Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Today I made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.  I have been craving these oatmeal raisin cookies all this week.  But I didn't have that much butter, or orange juice concentrate, or enough raisins, or...

And I was feeling kinda lazy (since I woke up at 5:15 to go to yoga) to go to the store for all of it.  So I came across a recipe in a new book I got and promptly rewarded myself with cookies for going to work out.

Balance, people.  It's all about the balance.

This recipe does use shortening, which I am not a fan of when it comes to substituting for butter. But the cookies did turn out pretty well and didn't leave a weird feeling in your mouth.

What you will need for this recipe

3/4 cup of shortening
1 cup of brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup of water
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
3 cups of quick oats
1 12 ounce package of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Take the first 6 ingredients, from the shortening to the vanilla, and combine them in a mixing bowl. It will look a little lumpy because of the shortening.

Now combine the flour, salt, and baking soda in another bowl.

Note:  I should probably use a bowl that hasn't been stained with marinade and tandoori.  

Throw the flour mix into the shortening mix and combine.

Now dump the oats and chocolate chips in.

That looks wonderful.  Now stir in the chips and oats by hand.

Drop mounds of cookie dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  I did use a portion scoop, but ended up smashing the cookies down a bit.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.

And you are done.

The fluff balance has been restored.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies - Print Recipe

Cinnamon Apple Crumble

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me...

Tomorrow I turn 31.  Egads.  I am old.  Well if you listen to most of the people on Facebook, I am old.  They think once you hit 30 you should just give up.  Are you serious people??  What's with this "I am turning 29 for the 4th time" stuff?

I did go shopping for chocolate and Nutella to make cupcakes for myself.  But since the weather has dropped to the 50s at night here in NC, I decided to make something different.  Might I add that I am completely stoked that we get seasons now.  My boots are practically jumping out of my closet as we speak.

This recipe was super easy to make.  I usually run through a recipe once and see the results before I start tweaking.  But I will let you know my suggestions as we go along here.

What you will need

FILLING
3 apples, peeled and chopped up
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1/4 cup of light brown sugar, packed
1 to 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1/2 stick of butter, chopped up (keep cold)

TOPPING
1 bag of oatmeal cookie mix
1 stick of butter, melted
pecans (optional)

Now, as I put, the original recipe calls for 3 apples (or roughly 3 cups) chopped.  I guess we have ginormous apples here because it only took about 1 1/2 apples.  And you could probably cut back on the granulated sugar.  The crumble is very sweet.  I am not going to complain too much though.

Now for the easy part.  Take all the filling ingredients and combine them in one big bowl.

These apples deserve a closeup.

Throw the filling into a glass baking dish.

Now take the same big bowl you used for the filling ingredients and throw the contents of the oatmeal cookie mix in there.  Pour in the melted butter and stir until it gets all crumbly.

Now the one big mistake that I saw with the original recipe is that it doesn't tell you how much of the topping to put on.  I threw the whole bowl on there.  If you love oatmeal, go for it.  Or you can just sprinkle some on top.

Cover the dish with tinfoil and bake at 300 degrees for 40 minutes.  Remove the tinfoil and add the pecans if you want.  Throw the dish back in the oven for another 20 minutes until the topping starts to brown.  Just the smell alone coming from the oven makes your mouth water.

Now excuse me for a moment.

Happy Birthday...to me.


Cinnamon Apple Crumble - Print Recipe