Cook. Craft. Enjoy.

Delicious Cookies

If you're a regular reader of food blogs, I'm sure you've seen the Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookie recipe making it's rounds for about a year now.  I've never been one for trends (and when I do finally get around to it, I'm way behind so it's not so trendy anymore!), but this is one Adrienne and I decided would be something we had to try once we had an occasion.

Adrienne is very active with the library's anime clubs and attends meetings every week.  I'm happy to encourage her spending as much time at the library as she wants - I can't think of many better places for teens to hang out.  There's two libraries she goes to - one is every week, and one is once or twice a month.  The one that meets less often everyone needs to bring something to and last week we decided that would be a perfect opportunity to try these cookies out.

Cooooookies

I was talking with a friend last week about Cookie Monster.  Wouldn't it be great to be satisfied shoving cookies at your face and having all the crumbs fall to the floor?  Then you could have as many as you wanted and not worry about it, right?  :-) Om, nom, nom, nom. 

However, when I learned they usually used rice cakes instead of cookies so they crumble better I felt a little cheated.  I want cookie monster to eat cookies!  I think these that Adrienne made before Christmas would surely fit the bill.

More Bananas

I mentioned the banana cookies twice now and decided to share the recipe even though I haven't made them yet.  They bring back a lot of memories for me since this was one that I used to make when Travis was little.

Here he's about 20 months and you can see the cookies on the counter next to him (as well as bunches of bananas on the bar counter).  Not sure I can see the resemblance between him at 20 months and now at 18 (and away at college, sigh) but I think he's pretty cute then and now.

When he was young he didn't really care for sweets.  Put a veggie tray and a cookie tray next to him and he'd jump at the broccoli.  He also used to love, love, love zucchini lightly saute'd with soy sauce.  I wonder if that's why he's decided he feels better eating vegetarian.

These cookies, however, have such a strong banana flavor that he did like them -- though he would prefer just the banana plain truth be told.  Maybe I'll ask him to try them in his dorm oven and see if he remembers them.  I sure do.

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 3/4 cup shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 cup mashed bananas
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 cup oatmeal
• 1 package chocolate chips
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Cream the shortening and sugar.  Add the egg and banana and mix well.  Add remaining ingredients and mix until it just comes together into a dough.

Drop by teaspoonfuls on greased cookie sheets and bake at 375 for 10 to 15 minutes.

 

New Cookies - Good but not Great

In my request last time for more cookie recipes, Amy suggested this M&M cookie recipe as one she loves. I'm happy to say  that it was a good recipe (stayed soft!  a little crisp on the outside!) but they spread way too much.  <sigh>  I think it has to be my oven that's doing it.

I did use milk chocolate chips instead of the M&Ms (didn't have any in the house) but otherwise, they were a little on the sweet side and did I mention soft?  :-)  So, thanks, Amy for the suggestion but I'll still go back to trying recipes (once these are gone).  Anyone else out there with a good recipe?

I want COOKIES!

The last couple of times I've made cookies I've been so disappointed.  I like my cookies soft and chewy and every recipe I've tried lately have hardened into the crispy, crunchy sort.  Bleh.

These are the latest Liam and I tried ... they came from a recipe in one of the cookbooks that he picked out at the library (no, I don't remember which, sorry!).  Travis told me he thought they were bought cookies and was surprised to learn that we baked them.  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  Um, honestly I'm not sure at all.

I think we'll try another recipe today or tomorrow and hopefully come up with something good.  Anyone have a good soft cookie recipe they can share?  (By the way, I do have one that we like but you know I like to try different things all the time.)

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

For my last stamp camp I had Adrienne bake us up some cookies from Martha Stewart's website, Giant Chocolate Sugar Cookies.

Didn't they come out gorgeous?  Fresh hot out of the oven they were really good -- slightly soft and not too sweet.  Once they cooled?  Um, not so much.  They had the consistency of sand when you bit into them and if you broke one in half you'd have crumbs everywhere.  I'm thinking maybe I'll add cocoa powder to my regular sugar cookie recipe next time and see how that comes out.  (Link above will take you to the recipe .. I'm not going to bother to repost it.)

In other happenings, there are only 3 (yes, 3) more days of school and we're all looking forward to it.  I've got the kids trying to come up with some fun stuff for us to do this summer and hopefully whatever it is we end up doing I can share it with you.  :-) 

Cookies, Cookies

It was brought to my attention this weekend that I haven't made cookies in a while so I remedied that by making 2 different types.  The first (on the left) is a yummy maple cookie.  The original recipe uses a frosting and I've made that before but I felt they were as good without it so I opted to leave it off.  The second (on the right) is your typical Nestle chocolate chip cookie but using Nestle's new white chocolate/milk chocolate swirled chips and pecans (the recipe I used was on the bag).  Yum!

As for other things around here, we've been busy with the season.  I'm afraid I won't be posting much in the next 2 weeks (we'll be out of town for part of it) so don't give up on checking in ... I've got some plans for the new year to make things a little more interesting and I hope you'll stick around.

Peanut Butter Cookies

I find it much easier to cook things when it's earlier in the day (and cooler).  This morning I made another batch of pepperoni rolls and some peanut butter cookies.  The pepperoni rolls I made because that's what Liam wants to take for lunch, which means that Adrienne wants some (with cheese please) and of course Travis needs some too ...  Good thing they make a batch of 12 so this week will be covered.

I haven't made cookies in a long time (looking back it looks like my last batch was June 17th -- holy cow I didn't realize it had been that long) and thought that since I had extra cooking energy that would be a great use for it.  Why peanut butter?  Because they are one of my favorites.  I used the standard Jif cookie recipe and I always like how these come out good -- soft, chewy and peanut buttery -- just how I like them.

Reese's Cookies

Last night's stamp camp was so much fun.  The ladies had a good time making the projects though I think they're ready to go back to cards next time.  I think I'll try to include a 3-D type project in each of the upcoming camps -- it was fun to be a little different.

I couldn't decide what to make yesterday so I started with these cookies.  The baking pieces look like little miniature Reese's peanut butter cups but because it's so hot here they melted completely in the oven.  I think if I had thought it through I would have froze them before adding them to the batter and they would have retained more of their shape.

They were extremely flat so I expected them to be brittle.  Luckily they was enough chewiness to them that they didn't feel like you were eating a chip.  I do like my cookies slightly more dense, but these were good.

Reese's Premier Peanut Butter and Milk Chocolate Cookies
(courtesy of the back of the package of Reese's Premier Baking Pieces)

• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/3 cup butter-flavored shortening
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cups (8 ounce package) Reese's Peanut Butter Creme Filled Baking Pieces

1. Heat oven to 350.
2. Beat butter and shortening in large bowl until well blended.  Add brown sugar and granulated sugar; beat thoroughly.  Add egg and vanilla, beating until well blended.  Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into butter mixture.  Stir in baking pieces.  Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.  Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.  Cool completely.

Cookies Make Everything Better

Everyone has days that they'd rather they stayed in bed ... and today was one of those for me.  Not that we had a bad day -- I took the kids to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- just that my mood was rotten.   And I hate being in a rotten mood which puts me in an even worse mood.

After Don got home and we had dinner, I went over to Target to get a small end table (ended up with a short stool for $15 - yeah!) thinking some quiet time might help my mood -- nope.  What to do, what to do ... make cookies!  I started digging through my "baking stash" and found a package of Hershey's Special Dark Chips with a recipe for chocolate chip cookies on the back.  About 5 minutes later the dough was ready and the cookies were in the oven.

This recipe doesn't make a whole lot of cookies (I made 30), but they have a great basic chocolate chip cookie flavor.  I love the dark chocolate chips in them and I added chopped pecans.  Yum.

Oh, and yes, I'm feeling better.  :-)

Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies
(recipe courtesy of Hershey's Kitchens)

• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/3 cup butter-flavored shortening (I used all butter-flavored shortening)
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups (12-oz pkg) Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Chips
• 3/4 cup chopped nuts, optional

1. Heat oven to 350.
2. Beat butter and shortening in large bowl until well blended.  Add brown sugar and granulated sugar; beat thoroughly.  Add egg and vanilla beating until well blended.
3. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into butter mixture.  Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if desired.
4. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.  Cool completely.