Monday, December 8, 2008

The holiday baking continues...

I have no idea why I love to bake during the holidays. From Halloween to January, I bake more in these 2 months than I do the rest of the year combined. Maybe it's the "cold" weather. Maybe it's the fact the baked treats always put people in a festive mood.

However, I still won't do anything "complicated". No rolling, chilling, stacking, etc...

I've been getting Cookie Countdown emails. Almost all of them are mouth-watering. Only a few meet my criteria of being easy to make. This recipe called out to me. And now that I've tasted it - wow! Am I glad it did!

A couple of changes to the original recipe - At the last minute, I subbed the unbleached white whole wheat flour for 1/2 of the regular white flour, to make the cookies a bit more healthy. It is not noticeable at all. Also, I used a 1/2 cup of butter and subbed plain kefir for the other 1/2 cup. Again, to me, the healthy substitution does nothing to harm the flavor. I added 1 more tespoon of vanilla, just because I love vanilla. The last substitution is walnuts for the pecans. I simply could not find the pecans.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Prep: 15 minutes, Bake: 10 minutes.

1 cup butter, softened (1/2 butter)
½ cup kefir (my addition)
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used 3)
2 cups all-purpose flour (1 cup regular, 1 cup unbleached white whole wheat)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups uncooked regular oats
1 (11.5-ounce) package semisweet chocolate mega morsels (my package was 12 oz.)
1 cup chopped toasted pecans (used walnuts pulsed in the food processor until pretty fine)



1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Beat butter and sugars at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla, beating well.
3. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, stirring well. Add oats; stir well. Add to butter mixture; stir until well blended. Gently stir in morsels and pecans. Drop by rounded tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes or until brown around edges. Cool on pan 2 to 3 minutes or until firm. Remove cookies from pan; cool on wire racks.

Yield: Makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies (mine made 5 1/2 dozen, I guess I used more like 3/4rounded tablespoons - but the cookies are still big)





Easy to make, tastes wonderful and yields a high quantity of cookies!

8 comments:

Kim said...

Those look delicious!

I am Harriet said...

Wow. Neat! And, they smell good too :)

Unknown said...

mmmmmmmmmmm they made my mouth water.. I just might make my sone bake them. Thanks for sharing the recipe

kel said...

Oh... they look yummy!

Annette Piper said...

Oooh, these look like my "doomsday cookies" apparently named as you could eat them until doomsday ;) Yummy!

Unknown said...

All of your cooking blows my mind lady and those cookies look damn yummy! I may try them but I must have pecans! Walnuts will not do it for me.

I must start some baking soon....real soon.

Julia@SometimesLucid said...

Dizzblnd - that's what kids are for - to do sotuff for us.

Annette - That's a very appropriate name for them!

Lee - I need to get some pecans and try this recipe with them. In fact, just about anything would taste good in these cookies.

Lolly said...

These look so yummy! I want some cookies now!

Lori@Thrifty Thoughts