Oatmeal CookieBlog

Strawberry, Coconut, and Almond Cookies

I know it sounds weird, but this is a salad-inspired cookie. Yup...that's right.

Weeks ago, I had a spinach, coconut, strawberry, and almond salad and knew I needed to translate it into a cookie. (Minus the spinach, of course.) What can I say: inspiration's where you find it, right?

Longtime readers will know that I've made a few berry cookies that use three forms of fruit--fresh, dried, and cooked--to deliver the yumminess. This time, though, I wanted to try something a little different because I couldn't find dried strawberries at my grocery store. But what to use? Even more fresh or cooked strawberries?

When you make berry- or fruit-flavored cookies, you always have to address the moisture factor. Fruit is wet, and cookie dough that is too wet often yields too-moist, cakey cookies, which is fine if that's what you like. But I prefer the perfect balance between chew and crunch. And so the search for an alternative ingredient for dried strawberries began.

And then it hit me: Strawberry Quik! Some pink stuff in the creamables dry ingredients will do the trick.

This is an eggless recipe because I use cookied strawberries for the wet ingredients. And to maximize the berry flavor, I used a little raspberry extract.

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

Creamables	1 stick butter 1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 cup dark brown sugar 1/4 cup Strawberry Quik
Wet Ingredients	1 1/2 cups roughly chopped strawberries 1/4 cup white sugar 2 tablespoons milk 1 tablespoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest 1/2 teaspoon raspberry extract
Dry Ingredients	2 cups finely ground oatmeal 2 cups coconut 1 1/2 cups roughly chopped almonds 3/4 cups flour 1/2 cup Strawberry Quick 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt.

1. In a small saucepan, heat strawberries, white sugar, milk, extracts, and lemon juice and zest over medium high heat. Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula, crushing the strawberries until the the mixture is smooth.
2. Remove strawberry mixture from the heat and set aside to cool until Step 5.  
3. Preheat oven to 350º.
4. Cream together the butter, sugars and Strawberry quick.
5. Add the combined wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix together until well incorporated.
6. In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed.
7. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the combined creamables and wet ingredients. Mix until evenly combined.
8. Shape dough into balls--about 2 tablespoons each.
9. Place dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Flatten each dough ball a little with your hand or a spatula.
   
10. 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.

National Ice Cream Sandwich Day

Hey, everybody. It's national Ice Cream Sandwich Day!

I'm sure you don't really need a reason to eat ice cream and cookies, but why not celebrate by baking up your favorite recipe and busting out your ice cream scoop?

Here's a mini-list of recipes you might want to try:

Lime in the Coconut Cookies
Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Oatmeal Snickerdoodles
Neapolitan Cookies

Happy baking!

Picturing Strawberry, Coconut, and Almond Cookies

Here's the recipe for my Strawberry, Coconut, and Almond Cookies in process.

Cook the strawberries, white sugar, milk, lemon juice and zest, and vanilla and raspberry extracts.

Cream the creamables: butter, white sugar, dark brown sugar, and Strawberry Quik.

Add the cooled strawberry mixture to the creamables. Mix.

Combine the dry ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients to the combined creambles and cooked strawberries. Mix.

Scoop, flatten a little, and bake. Chewy, fruity, crunchy, and delicious! These would make for excellent ice cream sandwiches.

Sunny Summer Sunday Song

How about a blast from the not-so-distant past?

Quik Time!

For my next recipe, I knew I wanted to do a strawberry, coconut, and almond cookie, but I wasn't sure how to fill up those guys with strawberry flavor. Longtime readers will know that I've made a few berry cookies that use three forms of fruit--fresh, dried, and cooked--to deliver the yumminess. This time, though, I wanted to try something a little different because I couldn't find dried strawberries at my grocery store. But what to use? Even more fresh or cooked strawberries?

When you make berry- or fruit-flavored cookies, you always have to address the moisture factor. Fruit is wet, and cookie dough that is too wet often yields too-moist, cakey cookies, which is fine if that's what you like. But I prefer the perfect balance between chew and crunch. And so the search for an alternative ingredient for dried strawberries began.

And then it hit me: Strawberry Quik! Some pink stuff in the dry ingredients will do the trick.

Salad-Inspired Cookies

A few weeks ago, at Wednesday night dinner with the boys, I had a pretty unique salad: spinach with coconut, strawberries, and almonds. I've had spinach salad before with fruit and nuts, but the coconut was a new one on me. It tasted really good, but even more important, I think it gave me my next cookie recipe!

Go West, Young Man

As I'm sure longtime readers have noticed, my posts this summer have been few and far between. Sorry about that! What can I say? I've been very busy at home and even busier at the office.

I hate it when work interferes with my cookies, which is why an impromptu trip to California with my bestie Ken was just the break I needed.

Lounging by the pool, walking on the beach, cruising the Pacific Coast Highway, checking out Beverly Hills and Malibu, stuffing my face at In-N-Out Burger. I could get used to that!

Thanks to a week away, I was able to reclaim space for the Oatmeal Cookie Guy. Stay tuned...regularly scheduled blogging and baking have commenced.

Reader Query: Vegan Vittles?

Marie, my office mate and Friday lunch buddy, posted a question on my Facebook wall:

Friend, have you made vegan cookies? If not you should.

Hey, Marie! No...no vegan cookies yet. But a vegan recipe is on my to-do list. Believe it or not, this isn't the first time I've gotten a request for a vegan cookie recipe. Stay tuned...I promise to get to it soon(ish).

Coffee Cake Cookie Kudos

A little while ago, Chloee--a reader, real-life recipe user, and fellow food blogger--emailed me with some blog-love for my Coffee Cake Cookies:

I want to let you know that we made your Coffee Cake Cookie recipe. I've made them several time since I discovered your recipe last year, and they are my husband's favore.

Hi, Chloee. Thanks so much! I have to admit this recipe is among my favorite, and I'm glad you and your husband like it too. They're so good!

Royal Wedding Cookies Make for a Happy Christmas

Skye wrote in with a suggestion about my Royal Wedding Cookies:

This looks like the perfect cookie for the cookie exchanges this upcoming holiday season. Love the idea that it has figs and craisins and avoids the neon fruit mixes. Good call! =)

Hi, Skye. Thanks for writing in. What a great idea! I'm definitely going to add these guys to my roster of recipes for this year's Christmas cookie swap. After all, what's Christmas without a fruitcake (cookie)?

Happy Indie-pendence Day

Get More: Galaxie 500, Music, More Music Videos

Repost: Picturing Fourth July Cookies

Here's the recipe for my Fourth of July Cookies in process.

Cook the blueberries, white sugar, lemon juice, and milk. Once you've got a silky purple mash, set aside the mixture to cool. This stuff is good enough to eat on its own...or on top of vanilla ice cream.

Cream the creamables: butter and light brown sugar.

Add the cooled blueberry mixture to the creamables. Mix. It looks messy, but don't worry.

Combine the dry ingredients. This recipe is loaded with flavorful stuff: dried cherries, fresh cherries, coconut, white chocolate chips, cooked blueberries, and fresh blueberries. Yup...red, white, and blue.

Add the dry ingredients to the combined creambles and cooked blueberries. Mix. Then chill to firm up.

Scoop, bake, and set off the fireworks. Happy Birthday, America!

Repost: Fourth of July Cookies

(This recipe is a repost from The List.)

This recipe has been on The List for a long time. I meant to make it last Fourth of July, but I got distracted by the parade, fireworks, and--of course--all the hamburger eating I was doing. So, at long last, here's the Fourth of July Cookie. Happy Birthday, America!

The ingredients for this cookie are really obvious: I just needed to find red, white, and blue stuff. Cue the cherries, white chocolate, coconut (because Mumma loves it) and blueberries.

To maximize the blueberry flavor and color, I decided to use my signature no-egg process and replaced the traditional egg and vanilla wet ingredients with cooked blueberries amped up with white sugar, lemon juice, and milk. The result is a moist, flavorful, and colorful cookie. The splash of lemon juice really balances out the sweetness of the berries and brightens the flavor.

Makes 3 dozen cookies. (To see this recipe in process, check out Picturing Fourth of July Cookies.)

Creamables	1 stick butter 1 cup light brown sugar
Wet Ingredients	1 1/4 cups halved fresh blueberries  2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 tablespoon white sugar 1 tablespoon milk
Dry Ingredients	3 cups oatmeal 1 1/2 cups coconut 1 1/2 cups flour 1 cup white chocolate chips 1 cup dried cherries 1/2 cup halved fresh blueberries 1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh cherries 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt

1. In a small saucepan, heat blueberries, milk, lemon juice, and white sugar over medium high heat. Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula, crushing the blueberries until the the mixture is smooth and evenly purple.
2. Remove blueberry mixture from the heat and set aside to cool until Step 4.
3. In your Kitchen Aid or a large mixing bowl, cream together the creamables.
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. Preheat oven to 350º.
8. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to firm up a little.
   
9. Shape dough into balls--about 2 tablespoons each.
10. Place dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.
11. 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.

 

 

Repost: Picturing Margarita (Cinco De Mayo) Cookies

Here's the recipe for my Margarita Cookies in process.

Cream the creamables: butter, white sugar, and light brown sugar.

Combine the wet ingredients. Lots of lime zest and lots of tequila. I used two nips of tequila in the wet ingredients alone.

Add the combined ingredients to the combined creamables. It looks a little wet, but don't worry.

Combine the dry ingredients and add to the mixer. Be sure to measure the oatmeal after you grind it.

Scoop and bake the cookies. When they come out of the oven, give the cookies a light smoosh to flatten them a little, then set them aside to cool.

Ice and salt the cookies. Once the cookies have cooled completely, drizzle them generously with the tequila/lime icing. Then top with a pinch of sea salt. And there you have it: a drink in a cookie--no paper umbrella required.

Repost: Margarita (Cinco De Mayo) Cookies

(This recipe is a repost from The List.)

There are three ingredients that make a margarita: tequila, lime, and salt. Simple enough to turn into a cookie, right? Well...sorta, but I had to tinker with this recipe as I went along. It took a little more time than usual for me--and a few trips to the liquor store--but I have to admit that the final cookies came out great and tasted just perfectly margarita-y.

When I make citrus-based cookies, I usually use a combination of zest, juice, and extract to really punch up the flavor. But I knew I was going to use a lot of tequila in the wet ingredients and needed the tequila flavor to shine. Lots of lime zest and just a small amount of lime juice would do the trick, I thought, without adding too much liquid to the recipe.

When I tried a bit of the dough, though, the the amount of lime was fine, but the tequila flavor wasn't as strong as I wanted. I thought about starting over and upping the amount of tequila in the wet ingredients, but I was afraid that would give me a really wet dough that produced cookies that spread out too much in the oven and that came out flat and crispy, which wasn't what I was looking for. I decided to move forward with my dough and figure out what to do about the tequila later.

My plan was to salt the dough balls before I baked them, but I forgot that step. (Oops!) And the cookies came out of the oven a little more rounded than I wanted. So I smooshed them slightly with my hand to flatten them out a bit. And then it came to me: top the cooled cookies with a tequila-infused icing and then sprinkle them with salt. This trick would up the tequila flavor and give me a second chance to top the cookies with salt. Eureka!

The key to achieving the margarita flavor is the icing and the sprinkle of sea salt. The icing gives you the sweetness and the raw tequila flavor you expect in a drinkable margarita. The salt balances the sweetness and ties the lime and tequila together perfectly.

I used sea salt to top my cookies, but I'm sure kosher salt would work just as well. If you don't have either on hand, give regular old table salt a try--whatever salt you'd use to rim a margarita glass. Put some plastic wrap or wax paper under the cooling racks before you ice the cookies. This will make cleanup a lot easier.

There's a good amount of tequila in these cookies, so you might want to avoid operating heavy machinery after having a few.

Makes 2 dozen cookies. (To see this recipe in process, check out Picturing Margarita Cookies.)

Creamables	1 stick butter 1/2 cup light brown sugar 1/2 cup white sugar
Wet Ingredients	1 egg yolk 1/2 cup tequila 3 tablespoons lime zest 1 tablespoon lime juice 1 teaspoon vanilla
Dry Ingredients	2 1/2 cups finely ground oatmeal 1 1/4 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt
Icing	1 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar 3 tablespoons lime juice 3 tablespoons tequila sea salt for sprinkling

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. 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. Smoosh the cookies slightly to flatten them a bit.Then place cookies on wire racks to cool.
10. While the cookies are cooling, whisk together the icing ingredients in a small bowl.
    
11. Using a fork or a whisk, drizzle the icing over the cooled cookies. 
12. Sprinkle a pinch of sea salt on top of the wet icing.
    
13. To get the icing to set quickly, place the cookies in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes.
    

 

 

Royal Wedding Cookies

With all the hype surrounding William and Kate's wedding and the coverage of every minute detail of the ceremony, it's hard to believe it didn't dawn on me to come up with an appropriately themed cookie. So I've got to thank two people for this recipe idea: Sarah, a reader and real-life recipe user, who emailed me to see if I had plans to do a royal wedding cookie, and my English friend Gary, who clued me in that English wedding cakes are traditionally fruitcakes. Thanks, guys!

And so I started researching English fruitcake recipes to see what kind of ingredients I would need to pick up before I started experimenting. There were four elements to each of the recipes I found: booze, fruit, nuts, and spice.

For the booze, brandy was pretty popular, so I rummaged around the house and found an old unopened bottle of--yup, you guessed it--royal brandy. Serendipity!

Fruitcakes, obviously, have lots of dried fruit. Some recipes called for candied red and green cherries, but those seemed a little too fluorescent and "common" for a cookie fit for a royal wedding. Raisins were a no-brainer, but I liked the idea of also including dried figs for their flavor and texture. To balance the sweetness of the raisins and figs, I needed something a little acidic/bright, so I decided to add some craisins. I also added some citron because I found it in quite a few of my "source" recipes and because I had never used it before.

My research showed that most traditional fruitcakes included hazelnuts. I had some of those on hand but not enough to make a full batch of cookies, so I pulled out my almonds and walnuts. If one kind of nut is good, why not three, right?

For spice, I found that quite a few of the recipes were really heavy on the clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, and mace. I couldn't find mace, so that took care of that. I stuck with cinnamon, nutmeg, and just a little bit of clove. I think I got the balance right.

Fruity, chewy, spicy, and crunchy. Congratulations, William and Kate!

Makes 3 dozen cookies. (To see this recipe in process, check out Picturing Royal Wedding Cookies.)

Creamables	1 stick butter 1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
Wet Ingredients	1 egg 1/4 cup brandy 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon orange zest 1 teaspoon orange juice
Enplumpening Liquid	2 cups hot water 1/2 cup brandy 1/4 cup orange juice
Dry Ingredents	1 1/4 cups finely ground oatmeal 1 cup flour 1 cup roughly chopped dry figs 1 cup raisins 1/2 cup roughly chopped dry citron 1/2 cup craisins 1/2 cup slivered almonds 1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts 1/2 cup roughly chopped hazelnuts 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon clove 1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Enplumpen the figs, raisins, citron, and craisins in the emplumpening liquid. Let sit for 30 minutes, until Step 6.
   
2. Preheat oven to 350º.
3. In your Kitchen Aid or a large mixing bowl, cream together the creamables.
4. In a small bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Whisk together until smooth.
5. Add the combined wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix together until well incorporated.
6. Strain the enplumpened dried fruit and discard the remaining enplumpening liquid.
7. In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients, including the enplumpened dried fruit. Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed.
8. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the combined creamables and wet ingredients. Mix until evenly combined.
9. Scoop dough into balls--about 2 tablespoons each.
10. Place the dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.
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.

Picturing Royal Wedding Cookies

Here's the recipe for my Royal Wedding Cookies in process.

Emplumpen the figs, raisins, craisins, and citron in hot water, brandy and orange juice.

Cream the creamables: butter and white and dark brown sugar.

Combine the wet ingredients: an egg, vanilla, brandy, orange juice, and orange zest.

Add wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix.

Strain the emplumpened fruit. Grind the oatmeal. Remember to grind first, then measure.

Combine the dry ingredients and add them to the combined wet ingredients and creamables. Mix.

Scoop and bake. Spicy, fruity, chewy, and crunchy. Perfectly fit for a nice cuppa--remember, pinkies out--or a king...er, um...prince.

Happy Easter!

Reader Query: Royal Wedding Cookie?

Sarah, a reader and real-life recipe user, emailed me this morning with a timely question:

Dunkin' Donuts has a royal wedding doughnut. What about a royal wedding cookie for Prince WIlliam and Katherine Middleton?

Hi, Sarah. That's a great question! For an answer, I checked in with my English friend Gary and asked what would go into a royal wedding cookie. His answer: fruitcake.

Fruitcake? Yes...fruitcake.

I did some more research and found that fruitcake is the traditional flavor for royal wedding cakes. So unless William and Kate decide to go in a completely different direction, they and their guests will enjoy a brandy-soaked fruitcake topped with--of course--royal icing. Stay tuned! I've got a few days to pull something together for the big day.

Reader Query: To Mull or Not to Mull?

Jamie wrote in a while ago with a question about my Mulled Apple Cider Cookies:

Hi there! I'm having trouble with this one....Do I boil tea bags in 3 cups of water and simmer the water with the tea bags until it reduces to 1/2 cup (if so, how many tea bags)? Or like the Sweater Weather Cookies put the actual contents into the batter - which seems really odd to me! Thank you! I LOVE, LOVE your recipes!

Hi there, Jamie. Thanks for writing in!

I use tea in a lot of recipes, including my Sweater Weather Cookies. I usually empty the contents of tea bags into the other ingredients. In this recipe, though, I used mulling spices, which are loose, chunky pieces of cinnamon stick, whole cloves, and other fall flavors, and used them to flavor the apple cider. I simmered the mulling spices in the apple cider.

Here's what you do: Simmer 3 cups of apple cider with 1/4 cup of mulling spices until reduced to 1/2 cup of liquid (about 20-25 minutes). Strain the reduced liquid to remove the mulling spices. Set aside thickened liquid to cool.

I hope this helps!

I Have Another Winner on My Hands II

Carol, a longtime reader and real-life recipe user, wrote in recently with some follow-up blog-love for my  Coconut, Walnut, and Chocolate Cookies:

Thanks, Greg, I appreciate you posting this! My husband and I gobbled up most of these cookies, but I did manage to take a plateful to a hospice volunteer meeting, and they got raves there as well. Several people took one or two home, as well. Yep, another winner!

Hi again, Carol. And thanks again! I'm so glad you, your husband, and fellow volunteers like these guys. They really are good!

Reader Query: Whither Recipe Crossouts?

A little while ago, Dan wrote in with a question about The List:

Hi, OCG. I just happened to find your site, which I thoroughly have enjoyed exploring. You're too funny. My one question is: why the strike-through of the chocolate-malted? I love this particular combination but never considered it as an OC iteration. Did it not work? I noticed you had the same treatment of Elvis, but I figure that moderation or just good taste kept you from trying a banana-bacon-poundcake OC. Thanks, Dan

Hey, Dan. Thanks for stopping by and for writing in. Unfortunately, my Chocolate Malted Cookies and Elvis Cookies were failures. Yes...baking blunders happen to the best of us. Even to the Oatmeal Cookie Guy. (I've written about these Oops! episodes here and here.)

The Chocolate Malted Cookies came out really thin, flat, crunchy, and not so tasty. I'm still thinking this one over to come up with a bettter recipe. And the Elvis Cookie came out far too cakey and far, far too banana-y. Surprisingly, the Bacos element was pretty good in these!

Once I perfect the recipes for these two cookies, I'll unstrike them in the list.

The List...Updated

Here’s the most up-to-date list.

S’mores Cherry-Vanilla Crispies Chocolate Malted Good Ol’ Peanut Butter White Chocolate Macaroons Dark Earl Grey Caramel-Espresso Eleven Madison Hawaii Cookies Coffee Cake Fourth of July Grasshopper Elvis Dulce de Leche Chocolate & Salted Caramel Shirley Temple Golden Girls Juliana Skiffle PB & J(onnie) Mocha Mint Rosh Hashanah ChocAlmScotch Sweater Weather Cookies Peanut Butter Cup Hot(ter) Chocolate Almond Brickle Fluffernutter XXX Cranberry Cookies Almond Joy Mulled Apple Cider Yuletides (Peppermint Bark) Eggnog Cookies Sin-a-Buns Lime in the Coconut Fake-Out-Eos Raspberry-Chocolate Fondue The Girl Scouts Are...Jealous Heeeere's Johnnycake! Do You Like Pina Coladas? Va-Va-Vanilla Rocky Road Hazelnut Coffee Florida Cookies German Chocolate Cake California Cookies Raspberry Graham...Crunch

Scarborough Fair Better...Oatmeal Raisin Inside-Out Peanut Butter Cups Apple Jack Cookies Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies Raspberry in the Coconut Blueberry Muffin Top Cookies Chocolate & Chipotle Cookies Orange in the Coconut Chocolate & Sea Salt Cookies Lavender & Lemon Lovelies Redheads Chocolate Orange...Coconut Cranberry Crunch Cookies Cranberry in the Coconut Pumpkin & Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies Boston Cream Pie Cookies Toffee Figgy Pudding Cookies Stuffed Red Velvet Cookies Flat, Crunchy Choc. Chip Orange & Mint Cookies Stuffed Date Nut Cookies Red Bean-Stuffed Green Tea Maraschino Cherry Cookies Wine & Chocolate Cookies Almond Butter & Raspberry Rum Raisinet Cookies Coconut Rum Raisinet Cookies Spicy Valentine's Heart Cookies Mojito Cookies Black Sesame Cookies Irish Breakfast Scone Cookies St. Patrick's Day Cookies Hot Cross Bun Cookies Chocolate Lime...Coconut Copycat Compost Cookie Strawberry-Rhubarb Cookies Meyer Lemon & Thyme XXX Strawberry Cookies Lemon in the Coconut Strawberry Shortcake Cookies Peaches & Cream Cookies Lemonade & Iced Tea Cookies Neapolitan Cookies Blueberry & Lemon Cookies

XXX Cherry + Chocolate Cookies Ambrosia Cookies Caramel Apple Bars Lemon & Gooseberry Biscuits Parmesan & Black Olive Cookies Beach Plum Thumbprint Cookies Margarita Cookies Rose Water Cookies Stuffed Carrot Cake Cookies Halloween Pinwheel Cookies Nutella-Stuffed Cookies Goat Cheese Cookies Peanut Butter & Apple Cookies Oatmeal Cannoli Cookies Honey-Roasted PB Cookies Peppermint Bark-Stuffed Cookies Oatmeal Snickerdoodles Bellini Cookies Peanut Butter-Stuffed Nutella Nutella-Stuffed Peanut Butter Cherry-Lemon Joy Cookies Tea, Lemon, and Honey Cookies Vanilla and Lime Cookies Sage and Orange Cookies Coca-Cola Cookies Key Lime Pie Cookies Buffalo Wing Cookies Orange Creamsicle Cookies Banana Cookies Lemon-Lime Coconut Macadamia XXX Blueberry Cookies Killer Chocolate Cookies Berrylicious Cookies Salty Fluffernutter Cookies Lemon-Raspberry Thumbprints Orange-Cinnamon Grahams Crème Brûlée Cookies PB, Coconut & Choc Cookies Cranberry, Walnut, and Orange Cranberry, Lime, and Walnut Marathon Cookies Coconut, Walnut, and Chocolate Nutella, PB, Hazelnut & Coconut Maple, Walnut & Raisin Cookies

Maple, Walnut, and Raisin Cookies

I'd had a craving for maple all day last Tuesday when I came up with this recipe. It was the strangest thing. All I wanted to eat was french toast or pancakes drowned in syrup. When cookie inspiration knocks, I listen!

With maple nailed down, it was time to figure out the other ingredients.

I was going to bake this batch of cookies for the fellas at my Wednesday night supper club, which is what helped me figure out the next ingredient. Jack loves walnuts, so that was a no-brainer. Walnuts! The sweetness of the maple and the earthiness of the nuts would make a wonderful combination. Plus, I figured, if it works for an ice cream flavor, it'll make a wonderful cookie.

I knew I wanted to includes lots of walnuts so that each bite would be full of flavor and crunch. For balance and a chewy counterpoint, I decided to include some raisins.

To make sure the maple flavor had a strong presence, I used both maple syrup and maple flavoring  in the wet ingredients. (I got my maple flavoring a while ago online at the King Arthur Flour store.) And for an added hit of maple, I decided to drizzle each dough ball with syrup before baking.

There were only six cookies left at the end of the night, so you know these were good. I had three of the leftovers the next morning for breakfast. What do you know? I fulfilled my maple jones after all!

Makes 4 dozen cookies. (To see this recipe in process, check out Picturing Maple, Walnut, and Raisin Cookies.)

Creamables	1 stick butter 1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
Wet Ingredients	1 egg 1/4 cup maple syrup 1 tablespoon vanilla 2 teaspoons maple extract/flavoring
Dry Ingredients	3 1/2 cups toasted, roughly chopped walnuts 2 cups oatmeal 1 1/4 cups flour 1 cup raisins 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon salt
Topping	drizzle of maple syrup

1. Toast the walnuts and set aside 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, combine the wet ingredients. Whisk together until smooth.
5. Add the combined wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix together until well incorporated.
6. In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed.
7. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the combined creamables and wet ingredients. Mix until evenly combined.
8. Scoop dough into balls--about 2 tablespoons each.
9. Place the dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets and flatten slightly with your hand or a spatula.
10. Drizzle flattened dough balls with maple syrup.
    
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.

Reader Query: Softening Hardened Brown Sugar?

The query this time comes from me--the Oatmeal Cookie Guy himself. After taking a little break from baking, I found that my big old bag of dark brown sugar had hardened into solid, unpackable, and unusable chunks. Arghhh...so frustrating!

I'm sure a few of you have found yourself in this situation as well. You're all set to start baking and are faced with brown sugar hard enough to bust your Kitchen Aid. But fear not! After some research, I found that you don't have to interrupt what you're doing and run out to the grocery store. You can reclaim hardened brown sugar in three easy steps:

1. Put your chunks of brown sugar in a large bowl and microwave on high, two minutes at a time, until soft and loose. (My sugar took four spins in the microwave for a total of eight minutes.)

2. After each two-minute interval, break up the chunks with a fork.

3. Once you've got the desired texture, let the sugar cool a little bit, and then put in an airtight container along with a piece of bread.

Voila! You've softened your haredend brown sugar and are good to go.

Nutella, Peanut Butter, Hazelnut, and Coconut Cookies

Based on the popularity of my Coconut, Walnut, and Chocolate Cookies, I knew the combination of coconut, nuts, and chocolate was a hit worth revisiting. And I was right. Some twists and tweaks and I came up with another crowd-pleasing recipe.

In the source recipe, I used three kinds of chocolate: milk, dark, and semisweet. But as I pulled all my ingredients out of the pantry, I discovered that the only chocolate I had was cocoa powder and some Nutella. I had hazelnuts instead of walnuts and some coconut, a bag of peanut butter chips, and the last of a box of Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch cereal.

I didn't feel like running out to the grocery store at that point, so I decided to add another challenge to this recipe redo and use only what I had on hand. It's a good thing I found butter and eggs in the fridge! (Hmm...but that's another challenge.)

I've already done Peanut Butter, Coconut, and Chocolate Cookies and Nutella-Stuffed Peanut Butter Cookies. So I figured I could combine those two recipes and come up with something sure to be tasty.

Yup. That's a really roundabout way to develop a new recipe, but it really worked!

Makes 4 dozen cookies. (To see this recipe in process, check out Picturing Nutella, Peanut Butter, Hazelnut, and Coconut Cookies.)

Creamables	1 stick butter 1 cup dark brown sugar 2/3 cup Nutella
Wet Ingredients	1 egg 2 tablespoons milk 1 tablespoon vanilla 1/4 teaspoon coconut extract
Dry Ingredients	2 cups roughly chopped hazelnuts 1 1/2 cups oatmeal 1 1/4 cups coconut 1 cup finely ground PB Cap'n Crunch cereal 1 cup peanut butter chips 3/4 cup flour 1/2 cup cocoa powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 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. 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. Scoop dough into balls--about 2 tablespoons each.
8. Place the 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.

Back on the Baking Bandwagon

Yes. It's been a while, dear readers, since the Oatmeal Cookie Guy has posted new recipes regularly. But, after a two-month's break, I'm back on the baking bandwagon. I did lots of fun stuff during my blog absence--visiting friends in NYC, seeing Lady Gaga in concert, and--most important--thinking about new recipes and twists on old recipes.

Stay tuned. I'm planning on having lots of new additions to the The List.

Picturing Maple, Walnut, and Raisin Cookies

Here's the recipe for my Maple, Walnut, and Raisin Cookies in process.

Toast the the walnuts and set aside to cool until you combine the dry ingredients.

Cream the creamables: butter and dark brown sugar.

Combine the wet ingredients: an egg, vanilla, maple syrup, and maple extract/flavoring.

Add wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix.

Combine the dry ingredients, including the toasted walnuts, add them to the combined wet ingredients and creamables. Mix.

Scoop the cookies onto the cookie sheet. Flatten each dough ball a little.

Drizzle with maple syrup and bake. Sweet and earthy, crunchy and chewy. Yummy-licious!

Reader Query: Butter-Free Cookies?

Marya, a reader and real-life recipe user wrote in with a question about healthy butter substitutes for butter:

hi Greg! I have a question for you, and it seems reasonable to post if after your latest compost cookie recipe, because it has to do with the exact opposite on the health spectrum. Compost cookies are SO good, but they are SO bad for your waistline, and well, I'm on a health kick. I need my sweets though, so I am wondering what is your healthiest cookie? I'm thinking it may be the XXX Cranberry. I was going to try to adapt the recipe by adding some pumpkin seeds for some protein and good fats, since it already has fruit (and no eggs!) Is there a good substitute for butter (i know, why would I want to sub butter???) I have a friend who said she uses canned pumpkin instead of butter in a lot of recipes, but I am doubtful that it would turn out good in a cookie recipe. Thoughts?

Hi there, Marya. Thanks for writing in! Sorry it's taken so long to get back to you. Applesauce makes a good substitute for butter or oil in most recipes. Just know that it or another wet substitute like canned pumpkin will make your cookies more cake-like than the original recipe--still good, just different! I've been thinking about trying almont butter instead of regular butter in a recipe. Stay tuned...I'll let you know how it turns out, whether a success or an Oops!

Repost: Hot Cross Bun Cookies

(This recipe is a repost from The List.)

Every year around Easter, grocery stores and bakeries start making hot cross buns, which are a seasonal specialty.

I remember getting up on Sunday mornings in early spring when I was a kid and finding pastry boxes on the kitchen counter filled with these soft, sweet, yeasty, raisin-filled buns topped with thick, wide lines of white icing. My dad, who got up ridiculously early every day, would pick them up on his way home from having breakfast with the other crack-of-dawners at the coffee shop in town.

I'd eat a whole bun every once in a while. But more often than not, I'd just scrape off the icing and eat it, leaving behind a naked, finger-streaked mess. (I also did this with the chocolate icing on eclairs.) What a great kid I was, right? But as I got older, I learned to love more than just the icing.

Some buns contained nuts and candied fruit--chewy little pieces of red, green, and yellow--but my favorite buns had only raisins. For my cookie version, I decided to stick with just raisins.

I started with an oatmeal sugar cookie base, added raisins and nutmeg (for light spice flavor), and chose a light drizzle of icing. Whodathunk a raisin sugar cookie would work, but it really, really does! The nuttiness of the ground oatmeal balances the sweetness of the white sugar, and the hint of nutmeg sets off the raisins perfectly. The little drizzle of icing wraps up the package.

Makes 2 dozen cookies. (To see this recipe in process, check out Picturing Hot Cross Bun Cookies.)

Creamables	1 stick butter 1 cup white sugar
Wet Ingredients	1 egg 2 teaspoons vanilla 2 teaspoons milk
Dry Ingredients	1 1/4 cups finely ground oatmeal 1 1/4 cups flour 1 cup raisins 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt
Icing	1/3 cup confectioner's sugar 1 tablespoon milk 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

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. 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.
10. While the cookies are cooling, whisk together the icing ingredients in a small bowl.
    
11. Using a fork or a whisk, drizzle the icing over the cooled cookies.
    
12. To get the icing to set quickly, place the cookies in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes.
    

 

 

Repost: Picturing Hot Cross Bun Cookies

Here's the recipe for my Hot Cross Bun Cookies in process.

Cream the creamables. Butter and white sugar.

Combine the wet ingredients. Vanilla, an egg, and milk.

Add the wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix.

Combine the dry ingredients and add them to the combined wet ingredients and creamables. Mix.

Scoop and bake the cookies. These raisins were huge!

Make the icing and drizzle over the cooled cookies. I put a piece of waxed paper under the cooling rack to make cleanup easier. To make the icing set faster, place the cookies in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes. For a more traditional cross pattern, you'll need a thicker icing, so increase the confectioner's sugar from 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup. Use a plastic baggie with the corner snipped off to pipe intersecting lines across the cookies.

Picturing Nutella, Peanut Butter, Hazelnut, and Coconut Cookies

Here's the recipe for my Nutella, Peanut Butter, Hazelnut, and Coconut Cookies in process.

Cream the creamables. Butter, dark brown sugar, and nutella.

Combine the wet ingredients. An egg, vanilla, coconut extract, and milk.

Add the wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix.

Grind the Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch cereal. Remember to grind first, then measure.

Assemble the dry ingredients and add to the combined wet ingredients and creamables. Mix again.

Scoop the doughballs, smoosh a little, and bake. Chocolate, peanut butter, hazelnuts, and coocnut...delicious!

Repost: Picturing Spicy Valentine's Heart Cookies

Here's the recipe for my Spicy Valentine's Heart Cookies in process.

Cream the creamables. Butter and white sugar. Essentially, this is an oatmeal sugar cookie dough.

Combine the wet ingredients. Vanilla and egg. Simple, simple, simple.

Add the wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix.

Combine the dry ingredients. Don't forget to grind the oatmeal before you measure it.

Add the dry ingredients to the combined wet ingredients and creamables. Mix again.

Roll out the dough, cut out the cookies, and bake. I used two chopsticks as thickness guides. Aim for about 1/8" thick. I used a small heart cookie cutter. My blog buddy Alicia sent me this a while back. (Thanks, Alicia!)

Grind the cinnamon candy. While the cookies are baking, roughly chop/grind your cinnamon hearts or Red Hots. 

Melt the chocolate and coat the cookies. Once the cookies have cooled, melt milk chocolate (or whatever chocolate you like) over a double boiler. Dip the cookies, facedown, into the chocolate.

Dip the chocolate-coated cookies into the candy topping. While the chocolate is still wet, press the cookies, facedown, into the chopped-up candy pieces. To get the chocolate to set up, place the cookies in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes. Happy Valentine's Day!

Repost: Spicy Valentine's Heart Cookies

(This recipe is a repost from The List.)

I know. I'm a few days late with this recipe, but I have a good reason. I was trying to develop a cookie recipe that incorporated popular Valentine's flavors and hit a brick wall. There was nary a cinnamon heart candy to find in Manhattan! Just when I was about to give up, I tried a few more places. And guess what...it was Walgreens to the rescue, ah-ooh!

I didn't find cinnamon hearts, but I did find Red Hots candies. They're the same thing but round. Considering I had been planning on chopping up these little guys all long, what difference would the shape really make? Not much.

I'm really not a sugar cookie fan, but I have to admit that my oatmeal version is pretty darn good. I cut my cookies in the shape of hearts, thanks to a cookie cutter that my blog buddy Alicia sent me. For the full Valentine's effect, I dipped these cookie hearts in chocolate and then topped them with the chopped Red Hots candies.

Yum: heart shapes, chocolate, and spicy cinnamon. I think I nailed it, but I'm already planning some tasty variations for next Valentine's Day. (NB: No jewelry will be involved.)

Makes 2 dozen cookies. (To see this recipe in process, check out Picturing Spicy Valentine's Heart Cookies.)

Creamables	1 stick butter 1 cup white sugar
Wet Ingredients	1 egg 2 teaspoons vanilla
Dry Ingredients	1 1/4 cups finely ground oatmeal 1 1/4 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt
Topping	6 ounces milk chocolate, melted 1 1/2 cups Red Hots candies, roughly chopped

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 until smooth.
3. Add the combined wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix together until well incorporated.
4. In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed.
5. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the combined creamables and wet ingredients. Mix until evenly combined.
6. Place the dough in the refrigerator for 20-30 mintutes.
7. Preheat oven to 350º.
8. Roll the cookie dough into a sheet about 1/8" thick. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the individual cookies.
   
9.  Place the cookie cutouts 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. While the cookies are baking, roughly chop the Red Hots candies in a food processor and place the pieces in a shallow bowl or on a plate.
    
12. Melt 6 ounces of milk chocolate in the microwave or over a double boiler. Dip the tops of the cooled cookies into the chocolate and then into the roughly chopped Red Hots.
    
13. Return the cookies to the baking sheets and place in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes so that the chocolate cools and solidifies.
    

 

 

I Have Another Winner on My Hands

Carol, a longtime reader and real-life recipe user, wrote in a while ago with a question about the kind of coconut I used in my Coconut, Walnut, and Chocolate Cookies. After the holidays, she was able to try out the recipe. Here's what she had to say:

Whoa, these are good! Worth the wait until my new Kitchen Aid arrived (how did I live without it?) The texture is fabulous, and the flavor combination is great! I did make some modifications, based on what I had in the house - no milk chocolate, so I used two kinds of dark chocolate instead. While I love that, I would include the milk chocolate next time. I think that must add more depth and variety to the chocolate taste (I know you did it for a reason!) I doubled the vanilla instead of coconut extract, and used unsweetened coconut with a little stevia added. And I even messed up and forgot to put the enplumpened coconut in until after the dry ingredients! No harm done, it seems. Another winner, Greg! You keep outdoing yourself. I will be proud to share these gems!

Hi, Carol. Thanks so much! I'm so glad you got a Kitchen Aid (I can't live without mine) and that you liked these guys. And good for you for putting your own spin on the ingredients, too. There are at least a handful of my recipes that started out in one direction but veered off in another direction when I saw what ingredients I actually had on hand.

Enjoy that new mixer of yours and have fun baking!