Mrs. Field's Copycat Oatmeal Cookies

Have you ever wished you could eat clam chowder without the clams, or chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips?  I used to beg my mom for each of those as a kid (to name a few).  I don't like clams (at all) and I don't love chocolate (yes I know- everyone in the world thinks this is insane).  I just always felt like the chocolate flavor overpowered the cookie.  I was ecstatic when my sister Amanda first introduced us all to this copycat Mrs. Field's Oatmeal Cookie recipe.  It's made with oatmeal, but has a totally different texture because the oats are blended. 

There are many versions of this out there that add grated hershey bar, chocolate chips, nuts, and coconut flakes.  Don't get me wrong, those are all fabulous ingredients and I make several cookie recipes with the same ingredients.  However, there is something so delicious about the simplicity of this cookie.  It tastes so good by itself that it really just doesn't even need all of the extras.  They are sweet, buttery, and chewy.  I must warn you that they are also extremely addicting.  I hope you love them as much as I do.

Mrs. Field's Copycat Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

picture shows ingredients for a half recipe- you will need two eggs and two cubes of butter... and pretend the coconut flakes aren't there since I just went off about not using them.  Sometimes they are fun for an added flavor and texture but I usually don't use them.  The rest of the pictures don't include the coconut flakes.

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup melted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups oatmeal

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Blend oatmeal until it turns into a thick powder, approximately 1 cup at a time; set aside. 

Cream butter and sugar in Bosch or electric mixer. 

                                      

Add eggs, one at a time beating well. 

Mix in dry ingredients, mix well. 

Roll into tablespoon size balls and place on lightly greased cookie sheet, approximately 12 per sheet. 

Bake for approximately 10 minutes.  You don't want these to turn golden.  They are the best when they are still soft and chewy.  Over baking makes them crunchy and hard.

Enjoy with a tall glass of milk (I won't blame you for drinking whole milk if you ran out of 1% and had no other choice but to drink your toddler's milk... I, on the other hand would never do such a thing).

~PW

P.S.

This darling Polo Ralph Lauren shirt was a $2 steal I found at my local DI this week.  It is in perfect condition.  He wasn't thrilled about modeling it before church but you get the idea...

I sure love that little stinker boy.

Christmas Baking- Day 4

Snow Ball Cookies

Okay, these are really called Sand Ball Cookies but for the holidays let's call them snow ball cookies; deal? This happens to be one of my very favorite cookie recipes. They are a bit more time consuming than others because of the double rolling (read on my friends) but they're worth the extra few minutes.

I am so sad- I can only find some of the pictures of these cookies towards the end of the baking, so please forgive the absence of the ingredient pic and the pre-oven photos.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 1/4 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

2 TBS honey

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup chopped pecans

Additional bowl of powdered sugar to double roll your cookies in

*** Note- I double this recipe almost always, but if you are only serving a small crowd you can stick to these amounts***

Preheat oven to 375. Cream butter and sugar until creamy in your Bosch or mixer. Add honey and vanilla. Blend in flour and salt slowly until mixed well. Add chopped nuts. Roll dough into small balls. Travis suggests licking the spatula while momma is rolling away. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 375 for 13-16 minutes.

Be sure to watch them closely around 14 minutes. My oven only required about 13 minutes. At 15 minutes this batch was overcooked. You want them to be starting to turn golden, but not as bronze as these little guys.

While the cookies are still hot, roll them individually in a bowl of powdered sugar. Allow them to cool, and then roll them in powdered sugar again till they are beautiful and white.

These could also be known as the vanishing snowball cookies, hence the photo. At least we have my cute Trav to make up for the horrible cookie pictures.

Enjoy!

Homemade OREOS for the big 3-0

My Sweets turned 30 this week. That's right, the big 3-0. I realize this may not seem like a big deal to many of you but for me it was huge. I'm a surprise person and like to go big or go home, but my hubbs doesn't enjoy being in the spotlight so he specifically asked that I not do anything big for him this year. Unfortunately I had to respect his wishes. I did however still want to show him that we loved him so Trav and I baked his favorite cookies, homemade ORES (recipe below) and surprised him with those at his office. He was lucky that we were in a huge hurry once the cookies were finished so I wasn't able to pick up balloons for him as I had planned.

We went to a local restaurant, Virg's for a very casual birthday dinner with our good friends Aaron and Shay and all the kiddos. With a menu varying from fish and chips to french toast and eggs to a chile verde burrito, everyone was happy.

We did some serious Christmas shopping this weekend and scored at the DI when my sweets found one of our new favorite games, Scrutineyes. It was in great condition and only cost $2. We had a blast playing it with friends last night, and finished off our weekend fun watching Eclipse.

I have been forced to take a break from my wingback chair since I ran out of batting and Joann was out the last time I went, but did start another project in the meantime refinishing these phenomenal Henredon nightstands I bought off of ksl. Stay tuned for pics on the projects...

Homemade OREO cookies

Cookies

2 boxes Devils Food Cake mix

1.5 cups shortening

4 eggs

Mix well, and roll into nickle sized balls. Press each ball down flat with the back of a spatula, and bake for 8 minutes at 350 degrees. Allow to cool on a wire rack before filling with heaven.

Filling

8 oz. softened cream cheese

1/2 cup softened butter

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar

Beat first three ingredients together, slowly add sugar. Beat well. Fill each cookie with spoonful of filling.

*** Warning- these cookies are HIGHLY addictive and oh-so-rich. Over-indulgence may occur. ***

Grandma Tecla's Timeless Sugar Cookies

Sugar cookies are always a tradition in my family around the holidays (usually Valentines, Halloween and Christmas). They taste fabulous, but I'm not going to lie they are a PAIN if you do the whole ordeal in one day. I made that mistake as a newlywed trying to be the cute domestic little wife to impress my sweets but by the end of the night I hated everything and everyone- my bosch, myself, the stupid cookies, even my sweets for trying to remind me that cookies aren't that big of a deal... Hopefully some of you can relate. I have since learned that frosted sugar cookies can be pleasant, if you split the process up into 3 days. This recipe has been passed down by my darling little grandma Tecla, and I hate to say it to all you contenders out there but I really think it is the best sugar cookie recipe out there. Yep. I said it. If you don't believe me, try it out for yourself and let me know what you think. :)

Cookie ingredients:

4 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup shortening (I like the Crisco sticks)

3/4 cup butter (not margarine)

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp almond extract

2 tsp vanilla extract

dollop of sour cream (this is a recent addition from my sister Amanda, and it gives a perfect little puffiness to the cookies)

Day 1

Blend sugar, shortening and butter well (ideally in your Bosch... if you have a kitchen aid I will forgive you but will convince you in a later post why a Bosch is sooo worth the money even though it might not look as cute as the kitchen aid sitting on your counter). Add eggs, vanilla and almond flavorings and sour cream; beat well. Add flour 1 cup at a time until dough is stiff.

Wrap dough in wax paper and refrigerate at least 2 hours until chilled. For a batch this size, I suggest wrapping 2 separate little blobs so that the dough doesn't warm up too much while you are rolling and cutting out your shapes the next day. As the dough warms up, it becomes very difficult to keep the cookies in their shapes while moving them to the cookie sheet.

Day 1 is finished! Your cookie dough can stay overnight (and really even several days) in your fridge if you aren't ready to bake the next day.

Day 2

Roll out dough onto floured surface and cut into shapes with cookie cutters. A darling little helper is suggested, but not mandatory :)

Bake cookies at 375 for approximately 10 minutes until they are slightly golden around the edges and nice and puffy. Allow to cool for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Once completely cooled, you can store them in a Tupperware container and either refrigerate them if you plan on frosting the next day, or freeze if you need more time till frosting day. Day 2 is finished!

Day 3

Butter Cream Frosting ingredients:

4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cube butter

1/4 cup half and half (or more as needed for consistency)

1 tsp vanilla

Cream cheese (optional)

Food coloring

Melt butter in microwave in medium sized mixing bowl. Add about 1/4 cup half and half. Add powdered sugar slowly while mixing. Add vanilla. Continue to add half and half as needed to obtain a thick and creamy consistency. (Occasionally I add a a few Tbsp cream cheese for a slightly richer flavor... it's up to you!)

Scoop frosting into separate bowls, add your desired coloring to each bowl and frost away! This is the fun part for the kiddos to help. We like to add little treats and shapes to our cookies. This year's Halloween cookies are NOT the most beautiful or creative due to lack of time, but they still tasted fabulous!

Enjoy!