Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies

My daughter hates chocolate chips. Every week when I make cookies she sort of shrugs and says- you made the one's I don't like again.
Then she brings those crappy cookies to her friends. So every now and then I make ones she loves (or I just make multiple batches or split the dough and don't add chocolate chips to hers.)  Today Little Mr. was grouchy that there were no chocolate chip cookies. so he cried and crumpled on the floor in a heap of sadness and misery.
It's hard when your mom ruins her ONE JOB to provide you with chocolate chip cookies of various flavors every week.
These are pretty good cookies. I don't love butterscotch.

Recipe for Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies

1 stick of margarine
1 stick of butter- unsalted I used Whole Foods butter. I like fancier butter normally but that's a different post.
1 1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
add chilled butter and margarine. Mix 30 seconds then scrape sides of the bowl. then cream for 2 minutes

3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
add eggs one at a time with vanilla

1 cup pancake mix
2 cups white flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
this mixture should be stirred gently with a whisk- for best results sift the flour before you measure it out then spoon the flour into your cup measure and level the top.

2/3 cup oatmeal
1.5 bags Butterscotch chips
1/2 bag white chocolate chips

mix together and scoop onto cookie sheets with cookie scoop. I used parchment paper to line my cookie sheets and baked for 11 minutes at 350 for a smaller sized scoop.

Nutella Cookies

Nutella White Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1.5 cups brown sugar

1 cup nutella

mix 2 minutes on high

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

mix in each egg one at a time. I like using local eggs- if possible locate a local farm or a neighbor with chickens. Your cookies will taste WAY better. and you can feel good about yourself.

3 1/4 cup white flour 

I used 1 cup of cake flour and used general all purpose flour for the rest. 

1 tsp Salt

1.5 tsp Baking Soda

1 bags of white chocolate chips. 

Bake at 350 for 13 minutes or until done.

My daughter hates chocolate chips.

I have no idea how this happened.

I think about it all the time.

But it means I frequently make cookies with no chocolate chips in them. She picks butterscotch or white chocolate chip cookies and I don't ever love them. So she voted these pretty good.

This week my kiddos wanted to give cookies to their new friends in the neighborhood. I've been trying to get them to think about helping people and who they can give cookies to every week.

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Almond Cookies

I went to a store and had a cookie.
It was almond and it was delicious.
So I decided to make some myself.

Almond Cookies

1 cup butter, cold
1 cup butter flavored crisco
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup sugar
whip together- make sure margarine and butter are cold

5 medium eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 tsp almond flavoring or 1/2 cup almond paste
mix 

3 cups flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Mix in parts
Roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment paper then use a cookie cutter to get the shapes you want. I let my kids use some of their own cookie cutters to make shapes. 
(optional) chill dough for at least 10 minutes

cook at 375 for 8 minutes remove just before the edges brown. Do not overcook

My little almond cookie man. or as my son calls him- a white ginger-man

Frost with
Almond Icing  (not pictured)

2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup water
2 tsp almond flavoring

whip
add more powdered sugar as needed

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Vegan Oatmeal Cookies

Classic Vegan Oatmeal Cookies.
1.5  cups brown sugar
1 cup demerarra sugar
1 cup vegan vegetable shortening
mix

egg substitute equivalent to 3 eggs
vegan vanilla
mix in one egg at a time

3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
mix in (split into several parts to add in gradually)

1 cup oatmeal
mix

extra demerarra sugar in bowl
scoop out cookies into sugar 
bake at 325 for 12 minutes or until done.

One of the best things about vegan cookie dough? safe to eat all of it without danger of food poisoning. Also I can feed the kids all the cookie dough which they love.
If these cookies end up a little burnt substitute white sugar for demerarra sugar.
These cookies won't flatten as much as a traditional cookie so shape them how you want to cookie to be and if you cook until they look just like your traditional cookies they will be burned. I usually take them out after 11-12 minutes even if I normally would leave them in and they turn out perfect.
The first time I made these I don't know if the planets just aligned correctly but they were some of the best cookies I've had. If they have trouble sticking together add more shortening.

It breaks my heart to see things suffer. I used to try to volunteer with dog rescues to help them have a better life and better conditions and I still hold a special place in my heart for people who are working to help abused animals.  At the same time I do not love the squirrels that used to dig up the bulbs I planted in my back yard.  I don't think I could hunt an animal and kill it. Sometimes that makes me think I shouldn't eat them at all. In an ideal world I think I would be vegan. One of my closest friends is Vegan and sometimes I make her cookies. She is always very nice about it even if I don't think the cookies are as good as they should be.
I HATE most of the chocolate chip products that are out there for vegan consumers. They just don't taste good. One of the biggest problems if you want to make vegan products is trying to make them taste the same as non-vegan ones. There are a lot of delicious foods that are animal products free but don't expect something that isn't milk to taste like milk My favorite vegetable shortening is Vegan and it doesn't taste like butter but it makes the most delicious sugar cookies and whips up really nicely when you cream it with sugar. The best whip in a shortening I've ever seen.
I practice different tastes with vegan and allergy sensitive cooking not only because I feel like I should be able to reduce my negative impact on animals. It's also because I want to be good at making cookies everyone would enjoy and that means knowing how to make several different kinds of cookies.  I think it is good to try to figure out ways to cook so that people with dietary issues and concerns can still participate. I have a child with a dairy allergy so every week I make one kind of cookies with no dairy. That's fairly easy since vegetable shortening is great to bake with. I also have friends with gluten intolerance. Much trickier. Especially since almond flour seems very expensive. I've decided that a lot of experimentation is the way to improve the cookies so here is one of my favorite vegan cookie recipes.

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Merry Christmas Peppermint Crinkle Cookies

Peppermint Red Crinkle Cookies

I love most uses of powdered Sugar. Because it is Sugar.So in my quest to find more ways to fill the world with powdered sugar I like to roll cookies in it. These cookies are an adaptation of a traditional crinkle cookie. It started when I was at our grocery store and saw a product that I needed to buy for cookies:Andes Mints Peppermint baking chips. Now that I've tried them I want to go buy Williams-Sonoma Peppermint Bark and go cookie crazy. When I say cookie crazy I might mean eating half of it myself.

 

1 cup vegetable shortening at room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup sugar

Mix together three minutes medium speed.

3 medium eggs

1 tsp vanilla

15 drops red food coloring (optional)

Add wet ingredients together than mix in one egg at a time. More food coloring can be added until you get the desired color.

 3 cups of flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

have dry ingredients together and mix together with a wire whisk. Split the mixture into three smaller bowls. Children need to add each part of the cookie recipe in parts and it's easier with a separate bowl.

1 bag Andes Mints Peppermint Candies

Mix on low speed.

1 cup powdered sugar 

Drop cookie dough in powdered sugar and roll around until coated.

Refrigerate one hour and bake at 350 degrees for 11 minutes.

Tell your daughter you can't make green cookies until next week.

So close to Christmas Decoration time...

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Sugar Cookie Sunday

Sugar Cookie Sunday

  Based on the cookie recipes I've seen online I should name this recipe the best sugar cookies ever that your mom made super soft.  But the other day I made some sugar cookies. When I say the other day I could mean a few months ago or yesterday. In this case both are true. I made sugar cookies yesterday for Cookie Sunday but I didn't have time to finish the recipe posting.

One of the best things about yesterday was that I met up with some of the lovely ladies from Feminist Mormon Housewives. They came to be my visiting teachers. And I wanted them to stay all night and tell me everything about their lives and I wanted to have better food to invite them over for dinner and I wanted to go hiking with them. So overall it was really positive except I SLIGHTLY BURNED THE COOKIES. I have been making cookies for over a year every Sunday and THIS is the first burned cookie Sunday? That did NOT make me smile.

I burned the second batch that was chocolate cookies with kit kats and white chocolate chips. 

First I made sugar cookies because they are always popular. I had some circle sprinkles so I thought I should make cookies with them. That is really the BEST use of sprinkles ever. Sprinkles and sugar cookies are also fantastic because it is much less work than making cute shapes and rolling them out and frosting them with more beautiful shapes. That is also wonderful but sometimes I just want sugar and sprinkles.

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Sugar Cookies

Notes on ingredients:

To make these cookies vegan:

1 cup crisco or vegan Vegetable shortening. Crisco has some fantastic baking sticks that have one cup and I recommend them. I don't like washing crisco out of my cup measure. For this Recipe I don't like to use the butter flavored Crisco. My favorite brand is spectrum organics which is also vegan. These cookies are very easily vegan.

Use organically sourced non GMO sugar 

Use your favorite egg substitute. I use Ener-G egg replacer. I've had a lot of success if I mix it up in a mixer before I start making the cookies and let it sit, then mix it again.

Sprinkle Sugar Cookies

1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup vegetable shortening

mix for thirty seconds, then whip for at least two minutes.

2 jumbo eggs
1 tsp vanilla

mix in one egg at a time

1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3.5 cups white flour or cake flour

mix in three parts

1-2 packages sprinkles of your choice

spoon dough into a bowl of sprinkles and completely coat with sprinkles. refrigerate for at least an hour.
Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees

eat a lot. like a billion million.

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Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

Happy Cookie Sunday!

Today I just made one of my favorite type of cookies. The first thing I realized was that I was pretty much out of brown sugar. Which is a life threatening disaster when you are trying to make cookies every week. Last week I ran out of butter though and luckily a friend brought me some. I have tons of butter this week.

SO... I improvised a little. Also almost out of peanut butter. and milk. and all types of food because I haven't gone grocery shopping this week yet.  Please tell me I'm not the only one who keeps putting it off.

I LOVE peanut butter M&M cookies. I like making them little and eating a ton of them. I ate three of them today. I use a little ice cream scoop to measure out my cookies. I can fit 15 cookies onto one cookie sheet. Also I should mention that I have favorite cookie sheet brands and I feel pretty strongly about it. The Williams Sonoma Goldtouch nonstick pan is one of my favorites. I also like the Calphalon kitchen essentials series but I think I got it at bed bath and beyond and I have no idea what specific cookie sheet it is. If you just get really cheap crappy cookie sheets then your cookies might not cook as well. I use aluminum foil to line my cookie sheets. So I don't have to wash them. I've tried parchment paper and one of the silpat liners but I haven't tested those as much.

Peanut Butter M&M cookies

1 stick of margarine

1 stick of unsalted Tilamook butter

1 cup of white sugar

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

cream sugar and butter for at least 2 minutes

1 cup peanut butter

1 tbsp vegetable oil

mix

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla 

mix

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

blend dry ingredients. I used a whisk

mix with other ingredients in at least 3 parts

1 bag mini M&Ms 

1 bag milk chocolate chips.

mix

chill at least one hour

scoop onto pre lined cookie sheets

bake for 10 minutes at 350degrees

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Lemon Drop Cookies

Lemon Drop Cookies

Today I typed out roughly a million recipes for cookies. give or take. I've been making cookies now every Sunday for almost 11 months.
So I have some recipes saved up to post later. Sometimes I make cookies and try something new and it fails miserably. I don't even eat the cookies on those days. It was an interesting day today. I went to church and it was the wrong building and I couldn't find the right one. That wasn't embarrassing at all.

I also made lemon cookies with lemon pudding.

Recipe for Lemon Cookies:
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup margarine (or crisco or other vegetable shortening)
cream 2 minutes

2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
zest of 1 medium orange
 mix in one egg at a time

1 small lemon pudding packet (I used instant)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 3/4 cups flour
mix dry ingredients together and add in at least 3 parts

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar in flat bottomed bowl

preheat oven to 350
scoop out and drop in powdered sugar.
roll in powdered sugar
freeze for 10 minutes or refrigerate for several hours.
bake around 14 minutes
remove from sheet.

optional: dip in powdered sugar again when hot and also after they have cooled.

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I should explain something about how I cook.
The first step to cooking to to clear all your kitchen counters and clean them off. with a food safe kitchen cleaner.
Then gather the ingredients for your recipe and the measuring scoops you will use. I measure out all the ingredients before I start. Then I add them to bowls in the order they will be added to my dough. the sugar and butter go in the main bowl right away since they are first. The eggs and vanilla (and in this case orange zest) get mixed together in one bowl. There is a separate bowl for dry ingredients mixed together. If it applies, there is another bowl for chocolate chips.
As I measure out ingredients I put them away. I always know if I have salt in my dry ingredients because the salt will be back in the pantry. I hate having clutter. I also like to clean the dishes as I go. Today I made bread and by the time it was in the oven all the bowls and the mixing bowl were clean.

There is nothing worse than a dirty cook, and kitchens with children get dirty enough anyway. Today while I was cooking my little one threw candy bars behind the oven and also dumped three or four cups of water on the floor. That floor gets wiped down a lot but still manages to look like a tornado hit.

I found a cute little poster that sort of reminds me of how these cookies make me feel. It's on etsy HERE. Next time I'm going to add lemon juice. The cookies have a kind of lemon bar feel.

Happy Cookie Sunday!

Butterscotch Caramel Cookies

Butterscotch Caramel Cookies

While I was at Target the other day I walked by something that seemed like it might be wonderful in cookies.
Kraft Caramel Bits.
Have you ever seen them? I hadn't. They are tiny little balls of caramel. just about the size of a chocolate chip. I guess they are for melting but you know what? I thought they would be good in cookies. So I bought them. Then I decided to make butterscotch cookies because my daughter loves Butterscotch cookies. (she hates chocolate chip cookies which I find totally incorrect.)

So I made them.

1 stick Margarine
1 stick unsalted Butter
1 cup white sugar
1 1/4 cup brown sugar (I used dark brown which I rarely do)
cream together 2 minutes

add 3 medium eggs
2 tsp vanilla
mix in eggs one at a time.

3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt ( I didn't level it on account of the unsalted butter)
mix in at least three parts.

1 bag Kraft caramel bits
1 bag butterscotch cookies.

Bake at 350.

My thoughts-
The caramel bits sort of exploded out of the sides of some of the cookies which I didn't love.  But my daughter told me I was the best mom ever and that she loves me forever so go figure.
My mother updated me that unsalted butter was the way to go because it doesn't store as long as salted butter so normally when you look at the butter on the shelves the unsalted butter will be relatively new whereas the salted version can sit quite a while without going bad.
So of course I bought unsalted butter because my mom put the fear of salted butter in me.