Category: Desserts

Chocolate chip cookies are my go-to “feel productive” project. Whenever I’m spinning my wheels or feeling stuck on an issue, I take a break to pull out flour, butter, sugar and eggs, and get mixing. Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, in particular, are my specialty — largely because they’re my husband Nate’s favorite, and because I continually try to trick myself into thinking the oats make them healthier (more fiber or something, right?!) — but I can’t help dabbling with the basic recipe, mixing in whatever’s in the pantry to create new riffs on the classic.

Some of my favorite oatmeal chocolate chip mix-ins:

Cinnamon adds a little spice to the cookie itself. Dried cherries give it a tartness to offset all the sweet. An Oreo stuffed inside creates a gooey, ultra-decadent core. Hershey’s Kisses are a chocoholic’s twist on Peanut Butter Blossoms. By far, though, my favorite spin right now is toasted coconut.

Why toasted coconut?

I had toasted an entire bag of unsweetened coconut flakes to go with a batch of piña colada “nice cream,” a dairy-free dessert. There was plenty leftover after the cookout, so I poured half a cup into my classic oatmeal chocolate chip dough. Jackpot! If you like Samoas, you’ll go crazy for these. (A drizzle of caramel would make them an excellent stand-in for the Girl Scout cookie, actually.)

Sure, baking a batch of cookies won’t solve anything — beyond a raging sugar craving, that is — but there’s something kind of cathartic in all that mixing and stirring. You can zone out, letting your brain sift through whatever’s bothering you … and, in half an hour, be rewarded with a gooey, chocolatey dessert.

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Toasted Coconut & Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 unsweetened coconut flakes
• 3/4 c all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2/3 c packed brown sugar
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp milk (or water)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 c old-fashioned oats
• 1 c semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. First, toast the coconut: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread in a thin layer on a baking sheet, baking for 4-6 minutes, stirring occasionally until most of the coconut is a light golden brown. Set aside coconut to cool, and turn up the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Make the cookie dough: In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat sugars and butter until light and creamy, about 3 minutes. Slowly beat in egg, milk (or water) and vanilla extract, then gradually add flour mixture until a soft dough forms. Turn off electric mixer and use a silicone spatula to fold in oats, chocolate chips and toasted coconut.
4. Drop rounded spoonfuls of cookie dough onto the baking sheet, placing each dough ball about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 9-10 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden. Set aside to cool for at least 7-10 minutes.

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https://www.lifebetweenweekends.com/toasted-coconut-chocolate-chip-oatmeal-cookies/

Copyright: Life Between Weekends, 2024

When it comes to Thanksgiving pies, only one matters in my family’s household: Chocolate pudding pie. It’s my dad’s specialty; so coveted he has to make two whole desserts (plus several pudding cups) to keep us from stabbing each other with forks, fighting for each morsel.

I’m only just barely exaggerating here.

The only one safe from the pudding pie melee is my brother, Tyler, who prefers pecan to anything else. He’s woefully outnumbered and typically content with pecan of any kind (even the 50-cent mini pies sold near the Walmart checkout), so typically, his Thanksgiving dessert of choice comes from a store. Especially since the average pie recipe can include $7-$9 worth of pecans!

This year, I wanted to make two pecan pies completely from scratch. The ingredients alone cost $28 — not much, but when compared to the stacks of desserts sold for $6 apiece, you start to question whether it could possibly be worth the effort.

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It’s so many things! So many wonderful, lick-your-fingers-and-scoop-up-the-crumbs wonderful things!

My all-time favorite banana bread recipe comes with a hearty scoop of shortening, and as delicious as it is, I’m trying to eat a smidge healthier, so I set out to create a lightened-up version. After a few “meh” attempts over the past year, I stumbled upon this version from Rachael Ray, which uses vegetable oil.

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By far, the most exciting part of middle school math was the hallowed day of March the 14th, when the algebra and pre-algebra teachers would band together to celebrate Pi Day. If you weren’t part of this jubilant festival and have no idea what I’m talking about, essentially this was the day when math instructors everywhere could put on their cool caps and ply students to calculate equations game show-style in the hopes of winning a Little Debbie confection (or a cafeteria turnover, though that hardly felt like a prize).

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A 2020 PSA: If you can’t find Hershey’s Truffle Kisses, don’t drive yourself crazy searching. This year’s limited-edition Valentine’s Day Hershey’s flavor is a dark chocolate molten lava cake flavor. Which is basically the same thing (and ridiculously delicious on their own).

I’ve always been a fan of peanut butter blossoms — you know, those dense cookies with the Hershey’s Kiss on top — but the chocolate-to-peanut butter ratio has always felt a little off. You get one bite of mega-cocoa-y goodness, sandwiched between two “meh” bites of straight-up peanut butter cookie. (Confession: As a kid, I would eat the center and toss the edges from time to time.)

Then, one day, I asked myself something that thousands of people have probably thought before me: Why do I have to make these with peanut butter cookies, if I’m not so keen on them? Why not use a cookie I already love every bite of?

It felt like a huge Aha moment at the time, especially when I discovered Hershey’s latest confectionery treasure:

Chocolate Truffle Kisses.

They’re dark chocolate Hershey’s Kisses with a melty, decadent truffle center.

Instantly, I knew what I had to do: Make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with a truffle top. For some, it may be chocolate overload. For me, it’s bliss.

I used my go-to oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe, then, just as the cookies came out of the oven, plopped an unwrapped truffle Kiss on each one, just like you would with a Peanut Butter Blossom.

What Makes These Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Truffle Blossom Cookies So Outrageously Good:

One thing I didn’t realize: The soft truffle center made for a less-solid Hershey’s Kiss, and the heat of the cookie soon caused each truffle to melt like the Wicked Witch of the West after being doused with water.

…Which made it even better.

The truffley puddle spread out across the top of each cookie, fixing the off-kilter chocolate-to-cookie ratio the normal Blossoms had. Within fifteen minutes or so, the truffles solidified in their new shape, so you don’t have to worry about them being a gooey, drippy mess. (Though honestly, how can you resist grabbing a warm cookie with a molten chocolate core?!)

It’s the perfect Valentine’s Day treat for anyone with a raging sweet tooth.

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Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Truffle Blossom Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 package Hershey’s Truffle Kisses (or any chocolate candy)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. As it preheats, stir the flour, baking soda and salt in one bowl.
2. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugars together until it’s become a pale yellow, fluffy mixture. Beat in the eggs, water and vanilla extract, then reduce the mixer to low speed and gradually stir in the flour-baking-soda-salt mixture. Fold in the oats and chocolate chips until just combined.
3. Scoop a heaping tablespoon of dough for each cookie, placing them about 1 inch apart on the cookie sheet. Bake for 7-8 minutes, until the cookies are very lightly golden, and remove from heat. Immediately top each one with a truffle Kiss, pressing down slightly so it sticks to the cookie. After about 5 minutes, use a spatula to move them to wire racks to finish cooling.

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https://www.lifebetweenweekends.com/oatmeal-chocolate-chip-truffle-blossom-cookies/

Copyright: Life Between Weekends, 2024

For years, I’ve been on a quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. I’ve tried the ones on the back of every bag of semisweet chocolate chips, the infamous New York Times recipe (including its painful 24-hour refrigeration process), ones proclaiming to be “the ONLY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE RECIPE YOU’LL EVER WANT!!!!” on Pinterest, but I never quite found what I was looking for.

Until now.

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