The Sweet Tooth On A Small Scale

As I get older, I'm discovering that I like the idea of dessert more than I actually like dessert itself. At least, when I eat in restaurants, I don't have any appetite left at the end of the main course; I tend to prefer to spend those can't-afford-'em-anyway calories on appetizers, since I like salty and savory more than sweet. This is not to say that I can't be lured in by the dessert menu, but I've noticed over the years that my interest in anything that could fairly be called Chocolate Extravaganza or the like is waning.

I'm more likely to eat sweets during the day as a snack, rather than as an end-of-meal finish. I rarely bake cakes, as Fred doesn't like cake and I have this belief, perhaps untrue, that I can't freeze an iced cake. He loves cheesecake, but I don't, so that's also only a very occasional treat. Pies are better in theory than in execution, and even if I do want a piece of cherry pie or lemon icebox pie or the like, with just the two of us, both being indifferent to pie, there's not much point (I'd rather have a quiche if I'm going to the trouble to make a crust). Now, frozen desserts like grasshopper pie--that '70s delight (or perhaps earlier?) involving creme de menthe, marshmallow fluff, heavy cream and Oreo cookies--are nice to have around, but again, I prefer not to have a whole dessert sitting in the freezer "needing" to be eaten up.

My sweet snack solution tends to be cookies. It's often easy to halve the recipe, and many doughs can be portioned out and flash-frozen (i.e., put the balls of cookie dough on a sheet pan, freeze them for about half an hour or so, until hard, then place them in a freezer bag, to be baked a few at a time). This way you're not stuck with two dozen or more cookies that will inevitably turn stale before you can finish them.

And, it's hard to beat bar cookies for ease and convenience. They're typically very easy to mix up, you have one pan, not multiple sheets going in and out of the oven, and there's no need to cool the cookies on a rack first. Once the bar cookies have cooled, you can just cut them up and freeze them in one bag, removing one at a time to heat in the microwave.

For me, an ideal bar cookie involves chocolate chips but rarely nuts. I usually don't care for raisins either (I'm with Fannie Flagg, who wrote in her "Original Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook" that she spent the better part of her childhood removing raisins from bread puddings, rice puddings, cereals and cinnamon buns, and her cookbook was her revenge); however, in the recipe below they're nice. I do like Chunky bars so that was what I had in mind adding raisins (mixing chocolate chips and raisins, that is--nothing more complicated than that). I adapted this recipe from variations on a theme by Diane Mott Davidson and Nathalie Dupree.

Oatmeal Bar Cookies

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup quick oats
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup milk chocolate chips (use whatever you like; I just like milk chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8" square baking pan.

Cream the butter with the sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and stir to mix. Add the oats, raisins and chocolate chips. Spread in the pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean (it can have a few moist crumbs clinging to it but it shouldn't be wet).

This makes a thick bar cookie, so I recommend cutting it into fairly small squares, maybe 16 total.

Recommended reading: Fannie Flagg's "Original Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook." There's nothing fancy or gourmet about any of the recipes, but they're all down-home delicious (at least, the ones I've tried), and Ms. Flagg is so funny that even if you never make anything from it it's an entertaining read.