Profumo Profondo

These are great, easy party cookies that I’ve been making since I was a kid. The hardest part was keeping them in one piece: they are fragile and break easily if not handled gently. Probably not the best cookie to make if you’re sending cookies or traveling with them.

If you do lose a few to breakage, that’s OK: these cookies also make a fantastic topping for ice cream.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups oatmeal (preferably not the instant kind)
2 1/4 cups light brown sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) melted butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Put the oatmeal, sugar, flour, and salt into a medium-large mixing bowl. Add the melted butter and stir well, then mix in the egg and vanilla. Blend well.

Place teaspoon-sized balls of the dough onto cookie sheets. Leave at least 2 inches between each piece, these cookies spread a lot while baking.

Bake for 7 minutes or until the cookies are light brown.

Notes

• These cookies tend to stick to the tray unless you either use a Silpat baking mat or grease the trays. Waiting for the cookies to cool a bit before pulling them off the cookie tray also helps get them off without breaking.
• If you really want to go for sugar overload, add chocolate: drizzle a little melted chocolate on top of the cookies, or even go all-out and dip the cookies into melted chocolate.

One of Mom’s recipes and an awesome dessert. It’s easy to make, tastes great, and is not so rich that you’ll feel insanely guilty eating it.

Ingredients:

Cake Base:
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
2 eggs

Topping:
12 small ripe purple plums, halved and pitted
OR 12 small ripe apricots, halved and pitted
OR 1 to 1/12 cups fresh berries (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries are best)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons lemon juice (optional)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9″ springform pan.

Cream the butter and sugar together (if you don’t know how, here’s a helpful link).

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and sift into a bowl, then add them, as well as the eggs, to the butter and sugar. Mix well but do not overwork the dough. Pour into the pan and smooth out the batter with a spatula to make sure it’s evenly distributed.

Add the fruit. If you’re using apricots, plums or strawberries, place the fruit halves skin side up so that the juices run down into the cake as it cooks. Raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries don’t have sides so just sprinkle them on. Tap gently on the fruit pieces to settle them into the batter, but not so firmly that they’re completely covered.

Sprinkle the top of the cake with sugar, and cinnamon and if necessary the lemon juice, adjusting the amount of each depending on the type and tartness of the fruit.

Bake for 1 hour.

Notes & Substitutions:

• This cake is best served warm.
• Can be baked in advance, frozen, and reheated.
• If you don’t have a springform pan, a 9″ cake or pie round will also work. Grease the pan heavily and/or line with parchment paper for easier removal.