Crispy Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies

These cookies fit perfectly with the sweet and salty trend making its way through grocery stores (tried those yummy Nature Valley granola bars?), restaurants (we've heard of chocolate bacon), and blogs (these cookies!). We adapted a recipe found on PickyCook, a well-organized blog with a huge range of culinary ideas.

Crispy Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies

(the name is quite a mouthful...)

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

14 tablespoons butter, softened but still cool --> this works out to about 3/4 cup + 1/8 cup

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (we put in about 2 teaspoons)

2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats --> do not use instant or quick-cooking oatmeal!

1 cup white chocolate chips

Flaky sea salt

• Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.
• In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars for about 20 seconds. Increase mixer speed and beat for a minute longer, until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl before adding egg and vanilla to the mixture. Beat until well-combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl again.
• Add flour mixture into the large bowl, mixing on low speed until just combined. Slowly add oats and mix well.
• Add white chocolate. We found it easiest to stir with a wooden spoon, but you can mix for a few seconds if you would like.
• Form dough into balls between 1 and 2 tablespoons each.
• Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat... We'd used our silpat (ours is Patisse brand) mat to roll out cookies on the counter before, but we had no idea it could go in the oven. Very cool! And the cookies really don't stick.
• Place cookies on baking sheets, leaving an inch or two between each one so they have room to spread.
• Use your hand to flatten the dough balls so they are 3/4-inch thick. Sprinkle with sea salt.
• Bake in preheated 350 F oven until cookies are golden brown and edges are starting to crisp - 13 - 16 minutes. We let ours bake for 15 minutes, which left the centers a bit chewy. Let the cookies cool a little bit before transferring to a wire rack.

Combining the wet and dry ingredients.

The original recipe called for a chopped-up white chocolate bar.

Chocolate chips are a little bit easier, but we're sure the chocolate

bar would be decadent!

Dough is done, pan is prepared, oven is on.

Sprinkling the salt.

Chocolate Caramel Thumbprints

Lisa has been itching to make these for ages. They're out of one of our favorite cookbooks, Better Homes and Gardens: The Ultimate Cookie Book (edited by Lois White, 2007) and can also be found online. You should see our copy of the cookbook: there are purple post-it notes sticking out all over the place, marking recipes we just have to try!

These cookies are chockfull of pecans, so take this into account when sharing with others. We don't recommend omitting the nuts though, because they help to hold the cookie together.

Chocolate Caramel Thumbprints

1 egg

1/2 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

16 vanilla caramels (we used regular caramels)

3 tablespoons whipping cream

1 1/4 cups finely chopped pecans

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon shortening

• In a large mixing bowl, beat butter for 30 seconds. Add sugar and beat well. Then add egg yolk, milk, and vanilla (make sure to put the egg white in the fridge, because you won't need to use it for about 2 hours).
• Stir together dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, and salt) in a small bowl. Add to butter mixture and beat until well combined. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 350 F. The original recipe says to lightly grease a cookie sheet, but we didn't bother.
• In a small pot, melt caramels with whipping cream over low heat. Stir (milk burns quickly) until mixture is smooth. Set the pot aside.
• Slightly beat egg white. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls. Roll the balls in egg white, and then in pecans. The egg white will make the pecans stick.
• Place the balls of dough an inch or two apart (they spread!) on the cookie sheet. Use your thumb to make a dent on the top of each cookie.
• Bake at 350 F for 10 minutes or until edges are firm. If the center indents disappeared while baking, redo them with your thumb (or a spoon if the cookie is hot). Spoon melted caramel mixture into the dents. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool.
• Drizzle with melted chocolate if you want to up the decadence factor. Enjoy!

Egg and vanilla added to the batter.

Pecans!

The caramel really spreads!

Store these in the fridge to keep the cookies from sticking together.

Creamsicle Cookies

We're all about the summertime flavors right now, if you haven't noticed. Remember running around as a kid with a sticky popsicle mess dripping down your hand? Maybe you ran through the sprinkler afterwards to rinse off. Or maybe it wasn't a popsicle. Maybe you were lucky enough to have a box of ice cream filled orange popsicles (creamsicles!) in your freezer...

This recipe comes from Baked Perfection, a blog with a ton of great tags, which makes it easy to search by ingredient or flavor. Apparently they were originally called "Orangebursts", but we like the frozen treat inspired name better.

Creamsicle Cookies

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons orange zest (we put a tiny bit more in)

2 cups vanilla chips (we used white chocolate chips)

• Mix together butter and sugars (make sure to firmly pack the brown sugar) until light and creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla.
• In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add this mixture to the butter and sugar bowl, mixing on low speed until just combined.
• Stir in orange zest and chips (vanilla, white chocolate - whatever you decide!).
• Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. They spread a little bit, so make sure to leave some room.
• Bake in preheated 375 F oven for 8 - 10 minutes, or until light golden brown around the edges. Remove from oven but let cool on the cookie sheets for a few minutes (they'll continue to cook for a minute or two). Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Check out the mini grater!

The orange will add a surprisingly strong flavor burst...

we did add a little extra.

Mixing things up...

If you can find vanilla chips, please let us know how they are!

We used plain white chocolate chips and the end result was still delicious.

Lisa hard at work.

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

These cookies have been a big hit this summer, traveling to cottage country, Ottawa valley farmland, Mom's office, and a girls' night BBQ. They can be summed up very simply: cinnamon rolls in a cookie. It's a divine melding of cinnamon and walnuts mixed into a cookie!

They're a perfect match for a quiet cup of tea or coffee (guilty pleasure breakfast?) but are equally yummy when eaten around a noisy kitchen counter with a bunch of friends.

We found the recipe on "Canadian Baker Too", a blog we visit quite often. The original recipe comes from Martha Stewart. Before making these, note that they are refrigerator cookies, so they have to sit for a while - which means you need to set aside a few hours for baking.

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

Cookie Dough

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup softened butter

1 cup white sugar

1/4 teaspoon grated orange zest

2 eggs

• Mix together butter, sugar, and orange zest on medium speed, until smooth. Beat in eggs.
• In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Add slowly to butter and sugar mixture, mixing on low speed until just combined.
• Divide dough in half. Wrap each portion in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.
• Roll dough onto well floured surface into a rectangle that's approximately 10x12 (ours was probably a bit smaller). Transfer the rolled-out dough onto a cookie sheet and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Filling

4 tablespoons softened butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

• To toast walnuts, spread on a baking sheet and bake at 350 F for 5 minutes. You can also use a frying pan on the stove to achieve the same result.
• Use a fork or spoon to combine the filling ingredients. Crumble the mixture evenly over the rectangles of dough.
• Starting at the long edge, roll the dough rectangles into logs. Make the logs tight, because air bubbles will cause the cookies to fall apart when you slice the dough. If the dough doesn't seem sticky enough, let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes.
• Wrap the logs in parchment paper and refrigerate for at least one hour.
• Slice logs into cookies (just like you do with the Pillsbury dough) that are about 1/4 inch thick. Transfer onto cookie sheets.
• Bake in 350 F oven for about 13 minutes, or until golden brown.
• Let cool for a few minutes on pan before transferring to wire racks.

Make sure to remember the orange - it adds a little zip.

Mixing the dough.

Make sure to keep your rolling pin well-floured to avoid stickiness.

Spreading the filling evenly should make the

dough easier to roll into logs.

Roll it tightly!

Slicing the dough... try to keep them at

a uniform thickness.

Ready to bake!

Mocha Cutouts... Oh Canada!

Time for a little patriotism!

These would have been perfect for Olympic celebrations... so we fed them to athletes you just might see competing at London 2012 or Rio 2016!

Quite early in the morning on a sunny Thursday in May, Amy filmed a profile piece of Lisa's swimming team... As a thank you to the girls and coaches for their patience, hard work, enthusiasm, and sense of fun, we made cookies for after the practice. After an early morning workout, the hint of coffee flavor was a nice wake-up boost.

This recipe is slightly adapted from Better Homes and Gardens: The Ultimate Cookie Book (edited by Lois White, 2007).

Mocha Cutouts

Makes 18 - 24 cookies

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons instant coffee powder

2 teaspoons cocoa powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon strong coffee

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 tablespoon shortening

• Baking for adults? Try spiking these cookies! Instead of the tablespoon of strong coffee, add 1 tablespoon of Baileys Irish Cream or a coffee flavored liqueur.
• In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat butter for 30 seconds on medium to high speed. Mix in brown sugar, coffee powder, cocoa, and salt. Beat in egg yolk and coffee.
• Gradually mix in flour. The dough will get very thick - use a spoon to stir in flour, if necessary.
• Divide dough in half. If you need to, cover and chill until easy to handle.
• Roll out one half of the dough at a time, to a 1/4 inch thickness. Use cookie cutters to shape cookies. Place cookies on un-greased baking sheet.
• Bake in preheated 350 F oven for 12 minutes or until set. Remove from over and let cookies stand for a minute on the sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
• In small pot, melt together chocolate chips and shortening over medium-low heat. Stir until smooth. At this point you might want to put waxed paper under the wire racks to save on clean-up time.
• Dip cooled cookies into chocolate mixture. Let stand until chocolate sets.

Leave about an inch between cookies, just in case they spread.

A pile of leaves!

A perfect coffee cookie.

Orange Chocolate Chip Shortbread

The flavor burst of one of those smashable throwable dropable chocolate oranges (you know the ones we mean?), packed into a melt-in-your-mouth shortbread cookie. Mmhmm... that's what this is.

The recipe for these citrus twisted cookies comes from Better Homes and Gardens: The Ultimate Cookie Book (edited by Lois White, 2007).

The original recipe calls for raspberry chocolate chips, which would be quite the flavor combination. We didn't have any on hand, but we'll be sure to try that next time.

Orange and (Raspberry?) Chocolate Chip Shortbread

Makes 24 cookies.

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons finely shredded orange peel

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Orange glaze (recipe follows)

• In medium mixing bowl, beat butter on medium speed for 30 seconds. Beat in sugar and orange peel, until completely combined. Beat in flour until crumbly.
• Stir in chocolate chips, pressing the dough together until smooth. If the dough is just too crumbly to pat together, try putting it in the fridge for a few minutes.
• Pat dough into a rectangle (about 1/4 inch thick) on an ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake for 25 - 30 minutes in an oven preheated to 325 F. Bake until bottom is just beginning to brown and the centre of the cookie is set.
• Place cookie sheet on wire rack to cool.
• Spread glaze over cooled shortbread. Let the glaze stand for about 30 minutes, until set. Cut lengthwise, then crosswise, making 24 rectangles.

Chocolate chips and crumbly batter.

The consistency threw us off at first.

Add a tiny, tiny bit of milk if it's just too crumbly.

Press the dough together into a giant cookie!

Orange Glaze

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon butter, softened

1 tablespoon orange juice

• Stir together powdered sugar, butter, and orange juice.
• If necessary, stir in extra juice, one teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached.

Once the glaze sets, cut into rectangles.

Canadian Molasses Cookies

Canadian molasses cookies... these are similar to a ginger cookie, but with a zippy of molasses taste. Nice and chewy, they aren't your typical ginger snap kind of cookie. Slow as molasses in January? Well, we guess it's a lot easier to make these in the spring. And check out Lisa's artistic pouring photo below!

Canadian Molasses Cookies - from AllRecipes

1 cup dark molasses

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon cider vinegar (this flavor is important - don't substitute!)

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon salt

• In a large bowl, stir together molasses, brown sugar, vinegar, and egg. Notice there's no butter in these cookies!
• Add dry ingredients and mix until well blended.
• Spoon the dough onto cookie sheets, leaving some room for them to spread.
• Bake in 350 F oven for 12 minutes, or until edges are a tiny bit golden. Transfer to baking racks to cool.

Grandma Molasses... the French side of the box.

We thought that added to the authenticity. Parlez-vous Francais?

Artistic!

Pre-baking.

Gelatin Spritz Cookies

One of Lisa's birthday gifts from Amy was a cookie press. Flipping through cookbooks in the last few months, we've come across quite a few gorgeous cookies only to realize that we need this fancy contraption to re-create the results. So to top off our Easter weekend kitchen craziness extravaganza, Lisa took the cookie press out of the box and we got down to work.

We searched through our cookbooks and online to find a recipe worthy of our first cookie press experiment. Finally we settled on Gelatin Spritz Cookies from AllRecipes (contributed by Kathy). The picture on the website shows a bunch of Christmas trees, but we put a definitely springtime spin on ours by using lime flavoring and flowery shapes.

Lisa's arm muscles get pretty much all the credit here (she's the athlete!). Amy made about 4 cookies (it's harder than it looks!) before declaring herself chief decorator. Lisa's right forearm took over from there.

Gelatin Spritz Cookies

We cut the original recipe in half (typed below) and had plenty of cookies.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup butter

1/2 of 3 oz package fruit flavored gelatin mix (we used lime)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Mix butter, sugar, and gelatin powder. Add egg and vanilla. Combine. Gradually add flour and baking powder, mixing until dough is smooth.
• Place dough in cookie press.
• Bake at 400 F for 5 minutes or until a split second before edges turn brown.
• Note: you can also refrigerate dough until firm, and then roll it out and use cookie cutters to make shapes.

If you use lime Jello powder, your dough will turn green!

Unfortunately, the color faded after baking.

Through the cookie press.

After a few tries... finally, the first cookie!

Flowers were tough.

Cookie press in action.

Flowers on the pan.

Happy Easter!!!

Peppermint Meringues

Another AllRecipes success! Next post will be from a different site, promise... there's just so much good stuff on there. And the rating system paired with user suggestions is so helpful.

Meringues... these are sometimes called "forgotten cookies," because after they're cooked they are left in the oven for a long time. You probably won't forget about them though - they're just too pretty! The crushed candy canes are a perfect finishing touch on these light and airy cookies!

Recipe:

2 egg whites

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 cup white sugar

Peppermint extract

Crushed candy canes

• In large bowl, beat egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar until the mixture forms soft peaks. Gradually add the sugar, continuing to beat the egg whites until stiff peaks are formed. Mix in a few drops of peppermint extract.
• Scoop the mixture into a ziploc bag and cut a tip off a bottom corner of the bag. Use this to pipe little dollops onto parchment-lined cookie trays (see below).
• Sprinkle crushed candy canes over the cookies.
• Bake for 1 1/2 hours in a preheated oven at 225 F. The meringues should be dry on the inside, but not tanned at all.
• Turn off the oven and open the door. Let the meringues sit inside the oven until completely cool.
• Store loosely covered in a cool, dry place. Do not refrigerate.

Before baking

What a winter-y looking cookie!