This week over we’re talking about ways to Build a Frugal Pantry. Each week will feature a different ingredient, including storage suggestions, price points to watch for, a collection of recipes, and a wealth of guest posts. And each week over here we’ll share recipes that use that ingredient. This week’s ingredient is flour. Flour is essential to the frugal pantry because it enables you to bake from scratch, a fabulous way to save money.
I’m really looking forward to this series as I am already learning so much from my readers. Did you know that a bay leaf can be placed in your flour storage to keep away bugs? I sure didn’t.
Earlier this week I baked up a storm as the tail end of my freezer cooking daze. I made Breakfast Cookies, Chocolate Biscotti, and two batches of my Gramma John’s Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies. But, since I was feeling rather indulgent – who wouldn’t after cooking like a crazy woman? – I doctored that last batch to suit my personal tastes. I tweaked Gramma’s recipe and made something new. I haven’t won any blue ribbons with them, but my! they are good!
Recipe: White Chocolate-Walnut Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup sucanat
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 4 cups flour (I used 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 unbleached)
- 2 teaspoons soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 12-ounce bag white chocolate chips
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Cream together sucanat and butter. Add eggs and vanilla, mixing thoroughly.
- Blend in flour, soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Drop batter onto cookie sheet in rounded tablespoons.
- Bake 8-10 minutes or until set. Cool baked cookies on a rack.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Preparation time: 10 minute(s)
Cooking time: 10 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 12
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Those cookies sound great! Thanks for sharing the recipe and for hosting!
~Liz
The only problem with this particular (flour themed) recipe swap is my desire to try almost everything. :o)
We are really enjoying the frugal pantry series of messages. Thanks! I’ve started baking a lot more from scratch, and am still a little bit surprised at how easy it is. I mixed up two batches of your fudgy cocoa brownies (one to bake, one to save) and was amazed at how quickly it went together. Makes it hard to justify buying a box of brownie mix. I tweaked it a bit and used white whole wheat flour instead of regular. They were a huge hit at my husband’s office. Thank you again!
Our favorite recipe using flour is hard to choose. We make pancakes, brownies, pizza crust, focaccia, and waffles. The favorite would have to be oatmeal muffins and cinnamon oatmeal cake. These aren’t my recipes, but are posted at http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com. They are both frugal, delicious, filling, and quick to make. The muffins freeze beautifully too.
Oatmeal muffins
•1 cup dry oatmeal
•1 cup sour milk or yogurt or buttermilk (powdered buttermilk is fine)
•1 medium egg
•1/2 cup brown or white sugar
•1/3 cup oil
•1-1/4 cups flour
•1/2 teaspoon each baking soda & salt
•1 teaspoon baking powder
In a large bowl combine the oatmeal and buttermilk or sour milk. If you have the chance, let it stand for a few minutes, for the oatmeal to absorb some of the buttermilk. Add the egg, sugar and oil. Beat very well with a wire whisk. Add the flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Mix again, until all of the dry particles are moistened. Do not over beat. It should only take about a 20 or 30 strokes by hand to mix it up enough. Spoon the batter into a dozen well oiled muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Serve hot.
Oatmeal cake
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 ½ cups hot water
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup oil
1 1/3 cups self rising flour
1 teaoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs
Pour hot water over oats and let stand. Mix sugars, flour, baking soda and cinnamon. Add eggs and oil. Add oatmeal mixture. Mix well. Pour into a greased 13 x 9 inch pan and bake at 350 degrees F. until done (toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean) (about 45 minutes).
You can add frosting you’d like, but it’s better without. I cover the pan when the cake is almost cool. It makes the top nice and gooey.
I posted my favorite: my grandmother’s butterhorns:-)
thanks for hosting. this week i’m sharing the recipe for enchilada sauce using whole wheat flour as a thickener. in case you didn’t know you could us ww flour to thicken sauces, soups and gravy, you can indeed!
Good gravy, you’re right! I hadn’t thought about how necessary flour is to my gravy!
Hi! I just wanted to say that I made your Gramma John’s Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies on Tuesday night and they were such a hit! My husband loved them! I did tweak the recipe by leaving out the salt & adding 3/4 c. honey roasted peanuts to the chocolate chips though. I was impressed that the recipe made so many cookies too. We’ll have plenty for this week and the weeks to come. 🙂 Thanks for posting your recipes!
I added a pizza recipe, because homemade pizza is SO MUCH CHEAPER than take out. The Barbecue Chicken Pizza is one of our family’s favorites. I found that having a pizza stone really helps give the crust a little extra something special.
Heath Cookie Bars
1 C butter, softened
1 C packed brown sugar
1tsp Vanilla
1 Egg Yolk
2C Flour
1 16oz bag of chocolate chips
2 8oz bags of Heath candy pieces
Preheat oven to 350
Mix butter, brown sugar, egg yolk and vanilla in a large bowl until well combined. Mix in flour and 3/4ths of one bag of Heath candy pieces.
Press dough into the bottom of an ungreased 9×13 pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until lightly golden.
Remove from oven and immediately pour chocolate chips over the top of the cookie layer- let stand one minute or until chocolate has begun to melt. Spread chocolate evenly across the top of cookie layer being careful not to rip the cookie layer. Sprinkle remaining Heath pieces over the top of still warm chocolate. Let cool completely- serve at room temperature. Enjoy!
What is “sucanat???”
It is dehydrated sugar can juice, similar to sugar, but less processed. You can use regular sugar if you like.