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dachshundlady badge: Community Member

Does Anyone Have Valchemist Recipes?

On the old baking circle I found a whole bunch of chocolate chip cookie recipes that Valchemist had posted. She tried many and then posted her opinions on each cookie. I have a whole printed packet of cc cookie recipes from her. I couldn't find her or her recipes here and wondered if she had done any other tests with other recipes. And no, my scanner doesn't work anymore so can't scan these recipes in here. :-(

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swirth
  • Reply by swirth on January 30, 2012 at 11:09 am
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She did do other recipes and I can help you when I get caught up a little later today, maybe??

I'm not sure if she had posted recipes, tho...she may have just done these huge threads of cookies and such...I'll look and see if I have anything such as posted recipes from her.

mrscindy
  • Reply by mrscindy on January 30, 2012 at 11:22 am
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I did the same thing, printed out her recipes and use the ones I like. I don't have a scanner, either. I seem to recall she tested other recipes and posted her results within the threads. That's what is so sad about losing all that information.

But, if anyone can pull up the information, it's swirth! Give her time and it will pop out!

~Cindy

swirth
  • Reply by swirth on January 30, 2012 at 12:15 pm
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Just did a little quick and dirty peek thru some saved stuff and she had oatmeal cookie tests and carrot cakes tests for sure...I think that's all the subjects she did.

I'll have to look a lot further to find the recipes...or where to find them; have a lot going on here today but will dig more when I can.

She did not have any posted recipes, tho, that I could find...lots of folks did not have posted recipe. Looks like her stuff was just in the threads.

pammyowl
  • Reply by pammyowl on January 30, 2012 at 3:14 pm
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Where and how, do I find all these "old BC" things you guys are always talking about? Us newcomers are feeling a bit left out!!

Mike Nolan
  • Reply by Mike Nolan on January 30, 2012 at 3:49 pm
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Sadly, you cannot get to the old BC content. King Arthur chose not to migrate all the posts from the old BC (possibly 200,000 of them) over to the new BC.

Swirth saved a bunch of them (as did some other people), and I suspect King Arthur has all the old BC content saved somewhere as well, but unless they reverse their stand on migrating old content over, except for the content that some members saved those posts are not accessible.

A lot of really good information was lost in the process.

swirth
  • Reply by swirth on January 30, 2012 at 3:59 pm
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It was such a tragic loss when we think nearly every day of something that would help someone...info from the oldBC. Day after tomorrow, Feb. 1st, 2011, one full year ago, KAF pulled the plug on the oldBC and unless I have saved something and can find it and put it here on the newBC or someone else happens to have saved something and sees a request here for that info, there is no way for anyone to see it here...so, just sit back and enjoy when you get a chance to find some oldBC tidbits when they do appear here.

swirth
  • Reply by swirth on January 30, 2012 at 5:43 pm
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Here's some info I had saved but the links don't work very well:

http://community.cookinglight.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41379&highl...

and here is a link to a thread where someone made the recipe that won my taste test.

http://community.cookinglight.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=42989&highl...

http://lonetree1353.50megs.com/index.htm

http://lonetree1353.50megs.com

Message: 1
9/6/2003
valchemist Oatmeal Cookies Taste Testing

I recently embarked on a quest to find the best oatmeal cookie. I was looking for a cookie that was crisp outside, chewy inside, and one that didn't spread too flat. Flavor was important, too. I like a nice oat-iness and not an overwhelming amount of spices.

Below is a little chart of my results. All of the recipes can be found on this website: http://lonetree1353.50megs.com/index.htm The website was made by my testing partner, Maureen. At the end of each recipe is an individual review.

(You might remember that I posted the results of a carrot cake taste test experiment a while back and since some people were interested in that, I thought I would come back and post my cookie results.)

Thanks for looking. :)
Valerie

First Tier (Excellent)

Cook’s Illustrated
Dairy Hollow House Oatmeal Cookies
Oatmeal Cookie Kings
Toasted Oatmeal Cookies (the one that includes buttermilk in the recipe)
Linda in MO's Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies (lowfat!)

Honorable mention:
Betty Crocker’s Toasted Oatmeal Cookies
Regan Daley’s Oatmeal Cookies (from In the Sweet Kitchen)
Both of these recipes tied for the best tasting cookies that I tried. Better taste than even the ones listed above. The reason they only got honorable mention was that they spread too flat.

Second Tier (Very Good)

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies (posted by pilgrim719),
Sara Foster’s Oatmeal Cookies
Paula Deen’s Oatmeal Cookies(The Lady and Sons)
Maples Inn Oatmeal Cookies
Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (from Quaker oatmeal box)
Famous Oatmeal Cookies (from Quaker Site)
CTSera's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Soft Cookies that were Great (but I prefer a crisp/chewy)

Double Oat Cookies (from Betty Crocker’s Ultimate Cookie Book; have oat bran and oats)
Silver Palate Oatmeal Cookies
Oatmeal Whoopie Pie Cookies (posted by mamasue)
McCann's Irish Oatmeal Cookies (McCann's Oats website)

Non-traditional Recipes that were Great

Sheila in MD’s cookies
Oatmeal Almond Cookies (original recipe called for M&M’s but I left them out)
Self-Frosting Oatmeal Cookies
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I didn’t have much luck with the above links but valchemist listed an email that folks could use if they had questions and some folks said they could not get the links to work, either…so you might give this email a try…nothing to lose and she might be able to provide better working links:

valchemist@yahoo.com

There were no individual posted oatmeal cookie recipes that I could find, just the titles above, on the oldBC. Same for the carrot cakes recipes.

Hope it helps.

dachshundlady

Thanks, swirth. I would be interested in the oatmeal cookie recipes. I'll try to hunt her down this week. Not as interested in carrot cake. Is my husband's favorite but I would rather consume my calories in chocolate.

mrscindy
  • Reply by mrscindy on January 30, 2012 at 9:57 pm
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DLady, let me look through my hard copies and see what I have filed away. My Goddaughter put everything into 3 ring binders for me a few years back under different headings. I have some time tomorrow, so let me do some looking. I might have hard copies of some of those threads.

~Cindy

dachshundlady

I looked at some of the links on my IPhone. I have to do it now with the computer. It has her ratings of the cookies and then some of the recipes.

swirth
  • Reply by swirth on January 31, 2012 at 7:13 am
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Yes, I saw some of the cookie recipes in one of the links but didn't find every one in a list like the list she had in the oldBC thread of her rankings by title. There was enough info with some titles to find them on websites and the like, as well.

I'm positive she did not put the oatmeal cookie recipes in the oldBC threads like she did for the chocolate chips.

dachshundlady

I bookmarked the lonetree site and emailed her. Thanks swirth.

frick
  • Reply by frick on January 31, 2012 at 9:29 pm
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Odd. I clicked on the above link:

http://lonetree1353.50megs.com/index.htm

and it went right to her website, with ALL the oatmeal cookie recipes as far as I could see. Try again.

http://lonetree1353.50megs.com/ultimate_recipes.htm

I just copied all the oatmeal cookie recipes, 21 pages of them. I don't feel right posting them here but anyone who wants them should be able to get them right off her website. Or maybe she would grant permission. Seriously, there's no reason anyone needs all of them, but choose your favorites.

mrscindy
  • Reply by mrscindy on January 31, 2012 at 9:30 pm
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The lonetree site is not Valchemist's site, but it is the site of her friend, the one she tested recipes with. And her test results are listed there. The Cook's Illustrated recipe is also there and it was the one Valchemist rated as best.

~Cindy

dachshundlady

Yes, I am slowly perusing the recipes, deciding which to copy. I appreciate swirth having that link. Altho I like cc cookies best right out of the oven, I like oatmeal better in the days thereafter.

Mike Nolan
  • Reply by Mike Nolan on February 01, 2012 at 12:08 pm
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DL, if you like chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, the one I have posted (my mother's recipe) makes a crisp airy cookie, the kind that just CRIES OUT to be dipped in milk.

I think they're best after about 2 days, but they seldom last that long.

http://community.kingarthurflour.com/node/4957

dachshundlady

Thanks Mike. I am from the "slightly thicker and chewy" school of oatmeal cookie consumers. Just printed out the top 6 in valchemists experiments. Can't wait to try one. And DH will be thrilled as long as there are plenty of raisins involved.

dachshundlady

I noticed that in one of the recipes she said that quick oats give a thicker cookie than rolled. We had figured that out by trial and error and our favorite oatmeal cookie (so far) is a recipe DH wheedled out of a bakery in VT when we were moving to Florida. That one calls for twice as many rolled as quick oats. AND it has half butter, half shortening which also prevents those flat, almost lacy cookies. I actually found this nice little summary of how ingredients can affect the texture of cookies. Do you like the taste of your choc chip or oatmeal cookies but want them a little chewier or maybe puffier? This link explains how fats, sugars, type of flour etc can help you tweak your old favorite:

http://allrecipes.com/howto/perfect-cookies/

Mike Nolan
  • Reply by Mike Nolan on February 02, 2012 at 12:13 pm
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Those cookies are plenty thick, they don't flatten out much at all. But they are crisp. I should make a batch and attach a picture to that recipe.

My sister always made them with butter instead of shortening, and hers came out much flatter. I suspect it's because butter is around 20% water.

A cup of shortening is just under 7.25 ounces by weight, a cup of butter is 8 ounces by weight.

But because there is water in butter, to get 7.25 ounces of fat from butter, you'd need a little over 9 ounces of butter, at which point you'd have 1.8 ounces of water, nearly a quarter cup. No wonder they flatten out!

dachshundlady

Mike, the crisco recipe cards say to add 1Table liquid per cup of crisco subbed for butter.
And I made the CI oatmeal cookie recipe today. I subbed 1/4 cup butter flavor crisco, putting in the other 3/4 cup butter called for in recipe. I added 1 teas vanilla as the extra liquid. I also increased brown sugar and decreased white to enhance flavor and texture. The turned out really good; thick and chewy. I found them a tad sweet ( which DH will LOVE) but next time I will decrease the white sugar.