Chocolate Chip-Oat Cookies with Coconut

Yum. I love when I have an idea of what I want and find a recipe that perfectly epitomizes what I'm craving. That's what happened with these cookies I made last night. They are chewy, just a little crisp around the edges and full of semisweet chocolate chips, oats, coconut and toasted pecans. Yum.

If you haven't noticed, I'm a big Cookie Madness groupie. Anna posts at least one recipe (not always a cookie, but usually sweet) every day. Whenever I want something sweet but I'm not quite sure what, I browse through the Cookie Madness archives. Thanks to the sheer volume of recipes, I always find something appealing along with an honest assessment of how it tastes, what it's like (crisp or soft, ultra-rich or more nuanced), and how it behaves during baking.

I really like this cookie because it's hearty, chocolately and reminds me of one of those tasty "congo bar" type desserts, probably because of the coconut. I made a very small batch, and after less than 24 hours they're almost gone. With whole oats and whole wheat pastry flour, it even has a bit of nutritional value. Here's the link to Anna's recipe, but I'll write it up here too in case you want to make a small batch like I did.

Chocolate Chip-Oat Cookies with Coconut
Adapted from Cookie Madness
I like the old-fashioned type of oats here--it's supposed to be a chunky cookie. I'm not sure if using quick oats (do NOT use instant) would make the cookie flatter. I gave a range for the quantity of pecans because I only had 1/4 cup on hand. Next time, I'll up the quantity a bit, but this batch definitely didn't suffer. To toast the pecans, spread on a rimmed baking sheet and roast in a 325 degree oven for about 8 minutes, flipping once, or until they take on some color and turn fragrant.

Makes 18 cookies.

4 tbs. unsalted butter, softened
1/4 c. plus 1 tbs. dark brown sugar, packed
2 tbs. granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 tbs. milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup plus 3 tbs. whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose)--56 grams
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c. old-fashion oats
1/2 c. semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 to 1/3 cup toasted pecans, finely chopped
1/4 c. shredded sweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the butter and sugars with an electric mixer until light and creamy. Beat in the egg, then beat in the milk and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir into the butter mixture. Stir in the oats, chips, pecans and coconut.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets and bake for 10-14 minutes, or until the bottoms are lightly browned. Bake shorter or longer depending on how soft you like your cookies. Let rest on baking sheet for 1-2 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.

Here are the other Cookie Madness recipes I've made (and loved):

Creamy Butterfinger Pie
Soft Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

My Favorite Thumbprint Cookies

Unlike Pecan Balls, I haven't seen a lot of thumbprint cookies in the blogosphere. Women's magazines, on the other hand, always seem to include one obligatory thumbprint in their collections of holiday cookie recipes. They usually look fairly uninspired, although they may be wonderful recipes. I'll never know because these are the only thumbprints I will ever make.

This recipe is another oldie but goodie from grandma. The original typewritten recipe that I have a photocopy of calls for all shortening. And this is from back when Crisco had plenty of trans-fat. When I was a kid, I think we made them with margarine, which was the good-health fat of choice back then. Now, I make them with delicious, organic unsalted butter (Organic Valley is my everyday butter of choice), and they taste as wonderful as ever.

I've mentioned how much I like soft, tender, nearly under-baked cookies, and that is how I like these. Thanks to the butter and brown sugar, they melt in your mouth. Still, a contrast of textures is important if you want a truly sophisticated cookie experience, so these thumbprints are rolled in finely chopped--almost ground--walnuts.

And, as with so many desserts, a sweet, simple frosting takes these cookies from great to really great. Jam in thumbprint cookies never did it for me. Why have jam when you can have actual icing? To each her own, I guess. If you happen to have ideas about thumbprints that are equally as strong as mine, I would love it if you tried the cookie part and added your filling of choice, whether it be chocolate, jam or candied fruit--just as long as you tell me all about it!

I'm submitting this post to Susan's Christmas Cookie round-up at Food Blogga. She's gathering cookie recipes from far and wide, so it might be a good place to go if you're still looking for cookie inspiration!

My Favorite Thumbprint Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups (9 oz.) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 egg whites
1 1/4 cup walnuts, ground or very finely chopped
1 cup powdered sugar
2 to 4 tbs. milk
red and green food coloring

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper. With an electric mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar and egg yolks at medium-high speed until thoroughly combined. Beat in vanilla. Stir in the flour and salt at very low speed or by hand.

Place the egg whites in a small bowl and spread the walnuts out in a shallow bowl or plate. Roll a spoonful of dough into a one-inch ball with your hands, quickly dip in egg white, roll in ground walnuts, shaking off any excess, and place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, spacing cookies about 1 1/2 inches apart on baking sheets.

Bake for 6 minutes, remove pans from oven and quickly make a deep thumbprint in the center of each cookie. Return pans to oven and bake for 7 minutes more, or until just barely beginning to brown on the bottom. If notice the indentation you made disappearing as the cookies bake, pull them out and press again. Cool on baking sheets for 3 minutes, then transfer to wire racks until cooled completely.

In each of two small bowls, mix 1/2 cup powdered sugar with 1 to 2 tablespoons milk. Add red food coloring to one bowl and green food coloring to the other. Stir well to combine and create a thick icing that slowly drizzles off your spoon. When cookies are completely cool, fill thumbprints with icing. If you want to freeze some of the cookies, allow icing to dry completely, 8 hours to overnight.

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Holiday Baking and a Recipe for Pecan Balls

I love baking Christmas cookies. From what I've been seeing on so many other food blogs, I'm not the only one. This weekend I went into a highly organized frenzy of holiday baking.

All I did was make batches of cookie dough, watch sweet loaves of bread puff up out of their pans, and roll out individual little nut pies. Okay, I also went to a wine tasting on Friday, had a fun dinner out on Saturday and watched a football game on Sunday from the comfort of my sofa after the day's cookies were out of the oven.

It was all so much fun! This morning, I was wondering aloud why I go through so much work, especially when there aren't a ton of people around to eat my goodies (that's what freezers are for, right?). It's not because I need food to be happy (food makes me happy, but that's different) or because I want to relive childhood Christmases past (I wasn't a very child-like child, so that's not it). I just love to cook. And bake. Either way, I love recipes that challenge me somehow.

I do make a lot of family recipes this time of year because I want to make them my own--master them so I can then improve upon them--and enjoy them without thinking they don't taste quite the same as they did when I was 10. More than that, baking just tells me it's Christmas. It's a knee-jerk reaction sort of thing. Since I enjoy it so much, why not indulge?

All of the cookies in the photo happen to be things I ate as a kid, and I love them all. Today, I want to post the recipe for Pecan Balls (the ones that look like little snowballs). I've been seeing this cookie everywhere of late and no wonder--it's a Christmas classic. I poured over several recipes trying to find the ultimate version that would produce a very tender cookie with a nearly under-baked texture and without anything too fancy going on. In the end, I used a very old recipe from my mom that seems to be the classic version.

Newer recipes use more nuts, but I think one cup is plenty nutty. Sugar seems to be the most controversial ingredient. Cook's Illustrated has a recipe using superfine sugar (white sugar ground very fine), but they don't say if that produces a softer texture or not. Dorie Greenspan has a version in Baking with granulated sugar, but she seems to be a fan of crisp cookies. I will try these recipes eventually and tell you about any revelations they might bring. For now, I've got a simple, delicious cookie that is both tender and crumbly. Anna just posted a similar version here, and Jennifer made the Cook's Illustrated version with hazelnuts. More holiday goodies to come!

Pecan Balls
The recipe I used actually calls these tender little cookies Russian Tea Cakes (one of their many names), but my mom called them Pecan Balls, and I think that’s a more descriptive name anyway. You could substitute other nuts--I think walnuts or hazelnuts would work particularly well. I error on the side of under-baking these cookies because I like the centers to be a bit moist, as opposed to crumbly. A food processor comes in handy to chop the nuts, but be careful not to grind them to a powder. This recipe requires at least two hours of chilling time (for the dough, not you...hehe!).

Makes about 3 1/2 dozen

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups (9 oz.) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup pecans, toasted and finely chopped
Additional powdered sugar (about 1 1/2 cups) for rolling

With an electric mixer, blend the butter and 1/2 cup sugar at medium-high speed until smooth and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Stir in the flour and salt just until combined. Stir in the pecans. Refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. Roll dough into one-inch balls and place on prepared baking sheets (cookies will not spread much during baking). Bake for 12-14 minutes or until bottoms are just barely golden.

Sprinkle some powdered sugar on a rimmed baking sheet or a plate. Cool cookies on baking sheets for 2 to 3 minutes, then roll in powdered sugar and place on racks to cool. When cookies are completely cool, or just before serving, roll in powdered sugar again.

Green Monster Peanut Butter Cookies--Go Red Sox!

What can a girl do when she's found the perfect guy? A guy who's a star at his job, who always makes her laugh, who has thick, unruly hair and burly good looks...? Just so you know, I'm not talking about my husband. I'm talking about Wally, the Green Monster. And the answer to that question is, bake him his favorite cookies!

Wally is the Red Sox mascot. He's named after Fenway Park's famous green "wall," and because he's a monster, I'm sure he loves cookies. Naturally, peanut butter cookies are his favorite ("Take me out to the ballgame..." and all that).

So these cookies (from fabulous blogger, Anna, of Cookie Madness) are for Wally (Just look at this sexy beast!), so he has the energy to lead my team to a World Series victory against the Colorado Rockies. The series starts tonight, so if you're a Sox fan, how about whipping up a batch of these for Wally too? As for my other favorite guy, Mike, he also happens to love peanut butter. Maybe I'll save some for him.


Green Monster Peanut Butter Cookies
Go to Anna's blog for the original recipe, and check out all her other wonderful desserts. These cookies are so easy to make--just one bowl! They are soft on the inside and don't flatten during baking. This is a scaled down version for a small batch, about 16 cookies. I had to go by weight for most measurements in order to scale down properly, but if you don't have a scale, just use Anna's recipe for a full batch.

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 c. (2 oz.) dark brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated sugar
3 oz. creamy peanut butter (I love Jif)
1/8 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. (scant) salt
1 oz. (26 g.) beaten egg (half of one egg)
2 3/4 oz. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 oz. lightly salted dry roasted peanuts (like Planter's), chopped
2 oz. peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Cream butter, sugars, peanut butter, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add egg in 2 additions. Stir in the flour. Fold in the nuts and chips.

Using a tablespoon, scoop onto prepared sheets. Bake 13-15 minutes or until set and very light brown around the edges. Cool on sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. I always recommend testing a few cookies if you have the time, so you know how your oven will bake and how "done" you like them.

Here are more Peanut Butter Cookies Wally might like:

Peabody's classic PB cookies--you've got to read this tale from a former Jif child model!
Alpine Berry's Old-Fashioned PB Cookies
Gluten-Free Girl's PB cookies
Cook Sister's Double PB Cookies
Culinary in the Country's Honey-Roasted Chunk PB Cookies
Coconut & Lime's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
And my own Chewy Chocolate Cookies with Mini Peanut Butter Cups

Technorati Tags: recipes, desserts, cookies, peanut butter, Red Sox

Chewy Chocolate Cookies with Mini Peanut Butter Cups

Did any of you have a hard time figuring out what to get your significant other/friend/family/lover for Valentine’s day? If you’re in a relationship, it can be a day fraught with pressure, and gifts may or may not be loaded with meaning. I don’t have the time and energy to worry about the formulaic expectations of this Hallmark holiday, so I give my husband the kind of gift that I most like receiving myself—food.

This recipe may be a couple of days late, but luckily, it’s not a particularly Valentine-y dessert. It’s not heart-shape, extra-fancy or filled with raspberry ganache (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Though it’s not pulled from the pages of the February issue of a food magazine, it was the perfect Valentine for my husband because it combines his two favorite things: peanut butter and chocolate.


I decided to combine his two great loves into one fabulous cookie because my mom sent us these adorable mini peanut butter cups she saw in Trader Joe’s. If you live in a community that has its very own Trader Joe’s, I am deeply jealous of you. We don’t have them in Florida, so mom sent these versatile little cuties all the way from Southern California. I thought they would be a great substitute for chocolate chips in a cookie. After extensive chocolate cookie research, I decided to use this recipe from allrecipes.com because it was incredibly simple; promised fudgy, chewy cookies; and got loads of great reviews from members.

These cookies are addictively, wonderfully chocolatey with slightly crisp edges and chewy centers. The chocolate part of the mini peanut butter cups fuses into the cookie, and the centers turn into melting pockets of peanut butter goodness. You do not need mini peanut butter cups to use this fantastically simple cookie recipe. Use chocolate chunks, peanut butter chips, nuts, chocolate-covered espresso beans, or whatever you want!

Mike really liked the cookies, but I’ve eaten plenty of them too. When you give a gift of food, whether it is something homemade or dinner at a favorite restaurant, it’s kind of like giving yourself a little gift at the same time. We foodies really have this love stuff figured out.

Chewy Chocolate Cookies with Mini Peanut Butter Cups
Adapted from allrecipes.com. It is important that you use natural cocoa powder in recipes with baking soda, like this one. Dutch-processed cocoa powder is made with an alkali that only reacts properly with baking powder. Dutch-processed is not better or worse cocoa, just different. Read more about it here.

Makes 36-48 cookies

2 c. all-purpose flour
2/3 c. unsweetened natural cocoa powder (such as Ghirardelli or Hershey’s)
¾ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 c. unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ c. granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 to 2 ½ c. mini peanut butter cups, peanut butter chips or semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and whisk to thoroughly combine.

In another large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat to combined and fluffy.

Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture with a wooden spoon until all the flour is moistened. Stir in the chips or your additions of choice.

Drop heaping teaspoons of dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You should get about 12 cookies per large baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until just set. The cookies may look slightly under done, but they will firm up and the edges will crisp as they cool. I like to do a test by baking 2 or 3 cookies first to see how they will turn out in my oven. It takes extra time, but I hate to ruin a whole tray of cookies. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Technorati Tags: recipes, desserts, cookies, chocolate, Main Course