Tag Archives: chocolate chip

Granola Cookies

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 By now, you all know how much I love granola. After a lifetime of insisting I hated it, I tried the homemade variety, and the rest is history. There is always a giant jar of the stuff on my counter, full of crispy, glossy oats and whatever odds and ends I can find in my cookie mix-in cabinet.

Yes, I have an entire cabinet dedicated to cookie mix-ins. Doesn’t everybody?! 😜 

My current batch is a play on my Maple Pecan Granola, made with pecans and almonds, large flaked coconut, chia seeds, and brown rice syrup to encourage a little clustering. I usually eat it with yogurt and fruit, but last week, I got a little crazy and bypassed the breakfast option in favor of cookies.

I took my favorite chewy oatmeal cookie base, swapped in granola for 2/3 of the quantity of oats, and threw in some chocolate chips. Within an hour (because this dough doesn’t require a chill!), I was biting into warm, chewy, chocolaty, nutty Granola Cookies. 

I love this recipe as-is, but I’ve already been dreaming up other flavors. How about peanut butter? Swap in 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter for one stick of the softened butter, and use my Peanut Butter Granola! Yum! If you like dried fruit in your granola, you could swap out some or all of the chocolate chips for raisins, dried cranberries, or anything else that strikes your fancy.

You guys, these Granola Cookies are so good that I’ve made three batches in five days. I’m out of granola mid-week and I’m not even miffed about it. Nope–changing my routine in the name of dessert has been totally worth it. And even if it weren’t, I could console myself with a cookie or two. 

 Granola Cookies
makes about 5 dozen cookies

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
2 1/2 cups granola (homemade or purchased)
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a small-medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat butter until light and fluffy. Beat in dark brown and granulated sugars, followed by eggs and vanilla. Add flour mixture in two installments, mixing to combine. Beat in oats and granola, followed by chocolate chips. Drop dough by the tablespoon onto prepared baking sheets, making sure the mounds of dough are at least 2 inches apart.

Bake 4 minutes. Rotate the sheet pans top to bottom in the oven before baking for an additional 4-5 minutes. Cookies are done when the tops are no longer doughy-looking. Let cool on the pans for five minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely. Repeat baking process with any remaining dough.

Cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Cookies

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 One of the best things about being a baker is watching people enjoy what you’ve made. When you’ve put a few hours (or more!) into making something delicious, it’s always a treat when your friends really love it. I am really lucky–for the last 18 months, I’ve had the opportunity to make cookies for 30+ of my closest acquaintances every Wednesday night. My cookie commitment is one of the highlights of my week. I love bringing in whatever I’ve been working on lately and seeing how it goes over with the crowd. If all the cookies disappear within the first half hour, I know I’ve got something blog-worthy. These Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Cookies have done that three times. Three.

I first made these cookies about a year ago. It was one of those rare days when I was down to a single stick of butter. I sat in front of my refrigerator dreading going to Trader Joe’s at rush hour (read: every single hour they’re open) just for butter. I mean, if I’m going to brave that kind of craziness, I better need at least five different things, and the free sample better be taquitos. I dug around the back of my fridge for something–anything–that might work, and lo and behold, I found a half-brick of cream cheese. I mixed it into some dough, baked some cookies, and headed out the door.

I set these cookies on a platter next to the coffee pot and waited for the crowds. I wasn’t expecting much, if any, fanfare–they were just oatmeal cookies, after all. But life is funny, and less than thirty minutes later the cookies were gone and my friends were raving about the super chewy texture! 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Cookies have been one of the few recipes I’ve repeated with that group, and they disappear in a flash every single time. Last night, they were gone in fifteen minutes flat! 

So, why does cream cheese make these cookies so special? Well, it’s all in the chemistry. In standard oatmeal cookie recipes, eight ounces of butter are softened and beaten into the wet ingredients. The high fat content in the butter allows for the resulting cookies to bake up super tender. There’s plenty of chew from the oats, but the cookie base stays pretty soft.

If, however, you use four ounces of softened butter and four ounces of softened cream cheese, the resulting cookies will be extra chewy. This is because cream cheese has a butterfat content of 35% and a water content of 55%. Butter, on the other hand, has a butterfat content of 84% and a water content of 15%. The fat (butterfat, in this case) is what keeps our cookies from drying out and becoming rocks. It keeps everything moist after the water evaporates and makes the resulting cookies super soft, chewy and delicious. It also keeps them from spreading very much in the oven.

Where standard oatmeal cookie dough has 84% butterfat, this oatmeal cream cheese cookie dough has about 60% butterfat. This means that a) the resulting cookies will be slightly chewier than they are soft, and b) they will have fewer calories, so you can eat more with less guilt 😊 
Whew! That’s a lot of science for a Thursday. Too much.

The point is this: these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Cookies aren’t your average oatmeal cookies. While you may not be able to really taste the cream cheese, you will notice the extra chewiness…and trust me, you’ll love it. 

 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Cookies
makes about 4 dozen cookies

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
4oz full fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat softened butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Beat in dark brown and granulated sugars, followed by eggs and vanilla. Mix in flour mixture in two installments, scraping the bowl as necessary. Beat in oats in two installments, followed by chocolate chips.

Drop dough onto prepared pans by the tablespoon, keeping them about 2 inches apart (the cookies won’t spread much). Bake 9-11 minutes, until no longer raw-looking. Let cool on the pans for five minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely. Repeat baking process until all dough has been used.

Cookies will keep covered at room temperature for up to a week.

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

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 It seems like everyone hates Mondays, but I think Wednesdays are the real problem. On Monday and Tuesday, I just had a weekend, and on Thursday and Friday, I’m anticipating another. But on Wednesday, I’m just stuck in the middle. It’s torture. The idea that there are two more days until I can sleep in again is almost too much to bear 😭

Anybody else feel the same way?
 Perhaps, this Wednesday, you could use a cookie. A really big, puffy cookie full of peanut butter and chocolate, and super chewy from oats and brown sugar. Yes. That might make Wednesday worth surviving.

These Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies are super easy–perfect for a little weeknight baking session. All the ingredients are things you probably already have. The cookies turn out big and puffy, even though there’s no chill. And it doesn’t make a huge batch: only about fifteen cookies. That’s just enough to get you and your family through til Friday 😊 

We start by creaming together softened butter and peanut butter. I recommend using creamy peanut butter. Where most oatmeal cookies spread from the butter melting in the oven, the peanut butter in this recipe keeps these cookies puffing up instead of out. This is because peanut butter doesn’t have a fat content as high as butter’s. But don’t use just any peanut butter. The natural variety is simply too thin and runny to make these cookies anything but flat, and possibly lacy. With the thicker peanut butter, these cookies puff right up. I use Jif in my baking, but use whatever you like, as long as it’s thick.

Once the butter and peanut butter are fluffy, cream in the sugars. These cookies require one part granulated sugar, and two parts dark brown sugar. This will give the cookies a bit of molasses flavor and, with the addition of an egg, will keep everything moist and chewy. A little vanilla rounds out the flavor.

Next come the dry ingredients, a simple combination of flour, baking soda, and salt. Then, the oats! These will make everything nice and chewy, which contrasts sooo well with all the puffiness from the peanut butter! And then there are the chocolate chips, which of course, are perfect with peanut butter. They may have a little bit of a hard time incorporating into the dough, but just press them in. They’ll stay. 

 The dough is scooped in two tablespoon increments, rolled, and baked for about ten minutes. They puff up to be huge. The outsides get golden and crispy, and the insides stay a little underbaked and ultra-peanut buttery. The oats make for a ton of chew and texture. And of course, there’s a ton of melty chocolate!

My favorite way to enjoy these Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies is with a cup of coffee or tea, or crumbled over vanilla ice cream. No matter how you enjoy them, they’re sure to remedy any case of the mid-week blues! 

 Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
makes about 15 medium-large cookies

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
6 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together butter and peanut butter until smooth, about one minute. Add sugars, and beat until light and fluffy. Add egg, followed by vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, and salt, followed by oats. Fold in chocolate chips.

Scoop dough in two tablespoon increments. Roll into balls and set on prepared pan at least two inches apart. Bake for 9-11 minutes, until puffy and no longer raw looking. Let cool on pan for five minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely.

Cookies will keep covered at room temperature for up to one week. 

No-Churn Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

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 I know. I know! Who makes ice cream in February?!

But I have three very good reasons:

1. It’s been in the fifties and sixties multiple times since last weekend’s deep freeze. In NYC, that’s practically June.
2. Until last week, I hadn’t had a freezer bigger than a shoe box in three years. I had to have something to put in it!
3. I wanted ice cream. 

But what kind of ice cream? My two favorite flavors are Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Mint Chocolate Chip. I hadn’t been able to keep either at home for so long, making that decision just seemed impossible. 

But what about a combination of the two? A rich vanilla-mint ice cream stuffed to the gills with bits of edible mint chocolate chip cookie dough? And no-churn (because I don’t have an ice cream machine)? That would do the trick. And so, I got to work.

This ice cream is so easy, it’s stupid. Anybody could make it. The most difficult part is being patient for six hours while it sets in the freezer. The base is made entirely of sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream, a combination that sounds like it shouldn’t work at all, but it totally does. The sweetened condensed milk (you guessed it!) sweetens the base, and since it’s condensed, it keeps ice crystals from forming while the ice cream is freezing. It also adds a little richness. The heavy cream is whipped and then folded into the sweetened condensed milk. This makes everything super creamy and light-textured, and ensures that the ice cream is scoopable. Add a little vanilla and freeze it, and you have some fantastic homemade vanilla ice cream.  But we’re not after vanilla ice cream today. No, this is first-ice-cream-in-three-years ice cream. This is exciting ice cream!

 Okay, maybe I’m being a little over-enthusiastic.

In this recipe, the sweetened condensed milk is flavored with vanilla and just a bit of peppermint extract. The whipped cream is folded in, followed by 1/2 cup of miniature chocolate chips. Then comes the best part: little pieces of eggless edible cookie dough flavored with a bit more peppermint and filled with more miniature chocolate chips. I dyed mine green to go with the mint chocolate chip theme (and because I think it’s cute), but food coloring is optional. Freeze it in a loaf pan, and scoop away!

So, who cares if it’s February? And who needs an ice cream machine? With this No-Churn Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream, the answer is “nobody.” 

 No-Churn Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
makes about 8 cups

Edible Cookie Dough:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons milk of choice
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract*
3-5 drops liquid green food coloring, optional
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour*
1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips

Ice Cream:
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk (not fat free)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract*
2 cups heavy cream, cold
1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips

Put a 9×5″ loaf pan* in the freezer to chill.

Make the edible cookie dough. In a medium mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to cream butter and granulated sugar together until light and fluffy. Add milk, vanilla and peppermint extracts, and food coloring, and beat together until completely combined. Add in flour and salt. Mix until combined, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Add mini chocolate chips and mix until well-dispersed. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Line a pan with wax paper. Remove dough from refrigerator. Scoop dough by the 1/2 teaspoon and roll into balls. Place rolled dough into wax paper-lined pan. Dough balls may touch–this is okay. Once all dough has been scooped and rolled, place full pan in freezer for an additional 15-30 minutes.

Prepare the no-churn ice cream. Pour sweetened condensed milk into the bottom of a large mixing bowl. Whisk in vanilla and peppermint extracts. Set aside.

In a separate mixing bowl, beat cream with an electric mixer until it holds billowy peaks, about three minutes. Slowly fold whipped cream into sweetened condensed milk, being careful not to deflate it too much or overmix. Fold in miniature chocolate chips.

Remove the frozen loaf pan and the dough balls from the freezer. Spread half the sweetened condensed milk mixture in the loaf pan. Top with half the dough balls. Spread the second half of the sweetened condensed milk mixture on top, followed by the remaining dough balls. Use a table knife to stir the cookie dough balls around. Cover the pan with two layers of plastic wrap, pressing it onto the surface of the ice cream. Wrap covered pan with aluminum foil. Chill six hours or overnight before scooping.

No-Churn Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream keeps well covered in the freezer for about two weeks.

Notes:

1. Make sure you are using peppermint extract. Mint extract is not the same thing.
2. If you have concerns about eating raw flour, I suggest microwaving the flour for one minute, then letting it come back to room temperature before mixing.
3. Do not be tempted to use more than 1/4 teaspoon of peppermint extract in the ice cream base (or the cookie dough for that matter). Peppermint extract is very potent, and can easily make things taste like toothpaste if too much is added.
4. If you’d rather not use your loaf pan for this recipe, you may use another container with an 8 cup capacity. I recommend a glass Tupperware.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

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 As I’ve mentioned previously, I have a cookie commitment every Wednesday night. Usually I bring two different kinds of cookies or bars, but yesterday, I went all-in on Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip. You see, I had made one batch from Molly Wizenberg’s recipe and had big plans to make some Heath Bar blondies. All would have gone according to plan, except that I had more cookies than I needed. So naturally, I had a little snack…let’s call it quality control 😉 These cookies were (and are!) good: sweet and chocolaty with the nutty, slightly savory qualities of whole wheat. But there was one little problem: they were crunchy where I would have liked them to be soft. While this may not have fazed another baker, it got me thinking: how could I adjust these to be soft and chewy? A few things ran through my mind: cutting or increasing the flour, adding cornstarch, adjusting the leaveners, reducing the sugar. I did a little mental baking chemistry and got to work making a second batch that would hopefully be on the softer side. The resulting cookies had all the qualities I liked from the original recipe with the added benefit of soft, chewy middles. I 💗 cookie science (and rare kitchen experiments that work on the first try).

But now I had a little problem: nine dozen cookies that were all basically the same flavor. What was a baker to do? Answer: have a Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookie taste-off. I labeled Molly’s recipe as Batch A and mine as Batch B, and determined that I’d post whichever recipe won. As people started to trickle in, I explained my mission. Thank goodness these are friends, or they’d all just think I’m nuts. Well, they probably do think I’m nuts and are my friends regardless. It probably doesn’t hurt that I literally always have cookies 😊 Anyway…there were people on both sides of the argument. My friends who like thinner, crunchier cookies were firmly for Batch A, but the vast majority must be soft and chewy cookie fans because Batch B won by a landslide. So, here we are. 

  These cookies start with whisking together whole wheat flour, cornstarch, baking powder and soda, and salt. As I wrote earlier this week, whole wheat flour can produce heavy, dry baked goods if not treated properly. Here, we add cornstarch, which lightens the flour a bit and gives the cookies a little softness. Also, we use both baking soda and baking powder. The vast majority of my drop cookies (with the exception of sugar cookies) only require baking soda, but since whole wheat flour is heavier than all-purpose, these need a little bit more help to puff up properly. We add a teaspoon of baking powder to the mix–it contains both an acid (cream of tartar) and a base (baking soda), and will keep the cookies from being too hard.

The wet ingredients are standard cookie fodder. Two sticks of softened butter are beaten until light and fluffy. Then come light brown sugar and granulated sugar, followed by two room temperature eggs and some vanilla. Then, add the dry ingredients in two installments, making sure that everything is fully incorporated. Fold in some semisweet chocolate chips and then chill the dough for 45 minutes. Where most of my cookie recipes require a chill of at least 90 minutes to prevent spreading, the heaviness (and quantity) of the whole wheat flour means these can be in the cookie jar sooner rather than later. Roll the chilled dough by the tablespoon and bake at 350F for 8-10 minutes. Let the cookies cool a bit and enjoy! 

One quick word about nutrition. No, I am not a nutritionist or health expert of any variety. One thing I can tell you, though, is that the presence of whole wheat flour in these cookies does not make them healthy. Sure, the protein and fiber in whole wheat makes this recipe a bit more nutritious than most chocolate chip cookies, but there is still plenty of butter and sugar (and chocolate!) present. These are simply really good, chewy chocolate chip cookies that happen to be made with whole wheat flour. Nothing more, nothing less.

Whew! That was a little too serious for a baking blog.

If you’re looking for a treat to make this weekend, these are the way to go. The combination of whole wheat and chocolate will pleasantly surprise anyone with whom you choose to share! These cookies are definitely winners. 
 Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies by Molly Wizenberg
makes about 4.5 dozen cookies

3 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour*
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoons Kosher or sea salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together white whole wheat flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a separate large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat butter until light and fluffy. Beat in dark brown sugar and granulated sugar, followed by eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients in two installments, beating until completely combined. Beat in chocolate chips, kneading the dough a bit if necessary. Cover dough and chill for 45 minutes, or up to three days.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Scoop dough by the tablespoon and roll into balls, setting them two inches apart on the prepared pans. Bake 8-10 minutes until they look just a touch underdone. Let cool on the sheet pans for five minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Cookies will keep covered at room temperature for up to a week.

Note:

Regular whole wheat flour may be substituted for white whole wheat flour.