My Mama's Cookies

Have you ever just had one of those days? Or maybe one of those weeks? A bunch of small-ish things just tick you off - bats, tendinitis, the summer finally deciding to get ridiculously hot - and man, by Friday you are just a grumpy bumble. (Excuse my strong language.) Well, I happen to find baking very therapeutic, and my mama's cookies were some of my favorite things growing up, so today I decided to whip up a double batch of my mama's chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

Now, I need you to realize something. I like these cookies so much that when I went off to college I brought this recipe with me. I wrote it down. On paper. No digital shenanigans. That's how good they are.

You need flour, baking soda, salt, shortening, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, eggs, chocolate chips, and oatmeal. 

The recipe says sift flour, baking soda, and salt together, but I don't have time for that. I threw them into the mixer and used the whisk for a minute. It seemed to work just fine. 

Ooh, mixy. 

Next (put the dry ingredients aside really quick) add shortening,

white sugar, 

brown sugar,

vanilla and water to the mixer. Put the paddle attachment on. Mix that baby up. 

So creamy. So delightful. 

 Stop the mixer, scrape the sides, and then beat in the eggs. 

The dough gets much wetter now, but that's exactly how it's supposed to be. 

Stop and scrape the sides again. 

Next, add in the flour mixture. I mix about 1/3rd of the flour mixture in at a time. 

It should be dry enough to cling to the paddle, but not completely. I took a couple minutes to scrape the sides again, and tried to get as much dough off the paddle as I could. 

Add in the oatmeal and the chocolate chips. The original recipe calls for the whole 12 oz package, but that's always seemed a little crazy to me. I usually add 1/4 to 1/2 of a package, and I haven't been disappointed yet.

Well now this is where I realized that I don't have nearly the amount of oatmeal that I would typically add. The recipe usually calls for 2-3 cups, and I only had about one. That changes the overall look, but they still taste amazing. Don't be scared if you're short on oatmeal. 

Mix all that goodness together until the chocolate chips and oatmeal are thoroughly incorporated. 

At this point, do not eat the dough. Eating raw cookie dough has never, ever helped someone's crabby day.

 Just kidding!

I will not tell you to eat raw cookie dough as it has uncooked eggs in it. I will tell you, however, that I did. And it was delicious. If you choose to eat raw cookie dough, do so at your own risk. 

Po was helping. 

Kira wanted to help, but it was too hot. 

Because I didn't know how these would bake with as little oatmeal as was in them, I lined my pan with parchment paper. Greasing the pan or using parchment paper will ensure that your cookies don't stick while baking.

I tend to roll my cookie dough balls by hand, but it was very hot, and the dough was stickier than normal. To save myself some time, I just used two spoons to plot the dough onto the pan and then to shape the dough into a cookie-ish shape. 

Bake at 325 degrees for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookie start to turn golden brown. 

Again, because of my lack of oatmeal, these cookies spread out waaaaay more than they typically would. I clearly put the dough too close together this time. 

These ones are a slightly better shape. Who really cares about shape though? They're delicious. That's what matters. Allow the cookies to cool on the pan for a minute or two. When they're firm enough to take off without falling apart, transfer them to a cooling rack until they are the desired nomming temperature.

Oh my goodness. 

These cookies. 

You do not have to dunk your cookie into milk. You also don't love to like happiness. It's your choice. 

I can feel my day getting better already.


Recipe: Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Prep Time: 30-45 Minutes | Cook Time: 10-12 Minutes | Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 2.5 Dozen

Ingredients (Note: the pictures above represent a doubled batch)

• 2 1/4 cups Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 cup Shortening
• 3/4 cup Sugar
• 3/4 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1/2 tsp Water
• 2 Eggs
• 12 oz package Chocolate Chips
• 2-3 cups Oatmeal

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F
2. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. Cream together shortening, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and water.
4. Beat two eggs into the shortening mixture.
5. Add flour mixture, about 1/3rd of the mixture at a time. Mix well.
6. Mix in chocolate chips and oatmeal.
7. Spoon dough into cookie shaped blobs into a cookie sheet. It can be greased or lined with parchment paper. 
8. Bake 10-12 minutes, until the edges are golden brown.
9. Allow cookies to cool for a minute before transferring to cooling rack.
10. Om nom nom.

Molasses Crinkle Cookies

I like cookies - kind of a lot.  This blog has featured Bribe Cookies, Chai-Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, and Christmas Spritzers in the past - but that's hardly the whole cookie repertoire.  The Chai cookies are Kristin's invention and the Bribe Cookies are mine, respectively, and the Spritzers are Kristin's family recipe.  It's long since time that I feature one of my own childhood favorites - molasses crinkles.  My mom (hi mom!) made these fairly often when I was a kid.  Even though there's a strong savory element to these cookies, I've loved them since I was a kid.

These Molasses Crinkles are thick, chewy, and complex.  Molasses and sugar combine for that rich brown-sugar flavor - cinnamon, ginger, and clove add depth, and the crackly, sugary top adds just the right amount of sweetness.  They're good by themselves or make a fantastic ice-cream cookie sandwich.

Here's what you'll need: flour, sugar, shortening, molasses, an egg, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger (I used minced, but ground works fine too), cloves, and salt.

First, cream together the shortening and sugar.

Next, add the molasses and egg, and mix thoroughly.

In another large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger.

Add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix well into a dough.  This dough will be dense and heavy and may develop its own cracks even at this stage - don't worry!

Cover the dough and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

After refrigeration, roll the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, then roll the top half of each ball in some extra granulated sugar to coat.

Arrange those sugar-coated balls on greased cookie sheets a few inches apart.

Bake 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit until tops are cracked and underside is just golden brown.  Be careful not to overcook - the tops will still look fine, but the bottoms can burn easily.

Cool on wire racks and devour promptly.  Give these a try with a little vanilla ice-cream - it's good!

Recipe: Molasses Crinkle Cookies
Prep Time: 75 Minutes | Cook Time: 10-12 Minutes | Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 2 Dozen Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups Flour
• 1 cup White Sugar
• 3/4 cup Vegetable Shortening
• 1/4 cup Molasses
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon Ginger, finely minced (or 1 tsp ground ginger)
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• Additional white sugar to coat dough-balls

Instructions

1. In a mixing bowl, cream together shortening and sugar.  Add molasses and beaten egg and mix thoroughly.
2. In a second large bowl, combine all remaining ingredients (except extra white sugar).  Stir to mix.
3. Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix well to combine.  Dough will be heavy and dense.
4. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.
5. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.  Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and dip tops into extra white sugar.  Arrange balls sugar-side-up on greased cookie sheets a few inches apart.
6. Bake 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees until tops are cracked and bottoms are golden-brown.
7. Cool on wire racks.

Christmas Cookies: Spritzers

Baked goods are an essential part of the holidays.  Kristin's family makes these little Spritzer cookies most every year, and she has some fun stories about all the ways that these seemingly-simple cookies can go all wrong.  We experienced one - our first attempt we made something more like Christmas Wafers than cookies.  It was no good.  This batch turned out great.  We'll see if they last more than a day or two.

It's not Christmas without Christmas Cookies - nor can it be Christmas cookie season without swearing at the cookies that refuse to turn out.  Thankfully, these are quick and easy to whip up, so if something goes terribly wrong, just try, try again.

Not too many ingredients here.  You'll need flour, sugar, shortening, vanilla, almond extract, baking powder, and a single egg.  Sprinkles and decorating sugar can jazz things up a bit, but aren't strictly necessary.  But you don't really want boring, unsprinkled cookies, do you?

You'll also need one of these bad boys - a Spritzer machine.  We found ours for about $10 at Target and it works great.

First, you'll need the always-exciting bowl of white powders.  Combine the flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl and set aside for now.

The next several steps are much easier with a mixer of some sort.  A hand mixer does the job, and of course a stand mixer could do it, too.  First, combine your 1 1/2 cups of shortening with 3 tbsp of water and beat until its combined and fluffy - about 30 seconds should do it.

Now add all that other wet stuff: the sugar, vanilla and almond extracts, and the egg.  Beat again until everything is combined and the texture resembles frosting.

Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix well until combined.  This can take some time.  The dough will be fairly dense.

Add some dough to your spritzer machine, and start pressing it into shapes onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Ungreased is important, otherwise your shapes will refuse to stay shapely, or even to stay on the pan at all.

Some will be prettier than others.  Some will refuse to come out of the machine entirely, or will be hideously deformed.  Just toss these ugly cookies back in with the rest of the dough and press replacements until you're satisfied.

Cover liberally with whatever sorts of decorations you like.  Be exuberant - make sure to spill more of those decorations onto the pan than you get onto the cookies.  It's important.

Now bake them!  They'll bake up very quickly - just about 6 minutes at 400 degrees.  They'll look almost unchanged on top, but if you bake 'til they're brown then the poor cookies will be dead, dead, dead.  Just the bottoms should be ever-so-slightly brown.

Make plenty of different shapes!

No really, make plenty.  Cool on a wire rack - or on top of other cooling cookies.

Consider using some food coloring - Kristin was pretty proud of her little green trees.  There's really no wrong way to decorate.  Have fun!

Once you're done, make sure to try one of each shape and pick a favorite.  An hour later, you'll doubt your choice, and have to test all over again.  You should probably also test to see which tastes best dunked in coffee or cocoa.  You know, for science.  It's important.

Bake plenty, eat plenty, and even share if you're feeling particularly kindly.  If you run out, just bake some more.  They're worth it.

Recipe: Spritzer Cookies
Prep Time: 10 Minutes | Cook Time: 20 Minutes | Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 60 Cookies

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups Flour
• 1 1/2 cups Shortening (pref. butter flavor)
• 3 tbsp Water
• 1 cup White Sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 tsp Almond Extract
• Optional - Decorating sugars and sprinkles

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine flour and baking powder.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat shortening 30 seconds until fluffy.  Add sugar, egg, vanilla, and almond extract and beat again 60-90 seconds until combined and fluffy.
4. Gradually add dry ingredients, beating until well-blended.
5. Add dough to spritzer machine and press into shapes onto ungreased cookie sheets.
6. Optional - Add decorating sugars and/or sprinkles before baking.
7. Bake cookies 6-7 minutes at 400 degrees.  Cookie bottoms should be barely brown.
8. Cool on wire racks.