I love the taste of chocolate mixed with coffee. In desserts. But not in beverages. That’s right, I don’t care for mocha in beverage form. But I cannot get enough of it in desserts.

Coffee in its various forms (actual coffee/espresso, Kahlua or espresso powder) is probably my favorite flavor to add to chocolate desserts (although peanut butter is hot on coffee’s tail). I’m heavy handed with coffee in any dessert that calls for it and quite frequently I throw a tablespoon of espresso powder into any recipe I make that contains chocolate. In my opinion, the addition of coffee amplifies the chocolate flavor.

So, a couple of weeks ago when we needed a super quick dessert made, this recipe for mocha nut balls was an easy choice. I’d eaten them before at someone else’s house so I knew they were delicious. The cookies themselves are a dark and caffeinated version of the ever popular Mexican wedding cookies. They’re extremely easy to make and as long as you like pecans, coffee and chocolate, you’ll love them. I made the mistake of sharing a few with coworkers and they’ve been asking for more ever since.

The recipe I used is from the Taste of Home website and I think it was originally featured in their print magazine. The only alteration I made was my substitution of 1 1/2 tablespoons espresso powder for the 1 tablespoon of instant coffee granules called for in the recipe. My reason? I prefer espresso over regular coffee.

Mocha Nut Balls

Recipe from Taste of Home

Makes about 50 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup baking cocoa
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules (I used espresso powder.)
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts
• Confectioners’ sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325°.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla.
3. Combine the flour, cocoa and coffee granules.
4. Gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.
5. Stir in pecans.
6. Roll into 1-in. balls. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets.
7. Bake at 325° for 14-16 minutes or until firm. Cool on pans for 1-2 minutes before removing to wire racks.
8. Roll warm cookies in confectioners’ sugar.

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Every weekend, we sit around and plot our meals for the week. Generally one trip to the grocery store follows the meal planning and we rarely stray from the plan. We may not get around to cooking everything we planned to cook but we don’t usually decide to make something completely different once the shopping is done.

Despite having done this for about 2 years, planning meals for the entire week is a challenge for me. I used to be the type that would make a zillion trips to the store and would decide what I wanted to cook on a complete whim. This ended up costing a lot of money and I wasted a lot of food. I also worked in a restaurant for a long time and quite honestly didn’t have to cook that many real dinners. I pretty much never had to think about what to eat for lunch since the restaurant fed me. In addition, I detested leftovers and rarely wanted to make something that would last for several meals.

Fast forward to now and life is pretty different. Instead of working 4+ nights a week, I’m home every night and need to have something to eat for dinner just about every night. I also take lunch with me to work most of the time. When we plan our meals for the week, we think about what we want to eat for lunch and dinner for a full week. To make decision making a little easier, we keep a list of all of the meals I’ve cooked that we liked enough to eat again. We also have to think about leftovers. It’s rare that I don’t cook something with the intention of eating it again at least once. All this planning is not an easy task. For me, it takes a little bit of the fun out of cooking. I liked the old way…where I would wake up and decide what I felt like cooking. Fortunately I still get to bake on a whim as we don’t plan desserts or baked goods in advance and I keep enough supplies in the house to bake nearly anything we might crave.

So…here’s what we’ve planned to eat this week. Pretty much everything on the list will be eaten more than once.

Pork Fried Rice - I use a variation of the recipe in Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. I’ve made this enough times that I don’t actually need the cookbook anymore. This is great reheated in the microwave and even better if you fry it a second time. Also, my version is made with brown rice.

Potato Leek Soup – I like mine pureed and topped with cheese and chives. The topping is not necessarily traditional but it’s delicious. The version I’ll make is from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters.

Shrimp Cakes with Tartar Sauce - Like crab cakes…but with shrimp. I found a great recipe online last year at Je Mange la Ville and this will be the recipe I use again this week.

Turkey and Muenster Cheese Sandwiches on Homemade Oatmeal Wheat Bread - I could eat turkey sandwiches every day so they’re a common item when we plan meals. The bread recipe is slightly adapted from one found in the February 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Living. It’s great tasting and doesn’t get stale as fast as a lot of the homemade breads I’ve made.

If all of the food above doesn’t last until Saturday, we’ll have baked potatoes or eggs or vegetables or even a bowl of cereal. We probably won’t have to resort to any of these as I usually make more than enough food.

And then there’s dessert. I don’t have anything planned for later in the week but I did already bake a batch of dark chocolate oatmeal cookies – minus the oatmeal and white chocolate chips in the recipe. Instead I used toffee bits and peanut butter chips. Still very delicious…so much so that they won’t last all week. By Wednesday or Thursday, I’ll need to dream up something else.

P.S. Let me know if you want to stop by for dinner…we’ve usually got plenty of food!

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Yes, I’ve been on a quest for The Holy Grail of chocolate chip cookie recipes. And I think I might have found it!

Published in Everyday Food magazine last fall, Martha Stewart and company dared to call these “Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies”. Ultimate is indeed a good word for these. They really weren’t falsely advertising the goodness of these cookies!

This is where I admit that I’ve wanted a chocolate chip cookie recipe that tastes like the cookies made from the stupid Pillsbury chocolate chip cookie dough that comes in a plastic tube. Despite my baking abilities and my good intentions to eat less processed food, I have to admit that I like the Pillsbury cookies as they are exactly and precisely how I want chocolate chip cookies to taste. I like them crisp around the edges yet soft, chewy and a touch under-baked. Sadly, Pillsbury always delivers on those qualities.

Fortunately this “Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies” recipe came along and I’ll never have to buy Pillsbury again. And neither should you.

The recipe make a lot of small cookies. When I saw how many cookies this recipe was going to produce, I wisely froze some of the scoops of dough for a future dessert emergency. I left them in the freezer for about 6 weeks and honestly the cookies tasted just as good then as they did when the dough was fresh.

You’ll notice that this calls for both milk and semi-sweet chocolate. I’m not a huge fan of milk chocolate but it works in this recipe. Use both kinds!

The recipe also mentions that you can add a couple of cups of walnuts or pecans to the recipe. I did add walnuts to part of the dough and they were a fantastic addition…if you’re the type to enjoy nuts in your cookies.

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe very slightly adapted from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food magazine

Makes approximately 75 small cookies

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons coarse salt (I used kosher salt)
• 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 8 ounces milk chocolate, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. Using a stand mixer (or hand mixer if you don’t have a stand mixer), beat butter and sugars on medium-high until light and fluffy, 6 minutes.
4. Reduce speed to low and beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Mix in flour mixture just until incorporated.
5. Fold in chocolate chips and chocolate chunks.
6. Using a small cookie scoop or a tablespoon, drop dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet with about 2 inches between each scoop of dough.
7. Bake until edges are light golden brown, about 10 minutes if you like your cookies slightly under-baked like I do, rotating sheets halfway through.
8. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool.
9. Bake remaining dough in same manner as directed above. Or if you’ve got more dough than you need, unbaked cookies can be frozen on a baking sheet until firm; store in a resealable plastic bag in the freezer. Bake from frozen in oven preheated to 350 degrees.

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I love flipping through magazines in search of recipes. Over the years I’ve become pretty selective about which ones I actually clip and file for later. Despite my selectivity, the vast majority of the recipes I clip are never made. Then there are the recipes that look so delicious that I make them before they’re ever clipped from the magazine.

These Peanut Butter Cup Cookies were one of those recipes. As soon as I saw these in the latest issue of Real Simple, I knew they would be made. Quickly. Like 2 days later…which was as soon as I could actually justify making another dessert. This recipe was not one that would linger in the binder for years without ever being made. This was a recipe capable of cutting in front of all the other recipes that have been patiently waiting in line for months (or even years).

If you like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (and I do), these are for you. The dough in these cookies is secondary to the Reese’s Cups and I’m okay with that. They’re super easy to make. The hardest part is chopping the Reese’s Cups. If you’re not really a fan of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups or peanut butter, you probably won’t enjoy these as much as I did.

I made only a few modifications to the original recipe. I added a little bit of peanut butter to the dough and I used regular sized Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups instead of mini ones. I prefer the peanut butter to chocolate ratio in the regular sized Reese’s Cups. But if you like the smaller ones better, use them.

This recipe uses a LOT of Reese’s Cups and that could get expensive…but Halloween is approaching and you should be able to find a jumbo-sized bag of them on sale soon!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Adapted from recipe in Real Simple magazine, October 2009.

Makes about 30 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• about 16 regular-sized Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
3. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
4. Beat the butter and sugars until creamy with an electric mixer. Add the egg, vanilla and peanut butter and beat to combine.
5. Gradually add the flour mixture and mix until just incorporated.
6. Fold in the chopped peanut butter cups.
7. Drop tablespoon-size balls of dough 2 inches apart onto the parchment lined cookie sheets.
8. Bake until light brown around the edges, about 10-12 minutes.
9. Transfer to baking rack and cool.
10. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

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Disclaimer: Before I write this post, let me reiterate the name of this site. It’s called The Boastful Baker. Please keep the word “boastful” in mind as you read this particular post. If you don’t want to listen to me brag, stop reading now.

As you might be able to tell from these photos, I made another wedding cake. My second one. The cake for my sister’s wedding in July was for about 75 people. This one was for about 170 people! 170 people! That’s almost 100 more people than the first cake! That’s a lot more cake.

Shortly after I agreed to bake my sister’s wedding cake, I was asked to bake this one. The now married couple worked with me at my old job. The bride read about my plans to bake my sister’s cake on Facebook and decided to offer me the opportunity to make her cake. She knew a little bit about my baking skills and aspirations and figured that it was a good way to get a slightly cheaper cake. She also thought it would be nice to give me, the fledgling cake baker, a chance to show off.

I hesitantly agreed. It may have taken a little arm twisting on the boyfriend’s part to get me to agree to it. It was one thing to agree to make my sister’s wedding cake. She’s my sister. If I screwed her cake up, she’s still my sister and life would go on. Making someone else’s wedding cake was a little more daunting.

Planning this cake was a breeze. The bride (and groom) were very flexible about the cake. We met just once to go over ideas and costs and agreed upon most things immediately. Everything else was easily taken care of with a handful of emails. I am sure that most wedding cake planning experiences are not this fantastic. I got lucky.

On to the cake…

I know this cake looks good. Getting it to look this good was not easy. It took many nights and a couple of days of work. It was stressful knowing that if something didn’t turn out right, I could ruin someone’s wedding. There may have been some yelling. Some cursing. Some name calling. Even some tears.

Baking the actual cakes was fairly simple. I baked over the course of 2 1/2 evenings and everything turned out well. I was a little scared about the largest cake layers not baking evenly…but they turned out just fine in the end.

Making the first few batches of frosting was also pretty easy.

Then the going got tough on the fourth night. I got cocky and thought I had plenty of time to finish the cake. The wedding was still almost 2 days away. All 5 of the cakes were baked. Two of them were already layered and crumb coated with icing. A lot of the frosting was made. So I took a nap. I’d been working hard and I deserved it.

I woke up about 2 hours later and got back to work. Very shortly after that, I sliced my thumb wide open. I may have been slicing the caps off of one of the cake layers in an irresponsible manner with my very sharp serrated bread knife. I’ll take full responsibility for my stupidity and the fact that my stupidity cost me a lot of valuable cake preparation time. I spent the rest of the night fretting about my finger and whether or not it would ever stop bleeding and whether or not I needed to go to the emergency room for stitches and whether or not I would be able to finish the cake in time!

In the end, my thumb ended up okay. It stopped bleeding, I got no stitches and the show went on. Slowly. With barely a day until the wedding, you would think I would be trying to get everything done as quickly as possible. No, I took it slow and lazy. I finished layering and crumb coating the other cakes. And then I took another long nap. And then I went shopping. It was now fairly late at night and the wedding was the following afternoon.

That’s when we realized that there was still a mess of work to be done. Five cake layers needed to be covered in fondant. But first the fondant needed to be colored. I also needed to cover 5 cake boards with satin and ribbon. The first fondant layer got screwed up. Screwed up enough that it was removed and thrown away. Which also meant I needed more frosting. Tensions were high and we were tired. We went to sleep knowing that we had to get up early the next day (the day of the wedding) and that there was a LOT of work left.

We did wake up early. And we raced the clock all day. More frosting was made, lots of fondant was rolled and carefully put on the cakes, cakes were chilled, a million little royal icing beads were dotted on the cake, last minute just-in-case flowers for decoration were procured, more little dots were applied, cake boxes were assembled, pearl colored dust was brushed on the dots, more anxiety set in, supplies for finishing the cakes on site were packed, hasty showers were taken and finally…the cakes were loaded into the car. With literally no time to spare. So little time to spare that I left both the iron and the hot glue gun plugged in.

We got to the reception site with all the cakes intact and started the sprint to the finish. If we wanted to catch the wedding ceremony, we only had about 45 minutes to assemble the cake. We missed the ceremony but at least the cake looked great and I could finally breath. Then I started repeating “I made that?” over and over again to both myself and the boyfriend. Even now, I can’t believe I made it. When the cake was in progress and I was stressed out, I thought there was no way in the world that it could possibly come together. But it did and it was phenomenal.

I then got to take compliments about the cake for the rest of the night. Amazingly, I don’t like being complimented in person. Lots of people came up to me to say “Wow!” and to tell me how good a particular flavor was. The best compliment of all was when the bride saw us for the first time that night and turned to give us a huge, approving grin and a thumbs up.

Another post will follow soon with cake details as I think some of you might be interested in knowing what actually went into baking this thing. You might even want to know what kind of cakes I baked.

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Time for another list of random things I’m thinking about. I liked the last one enough to try it again.

Just out of the oven and cooling on the counter: A raspberry rhubarb tart. We went to the store intending to get peaches or apples for pie…but they had the rhubarb pictured above. I’m still not sure if I like it or not…but it tastes awfully good baked with raspberries.

Will be cooking for dinner tonight: Pork medallions with an apple & golden raisin sauce, roasted potatoes and asparagus.

Currently drinking: Water from my stainless steel Nalgene bottle.

Playing on the iPod right now: Fidelity by Regina Spektor.

Currently checked out from the library: Weeds Season 3 DVD (which is getting a little ridiculous), 30 Rock Season 1 DVD (believe it or not, I haven’t seen any of these episodes), Martha Stewart’s Cooking School and Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell.

Currently reading: Atonement (I’m still pretending that I’m actively reading it), Martha Stewart Living magazine, the last half of Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson and a food related memoir that I can’t remember the name of at this moment.

Would like to buy: a new couch. Preferably a sectional. Possibly brown leather.

Laughing about: Typos. My sister Tasha & I had a rather juvenile email exchange this morning about typos in emails that had me in hysterics. Think about how funny an email might be if you leave the “i” out of “doing”.

Currently knitting: A second pair of  Saartje booties for a friend’s newborn baby. I’m knitting them from Socks That Rock yarn leftover from the Chevron Scarf I made last year.

Anxiously awaiting: Eating the tart cooling on the counter. Also, I really want my daffodils to bloom. I think some of them might actually do so in the next week.

Needs: I still need shoes of all sorts. And some short sleeve shirts for work…that I’ll need if it ever gets warm for more than two days in a row.

Crazy Future Aspirations: To be a domestic diva with an empire. Kind of like Martha Stewart. But without people hating me and definitely without a jail sentence.

Playing on the iPod now: Catch My Disease by Ben Lee.

Attempting to Learn: How to decorate a cake. I can do it…but not nearly as well as I need to do it for the wedding cakes I’ll be making this summer.

Must Resist: Butter. I’m trying to use less of it. This is not easy given my penchant for baking.

What’s Keeping Me Busy: Work. My (mostly) desk job makes me tired sometimes. This surprises me after standing for 9 years at my old job. Of course, part of the problem might be that I can’t force myself to go to bed early.

Hyped Up About: Our new used bed frame. The boyfriend found it on craigslist on Friday night and we had it set up by 4 pm on Saturday. A similar new bed would have cost a lot of money. This bed did not cost a lot of money.

Waiting For: Laundry. It’s in the dryer. Then I have to fold it. And iron it. It’s kind of a Sunday ritual now.

Craving: A milkshake. Maybe a Baskin-Robbins mint chocolate chip milkshake. I haven’t had one of those in years.

Playing on the iPod now: Two by Ryan Adams. Which reminds me…doesn’t it seem odd that he and Mandy Moore are now married?

If I had magical powers: I would make our yard beautiful. Lots of green grass and flowers and vegetables and herbs. And if I had money, I’d think about paying someone to help me with it.

Looking forward to: At least one camping trip in April with friends. We’re either going to the mountains or the beach. Depending on the weather.

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For more Wordless Wednesday posts and info, go here.

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These molasses spice cookies are a favorite here. They’re also very popular with almost everyone else I’ve let have them. One of my old coworkers is pretty much obsessed with them. I made her a batch because she helped us move. Somehow or another, she made the batch of cookies last for more than a week. She loves them so much that she didn’t want her supply to run out.

Just last night, we were visiting some of the boyfriend’s family and the first thing his uncle asked was “Did you bring any of those cookies?” He tried some at Christmas and found out that 2 of his children had some last week. I must remember to bring him some the next time we visit. If I don’t, I might not be welcome back.

The recipe for these cookies is from Baking Illustrated and I really didn’t change a thing. They’re spicy but not too spicy. They’re chewy and gingery and wonderful. While I do like regular crunchy gingersnaps, I much prefer this chewy version.

The only thing you need to be careful of with these cookies is that you don’t overbake them. They should still look a little raw in the cracks that form while they bake. If you’re in doubt, take them out. They’re way better underbaked than they are overbaked. Trust me on this…I learned it the hard way. The hard, dry cookie way.

Molasses Spice Cookies

Recipe from Baking Illustrated

Preparation time: 30 minutes. Makes 18 large cookies.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line cookies sheets with parchment paper (or grease lightly).
2. Mix together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices together in a bowl and set aside.
3. Using a mixer, cream the butter on medium speed for 2 minutes.
4. Add the brown sugar and 1/3 cup granulated sugar. Beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes with mixer set at medium speed.
5. Add egg, vanilla extract, and molasses. Beat until combined, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula.
6. Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds.
7. Place remaining 1/3 cup of granulated sugar in a shallow bowl. Working with 2 Tbsp of dough each time, roll dough into 1 3/4 inch balls. Roll balls in sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheets, spacing them 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart.
8. Bake until the outer edges of the cookies begin to set and centers are soft and puffy, about 10 minutes. Cool cookies on sheets for 2 to 3 minutes before transferring them to cooling racks .

Note: do not overcook. The centers of the cookies should be somewhat soft and spongy when you take them out of the oven, otherwise they will end up hard and dry.

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Many months ago, I wanted to bake chewy sugar cookies but all of the recipes I had required chilling the dough for some obscenely long period of time. I wanted cookies then…not 12 plus hours in the future.

After a little perusing of Food Blog Search, I found a recipe that didn’t require chilling and yielded chewy cookies. Bingo! The recipe can be found on the Fallen Souffle blog. I’m not sure of its original source as she didn’t list it in her post.

These are perfect. They’re quick and easy. I honestly had the first sheet of them out of the oven in about 20 minutes with the assistance of my Kitchenaid stand mixer. If you need something sweet and homemade in a hurry, these will do the trick. They certainly worked for me last Friday night when we were out of dessert and desperate for a quick sugar fix.

I’ve made these cookies at least 7 or 8 times now in various different ways. It’s really easy to add different flavors to the dough. I’ve made them plain and rolled in sugar. I’ve made a triple ginger variety with fresh, powdered and crystallized ginger. I’ve also added almond extract and crushed almonds. The favorite in our house are the lemon ones pictured today. They have lemon extract and dried lemon peel from Penzeys in them.

Side note: I’m kind of obsessed with Penzeys and I’m really obsessed with this dried lemon peel. If you don’t know what Penzeys is, you should. And if you are in the know about Penzeys, buy some dried lemon peel. You might love it as much as I do.

Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies

Recipe from the Fallen Souffle blog

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 – 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract (depending on how lemony you want them to be!)
• 1 tablespoon dried lemon peel
• 1/2 cup sugar for rolling cookies

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. Using a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and very fluffy.
4. Beat in egg, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon peel.
5. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.
6. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and roll in sugar. Place on lined cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.
7. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned.
8. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

One more thing: If you don’t already do this, store your cookies in a conainer with some pieces of bread. Any mildly flavored bread will do. The cookies will suck the moisture out of the bread. The cookies will be soft. And wonderful. I only learned this trick a year or two ago and I now swear by it. If you want soft cookies, you must use the bread.

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So, I posted a picture of these oatmeal sandwich cookies here months ago as a Wordless Wednesday post. The picture was popular and requests (or demands) were made for the recipe. I intended to post the recipe but I goofed and didn’t have a legible copy of it and the cookbook had been returned to the library. I apologized for this and got a little grief from some of my readers for it.

Fast forward to now. The book was finally available at the library. The recipe is posted below and I’m very very very sorry for the delay.

These cookies are pretty similar to Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies. If you enjoyed those as a kid, bake these cookies. If you never had them, bake these cookies…as long as you like oatmeal.

I baked these again tonight and made a slight change to the recipe that I didn’t make the first time I made them. The filling recipe calls for 1/2 cup vegetable shortening. The first time I made these, we could definitely tell that there was shortening in the filling. I’ve got no problems with shortening but I don’t really want to taste it in my food. So when I made the filling today, I used 1/4 cup shortening and 1/4 cup margarine. This did the trick…it didn’t alter the texture of the filling at all but it did eliminate the Crisco taste in the filling. Please note that I did not change the amount of butter in the filling!

The only other change I made to the recipe is that I made smaller cookies.

The recipe below is the original recipe as originally printed in The All-American Cookie Book by Nancy Baggett. I have added a few parenthetical notes about the recipe.

“Old-Timey” Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies

From The All-American Cookie Book by Nancy Baggett

Ingredients

Cookies:

• 2 2/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• generous 1 3/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
• 2/3 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 3 large eggs
• 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

Filling:

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 2/3 cup (1 stick, plus 2 2/3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, slightly softened
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening (See my substitution suggestion in the text above.)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 jar (1 1/3 cups) marshmallow creme (Marshmallow fluff!!)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease several baking sheets or coat with nonstick spray. (I used sheets of parchment paper instead.)
2. In a medium bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on high speed, beat together the brown sugar, butter, shortening, and corn syrup until well blended and lightened, about 1 1/2 minutes.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla, and beat until very light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
5. Beat in half of the flour mixture.
6. Beat or stir in the remaining flour mixture and the oats until evenly incorporated.
7. Drop the dough onto the baking sheets using a 1/8-cup measure or coffee scoop, spacing about 3 inches apart. Using a lightly greased hand, pat down the cookies just slightly. (I used a cookie scoop for this and made slightly smaller cookies.)
8. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, in the middle of the oven for 9 to 12 minutes, or until lightly browned and barely firm when lightly pressed in the centers. Reverse the sheet from front to back halfway through to ensure even browning.
9. Transfer the sheet to a wire rack and let stand until the cookies firm up slightly, about 2 minutes. Using a spatula, transfer the cookies to wire racks. Let stand until completely cooled. (Because I used parchment paper, the spatula wasn’t necessary as the cookies could easily be lifted off the parchment.)
10. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the powdered sugar, butter, shortening, corn syrup, vanilla and salt until well blended and fluffy. Add the marshmallow creme and beat until well blended and smooth.
11. Place half of the cookies underside up. Spoon a generous 2 tablespoons filling in the center of each cookie. Spread the filling to within 1/2 inch of the edge. Cover each with a second cookie of about the same size. Gently press down so the filling almost extends to the edges. (Be generous with the filling. You will have enough.)
12. Store in individual plastic bags in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1 month. Let come to room temperature before serving. (Individual plastic bags seems really wasteful to me…a large plastic container in the fridge worked for me.)

Recipe note as printed in cookbook: Dough that is too warm may yield cookies that spread too much. If the baked cookies on your first sheet are more than about 3 1/4 inches across, refrigerate the remaining dough for a few minutes before continuing. This will produce slightly sturdier, more compact rounds, which are better suited for sandwiches.

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