Oats Part 1: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

This weekend brought another strange craving similar to the one I had when I desperately wanted pound cake, which resulted in the sinful lemon pound cake. Said craving was for any baking containing oats, so I went all out and came up with two different creations. These oatmeal chocolate chip cookies were the first. To be honest, I kind of wanted oatmeal raisin but boyfriend is a weenie and doesn't like raisins. That being said, you could easily substitute the chocolate chips for raisins as I purposely put cinnamon in this recipe to facilitate a proper switch up.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups of oats (I used the large flakes)
1 cup of semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate because that's what the man child ordered)


DIRECTIONS

1) Preheat oven to 325F. In your stand-up mixer, cream the butter and both sugars until smooth. Add in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, and mix until well blended.

2) In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer and mix until combined. Stir in the oats, and the chocolate chips by hand.

3) Drop onto baking sheets using a teaspoon, or I prefer to use an ice cream scoop. Bake for 12 minutes or until just golden brown on the edges for chewy cookies. Let cool on the baking sheet for approximately 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack.

June's Special Feature: JS's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Have I got a treat for you as a special feature recipe this month. Prepare yourself for a rare and eye-opening opportunity in which we experience the phenomenon that is men trying to bake.



JS baked chocolate chip cookies. First off, the ingredients:

INGREDIENTS

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

Step 1: Make a mess to find a mixing bowl you thought you had, but don't.



Step 2: Wash the stuff you pulled out from a box from your move two months ago.

Don't worry, I'm not sure what the ice cube tray is used for either



Step 3: Take picture of ingredients as per http://batterthannothing.blogspot.ca

  

Where is your alcoholic beverage? Doing it wrong.



Step 4: Preheat oven to 375F (not going to lie JS, that's a bit too hot). Mix flour, salt and baking soda together. Figure out how the hell to measure half a teaspoon when you have neither a full or a half teaspoon to measure it. Wing it because you think you know everything.

Step 5a: Cream the butter and brown sugar with a mixer. Preferably one that rattles and lets off a slight burning smell as you use it. Once the mix has a creamy consistency, add in the vanilla and one hand crack the egg into the mixture like a boss.

Step 5b: Reach in to grab the eggshell piece that fell in because you're simply middle management. Mix in the dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips.

Step 6: Drip (did you mean "drop"?) the resulting mix onto baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes. Be careful not to overback so begin checking after 8 minutes.

Step 7: Pull delicious cookies out of the oven and promptly eat two before they even have a chance to cool off. Let remaining cookies sit on baking sheet for a few minutes before moving to wire rack, which I didn't do, because I do what I want... and I don't have a wire rack.




Pinterest Recipe Trial #2: "Cloud 9" Cookies

Holy man, I am in a stellar mood. Probably because I'm baking. And drinking. Mother just called, jokingly wanted to know if drinking beer alone and baking cookies is a red flag. I do not believe it is, I'm euphoric, thank you for your concern.

I want you all to know that the VP Accounting of the company I work for said "hi" to me at the coffee shop this morning. Then he wished me good luck on my CGA exam on his way home this evening. I'm kind of a big deal.

This is the first of a two-part cookie special. A "bake-off" if you will. This is my submission, pretty sure I'm going to win even though this recipe is brand new to me. Not to toot my own horn but "toot toot".

Presenting, the aptly named "Cloud 9" cookie.

INGREDIENTS

I don't know how that beer got in there it is not an ingredient

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking Soda

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup of smooth peanut butter 

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
2 tablespoons of strong, brewed coffee, cooled
1 cup of peanut butter chips
1/2 cup chocolate chips *I used mini because I like the variation in size when using many types of chips

1/2 cup butterscotch chips

DIRECTIONS

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Also consider brewing your coffee at this point to save yourself the hassle of having to put it in the fridge to get it cool enough to add.

2) Cream the butter, peanut butter, and both sugars in your stand-up mixer. Add the eggs, vanilla, and coffee next. Add the flour and mix until just combined. Stir in your chips.

3) Use an icecream scoop to drop rounded balls onto cookie sheets. Flatten tops slightly. Bake for 8-10 minutes (I did 8 because I like them soft. Cookies that is). Allow to cool a few minutes on cookie sheet then transfer to wire rack.



You should know that this is not the same beer as the first picture

TESTIMONIALS

Me: OMFG there are so many things going on in my mouth right now.

And then I thought:

Grinch Cookies (Craisin, Chocolate Chip & Pistachio)

*Jinelle told me to call these "Grinch Cookies" so that is what I've done!*

Tonight was another epic baking night. It would appear that Penn West is much more into celebrating Christmas than Nexen was as I have received Christmas presents from colleagues left, right and center. At Nexen I was lucky if I got a $10 Tim card from the boss. Thus far at Penn West I have acquired a poinsettia, a box of chocolates, a Purdy's chocolate Santa and $30 worth of Starbucks gift cards. Feeling like a cheap ass, I thought I better bust out the skills and put together some baked goods as gifts.

Make sure to try out new recipes when the people doing the eating aren't critical, such as colleagues. Because guess what, even if it's underwhelming you're still going to have a job on Monday. Luckily though, this recipe which I put together by grabbing ideas from several sources, turned out beautifully. Which is hardly surprising.

The green color of these really gets the people going.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package (3.4 ounces) pistachio flavoured instant pudding mix
1/2 cup craisins
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips


DIRECTIONS

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Cream butter and sugar together in stand-up mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and mix until well blended. Add the milk and vanilla extract.

2) Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and pudding mix in a bowl. Add dry ingredients to the mixer in three parts (simply to avoid covering the kitchen in the flour mixture).

3) Stir in craisins and chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet (I sprayed mine with Pam just to be safe or you could use parchment). Bake 10-12 minutes or until just lightly browned on the bottom. Remove from the pan right away and cool on a wire rack.

Look at my cute little gifts. I also threw some shortbread cookies in there for good measure.

Whipped Shortbread Cookies

These shortbread cookies are the best ever and the recipe is from the Best of Bridge Volume 1. I wish I could say that I actually busted out the Best of Bridge in book form, but that would be lying. I googled it, because I'm 24 not 84.


INGREDIENTS

1 cup butter
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 cups flour


DIRECTIONS

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Cream the butter and sugar together in stand up mixer.

2) Add flour and beat for 10 minutes. The 10 minute beating is what makes these cookies so good. I really recommend you ask Santa for a Kitchenaid mixer.

3) Drop onto cookie sheet. Smaller cookies are best because then you can eat more and maybe not feel as shitty about it. Or feel free to use your cookies press if you have one, and using it doesn't cause a fit of rage. I have never had a good experience with my cookie press. Decorate each cookie however you see fit. Sprinkles or maraschino cherries are good options. Don't use both though, people will think you're trying too hard.

4) Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the bottoms are just lightly browned. It is always better to under bake these than over bake.