Steel-cut Oats with Cranberries and Almonds

Well, it's snowing again. Still. We've got another snow day for the kids, another day of shoveling a foot of snow at a time, and that means another day of warming, filling foods. My mom gave me an unopened canister of steel cut oats when I was there over Thanksgiving. I'd been meaning to try them out - I'd heard good things about them - and we love oats in this house anyway. I was intrigued by others' description of the chewy texture, rather than the glue-like paste of some rolled oats' dishes.

This version is pretty low-maintenance to boot. Instead of standing over a pot for a half hour, stirring constantly to keep the oats from sticking, you start these the night before and then let them sit overnight to soak. In the morning you just heat them up, sweeten to taste and then serve.

Steel-cut Oats with Cranberries and Almonds

Makes 3 servings

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup steel-cut oats
• 3 cups water
• 1 teaspoon orange peel 
• 1/4 cup chopped salted roasted almonds
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• Agave nectar

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, boil the oats, dried cranberries and orange peel in the water for 1 minute. Cover, remove from heat and set on a heat-resistant surface.
   
2. Let sit overnight.
3. The next morning, uncover the oats and bring them to a boil over high heat.
4. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring frequently, until the oatmeal is hot and creamy, about 5 minutes.
5. Garnish with the chopped almonds and some additional cranberries if you like and sweeten to taste with agave nectar.

One serving is worth 6 WW points.

Notes:

• There is a very large discrepancy between the points I got when I entered this recipe into the WeightWatchers online calculator and when I entered the nutritional data generated by Living Cookbook software. Like, a HUGE difference. I don't know what bit of pixie dust they have in the WW algorithms, but, man, it makes no sense.
  
  They revamped the points system to get away from assigning points value strictly on calories and to account for specific nutrients: fat, carbohydrates, fiber and protein. Still, when I entered that specific data which my software generated from the exact same recipe, I got a points value of 10 per serving. I think that the food database in my software might be hinky. :/

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Almond Pastries

I had a hankering for a cheese danish the other night. Well no, first it was a craving for almond-filled croissants, croissants aux amandes, but then later on, I'd moved on to drooling after a good old cheese danish when the thought hit me: Why not combine them?!

So, practically the first thing I did this morning was take out my box of puff pastry from the freezer and let that last sheet of pastry thaw out. Then I took a look at what I had in the fridge that could simulate a cheese danish filling. A little cream cheese, confectioner's sugar, some ricotta, almond paste and an egg yolk formed the base of it. I added orange zest and almond extract to round it out, and finished it off with a lovely egg wash to give it a sheen.

Going into the oven, they were kind of a mess, I'll be honest. The crimped-together edges were not the least bit pretty and I wondered if I'd have anything photograph-worthy. I thought if the filling turned out ok, I could  troubleshoot the presentation the next time I made them, but to my surprise, when they came out of the oven, they were gorgeous, attractively puffed-up and golden brown.

The final test, then, would be how they tasted.

Sublime. The texture was just right, smooth and creamy, and the orange and almond flavors worked nicely with one another. It is strongly reminiscent of almond without being too strong.

Almond pastry

Ingredients

• 3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
• 1 T ricotta cheese
• 1 1/2 T almond paste
• 1/2 t pure almond extract
• 2 t grated orange zest 
• 1 sheet  frozen puff pastry, defrosted
• 1 egg beaten, for egg wash

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
   
2. Unfold 1 sheet of puff pastry onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out with a rolling pin until it's a 12 by 8-inch rectangle. 
   
3. Place the cream cheese and confectioner's sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and cream them together on low speed until smooth.
   
4. With the mixer still on low, add the ricotta and crumble in the almond paste and let the mixer combine them well.
   
5. Then add the almond extract, orange zest and egg yolk and mix on low speed until just combined.
6. Cut the sheet of puff pastry into eight rectangles with a sharp knife.
   
7. Place one heaping tablespoon of cheese filling into the middle of 4 of the rectangles.
   
8. Brush the border of each pastry with egg wash and then cover it with a free pastry rectangle, pinching the edges together so that they stick together.
   
9. Brush the top of the pastries with the egg wash.
   
10. Place the pastries on the sheet pan.
11. Bake the pastries for about 20 minutes, until puffed and brown. Serve warm.
    

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