Oatmeal Apple Cookies

Source: Recipezaar

Ingredients:
3/4 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tsps vanilla
1 cup flour
1 1/4 tsps cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda (I used 1/2 tsp)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 cups quick oats
1 cup peeled diced apple
3/4 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease cookie sheet.
2. Combine shortening, sugar, egg, milk and vanilla in large bowl.
3. Beat at medium speed until well blended.
4. Combine flour, cinnamon, salt, soda and nutmeg in a small bowl and mix into creamed mixture until just blended.
5. Stir in oats, apples and raisins.
6. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of dough about 2-inches apart onto prepared cookie sheets.
7. Bake for 13 minutes or until just set.
8. Cool for a minute or 3 on cookie sheets and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Oreo's!

Homemade Oreos

Source: Elizabeth's Edible Experience

For the chocolate wafers:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter

1 large egg

For the filling:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.
In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter,and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Then mold the edges of the cookie into neat round circles. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set cookies on a cooling rack to cool. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla alternating between the two. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.

Best. Cookies. Ever.

These chocolate chip cookies are seriously the best I've ever made. Do yourself a favor, and go make them. Now!

Alton Brown's "The Chewy"

Source: Food Network.com

Ingredients
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Hardware:
Ice cream scooper (#20 disher, to be exact)
Parchment paper
Baking sheets
Mixer

Directions
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Chocolate Mint Candies Cookies

This year, I also wanted to try a new cookie recipe for the holidays. When I stumbled across a cookie recipe involving chocolate and Andes Candies, I knew this was it! These cookies are awesome... almost a brownie like cookie, with a hint of mint at the top!

Chocolate Mint Candies Cookies
Recipe from: All Recipes

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 (4.5 ounce) packages chocolate covered thin mints


DIRECTIONS
In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the sugar, butter and water, stirring occasionally until melted. Remove from heat, stir in the chocolate chips until melted and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
Pour the chocolate mixture into a large bowl, and beat in the eggs, one at a time. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the chocolate mixture. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. Roll cookie dough into walnut sized balls and place 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, be careful not to overbake. When cookies come out of the oven, Press one mint wafer into the top of each cookie and let sit for 1 minute. When the mint is softened, swirl with the back of a spoon or toothpick to make a pattern with the green filling of the mint wafer. For smaller cookies, break mints in half.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Another Christmas classic at my house is the Peanut Butter Blossom. This are my all-time favorite cookie, hands down. The recipe is simple, and comes together quickly.

Peanut Butter Blossoms
Recipe from: Hershey

Ingredients:

48 HERSHEY'S KISSES Brand Milk Chocolates
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup REESE'S Creamy Peanut Butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Granulated sugar

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from chocolates.
2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

About 4 dozen cookies. (We love these so much, we double the recipe!!)

Christmas Cutout Cookies

A regular cookie I have to have every year at the holidays, is the classic cutout cookie. But, I couldn't find the regular recipe my mother used. So I decided to use a new recipe, from my new Williams-Sonoma Cookie cookbook. Overall, I wasn't impressed with these cookies... but, my hubby gobbled them ALL down in 2 days, so they can't be too bad!!

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg yolk

2 tsps vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on high speed, crem the butter until fluffy and pale. Add the granulate sugar in 3 additions, beating on low speed for 2 minutes after each addition. Beat the egg yolk and vanilla into the butter mixture until well blended.

Sift the flour and salt together onto a sheet of waxed paper. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low speed or stir with a wooden spoon just until blended.

Scrape the dough out onto a work surface and divide into 4 equal portions. Shape into disks, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or for up to overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets or line them with parchment (baking) paper.

Remove the dough disks from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out between 2 sheets of waxed paper to a thickness of 1/8-1/4 inch. Using cookie cutters, cut into curcles or other shapes. Repeat with the reamining dough portins, then gather up the scraps and reroll them. If the scraps of dough have become sticky, refrigerate them for 10 minutes before rerolling. For best results, do not roll the same dough more than twice.

Using an offest spatula, transfer the cookies to the prepared pans. Sprinkle with sugar. If using an intricately shaped cuter, refrigerate the cutout cookies for 15-30 minutes before baking.

Bake the cookies until they are lightly golden on the bottom, 10-12 minutes. Let the cookies cool briefly on the pans on wire racks before transferring them to the racks to cool completely.

TWD... on Wednesday!

I'm a day late! I'm sorry! I was out of town traveling for work, so I wasn't able to get my post up yesterday. Anyway... this week's choice for TWD was Chocolate Chunkers chosen by Claudia of Fool for Food. (Please go to her page for the recipe!)

I was excited for this recipe, because how can a cookie with 4 different chocolates not be amazing? Well, this wasn't amazing. My husband thought they were too chocolatey, I don't agree. Nothing is ever too chocolatey for me! I thought they were too salty. I think they would have been better with no salted peanuts, fewer chocolate chips and more dough. I may have to make them again this way, and see if they are better for me.

Head over to Tuesdays with Dorie to see how the other 250+ TWDers felt about these!

TWD: Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops

I have to admit, I was very skeptical of this weeks recipe. Rachel from Confessions from a Tangerine Tart chose Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops. I immediately thought "well crap, I hate whoppers!" When I was telling my husband about this recipe, he got super excited - turns out he LOVES whoppers. So, for the sake of TWD and my husband, I bought the whoppers and got cracking on the recipe.

Reviews:

ME- I thought they were just okay. I would have preferred them without the whopper pieces, because they kind of caramalized in the cookie. The cookie was nice and cake-like and had great chocolate flavor, I just wasn't in love with the whopper chunks.

HUSBAND- He loved them. Really, really loved them!

Head over to Tuesdays with Dorie to check out all the entries for the week!

TWD: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chipsters

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe pick, Stefany of Proceed with Caution chose Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chipsters. I was super excited to make this - how can you go wrong with peanut butter, oatmeal and chocolate chips?!

I made them to go to a dinner at my in-laws, they all loved them. So did my brother, I gave him all the leftovers! Since I'm watching my calories, I didn't eat any - not even any dough! But the smell and the reviews have me convinced that they are great!

Check out the recipe on Stefany's page! The only thing I did differently was I added mini baking reese cups!

TCHO Chocolate Blondies

Here are the promised blondies that I made with the TCHO chocolates that I blogged about earlier. Well, I found the recipe at The Foodie Fashionista, and they look amazing! Well, I managed to mess up the recipe, but they still turned out really well.

Chocolate-chip Cookie Bars

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/3 cup (5 1/3 tbsp) butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder (whoops, I used 1/4 tsp)

1/4 tsp baking soda (whoops, I used 1/2 tsp)

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (this is where I used the chopped up TCHO chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 8x8 baking pan (I used 9x9) with non-stick cooking spray; set aside.

In a medium saucepan, heat brown sugar and butter over medium heat until butter melts and the mixture is smooth, stirring constantly. Cool slightly.

In a large bowl, beat the egg and vanilla. Slowly pour in the butter and sugar mixture, stirring constantly. Mix in flour, baking powder and baking soda. Spread batter in prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips.

Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars.

Yields 9 bars.

These bars are really good! I highly recommend them. I'll probably try them again, using the correct amounts of baking powder and soda. oops!

Best ever chocolate chip cookies

No, seriously. These chocolate chip cookies are the best I have ever had. They are amazing, and the ingredients are not "typical." I got the recipe from Cooking Light, January 2008. You can find it here. The only modification I did, was I only used chocolate chips... I didn't do the double chocolate. Trust me, they don't need it.

Enjoy!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

When my husband and I first got married and started living together in our house, our neighbor came by with a gift. Now, the neighbors I'm referring to are the sweetest elderly couple you have ever met - they have lived in their house since the houses here were built (1960's). We feel so blessed to have such wonderful neighbors. But I digress.... they brought us over a homemade chocolate cake/pie thing, and a little cookbook from the church they attend, Bermuda Hundred United Methodist Church. That's where this recipe came from, submitted by Jeannie Lamb. I made a few edits, and I the recipe below is exactly how I made it.

Also, today is a special day. Today marks the one year anniversary of my grandfather's last chemo treatment. He beat cancer and is doing wonderfully. Grandpa and I have a very special relationship, and I love him dearly. So, I'm shipping some of these cookies to him. I'm also shipping some to my dad's mom. My dad's dad passed away about a month ago, and I want to make sure my grandmother knows how much she means to me.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 cup shortening

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk or sour cream (I used buttermilk)

1 3/4 cup sifted flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

3 cups quick oats

1 cup raisins

Cream shortening, sugar and eggs until light and fluffy. Stir in buttermilk, sift dry ingredients together. Stir into creamed mixture. Stir in oats and raisins. Use medium pampered chef scoop onto baking stone. Bake for 8 minutes at 400 degrees.

Enjoy!

My new favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie

I'm always on a mission to find a better chocolate chip cookie. This one takes the cake, err... cookie. This is my favorite recipe so far.

This recipe comes from Katie (numbers), one of my fav WCers on her Good Things Catered blog. You can find the recipe http://goodthingscatered.blogspot.com/2007/08/best-chocolate-chip-cookies.html <--- there.

Enjoy!

WW: let's not go there...

Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies

These peanut butter & jelly cookies come from the "What's Cooking in the Orange Kitchen" blog. They have been in my "to try" pile for a while, and they are actually really good.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies

1 cup PB

1 egg

1/4 cup white sugar (I used 1/2 cup splenda and 1/2 cup sugar)

1/4 cup brown sugar (I used brown sugar splenda)

dash vanilla

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup flour

3-4 tbsp grape jelly

1/4 tsp salt

**This is how I cooked them** Preheat oven to 350. Mix PB and sugars, then stir in egg and vanilla. Finally min in flour and soda. Make balls a little less than 1 tsp (I used my pampered chef medium scoop). Bake for 13 minutes, remove and from heat and use your thumb to make a ridge in the cookie. Dollop the jelly in the ridge and put back in the oven about 2 minutes.

This made me about 1 dozen cookies.

Peanut Butter Cookies

This recipe is one my mom used to make for me and my brother a lot when we were kids. They are ADDICTING! So yummy. Recipe from Skippy.

WW: 3 points per cookie

Peanut Butter Cookies

2 1/2 cups flour (I needed an extra cup to make it come out right)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup margarine (I used 1/2 cup margarine, 1/2 cup butter)

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Mix everything, bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Moist and delicious cookies -- rave reviews from everyone. It's originally from the Food Network, but I tweeked it just a bit and this is what I got:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup of margarine
1 cup of white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 can pumpkin
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups (12 ounce bag) semi sweet chocolate chips
Nonstick spray

Heat the over to 350 degrees F and spray cookies sheets with nonstick spray. Using a mixer, beat the butter and margarine until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, the mix int he vanilla and pumpkin. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter, then stir in the chips. Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 20 minutes, or until the bookies are lightly brown around the edges. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take the cookies off with a spatula and cook them on wire racks.

This recipe made me about 60-65 cookies.
WW: 2 points per cookie.

I'll post a picture soon!

Funfetti Cookies

From the encouragement of the wonderful ladies on the WC board on The Nest, I've joined the band wagon and made a food blog. I'm so excited to start cooking more and sharing my journey! My first recipe is a huge rave on WC:


Funfetti Cookies (recipe from the box!)

• Box of funfetti cake mix
• 1/3 cup of oil
• 2 eggs
• funfetti frosting

Heat oven to 375. In large bowl, combine cake mix, oil and eggs. Stir with spoon until throughly mositened. Stir in candy bits from cake mix. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2-inche apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten to 1/4-inch thickness with bottom of glass dipped in flour.
Bake at 375 for 6 to 8 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minutes; remove from cookie sheets.
Spread frosting over warm cookies. Immediately sprinkle each with candy bits from frosting (or you can mix the candy bits in with the frosting). Let frosting set before storing. Store in tightly covered container.

This made about 20 cookies

WW: 7 points per cookie

I made this over a weekend when I had family here -- they were a huge hit with everyone!