Oatmeal Thumbprint Cookies~A Christmas Tradition

When I was growing up Christmas was a much awaited holiday.  Santa always brought toys, and socks, and an orange in our stockings.  We were allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve and it was always pajamas!  My Mom made Chocolate Butter Fudge; a recipe I have only made successfully one time!  It is the best and I am going to try it once again this year.  She also made these delicious oatmeal shortbread thumbprint cookies...with yummy mint frosting tinted pale pink and mint green.  It can't be Christmas without them.

Oatmeal Thumbprint Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 T. vanilla
Cream this together until fluffy.

Add:

2 cups flour

1/2 t. salt
1 c. old-fashioned rolled oats

Mix well and rolls into small balls, about the size of a walnut. Press your thumb into the center. Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Mint Frosting

3 T. butter, softened
2 C. powdered sugar
4 T.  heavy cream
1/8 t. mint extract
1/4 t. vanilla

Red or green food coloring

Mix all butter, powdered sugar, and cream together till well mixed. Add the mint extract....it should be very subtle and the vanilla. Tint the frosting very PALE pink or green.

Idaho, Utah and Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here we are @ The Conference Center...my sister, Jana, Monte, Me, Brennan and my friend Melanie...taken by a nice tour guide. The big building behind messes up the shot for sure!

Whew....vacation is over. It was super fun. We went to southern Idaho and visited my parents....ate yummy food....fresh blueberry pie (I had never eaten fresh blueberry pie)....watch for the post on that one....Lava Hot Springs...Chesterfield...UTAH....warm and sunny...American Fork Harley Davidson, Grandma's Foods, Cabella's....cards ( I suck @ 5 Crowns....but it was fun)..Ryan and Ashley...SLC Farmers Market.....Caputos....Conference Center, Temple Square, Church History Museum....Deseret Book Flagship store ( Where I saw the Pretzel cookies)Lone Star Taqueria....wish I had some of their Pico.....fireworks...Hunter 16th Ward....can you say SUPER SMALL WARD! 26 ladies in RS and 4 of us were visitors! More cards....I REALLY suck @ Shanghai! Pack up...go home!

The cookies are my basic recipe below.....Melanie and I decided to add about 3/4 cup of crushed salted pretzels to the dough with the chocolate chips. Actually....Brennan did the mixing! MMMM!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I told you I would post the recipe for my chocolate chip cookies and so I shall! I decided to try the Eagle Mills flour and the cookies are the perfect test! You can tell if the flour is different with your favorite cookie recipe! Well! I LOVE THIS FLOUR! It works just like all-purpose flour but has the added benefit of the white whole wheat! The consistency of the dough was perfect. I was concerned because with whole wheat, sometimes you need to add extra liquid. Not so with this flour! It is a dream! So final product tasting....YUMMM! Just like the "normal" ones.

What a great way to get the "healthy" into your family's diet! I am sold!

I will be going to Costco today to stock up with more...it is $6.55 for 2-10 pound packages and they are going to keep stocking it. (Yes....I checked)

The other thing that I love is from Bob's Red Mill. It is Old Fashioned "Yellow D" Brown Sugar. It is a boiled dark brown sugar with an extra rich molasses flavor and small uniform crystals.

The small crytals are great...it creams perfectly without the gritty texture you get from some brown sugars. The taste is delicious. Very molasses-y without being way to strong. I use it in all my recipes that call for brown sugar.

I have also changed from using Crisco to Spectrum Non-Hydrogenated Shortening. WHY? Well...I have been doing some research about "good" fats and oils and learned how they process and hydrogenate fats and oils like canola, vegetable shortening. It is all a chemical process that I don't really want to have to deal with. For example, canola oil is pretty much poisonous until they refine it, bleach it and deodorize it...all chemically done. No thanks! The Spectrum shortening is better for your body because it is non-hydrogenated, has zero trans-fat and is made from Palm oil, which is naturally cholesterol free and a good source of monosaturated fat. It is vegan, kosher, gluten free and has less saturated fat than butter....and it doesn't go rancid like regular shortening. Oh, and did I tell you it's organic. It costs more but to me it's totally worth the price. You use it just like regular shortening!

Here is MY cookie recipe.

Shelley's Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 c. shortening

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 t. vanilla

2 1/4 c. flour

1 t. salt

1 t. baking powder

1 pkg. chocolate chips-whatever kind you like..I use Ghirardelli.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the shortening and sugars till smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix up until it is fluffy. Scrape the sides down to make sure the whole mixture is smooth.

Mix the dry ingredients together and combine with the creamed mixture till smooth. Add the chocolate chips. Bake for 9-11 minutes depending on the size cookies. I used my smallest cookie scoop and did 9 minutes. My bigger scoop takes about 12 minutes.

Sucanat!

Still trying to be "unrefined" sugar free. It is a challenge to say the least. Weekends are difficult because I am "off" schedule. I have been eating more protein, which is good. I have also been researching unrefined sugars...like Sucanat. Sucanat is dehydrated sugar cane juice. It is sugar cane crushed daily, juice heated to a thick syrup. The syrup is stirred by hand to create the granules. It is a nice brown color and the granules remind me of yeast. The sugar cane's molasses is locked in....very yummy taste. It can be used cup-for-cup the same as refined sugar.

I made Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sucanat and they were good. Just darker in color than those made with white sugar. I also used Spectrum Non-hydrogenated shortening instead of Crisco....a healthier alternative to the chemically processed fat!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 c. Spectrum or shortening

1 1/2 c. Sucanat

2 eggs

2 t. vanilla extract

1 T. water

Cream together. It doesn't cream like refined sugar. Not as fluffy! That is normal.

Combine together and add to creamed mixture:

2 1/4 c. soft white wheat flour-I grind my own....pastry flour...good for cookies etc. that don't need the structure that gluten gives.

1 t. salt

1 t. baking soda

Mix well. Add:

1 pkg. chocolate chips

Bake @ 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

They will be really dark brown and a very soft cookie. Yum!