In case you think I named this blog Burnt Cookies just to be cute, I'd like to report that I'm still burning cookies. This is a good good recipe that I made last week and for the last batch I dumped in extra chocolate chips, just to use them up, and then I wandered off to the laundry room and completely forgot that I had cookies in the oven. The smell reminded me before they got black. Now, this picture doesn't do them justice...they really are burned. Or at least too brown for anyone in this house to eat.
Becky told me about this Oatmeal Cookie recipe - it's in a cookbook called, "Favorites - A Collection of Favorite Ivory Family Recipes" published to benefit the Make-a-Wish Foundation. I don't personally know the Ivory family, but after using this cookbook, I can tell they're good cooks. From the Raspberry Macadamia Salad (Dorothy Watts introduced me to the yummy raspberry dressing) to the Roast Pork with Crabapple Jelly Sauce to the Tollhouse Pie, I could cook exclusively from this cookbook for a year and Scott would think he got a new wife. What, no sloppy joes? No dry roast? No strawberry jello with one banana? Where's Debbie? Anyway, here's the cookie recipe. Try it and enjoy.
Favorite Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 (11 ounce) package milk chocolate chips
Cream together butter, margerine and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Sift or stir together flour, salt, soda, baking powder and mix in just until combined. Stir in oats and chocolate chips. Drop balls onto cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 350 degrees.
Here are my notes on the recipe. I don't like the taste and texture when I make cookies with both butter and margarine. I prefer butter and shortening. I always use half of each. I think it makes the cookies softer. I always buy good butter like Land o' Lakes or Challenge. And I use Crisco - but never the butter flavor Crisco - ick. I love the pre-measured sticks of Crisco. I think cookies taste better if you use really good vanilla. And it's true that you should beat the butter/egg/sugar mixture really well, but once you put the flour in, barely barely mix it. (I learned this from my Aunt Norma, who is one of the best cooks I know.) I put the oats and chocolate chips right in with the last cup of flour, so I have to mix it even less. (I use a Bosch mixer - and I know when I've added enough flour because the dough barely pulls away from the sides of the bowl.) I prefer semi-sweet chocolate chips, but Mike likes the milk chocolate so I use them too. (When cookies have milk chocolate chips, your mouth has to search around to find the chocolate flavor.) Be careful not to overbake the cookies - take them out before you think they're done. I put a few cookies in the glass cookie jar, then freeze the rest. (My cookie jar is clear so Scott will see the cookies; he would never go looking for a cookie or any food for that matter, so if the cookies are in a clear cookie jar, he might notice them and eat one. I wish I had his non-regard for food.) I almost always double the recipe when I make cookies. Maybe that's why I burn them, because I'm so sick of baking by the time I get to that last batch. My last cookie fact: I love cookie dough. I could eat it for breakfast with Diet Coke every morning. Thinking about it makes me want to go to bed so I can get up and make these cookies.
