I had a colossal fanging for a cookie the other day; it HAD to have Peanut Butter in it and I was thinking rolled oats too. I love Google! Typed my criteria into the field and came up with this recipe. I pretty much followed it to-the-T, with the exception of adding a generous handful of craisins.
Yes, it is heaps of Peanut Butter, but oh my goodness, they are good!
Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chunk Cookies with Craisins
1 1/2 cup Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Butter, softened
3/4 cup Sugar
2/3 cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup Old Fashioned Rolled Oats
3/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 cups Chocolate Chips
1 cup Craisins
Preheat oven to 350F.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper or lightly spray with Pam.
In medium mixing bowl combine w/w flour, baking soda, rolled oats, salt, chocolate chips and craisins; set aside.
In mixing bowl beat peanut butter and butter until creamy and smooth.
Add sugars; beat until light and fluffy.
Blend in eggs, one at a time; add vanilla.
Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and stir until blended.
Drop 1.5 ounce portions 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.
Bake 10 – 12 minutes or just until centres are set.
Cool on baking sheets for about 3 minutes.
Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely.
Yield: About 32 cookies
Thank you Kraft Canada for such a yummy Peanut Butter Cookie recipe!
A cake-like cookie that was very well received by the grade 3-4 class that I work in. I was a little worried they wouldn’t like them because they aren’t, well, you know, crunchy, like most cookies are! I think it was the chocolate chips that scored the extra brownie points. Oh, and one student thought they tasted like peanut butter! Which, now that he mentions it, they sort of, kind of do! It is the pumpkin that gives it that different texture and the combination of spices, fruit and chocolate that keeps you guessing, “Hmmm…what is that taste? I think I love it!”
Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Chips and Dried Cranberries
1 cup Flour
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/3 cups Old Fashioned Rolled Oats
1 1/4 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon each: ground Ginger, Cloves and Nutmeg
1 cup Coconut
1 cup dried Cranberries or Raisins
1 1/2 cups Chocolate Chips
1 cup Butter, softened
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup Sugar
2 large Eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup Pumpkin Puree
For the Glaze
1 cup Icing Sugar
2 Tablespoons Milk, or to right consistency
1/2 teaspoon Maple Flavouring
Preheat oven to 350F.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper or lightly spray with vegetable oil spray.
In large bowl combine flours, oats, baking powder, salt and spices; set aside.
In a small mixing bowl combine coconut, dried cranberries (or raisins) and chocolate chips; set aside.
In mixing bowl beat butter and sugars together until light and fluffy (5 minutes), scraping down sides of bowl a couple of times.
Add eggs and vanilla and continue beating for about a minute.
Stir in pumpkin puree.
Add the flour mixture, all at once, and mix on low speed for about 2 minutes.
While mixer is going, pour in fruit and coconut mixture.
Drop 1.5 ounce portions, 2 inches apart, onto each baking sheet, I use a Pampered Chef scoop, or use a heaping Tablespoon.
Bake in 350F. oven for 12 minutes, rotate pans and continue baking for another 12 – 15 minutes until cookies are golden brown on the bottom and around the edges.
Remove from oven and let cookies cool on baking sheets for about 5 minutes.
Lift cookies off baking sheets and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
For the Glaze:
Mix together icing sugar, milk and maple flavouring in a small bowl, adding more milk if necessary to get desired consistency.
Load glaze into a piping bag with the tip snipped off or a heavy grade Ziploc bag with one corner snipped off.
Pipe glaze over cookies.
Allow glaze to set before storing cookies in an airtight container.
Yield: 3 1/2 Dozen Cookies
I haven’t done a whole lot of baking with Pumpkin except the traditional Pumpkin Pie at Thanksgiving when Pumpkins are all over the place! I think I will keep a can of pumpkin puree in the pantry in the future…
If you want to have a look at the original recipe head over to Chow; I did make a few substitutions…for one, I only had 1 cup of Pumpkin in the fridge. And I added lots of yummy stuff: Coconut, Chocolate Chips and Dried Cranberries.
Simply delicious meatloaf! So we ordered a 1/4 of a grass fed cow from one of my husband’s co-workers and were instructed to ring the butcher to let him know what kind of cuts we wanted. The butcher asked if we wanted any Ground Beef or All-Beef sausages…I said very little ground beef and no sausages at all. They got the No Sausages bit right, but oh my, they messed up on the Very Lil ground beef! So, now I have oodles and oodles of ground beef and well, you can’t glue poor Ol’ Bessy back together to get different cuts, soooooo when given a mess of ground beef? Make Meatloaf! And Burgers. And Hamburger Stroganoff. And Meatballs. And Chili Con Carne.
Oh, yes, I was talking about Meatloaf, wasn’t I? So I made a couple of meatloaves, cooked them, cooled them, cut them into meal size portions and froze them. I took a package out of the freezer one morning before heading to work, came home, boiled up some ‘taters, steamed some veg, made some gravy (okay, that was a stretch! but I did it) heated the thawed meatloaf and had dinner on the table in a half hour.
Now you have to understand that when I usually make “meat”loaf, it is actually Lentil Loaf; so my smart aleck husband says…”Oh yea! Now that’s a beefy meatloaf! I am not saying that I don’t like your other “meat”loaf, but hmmmm this is GOOD!” Whatever. Without further ado, the super simple recipe that I used to make such a delectable meatloaf.
Super Simple Meatloaf
1 1/2 lean Ground Beef
1 cup Milk
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 teaspoon Salt
Pepper, to taste
1/2 teaspoon Ground Mustard
1 teaspoon Ground Sage
1 small Onion, chopped
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1 large Egg
3 slices Bread, finely chopped (1 1/2 cups, lightly packed)
[I just tore a bunch of bread into rough bits]
1/2 cup Ketchup, Chili Sauce or BBQ sauce
Preheat oven to 350F.
Do not grease a 9X5″ loaf pan.
In large bowl, combine all ingredients except Ketchup.
Spread into loaf pan.
Spread Ketchup over top.
Insert meat thermometer so tip is in centre of loaf.
Bake, uncovered 1 hour to 1 1/4 hours or until thermometer reads 160F.
Drain meatloaf. (Our grass fed beef was so lean there wasn’t anything to drain!)
Let stand for 5 minutes.
Slice and serve.
I doubled the recipe and made two meatloaves, cut them into slices when cool, put four slices into three containers and put them in the freezer for Weekday Madness Dinners.
Thanks Betty Crocker for such a simple recipe that is sure to please!
I have not been cooking red meat for Luke after the ground beef recall a few months back and found myself cooking A LOT of chicken and pork. This Baked Salmon with Dill Hollandaise was a nice change in the menu and super easy to make; it was ready to serve in the amount of time it took to cook the Confetti Brown Rice!
Baked Salmon with Dill Hollandaise Sauce
4 – 5 ounce Salmon Fillets (I used half a salmon, uncut)
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Sprinkle of Brown Sugar
Drizzle of Honey
1/3 cup melted butter
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 Vegetable Broth
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon dried Dill (2 teaspoons Fresh Dill, chopped)
Preheat oven to 425F.
Lightly spray a broiler pan with Pam.
Place salmon on prepared pan, brush with a Tablespoon of the melted butter.
Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with honey, sprinkle with a scant amount of brown sugar.
Bake in 425F oven for about 15 – 20 minutes.
While salmon is baking, prepare Hollandaise Sauce:
Place egg yolks, vegetable broth and lemon juice in the top of a double boiler.
Set over boiling water.
Whisk until light and thick as whipped cream.
Remove from heat.
Slowly whisk in remaining melted butter.
Whisk in dill and season to taste.
Plate salmon, spoon sauce over each serving; serve with rice and steamed vegetables.
I started making this recipe about 19 years ago but then I stopped working at the school where I was making about 6 dozen of these a week, my own children grew up and left home and I no longer felt the need to make chocolate muffins. Now I am back at that same school and find myself making these again!
Double Chocolate Chip Muffins
4 cups Flour
1 1/2 cups Sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened Coca
2 Tablespoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
2 cups Milk
2 large Eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup Butter, melted
1 1/2 cups Chocolate Chips
Preheat oven to 400F.
Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners or lightly spray with Pam.
In large mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, sugar and cocoa; make a well in the centre and set aside.
In large mixing cup combine liquid ingredients.
Pour liquid ingredients into well in dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
Fold in chocolate chips.
Spoon into prepared muffin tins. ( I use a #5Pampered Chef scoop)
Bake in 400F oven for 20 minutes.
Remove from oven to wire rack and cool for 10 minutes in the pan.
Turn out onto wire rack and cool completely.
Yield: 24 muffins.
Welcome to my Kitchen where the most important ingredient is Love.
