Thursday: Aunt Mabel's Killer Oatmeal Cookies

Apparently I have an Aunt Mabel and she makes a mean oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. The recipe has been modified over the years by my mother and lastly by me, but it is a really nice crisp cookie with lots of chocolate.

You will need:

2 2/3 c rolled oats
3/4 c butter, softened
1 1/4 c brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp water (?? that's a first for me, but I did it!)
1 c whole grain whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 c chocolate chips
3/4 c pecans, chopped

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and spread the oats on a baking sheet. When the oven is up to temp, bake the oats for 20 minutes, stirring halfway through. I know I always say that roasting nuts and the like makes them taste better, but for reals, you will want to do this. Adds another dimension. Set them aside to cool and get to creaming!

Rolled oats

Multi-dimensional oats!

Cream the butter and sugar together, add in the egg, vanilla and water (?? so strange! kept wanting to switch it out with another egg, but I stuck, sorta, to the recipe), beat until combined.

Mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together, add slowly to the butter mixture on low speed. Take a minute and scrape up the flour that landed on the counter. We'll wait.

Add in the oats, mix as well as you can. Add in the pecans if your mixer isn't getting grouchy with you. If it is, just stir them in with a spatula, which is what you want to do with the chocolate chips. Mix it allll together.

Drop by spoonful onto parchment paper, bake for 12-15 minutes until the bottoms are lightly browned. Remove from tray immediately, cool on a rack.

This made 4 dozen cookies, at calories 103 per. Relatively healthy, though! Whole grains, whole wheat flour, it's all good!

Enjoy!

Everything Cookies

These cookies have just about anything you could ever imagine in a cookie, and is a good way to clear out a pantry. It is also a fun cookie to make with little hands. Something for everyone!

You will need:

1/2 c shortening
1/2 c butter, softened
3/4 c granulated sugar
3/4 c brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 c all purpose flour
1/3 c cocoa powder
2 1/2 c rolled oats (not quick)
1 c semisweet chocolate chips
1 c white or peanut butter chips*
1 c macadamia nuts, lightly TOASTED and chopped

Okay, there are a lot of ingredients, but hang in there! Good cookie

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, line all your cookie sheets with parchment paper. I reuse my parchment paper, because I use so much of it and I am cheap like that. Before you do anything else, let`s toast the macadamia nuts. These nuts are hella expensive and hard to find (Safeway does a small 100g bag, get two), let`s make sure they taste their very best. Spread them on a parchment-covered cookie sheet, bake for 10-15 minutes at 350, stirring every five minutes and removing JUST as soon as you smell them. Right then! Faster, soldier! Off the sheet and into a bowl to await chopping. When they are cool, chop. I find chopping nuts on a flexible plastic cutting board maximizes yield.

Plain old regular macadamia nuts

Amazing toasted macadamia nuts!

Mix the shortening and butter in a stand mixer for 30 seconds, then add in the sugars, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Combined fats

If you can find a helper to work the bowl, it's even better

Add the eggs and vanilla, then the flour and cocoa powder slowwwly. Add in as much of the oats as you can. Note: these are rolled, or "slow" oats, not quick oats. As you were. Stir in the chocolate pieces and chopped nuts. *A quick note about the chocolate chip choices: I don't like white chocolate (it's not chocolate!) but I find they work really well in this recipe. Something about their over-sweetness balances out the richness well. In this case I used a couple of different types, white and a little bit of butterscotch as well as the semi-sweet.

Looks like rocky road something

Nom nom nom

You can make huge cookies or you can make small cookies. I prefer to use my second-smallest scoop and do 12 to a sheet. They don't spread much.

If you have a helper, a good thing for them to do is gently squish them flat

Bake for 10 to 14 minutes and then let sit on the sheet for a minute before offloading them to a wire rack. I couldn't go a second over 10 minutes in my smoking hot ovens.

Far!

Near!

Enjoy!