Oatmeal cookie

Most people’s recipe boxes have several oatmeal cookie recipes.  So add another one already.  Honestly, this is very possibly the best oatmeal cookie you will make/eat.  Credit the butter and the spices.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cardamom (optional but oh, my …)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º F (175 Cº). In a large bowl, cream together butter, shortening, sugars, eggs, and vanilla. (Hint: crack the eggs into the measuring cup you’re going to use for the shortening, empty the eggs into the bowl, but don’t wash or rinse the cup before you put the shortening in it; the shortening will fall right out of the cup.)  Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, stir into the sugar mixture, add raisins if you like.  Careful as you stir, dough will be very thick, you could break a wooden spoon.  Drop by rounded teaspoons (or a small scoop) onto a greased cookie sheet.  Bake 9 to 11 minutes until light and golden; do not over bake.  Let them “set” a couple minutes on the cookie sheet before you remove them to a foil-lined counter to cool completely.

B&W Chocolate Cookies

I intentionally write “B&W” rather than “Black and White” … just feels right.  This cookie started out as a chocolate base with peanut butter chips.  I do like peanut butter, but apparently not as much as others; I’m especially not a big fan of peanut butter chips in cookies.  So, I swapped out the peanut butter chips originally called for with half semi-sweet, and half white chocolate.  You can’t see the semi-sweet chips in these pix.

Ingredients:
1 ¼ cups butter or margarine
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ bag white chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350ºF (175ºC)
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar; add eggs and vanilla, beat well.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Incorporate into the creamed mixture with a stout spoon, the dough will be stiff.  Stir in the chips.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a greased (I don’t know why all these recipes always say “ungreased” – you ever tried to scrape the cookies off an ungreased sheet?) cookie sheet.  Bake 8 to 9 minutes.  Do not over-bake; cookies will be soft.  They will puff while baking and flatten while cooling.  Allow to cool a few minutes on the sheet, and then remove to a rack or aluminum foil on the counter-top to cool completely.

Oatmeal Coconut and Goodies Galore

( aka “Coconut Chewies”)

I won’t take credit for the origin of this, I got the idea and the foundation of the recipe from an old school chum, Debbie Black Iverson.  I’m torn over which is better – the texture or the taste – both are most excellent.

Ingredients
Wet:
1 cup butter, softened (option: 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup shortening)
2 cups brown sugar (option: 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup white sugar)
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. coconut extract

Dry:
2 cups flour
2 cups oats
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Mix-ins:
1/2 cup coconut
½ cup raisins (optional)
1 cup semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips or M&Ms (optional)
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Directions
In one bowl combine everything wet; blend well.  In another bowl, combine everything dry.  Combine the two, mix in the mix-ins. (Careful to not break your spoon, dough is very stiff.)  Drop by tablespoons (or small scoop); flatten slightly with backside of spatula or bottom of a glass before baking.  Bake at 375 degrees for 9 minutes or until light brown.  Cool slightly on cookie sheet before removing to foil-lined counter to cool completely.  Store in airtight container.

Grape Nuts Cookies

This is a fun cookie.  The Grape Nuts almost feel like toffee bits when you’re crunching through them in the chewy cookie.  There’s nothing interesting about how they look though, so no picture.

Ingredients:
1 Cup butter, softened (or 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup shortening)
1 Cup brown sugar, packed
1 Cup white sugar
1/3 Cup honey
4 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla
2 Cups flour
2 Cups Grape Nuts cereal
2 Cups rolled oats
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350º.  In a large bowl, combine (with an electric mixer) the first six (wet) ingredients, in another bowl, combine the next five (dry).  Stir together with a stout wooden spoon; will be too stiff to use a mixer.  Drop by rounded tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet; not too closely, they spread.  Bake for 8 – 11 minutes, allow to set a few before removing to counter to cool completely.

Oh Henry Bars

First time I had these, I thought they were another “Rice Krispie treat”, but there are quite a few differences.  I just did a Google search on Oh Henry Bars and there are a LOT of variations out there.  I got this one from friend and neighbor LuAnn Scott, who is such a good cook I knew it would be good.

Ingredients:
1 Cup Sugar
1 1/2 Cups creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 Cups corn syrup
9 Cups Rice Krispies
1 – 12 oz. pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 – 12 oz. pkg. butterscotch chips

Directions:
Mix sugar, peanut butter and corn syrup in a heavy, medium saucepan, until no more sugar crystals can be heard/felt. Measure Rice Krispies into a very large bowl, like a big popcorn bowl. Pour the syrup over the Rice Krispies, and stir gently until completely coated. Pour out and press into the bottom of a greased (spray is fine) 10X14 inch pan. (I like this little bigger pan than the typical 9X13, as the bars aren’t as thick this way.) Melt the chips in a microwave – safe bowl, stir until smooth, spread over bars. Cool in the fridge a few hours to set, then bring back up to almost room temperature to cut into bars.

Soft Gingersnaps

This is one of my favorite cookies.  I’ve always liked gingersnaps, but this one has plusses; it’s soft and chewy (if “soft” and ginger”snap” aren’t too much an oxymoron), the spices are mild, and (wait for it …) its b-u-t-t-e-r-y!  Oh, yeah.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions:
Cream butter; add sugar gradually.  Beat until fluffy.  Add egg and molasses; blend.  Stir together flour, soda, salt and spices; blend into butter mixture.  Roll small portions of dough into balls the size of walnuts  I use a melon baller – they sell tiny little ice cream lookin’ scoops just for the purpose in the specialty cooking stores, but I’m cheap.  Roll in granulated sugar, place on lightly greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.  Bake at 350º 8 to 10 minutes or until they have melted and puffed.  For crisper cookies, bake until they have flattened.  Cookies bake down to form perfect rounds with traditional gingersnap cracks on top.  Careful not to over-bake them, or they won’t be soft and chewy.

Cake Mix Oreos

 

I plowed through the web for this recipe and found several versions, this one being one of the simplest – and the results are great.  Three ingredients, I love it.  Be patient when combining the ingredients, the batter is *very* stiff. (Don’t break your spoon!)  Like the instructions say below, I use a melon baller to dig out small, uniform cookies. A daughter of mine uses a scoop made for cookies that is a little larger, and those are good too.  As for how “done” to cook them, the daughter and I differ slightly. She likes them a little softer than me.  The cookies in these pictures have orange-colored frosting; we gave them away for Halloween.  Feel free to experiment with the colors; I think red and green would be fun for Christmas, pastels for Easter, or regular ol’ white any ol’ time.

Ingredients:
2 (18.25 ounce) packages dark chocolate cake mix
4 eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 to 3 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325°  . Lightly grease cookie sheets.  In medium bowl, mix together cake mixes, eggs and oil until well blended.  Dough will be very stiff – don’t break the spoon!  Roll dough into 1 – 2 inch balls (a melon baller works well) and place onto prepared cookie sheets.  Make them as uniform as possible, so they’ll match up top and bottom.  Bake 10 to 12 minutes until semi-firm.  Let set up a few minutes on sheet before removing.  To make filling, beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar together until smooth.  Start with 2 cups, and add up to 1 more cup to achieve desired consistency, food color optional.  Spread between two cooled cookies.



Cherry Pecan Cookies

(3 drops pink food color)

Anyone who sees this blog very often knows that I like chocolate – a lot. Once in a while however, I come across another flavor cake or cookie that is good enough it doesn’t have to be chocolate. This is one of those recipes. This has been sitting in my box for long enough that I don’t remember who put it there or when, but I’m glad it was there. It’s very good.

Cherry Pecan Cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
1  1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon maraschino cherry juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-5 drops pink food color
1 cap-full almond extract
2 cups rolled oats (quick or old fashioned, whatever you have)
2/3 cups maraschino cherries, drained and cut up (don’t worry about an exact measurement)
1 cup pecans, broken up (again, don’t worry about this being a spot-on measurement)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. In separate bowl, cream together shortening, butter, sugar, eggs, cherry juice, vanilla, food color and extract. Stir in flour mixture and mix well. Blend in oatmeal, cherries and nuts. Mix well. Roll into balls the size of walnuts and slightly smash down with the palm of your hand (half original height). Bake to light brown, 8 – 10 minutes.

(4 drops pink food color)

Peanut Butter Bars

I’m pretty sure one of the daughters found this on the algoreweb … I mean, the internet. We were just looking for a good, basic peanut butter bar, and this one fills the bill pretty well. I have tried adding a pinch of cinnamon to the dough, but I think I like it better just the way it is, just rich and chewy and peanut buttery.

WET
1/2 Cup butter
3/4 Cup white sugar
3/4 Cup brown sugar
3/4 Cup peanut butter
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla

DRY
1 1/2 Cup flour
1 1/2 Cup oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

In one bowl, combine the wet.   (Cream together sugars and butter. Incorporate eggs, then vanilla.)   In a separate bowl, combine the dry. Combine the wet and the dry.  Spread into a lightly (spray) greased 12 X 17.   Bake at 350º for 10-12 minutes. Cool, frost with:

Frosting
1 brick cream cheese, softened
A couple Tablespoons butter, softened
A shake of salt
Unsweetened cocoa powder 2 to 4 Tablespoons, to taste
Powdered sugar, to spreading consistency (3-4 Cups)
Beat ‘til smooth.

Peanut Butter Cookie – With a Plus

I can’t say this peanut butter cookie has a “secret” ingredient, or I wouldn’t very well be able to share the recipe with you. The “plus” is vanilla pudding mix. It helps make and keep the cookies chewy and moist.

Ingredients:

Bowl 1:
3 eggs
1 Cup shortening
1 Cup creamy peanut butter
1 Cup white sugar
1 Cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Bowl 2:
3 Cups all-purpose flour
1 package vanilla pudding mix
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In bowl 1, combine all ingredients listed for it. (Hint: if you put the eggs in the 1-cup measure, tip it around to coat the sides with the egg whites, then use that same cup to measure the shortening, the shortening will come out a lot easier.) Blend with electric mixer on slow, then medium, stopping a time or two to scrape down the sides. In bowl 2, combine all the ingredients listed for it. Combine the two bowls, stirring with a solid spoon – it will be very stiff. Shape into 1-inch balls and place 2 to 3 inches apart on greased baking sheet. Flatten with a fork dipped in sugar to create the classic criss-cross pattern on top. Bake at 375 degrees for 7 – 8 minutes, or until edges just start to brown. If you bake until the whole cookie is brown, they will be crunchy, not chewy. Cool several minutes on the sheet before removing to cool completely.