Cinnamon Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I have an obsession with all things cinnamon. There, I said it. Cinnamon is good on everything and in liberal amounts. This is not some crazy pregnant lady thing, this is a fact. What is a crazy pregnant lady thing is that I have been having dreams about good oatmeal cookies for a few weeks now. I needed them. The baby needed them! That definitely sounds crazy (and like I'm trying to justify the 2 cookies I had after my cereal this morning), but when I've eaten these cookies, she gets very active and kicks the poo out of my rib cage. I think she's a fan too.

About the cookies: oh yum. Oh heaven. Oh deliciousness! Where have you been all my life? Soft, chewy, full of cinnamon, and amazing. This was an easy, simple recipe, and the addition of cinnamon chips (JOY!) takes them over the top. Hubby's co-worker stole the bag I sent to work with him. Good thing, or I'd be eating my body weight in cinnamon chip oatmeal cookies today. There is no moderation in the land of nine months pregnant!

Cinnamon Chip Oatmeal Cookies
*Adapted from Tasty Kitchen

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups quick oats
1 cup cinnamon chips

Heat oven to 350º. Beat together butter and both sugars until creamy.

Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add to the batter and mix until just combined.

With a spoon, stir in the oats.

Add cinnamon chips and stir to combine.

*Side note: Cinnamon chips taste like the filling of a cinnamon roll. Heaven.

Drop rounded teaspoons of batter onto a Silpat or ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes until golden. While waiting between batches, it's helpful to pop the batter into the fridge to keep it chilled. Cool about 1 minute on the cookie sheet before transferring to the cooling racks.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

 I have been searching for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe and this one might be it. The flavor is perfect and it's the right amount of chocolate chips, which means yum! My only problem was that the cookies spread, so I read up on how to prevent that from happening. Next time I'll use a cooled cookie sheet (a hot one makes them spread faster) or I'll shape the dough balls on the cookie sheet and refrigerate it for 10 minutes or so before putting it in the oven. Regardless of the thinness of the cookie, these were wonderful; the perfect combination of chewy and crispy. I sent them with Hubby to work since it's snowing and the boys will probably stay in the office for the most part tonight. Cops love cookies!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
*From Sing For Your Supper

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), melted and slightly cooled
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325º. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together and set aside.

Cream together the melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until light and fluffy.

Blend in vanilla extract, egg, and egg yolk until fully incorporated. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just mixed.

Stir in chocolate chips with a wooden spoon.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat. Roll teaspoon-sized balls out onto the baking sheet. (At this point, a quick 10 minutes in the fridge should stop the cookies from spreading). Bake for 10 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!

Lemon Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

What do you do when you're craving cookies and something tart at the same time? You make these lemon cookies with white chocolate chips from Jamie Cooks It Up! Then you feel thankful that the world has lemons and white chocolate chips in it.

I love this recipe even more because it uses boxed lemon cake mix as the base, which makes it incredibly easy and quick, not to mention delicious. It also makes a lot of cookies, so I'll be sending a big plateful of these to work with Hubby. I hope cops like lemon cookies as much as they like coffee! (And they LOVE their coffee; I think we've actually spent enough money at Starbucks to buy one of their locations, and Hubby's only been a cop for about three years . . . )

Update: We decided that the white chocolate chips made these cookies a little too sweet, so we cut them out and added the zest from 2 lemons. The updated cookies were delicious. I think I will add a lemony glaze next time, but Hubby swears they are perfect as is. Either way: yum!

Lemon Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

*From Jamie Cooks It Up!

2 boxes lemon cake mix

1 cup unsalted butter, melted

2 eggs

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (or 1 1/2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice)

1 12-ounce package white chocolate chips, divided

Powdered sugar and white melting chocolate, optional

Preheat oven to 350º. Add melted butter to the cake mixes and stir. Batter will still be dry.

Add eggs one at a time and mix.

Squeeze fresh lemon juice and add it to the batter. (Or use 1 1/2 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice.) Mix until combined.

Add all but 1/2 cup of the white chocolate chips and mix to incorporate evenly.

Roll into 1 1/2 inch balls, place on a cookie sheet and bake for 8-11 minutes (mine took 11 minutes). Be careful not to over bake.

Take the cookies out of the oven when they have cracked on the top and allow them to finish cooking for 2 minutes on the baking sheet. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Optional topping: Melt remaining 1/2 cup white chocolate chips and drizzle on top of the cookies. Dust with powdered sugar. (We opted not to do this, as we found the cookies to be sweet enough without the topping.) Topping or not, enjoy these pretty little cookies!

Oatmeal Cookies

What do you do when you have a craving for pumpkin oatmeal cookies at 9pm? You make them, of course! However, although you thought you bought a million cans of pumpkin purée, it turns out that you are fresh out of that rather important ingredient. So now what do you do? Because you are incredibly stubborn and one-minded about food cravings, you make regular oatmeal cookies and hope for the best. And these were pretty close to the best. Full of cinnamon, chewy and a little crispy, these little cookies are delicious! I opted not to put any nuts or raisins (we all know how I feel about those yucky little things) in the cookies, so they truly are a pure and simple oatmeal cookie. And that's what I love about them!

Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (or do 3/4 cup all-purpose and 1/2 cup bread flour so the cookies don't flatten out as much)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (I used 2 1/2 teaspoons because I love cinnamon!)

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups quick cooking oats

1 cup chopped walnuts, optional

*I put a few chocolate chips on one batch of cookies and didn't like the outcome. Chocolate and cinnamon weren't a good match here.

Preheat the oven to 325º. In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Gradually add this to the butter mixture. Mix in the oats and nuts (if using) until just blended. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased or Silpat-lined cookie sheet. Cookies should be about 2 inches apart. Bake for 12 minutes or until edges are very lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy!

Mmm, breakfast!

Oreo Truffles

When Hubby and I got married last September, a few of my aunts came up early to help us with last-minute wedding details. My Aunt Kris (who is one of my heroes-there is nothing she can't do!) made us Oreo truffles the first night of her visit and I think Hubby seriously considered leaving me for her.

Not really since she's married, but that was probably the only thing stopping him! Oreo truffles are the most addictive treat I've ever had and have occupied my sugary dreams since Aunt Kris made them for us. I tried making them for Mother's Day, but the chocolate coating was a bit of a flop. Now that I'm more confident in the kitchen, I thought I would try them again. Success! Do I have any cookie bits in my teeth?

Oreo Truffles

*From Aunt Kris!

1 package Oreo cookies (you could mix this recipe up and use mint Oreos-yum!)

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened

10 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate (I used Baker's, Aunt Kris used Ghirardelli's)

Crush Oreos in a food processor.

The crumbs should be this consistency:

Reserve 1-2 tablespoons of crumbs for topping the truffles. Mix in cream cheese. You can either do this in a bowl with a spoon, or use the food processor, which is what I did. One less bowl to wash!

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll cookie mixture into 1-inch balls and place on the baking sheet. Refrigerate until the balls become slightly firm, about 30 minutes.

Melt chocolate according to package directions in a medium-sized bowl.

Roll Oreo balls into the chocolate using two forks to coat.

As you lift it out of the chocolate, allow much of it to drip off while moving the ball from fork to fork. This will stop excess chocolate from pooling under the truffle. Place the truffle back on the baking sheet and sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs while still soft.

Reheat chocolate as needed while doing this step to keep it nice and melted. Refrigerate completed Oreo truffles for 20 minutes to allow the chocolate to set. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Enjoy! (And thanks Aunt Kris!)

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had a bad start to my relationship with Nutella. When I was a freshman in college, my RA was this really annoying hippie chick who didn't do a good job of keeping the peace in any way. I hate to see someone in charge who is ineffective, which is the reason I didn't care for her (it wasn't the hippie chick stuff, in other words). She would invite the girls in my hall to her room for Nutella and pretzels, which I refused to eat (I'm the passive-aggressive type, I guess-No, I will NOT eat your stupid hazelnut spread! I'm just going to sit here and pout and assume you know that I dislike you because of it! Yep, glad I grew out of that behavior.). So, to make a long story short, I hated Nutella because it always made me think of that girl. Fast forward to our trip to France. Nutella on everything! Crepes, croissants, a spoon . . . Yep, it's really good! So here's a cookie recipe that uses Nutella. The Nutella gives it a delicious flavor with a bit of a saltiness that goes perfectly with the sweetness of the batter and the chocolate chips. This one is a YUM!

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

*From Lovin' From the Oven

1 1/3 cups flour

1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, room temperature

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

2/3 cup Nutella

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Sift together flour, cocoa, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside. (See my sifter? It was my Nana's!)

Cream together butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.

Mix in Nutella and vanilla extract. Mix in the egg.

Add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Add chocolate chips. Cover and chill for at least one hour.

Drop tablespoons of dough 2 inches apart on a parchment or silicone baking mat lined baking sheet. Bake at 350º for 11 minutes, or until the edges look set. Cool on the baking sheet for 4-5 minutes.

Then carefully transfer to cooling racks.

Enjoy!