Oatmeal CookieBlog

Apricotty-Keen

Kristin, a reader and real-life cookie taster, emailed me to say:

"So, I think I had said that the cinnabon cookies were my favorite, but I lied. This week's cookies are the best! I didn't even know I liked apricot! Haha! I am totally stealing this recipe (and I will of course credit you whenever I make them)."

Thanks, Kristin!

The Most Up-to-Date List

Here's the most up-to-date list.

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 German Chocolate Cake California Cookies

California Cookies

Looks like I've got a state theme going. These guys include apricots and almonds, which are native to California...hence the name. There are also some white chocolate chips...just because.

When I was home over the weekend, I caught a show on the Food Network about a shake shop in California that used local nuts and dried fruits in its shakes. The apricot and almond combo got me thinking, and that's how this cookie was born.

(Oh, and if your interested, both pronunciations of apricot are acceptable: ape-ri-cot and ahp-ri-cot.)

I have a few secrets to infusing these cookies with flavor: apricot preserves, which I use as a dough flavoring and a glaze; toasted almonds and almond extract; and a loads of roughly chopped apricots, which are bright and yummy like little balls of sunshine. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

               

Creamables	2 sticks butter 2 cups dark brown sugar
Wet Ingredients	1 egg + 1 yolk 1/3 cup apricot preserves 1 tablespoon vanilla 2 teaspoons almond extract
Dry Ingredients	3 cups oatmeal 1 1/3 cups flour 2 1/2 roughly chopped dried apricots 2 cups toasted sliced almonds 1 cup white chocolate chips 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt
Glaze	1/2 cup apricot preserves, melted

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. Shape dough into balls--about 2 tablespoons each.
8. Place dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined      cookie sheets.
9. Put 1/2 cup of apricot preserves in a small microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high for about 30 seconds or until slightly liquefied.
10. Using a brush, baste each dough ball with the melted apricot preserves.
11. 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.

Blast from the Past

Jon and I spent the weekend with my family in Massachusetts. When we got back tonight, I was too tired to make cookies. Sorry folks! So I figured that I would instead post about the start of our cookie baking…and cookie dough eating.

We took this pic our senior year of college. (I’m on the left, Jon’s on the right.) While our classmates were out squeezing as much last hurrah as they could into their final semester, Jon and I were at home squeezing as much Body Shop Warming Mineral Mask onto our faces and pizza from Pope’s (which has since been turned into a Borders bookstore) into our faces as we could, along with eating raw cookie dough from the tube (and sometimes baking a few cookies) and watching HGTV. This was our typical Friday (and Saturday and Sunday) night. We were homebodies even back then.

All these years later, we still do the occasional face mask but have Rosa Mexicano instead of Pope’s Pizza, watch Britcoms instead of HGTV, and make our own cookie dough instead of buying that stuff from Price Chopper.

My Favorite Pizza

Having lived in New York for 10 years, I can attest that the pizza here isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Famous Ray's? Please. The pizza from BR's in Halifax, Massachusetts, is my favorite. I could eat five of these little personal-sized pies...and then another five.

The crust is crispy on the outside but buttery and pastry-like on the inside. (I've tried replicating the dough at home, but I haven't quite nailed it.) The sauce is simple and fresh and has a clean tomato flavor that isn't salty or sweet. It's just right. And the cheese is the perfect balance of crispy and melty. In short, it's perfect. And better than any other pizza I've ever had.

Hawaii Cookie

I'm posting tonight from my brand spankin' new MacBook for the first time. Thanks Ryan and Tanya for helping me log in to my wireless network. If I didn't have you guys on the phone last night, this new computer probably would have been smashed to bits on the sidewalk by now.

And...back to business. I'm off my cookie schedule this week, so this week's recipe post is another oldie-but-goodie: the Hawaii.

I know this cookie is good because several people asked for the recipe. One person said she was going to add it to a cookbook she and her friends were going to compile for another friend who was getting married. (Yes, I'm talking about you, Nina!)

This is such a tasty combination. The coffee (from the espresso powder), white and semi-sweet chocolate chips, coconut, macadamia nuts, and pineapple are like a little bite of paradise. Save money on airfare and bake yourself a mini vacation. Makes about 4 dozen.

           

Creamables	2 sticks butter 1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar 1/2 white sugar
Wet Ingredients	2 eggs 1/4 cup milk 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 teaspoons coconut extract
Dry Ingredients	3 cups oatmeal 1 1/2 cups flour 1 1/2 cups toasted coconut 1 1/2 cups chopped toasted macadamia nuts 1 1/2 cups chopped dried pineapple 3/4 cup white chocolate chips 3/4 semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon cinnamon 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. Shape dough into balls--about 2 tablespoons each.
8. Place 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: Pebbles or Crispies?

Megan, a reader, emailed and asked me this:

"You used ground Cocoa Pebbles in the Peanut Butter Cup cookie and the German Chocolate Cake cookie. Why do you use cereal in these recipes? And could I use Cocoa Crispies instead?"

Good questions, Megan. Thanks for asking!

In a couple of my earliest recipes I used ground-up graham crackers (Golden Girls) and ginger snaps (Juliana Skiffle, recipe posting TK) to add flavor to the dough. I was just experimenting, but the results were great. (How else can you make something taste like graham crackers than by adding graham crackers?)

Then I read a recipe for peanut butter cookies in Cook’s Country magazine that called for ground-up Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch cereal. A lightbulb went off, and I started experimenting again with different kinds of flavored “solids” that I could grind up and add to cookies. That’s how I ended up using the Cocoa Pebbles in my most recent stuffed cookies.

Personally, I love Cocoa Pebbles…perhaps a little too much because I’ll eat the whole box if nobody’s looking. They are super chocolaty, which is good if you’re making a chocolate cookie, but they also have a great texture that carries over to the finished cookies.

I think the Pebbles are crispier than the Crispies, but if you’ve got Crispies on hand, use them instead.

There's a (Something) for Every Chair

Hmmm. Maybe I should come up with a cookie diet too.

Elvis Has Left the Building (For Now)

Today's recipe was going to be for "The Elvis," a cookie that takes the King's favorite snack--a fried banana, peanut butter, and bacon sandwich--and puts it in cookie form. I "healthy-up" this heart attack on a plate by adding oatmeal and a little bit of chocolate and by replacing the bacon with Bacos--a soy-based bacon alternative. You know--health food.

This is a recipe I've made before that turned out OK but that I felt could use a little tweaking because the cookies came out a little more banana bread-y than I had intended. Ug...there's nothing worse, in my eyes at least, than a cakey cookie.

Despite Jon's stamp of bring-in-able approval, I'm still not entirely satisfied with the reworked recipe and will have to revisit my fresh-to-dried banana ratio.

And I know what you're thinking. No, it wasn't the Bacos. The salty/smoky flavor is an excellent foil for the sweetness of the bananas, peanut butter, chocolate. If you don't trust me, drip some maple syrup on your bacon the next time you're having that Lumberjack Special at your local greasy spoon. Or try some chocolate topped with sea salt. You don't know what you're missing.

Until I perfect "The Elvis" and elevate it to Oatmeal Cookie Guy standards, the recipe will remain under wraps. And so today I (again) give you Raspberry-Chocolate Fondue, a taste-tested crowd favorite.

What Cookbooks Mean to Me

This is a picture of a cookbook called Home and Away from Home that belonged to my grandmother. The book dates to 1970 and was a self-published fundraising item for a ladies’ group from Marshfield, Massachusetts.

As I page through, I get a kick from the old ads for long-gone businesses and the off-the-wall recipes for things like “Seven-Can Casserole.” But I also see handwritten flags to mark things that caught my grandmother’s eye--like this recipe for blueberry cobber that Mrs. Charles Broadbent submitted to the cookbook--and the words my grandmother underlined--like Thanksgiving in a recipe for cranberry-cornbread stuffing. (Just had a flash of that scene in Heathers when Christian Slater underlines the word Eskimo in Moby Dick.)

And those flags with the scripty old-lady handwriting in pencil! (Nobody writes that way anymore.) She certainly predated Post-Its, but I doubt she’d ever use them even if they were available to her. These flags are cut-up pieces of old grocery lists. She used to wash, air-dry, and reuse aluminum foil and Ziploc bags--why not reuse paper?

You see, she had what others called a “Depression-era mentality.” To which she would say, “You kids wouldn’t be able to live through the Depression. You wouldn’t know what to do with a goat!” Yes…a goat, whose milk my grandmother administered to her children as a cure-all for every possible ailment. This, I’ve been told, was the advice she got from a “doctor.”

To this day my mother scrunches up her face and shudders as if she just downed a shot of the nastiest, booziest booze in the world at the mention of—shock, horror—goat cheese. The memory of having cow’s milk swapped with goat’s milk is still too close to the surface, I guess. (Funnily enough, my mother tried the same stunt when my brother and I were kids by replacing chicken cutlets with pork cutlets. Yeah…like we couldn’t figure that one out.)

Lime in the Coconut

I baked a little earlier than usual tonight, so I actually had natural light for the picture! This shot is taken from my rooftop at around 6 p.m. These cookies look pretty good, but they taste amazing. You've got the brightness of the lime, the sweetness of the white chocolate, and the nutty crunchiness of the toasted coconut. It's so balanced. It's so yummy. It's like being on a tropical vacation. Or a rooftop in Manhattan on a 70º day in April.

This flavor combination was inspired by that Harry Nilsson song...you know the one. (Check out this interpretation by the Muppets.) But I have to admit that the song isn't the only inspiration. After my lime extract ordering mishap, I've got a lot of lime recipes to come up with.

For a different citrus twist, replace the lime (in all its forms--zest, extract, and juice) with orange. Or replace the coconut extract and cream of coconut with... Aha! I've got another cookie idea for another day. Stay tuned for "The Mojito," a boozy cookie that should be served with a tiny paper umbrella. Bring on summer already!

Makes 4 dozen cookies. (To see this recipe in process, check out Picturing Lime in the Coconut Cookies.)

Creamables	2 sticks butter 2 cups dark brown sugar
Wet Ingredients	1 egg 1/4 cup cream of coconut 1/4 cup lime juice 2 tablespoons lime extract 2 tablespoons lime zest 1 tablespoon vanilla 1 tablespoon coconut extract
Dry Ingredients	3 1/2 cups oatmeal 2 1/2 cups toasted coconut 1 cup flour 1 cup white 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. Shape dough into balls--about 2 tablespoons each.
8. Place 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.

Sourcing Ingredients

That's a fancy-pants way of saying "shopping."

Carole, a reader, emailed to ask where I bought the cinnamon extract I used in my Sin-a-Bun cookies. I found it in the extract section of the baking aisle in my grocery store. (But, as regular readers know, my grocery store has got little-to-no organizing principle. So when I say "in the baking aisle," that translates to "that tiny section between the eggs and the salsa." Don't ask...I'm still trying to figure it out.) So if I can find cinnamon extract in my grocery store, you should be able to find it in yours.

I use McCormick brand cinnamon extract. Nothing fancy--just good old omni-available McCormick. Here's a link to the cinnamon extract page on the McCormick website. Perhaps knowing what the packaging looks like will help you find it more easily on the supermarket shelf.

Less common than cinnamon extract, but just as easy to obtain, are cinnamon chips. I buy these through the King Arthur Baker's Catalogue online store. I buy these guys two bags at a time and keep them in the refrigerator, where they keep for months on end. They taste great--just like the crumb topping on a coffee cake--and can be used in a bunch of recipes. I melted two tablespoons' worth and used it in the cinnamon slurry I used to fill the Sin-a-Bun cookies' thumbprints.

I hope this helps, Carole. Let me know how they come out!

Golly!

Emily, a real-life cookie taster, had this to say about my Sin-a-Bun cookies:

"Your cookies are SO AMAZINGLY good today--I love them! I missed out on earlier cookies b/c I wasn't fast enough in the kitchen, but I grabbed one of these this morning and just wanted to tell you how YUM they are. I think I might have to make them one day. Thanks for bringing them in!"

Thanks, Emily. I don’t know what to say…I’m blushing.

K-F-P O-B C

That’s shorthand for “kosher-for-Passover oatmeal-based cookie.” I’m attending my first Passover Seder this Saturday, and I thought it would be nice to bring a cookie appropriate for the holiday. I thought that what would make this cookie different from all other cookies would be the absence of leavening agents. But I recently learned that oats aren’t K-F-P. Anyone know of a K-F-P equivalent of oats?

UPDATE: Thanks for all the feedback everybody! I've learned that the oats can be K-F-P depending on how the oats are processed (heat-treated oats OK; steam-treated oats not OK) and one's particular tradition (OK for Sephardim; not OK for Ashkenazi). I hope to have K-F-P cookie recipes in time for next Passover.

It Is the Best Chocolate Cookie

Catherine, a real-life cookie taster, writes:

"You've outdone yourself this time. This [German Chocolate Cake] cookie is incredible! And the peanut-butter filled ones were delicious and complex, like a fine wine. Thank you so much!"

Thanks for your note, Catherine. I'm a little bashful about admitting that I'm not a huge chocolate fan, but even I could eat a dozen or more of (either of) these cookies and still want more.

The List, Updated (Again)

Here's the most up-to-date list.

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 German Chocolate Cake

Oatmeal CookieBook

This is the recipe notebook...the one that Jon says he'd rescue if our building ever goes up in flames.

Scrawled across the egg-and-vanilla stained and chocolate-splattered pages are the recipes you read here. I don't really have a set process for developing recipes: some spring from the items on a shopping list, and some come out fully formed.

I take cookie inspiration from everything--TV shows, favorite non-cookie flavors, interesting ingredients--and try to put together a plan for what I hope is a really tasty, really unique cookie.

Sin-a-Buns

This is my take on the famous mall-style cinnamon buns. You know…Cinnabons, which smell and taste great but are nothing but soft and gooey. Unlike those food-court favorites, my Sin-a-Bun cookies have some texture and crunch. Three levels of texture, in fact: 1) the crunchy, cinnamony cookie; 2) the soft, dense “cinnamon button”; and 3) the velvety icing. Now that’s a dynamic experience to make your mouth happy.

I use a thumbprint technique to make the cinnamon button in the middle of each cookie. You’re probably familiar with jelly-filled thumbprint cookies that show up around Christmastime. Instead of jelly, though, I use a rich cinnamon slurry to fill each thumbprint. As the cookies bake, the slurry transforms into a rich center of tasty goodness. Makes about four dozen cookies.

UPDATE: Visit my Quamut Wicki for making thumbprint cookies.

Thumbprint Filling	2 tablespoons melted cinnamon chips 2 tablespoons milk 4 tablespoons white sugar 1 tablespoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon extract 1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring
Creamables	2 sticks butter 2 1/4 cups dark brown sugar 1/4 cup white sugar
Wet Ingredients	2 eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla 1 tablespoons milk 1 teaspoon cinnamon extract 1 teaspoon butter flavoring
Dry Ingredients	1 1/2 cups finely ground graham crackers 3 1/2 cups finely ground oatmeal 1 1/2 cups flour 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt
Icing	1/4 cup room-temperature cream cheese 1/4 cup room-temperature margarine 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1.    In a small bowl, mix together the thumbprint filling ingredients. Set aside until step 8.

2.    Preheat oven to 350º.

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

4.    In a small bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients and then add to the creamables. Mix together until smooth.

5.    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.

6.    Shape dough into balls—about 2 tablespoons each.

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

8.    Use your thumb to make an indentation in each dough ball. Fill each indentation with about 1/2 teaspoon of the thumbprint filling.

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.

10.  Once the cookies are fully cooled, mix together the icing ingredients in a small bowl. Put the icing in a zip-top bag, snip off a corner of the bag, and then drizzle the icing over the cookies.

How to Make Thumbprint Cookies

Here's a quick demo of how to make a thumbprint cookie. This is the technique I use fo create the "cinnamon buttton" in the middle of my Sin-a-Bun cookies. It's really easy...even I can do it! Now if I could just talk without using my hands.

German Chocolate Cake

Thanks, "Hand Model Jonnie," for helping me with this shot. (I think it's time to go shopping for some food-styling props.) I could have called these "Oh My God" cookies because that's what Jon said when he had his first bite: "Oh my god these are good." Ah...the words every baker lives for.

Thanks also to my reader Alicia, whose email about coconut-stuffed brownies inspired this recipe. An image of a German chocolate cake (GCC) popped into my head as I read her message, and then I got the idea to make a GCC cookie. I first pictured it being a stuffed cookie, but I think it's really more of an inside-out cookie. What could be better than a super-fudgy chocolate cake wrapped around a center of sugary coconut frosting? Well duh...a bite-sized version.

As I said in my posting for the Peanut Butter Cup cookies, I've come up with the best chocolate cookie base. Ever. In fact, I used that chocolate cookie dough recipe for these guys. You've got to try this dough.

I did some research on the GCC coconut frosting and found that it usually has a lot of eggs and sugar in addition to some pretty rich and sweet ingredients like sweetened condensed milk, coconut, and butter. The chocolate "shell" of these cookies is already rich and delicious, so I didn't want the filling to be too sweet or too dense. My frosting/filling sticks to the basics and is the perfect complement to the chocolate.

Go here for step-by-step stuffing instructions. Makes about three dozen cookies.

Filling	1 1/2 cup coconut, roughly chopped 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk 1 tablespoon butter 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Creamables	2 sticks butter 2 cups brown sugar 1/4 cup cocoa powder
Wet Ingredients	2 eggs 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla 2 tablespoons milk
Dry Ingredients	1 1/2 cups flour 2 1/2 cups oatmeal 3 1/2 cups coarsely ground Cocoa Pebbles 1/4 cup cocoa powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, microplaned 2 1/2 ounces milk chocolate, microplaned

1. Add the filling ingredients to a medium-sized nonstick pan and simmer over medium heat, stirring often, until the coconut starts to brown.
2. Once the filling mixture is a toasty brown color (about 10 minutes), remove from heat. Let the mixture cool and hold in the refrigerator until step 8.
3. Preheat oven to 350º.
4. In your Kitchen Aid or a large mixing bowl, cream together the creamables.
5. In a small bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients and then add to the creamables. Mix together until smooth.
6. 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.
7. Shape dough into balls—about 2 tablespoons each.
8. Remove the filling mixture from the refrigerator and stuff each dough ball with 1 teaspoon of the mixture. Put the stuffed dough balls in the freezer for five minutes to firm up.
9. Place chilled 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: Stuffed Brownies?

Alicia, a reader from Washington DC, writes:

"I wanted to know do you ever dabble in chocolate browniedom? Had something that was akin to an almond joy brownie, but the thing was completely round with the coconut filling surrounded by brownie. Saw your filling wicki and wondered if you had any ideas. Those were the best darn things I ever tasted at my alma mater, but I didn't get the recipe before I left."

Thanks for your note, Alicia. Your question about coconut-filled brownies got me thinking, and flash of a big cake with ooey-gooey coconut frosting flashed before my eyes as I read your email. So now I am now working on a German chocolate cake cookie.

The chocolate cookie "shell" that I developed for my Peanut Butter Cup cookie recipe is actually very, very fudgy--like a brownie. I'm going to come up with the coconut frosting/filling to stuff inside the cookie and will try to post the recipe later this week.

Peanut Butter Cup

Your yummy got in my cookie. No...your cookie got in my yummy. You know the story. Chocolate and peanut butter are two great tastes that taste great together.

This is a perfected version of my original recipe. Since making these cookies the first time a few months ago, I've developed what I think is the perfect chocolate cookie dough. Tasters of my Fake-Out-Eos (my stuffed take on Oreos—recipe TK) will recognize the chocolate “shell” of these cookies. What’s my secret? Well, let’s just say it’s a certain cocoa breakfast cereal (Wilma!) Chocolate, in four different forms, gets the spotlight here.

The other star of these cookies is, of course, the peanut butter. Unfortunately, the Reese’s brand of peanut butter is not the stuff in the center of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. I learned this when I made these cookies the first time. Jon and I searched high and low for a jar of Reese’s peanut butter only to find that it was just standard, everyday, run-of-the mill, plain old bland peanut butter. What a letdown.

It’s no secret that what makes the filling of a Reese’s cup so good is its balance of salt and sweet. So I got into the kitchen and started tinkering. To straddle the saltiness-sweetness line, I started with my favorite peanut butter and added confectioner’s sugar and a just a bit of salt, which I ground down to a superfine powder so that its texture matched the sugar and mixed easily into the peanut butter. A touch of vegetable oil makes the peanut butter filling smooth and silky. Makes about 3 dozen cookies. (Check out my Quamut wicki for step-by-step stuffing instructions.)

Filling	1 cup smooth peanut butter 1 teaspoon vegetable oil 1 teaspoon finely ground salt 1 1/2 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
Creamables	2 sticks butter 2 cups brown sugar 1/4 cup cocoa powder
Wet Ingredients	2 eggs 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla 2 tablespoons milk
Dry Ingredients	1 1/2 cups flour 2 1/2 cups oatmeal 3 1/2 cups coarsely ground Cocoa Pebbles 1/4 cup cocoa powder 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, microplaned 2 1/2 ounces milk chocolate, microplaned 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Add the filling ingredients to a medium bowl and mix well. Let the mixture cool and solidify in the refrigerator until step 7.
2. Preheat oven to 350º.
3. In your Kitchen Aid or a large mixing bowl, cream together the creamables.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients and then add to the creamables. Mix together until smooth.
5. 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.
6. Shape dough into balls—about 2 tablespoons each.
7. Remove the filling mixture from the refrigerator and stuff each dough ball with 1 teaspoon of the mixture. Put the stuffed dough balls in the freezer for 5 minutes to firm up.
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.

My Favorite Peanut Butter

In all my recipes that call for peanut butter, I use Skippy Roasted Honey Nut Creamy. (Jeeze...that's a mouthful.) It's just a tad sweeter than most peanut butters and, best of all, tastes great--even in your baked stuff.

It can be kind of hard to find, especially at my grocery store, which sometimes stocks it next to the salsa and maple syrup (don't ask...I can't figure out their shelving schema) and sometimes next to the bread, which is across from the stinky cheeses and the beer (of course!).

It can also make a great snack to hold you over until the Rosa Mexicano delivery guy shows up.

Hey There, Delilah

Not this Delilah...this Delilah.

Jon and I are going to take a day trip to Philly tomorrow so that we can sample Delilah Winder's famous 7 cheese mac 'n cheese, which Oprah declared the best in the country. (Thanks for the idea, Alysha!)

Food Network (I'm borrowing the image at left from FN's website) and Throwdown fans will remember that Delilah lost to Bobby Flay in a mac 'n cheese challenge. But we'll be the judges of that...

UPDATE: We went for the mac 'n cheese, but we fell in love with the fried chicken.

This Used to Be My Playground

The crummy weather here in NYC and this article about proposed changes to the It's a Small World ride at Disneyworld got me all broody.

I started thinking of my first trip to Disneyworld. I was in the first grade, and my parents kept the whole thing a secret. They woke me up at some god-awful hour, told me we were "going to see the mouse," and the next thing I knew I had locked myself inside the plane's bathroom and couldn't get out. (I was like six...give a kid a break!)

During that trip I must have cycled through the line for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride fifty times. The teacups? Pshaw! Space Mountain? Please! The Haunted Mansion? Whatever! I was there for the toad, and I rode that ride until it broke--literally. Something got stuck. The lights went on. We had to walk out. And...then the magic died.

The Disneyworld version of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride closed on September 7, 1998. (sniff, sniff...) But I found out this morning that someone's creating a virtual version of the ride online!

What's this have to do with cookies? Absolutely nuttin'!