Just Like Bad-For-You Toll House Cookies...In A Good Way

Life has been very busy lately, working and moving, moving and working; needless to say we have been undeniably tired these past few weeks.  Jacob and I packed up our little Albany home, and trucked everything back to Corvallis.  We now reside in a decently sized apartment, in a prime location ...unfortunately the view isn't so great, and some might describe the neighbors as being a bit less than the social elite.  This matters very little to me, as I am just excited and thankful to be back in this town.  It is a much more health conscious region. Not only that, but our apartment already feels like home, and our cats seem to think so too.

I have noticed that all the treats I have been sending to Jake's work, might be making him a favorite.  His kindhearted  manager Kevin, offered exuberantly to let us borrow his pickup, at the suggestion that I would make him gooey chocolate chip cookies.  Poor Kevin tells Jake of his feeble attempts at recreating the chewy cookies his mum used to make from scratch, "...burnt, and rock hard." he recalls.  Don't worry Kevin, I can fix that.  As a 'thank you' I made him about 100 melt-in-your-mouth cookies.  He loved them, and trust me, you will too.

This recipe can be easily halved ... or doubled if you need about 200 cookies,
which you might considering they are so addicting!
That being said, this is a large recipe,
left over dough is great for freezing for later use.

Ooey Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Ingredients:

2 Cups organic shortening 

(This is very important, don't replace with butter. I used Spectrum)

1 1/2 Cups brown sugar

1 1/2 Cup unbleached sugar

4 eggs

1 tbsp vanilla

-----------------------------------------

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

4 1/2 Cups unbleached flour

4 1/2 cups chocolate chips 

(I like to use different sized chips, at various darkness's)

   Directions:

Cream shortening and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix.  Next sprinkle in baking soda and salt, stir.  Lastly scoop in flour and chocolate chips, do not over mix,  but make sure ingredients are well combined.

Roll cookie dough into 1-2 tablespoon sized balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes, for gooey cookies.  Let cool slightly, or completely.  Bon Appetit!

 The baked cookies are also nice in lunches.
I ordered these adorable reusable sandwich and snack bags from:
The High Fiber,  she did a fabulous job.
They are made of a beautiful organic hemp/cotton material.
I highly recommend checking out her work.

Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies

I thought I had convinced myself that I hated raisins, and it seems like half the time I really do.  But I admit there are moments when something chock full of raisins sounds perfectly yummy.  These cookies are some of the best to add raisins to, and the dough is horribly addicting. This recipe is fairly easy, and very adaptable.  I like to put left over dough in the freezer and make several small batches. This recipe can also be doubled or tripled for lots and lots of cookies!  

Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

 (make sure to use best quality, organic ingredients if possible)

1/2 C butter, softened
2/3 C brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla 

1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 C whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 C rolled oats

** Choose as many of the following as you would like to equal 3/4 C**

--raisins 

--chocolate chips

--walnuts

How To:

With a hand, or a stand-mixer, cream butter and brown sugar.
 Scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.

Add in egg and combine.

Next, add vanilla, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt; mix well.

 Stir in flour, oats, and 3/4 C any combination of chocolate, raisins,

 and/or walnuts, until just incorporated. Make sure not to over mix this step,

 or cookies will become tough.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

...and try not to eat too much of the dough...

  ***Preheat oven to 350 degrees***

Scoop heaping 1-2 tablespoon amounts of dough
onto a lightly greased and floured cookie sheet.  You can roll them
into neat spheres if you prefer.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the bottoms are golden-brown.

Let cool completely, or eat warm.  Bon appetit!

*Makes a modest 14-20 cookies depending on the size you choose.

Little Jack Horner's Plum Pie

Jacob didn't used to like to try different foods.  If it were left up to him, he would have lived off of mac and cheese, chocolate peanut butter pancakes, and root beer for the rest of his life.

He knew the basic tastes, and when it came to fruit, he was very familiar with the apple, orange, strawberry and banana, but that was about the extent of his fruit knowledge. I remember practically force feeding him a plum one day, and now they are his absolute favorite fruit.  We have come a long way since then.  Thankfully Jake is well versed in the delights of many, many foods now. 

Jake loves pie, and frankly, who doesn't?  He has informed me he will not rest until I agree to letting him have a 'groom's pie' instead of a cake.  Today I have created a great recipe, it will be another first for Jacob, for he has never had:

Plum Pie

Ingredients

Crust:

2 1/2 C whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 C unbleached sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/4C - 1/2C ice water

1C cold butter, cubed

Filling:

2lbs fresh plums, quartered

3 Tbsp butter, cubed

1 Tbsp all spice

1/2 tsp salt

1/4C whole wheat pastry flour

1/2C unbleached sugar

 Directions for Crust:

First pulse flour, sugar, salt until thoroughly combined.  Add cubed butter. 

Pulse in butter, and add ice water slowly, as needed.

Divide dough in half and wrap individually in plastic.

Put disks in the refrigerator for about 1/2 an hour,
while prepping the rest of the ingredients.

Directions for Filling:

Combine flour, sugar, all spice and salt in a medium sized bowl.

Rinse, remove pits, and quarter plums

Coat the prepared plums in the spice mixture

There will be extra spice mixture, save this for later.

Directions to Assemble Pie:

**Preheat Oven to 375 degrees

Take the chilled dough out of the fridge.
 Roll out and press one disk into the bottom of a buttered and floured pie pan. 

Sprinkle and spread the remaining spice mixture in the bottom pie crust.
Fill the bottom  pie crust with the coated plumbs,
and dot the filling with butter.

 
Roll out the second disk and lay it atop the filled bottom crust.
Trim any excess dough from sides.
 I used the left over dough
to make a twist around the edge of the pie for decoration.

Bake on the lower rack of the oven at 375 for an hour.

Top with vanilla ice cream; we like Alden's Vanilla Bean...

...and bon appetit!