Super Hearty Oat Cookies

These cookies are so delicious and hearty. And they make a lot. This is a great recipe if you’re serving a large number of people.

Super Hearty Oat Cookies (makes 50 cookies)
~ adapted from The Eat-Clean Diet

1 – lb tub + 2/3 C margarine, non-hydrogenated
2 C brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
3 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 – 1/2 tsp salt
5 C large flake oats *
3 C quick oats *
4 C all-purpose flour, unbleached
1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 C dried cranberries

* if only using one type of oats, just measure out 8 C oats in total.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets.

2. Cream margarine and brown sugar.

3. Add eggs and beat.

4. Beat in honey, vanilla and salt.

5. Using a strong wooden spoon or spatula, stir in oats and flour.

6. When almost fully combined, add chocolate chips and cranberries and combine well (may need to use hands but work quickly so that the chocolate doesn’t melt onto hands).

7. Roll cookie dough into balls (around 40-50 balls). If baking them right away, place on prepared baking sheets and press down to flatten. Bake each sheet for 15 minutes or until desired brownness. If freezing, flatten balls  and freeze separated for an hour, then throw into a plastic baggie. When baking frozen cookies, just put onto a prepared baking sheet and put into preheated 350 degree F oven for 15 minutes, but will most likely need a longer baking time. Check for desired doneness.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Nirvana

I was catching up on some blogs when I came across Cake On the Brain's post on her recent cookie making venture. Anyone who knows me knows I love, L.O.V.E., chocolate. So when she called her cookies Chocolate Chip Cookie Nirvana I knew I had to make these. I did change the recipe a bit and, well, they didn't turn out the way they were supposed to. Who knew that the cookie dough-to-chocolate chip ratio could throw it all off? Not me! How can you go wrong with more chocolate? I guess I was too chocolate-hungry. So I am posting the recipe, but please don't follow my changes and you'll be in nirvana as Cakebrain was when she made these.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Nirvana

makes 3 dozen ridiculously large cookies

by Cakebrain adapted from Jacques Torres' A Year in Chocolate

4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 t salt

1 1/2 t baking powder

1 1/2 t baking soda

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar

1 1/4 cups plus 2 1/2 T granulated sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten

2 t pure vanilla extract

1 2/3 pounds bittersweet chocolate, chopped into bite-sized pieces (I used 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 cup milk chocolate chips)

1 cup white chocolate pieces (I used white chocolate chips)

• Preheat the oven to 325°F. Have ready 2 nonstick cookie sheets, or line 2 regular cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. Set aside.
• In a bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter on medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until very light and fluffy. Add the brown and granulated sugars and beat until well blended. Add the eggs and beat just until incorporated. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture a little at a time, beating after each addition until incorporated. When all of the flour mixture has been incorporated, remove the bowl from the mixer and, using a rubber spatula, fold in the chocolate (this was so hard to do).
• To shape the cookies, using a tablespoon, scoop out a heaping spoonful of the dough and, using the palms of your hands, form it into a 3-inch ball. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 1 inch apart (my batch didn't flatten out during baking so next time - yes, I haven't given up on this recipe yet - I would flatten them before putting them in the oven).
• Bake for about 15 minutes, or until lightly browned around the edges. Remove from the oven, transfer the cookies to wire racks, and let cool completely.
• Store, in an airtight container, for up to 5 days.

This recipe really does make an enormous amount of cookies. I baked only half the batch and rolled and froze the rest of the dough into balls to be baked another day.

One Pound of Butter, Two Batches of Cookies

I was in the baking mood yesterday so I took a pound of butter out of the refrigerator to soften. I didn't have any idea of what cookies I was going to make so started by looking in my recipe folder on my computer as well as browse through some blogs. Then I recalled that I had some cookie recipes saved on the Martha Stewart website. I looked over the small list I had compiled. Hmmm...then I saw it: Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies. I love any cookie that involves my all-time favorite ingredient, oatmeal. Oatmeal just makes eating a cookie a little more healthy. And dried cranberries was a bonus with their antioxidant power and anti-inflammatory properties. So I went ahead and started making the cookies. I used a blend of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour. As I grabbed the bag of dried cranberries from the pantry, I thought I heard the chocolate chips calling me. Why not? So I added a cup of them to the batter. The recipe called for chilling the batter from 2 hours to overnight. It was late so I covered them with plastic film and put the bowl in the refrigerator. So much for baking last night.

This morning I took the batter out. I laid out the baking sheets and lined them with parchment paper. As I dug into the batter I knew I would have to trade in my cookie dough scooper for a soup spoon and hands. The batter was so hard! I tried to make each of them uniform in size (a little smaller than ping pong balls). I put the first two sheets in for 18 minutes but were on the crunchy side so I made sure that I put the next two sheets in for 16 minutes. They were just the way I like them.

I still had 1/2 a pound of softened butter left. I didn't want to put it back in the refrigerator so I decided to make a different batch of cookies. I had a lot of coconut shreds so I decided on Coconut Oatmeal Cookies. The last time I made them I found them too sweet and too cinnamon-y. I decreased the brown sugar to 3/4 cups and the cinnamon to 1/2 teaspoon. I also used the whole wheat/all-purpose flour blend for this batch of cookies. I didn't bother with chilling the dough and didn't have any problems with the end result. It was yummy.