup finely chopped or ground walnuts

Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter softened (2 sticks)
1 cup Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (same amount if you're using granulated sugar)
1/2 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend (or 1 cup regular brown sugar)
2 large eggs at room temp
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp natural maple extract
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1cup rolled oats
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup finely chopped or ground walnuts

I like to make my filling first. In medium size bowl, combine your butter and Neufchatel. I use a hand mixer. Now add your sugars and maple extract.

And fold in your ground nuts.

Wrap filling in plastic wrap and set aside in your refrigerator to set up and let the flavors meld.

Let's make the cookies. Pre heat your oven to 350 and line baking sheets with parchment. In medium size bowl, combine salt, flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Whisk with a fork or spoon to incorporate. No need for any sifting. Set aside.

On to the batter. Place butter and sugars in a large bowl. With hand mixer combine sugars and butter until smooth. Add eggs and both extracts and incorporate.

 
Now add the flour mixture in two batches to the wet ingredients and combine. And fold in the oats, raisins and chopped walnuts.

I usually just plop my oatmeal dough by teaspoonfuls onto the parchment paper, but since I was filling these little beauties, I decided to make them into 1 inch to 1-1/2 inch balls, so they would all be pretty uniform in size.

Bake each cookie sheet 9 minutes. Let cool on cooling rack and remove cookies to paper towels to finish setting up. And amazingly enough, the cookies are all pretty much the same size. I lucked out on that one.

While cookies are cooling, remove the filling from the fridge, let it come to almost room temp so filling the cookies will be a snap. Lovingly pile a teaspoon to a tablespoon of the maple infused filling on to the bottom (flat side) of one cookie and top with a second. Keep going, and be sure to sample at least one (or two). They really are yummy.