Shiny Cooking

Time now to quit with the endless family stories and begin slamming out these cookie recipes. Today I made progress on this month’s Daring Bakers Challenge. It’s a secret, to be revealed on the 27th. Which is a shame, because it’s sort of festive. :p

Also began filling the chocolate mint cookie sandwiches. Damn, those little chocolate disks taste just like Oreos. And I learned why Grandma made them so honkin’ big (I made them about 1-1/2 inches round instead) — the recipe made approximately 270 cookie halves. Yes, that’s 135 sandwiches. I’ll post a final total when I finish and get the recipe up. Of course, it will be a tad off due to shrinkage. Shrinkage in this case being little (and big) hands snatching them up and popping them into mouths during the filling process.

bake, gingerbread man, bake

And tomorrow evening I’ll be decorating these chewy oatmeal cutouts with Justin and Maggie. What a pleasant surprise these were. Thumbs up from kids and adults alike, and that was just the ones I tossed cinnamon sugar onto. Crispy on the edges, chewy in the middle, easy to roll and a good deal of whole grains inside.

If you’d like a cutout cookie alternative to the basic sugar cookie, this is the one you seek.

chewy oatmeal cutouts

Reprinted with permission from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking, aka My Favorite Baking Cookbook Ever.

bake: 9-10minutes
servings: about 3 to 6 dozen cookies, greatly depending on size
oven: 350 degrees

1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter
3/4 cup (5-5/8 ounces) packed light or dark brown sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

2 cups (8 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 cup (2 ounces) whole wheat flour, traditional or white wheat

1 cup (3-1/2 ounces) old-fashioned rolled oats

cinnamon sugar (optional, recipe follows)

To prepare the dough:

In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the butter and sugar, then add the egg, vanilla, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and ginger, beating until smooth. Beat in the flours and oats; the mixture may look dry at first, but don’t worry, it’ll come together. Divide the dough into two pieces, wrap each piece in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.



Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.



To shape the cookies:

Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll it into a circle about 14″ in diameter. Use your favorite cutters to cut out cookies, re-rolling and cutting the scraps. Place the cutout cookies on lightly greased or parchment-lined cookie sheets; set them fairly close together, as they don’t spread.



To bake the cookies:

Bake the cookies for about 9 to 10 minutes: the shorter amount of time will make softer cookies, the longer amount of time, crisper cookies. Remove the cookies from the oven, sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar, if desired, and transfer to a rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining dough. Decorate as desired.


If decorating with cinnamon sugar (easy and highly recommended), sprinkle warm cookies with the cinnamon sugar right out of the oven, or it won’t stick.

cinnamon sugar

It’s a basic, but you know what? I had to look up proportions. Here they are.

1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Mix together. Top cookies just out of the oven, or toast, or whatever you desire. Store forever in a sealed container.

tags: cinnamon, oats, whole wheat flour

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