Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

I pretty much followed a recipe on this one, with some really minor alterations.

I was having a five alarm sweet tooth emergency at 11pm or so, and tried to imagine what my mouth wanted. It answered chocolate and oats. I looked around for a recipe and found Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies by Norcal. I didn't go too far afield with this, as I'd had some unfortunate hamburger recipe issues earlier in the day (which I'll write about soon).

I didn't have semi-sweet chocolate chips, but I had some leftover white chocolate ones. I like a bit more vanilla in my cookies, and I also needed to cook these longer than was stated in the original recipe.

Darn good cookies, actually.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl with a whisk.
3. Mix margarine, brown sugar and white sugar in a different bowl. Then mix in the egg and vanilla. 
4. Mix the two bowls together, slowly bringing the dry ingredients into the wet ones and mixing a bit after each bit is added. 
5. Mix in oats and choco chips.
6. Put parchment paper on a cookie sheet. (I cannot sing the praises of parchment paper enough!)
7. Spoon out the cookie mixture onto the cookie sheet. I liked 1 tablespoon sized spoonfuls. 
8. Cook for about 11 1/2 minutes. (The original recipe said 8-10, but that didn't work for me very well.)
9. Remove from oven and let them sit on the hot sheet for 5 minutes, then put them on a cooling rack.

 Verdict:

My child ate some, but wasn't in love with them.
I adored these cookies, and so did my partner.  I think that I might want to double this recipe in the future, because I'm going to be out of cookies fast. I think these are some of the best ones that I've baked so far.

~Patty 

Ogre Cookies (Combo Smitten Kitten and Jill Saunders)

Why Ogre Cookies?

They have layers.

I am starting to be a bit adventuresome with online recipes, and I add or subtract things to see what happens.

I also combine recipes sometimes, and that is what happened here.

I was craving a soft cookie that had a couple of different flavors, and a bit of chocolate. I found Brownie Roll-out Cookies by Smitten Kitchen and The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies by Jill Saunders, and I decided to put them together to make something a little like both.

I made the dough separately, and it looks like there is a lot more vanilla sugar cookies than chocolate (if you follow this to the letter).

So, I made the Brownie ones first (and with only a few minor changes):

Choco Layer

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup margarine, softened
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

Don't preheat the oven, because this is going to have to chill for at least an hour. Soften the butter by nuking it for a short time (like 15 seconds).

1. Whisk flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl.
2. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and cocoa in a different bowl. Use a mixer instead of a spoon, or you'll get the same stupid chunks in your dough that I did. That cocoa is insidious stuff that likes to create balls of powder in otherwise nice dough.
3. Mix the dry stuff into the wet stuff slowly. I used my hands to really mix it up, and then I wrapped the dough in plastic wrap and shoved it in the fridge.

Vanilla Layer

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup margarine, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Don't preheat the oven, because you will have to chill this for an hour. Soften the butter by nuking it for a short time (like 15 seconds).

1. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together.
2. Mix butter and sugar together in a different bowl. 
3. Add eggs and vanilla to butter/sugar bowl, and mix together.
4. Stir the dry stuff into the wet stuff, slowly.
5. Mix with your hands, until the dough looks pretty good. Then wrap it in plastic and stick it in the fridge for at least an hour.

Chocolate and Vanilla Ogre Finger Sugar Cookies (Not exactly catchy, is it?)

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Grab about a third of the vanilla dough, and roll it out between wax paper.
• Grab a similar amount of  chocolate dough, and roll it out between wax paper.
• Remove the top pieces of waxed paper on both flattened pieces of dough, and then carefully lay the choco layer on top of the vanilla one.
• Remove the wax paper on the choco layer completely.
• Roll the dough into a long cylinder
• Cut the cylinder into 1/4 inch cookies. (I smooshed mine, so that they became long finger cookies.)
• Place them on cookie sheets that are lined with parchment paper. (I'm a huge believer in parchment paper. It makes clean up SO nice!)
• Cook for about 12-14 minutes. Check at the 12 minute mark by sticking them in the center with a toothpick. If you pull it out and it looks like the toothpick isn't wet, and there isn't dough sticking to it...it is done!

This makes a boatload of cookies, and leaves you with a bit of leftover vanilla dough.

The Verdict:

This was a bunch of stuff to go through, and it left me feeling sort of "meh". My daughter felt the same way about them. The two men in the house devoured them hungrily, and raved about enjoying them. These are GREAT cookies to be served with coffee. I've had requests to make them again.

Layers...like an onion.

These are long finger cookies, and that is totally on purpose. It has nothing to do with smooshing the dough when I was trying to cut it into circles. Nope. I'm sure that wasn't the case. *cough*

Modular Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

I tinker with stuff, as that is how I learn.

So, I started off looking at the Thick, Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Recipe by Deb at Smitten Kitchen. I liked her style, as she basically wanted to take the Quaker's Best Oatmeal Cookies by Quaker Oats recipe and make it her own.

I love oatmeal cookies, and I like them chewy. I do not like raisins in them though, and I like them sweeter.

I have come up with a modular recipe that I have adapted into several kinds of oatmeal cookies now.

Basic Modular Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) margarine
1/2 stick butter (softened in the microwave for about 15 seconds)
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups Quaker Oats (or similar)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In one bowl mix butter, margarine, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla.
(If you are making Module One, add syrup. If you are misguided and making the horrid Module Three, make adjustments to vanilla and add extract.)

Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in another bowl.
(If you are making Module Three, just stop and think about how much you have to live for and how good other things are to eat. If that hasn't convinced you to stop and re-evaluate your life, keep going and make adjustments to cinnamon.)

Combine these bowls and mix them. Add oats and mix. (If you are making Module One or the amazing Module Two, add the nuts or white chocolate chips now and fold them in.)

Bake at 350 on cookie sheets with parchment paper. Check at 9 minutes. Take out around 10.5 minutes. Let the cookies sit for 5 minutes on the warm sheet, and then remove to cooling rack.

Module One plus Module Four

Module One: White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Oatmeal Cookies (with additional Module Four Icing)

1/3 cup crushed raw macadamia nuts

A "splash" of Torani White Chocolate Syrup (or similar). I hear that the sauce is better than the syrup, but I had some around and that is what I used.

These are fairly yummy. I recommend the nuts. I am on the fence about using Torani syrup.

Add icing, or not.

These are the stuff! Make Module Two!

Module Two: White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Up to 2 cups of White Chocolate Chips

These are my favorite cookies, hands down!

Module Three: Image Too Horrid to Share
(This is my sense of humor showing, so if it bothers you...jump ship now!)

Module Three: White Chocolate Rum Oatmeal Cookies

Go with the 1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract and 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon options.
Add about 1/4 teaspoon of rum extract.

I found these to be horrid. My ex husband described them like this, "These have some kind of strange taste in them."

 Module Four: You Can Totally Do Better Than This Icing (Cinnamon and Huckleberry Edition)

 

Powdered Sugar
Milk
Salt

You pick about how much powdered sugar you think you'll need, then add milk until it turns into something that will be a glaze. Add a touch of salt. Add Cinnamon or Torani Huckleberry Syrup.

Drizzle this over oatmeal cookies and wait for glaze to set up.

Verdict:

Make Module Two, or riff off of the Basic recipe and make something a heck of a lot better. The White Chocolate Oatmeal cookies are AMAZING.

~ Patty :)

Following a recipe: Chocolate Awesomes by Kate from Scratch

I am nearly 40 years old, and I've avoided cooking stuff most of my life. I realize that is a heck of a privilege, even if I mostly ate at fast food joints.

I'm at the point where I want to learn to cook things for myself though, and so I try to chose recipes that I can succeed at fairly easily.

I decided to try Chocolate Awesomes by Kate from Scratch. I made a few changes, but they shouldn't have been that big of a deal.

My cookies didn't turn out looking anything like her cookies.

Here are mine:

They sort of look just like Chocolate Chip Cookies, don't they?

Verdict: 

These taste pretty good, if you like chocolate chip cookies. They are very rich and have a super texture. My daughter has been asking for them, and they seem to be disappearing fast. My husband and my ex-husband both seem to enjoy them a lot. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate chip cookies, but I've eaten my fair share of these...although maybe just out of boredom. I think they are sort of chocolate chip cookies for those that like dark chocolate and really rich desserts. I think they would go well with ice cream.

Here is the recipe (slightly changed to reflect what I did). If you want the original, please follow the link to the super cook above!

“Chocolate Awesomes”

• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup large marshmallows cut up
• 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 teaspoons Hershey's cocoa powder
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream, well chilled
• 2 cups dark chocolate morsels

1. Don't preheat the oven right away, you'll have to chill the dough for this recipe.
2. Melt butter in the microwave until it is boiling (put some kind of cover over things because the butter will pop and geyser with heating).  This made a MESS of my microwave.
3. Add marshmallow chunks and stir.  Set aside to cool. These never really melted into the butter for me, but remained floating on top of the butter and were just softened.
4. Whisk flour, baking soda  and cocoa powder together.
5. In a large mixing bowl combine brown sugar and egg. I used an electronic mixer. Add whisked dry ingredients in two additions, mixing after each addition.
6. Add chilled cream to slightly cooled melted butter-marshmallow mixture and stir. This will look weird and make cream "globules" in the mixture...don't worry about it. Pour into the other ingredients while mixing on low with an electric mixer until just combined.
7. Fold in dark chocolate morsels.
8. Chill cookie dough for at least an hour. I chilled for three.
9. Place oven rack in center of oven. (I have no idea if I did this or not.)
10. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
11. Grab two cookie sheets and line them with parchment. Anything else is a pain!
12. Using a round tablespoon measure, scoop batter into leveled tablespoons and drop onto prepared cookie sheets. The texture will be sort of strange, like a combo between clay and ice cream.
13. Bake two cookie sheets worth at a time. Cook for something like 12 minutes. Start checking on them after 8 minutes, and wait until the edges seem to be done or darkening. Let them sit on the cookie sheet 5 minutes before removing them. Try one. If it seems to need more time, put them back in the oven a few minutes at a time until things seem right.

I have no idea how many cookies this made, but it seemed something like 40-50.  It is supposed to make three dozen.

~ Patty :)