Christmas Pecan Shortbread Cookies

Last in the lineup of cookie crazy.

Saved the best for last. I love cookies loaded with nuts.

Grant's Grandmother Lauder's Christmas Pecan Shortbread Cookies. Probably my all time favorite. Versatile too (see tips bottom of page).

So, so, good. Simplicity at its best. Sugar, butter, flour. A little cornstarch and nuts.

Love the way recipes used to be written: "Bake in a slow oven until done".

Typed out, on a real typewriter, using carbon paper. If you are saying "carbon whaaa?" you are probaby young enough to be my kid :) or maybe you are my kid.

Treasures.

Christmas Pecan Shortbread Cookies

Eveline Lauder

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1 cup butter, room temperature

2/3 brown sugar

1 cup chopped nuts- pecans, walnuts or a mixture

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon salt

pecans for topping cookies, optional

Cream together butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add 1 cup chopped nuts. Measure and sift together flour, cornstarch and salt. Mix dry ingredients into butter-sugar mixture in mixing bowl with mixer set on lowest setting, or use hands and large spoon to mix.

Turn out to lightly floured surface and knead in flour until cracks appear on surface of dough. Using small 1 inch scoop, make balls of dough.

Place on lightly greased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly with fork and press pecan into center of cookie. Bake at 275 for about 20-30 minutes or until cookie is light golden color and cooked through.

Tips/variations:

-If the dough is too dry after mixing in dry ingredients and will not hold together, add 1-2 tablespoons milk or water.

-You may also roll out this dough and cut into strips and bake.

-This is a firm, crunchy cookie. perfect for dipping in hot cocoa of coffee.

-The cookies may be rolled into balls and baked without flattening. After removing from oven, roll in powdered sugar. Let cool, then roll in powdered sugar again.

-Leave off the pecan on top and dip half of the cookie into melted chocolate, or melt chocolate and drizzle on top of baked and cooled cookie.

-These cookie freeze well. They also keep well in a cool place, covered, for about a month.

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Melinda's Ginger Cream Cookies with Browned Butter Icing

Every Christmas cookie platter NEEDS something ginger. These cookies are soft, like a sugar cookie, with a little brown butter icing. Yum. Kind of like a thin slice of a gingerbread with glaze.

Sweet Ginger Brown! Grant loves to say that. Don't ask me why.

Ginger Cream Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

adapted from Melinda's Grandma Butters recipe

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Cookies:

2 cubes or 1 cup butter

1 cup molasses

1 cup white sugar

1 rounded teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon salt

2 beaten eggs

1 tablespoon baking soda, dissolved in 1/4 cup water

6 cups flour, approximately (I use about 7 cups total)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bring butter, molasses, sugar, spices and salt to boil. Cool.

Pour into large bowl.

Add two beaten eggs.

Add the soda/ water mixture to the batter. The batter will foam up a bit.

Add the flour 1 cup at a time. After mixing in flour, add more if needed to produce dough that is not too sticky to roll out. Roll out a portion of the dough with floured rolling pin to about 1/4 inch thickness.

Using a cookie or biscuit cutter 2 1/4 inch in diameter, cut the cookies and place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for about 8 minutes at 375 degrees. Ice while cookies are warm.

Brown Butter Icing:

(see tip #4 below)

1 cube or 1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup cream, half and half or milk (if you want the icing to be thin, use milk)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 lb powdered sugar

dash salt

Brown butter over medium heat in saucepan. Remove from heat as soon as butter turns golden. Add rest of ingredients. Ice cookies while still warm.

yield about 4 dozen cookies.

Tips:

After making a few batches, I learned the following:

1. Simple cookies.

2. Don't need to be refrigerated, but you may refrigerate after assembling the dough.

3. Clear counter space, you'll need it to leave the cookies out till the icing is set up.

4. Browned Butter : Click here for a little tutorial. It took me 3 batches to get this semi-right.

Key: patience. Don't turn the heat up too high. Melinda's icing turns out more brown than mine. Not sure why? I found that if I continued to brown the butter, it burnt. So, mine has little flecks of brown in it, instead of being brown all the way through.

Note to me: This is not difficult, unless you are me, and you make it difficult.

5. Once you start baking, you need to make the icing, so it will be ready when the cookies come out of the oven.

6. These cookies freeze well (yes, before and after frosted).

7. My modifications: Melinda's recipe calls for 3 eggs. I like my cookies a little more on the dense side, so I reduced it to 2 eggs. Also, added some ground cloves for a little extra bit of flavor, and increased the baking temp to 375 for 8 minutes instead of 350, to give the cookies a little more crust on the outside but still soft inside.

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River's Run Almond Orange Shortbread

When we visited Will and Mary at River's Run last fall, Leisa made this shortbread cookie. Shortbread has always been Grant's favorite. We loved these thin sweet cookies with a hint of orange and crunchy almonds.

Like the rectangular shape too. I love having a variety of shapes, flavors and textures on my holiday cookie plate. These things are a big deal to me. Ranks right up there with world peace.

River's Run Almond Orange Shortbread Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart Living 2008

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1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
Grated zest of 1 orange (about 2 teaspoons)
3/4 cup sliced or chopped almonds

In a mixer bowl, beat butter, sugar, almond extract, and salt until smooth. With mixer on low speed, add flour and orange zest; mix just until a dough forms. Add almonds and mix gently till nuts are incorporated throughout dough.
On a clean surface, form dough into a rectangular log, 12 inches long, 2 1/2 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. Wrap log in wax or parchment paper, and freeze until firm, at least 1 hour and up to 3 months. If freezing longer than 1 day, wrap log again, in plastic wrap.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Remove dough from freezer. (If dough has been in freezer a long time and is frozen solid, let it sit at room temperature 30 minutes so it slices without crumbling.)
With a sharp knife, cut dough into 1/4-inch-thick slices; place on ungreased baking sheet at least 1 inch apart. Bake until edges just begin to turn golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool 5 minutes on baking sheet; transfer cookies to a rack to cool completely.

Tips:

-I keep this in the refrigerator, not freezer if I am going to bake within a couple of weeks.

-You can use any type of citrus zest: lime, lemon, orange in this cookie.

-Dipped in chocolate...yes.

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Lime-Glazed Coconut Snowballs

Day two of the Great Cookie Extravaganza. It's not really an extravaganza, but I like the way that sounds.

Last year, Kathy Stephenson Food Writer at the Salt Lake Tribune, set up a photo shoot for several home cooks and food bloggers in the SLC area. Kathy asked us to bring in our favorite Christmas cookies and to be prepared to have the cookies (and ourselves) photographed for an upcoming article. There were plates and plates of treats on tables lining the walls of the studio. As I was leaving, Maria ( local food blogger at Two Peas and Their Pod ) offered me a Lime Glazed Coconut Snowball. It looked like an ordinary little coconut covered cookie.

Not ordinary at all.

Tart lime, coconut, soft, sweet. You're gonna love this one.

Lime-Glazed Coconut Snowballs

adapted (a teeny bit) from Two Peas and Their Pod

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Butter Cookie Dough
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1-2 teaspoon grated lime zest
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into
sixteen 1/2-inch pieces, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cream cheese , room temperature

Glaze
1 tablespoon cream cheese , room temperature
3 tablespoons lime juice
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut , pulsed in food
processor until finely chopped, about fifteen 1-second pulses

Cookies

In bowl of standing mixer fitted with flat beater, mix flour, lime zest, sugar, and salt on low speed until combined. With mixer running on low, add butter 1 piece at a time; continue to mix until mixture looks crumbly and slightly wet, about 1 minute longer. Add vanilla and cream cheese and mix on low until dough just begins to form large clumps, about 30 seconds.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing about 1 1/2
inches apart. Bake in 375-degree oven until lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Cool.

Glaze

Beat cream cheese and 2 tablespoons lime juice in medium bowl until combined. Mix in confectioners’ sugar until smooth, adding remaining lime juice as needed until glaze is thin enough to spread easily.
Dip tops of cookies into glaze and then dip into coconut. Set cookies on baking sheet; let stand until glaze dries about 10-20 minutes.

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Chocolate Sandwich Candy Cane Cookies

The snow is finally melting, spring is coming...WAIT, it's only December??

This was the view out our back door, the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

The snow started a little early this year, and came in a big sha-bang. Cold weather and snow or rain always compels me to bake. Let's be honest, I'm always compelled to bake. Even when it's 106 degrees. Isn't this why we have AC???

Christmas time sends me in to a bit of a baking frenzy. I used to bake INSANE amounts of treats between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I've toned that down over the years. Now, I mostly bake for our family. Things we love. Trying a few new recipes mixed with tried and true favorites makes us all happy. For the next few days, I'll post a mixture of both.

This recipe is a new one- to me. I loved the way the pink frosting rolled in candy canes looked against the dark chocolate cookies. Wouldn't these look great in a cello bag with a pretty ribbon? Yum.

This photo

makes me

smile.

The cookie

on the right

looks like

it has been banished

from the

leaning tower

of cookies.

Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies
Bon Appétit December 2005

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Yield: Makes about 18-30 sandwich cookies,
depending on size of cookie scoop

Cookies
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
2 tablespoons milk (if needed)*

Filling
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract ( I used about 1/4 tsp)
2 drops (or more) red food coloring

1/2 cup crushed red-and-white-striped candy canes or hard peppermint candies (about 4 ounces)

For cookies:
Whisk flour, cocoa, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until well blended. Beat in egg. Add dry ingredients; beat until blended. Add milk if needed to make dough soft.
Refrigerate dough 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop out dough by level tablespoonfuls, then roll into smooth balls. Place balls on prepared baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Using bottom of glass or hands, flatten each ball to 2-inch round (edges will crack). Bake until cookies no longer look wet and small indentation appears when tops of cookies are lightly touched with fingers, about 11 minutes (do not over bake or cookies will become too crisp). Cool on sheet 5 minutes. Transfer chocolate cookies to racks and cool completely.

For filling:
Using electric mixer, beat powdered sugar and butter in medium bowl until well blended. Add peppermint extract and 2 drops food coloring. Beat until light pink and well blended, adding more food coloring by dropfuls if darker pink color is desired. Spread 2 generous teaspoons filling evenly over flat side of 1 cookie to edges; top with another cookie, flat side down, pressing gently to adhere. Repeat with remaining cookies and peppermint filling.
Place crushed candy canes on plate. Roll edges of cookie sandwiches in crushed candies (candies will adhere to filling). Cookie sandwiches can be made ahead. Store in single layer in airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days or freeze up to 2 weeks.

Tips:

-*Our climate is really dry, so I needed to add the 2 tablespoons of milk to make the dough pliable. After reading reviews on the Epicurious site, other readers had the same problem.

I'm sure water would also work as an acceptable alternative.

-The cookies are very sweet and rich, so I used a 1" cookie scoop and made small cookies.

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Girl Scout Peanut Butter Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies

I always wanted to be a Brownie. Or a Girl Scout. Wanted one of those cute uni's. Wanted to stay after school to meet in they gym with the other girls and Mrs. Miller, Gretchen Miller's mother and eat treats together after the meeting. For some unknown reason, it never worked out. Could this be the reason I feel compelled to buy ridiculously overpriced cookies from cute little girls on street corners, or in front of Freddie's or Dick's Grocery? My favorite are Samoas, of course. I mean, who doesn't LOVE those. Once I ate the GS version of PB Oatmeal Sand cookies. Not on my top three list of fave GS cookies. That would be:

1. Samoas

2. Thin Mint

3. Shortbread ( actually I only buy these for Grant.

they are his #1,2 and 3.) I know you care.

The other day, out of curiosity, I Googled "best cookie recipe" and came up with a list that included this recipe. Seriously, there were about 1,000 reviews, most of them positive. So I thought they were at least worth a try. Do you love peanut butter? Do you love oatmeal cookies? How about peanut butter frosting?

Get out the baking sheets.

You need to make these.

Now.

Girl Scout Peanut Butter Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies

adapted from All Recipes

printable recipe

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cup quick cooking oats
6 tablespoons butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
4 tablespoons whipping cream or half and half

Cookie:
In a large bowl, cream together 1 cup butter , 1 cup peanut butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add eggs and beat well.
In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add to the creamed mixture. Stir. Add oatmeal and stir.
Drop by tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheet, and press each mound down a little to form 1/2 inch thick cookies. Bake at 350 degrees for 7-8 minutes, or until cookies are a light brown. The cookies need to be slightly browned. Don't under bake too much, or the cookie won't be able to support the creme filling.
Filling:

Cream 6 tablespoons butter with the confectioners' sugar, 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter, and the cream. Spread filling onto half of the cooled cookies, then top with the other half to form sandwiches.

Tips:

- I used a small cookie scoop, so the cookies would be more uniform and easier to match up after filling.

-Normally, I'm a BIG cookie scoop type of gal. But this cookies is really sweet and rich with the creme filling (AND you are really eating two cookies per serving). I think smaller is better in this case.

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Double Chocolate Coconut M&M Cookies

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting at a baseball tournament in Ogden. It was a little cold. Ok, it was a lot cold. For the parents. The kids never seem to mind the weather. Last year(or maybe it was the year before?), we played at a tourney in Springville, UT, it was LITERALLY a blizzard. Snow blowing sideways, 10 PM, a school night. The spectators -which consist of only parents- bc who in their right mind would CHOOSE to come out and watch a game in this weather, at this time of the night- unless your kid is playing. Anyway, the kids are out there, in shirt sleeves, acting like it's summer! Hello, it's snowing. So, two weeks ago-there we were, trying to stay warm and dry, up in Ogden. Val, whose son Preston plays on the team starts handing out these:

Way to add interest to the game. Never tried a coconut M&M. I never knew they existed. If you love coconut, you have to try these. Not available everywhere. I did a little research- originally, they were made to be a limited edition item. But so many peeps complained after they were taken off store shelves, they are now being offered as a permanent item (as of January 2010). Val sent me an email earlier this week saying she spotted them in the case at Sam's club in SLC. Uh - yeah, if I bought a case, I would o.d. on these. I bought a few packages at Maverick (a chain of convenience stores in Utah) they were on sale- 4 for $2. If you are a coconut and chocolate person, this recipe is for you. Took a basic chocolate cookie recipe and added some coconut and coc M&M's. The coconut makes the cookie chewy and moist, almost like a brownie.

My verdict: Serious junk food, with class.

Double Chocolate Coconut M&M Cookies

printable recipe

1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 3/4 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup coconut M & M's (about 7 pkgs, green candy removed)
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup flaked coconut, unsweetened

coconut for top of cookies

Preheat oven to 375°F

Beat butter until softened. Add sugars beat until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time. Mix in vanilla. Add rest of dry ingredients all at once into bowl with butter mixture. Mix just until dry ingredients are incorporated.

Scoop dough onto a parchment lined ( or ungreased) cookie sheet. After the cookies are scooped and ready to bake, pour some coconut onto a plate, and roll the top of the cookie dough ball into the coconut. Place back on pan.

Bake at 375 for about 8 minutes or just until cookies are set.

After cookie is baked, sprinkle with a little more coconut.

Tips:

-I picked out the green M& M's :

...because I knew I wouldn't like the way they looked in the cookies. If green doesn't bother you, leave them in. You'll probably only need 4 packages.

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Sugar Topped Peanut Butter Cookies

The Sweet Melissa Bakes cookbook is quickly becoming one of my favorite baking books, ever. So far, I've tried Butterscotch Cashew Bars, Black Bottom Brownies, and now this recipe for Peanut Butter cookies. Pb cookies were always a favorite of mine growing up. One of my mom's top three after school treats (next to brownies and oatmeal cookies, always served with milk and Hawaiian Punch). Definitely one of those cookies you never outgrow. Relive your childhood. Yum.

Sugar Topped Peanut Butter Cookie
adapted from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book

printable recipe

½ cup smooth peanut butter
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt

sugar for rolling and topping

Preheat the oven to 325F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the peanut butter with the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture and mix until combined. Do not over mix dough after flour mixture is added.
Scoop dough by the rounded tablespoonful and roll into balls. Roll in granulated sugar. Place the balls about 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets, and press down slightly. Bake for 10 minutes, or until lightly golden. Do not over bake. After removing from oven sprinkle with additional sugar.

Tips:

-This recipe needs to be doubled! The original only made about one dozen large cookies.

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Tried and True CC Cookies

So.

A week ago Sunday, we started the week with 5 pounds of butter in the fridge.

Yes, 5 pounds.

Now, most normal people would have to freeze some of that unsalted butter, in order to not let it spoil before using. Note the words "normal people". Three days later, there was not a cube of butter to be found in our house. It began with the 8 PM Sunday night ritual of cc cookie making and baking.

Why choc chip?
1. I always have all of the ingredients.
2. It's a treat I can throw together in less than 5 minutes, without looking at the recipe.
3. We can have a batch of cookies mixed, baked and cooled in about 30 minutes or less. Important when your kid says - " Mom, can we make cookies after dinner to take to _____?? " (insert friend who needs cookies, or a girl/guy you want to find an excuse to visit on Sunday night)- Translation: Mom, can you make some cookies for me? FAST.
Almost every time we give away cookies, a recipe request follows.

It's the Toll House recipe. Right on the back of the package.

No, it's not.

Yes, it is.

No, It's not.

Serious. Okay, a couple of slight changes. So here it is, by popular demand, the ever famous Tried and True Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, with modifications, step by step photos and secret recipe hints. Wink, wink. Let me know how they turn out for you.

Step 1 - Throw the slightly soft butter into the bowl. Start beating.

2- Add the sugars, beat some more.

3- Eggs, throw them both in, add the vanilla, beat again. Don't over beat. 

Are you wondering how many times I can use the word "beat" in this post?

4- It should look like this. Should be smooth, sweet.

FYI- rule in cc cookie making - taste it. Now.

Salmonella - pfshhhh.

5- Throw in all of the dry ingredients (less 1/2 cup of the flour), along with the choc chips.

6- Mix. No beating. More like folding at this point.

LOW speed. For 5 seconds, maybe 10. Add the rest of the flour.
Look at the bottom of the mixing bowl. Stop mixing when flour disappears.

7- Scoop.

8- Big scoops are good. 6 per pan.

9- Beautiful convection baked cookie.

The next cookie was baked using the same batch of dough, same time as the cookie above....

10- Inferior step sister cookie. aka- cookie baked in standard oven.

Sweet on the inside, but not quite as beautiful on the outside.

Tried and True Chocolate Chip Cookies

(adapted from Nestle Toll House Cookie recipe)
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2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour* (make sure to read note below) (updated 5/2013)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter (not margarine), softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups  or 1 (12-oz. pkg.) chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 375° F. If using convection, preheat to 375 as well.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, beating well. Stir in flour mixture and chocolate chips all together, taking care to not over mix. Using a cookie scoop, drop onto ungreased baking sheets. I use a large scoop, and place 6 cookies per baking sheet. Flatten slightly with palm of your hand.
Bake for 7-10 minutes on middle rack until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets completely.
This recipe yields 18 large cookies.

Tips:

(or my mini-epistle on cc cookie making & baking)

Updated with more detail, and the amount of flour I always use- 2 3/4 cups.  The original recipe said:
 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 cups flour . 

-Only use butter. Unsalted is best. The butter should be more firm than room temperature butter. I take it straight out of the refridge, and microwave it for about 20 seconds.

-*Our altitude is about 4,400 ft. So, I use about 2 3/4 cups flour total. The original recipe calls for 2 1/4 cups. If you are at sea level, you will probably need less flour.

-Don't over beat the butter sugar mixture, or the batter will become too soft, and your cookies will not be beautiful and puffy. They will resemble pancakes. 

-Don't sift the flour.

-There is a notable difference between using a convection and a standard oven (see pics above). If you bake at the same temperature, for the same amount of time, the convection cookie will be done, with a beautiful, golden, slightly crispy outer layer. Still soft on the inside. And it will be taller than the cookie baked in a standard oven. Not everyone has a convection oven- if you don't, you can still bake a great cookie using a standard oven.

-I think two of the biggest mistakes made while baking cookies are:

1-Over mixing. This will cause the batter have too much air incorporated, producing a fluffy, instead of a chewy cookie.

2- Over baking. Under baking is good! Not under baked to the point the cookie is doughy, but just until the top sets, and the dough looks like it has a bit of a crust.

-Chocolate chips - For semi sweet, I use Nestle Semi Sweet chips. You can't go wrong here. But for Milk Chocolate, we prefer Guittard. The chips are bigger. I think they are called Maxi Chips.

- High Altitude info: Not recommended-directions on Nestle Choc Chip package for high altitude- I have tried this variation, and don't like the result. The cookies aren't quite sweet enough, and have a crispy more cake like texture. Here are the directions on the package: (again I do NOT recommend using this method, but have printed it here as an FYI)  Increase flour to 2 1/2 cups. Add 2 teaspoons water with flour and reduce both granulated sugar and brown sugar to 2/3 cup each. Bake drop cookies for 8 to 10 minutes and pan cookie for 17 to 19 minutes.

-Last tip. Mound the cookie into a ball. I make them about the size of a golf ball. I use a cookie scoop, because it's easier for me. For years, I just used a spoon, and then shaped them by hand. Make sure to flatten the cookie just a bit before baking.

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Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Cherries and WINNER!

Wow. Loved reading your hopes for 2010.

The winner of "The Sweet Melissa Baking Book" is Debbie L. who wrote:

"I hope that by the end of 2010 the people in Haiti will be on their way to recovery. It is going to take a long time."

Debbie, send me an email at ABountifulkitchen@gmail.com and I'll send out your book!

It snowed last night. So, I'm feeling a - stay at home and bake week, with the rain/snow forecast for every day this week. With the kids home today, it's the perfect day to make some yummy hot-from-the-oven cookies. I tried these a few weeks ago and loved them. I know, you are thinking- really, what a surprise.

This is what makes the cookie so yummy. Big, soft chunks of tart & sweet fruit with chocolate.

I'm not a fan of chocolate covered cherries. You know those icky gooey cordials. SICK. I'll save the rant. But I do love a good chocolate-fruit combo in a dessert. Anyway, these cookies are delicious. If you know a chocolate-cherry lover, bake up a batch and share.

Chocolate-Chip Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Cherries

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/2-1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups dried tart cherries (6 ounces)
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Position 1 rack in bottom third and 1 rack in top third of oven; preheat to 375°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Blend first 4 ingredients in processor 30 seconds. Add eggs; process to blend. Add next 4 ingredients. Using on/off turns, process until oats are coarsely chopped and mixture is blended. Transfer to large bowl. Mix in cherries and chocolate chips.
Spoon batter by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart (cookies will spread). Bake until tops of cookies are golden brown, rotating baking sheets after 6 minutes, about 12 minutes total. Transfer cookies to rack; let cool. Repeat with remaining batter.

Tips:

-I used a Kitchen Aide mixer, and creamed the butter and sugars, added the eggs and vanilla, then all of the dry ingredients at once, until just blended. Mixed in the fruit and chocolate after adding the dry ingredients.

-Dried Montmorency cherries can be purchased at Costco. Found with the other dried fruits- the brand- Stoneridge Orchards. So good for snacking too. Especially if eaten with some chunks of dark chocolate.

-I used about 1 3/4 cups flour.

-The original recipe did not suggest, but I refrigerated the dough for about 1 hour.

-If you have a convection oven, bake at 375, you will not need to rotate the pans on different levels of the oven. Bake for about 7 minutes total at 375 convection setting.

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