Nestle Crunch Oatmeal Cookies from Eat Move Make

Nestle Crunch Oatmeal Cookies - made dough November 9, 2023 from Eat Move Make 

1/2 cup plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups oats

1 1/2 cups Nestle Crunch bars, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar on medium speed until creamy and well combined, 1-2 minutes.
3. Add eggs and vanilla; mix to combine.
4. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt on low speed, mixing until just combined.
5. Add oats and mix on low speed until combined. Add chopped Nestle Crunch bars and mix on low speed until disbursed.
6. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls and evenly space on baking sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Let cool 1 minute on baking sheet then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

I've been able to use up my leftover Halloween candy bars at a fairly good clip (thank you, pinterest, for all the recipe ideas). This one is essentially an oatmeal cookie with chopped up Nestle Crunch bars.

If you don't like your oatmeal cookies overly spiced, this one is a good option. It's only got cinnamon and nutmeg and those are in reasonable quantities. If that's still too much for you, omit the nutmeg. 

This has my hallmarks of a good oatmeal cookie recipe. It has more oats than flour and not too much spice. The dough was easy to work with and the cookies didn't spread much so they stayed reasonably thick.

I like to send oatmeal cookies in my military care packages for Soldiers Angels as they ship well and don't dry out too easily. Plus the oats give them a heartiness beyond the regular sugar-sweetness of a chocolate chip cookie.

The chopped up Nestle Crunch bars also worked well in this cookie. They provided both sweetness and a little crunch to the cookies. The chocolate didn't melt or puddle as much as I expected. Instead they behaved more like chocolate chips which were soft and melty while the cookies were warm but solidified again once cool.

I'll have to remember all these recipes for next year if I end up with a lot of excess Halloween candy bars again. So far all the recipes I've tried for using them up turned out pretty well. This one was no exception.

Reese's Overloaded Peanut Butter Cookies from Tastes of Lizzy T

Reese's Overloaded Peanut Butter Cookies - made dough November 10, 2023 from Tastes of Lizzy T 

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 large egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups quartered mini Reese's peanut butter cups

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together peanut butter and butter until well blended.
3. Beat in the sugar, baking powder and baking soda until combined. Beat in egg then vanilla until combined.
4. Add flour and mix on low speed until just combined. Fold in the peanut butter cups and mini chocolate chips.
5. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls and evenly space onto baking sheets. Press cookies slightly with the bottom of a round glass dipped in granulated sugar.
6. Bake for 10 minutes; do not overbake. Let cool on baking sheets for 3-5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Alrighty, peanut butter and chocolate lovers, step on up. Any good peanut butter cookie recipe will do if you want to use up leftover Reese's peanut butter cups but I liked this recipe for how thick they stayed.

They're not as delicate or crumbly as some peanut butter cookies tend to be but they're not super soft fragile either. Actually, they were perfect to send in military care packages as they were sturdy. I vacuum sealed them first and wedged them into the shipping boxes so hopefully they won't arrive as crumbs.

Texture-wise, they're similar to a good chocolate chip cookie but flavored with peanut butter. I wish I was more crazy for peanut butter so I could sing more praises about this cookie. It's good, don't get me wrong, and my niece's boyfriend, who loves peanut butter, would probably love these. 

So if you love peanut butter and chocolate, give these a try. 

Butterfinger Cookies from Cookies and Cups

Butterfinger Cookies - made dough November 7, 2023 from Cookies and Cups 

3/4 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups chopped Butterfinger bars

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
3. Add egg, egg yolk, vanilla, baking soda and salt, mixing until combined. Scrape down bottom and sides of bowl to keep mixture even textured.
4. Add flour in two additions, mixing on low speed after each addition, until just combined. Stir in chopped Butterfingers.
5. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls. Evenly space on baking sheets and bake for 8-9 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Let cookies rest on baking sheets for 3 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

I could almost become a fan of Butterfingers as long as I only use them in cookie baking. And if I wanted something flavored with peanut butter.

These were delicious and a great way to use up the leftover candy bars I still have from Halloween. Butterfingers just crumble when being chopped though so I tried to leave bigger pieces or else I'd end up with Butterfinger dust instead of chunks. They baked up nicely in this cookie and were easy to swirl to round cookies after baking since they didn't stick like Baby Ruths did.

You can see they also didn't spread too much, although the swirling not only neatens up the edges but also makes the cookies a tad thicker.

Wait until the cookies cool completely before eating or at least to lukewarm when the Butterfingers have had time to re-solidify. That adds a crispness back to the cookies and improves the texture.

Baby Ruth Pudding Cookies from Fun with the Fullwoods

Baby Ruth Pudding Cookies - made dough November 1, 2023 from Fun with the Fullwoods

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 3.4-ounce package instant vanilla pudding

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1-2 cups Baby Ruth bars, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and baking soda; set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mix fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until well combined, 1-2 minutes. Add dry vanilla instant pudding mix and mix to combine.
4. Add eggs and vanilla; mix to combine.
5. Add dry ingredients in two additions, beating on low speed after each addition, until just combined.
6. Fold in chopped Baby Ruth bars. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls and flatten slightly. Evenly space on baking sheets. Bake 8-12 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Remove from heat and transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

Back to recipes using up my leftover Halloween candy for the next few posts (I had a lot of leftover candy). These were really good. The dough was easy to work with and they didn't spread too much. The pudding mix adds a softer texture. The edges didn't get too crisp but the texture and flavor were good.

While I normally don't care for nuts in cookies, I forgave them in this cookie since nuts are part of Baby Ruth candy bars and that's what I was using up.

The hardest part of this cookie is the Baby Ruths melt and leak out of the cookies during baking. I did the swirling trick again to tidy up the edges but the hot nougat-caramel (what's in a Baby Ruth, btw? Never mind, don’t tell me) was sticky and clung to the sides of the metal cookie cutter I was using to swirl the cookies to more neat roundness. So these aren't as perfectly circular as they could've been. But still delicious nonetheless.

Stamped Cookies #34 Speculaas Cookies from Martha Stewart

Stamped Cookies #34 Speculaas Cookies - made dough October 27, 2023 from Martha Stewart

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon cardamom

1/4 teaspoon ground mace

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

pinch of ground cloves

6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup water

confectioners' sugar, for dusting on surface

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, mace, white pepper and cloves.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in half the flour mixture then beat in water. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat until just combined.
4. Divide into three parts and shape into discs, 1 inch thick. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
5. Roll dough into 1" thick and stamp out cookies. Cover and chill or freeze stamped cookies for 1 hour.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space cookies. Reduce heat to 250 degrees F and bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until cookies are set and just beginning to turn light gold around edges, for 55 to 65 minutes. Let cool completely.

Thanksgiving just ended so I feel like I can legit post these Christmas-ish cookie stamped cookies. Although I do have mixed feelings about this cookie. I tried to follow the recipe as faithfully as possible and did when it came to mixing and chilling the dough. Where I couldn't stick to it is how long it says to bake it. Against my better baking judgment, I did bake the cookies at 250 degrees F. That's such a low temperature that I was afraid the stamped impressions would melt out of the cookies before the dough actually baked. Fortunately they didn't.

However, I couldn't bring myself to bake the cookies as long as the recipe said to. 55 to 65 minutes is a long, long time to bake cookies, even at a low temp. I made it to 40 minutes before I pulled these out. The cookies weren't exactly dry but they definitely were not moist or fudgy. The flavor was decent but not as flavorful as I expected given all the spices in it. Next time I'm going to bake them more traditionally at 350 degrees F and try taking them out at 10-12 minutes.

Lemon Meltaway Cookies from The Domestic Rebel

Lemon Meltaway Cookies - made dough November 3, 2023 from The Domestic Rebel 

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

zest of one medium lemon

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

Lemon Icing

2 cups confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add egg and lemon zest; mix until combined, about 30 seconds.
3. Add baking powder and salt, mix to combine. Add flour, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing on low speed until just combined.
4. Portion into small dough balls and flatten slightly. Evenly space on baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Let rest on baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
5. Make the glaze: in a medium bowl, whisk together the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice until well combined. Spread glaze on tops of cooled cookies and let glaze set.

Most lemon cookies typically use the zest to flavor the cookie dough but few need the lemon juice so you end up with a naked lemon missing its yellow skin and only left with the white pith. Unless you use the juice to make the glaze. Problem solved.

I liked this cookie and it's perfect when you need a simple, no-fuss lemon cookie for your table. It's not too sweet or too tart and the texture is not too light or too dense. It's a good "tea cookie". If you want the glaze to set (and I do), keep a light hand in adding the lemon juice. Whisk it with the powdered sugar and stop when the glaze is still a little on the thick side so it'll set once it's drizzled or spread over the cookie. If you use too much juice, add more powdered sugar until it's the consistency you want.