Oatmeal CookieBlog

Florida Cookies

All week long, Jon has been saying that we should do an orange-macadamia cookie. But I wasn't wild about that idea because I thought it would be too similar to the Hawaii cookie (recipe to be posted soon).

So what to do? Focus on the orange, of course. And where do oranges grow? Florida! But what else is a cookie-able product from Florida? A quick Google search turned up a helpful map of Florida's produce. And that's how I got it: an orange and pecan cookie...with a white chocolate drizzle for good measure.

(Oh, and for those of you who don't know whether it's pronounced "pee-can" or "pee-kahn," check this out!)

Jon's allergic to most nuts, but he tried these anyway and gave them his "bring-in-able" stamp of approval. And our doorman Jason agreed. So far, Jon's throat hasn't closed up, so pecans must not be on his "no" list of nuts.

I use my old trick of trippling the citrus content with zest, extract, and juice to make these cookies really orangey.

Makes about four dozen. (To see this recipe in process, check out Picturing Florida Cookies.)

Creamables	2 sticks butter 2 cups brown sugar
Wet Ingredients	2 egg yolks 3/4 cup orange juice 1 1/2 tablespoons orange extract 1 tablespoon orange zest 1 teaspoon vanilla
Dry Ingredients	3 cups toasted pecans 3 3/4 cups oatmeal 1 1/2 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt
Topping	2 cups melted white chocolate chips 1/2 teaspoon orange extract orange-colored dusting sugar

1.    Preheat oven to 350º.

2.    In your Kitchen Aid or a large mixing bowl, cream together the creamables.

3.    In a small bowl, combine the wet ingredients and whisk together until smooth.

4.    Add the combined wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix together until well incorporated.

5.    In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed.

6.    Slowly add the dry ingredients to the combined creamables and wet ingredients. Mix until evenly combined.

7.    Refrigerate dough for 10-15 minutes.

8.    Shape cooled dough into balls--about 2 tablespoons each.

9.    Place dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.

10.  Bake at 350º for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let stand for 2 minutes. Then place cookies on wire racks to cool.

11.  Mix together the melted white chocolate chips and orange extract and transfer to a zip-top bag.

12.  Snip the corner off of the bag and drizzle the white chocolate mixture over the completely cooled cookies.

13.  Before the white chocolate drizzle hardens, sprinkle orange-colored dusting sugar over the cookies. The sugar crystals will stick to the white chocolate topping.

See How Easy It Is to Make Cookie Dough

Here's a short video we made to show how quickly you can make a yummy cookie dough. (Man...do I really talk with my hands that much?) Three cheers for Jon's camera work.

My Favorite Brown Sugar

When I write brown sugar in my recipes, what I mean is dark brown sugar.

I love dark brown sugar. Light brown? Pshaw! If I found extra-dark brown sugar, I'd use that. The reason? The darker the sugar, the chewier and more flavorful the cookie.

In the next few days, I'm going to reproof my recipes and make sure that I specify to use dark brown sugar.

Th-Th-Thanks!

Vicky, a reader, writes:

"I tried your Va-Va-Vanilla cookies this weekend, and they are awesome! Some family was over for Easter and proclaimed them the best oatmeal cookies ever. Thanks for the recipe!"

Thank you, Vicky! Maybe these cookies will become part of your Easter tradition--or at least part of your oatmeal cookie repertoire.

Hazelnut Coffee & Chocolate Chip

Hmmm. It looks like I’ve got a coffee theme a-brewin’ with my last two recipes. (Sorry… Must. Resist. Puns.)

April, a reader, real-life cookie taster, and genuine coffee fan, suggested this flavor. (Thanks, April!) And this is what she had to say about this batch: “These are so good! I'm resisting the urge to eat them all!” So you know they’re yummy. (Jon's allergic to nuts, so he had to defer to our doorman, who assured us that these cookies were indeed bring-in-able.)

I almost called these guys "Filbert Meets Joe," but I didn't think that name was quite descriptive enough. After all, how many people know that hazelnuts moonlight as filberts? Well…I didn’t know until last night, but that’s not saying much. I’ll admit it: I’m not a fan of nuts. Or of coffee--a Diet Coke in the morning is fine for me, thank you very much. But for those of you out there who are nuts about nuts or crazy about coffee, this cookie is for you.

As you’ve probably noticed, I use multiple shots of flavor in my cookies to rev up the taste, and this cookie is no different. To impart the coffee/nut flavor I use hazelnut-flavored coffee, melted cappuccino chips, instant espresso powder, and toasted hazelnuts. You can either brew your own coffee or buy a small cup (black, no sugar) at your favorite coffee shop. (I got my coffee at a certain chain whose initials are “DD.”) And there are chocolate chips, of course, which round out the flavor and are the perfect complement to the coffee.

This dough is a little wet, so you’ll have to refrigerate it before you form the dough balls. Makes about four dozen cookies.

Creamables	2 sticks butter 2 cups brown sugar
Wet Ingredients	2 egg yolks 3/4 cup cold hazelnut-flavored coffee 1/4 cup melted cappuccino chips 2 tablespoons instant espresso powder 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Dry Ingredients	3 1/2 cups oatmeal 1 1/4 cups flour 2 1/2 cups roughly chopped toasted hazelnuts 2 cups chocolate chips 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350º.
2. In your Kitchen Aid or a large mixing bowl, cream together the creamables.
3. In a small bowl, combine the wet ingredients and whisk together until smooth.
4. Add the combined wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix together until well incorporated.
5. In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed.
6. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the combined creamables and wet ingredients. Mix until evenly combined.
7. Refrigerate dough for 10-15 minutes.
8. Shape cooled dough into balls--about 2 tablespoons each.
9. Place dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.
10. Bake at 350º for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let stand for 2 minutes. Then place cookies on wire racks to cool.

Reader Query: What's Turbinado Sugar?

This one's from mumma again. In response to my coffee cake cookie, she asked, "What's turbinado sugar?"

Well, it's just one of the many names for sugar in the raw. You know, the kind of sugar that won't (ever!) dissolve in your coffee.

Turbinado a.ka. demerara a.ka. sugar in the raw won't melt in high heat, so these granules make great cookie toppers. Give dough balls a roll through some of this stuff before baking, and you'll get cookies that have a nice crispy, shiny exterior--kind of like a candy shell.

Coffee Cake Cookies

Boy, do these yummy Drake's Coffee Cakes take me back to my elementary school cafeteria. I'd bite off the crumbly, cinnamony tops and throw away the cakes. (And this was years before Elaine discovered muffin tops.)

Ah yes. Those were the days when I survived on such healthy fare as Little Debby Star Crunches, Doritos, Jenny-O turkey loaves, and Chef Boyardee eaten straight from the can. Poor mumma couldn't get a vegetable past my lips if her life depended on it...but I digress.

This recipe takes the best part of coffee cake--the topping--and turns it into a tasty little cookie. Your standard coffee cake doesn't actually contain any coffee. (Isn't it ironic?) Cinnamon is the belle of this ball, but I do include a hint of coffee in the form of cappucino chips. It's not a punch-you-in-the-face kind of flavor, but it does add a nice hint of coffee to the background.

This recipe calls for some special ingredients: cinnamon chips and cappucino chips, which I found at the King Arthur online store. If you get the cinnamon chips, you can also use them in my Hot(ter) Chocolate cookies. If you don't get the cappucino chips, you can replace them with three tablespoons of cold coffee added to the wet ingredients.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies. (To see this recipe in process, check out Picturing Coffee Cake Cookies.)

Creamables	2 sticks butter 1 3/4 cups brown sugar 1/4 cup white sugar
Wet Ingredients	2 eggs + 1 yolk 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Dry Ingredients	1 1/2 cups flour 1 3/4 cups oatmeal 1 3/4 cups ground graham crackers 2 cups cinnamon chips 1/2 cup cappuccino chips 1 tablespoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt
Topping	turbinado or raw sugar

1. In your Kitchen Aid or a large mixing bowl, cream together the creamables.
2. In a small bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Whisk together the wet ingredients.
3. Add combined wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix together until smooth.
4. In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the combined creamables and wet ingredients. Mix until evenly combined.
5. Preheat oven to 350º.
6. Shape dough into balls--about 2 tablespoons each.
7. Roll each dough ball in turbinado or raw sugar.
8. Place sugared dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.
9. Bake at 350º for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let stand for 2 minutes. Then place cookies on wire racks to cool.

Reader Query: What's a Microplane?

So I'm talking to mumma the other night, and she asks, "What's a microplane?" "It's a grater with small, shallow teeth," I said.  Mumma didn't quiet get it, so I said, "You know...like the Ped Egg...but for food, not feet." And with that, she knew exactly what I was talking about. (Funny how that works, huh?)

But then it dawned on me: Maybe there are other readers out there who might need a clarification/explanation. Here goes:

I "borrowed" this pic of a microplane from Williams-Sonoma, but I don't think (I hope!) they'll mind. A microplane is a fine-texture grater. It has a handle and a long surface for grating that has shallow-set teeth all along the plane's surface.

For those of you unfamiliar with workworking, a plane is a tool used to flatten or even-out rough wood. Basically, a plane is a block with a blade in it. When you use a plane, you run it back and forth across a wooden surface, and the blade shaves off the uneven bits that stick up. This, essentially, is how a microplane works: You run food (an orange or a lemon, a piece of chocolate or hard cheese, or a nubbin' of nutmeg) across the surface, and you end up with uniformly shaved-off bits to use in your cooking.

A microplane's teeth take eencey-weencey nibbles at whatever you pass across the grating surface. This makes the microplane the perfect tool for zesting citrus fruit because you can easily avoid the fruit's bitter pith, which you'd likely end up with if you were to use a regular box-type grater. And using a microplane to grate chocolate yields tiny pieces that blend really well into both dry and wet ingredients.

The List, Updated

As promised, here's an update of The List. (This one's for you, CJ!)

S’mores Cherry-Vanilla Crispies Chocolate Malted Good Ol’ Peanut Butter White Chocolate Macaroon Dark Earl Grey  Caramel-Espresso Eleven Madison Hawaii Cookies Coffee Cake Fourth of July Grasshopper Elvis Dulce de Leche

Chocolate-Caramel Shirley Temple Golden Girls Juliana Skiffle PB & J(onnie) Mocha Mint Rosh Hashanah ChocAlmScotch Sweater Weather Peanut Butter Cup Hot(ter) Chocolate Almond Brickle Fluffernutter XXX Cranberry

Almond Joy Mulled Apple Cider Yuletides Eggnog Sin-a-Buns Lime in the Coconut Fake-Out-Eos Raspberry-Chocolate Fondue The Girlscouts Are...Jealous Heeeere's Johnnycake! Do You Like Pina Coladas? Va-Va-Vanilla Rocky Road Hazelnut Coffee Florida Cookies

Spreading the Oatmeal Cookie Gospel

Sarah, a reader and real-life cookie taster, writes:

"I made your Hot(ter) Chocolate cookies this weekend. They’re amazing!! Thank you for sharing the recipe!

When I was in line at the grocery store buying the ingredients, the person next to me asked what I was making because I had such good things in my basket. When I told him, the other person next to me said they wanted the recipe, and then the cashier got interested too, so I gave all of them the link to your blog. You’re famous in the Park Slope Union Market."

I'm so glad you liked the recipe, Sarah. And thanks for the blog-licity!

My Favorite Oatmeal

I began this recipe collection as "Operation Quaker," and it's no accident. The only oatmeal I use in my oatmeal cookies is Quaker Old Fashioned Oats. In fact, Quaker was the oatmeal my grandmother used to make her oatmeal cookies. And you know there’s no going against grandma.

I use "old fashioned" oats in my oatmeal cookies, not quick oats or instant oatmeal, because I’ve found that the old fashioned oats produce a cookie with the best texture. Quick oats and instant oatmeal are par cooked and have a mealy texture that doesn’t quite carry over to cookies. Just open an envelope of instant oatmeal and you’ll see what I mean: Are there oats in there, or is it flour?

If you’re making a recipe that calls for finely ground oatmeal, though, I guess quick oats or instant would work in a pinch. But be warned: The cookies' texture and flavor will likely be a little pasty.

Feelin' the Blog-Love

Sheila, a reader from California, writes:

"My son and I made the S’mores cookies last night. OMG they were seriously the best cookies I have ever tasted. We try to set aside one day a week as a baking day and cookies and breads are our favorite things to make. We will definitely be trying more of your recipes in the future."

Thanks, Sheila! And happy baking.

Cookie-Makin' Music

Ok, this is a shameless plug. I loves me some Hem, and you probably do too and don't even know it. (Hem does the music for those "pay it forward" commercials for Liberty Mutual.) Jon and I have seen them three times and would again anytime. Ch-ch-check 'em out.

PB & J(onnie)

Here's a recipe from The List that April, one of my real-life cookie tasters, said is one of her favorites.  (See...I really do read the comments.)

I call this one PB & J(onnie) because Jon and I subsisted on brown-bag lunched on PB sandwiches for years, so this is my tribute to him. It's an oatmeal-peanut butter cookie stuffed with grape jelly. (I know...another stuffed cookie? I must be part marsupial or something.) The "J" in all my PB & Js has always been grape, but feel free to use strawberry or whatever jelly flavor you crazy kids are in to.

My secret to this moist, flavorful cookie is ground-up Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch cereal. I use only a 1/2 cup of smooth peanut butter because too much of it will severely dry out the finished cookie.  And, ironically enough, the peanut butter doesn't have much game when it comes to flavor, but I prefer Skippy Roasted Honey Nut. Makes about 4 dozen.

Creamables	2 sticks butter 2 cups brown sugar 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter 1/4 cup white sugar
Wet Ingredients	2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/4 cup milk
Dry Ingredients	2 cups ground Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch 2 1/2 cups oatmeal 2 cups peanut butter chips 1 1/2 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt
Filling	1/2 cup grape jelly

1. Pour 1/2 cup of grape jelly in a bowl and hold in the freezer until step 6.
2. In your Kitchen Aid or a large mixing bowl, cream together the creamables.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients and then add to the creamables. Mix together until smooth.
4. In another large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the creamables and wet ingredients. Mix until evenly combined.
5. Shape dough into balls—about 2 tablespoons each.
6. Remove the grape jelly from the refrigerator and stuff each dough ball (using the “Golden Girls” technique) with 1 teaspoon of jelly. Put the stuffed dough balls in the freezer for five minutes to firm up.
7. Preheat oven to 350º.
8. Place chilled dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.
9. Bake at 350º for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let stand for 2 minutes. Then place cookies on wire racks to cool.

Distractions...

I apologize for the reduced number of postings lately. I got caught up in The Wire and have done little other than park myself on the couch. I’ve watched fifty-four episodes (yes, that’s fifty-four hours’ worth of TV) in eight days (!!), but I did manage to come up with this week’s Rocky Road cookies…and boy were they bring-in-able.

There are only six episodes left in the fifth season, so the number of new posts will return to pre-Wire levels then. I promise!

In the meantime, though, get a chuckle from this.

Reader Query: Recipes from the List

CJ, a reader, comments on my S’mores cookies: “These s’mores are amazing, we barely even notice they are actually oatmeal cookies because we're so busy wolfing them down. I hope that you will post some more of your pre-existing cookie recipes from the list. Thank you for sharing this with us!”

Thanks for the comment, CJ! I will most certainly post my earlier recipes, and I’ll also post an updated list that includes all of the newer recipes. It’s time to take a count again!

It really is my pleasure to share these cookies with you all. You have no idea how happy it makes me to see that I’ve got new comments…so keep them coming!

Rocky Road

That's right...rocky road. It's one of those "olde tyme" ice cream flavors.

Whenever I think of rocky road, I think of this scene from The Goonies. For some reason, though, I misremember the guy's name as "Lugjug" and not "Sloth."  Where'd that come from?

These are super chocolatey and chewey--almost like fudge brownies.  My secret is to use multiple sources of chocolate: ground-up Cocoa Pebbles, cocoa powder, microplaned milk chocolate, and microplaned unsweetened Baker's chocolate. Toasting the almonds brings out thier flavor and their crunch. And, of course, these wouldn't be rocky road cookies without the mini marshmallows. I freeze my marshmallows first so that they don't melt too fast in the oven.

As with my s’more cookies, you need to keep an eye on these guys and be careful not to overbake them. The marshmallows could melt, and when the cookies cool, you could end up with really yummy-smelling hockey pucks.

Creamables	2 sticks butter 2 cups brown sugar 1/4 cup cocoa powder
Wet Ingredients	2 eggs + 1 yolk 1 tablespoon vanilla 1 tablespoon milk
Dry Ingredients	2 1/2 cups oatmeal 2 cups toasted slivered almonds 2 cups frozen mini marshmallows 1 1/2 cups flour 1 1/2 cups ground Cocoa Pebbles cereal 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, microplaned 2 1/2 ounces milk chocolate, micoplaned 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda

1. In your Kitchen Aid or a large mixing bowl, cream together the creamables
2. In a small bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Whisk together the wet ingredients and add to the creamables. Mix together until smooth.
3. In another large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the creamables and wet ingredients. Mix until evenly combined.
4. Preheat oven to 350º. 
5. Shape dough into balls--about 2 tablespoons each.
6. Place dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.
7. Bake at 350º for 10 minutes. (Be very careful not to overbake them.) If the cookies feel too underdone when you remove them from the oven, let them set on the cookie sheets for two to three additional minutes. Then place cookies on wire racks to cool.

I Don't Even Know How to Describe This...

One Saturday night, Jon and I were driving around searching for Sopranos locations (P.S. They tore down Satriale's!), and we somehow came up with the brilliant idea of combining words describing sadness with the names of different foods. I think it started with "depretzel" and then just went on from there. The formula is to start with a word describing some sort of sadness and end to with a food. Here's what we have so far:

depretzels

melancholyflower

blue berries

ennui sausage

NEW: glum pudding (from reader Lorraine)

Va-Va-Vanilla

(Jon says to sing to the the tune of "Hava Nagila.")

Hey, look!  A field full of cookies!

You can have plain old chocolate chip cookies anytime, but how do you make them a little more interesting? Easy: Pump up the vanilla, the obvious yin to chocolate's yang.

I use a triple shot of vanilla in this cookie: ground up Nilla Wafers, instant vanilla pudding mix, and extra vanilla extract. Throw in some mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, and you've got a great little cookie with great big flavor.

I use the pudding mix and NIlla Wafers here the same way I use graham crackers in my S'mores and Golden Girls cookies. It's not quite "Semi-Homemade," but it sure does brings home the flavor.

Creamables	2 sticks butter 2 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
Wet Ingredients	1 egg 2/3 cup milk 2 1/2 tablespoons vanilla 1 ounce instant vanilla pudding mix
Dry Ingredients	1 cup finely ground Nilla Wafers 1 1/2 cups flour 1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips 4 cups oatmeal 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. In your Kitchen Aid or a large mixing bowl, cream together the creamables.
2. In a small bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Whisk together the wet ingredients and add to the creamables. Mix together until smooth.
3. In another large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the creamables and wet ingredients. Mix until evenly combined.
4. Preheat oven to 350º.
5. Shape dough into balls—about 2 tablespoons each. Place chilled dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.
6. Bake at 350º for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let stand for 2 minutes. Then place cookies on wire racks to cool.