Oatmeal Coconut Chewies

As a kindergarten teacher, I acquire some odd things. I've collected small nick-knacks given to me by little hands, items left in cubbies, and various artifacts from the playground. Also, random food items; as part of the Christmas party, kindergarteners make candy trees instead of gingerbread houses. As the teacher, I request parents to send various candy items to school: white frosting, M&Ms, licorice, marshmallows, chocolate chips, coconut, etc. Kids get to frost pointy ice cream cones with green frosting and stick candy all over it. Of course, by the end students have mouths dyed by green frosting and they are hyped up from all the candy that didn't make it on the tree.

I had some extra coconut that I had no use for at school, so i brought it home to use. I didn't feel too bad doing this, because the kids really weren't that into coconut and it would be better used in my cabinets. So I come home and shove 3 bags of coconut in my cabinet, not having a clue what I should do with them. I scour the internet for different recipes and definitely found a few winners. Among them were these Oatmeal Coconut Chewies from Mel at Mel's Kitchen Cafe. These are tasty with an awesome chewy texture if you bake them just right. They come together quickly and are fantastic if you have coconut to use, like me!

Time: 10 min prep and 10 min for each tray you bake
Ingredients
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup softened butter
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup quick oats

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cream together both sugars, eggs, butter, and vanilla until it looks like this...

 

Pretty color for baking... :)

Dump in the baking powder, soda, salt, and flour and mix until it's all combined.

Finally, dump in the oatmeal and coconut and stir to combine.

It will be pretty thick, but mix it as well as you can.

Grease your cookies sheets or slap your parchment paper on there and drop the dough by tablespoons a couple inches apart. They will spread quite a bit so be sure to leave some space.

Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes. They should be just barely browned. If they brown too much they will be crispy and not chewy. In my picture below, I actually overbaked them slightly. Watch them carefully!

Let them cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes and place them on a cooling rack. These cookies are amazing especially if you just want something sweet, but not too sweet. Good stuff!

Original recipe at http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2010/06/oatmeal-coconut-chewies.html

Slutty Brownies....Finally!

So looking at my blog, I can see that I have not posted since the beginning of April...it is now towards the end of May. That lack of activity can be attributed to a hectic schedule. But, school is over for the year! The end of the year is a time of ridiculous crazyness, but it is over! To catch up, I have ended my last year as a Kindergarten Dual-Language teacher and will be teaching K-6 Spanish in a different district. As for TBDH, he is still figuring out what he wants to do. Currently is is interning with a computer repair service and looking for jobs. We will see what happens.
As school was coming to an end, I decided I needed to take something special to the staff. These brownies seemed perfect. Oreos were on sale and I had an idea. I found these Slutty Brownies on Pintrest from several different sources, but they were all essentially the same. One source actually did give some reason for the name. She says that these are easy and just a little bit dirty. One source also called them Lasagna Brownies, but I'm a fan of the Slutty moniker. I tried making these brownies once and they turned out pretty good, but I knew they could be better. I tried a second time but they weren't as good as the first time. So I had an idea to help these reach their full potential. Essentially these brownies are cookie dough, Oreo, and brownie. The first and second time I made these I discovered the cookie dough bakes much faster than the brownie, creating a drier crust and with a very moist top. I was hoping for more moisture in the cookie layer too.
My brilliant idea was to make these in muffin tins instead of a large pan! Brilliant, right?! It's not that exciting until to taste them. So moist and delicious. You must try these!

Time: 40 minutes
Makes about 2.5 dozen brownies with extra cookie dough
Ingredients
Full recipe of your favorite chocolate chip cookie dough (I use the Nestle Tollhouse recipe for these, with slight alteration)
Brownie batter (I'm a fan of Betty Crocker's Fudge Brownie Mix)
1 package of Oreos

Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
1 stick of soften butter
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 cup chocolate chips

Betty Crocker Fudge Brownies
1 brownie mix
1/4 cup water
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 375

For the cookies
Cream the butter, sugars, and vanilla extract until all combined. Beat in the two eggs one at a time. Combine the flour, salt, and baking soda. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet until all is mixed. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips. Let that sit aside while you make the brownie batter and try to not eat all the dough. Cookie dough is my weakness...

For the Brownies
Combine brownie mix, water, oil, and eggs until all the mix is moistened. It's ok if their are some lumps.

Assembly
You can either line muffin tins with papers or spray them very well with cooking spray. Press cookie dough into each muffin well until it is about half full. Next, press an Oreo into each well.

Finally, top the wells off with brownie batter until the Oreos are covered.

Place the deliciousness into the oven for 16-18 minutes or until brownie top is done. Let the pan cool for about 5-10 minutes before lifting the liners out. If not using liners, let the brownies cool even longer before trying to remove them. You can let them cool completely before eating them, but you might as well try one while they are warm. I have also heard these are good with vanilla ice cream on top, but I never make it that far. My only regret is that I didn't take a picture of this sliced open...it's beautiful when you see the layers.

I was testing liners vs. non-liners..both are amazing :)

My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

So there are a lot of different Chocolate Chip Cookies recipes and I'm sure many of you have tried lots of different ones; I know I have. I have several recipes that I like, but when I came across this recipe from Tessa at Handle the Heat, I knew I had found something special. The texture of these cookies is how all chocolate chip cookies should be. They are chewy and stay that way for a few days. I took a batch of these to school last year and several people told me these were the best cookies ever. I made them again recently and go similar reviews. LSH took some to law school and most of them were devoured quickly. One great thing about this recipe is that the dough really isn't that tasty. If you are like me, eating the raw cookie dough is a huge temptation. This dough is not that tempting and is much better saved for cooked cookies. :D

Time: 60ish minutes by the time you get them all baked
Makes about 4 dozen cookies
Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp hot water
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cream together the butter and both sugars in a big bowl until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time and finish off with the vanilla.

Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water and add it to the batter. (I think this is the step that does something special to the texture of the cookies. I had never made a recipe that did this before.) Finally add the salt.

Stir in the flour one cup at a time using a heavy-duty spatula (I almost broke a plastic one doing this). Keep adding the flour until everything is incorporated. Once everything is mixed, add in the chocolate chips. The original recipe called for 2 cups, but I like a high ratio of chips to dough so I added some more.

Once chips are folded in, use a spoon or a spiffy cookie scoop to drop large globs of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Leave some space between them because they will spread a bit.

Bake them for 10-12 minutes or until the middles are set and the edges are starting to brown. Let them sit on the pan for about 2 more minutes and then move them to a cooling rack.

Let them cool, or not, and enjoy with a tall glass of milk!

Original post at http://www.handletheheat.com/2011/05/classic-chocolate-chip-cookies.html