Oatmeal CookieBlog

U.S. Cookie = U.K Biscuit XXXIII

Toblerone (Chocolate, Almond, and Honey) Cookies

A little while ago, my friend Gary asked me about doing a Toblerone cookie. Since then, I've been trying to think of a way to make these more than just standard chocolate cookies made with one particular brand of chocolate.

I thought about different methods for getting the chocolate into the recipe. Using shaved, chopped, or even melted chocolate would work, but what could I do that would really speak to the nature of the key ingredient? What could I do to make these chocolate cookies Toblerone chocolate cookies?

I couldn't come up with any solid ideas, so I decided to pull together ingredients and brainstorm. And there was the answer--right in front of me--printed on the triangular tube: "Swiss Milk Chocolate with Honey and Almond Nougat."

Aha! What makes this particular kind of chocolate unique--aside from it's great taste--are the sweet, nutty, crunchy, chewy bits of nougat studded throughout.

And so I found my answer: This recipe includes Toblerone chocolate (of course), almonds, and honey.

Makes 3 dozen cookies. (To see this recipe in process, check out Picturing Toblerone (Chocolate, Almond, and Honey) Cookies.)

Creamables	1 stick butter 1/4 cup white sugar 1/4 cup honey
Wet Ingredients	1 egg 1 tablespoon vanilla
Dry Ingredients	1 3/4 cups finely ground oatmeal 1 1/2 cups roughly chopped almonds 1 14-oz Toblerone bar: 1/2 shaved, 1/2 chopped 1/2 cup flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 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, whisk together the wet ingredients and then add to the creamables. Mix 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 around the edges. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let stand for 2 minutes. Then place cookies on wire racks to cool.

Happy Thanksgiving from Plymouth, MA

Here are some pics from Plymouth, Massachusetts, birthplace of Thanksgiving (and bad drivers).

1) Pilgrim-era inspired cottages overlooking Plymouth Harbor. 2) Plymouth Rock. Yup...that's it. 3) Mayflower II, a full-size replica of the Pilgrims' ship.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I wish you all a happy, safe, food-filled day.

A Cornucopia of Thanksgiving Cookies

Here's a mini-list of cookies to consider for post-turkey sweet treats.

1) XXX Cranberry Cookies 2) Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies 3) Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

4) Cranberry Crunch Cookies 5) Cranberry in the Coconut Cookies 6) Caramel Apple Bars

7) Rum Raisinet Cookies 8) Coconut Rum Raisinet Cookies 9) Stuffed Carrot Cake Cookies

10) Orange-Cinnamon Graham Cookies 11) Cranberry, Walnut, and Orange Cookies 12) Killer Chocolate Cookies

Picturing Seven Layer Cookies

Here's the recipe for my Seven Layer Cookies in process.

Cream the creamables: butter, white sugar, and peanut butter.

Combine the wet ingredients: sweetened condensed milk, an egg yolk, and vanilla.

Add the combined wet ingredients to the combined creamables. Mix.

Grind the graham crackers and combine with the coconut, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, and walnuts.

Combine the dry ingredients and add to the wet ingredients and creamables mixture. Mix

Scoop the dough balls.

Flatten the dough balls and bake. This is flavor perfection!

Crunchy vs. Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

A recent Consumer Reports poll found that most people prefer crunchy over chewy chocolate chip cookies. Hmmm...who can choose?

I've got an idea: Bake up batches of my crunchy and chewy recipes, pour yourself a glass of milk, and conduct your own texture test. Now that's baking with a purpose!

Repost: Picturing Sweater Weather (Orange, Tea, and Cinnamon) Cookies

Here's the recipe for my Sweater Weather Cookies in process.

Cream the creamables: butter and dark brown sugar.

Combine the wet ingredients. An egg; vanilla, orange zest, juice, and extract; and the contents of six Mandarin Orange Spice tea bags.

Add the combined wet ingredients to the combined creambles. Mix.

Combine the dry ingredients and add to the wet ingredients/creamables mixture. Mix

Scoop, bake, and enjoy. Smells so good!

Repost: Sweater Weather (Orange, Tea, and Cinnamon) Cookies

'Tis the season for wool sweaters! And Sweater Weather Cookies.

As you know, I love fall. I came up with this recipe specifically for this sliver of time on the calendar.

Oranges probably don't spring to mind when you think of fall. (Ba-dum-dum.) After all, this is apple-picking season. But for me, the smell and taste of orange and spice instantly fill my head with images of low-angled sunlight filtered through golden leaves fluttering gently on a crisp breeze that carries the scent of the season's first wood-burning fire. Ah, yes. I do love this season.

My main concern when developing this cookie was to balance the orange and spice flavors. I knew I was going to use my old trick of tripling the citrus--zest, juice, and extract--to infuse the cookies with flavor, but I knew I had to be careful. Too much orange would make these cookies taste as though you were biting into a glass of Tang. The same is true with the spice. Too much cinnamon or clove would taste as though you had just swallowed a mouthful of potpourri.

To solve the problem of overdoing the orange, I used 1/4 cup of orange juice, 1 tablespoon of orange zest, and 1/4 teaspoon of orange extract. It's the perfect amount to flavor the cookies.

For the spice, I hit the pantry and dug out a few secret ingredients. The first was Celestial Seasonings Mandarin Orange Spice tea. Simply empty the contents of six Mandarin Orange Spice tea bags into your wet ingredients. The second secret ingredient was King Arthur cinnamon chips. A cup of these in the dry ingredients does the trick.

Believe me. These cookies taste as good as they smell. Orangey, spicy, bright, slightly smokey, and autumnal. Delicious.

Makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies. (To see this recipe in process, check out Picturing Sweater Weather Cookies.)

Creamables	1 stick butter 1 cup dark brown sugar
Wet Ingredients	1 egg 1/4 cup orange juice 1 tablespoon vanilla t tablespoon orange zest 1 tablespoon milk 1/4 teaspoon orange extract 6 Mandarin Orange Spice tea bags
Dry Ingredients	3 cups oatmeal 1 1/4 cup flour 1 cup cinnamon chips 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 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.

Repost: "She Feeds You Tea and Oranges That Come All the Way from China"

Call it autumn. Call it fall. I love this time of year. The crispness of the air, the low-angled afternoon light, the smell of leaves on the wind, the reds and yellows and oranges on the trees. It all makes me happy.

These early days of fall are what inspired my Sweater Weather Cookie. I haven't posted the recipe yet, but it's been on The List from the start. The flavors are orange, cinnamon, and a dash of tea. I'm still thinking through some final tweaks, but stay tuned. I'll post the recipe soon.

The Leonard Cohen song "Suzanne" ties together this season and cookie for me. I first heard the song on a mix tape a friend gave me in college. (Yes...a mix tape. I am so old.) I remember listening to it in my dorm room and then going down to the little pond that was at the edge of campus and lying down on the grass. I'd look up through the color-dappled, thinning leaves on the trees, up into the sharp, glinting afternoon sun, and fall asleep. (If only I had taken that medieval lit class freshman year. I would have known that bad things happen to people who are foolish enough to nap under trees near water. But I digress...) I was wild, I tell ya.

It was the perfect weather--"three bears weather"--not too hot, not too cold; not too bright, not too dark. The kind of weather where all you need is a wool sweater to feel comfortable, to feel right.

Happy (belated) autumnal equinox, everybody!

Making Money for Movember

My friend Gary and I (aka "Team Manoflage") are growing mustaches as a fundraiser for men's health. Throw us some love...and money. Please make a donation at http://mobro.co/manoflage. Thanks!

Picturing Apple and Cheddar Cookies

Here's the recipe for my Apple and Cheddar Cookies in process.

Cook the apple cider, apples, cinnamon, lemon juice, white sugar, vanilla, and salt until reduced down to 3/4 cup. Set aside to cool.

Brown the butter. Set aside to cool.

Combine the chopped apples, lemon juice, apple cider, and cinnamon.

Cream the browned butter, solid butter, and white sugar.

Add the reduced apple mixture to the combined creamables. Mix.

Add the spiced chopped apples to the combined creamables and reduced apple mixture. Mix.

Grind the Cheeze-It crackers and oatmeal. Combine with the other dry ingredients: shredded cheddar, flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

Add the dry ingredients the combined creamables, reduced apple mixture, and spiced chopped apples. Mix.

Scoop and bake. Cheesy-appley goodness!