Week 35: Loaded Oatmeal Cookies

Because I don't make cookies nearly enough.

And because cookies with oatmeal and raisins must be healthy.

And because there has been all-together too many potatoes around here this week.

Loaded Oatmeal Cookies
Adapted from Barefoot Contessa on Foodnetwork

Bake time: 25 minutes
Makes 30 - 35 cookies


1 1/2 C pecans
1/2 lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 C dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1 C granulated sugar
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp kosher salt
3 C old-fashioned oatmeal
1 1/2 C raisins
2 C milk chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the pecans on a sheet pan and bake for 5 minutes, until crisp. Set aside to cool. Chop very coarsely.

Use an electric mixer to beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla.

Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together into a medium bowl. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Add the oats, raisins, pecans, and chocolate chips and mix just until combined.

Drop 2-inch mounds of dough onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper. Flatten slightly with a damp hand.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Transfer the cookies to a baking rack and cool completely.

My notes:
These needed to sit on the pan and cool for several minutes before they could be moved to the cooling rack. Any attempts to move them right away resulted in cookies that were crumbled and had to be eaten immediately!

And, it has to be said that these really were best eaten right away. Even sealed in an air-tight container, the cookies got really crunchy really fast. They don't keep in a tasty way for more than a couple of days.

Week 9: Spooky Cooking

My favorite kitchen helper came for a visit and some spooky cooking. We tackled two Halloween recipes.



Candy Corn Kiss Cookies
from Tasty Kitchen



1 1/2 C Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/3 C Butter (about 5 1/2 Tbsp), Softened
1/2 C Creamy Peanut butter
3/4 C Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/8 tsp Cardamom
Granulated Sugar, For Rolling In
10 oz bag Of Hershey's Candy Corn Kisses

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in the peanut butter and then the egg and vanilla.

Add in the dry ingredients half at at a time, mixing until well-combined.

Roll the dough into balls about 1″ thick. Roll them in the granulated sugar.

Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes, and then let cool. Top each cookie with a Hershey Candy Corn Kiss! When the recipe says "then let cool," it really does mean let cool. If you put the Kisses in before the cookies are cool enough they will melt. But, be careful because if you put the Kisses in when the cookies are too cool the kisses won't stick.


Pumpkin Pie Bites
from Bakerella
Be sure to check out the recipe on Bakerella. Her little pies are much cuter than mine!

Makes 24



2 refrigerated ready-to roll pie crusts

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 C sugar
1 C canned pumpkin
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter

Optional
1/2 cup chocolate morsels
vegetable oil
re-sealable plastic bags

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Use cookie cutter to cut 12 pumpkin shapes from each pie crust. You will need to roll the dough thinner than it comes out of the box and will need to roll and re-roll and roll and re-roll the scraps to get 12 out of each crust.

Press dough shapes into a 24 cup mini muffin tray. (Make 12 at a time, alternating cups to make sure pie crusts don’t overlap each other.)

Apply egg whites from one egg to the top edges of each pie. I forgot this step.
Mix cream cheese, sugar, canned pumpkin, remaining 2 eggs, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice together until thoroughly combined.

Spoon mixture into each pumpkin-shaped pie crust.

Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Remove pies to cool and repeat with second pie crust. Place the muffin tray in the freezer to cool it quickly for re-use.

Makes 24 pies. Keep refrigerated.

To decorate, melt chocolate in a heat-proof bowl in the microwave on medium. Heat in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until melted. Add a little vegetable oil to make the chocolate more fluid. Transfer to a re-sealable plastic bag and cut the corner off. Drizzle or draw faces on pies. Natalie got really impatient, so we didn't make it to the decorating stage. We just covered the little pie with whipped cream and enjoyed.

Happy Halloween, everyone. My favorite part of Halloween is that once it's over Thanksgiving preparations can begin! I love Thanksgiving - definitely my favorite holiday.

Week 4: The Chewy Recipe

There have been far too many real meals cooked around here. It's time for something fun, right?

Adapted from:
The Chewy Recipe
Alton Brown, for Food Network

Makes 2 1/2 dozen (or 2 dozen if you eat lots of dough) cookies



2 sticks unsalted butter
2 1/4 C flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 C sugar
1 1/4 C brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 Tbsp. milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 C semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. (In retrospect, I'd wait to do this. The dough has to chill later. That's the perfect time to preheat the oven.)

Melt the butter. (Yup. That's right. It says melt the butter. Weird, no?) Dump the flour, salt, and baking soda in a big bowl and stir around with a fork. Set aside.

Use a mixer to cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, milk and vanilla and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Chill the dough. (This is an important and easily overlooked step - I speak from experience.)

Scoop dough (the globs were about 1" round) onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Much to my dismay and despite lots of experimentation with the oven (two sheets at one time, one sheet at a time, moving oven racks, reducing cooking time to 12 minutes) the bottoms of every single batch burned. Alton would probably blame the gear - wrong brand of parchment paper or cookie sheets that didn't distribute the heat evenly. The non-burned part of the cookie was really tasty, though. I only tried them warm out of the oven - will see how they are on Day 2.

And, if chewy chocolate chip cookies aren't your thing, be sure to check out these recipes:
The Thin
The Puffy