Tag: Oatmeal

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies head to head

Sadie1 Comment

A couple weeks ago my best friend asked me if I had a recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I thought about it for a few minutes and realized that I haven’t made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in long time, so I had nothing to recommend.

As luck would have it, I browsed through the cookie recipes that I’ve pinned on Pinterest and I had several oatmeal cookie recipes on my “to-do” recipe board. I decided to give this one a try because it looked unbelievably simple. And then two weeks later I needed another cookie recipe so I tried this one.

The first ones were a little on the crumbly side, but they have really good flavor. I would definitely recommend giving these a try! I felt the need to add pecans to this recipe, but you can certainly keep it to just chocolate chips!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Adapted from Half Baked Harvest, yields 2-3 dozen cookies depending on size

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 c old fashioned oats
  • 2 c AP flour
  • 1/2 c sugar
  • 1 c brown sugar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 c canola oil
  • 2 large eggs
  • 4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips (you might want to start with 1 cup and add if needed)
  • 1/2 c chopped pecans (a little more if desired)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Add all ingredients except chocolate chips and pecans in mixing bowl. Mix with an electric mixer until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips and pecans. Batter will be kind of loose and crumbly.

batter up3. Use a spoon or ice cream scoop to portion batter onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. As you portion out approximately 1.5 inch balls or mounds, the dough might not stick together very will, but it should all be resolved in the oven.

ready for the oven

4. Bake 10-12 minutes until cookies are just golden brown. Allow to cool completely.

ready to eat

The second recipe was a little more involved because it added coconut. So they were more like an everything cookie between the oats, coconut, pecans, and chocolate chips. This batter was more moist than the previous recipe, and I think letting it rest overnight gave it really good flavor (note to self: start these the night before you want to bake them!). Both recipes got raves, but I think I’m leaning towards this one if I need to make oatmeal cookies again soon.

Chunky Lola Cookies

Adapted from Ink Lemonade, yields about 20 cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 3/8 sticks of unsalted butter
  • 2/3 c granulated sugar
  • 2/3 c light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 c unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 2/3 c old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 9 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips (about 2/3rds of a bag)
  • 1 1/4 c pecan halves, toasted and chopped
  • 1 c sweetened shredded coconut

Method

1. Cream together butter and sugars with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined.

2. In a separate bowl combine flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Mix with a wisk or wooden spoon.

3. Add wet mixture to dry and fold by hand with wisk or wooden spoon. Fold in coconut, pecans, and chocolate chips.

photogenic batter

4. Allow batter to chill in refrigerator overnight (or at least a few hours).

5. Preheat oven to 350. Portion cookie dough with a tablespoon or ice cream scoop. Flatten the dough balls into thick disks on the parchment lined cookie sheet to encourage the desired shape.

ready for the oven

6. Bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool completely on wire rack.

(I’m sorry I forgot to take a pic of the final product)

Almond Granola Bars

Sadie2 Comments

I spend a lot of idle time scrolling through Pinterest or Food Gawker admiring all manner of food, but we all know it’s the desserts that really catch my eye. These days, though, I’m always curious to see the newest iteration of granola bars (or oatmeal cookies, or energy balls, what have you).

Even though there are a lot of common themes and flavor profiles, there always seems to be a new twist or formation that makes the next recipe healthier or tastier. When I visit my parents’ house, I often try a new variation that I’ve found for my family to snack on all weekend.

I try to find recipes that have some purposeful ingredients or “super foods” but are still tasty. I came across a recipe for these Almond Energy Bars on one of my favorite blogs: Carrots ‘N Cake, so I wanted to give it a try.

snack time

She was posting on behalf of an almond company so she used almond flour, but I used AP flour instead. I didn’t want to buy an ingredient that I wouldn’t use regularly. Plus she used brown rice cereal to make it gluten free, but I went traditional with normal rice cereal, because the flour choice already killed my gluten free dreams.

These bars are a little on the crumbly side (even though I did my best to pack down the batter before baking), and not too sweet. But I like the idea that I’m not snacking on too much sugar, but I’m still getting some nutrients from almonds, cranberries, chia seeds, etc.

The next time you need something to munch on between meals, give these a try!

Almond Granola Bars

Yields about 9-16 small squares, Adapted from Carrots ‘N Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 cup rice cereal (like Rice Krispies)
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup AP flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 Tbs chia seeds (I added a little more)
  • 1/2 cup slivered almonds
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Method

batter up

  1. Preheat oven to 325. Line an 8×8 baking pan (or a pan with an equivalent area) with parchment paper (it’s just easier that way).
  2. Combine everything in a mixing bowl, and make sure everything is incorporated evenly.
  3. Pack the batter into the parchment lines baking pan. Press down to ensure bars hold together.
  4. Bake 25 minutes until top is lightly golden brown. Allow to cool completely before you slice.

yum

 

Banana Surplus

Sadie3 Comments

Here’s what my banana situation looked like last week:

Bananas

I knew I had to do something about it, because I couldn’t eat all those ripe bananas before they just turned to mush.

So I debated my options.

First, I thought I could make the banana peanut butter chocolate chip cookies I made in the fall because they’re delicious, and maybe bring them to work. But I’m actually on the verge of baking a few batches of cookies for a co-worker’s birthday next week, so more cookies just seemed excessive (did you notice that leaf that turned over in that sentence that I just wrote).  Then, I thought to myself, I could make banana bread and mail it to my grandparents (otherwise I would eat the whole loaf myself in one day). But I just sent them Valentines chocolate, so I don’t want them to get used to a care package every week. That’s a hard pace to keep up.

But then I remembered a post I saw either on Pinterest or a link from another blog about two ingredient cookies, just bananas and oats. It caught my eye, and I was curious to try it out. I love bananas, I love oats, what could go wrong? (By the way, even though I said I wasn’t going to make more cookies, these hardly count as full blown cookies.)

not the most photogenic

So anyway, I ran to the store to pick up some oats, and a couple mix-ins: walnuts, mini chocolate chips, and almond butter. I figured I needed to punch up the recipe a little because just bananas and oats could be a little bland.

The recipe is the easiest thing ever, and the results were solid but nothing revolutionary I must say. The cookies remind me of banana bread batter. Not bad, but not crave-worthy. None the less, a good, healthy snack to have on hand, and a nice use for those ripe bananas!

Here’s my adaptation of the recipe (I doubled it and added stuff):

Two Ingredient Cookies (sort of)

Adapted from: Foodlets, yields about 2 dozen small cookies (give or take, depending on how much batter you eat)

Ingredients

  • 4 ripe bananas
  • 2 scant cups of oats
  • 1/4 cup almond butter
  • 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mash up the bananas with a fork. Add the almond butter and combine. Add oats and other mix-ins and stir until combined.

3. Make one and a half inch balls of dough and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Press the balls down with a fork like you would with peanut butter cookies. They will not expand in the oven.

ready for the oven4. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Allow to cool completely. And enjoy!

out of the oven!