In the interest of full disclosure, I don't love these cookies. Don't get me wrong. They are great with a glass of milk and the peanut butter, chocolate, oatmeal trio is a winner. But there are a lot of other cookies I would reach for first if given a choice. On the other hand, it is the perfect cookie for Tom. And considering the fact that he can't eat starting at midnight tonight until after his surgery tomorrow afternoon, these cookies were made and an empty glass with a slightly white bottom and a small plate with a few crumbs are sitting between us.
The original recipe doesn't call for any flour. Not a sprinkle of it. And, maybe I'm old-school, but you don't make cookies without flour. It might be tasty. But a cookie, it isn't. So I adjusted that slightly. I also made mine much smaller than initially called for. I'd much rather eat 6 small cookies than 2 big ones. You feel like you get more. And its less daunting when you don't have to use both hands to eat.
So without further ado ... the peanut butter and fudge oatmeal cookie.
Peanut Butter and Fudge Oatmeal Cookies (adapted from the kitchn)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 tsps vanilla
4 1/2 cups old-fashion oats
2 tbsps all purpose flour
2 tsps baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large bowl mix together butter, peanut butter, and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Stir until completely mixed.
2. In a separate bowl mixt flour, baking soda, and salt. Add oats and flour mixture to peanut butter mixture. Place in the fridge to cool.
3. In a small saucepan over low heat stir sweetened condensed milk and chocolate chips until all chocolate is melted. Turn flame off.
4. On a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, place teaspoon sized balls of dough. Flatten them with your fingers and place a dollop of chocolate in the middle of each. Bake for 10 minutes, until the edges are light brown. Wait 2 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.
Is there anything more comforting than an intensely chewy oatmeal cookie? I mean, maybe, but I can't think of anything right now. And the key to a chewy cookie is simple (but not necessarily easy) ... be patient enough to chill the dough before baking. That's it. But once that batter comes together, it is admittedly a challenge to delay cookie-eating for an additional 20 minutes.
This cookie is not very sweet at all and if you made larger cookies, you could slice it and pan fry it like a muffin for a decadent breakfast treat. (note to self: do this sooner rather than later.) One could very easily use raisins in lieu of walnuts or use both, but I'm not a huge fan of raisins in cookies, so I just used walnuts to add some texture to each bite.
Chewy Oatmeal Cookie Bites
1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla and egg. Mix until fully combined, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture. Beat on medium.
3. Turn the mixer down to low. Add the oats and walnuts. Mix until just incorporated.
4. Chill the dough for 20 minutes.
5. On a parchment lined cookie sheet, place scant teaspoon-sized ball of dough about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.
Last week I failed. I did not post. I did not cook or bake. Really I just barely kept it all together. BUT I'm back and maybe even better than ever. School has definitely gotten more stressful, but instead of completely losing my mind, I started doing yoga. And am trying to accept that it (life, school, etc.) is a process, which gives us only fleeting moments of perfection.
So with all of that in mind, I post one of most flavorful, yummy, crisp cookies that is just begging to be dipped in coffee or tea. This cookie will definitely help you relax. It will encourage you to slow down for a minute and to take a deep breath. To stop what you're doing and just be in the moment.
I hope you get to make these. Or that someone makes them for you. Because they go along way toward creating one of those fleeting moments of perfection that so many of us could use.
Ginger Pecan Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup rolled-oats
3/4 cup pecan halves
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1/4 cornstarch
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger*
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
*or use 1 teaspoon ground ginger, but prefer the taste of fresh. I used a grater and just squeezed out the water with a paper towel.
1. Put the oatmeal and pecans into a food processor and grind until it has the texture of cornmeal.
2. In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the flour, cornstarch, ginger, salt, and baking soda. Add the oatmeal/pecan mixture.
3. Put the butter in your stand-mixer bowl and beat until light (about 1 minute). Add both sugars and beat for 3 minutes, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides. Add the vanilla and the egg and mix until incorporated.
4. Add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and mix until combined.
5. Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap and pack the dough into the pan evenly. Cover the top with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to cool (about 2 hours).
6. Heat your oven to 350 F. Remove the dough from the loaf pan and slice in half lengthwise. Cut into 1/4 inch thick cookies. Bake on cookie sheets with parchment paper for 15-18 minutes (until the edges are browned).
These cookies are a go-to for me. In fact, most times I have available a lump of this cookie dough frozen, so if we get a hankering for something sweet, pure bliss is only about 10 minutes away.
I found this recipe in a Martha Stewart Living magazine ages ago and it has definitely stood the test of time. I think the fact that it's stuffed with basically every awesome flavor ever (except marshmallow I guess) makes it a clear champion.
If you're on a diet or have a nut-allergy this is not for you (though you could omit the nuts all together I suppose). But if you want a super tasty, substantial and gooey cookie, plug in your mixer, because I promise you won't be disappointed. The only difficulty I can attest to, is not shoveling spoonfuls of the dough in your mouth while standing over the kitchen sink. Wait, did I just admit to that?...
Cowboy Cookies adapted (barely) from Martha Stewart Living Magazine
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt (or regular salt if for some reason you prefer)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into chunks (I used chips because that's what I had)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper*. In a medium-sized bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder.
2. In a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars on medium-high until pale and creamy, about 3 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium. Add the eggs, one at a time, scrape down the sides and beat well after each addition. Add the vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low, and slowly add the flour mixture. Add the oats, chocolate, walnuts, and coconut. Beat until just combined.
4. Using a 1 1/2 inch ice cream scoop or a small spoon, drop dough onto baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart. (The cookies will spread!)
5. Bake until edges of cookies begin to brown, 10 to 13 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the sheets for about 5 minutes. Then transfer the cookies to wire racks and let them cool for another 10 minutes before eating (good luck with that).
Cookies can be stored for up to 3 days. Unused dough can be frozen and stored indefinitely. I don't bother to defrost the dough before baking and there is no discernible difference.
*I always use parchment paper to line the cookie sheets, even if the sheets are non-stick. The parchment not only makes clean-up super easy, it keeps the cookie bottoms from overcooking before the rest of the cookie is done.
The honey-wheat bread from last week was such a big hit, that I almost just made it again. But how silly would that be considering the growing stack of yeast bread recipes I have gathering on the table? So, in the spirit of this blog I tried something new and the results did not disappoint.
I mean really really surpassed even our pretty high expectations. The dough is not heavy at all, the oatmeal adds a lovely flavor, and the hint of molasses gives it nice depth, making a bread perfect as a treat on its own, or as a vehicle for a sandwich. In fact, I'm eating a plain "mis-cut" slice of it right now (to destroy the evidence...).
The recipe made two loaves and instead of halving it (thankfully!), I'm already planning on french toast for dinner one night this week. This bread as french toast, well, I just can't think of anything much better than that.
I realized after typing out the instructions that they maybe seem a bit long, but I promise that this bread is actually easier to make than the previous recipe, so if you're still yeast-bread shy, this would be a pretty easy foray into this (truly not scary) realm.
*I apologize for the color of the images taken in my kitchen. I'm working on a lighting solution, because I find it so off-putting. Please bear with me as I figure out the best fix. :o)Oatmeal Molasses Bread from Williams Sonoma's "Essentials of Baking"
2 1/3 cups of water
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed
1/3 cup unsulfured molasses
2 packages active dry yeast
5 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
2 teaspoons sea salt
1. Bring water to a boil. Place the oats into a heatproof bowl, pour the boiling water over the oats. Add the butter and molasses, and let the mixture cool to between 105 - 115°F; about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl dissolve the yeast in the warm oat mixture and let stand for 5 minutes.
3. Stir in 3 cups of flour and the salt, adding 1 cup of flour at a time. Add the remaining 2 cups of flour (a bit at a time), mixing well until it has formed a soft dough.
4. Scrape the dough onto a floured work surface. Knead the dough, adding just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, this should take between 5 - 7 minutes. You can check the readiness with the windowpane test.
5. Form the dough into a ball and place it in a lightly greased bowl. Cover with a plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place, without drafts, until it doubles. This could take anywhere between 1/2 hour (in my pizza-oven like apartment) to a full hour. To tell if the dough has truly doubled, take two fingers and press them into the dough, if the indentation remains (does not bounce back) your dough is ready.
6. Oil two 9x5 inch loaf pans. Deflate the dough (no need to punch, just lightly press down), and place it on a clean surface. Cut the dough in half using a knife or pastry scraper.
7. For each half, use the palm of your hand to flatten the dough into a rectangle. Roll the top third down onto itself and seal the seam by pushing the dough together. Don't be shy; you don't want the dough to bake apart. Roll the bottom third up and seal the seam. Place the dough logs into the pans, seam side down and gently flatten them evenly. The ends of the dough should touch the ends of the pans.
8. Cover them loosely with a clean towel and let them rise until they've doubled in size. The top of the loaves should crest the loaf pans. This should take between 45 and 60 minutes.
9. Position a rack in the middle of your oven and preheat to 375°F. Mist the tops of the loaves with water and sprinkle with rolled oats or sunflower seeds. Bake until the loaves are golden brown and the internal temperature is about 190°F. When the loaves are done, they will sound hollow when the bottoms are tapped. This should take between 40 to 45 minutes.
10. Cool for 1 to 2 hours before slicing. Enjoy!
