New Recipe: Doubletree Hotel Copycat Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's been a while since I've shared a new recipe that I tried...and this one turned out really well! I've heard talk of these great cookies at the Doubletree hotels. My mom used to talk about them from when she had stayed in one. Apparently they give you these delightful chocolate chip cookies when you check in and this recipe is supposed to be a copy cat of those. I can't say if it's accurate or not since I've never had one from Doubletree. But I did eat one of these and they're great! I'm re-writing the recipe here but I've put a link to the original recipe below it as well. 

Doubletree Hotel Copycat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup rolled/old fashioned oats
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened (two sticks and I did use unsalted)
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons pure vanilla (I used 1 1/2)
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (original recipe says unbleached but I'm not sure it matters)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Toll House)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (original recipe calls for walnuts but I'm not a fan so I used pecans)

Directions:

• Grind up your oats in a food processor until semi-fine (or fine but I couldn't get mine fine) and set them aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, both sugars, vanilla, and lemon juice. Add the eggs one at a time until blended and smooth (make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl so everything gets mixed together).
• In a separate, smaller bowl mix together the oats, flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add this mixture to the wet ingredients (I like to add it a little at a time) until it's all combined but becareful not to over mix it.
• Mix in the chocolate chips and nuts - I did this using a spatula, not my mixer. Again, don't over mix.
• Drop cookie dough on a lined baking sheet (I use parchment paper but if you have one of those fancy silpat things you can use that too) using 3 tablespoons of batter per cookie (I have a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop so I used three of those per cookie), then refrigerate these for 2-4 hours (or overnight) *see notes/suggestions 
• Bake cookies at 350 for 14-16 minutes depending on your oven or how you like your cookies. Once baked, move them to a cooling rack.
• Enjoy!

Recipe Source: The Little Kitchen

Notes/Suggestions:

• I didn't have time for that "refridgerate for 2-4 hours" business so I stuck those babies in the freezer to firm up and it worked just fine. Maybe 10-15 minutes? And I had another pan in the fridge. I'd move the one from the freezer to the oven, then the one in the fridge to the freezer. Worked great.
• I made the recipe exactly as the original recipe said to except for the walnuts. I'm sure Doubletree uses walnuts and that the cookies are great but we're not a walnut-loving household so I went with pecans. 
• Usually when a recipe says to use unsalted butter, I say "whatever" but this time I did use it. These were for Husband's work husband's last day and I didn't want them to taste funky. Evidently, I did well because they were a hit.
• Lemon juice in chocolate chip cookies? Weird, right? Don't leave it out! It made the batter smell AMAZING and the cookies smelled even better when they were cooking! My whole house smelled great :)
• MAKE THEM! They sound like a lot of work but so worth it!

New Recipe: PW's The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever.

This is my first Pioneer Woman recipe! I have to say, I'm little jazzed about that. I always see her recipes and think "It would take me all day to make that AND it would probably taste like poop". I stumbled across this post from her blog on Friday while searching for a dessert recipe for our Father's Day cookout on Saturday. I wanted something kind of simple since we were just having burgers and grilled chicken but I also wanted it to be super yummy. 

And it was yummy! Also much easier than I had worked it up in my head to be. I managed to knock out the cake in an hour or less while a crazy toddler was running through my kitchen. And no one was harmed in the process. I think I can call that a success.

I'm going to post a link to Pioneer Woman's post. She took step-by-step pictures and I didn't have time. Also, she has the printable version of her recipe.

My little helper. He wanted very badly to get at my
mixing bowl...so he had to have one of his own. Later
on, some Goldfish crackers found their way in
there and he really enjoyed that :)

The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever.

For the cake:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons (heaping) cocoa
• 2 sticks butter
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 whole beaten eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

For the frosting:

• 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1 3/4 sticks butter
• 4 tablespoons (heaping) cocoa
• 6 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 pound (minus 1/2 cup) powdered sugar

Directions:

• In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.
• In a sauce pan, melt butter. Add cocoa. Stir together.
• Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture and stir lightly to cool
• In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into ungreased sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.
• While cake is baking, make the icing. Chop pecans finely. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together. Add the pecans, stir together, and pour over warm cake.
• Cut into squares, eat, and totally wig out over the fact that you've just made the best chocolate sheet cake. Ever.

Recipe Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks! (Seriously, check out her recipes. Yum!)

You wanna bite right now, don't you?

Notes/Suggestions:

• She said she used a 18"x13"x1" jelly roll/sheet cake pan. I used a 17"x12"x1" pan. I wouldn't use anything smaller than that.
• If you check out her post, she said to use an ungreased pan. So I didn't grease it (even though I usually do it anyway). No sticking! I wonder if it has anything to do with the almost whole pound of butter in the recipe?
• I upped the pecans to one cup. We're a pecan-lovin' bunch.
• I don't know that I can say it was best chocolate cake ever, but it was pretty damn good. And easy to be from scratch.
• I ate a piece while working on this post and it's still pretty damn good :)

Now that I've gotten over my initial fear of Pioneer Woman's recipes, I'm dying to try more! I'll definitely be sharing if I do.

New Recipe: Chocolate Chip Scones

I actually made this recipe a while ago - two weeks ago maybe? - and I'm just incredibly late posting about it. Grant's been sick and, because of my medications, I pick up whatever he gets in about 3.5 seconds. And now it takes me twice as long to get rid of it. But anyway, I finally have a few moments that I actually feel like typing this up so here's a great Chocolate Chip Scone recipe for you!


Mmmmm...

Chocolate Chip Scones

• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 stick real butter, cut into chunks
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1) Prep a cookie sheet with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and brown sugar. Then cut in the butter using a pastry blender (or a couple knives if you don't have a pastry blender) until the mixture is crumbly. Then add the chocolate chips to the mixture. Beat the egg slightly in a separate bowl, then add the egg to your mixture. Add the buttermilk, vanilla, and almond extract and mix until it's all just binding together.

2) Sprinkle flour on your counter top. Place dough on top and knead a few times (5 or 6 times). Pat into a round shape (like a really big thick pancake). Cut into 8 pie shaped pieces. Place on prepared cookie sheet, brush tops lightly with milk and bake at 425 degrees for 13-15 minutes. Cool for a couple minutes on the pan then move them to a wire rack.

Recipe Source: Northern Cottage

I have said before that I do not trust anything cake-like that does not have some kind of frosting. So I added a simple powdered sugar glaze (I added cocoa powder for chocolate flavor) to my scones.



The scones did not go unnoticed by the curious tiny human that
is constantly running through my kitchen.


Notes/Suggestions:

• I have little to no tolerance for the flavor of almond extract so I used a full teaspoon of vanilla in place of the 1/2 vanilla 1/2 almond. Having tasted it this way I will continue to make them without the almond extract.
• Husband LOVED these. I've made other kinds of scones before and after tasting them Husband had declared that scones are so dry that they must have been invented by coffee shops so you keep buying their coffee to keep from choking on the scones. But he tasted these and said they're "way better than all those other kinds you've made". I think he liked all the chocolate chips :)
• Watch your baking time because mine got a little burned on the bottom. However, that didn't stop me from enjoying them for a couple days as my 3:00 snack.
• If you're a scone lover, check out the recipe for Brown Sugar Pecan Scones that I made last year. I really enjoyed those...yum!

Anybody out there try some new recipes lately? Any favorite scone recipes you want to share?

New Recipe: Brownie Covered Oreos

I actually made this over the weekend but I just haven't had time to write up a post about it. By "haven't had time" I actually mean that I'm refusing to sit at my desk during lunch and when I have time at home I'd rather relax and read or catch up on stuff in my DVR than write about brownies. Sorry :)

I got this recipe from Jenny at Picky Palate who has TONS of great recipes on her blog and will have a cookbook coming out soon. The first time I made this recipe I had been in search of something to make to send to day care for the staff on Valentine's day. And I stumbled across this recipe on Jenny's blog. Although she had done it around Christmas time, I managed to find some of the winter Oreos and thought it would be a great Valentine's treat. I ended up making them again over the weekend to bring to my in-laws house when we had dinner over there on Sunday. Mine are not as picture perfect as Jenny's...but they were very tasty!

Brownie Covered Oreos

• 1 Box brownie mix (or use a favorite homemade recipe)
• 1 Package of Oreos (I used the "winter" ones)
• White chocolate, melted for drizzle
• Sprinkles

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare brownie batter according to package directions (I used the directions for "cake like brownies"). Leave in mixing bowl. Dip Oreos in brownie batter and place in the bottom of cupcake tins that have been generously sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until brownies are cooked through (doesn't take long). As soon as you remove the pan from the oven, take a knife (I used a butter knife) and run it along the brownie edges so they don't stick to the pan.
2. Let cool for 5 minutes and drizzle with your melted white chocolate. Toss on some sprinkles. And then EAT 'EM!

Makes entire package of Oreos

Recipe Source: Picky Palate



Mix up your batter...



Spray your pan (I used the cooking spray w/ flour for baking)...



Keep tiny hands from thievery!



Or have extra Oreos on hand for a treat :)



Dip your Oreos...



This is what they look like before baking. I didn't think it looked like
enough batter but they turned out great!

 

Mmmm...almost ready!

 

This is the white chocolate I used. Two square was the perfect
amount for decorating.



All you need now is a cold glass of milk!


Notes/Suggestions:

• Everybody at the day care loved them and they even let the kids in Grant's classroom have one with their snack on Valentine's day.
• You don't have to decorate them. But if you do, you don't have to use white chocolate. You can use cookie icing or, really, whatever you want.
• I plan to try this again in the future - perhaps next week for Husband's birthday - using mini peanut butter cups and baking them in a mini muffin pan. I'll try to let you know how those turn out!
• There is no wrong Oreo to use in this recipe. Can you think of one Oreo flavor they make that would be bad in this recipe? No, me either.

Enjoy!