Oatmeal Empanadas

Since my last post, we had a rare long weekend away, with all of the chaos that entails for the week before and the week after the actual weekend. I wrapped the end of last week by borrowing *The Cookie Bible* from the library. Having loved *The Slow Cooker Bible*, I was not at all shy about borrowing the cookie version. Am I ever glad I did! I love these two books so much that not only did I shop Amazon and buy both of them (Cookie from Amazon and Slow Cooker as a used very good condition copy) that I bought *The One Dish Bible* used without having seen anything more than the cover! I will have those three cookbooks plus *Fix, Freeze, Feast* in my hands and a couple of weeks, and then the experimenting really begins!

Meanwhile, I made two recipes out of *The Cookie Bible*: breakfast cookies and jam-up oatmeal cookies. The breakfast cookies are pretty good and are frozen, bagged, and stashed in the freezer for nutritious afternoon snacks or for breakfast running out the door. The star of the day, though, was the oatmeal cookie recipe. It was instantly renamed oatmeal empanadas because that's pretty much what they are (and the kids just like to say empanada), and they are already high on the favorites list. This is a very good sign of future success of recipes from this cookbook! So here's the recipe. I have to say it was very easy. The dough was not sticky; the scraps re-rolled well without any stiffening to allow for maximum cookie production. I used a cookie cutter larger than 2" so in the future I'll use a little more than 1 tsp of jam on each. These would be great done in a variety of shapes, and I'm already thinking about Easter shapes!

*Note: the recipe is sometimes brand specific because it's sponsored by a list of brands. I removed brands.
Oatmeal Empanadas
1 c. shortening
1 1/2 c. firmly packed light brown sugar
2 eggs (I used 1/2 c. Eggbeaters)
2 tsp almond extract
2 c. all purpose flour (I used AP flour this time, but I'll be trying it with some whole wheat flour next time)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 c. quick oats (not instant or old fashioned), uncooked
1 c. finely chopped pecans
jam for filling
1. Combine shortening and brown sugar in a large bowl, beating at medium speed with an electric mixer until well blended. Beat in eggs and almond extract.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Add to the shortening mixtre at low speed until just blended.
3. Stir in oats and chopped pecans with a spoon.
4. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
5. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking sheets with shortening or line with parchment paper (I love parchment paper!).
6. Roll out dough, half at a time (I kept the second half of the dough in the fridge while working with the first half), to about 1/4" thickness on floured surface. Cut out with 2 1/2" round cookie cutter. Place 1 tsp of jam in center of half of the rounds. Top with remaining rounds, matching up the edges, then pressing the edges together to seal (a fork works great for this). Price centers (heck, I just made a little cut a good 1/2" long) to allow steam to release; sprinkle with sugar (I didn't do this part but will color code with sugar sprinkles next time - strawberry jam gets red sugar, peach jam gets yellow sugar, etc.). Place 1" apart on baking sheets.
7. Bake one baking sheet at a time for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Do not overbake! Cool 2 minutes on baking sheets, then remove parchment paper to cooling racks or cookies to foil lined counter.
Yield: 2 dozen cookies (I got 2 1/2 dozen)
I did apple pie jam, strawberry jam, and ginger peach jam fillings, and all three varieties were fabulous!