cookies

Thin and Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

April 27, 2015 by Shanon Balser 8 Comments

I just love cookies. Love them. I love all kinds of cookies. I love trying new recipes and I love the recipes that I have made for years. I love starting a batch of cookies in the afternoon so that the aroma fills the house just as the kids are coming home from school. I love packaging them up to give to friends. I love packing them in my kids’ lunches. They are sweet, they are tasty and they are portable. I have cookie moods. People often ask me what my favorite cookie is. It depends on the day!

Recently one of my favorite nephews stopped by with his wife for a visit. I have a real soft spot in my heart for this one. When he was younger he used to come and sleep over at our house. His ready smile and happy nature made him pretty easy to love. He’s all grown up now– tall, strong and handsome. When I see him and he gives me a hug, in many ways it’s much like a hug my own sons would give me…it’s a little tighter and a little longer and it’s packed with genuine care. At any rate, the other day he was visiting and before he left he asked me if I had a good oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe. We tried to define which kind of oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. Does it have cinnamon? Is it cake-like? Is it flat? Does it have raisins? I have so many great oatmeal cookie recipes, but this one is one of my all-time favorites.

This cookie is thin and chewy, no raisins and no cinnamon. Oh, it does have plenty of butter. Here you go, Brandon. And since a picture is worth a thousand words…

My husband likes to stack cookies…

and pile cookies. I kept telling him I needed them lined up nice and neat on parchment so that I could drizzle them with chocolate. They needed to dress themselves up a bit because they were going to a neighbor’s house.I like using white chocolate for this as well. Do it or don’t–they are your cookies!
He laid them out for me on the parchment like I asked. I drizzled and when I turned around he had stacked cookies again. So I took a picture.
And because a taste is worth more than a thousand words, you should make yourself a batch. This makes about 3 1/2 dozen cookies. Have fun!

4.3 from 3 reviews

Thin and Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Prep time

10 mins

Total time

10 mins

This buttery chewy cookie is the perfect oatmeal chocolate chip treat!

Author: Shanon Balser

Recipe type: Cookies

Serves: 40

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1¼ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
2½ cups quick-cooking oats
2 cups chocolate chips

Instructions

In a large bowl, cream together softened butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar.
Add eggs one at a time until well-mixed.
Add soda, salt and vanilla and mix, taking care to scrape down the sides of the bowl so that all ingredients are well-incorporated.
Add flour, mixing just to combine.
Add oats and mix on medium speed for 20-30 seconds, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Add chocolate chips and mix just to distribute.
Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake 10-12 minutes in a 375° oven. (Mine took about eleven and a half minutes.
Cool 2 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring the cookies to a cooling rack.
**I like to dress these cookies up a bit with drizzled white or milk chocolate. Melt chocolate in a seal-able plastic bag and microwave on low until the chocolate is melted. Snip off a tiny corner of the bag and drizzle chocolate over the cookies if desired.

Grandma’s Cookies

March 31, 2015 by laceyaltadraper@gmail.com 2 Comments

cake-like cookies, cookies, old-fashioned cookies, unique cookies

The other day my father called us all together for a family meeting. He has cancer. He wanted to talk to all of us about the way his estate would be settled when he dies. I was assigned dessert for the dinner portion of the meeting. I decided on nostalgia and made these cookies for the event. It was great to be together with my brothers and sisters and my dad. They are amazing people and I am a better person just because I am related. My dad opened the meeting saying something like “When I die and things are settled I want you to make your mother proud.” He ended the meeting by telling us that none of the “things were his and none would ever really be ours. “Everything belongs to God.” At any rate–I made the cookies and I’m pretty sure that they brought back more than a few good memories for my family. So I decided to give them a re-post. If you haven’t made these yet, give them a try. I’m sure you will have a new family favorite of your own.

The photo above was taken this particular occasion. You will notice yellow sprinkles on a few. On the last 2 dozen cookies I added lemon extract, lemon zest and a few lemon chips. They were a delightful twist to an old favorite.

And now the re-post…..

Fair warning; this is going to be serious.

I love the kitchen! I love dishes, dishtowels, kitchen gadgets, family conversations, recipe books, oh yeah…I also love cooking/baking. It’s just a little something that I picked up from the hours I spent in the kitchen with my mom when I was growing up. You will hear a lot about my momma over the years. In fact, it’s because of her that I started collecting my favorite recipes to put on a blog ! She is the reason for so many things. I’m not really ready to talk about it yet, but my mom passed away a couple of months ago. She was my biggest cheerleader and inspiration. She was also my editor. I don’t know how objective she was about my writing but I do know that she had me correct a few misspelled words now and then. Mostly she would just read through the post and then call and tell me how wonderful I was. I miss that. I miss her. Wow.

I thought it might be appropriate to come back to blogging with a recipe of her mother’s. I was one of the youngest of the grandchildren and my memories of my grandmother are sketchy at best. What I do remember of her, though, was complete kindness and really encompassing hugs. I wish that I had the same memories as my cousins and siblings about these cookies, but my memories come from my own mother making these unique cookies. I’m told that grandma would bake them in her wood burning/coal stove and then store them in a big roaster. Grandkids and friends alike were welcome to stop in and dip their hands into the roaster for one of these nostalgic cookies. I’ve collected a lot of recipes over the years and I’ve never run across one quite like it. I find these cookies to parallel a grandmother in many ways; they take time, they are sweet and they bring happiness to all around them.

I made these cookies shortly after Momma died. Somehow digging out this recipe and laboring with love over them made me feel closer to both her and grandma. I took a few to a cousin and dropped some off to my brother who always claimed to love them most. I reintroduced them to my own children who had no memory of this cookie and was glad I had taken the time to share a memory.

Make them for the people you love. Take a few minutes and tell them a story about your own grandmother. There’s just something about the kitchen. I feel close to my momma there. She wrote a post for me in the spring and asked me to post it in the fall. That will be my next gift to this blog and any who love their mother and grandmother. If you will notice these ingredients are so simple and most surely found in most pantries– nothing fancy here except the finished product.

The first thing to remember is that this is a sticky dough. Refrigerating the dough for at least 2 hours makes it manageable, so there’s no reason to get all excited and preheat the oven when you crack the eggs…

The happy ingredients:

In a large bowl ( and I mean Large bowl) cream together:

1 cup white sugar
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup shortening

Add:

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Carefully incorporate:

5 1/2 to 6 cups flour
2 cups canned milk
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans * optional (Okay I have a confession: I don’t love nuts in these cookies so I make them in stages and add nuts for those in the fam who love nuts or are nutty…)

Remember, the dough will be sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or a minimum of 2 hours. I always tell my girls to do a test batch of cookies when they start baking, just to see how the shape holds. If you feel like it needs more flour, toss it in!
I’ve never been successful using a cookie scoop with these cookies. I always use either two spoons or a spoon and knife. This would be called the “old-fashioned” way of shaping cookie dough. This is how we did it in the old days. My momma taught me that.

Cookie Dough, Sweet Suppertime, Grandma's Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and drop cookies onto parchment-covered cookie sheet or greased cookie sheet. Bake about 12 minutes or until the edges begin to brown and the top springs back when you tap it carefully with your finger, avoiding burning yourself. Come on and try it. If grandma could manage this in an old coal stove 80 years ago I think you can do it! If you can’t handle that do the standard insertion of a toothpick coming out mostly clean. You are baking the equivalent of a mini-cake here. Some of mine will turn out flattish and some will turn out nice and rounded. Either way they will melt in your mouth and flood your mind with a million happy memories.

Cool 2 minutes on a cookie sheet before moving to them to a cooling rack, or as grandma did; a dry, clean dish towel.

Frost with vanilla frosting of your choice. Grandma Reba’s recipe is below. I always use her recipe when I make these cookies, flour and all. 🙂 There are some things you just don’t mess with. You will want to frost them while they are still slightly warm so that the frosting sort of runs down the sides just a bit. Sprinkle them with chopped walnuts if you love walnuts.
Share a few… because that’s what your grandmother would do.

Grandma's Cookies

This old fashioned cookie is well worth the effort. Cake-like in texture, this cookie evokes memories of days gone by and visiting with good friends and family.

Author: Shanon for Grandma Dunsdon

Recipe type: Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup shortening
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 whole eggs
2 cups canned milk
5½ to 6 cups flour (sometimes even more if it is humid)
*optional chopped walnuts or pecans
Grandma's Frosting
1 square butter softened
2 Tablespoons flour
1½ package powdered sugar
canned milk to desired consistency

Instructions

Cream together sugar and shortening. Add salt, soda, vanilla and eggs just until blended. Carefully incorporate flour and milk. Add chopped nuts if desired and reserve a few for sprinkling on the top of the cookies if you are nutty. Scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically to make sure that you the dough has mixed up nice and even. Refrigerate overnight or at least two hours.
Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees until the edges brown and the top of the cookie springs back when touched.
Cool until just slightly warm and frost with vanilla frosting. Top with chopped nuts as desired.

There you have it….a memory.

Double Delicious Cookie Bars

March 19, 2013 by laceyaltadraper@gmail.com Leave a Comment

Lucky me. Saint Patrick’s weekend found me in Saint George, Utah watching my son play baseball. He’s great. His name is Keven. He’s not just great at baseball but he’s a great kid. When we were expecting Keven we weren’t sure we were going to get to keep him. Lucky us… we did! He is named after my husband’s brother. The reason? Because I have rarely seen an older brother who loved his younger brother like my brother-in-law loves Tod, (my husband).
You may wonder what all this has to do with baking cookie bars. Well, there is a connection. We stayed with Tod’s brother and his wife and we had plenty of time to visit while we sat in the stands. It was fun to share memories and tell stories and catch up on kids and grandkids. ( I get my first one in two weeks!) One conversation led to another and before long we were all hungry and wishing for something delicious to eat. That’s when I remembered this recipe which I promised to share with my sister-in-law. So, here it is! She will appreciate this because it speaks of some pretty rich ingredients and we have shared a few of those over the years. So here we go:

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray a 9 X 13-inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Cream:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Add:
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Mix well and
Add:
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1 1/3 cups oats (quick cooking or old-fashioned)
Mix together to form cookie dough. When well-mixed
Throw in:
1 cup chocolate chips ( I am a milk chocolate girl trying to refine my senses to enjoy semi-sweet)
You will need an additional 1/2 cup chocolate chips when the bars are removed from the oven.
Spread:
Take about 2/3 of your cookie dough mixture and spread it in the bottom of your prepared pan. It’s a bit sticky so you can use a little flour with a small roller and a piece of waxed paper or parchment or you can just dig in with your fingers. I like to think of baking as a contact sport so I just got a little non-stick spray on my fingertips and went after it!
This is where it gets fun.

Place:
3 lines of chocolate creme-filled cookies (I used Oreos) in the pan
Drizzle:
1/2 cup or more of caramel over the cookies. I melted 32 caramels with 1 teaspoon of water in a microwave-safe bowl for 30 seconds on half power and 1 minute on full power; stirring halfway through. You can use bottled caramel but I can’t recommend caramel-flavored topping. Get the good stuff!
Sprinkle
1/2 cup of shredded sweetened coconut over the caramel drizzle
Finish off:
by dropping spoonfuls of the remaining dough on top of the cookies and pressing the dough down lightly. It doesn’t need to cover all over the pan, just most of it, as it will spread.

Bake:
at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until the top starts to turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and

Top:
with remaining half cup of chocolate chips. These will soften.
Drizzle:
more caramel if you feel like it and wait until it is completely cool before slicing. I’m sure you won’t have any lack of imagination on how to serve these or where to hide a few extras for yourself!

Double Delicious Cookie Bars by Sweet Suppertime

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1 1/3 cups oatmeal (quick or traditional)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, divided
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup or more of caramel sauce or melted caramels
18 chocolate creme-filled cookies

Spray a 9×13 baking pan with cooking spray. Cream butter, brown sugar and white sugar until fluffy.
Add vanilla and eggs and incorporate. Mix in baking soda, baking powder and salt. Once incorporated, add flour and oats scraping sides of the bowl. Add 1 cup of chocolate chips, mixing just to coat.
Spread 2/3 of the dough on the bottom of your prepared pan and place 3 lines of creme-filled cookies on top of the dough. Drizzle about 1/2 cup of caramel on the cookies followed by 1/2 cup coconut.
Top with remaining cookie dough, dropping by spoonfuls and then slightly flattening.
Bake 350 for 20-25 mintues, until nicely golden brown.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle remaining chocolate chips (1/2 cup) on top to melt. Drizzle with additional caramel, if desired.
Enjoy and feel lucky!