Chocolate Chip - Oatmeal Cookies

When Ryan and I got married almost three years ago, we stayed at the DoubleTree Hotel the night before and the night of our wedding.  (Gaaaaa!  It's been almost three years!)  At the DoubleTree, when you arrive, they give you these really yummy chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies.  They're big and chewy and delicious and big.  Did I mention they're big?  I'd take a dozen home if I could but my waistline miiiiight not appreciate that too much.  I've been trying and trying to find a cookie that is almost as good as they ones I got at the hotel.  I know it won't be EXACTLY like it.  I'm pretty certain that it has a pound of butter in each cookie, it's so moist.  I have finally found a cookie that comes pretty darn close and I wanted to share it with all of you.  You should feel so special! :-)  Every time I ate one of these cookies, it took me back to my special day with my husband, who traveled 1200 miles to be with me all those years ago.  Yeah, I'm pretty darn lucky :-)

Chocolate Chip-Oatmeal Cookies
courtesy of Nestle All Time Favorite Cookie and Baking Recipes

1 3/4 c. All Purpose Flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 1/4 c. Light Brown Sugar, packed
1 c. (2 sticks) Butter, salted, softened
1/2 c. Sugar
2 Eggs, large
2 Tbsp. Milk (I used skim but use whatever you have on hand)
2 tsp. Vanilla
2 1/2 c. Quick Cooking Oats (feel free to use old fashioned if you've got it)
2 c. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (12 oz. bag)

Preheat the oven to 375.
In one bowl, combine the flour and baking soda and set aside.
Using a mixer, beat both of the sugars and butter together until creamy.
Next, add in the eggs, milk, and vanilla to the sugar-butter mixture and mix well.
Gradually add in the flour mixture until everything is well combined.
Stir in the oats and chocolate chips.  (This is going to make a thick batter so it might be tough to incorporate everything but keep trying because it will come together.)
Drop by the tablespoonfuls (or using that wonderous cookie scoop I tell everyone to get) onto your baking sheet.
Bake for 9 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies or 12 to 13 minutes for crispy cookies.  (Chewy is the way to go for me.)
Let cool for one minutes before moving to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

Apple Pie Crumble

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I love giving food as gifts.  I made this for my dad for this birthday, which was at the beginning of September (my apologies for the huge delay in posting!).  He loves apple pie but I wanted to do something a little different.  So I decided to make an apple pie crumble!  Genius, right?  Quick and simple.  Just the way I like it (I save the hard stuff for days when I feel like making yeast breads).  I love my recipe for apple pie filling.  The apples with the spice and sugar mixture is so good that I find myself eating the apples before I put them in the filling!  Of course, anyone who does something like that will only admit to "taste testing" because who in the world would want to send something out before tasting it?  Certainly not me!  With apple season upon us, this is a wonderful way to put some delicious apple-y goodness on your table with not much effort!


Apple Pie Crumble
filling courtesy of Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook
crumble courtesy of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
the idea of combining them?  All me.

Filling:
6 c. Apples (I use a combination of Braeburn and Granny Smith)
1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice
1/2 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp. All Purpose Flour
3/4 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice

Crumble:
1/2 c. Flour (KAF)
1/2 c. Rolled/Old Fashioned Oats
1/2 c. Brown Sugar
3/4 tsp. Cinnamon
1/3 c. Butter (leave it set out for around 15 minutes to make it easier to handle)

Peach Crisp

Last weekend, Ryan and I took a trip to the farmer's market.  I love going to the farmer's market.  I love sampling the local produce and it just gives you a good feeling when you know you're supporting local farmers.  The produce you get from the farmer's market pales in comparison to what you get at the grocery store.  If you remember from one of my previous peach posts, I only buy peaches from the farmer's market because I can't find the peaches I love anywhere else.  Sadly, peach season has come to an end but I did find one lone farmer selling the last of his peach crop and I bought six peaches.  Still yummy but they had to be used quickly because I knew they weren't going to last long.  So off I went to my plethora of cookbooks!  I wanted to make something quick and simple with ingredients I had on hand and I found this cute little recipe (and for those of you that are tired of my KAF adoration/recipes, this isn't a KAF recipe!) and I just happened to have everything I needed.  The recipe is extremely versatile you can use this crisp recipe for any type of fruit!

Peach Crisp
courtesy of Southern Plate by Christy Jordan (adapted slightly by me!)

Fresh Peaches (I had 6 medium-large peaches.  Don't have fresh?  You can use one can of peaches, drained)
1/4 c. Flour (KAF - you can use All Purpose or Self-Rising, no matter what you have on hand)
1/4 c. + 1/8 c. Brown Sugar
1/4 c. Oats (quick-cooking or old fashioned?  Doesn't matter - use what you have!)
1/2 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice (or you can just use cinnamon)
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) Butter, fresh from the fridge

Preheat the oven to 400.
Arrange the peaches into 6 ramekins (or an 8x8 pan.  I used ramekins because I love individual servings)
In a bowl, combine all of your dry ingredients.
Sprinkle over the peaches (if using small ramekins, it should take around 2 Tbsp. of the dry mixture to cover the top).
If using ramekins, cut the butter into individual tablespoons and then cut in half.  Use 1/2 Tbsp. butter for the small ramekins (cut the butter into small pieces) and dot over the ramekins.  Repeat process for the remaining ramekins.  If using a big pan, dot the butter all over.
Bake until lightly browned which is around 20 minutes.
Serve warm and preferably with ice cream!

(these are his and hers crisps - cute right?)

Calories - Small ramekins (R) - 152, Large (L) - 240

Strawberry Crumble

There are times where I get a craving for something and I won't be satisfied until I get it.  I had a huge craving for a strawberry crumble or crisp - I wasn't sure which.  So off I went in search of a recipe.  And you'd think amongst the plethora of cookbooks I have, I'd find a recipe but nooooooooooooo.  I came up with nothing.  I searched my usual places online and still came up with diddly squat.  Zero - nothing.  Finally, I was about to give up and stomp away like a five year old and go pout, I found one!  A strawberry crumble!  The angels sang!  I was so happy!  And, just as luck would have it, I happened to have everything in my pantry for it!  Even better!!  Happy Jamie!!!  And it has to be one of the easiest recipes I've ever seen.  I was able to recite it from memory for my mom the following Monday.  The ingredients are ones we all have in our pantry so if you don't make this very, very soon, you should be ashamed.  And don't have strawberries?  That's okay, you can substitute any fresh fruit for this quick and easy crumble!!

Strawberry Crumble
recipe courtesy of The Second Lunch (adapted from the cookbook Animal, Vegetable, Miracle)

1 quart strawberries (halved or quartered, depending on size)
1/4 c. Honey

Crumble Topping:
1/2 c. Flour (KAF)
1/2 c. Rolled/Old Fashioned Oats (Quaker)
1/2 c. Brown Sugar
3/4 tsp. Cinnamon
1/3 c. Butter (leave it set out for around 15 minutes to make it easier to handle)

Preheat oven to 350.
Combine strawberries and honey in an 8x8 pan or a deep dish pie plate and set aside.
Mix all ingredients for the crumble topping in a separate bowl, using your hands.
Sprinkle over the fruit and honey mixture.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes (or until the topping is golden brown and the fruit is nice and bubbly around the edges).
Serve warm!!

Old Fashioned Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

When I was getting married, one of the things I wanted at my bridal shower was a Williams-Sonoma cookbook (and Paula Deen cookware - thank you Aunt Betty!!).  And my best friend, Erin, knowing me oh-so well, bought me the W-S Essentials of Baking cookbook and I love it (yeah, I love a baking cookbook - go figure)!  So of course, one of the first things I should make from this book should be for her.  She loves oatmeal raisin cookies but I don't (I'm not one for raisins) so I typically make cookies that both of us like.  She has had a bad week recently and what does a good Southern girl do for someone who's had a bad day?  We cook something for them.  (We seem to celebrate or acknowledge everything with food in the South... birthdays, funerals, job loss, job promotion, etc.  And people wonder why the South makes such good food - we have to cook it all the time!)  So here are Erin's oatmeal-raisin cookies (I have to admit, I do enjoy eating the batter for these cookies when I can get around the raisins... cinnamon... yummy!).

But before I get to the recipe, I would like to take a moment to tell you that you need to get a cookie scoop for these cookies.  What?  You don't have one?  In that case, stop right here.  Go purchase one immediately!  It will become your best friend when it comes to baking cookies (or scooping really small scoops of ice cream).  Some recipes (like this one) call for you to drop the cookies by the tablespoon.  Now, that makes one big cookie!  I prefer smaller cookies because rather than just eating one cookie, you can eat two or three!  Trick your mind into thinking you're eating more than you are.  This original recipe said it made 24 cookies.  Using my cookie scoop, I managed to get 40!  That brought the calories down from 141 calories per cookie to 84 calories per cookie.  So go and get a cookie scoop - you'll love it!

Old Fashioned Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies
(from Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking)

1 1/2 c. All Purpose Flour (KAF)
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 Tbsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/2 c. Butter (1 stick), melted
1 c. firmly packed Brown Sugar (I used light brown sugar but you can use dark brown if you have it on hand.)
1/2 c. Granulated Sugar
1/2 c. Egg Beaters (or 2 eggs)
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract (Nielson-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste)
1 1/2 c. Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats (typically sold as just "old fashioned oats")
2 c. Raisins

Preheat oven to 350.
Line at least 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (I love parchment paper - no nonstick spray to use and you can reuse it!).
In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugars and stir with a wooden spoon (not entirely sure why the recipe said a wooden spoon but anyway) until smooth.
Add eggs and vanilla and stir until well blended.
Add flour, cinnamon, and baking powder and stir until well incorporated.
Now you need to add the oats and stir until combined.
Lastly, add the raisins and combine (this batter is very, very thick so make sure your raisins are well stirred into your batter).
Using your cookie scoop, scoop the cookie dough onto your baking sheets.
Bake one sheet at a time for 15-20 minutes (15 minutes was perfect for me) or until the top of the cookies are firm when lightly touched.
Let the cookie sheet cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes.
Then transfer the cookies to another wire rack to finish cooling completely.
Store in an airtight container at room temp.

Calories - 84 per cookie (makes 40)