Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Well...it's finally here. After a heck of a week at school after learning some wonderful (side eye) news on Monday, the cat will finally be out of the bag. Everyone will know my secret - no, I'm not pregnant, sorry to disappoint - and I can finally move on with my life. So what do you do when you're faced with something you can tell no one about? You stress eat. My stress eat food of choice - cookies and many many others. 

For me to like something with peanut butter and banana blended together is really saying something. I know that I've made and blogged about peanut butter banana quesadillas before, but I really was not a fan at all. I think it's a texture issue. The sliminess of the banana with the sticky of the peanut butter just doesn't work for me. But both of them mixed together are a wonderfully delicious combination. I hope that all of you enjoy your weekends! 

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp butter, room temperature

1 large egg

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup mashed banana (from 1 sm/med)

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats (not instant)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, cream together sugars and butter. Beat in egg until smooth, then mix in the peanut butter and mashed banana. 

Working by hand or with a mixer on low speed, blend dry ingredients into the peanut butter mixture. Stir in the oats.

Shape dough into tablespoons and place on baking sheet, flattening each slightly with your fingers.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies just begin to turn golden around the edges.

Cool on a wire rack.

Source: BakingBites

Polka Dot Cookies

When randomly flipping through a cookbook, I found this recipe. The polka dot title made me giggle. I thought of the guidance counselor scene in Legally Blonde when the counselor says,"Harvard will not be impressed that you aced History of Polka Dots." I guess I have seen that movie way too many times. Unlike Elle, you will not need a back-up, these cookies are absolutely delicious. They are a sinch to mix up and are done in no time.

I am usually not a fan of chunky peanut butter and had absolutely none in my pantry. I considered using just regular creamy peanut butter. Realizing that I had buy sweetened condensed milk anyway, I decided to stay with the original recipe and use the chunky. I am so very glad that I did. The salty chunks of peanuts are the perfect match with the semi-sweet chocolate chips. I did adapt the method of baking. The original recipe called for the mixture to be placed in a 9x13 pan but I prefer them being in the form of a cookie. A quick trip to the fridge for the cookie dough to firm while waiting for the oven to preheat. I simply dropped the cookie dough onto my silpat mat and let the oven do its job. 

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup oats
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, add oats, milk, vanilla, and salt. Stir to combine. Fold in peanut butter and chocolate chips. Place cookie dough in fridge for ten minutes to allow the mixture to firm.

Using an ice cream scoop, drop the dough onto a greased cookie sheet or use silpat mat. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

Source: Culinary Delights, St. Maurice Parish

Sugar Cookies

This is the first time that I have blogged about these sugar cookies. I have made them several times before. Some with royal icing and some without. When we decided to have a bake sale as a fundraiser, I knew that I wanted to do some type of cool looking cookie that the kids would like to buy. Knowing that it  had to be fabulous, I turned to the trusty cookie recipe from Annie's Eats. Her recipe has never failed me. They bake up well with a great taste and texture. For the royal icing, look to the recipe here and the tutorial that Annie put together here. I only used two colors, but you can look here to see how to make a cool spiderweb. Ella, I don't know who you are, but your cookies are absolutely delicious!

Ella’s White Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ t. almond extract
1 t. vanilla
1 t. salt
2 ½ c. sifted flour

DirectionsCream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm. Roll to ¼” thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool. Yields ~40 cookies.

Source:  Annie's Eats

Cocoa Fudge Cookies

Yay! Snow day! One of the perks of being a teacher. The students think that they are the most excited for a day off...heck no, the teachers are. Another perk of being a teacher is getting all kinds of cute mugs and little plates to put goodies on. 

Speaking of goodies, I really like these cookies. I have to be honest that I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies, but don't have any chocolate chips in my pantry. Since getting my oven which actually preheats and cooks the way it should, I have been on a real baking kick. After a little search on Google, I found these cookies. I read through the recipe and saw yogurt. Yogurt? In a cookie? Are you serious? Oh boy...this could be horrible. Let's try it. My actual thinking would be that the recipe would make an interesting trainwreck for the blog. The complete opposite of my original opinion is true. They are crunchy on the outside but have a moist, tender inside. Delicious. I can't wait to see what Dan thinks of them when he gets home today. They would be perfect for dunking into milk, coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.

 Ingredients

• 1  cup  all-purpose flour
• 1/4  teaspoon  baking soda
• 1/8  teaspoon  salt
• 5  tablespoons  butter
• 7  tablespoons  unsweetened cocoa
• 2/3  cup  granulated sugar
• 1/3  cup  packed brown sugar
• 1/3  cup  plain low-fat yogurt
• 1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
• Cooking spray

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, soda, and salt; set aside. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat; stir in cocoa powder and sugars (mixture will resemble coarse sand). Add yogurt and vanilla, stirring to combine. Add flour mixture, stirring until moist. Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray.
Bake at 350° for 8 to 10 minutes or until almost set. Cool on pans 2 to 3 minutes or until firm. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

Source: Cooking Light, via MyRecipes.com

Soft Snickerdoodle Cookies

On Christmas, the first thing my brother in law asked me when I when I walked into the door was where the snickerdoodles were. My brother in law is the pickiest of all the family eaters. When he was a baby, my mother in law claims that he would only eat chicken fingers, grilled cheese, and french fries.
I've tried several recipes for snickerdoodles, and this is the best one that I found so far. They remind me of the packaged snickerdoodles that my mother in law always would buy, except more delicious.

Ingredients
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Mix butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar and eggs thoroughly in a large bowl.
3. Combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.
4. Blend dry ingredients into butter mixture.
5. Chill dough, and chill an ungreased cookie sheet for about 10-15 minutes in the fridge.
6. Meanwhile, mix 3 tablespoons sugar, and 3 teaspoons cinnamon in a small bowl.
7. Scoop 1 inch globs of dough into the sugar/ cinnamon mixture.
8. Coat by gently rolling balls of dough in the sugar mixture.
9. Place on chilled ungreased cookie sheet, and bake 10 minutes.
10. Allow to cool on pan for 5 minutes and transfer cookies to cooking rack.

Source: Juju Bee on Food.com

Peanut Butter Crisscross Cookies

Wow, first post on the new blog. Hello! I am Lisa, a teacher who likes to cook and bake. My husband thinks that I am nuts because I am always going on websites looking for new and interesting recipes. Only one problem, I am up against a picky eater. A dish may look absolutely wonderful and make me drool just thinking about it, but if it's not man friendly or approved, I will find myself eating the leftovers for lunch and dinner for the next week. I look forward to sharing family recipes, newfound keepers, hilarious bloopers, and the occassional recipe gone horribly wrong.

Last night I made peanut butter crisscross cookies. Considering that the hubby only likes peanut butter if it is slathered in some type of jelly, these cookies flew off of the cooling rack rather quickly. Evidently, they go very well with a big glass of milk. The dirty cup in the sink told me so. I opted to leave the cup and a half of nuts out, as neither of us are big fans of nuts in cookies.

Here is the recipe.
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
2 sticks of unsalted butter- room temp
1 cup of peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)
1 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups salted peanuts
About 1/2 cup sugar for rolling

Directions
Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.
Beat the butter on medium speed for a minute or two, until it is smooth and creamy. Add the peanut butter and beat another minute. Add the sugars and beat until blended, then add eggs one at a time.On low speed beat in dry ingredients, mixing a little at time until blended before adding more. Once blended, mix in chopped peanuts ( I opted to leave these out...again, picky eater). Pour the 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl.
Measure a level tablespoon of dough. You can also do the rustic thing and pinch some off with your fingers and roll it into a ball, which I did. Once you have a nice ball, drop it and roll it around in the sugar. Place it on the cookie sheet. Take a fork and press the fork against the ball of cookie dough in one direction and then again in a perpendicular direction, you should have a flat round cookie.

Bake for about 12 minutes.

Recipe from Babbs' Bites, originally from Dorie Greenspan