Thick, Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

While I’m still in search of my perfect oatmeal raisin cookie.  These are definitely an acceptable start to the search!  I think I want something slightly less buttery and without cinnamon, but these were quite good nonetheless!

Thick, Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place parchment paper or a silpat onto a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together.  Gently add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Stir in the oats, raisins and walnuts, if using them.

Chill the dough in the fridge (either chill then scoop or scoop the cookies onto a sheet – 2″ apart – and then chill the whole tray), then bake.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top. Allow the cookies to sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring to a rack to cool.

Source: Smitten Kitchen

Festive Cookie Mix

Since our marriage, I finally “officially” have four nieces and a nephew.  Dating for 9 years made that more of an inevitable since I was already “Aunt Pammy”.  Unfortunately they all live in California, so we do not get to see them very often although we do have a trip coming up!  Since I didn’t get to see them during the holidays and participate in any holiday activities together, I wanted ship something out they could do with their respective siblings.  Enter the cookie mix! I’ve seen this idea over the years on blogs, at craft shows, in magazines, etc., but I decided to try it for myself using Bakerella’s recipe.  I also wanted to put something with it so I included a couple other things like a cute brownie mix I found and the embroidered aprons shown at the bottom.

Word of advice…make sure you pack, pack, pack the ingredients in.  Lesson learned…let’s just say it was a good thing I hadn’t planned to include the pecans!

I wanted it to get to them before Christmas, so I didn’t search for smooth Ball jars or cute fabric to wrap around the lid, but this could easily be a fun party favor in my future!  Coordation of the M&M’s colors, labels, and fabric to the party….HEAVEN.

Cookie Mix

• 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup & leveled
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup cooking oats
• 3/4 cup m&ms
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 – 1/2 cup chopped pecans (I omitted.)

Start with a 1-quart smooth Ball jar.

Layer the ingredients:

Bottom/First:  Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda and Salt
Second: Oats
Third: M&Ms
Fourth: Chocolate Chips
Fifth: Brown Sugar
Sixth: White Sugar
Seventh: Chopped Pecans

Pack each level down VERY, VERY tightly (or it won’t all fit). Ingredients should be flush to the top of the lid when you seal it up.

FOR THE LABEL OR RECIPE CARD

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir together all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Add:

• 1 slightly beaten egg
• 1/2 cup butter, slightly melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Use the back of a large spoon or your hands to combine it all together.

Roll into 1 1/2 inch balls, and place on a parchment covered baking sheet.  Bake for about 10 minutes.

Recipe found at: Bakerella

Candy Cane Kiss Cookies

I shockingly have only made one batch of Christmas cookies this year.  Between school, work, and overall lacking motivation, it just didn’t happen this year.  Probably the fact that I knew there would be a ton at my parents’, and I really don’t need five dozen cookies didn’t hurt either.

We were supposed to go to a holiday party for Corrie’s work, but it got canceled due to inclement weather…twice.  These were originally supposed to go there.  I unfortunately really liked the way these tasted…very peppermint-y like the candy cane cookies.

I did use a slightly larger cookie scoop then I meant to so I got a few less out of the recipe, but they were obviously just as tasty!

Candy Cane Kiss Cookies

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1¼ cups butter, room temperature
• 1 tsp peppermint extract, optional
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1/2 cup finely chopped Candy Cane Hershey’s Kisses
• Granulated sugar
• 30 unwrapped Candy Cane Kisses

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Use the mixer, on medium speed, to combine the powdered sugar, butter, extracts and egg.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl often until creamy, 2-3 minutes. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the butter mixture and mix, scraping bowl often, until well blended (1-2 minutes).   The mixture will be slightly crumbly. Stir in the chopped up Kisses.

Scoop dough into ¾-inch to 1-inch balls, and roll in granulated sugar. Place 1-inch apart on cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set.

Allow to cool for 5-6 minutes, and then press a Candy Cane Kiss in the center of each cookie.   Use your fingers to help the cookie keep its shape while you’ll do this (they’ll crack a little bit).

Store in a covered container at room temperature.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen

Recipe slightly adapted from Recipe Girl

SCRUMPTIOUS Chunky Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

My mom made these cookies when we were home for Thanksgiving, and they are totally delicious.  I’m actually not a huge chocolate cookie fan, particularly no crispy cookies for me, but these are not a traditional chocolate chip cookie taste.  Not crispy but not super soft.  They are so good in a “I just tried to eat my weight in them” sort of way, so essentially make them immediately.

Chunky Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

• ¾ cup sugar
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ lb butter
• 2 ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• ½ tsp vanilla
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 ½ cups chocolate chips
• 1 cup walnuts

Preheat oven to 345 degrees.

Cream the butter, sugars, eggs together.  Add the vanilla, salt and baking soda.  Scrape the sides and add the baking powder and flour. Mix until incorporated.  Add the walnuts and chocolate chips just till mixed.

Scoop and bake for 13-18 minutes depending on your oven until the bottoms just turn golden brown.

Recipe found at: Bravo TV (Top Chef) Just Desserts Made by my Mommy!

No Bake Cookies

Somehow I’ve managed to make these way more times than my jeans would like, but I haven’t blogged about them yet.

They were unfortunately an excellent treat to make when it was too hot outside to turn the oven on inside.  Even now that I’m in the South I’m beginning to forget what that was like….brr!

These are too easy to make and unfortunately I usually have the ingredients on hand.  One day, as you can see from the “rear” cookie, I decided to also add some marshmallows to the mix!  Now I’d like to also inform you that this mixture is delicious eaten from a spoon if you can’t wait the very short time they take to harden, but how would I know?

No Bake Cookies

• ½ cup (1 stick) butter
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• ½ cup milk
• 4 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• ½ cup peanut butter
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• marshmallows, optional

Add butter, sugar, milk, and cocoa powder to a 4-quart saucepan. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil and let it boil for 1 minute.  Remove from heat.

Add the peanut butter and vanilla stir until smooth, then stir in the oats (and marshmallows if using).

Drop by heaping tablespoons (mine are huge in the picture…so I may have used several heaping tablespoons) onto wax paper-lined baking sheets.  Then, let cool until set.

Recipe found at Brown Eyed Baker, adapted from Ezra Pound Cake

Guest Post: Shortbread

When I started my current job, I opted to work longer hours every Monday through Thursday in exchange for every other Friday off. I think I tried to make it sound like a reasonable adult decision by pointing to the elimination of a 45-mile round trip commute twice a month, but really I just wanted to sleep in 26 times a year when my poor wife has to get up and work.

But once I’ve overdosed on sleep and video games, twinges of guilt start to gnaw at me as I hear her making calls and firing off e-mails. So on many of these Friday afternoons I’ve tried to pay back all the reasons I’m thankful for her (many of which you’ve read on this site) by tackling one of her favorites in the kitchen.

Case in point: Shortbread. I really had only had these cookies out of ugly red plaid plastic sleeves before, so this recipe was kind of daunting. However, this is very manageable and the final product turned out very well (I’m pretty sure we killed it in about 24 hours).

One key is managing the shape of the dough. Using a spring-form pan to set the initial size and then unclasping it to set the final boundary was pretty clever. Hat-tip to the goofy guy with the bow-tie in Cook’s Illustrated for that.

The other key is getting the texture right, and Cooks Illustrated’s twist, creating a flour out of rolled oats, added the right amount of coarseness to the dough. I toyed with the idea of candying bacon and incorporating it into the dough or sprinkling it on top at the end, but it felt a little too Willy Wonka.

A little while after I made this, my Aunt Debbie brought her own homemade shortbread to our Christmas festivities, and she used finely crushed potato chips instead of the oat-flour. I liked the little extra saltiness this brought to the cookies with the same textural differentiation. Sadly, I don’t think she has a blog for me to link to for you all.

Shortbread

• 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups (7 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cornstrach
• 2/3 cup (2 2/3 ounces) confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 tsp. table salt
• 14 Tbsp. (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Pulse oats in a spice grinder or blender until reduced to fine powder, about ten 5-second pulses.  In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix oat flour, all-purpose flour, cornstarch, sugar, and salt on low speed until combined, about 5 seconds.  Add butter to dry ingredients and continue to mix on low speed until dough just forms and pulls away from sides of bowl, 5 to 10 minutes.

Place upside-down (grooved edge should be at the top) collar of a 9- or 9 1/2-inch springform pan on parchment lined rimmed baking sheet (do not use springform pan bottom).  Press dough into collar in even 1/2-inch-thick layer, smoothing top of dough with back of spoon.  Place 2-inch biscuit cutter in center of dough and cut out center.  Place extracted round alongside springform collar on baking sheet and replace cutter in center of dough.  Open springform collar, but leave it in place.

Bake shortbread 5 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 250 degrees.  Continue to bake until edges turn pale golden, 10 to 15 minutes longer.  Remove baking sheet from oven; turn off oven.  Remove springform pan collar; use chef’s knife to score surface of shortbread into 16 even wedges, cutting halfway through shortbread.  Using wooden skewer (or a fork), pork 8 to 10 holes in each wedge.  Return shortbread to oven and prop door open with handle of wooden spoon, leaving 1-inch gap at top.  Allow shortbread to dry in turned-off oven until pale golden in center (shortbread should be firm but giving to touch), about 1 hour.

Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool shortbread to room temperature, at least 2 hours.  Cut shortbread at scored marks to separate and serve.

Recipe from Cook’s Illustrated (November and December 2009)

XOXO Cookies

I love sending care packages, because I think it’s not only fun to get mail but to surprise other people it too.  I haven’t sent as many as I’d like, since a) school, or at least avoiding schoolwork, takes up a lot of what would be my free time and b) I always worry about things being stale upon arrival.  Future plans include compiling a list of yummy treats that stay fresh for a few extra days!

In Valentine’s spirit, I sent these to my brother who sent me a picture from his iPhone which is composed so much better with the milk in the cute jar, etc. than mine ever are.  It cracked me up; he’s creative, what can I say.

The “X” and “O” cookies were inspired by here, although I decided to make full-size cookies and to fill the entire cookie with icing to keep them fresher during shipping.  The recipe is the same one I used here.  Now all I need is to get some Americolor Red to be able to make actual red and try this again…

Vanilla-Almond Sugar Cookies

It’s official.  I am now old enough that I have a good friend who has had her first child, a beautiful little girl!  My decorating job wasn’t the best as I ran out of time…so here we are.  I sent them anyways, because THESE COOKIES ARE SERIOUSLY DELICIOUS, and because I wanted to let her know I was thinking of her even if I was stuck a gazillion miles away in the South.

These made some tasty cookies, at least the ones I may or may not have tried right out of the oven, so this is a keeper!

Vanilla-Almond Sugar Cookies
Recipe found at Bake at 350

• 3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 cup sugar (she uses sugar that vanilla beans are store in)
• 2 sticks salted butter, cold and cut into cubes
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. pure almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine the flour and baking powder, set aside.

Cream together butter and sugar.  Mix in the egg, almond extract, and vanilla extract.  Then, add the flour mixture slowly, a little bit at a time, and mix only until combined, scraping down the bowl as you go.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut into desired shapes.   Transfer to parchment lined baking sheets, and bake for 10-12 minutes.  Allow to cool a couple minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.  Either eat some straight out of the oven (whoops) or ice with royal icing and allow to dry overnight.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Obviously the addition of graduate school to the life/work routine has thrown quite  a wrench into my availability of free time, and this blog has definitely suffered for it.  I find myself wanting to try a lot of new recipes, but not always with the motivation to fit it in, and the biggest thing that suffers is probably the photography.  I basically “document” making something by throwing it on a plate at 10:30 PM when it’s pitch black out and snap a picture.  Alas, one day I may have the desire and time to make my pictures snazzy.

These cookies were a good snack on a study day and were incredibly moist.  My only change for next time is I would try chilling the dough a bit beforehand, because I seemed to have a problem with them spreading more than they should have.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Recipe found at Lovin’ from the Oven

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 medium eggs (I used large.)
• Extra granulated sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat together butter, peanut butter, and vanilla extract, then add in sugars, salt, and baking powder.  Gradually add the flour.  Next, beat in eggs, one at a time.

Portion out 1 1/2″ balls and roll the balls in the extra granulated sugar.  Using a fork, make a criss-cross pattern, slightly flattening the cookie.  Bake for 12-13 minutes.  Cool on the cookie sheet 8 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely before storing.

Chocolate (Peppermint) Bark Shortbread

There were allegations of people stealing from other’s cookie bags over these little cookies, which made me very happy girl.  I was a bit surprised to be honest, because I tried a piece and thought, being “the girl that they don’t know what is wrong with” since I don’t love love chocolate that I could do without the chocolate.  Guess I was wrong.  It’s *ok* that I was wrong.  In fact, in this case, I’m pretty happy about it!

Chocolate (Peppermint) Bark Shortbread

Recipe from RecipeGirl

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 egg yolk
• 6 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped or use chocolate chips (I used 1/2 bittersweet and half semi-sweet)
• 1 cup Hershey’s Candy Cane Kisses, chopped (or use crumbled candy canes) (I looked at a couple places and although I know I saw them somewhere BEFORE I started looking for them; I unfortunately couldn’t find them and just omitted.)
• 2 ounces white chocolate

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Lightly spray a 13×9×2-inch metal baking pan with non-stick spray, and line the bottom of pan with parchment paper (a piece long enough to leave you overhang on the short sides of pan.)

Combine flour and salt in medium bowl.   Beat butter in a mixer bowl until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).   Slowly add the sugar to the butter and continue beating until it’s again light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).  If you don’t have a beater blade that automatically scrapes down your bowl (I don’t yet.), make sure to scrape down the sides a couple times to make sure everything is throughly incorporated.   Then, beat in then vanilla followed by the egg yolk.  Once incorporated, slowly add the flour mixture, and mix on low speed until just incorporated.

Evenly space out spoonfuls of dough into the baking pan, and using moistened fingertips, press the dough to form even layer over bottom of pan. Pierce the top of dough randomly with a fork.  Bake approximately 30 minutes or until light golden brown,  slightly puffed, and edges have begun to come away from the sides of pan.  Place pan on cooling rack, and evenly spread out the chocolate on top.  The chocolate should begin to soften in 3-5 minutes, and using a small offset spatula, spread it evenly over the cookie.   Then, if you can find them!, evenly spread out the chopped candy cane kisses over the top.

Place white chocolate and a 1/2 tsp. of shortening in a microwave-safe bowl.  Microwave for 15 seconds, then stir, and repeat this process until the white chocolate is melted.  Then using a spoon or fork, drizzle over the cookie.  Chill approximately 30 minutes or until chocolate is set.

Grab the parchment paper to help you lift the cookie out of the pan where you can cut it into diamonds or bars or whatever you choose.

The recipe also stated this could be made ahead. I didn’t do this so I’m leaving the original instructions.
* Can be made 1 week ahead. Store in refrigerator (or freezer) in airtight containers between layers of waxed paper or parchment paper. Can be stored in the freezer for several weeks.