Monday Munchies - Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

So once again I bring you Monday Munchies with a great cookie I sent along with last week's Chocolate Toffee Cookies to the troops last month as a part of Operation Baking Gals... This recipe came from My Baking Addiction, which I've mentioned on here before. It combines peanut butter and chocolate, along with enough oatmeal to allow you to pretend you're being healthy! Ha ha! And yes, they were as yummy as they look!

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
Adapted from My Baking Addiction which adapted from allrecipes
makes: about 18 cookies

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used Beanilla Vanilla Paste)
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup peanut butter and chocolate swirl chips (your favorite chocolate chip will be just fine)

Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the peanut butter, vanilla and egg until well blended.
3. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the batter just until moistened. Mix in the oats and chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Drop by tablespoonfuls on to lightly greased cookie sheets.
4. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges start to brown. Cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

NaBloWriMo: Day 23

Monday Munchies - Chocolate Toffee Cookies

It was once again time to send some cookies to our soldiers through Operation Baking GALS and this was one of my contriubtions.



They were AWESOME. Pure chocolatey goodness plus toffee! I brought some to work and people have been asking for the recipe, so here it is! I found this on a blog called My Kitchen Cafe who's tagline, "tried and true from my kitchen to yours" fits me perfectly. I'm not one to create new recipes, I'm just good at finding creative recipes and re-creating them. Some are duds, but for the most part I know when things are worth making...

Chocolate Toffee Cookies

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped (do not substitute chocolate chips since they melt differently; I used chocolate from Trader Joes, but you could also use the bars from the baking aisle)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 3/4 cups (packed) brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
5 1.4-ounce chocolate-covered English toffee bars, coarsely chopped (I just used the Heath Toffee Bits I found in the baking aisle)

Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in small bowl. Place chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl and heat on 50% power for two minutes. Stir and continue microwaving in one minute (50% power) increments, stirring after each minute, until chocolate and butter are melted and combined. Cool mixture to lukewarm.

Using electric mixer, beat sugar and eggs in bowl until thick, about 3 minutes. Beat in chocolate mixture and vanilla.

Stir in flour mixture, then chopped toffee bars. Chill batter until firm, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment or waxed paper. Drop batter by rounded tablespoonfuls onto sheets, spacing two inches apart. Bake just until tops are dry and cracked but cookies are still soft to touch, about 12 to 15 minutes. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)

Recipe Source: adapted from The Kitchen Cafe who adapted from Smitten Kitchen originally from Bon Appetit


NaBloWriMo: Day 16

Monday Munchies - Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies (aka Little Deborahs)

So my friend Trisha was having a birthday a few weeks back, so I asked what her favorite cake was, to which she immediately responded 'Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Icing'. The issue was, I didn't want to bring a CAKE. I wanted something more transportable. Cue cupcakes. BUT they are still messy. I wanted to do away with the mess factor. Then I came across a recipe for Red Velvet Ice Cream Sandwiches on the Tender Crumb blog. Obviously I wasn't going to make the ice cream, but I could use the Red Velvet Cookie idea and sandwich it with awesome cream cheese icing like the all-time favorite Oatmeal Cream Pie - and that's exactly what I did!



This recipe made quite a few, so Trisha kept one container, and shared the rest with some friends. As the first one was being eaten, he said ' These are awesome - you need to sell these all the time! Come up with a name!' It obviously started out as a joke, but over the next few days I was trying to figure out what I would call this concoction of mine, even though there were no intentions of selling them. And then it hit me... They were to be called the 'Little Deborah - a simply gourmet sandwich cookie'... A riff on Little Debbie snack cakes, and it made me laugh. Now I just need to work on other flavors. Carrot Cake w/Cream Cheese Icing and German Chocolate Cake w/ coconut/pecan icing are next on the list!



Red Velvet Cookies
adapted from Every Day w. Rachel Ray
makes approx 20 cookies (I found that it makes a LOT more than 20 cookies, based on using the tablespoon cookie scoop)

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tbsn unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsn salt
5 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tbsn red food coloring
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
2. Using a mixer, beat butter with the granulated sugar until fluffy, 3 minutes. Beat in the egg, food coloring and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk until smooth.
3. Place 1/4-cup scoops of batter 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet; spread out. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, 12 to 15 minutes. Let the cookies sit for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.


Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, softened
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (extract will also work)
2 tablespoons milk

Method
Mix the cream cheese with the butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract, and milk in a bowl. Heat in a microwave for 15 seconds. Drizzle spoonfuls over the cooled cookies and smooth with the back of a spoon or a spatula.

(I added powdered sugar until the 'icing' was a little thicker. It's the same recipe I used for my Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Icing, but needed the consistency to be thicker so it wouldn't run out of the middle of the cookies. It needed to be more like Frosting than Icing, if that makes any sense at all...)

Enjoy!

NaBloWriMo: Day 9

Weekend Surprise - Pumpkin Cookies

NaBloWriMo: Day 7

I made these cookies a few weeks ago to welcome fall - and they were perfect! I boxed some up and shipped them to my co-workers in Birmingham, and they stayed fresh for over a week. I highly recommend them! I got them from one of my favorite baking blogs, My Baking Addiction - check it out if you want some great dessert ideas!

Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Icing
Adapted from allrecipes
Yield: 24 Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup butter flavored shortening
1 cup unsalted butter; softened
2 cups white sugar
2 cups canned pumpkin (solid; not pie mix)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour

Directions
1. Cream shortening, butter, white sugar and pumpkin. Add eggs and mix well.
2. Sift together the baking soda, ground cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, salt and flour. Add to pumpkin mixture and mix well.3. Drop from spoon to cookie sheet. Bake 13-15 minutes at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, softened
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (extract will also work)
2 tablespoons milk

Method
Mix the cream cheese with the butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract, and milk in a bowl. Heat in a microwave for 15 seconds. Drizzle spoonfuls over the cooled cookies and smooth with the back of a spoon or a spatula.

Monday Munchies - Almond Joy Cookies

And...we're back! Here we are with the first ever Monday Munchies - I really hope that having a plan helps me to get back into the swing of blogging. Blogging random things just didn't work for me - either I just rambled on and on about things no one cares about, or I was so sporadic that no one really came back to check this thing... hopefully it'll be different this time, and hopefully I post stuff you're actually interested in!

Today's recipe are for some cookies that I've dubbed 'Almond Joy Cookies'. I made them for my Young Life girls for a recent trip we took to the Hill Country and they were gobbled up! I got the recipe from Jamie at My Baking Addiction - one of my favorite recipe blogs! Her recipe was for Coconut Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies, but I left out the pecans because I didn't know if anyone had nut allergies. And I used milk chocolate in place of semi-sweet/bittersweet. So when I bit into it, it tasted much like an Almond Joy after you've picked off the chocolate-covered almond on top and are eating just the little bar... Yum!

Almond Joy Cookies
Adapted from My Baking Addiction
Yields 4 dozen cookies (if you make them small)

Ingredients
2 cups + 2 TBSP all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
12 TBSP unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I used chopped milk chocolate)
3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut
Nuts optional - add one almond on top for the full effect of an Almond Joy, or add in a cup of pecans to follow the original recipe

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350*F
2. Cover cookie sheets with parchment paper, or use a well worn baking stone
3. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside
4. Mix butter and sugars with a mixer until blended and smooth. Add egg, egg yolk & vanilla and mix until fully incorporated.
5. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
6. Stir in chocolate, coconut and nuts if desired.
7. Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop out dough and place on cookie sheets.
8. Bake for 12-18 minutes (mine took 14 minutes and because they were smaller than the original recipe).
9. Cool on cookie sheets to maintain texture.

I hope you enjoy these as much as me and my girls did...

Have a wonderful day - hope you find many reasons to smile!

-Reneé