TWD: Chockablock Cookies

I am currently gallavanting through Northern California's Wine Country, but please enjoy this post I prepared before I went on vacation. The recipe link at the end of the post will be updated once I get back to show the exact link for the recipe, instead of just the blog that the recipe is listed on. I realize the post is rather boring, but don't take that out on the cookie... it's delicious, I'm just in a rush. Thanks.

One of my favorite things to eat are chewy oatmeal cookies. They are like comfort food in a portable form. And you'd be surprised how hard it is to find oatmeal cookies that turn out chewy and moist instead of dry and brittle.

This recipe was chosen for Tuesdays with Dorie by Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet. And as I read through the recipe the first time, I immediately thought... Oh no, Dorie... dried fruit and chocolate in the same recipe... careful, now, careful. And then... then I saw molasses in the recipe, too! What the????

But, I started thinking about what combination of fruits, nuts, and chocolate I wanted to use that would all complement each other to my own picky palate (that hates chocolate and dried fruit) and go with the molasses as well. And I came up with the perfect combo: dried apricots, dried cranberries, pecans, and white chocolate.

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner.

These cookies were DELICIOUS. I made them one morning before my mom came over to do some shopping. I made a full recipe, stocked the cookie dough in the freezer for easy baking later and baked up 4 immediately to photograph and take with us for a little snack while shopping. They were awesome!!!! All the flavors really blended well together!

Chockablock Cookies

Recipe by Dorie Greenspan

So easy to make. As I said before, I used white chocolate, dried apricots and dried cranberries and pecans. Wonderful combination.

I've found that I dont like cookie dough that has molasses in it, but I do love the flavor that the molasses imparts once the cookie is baked.

Homey and delicious. A real winner.

Recipe can be found here.

 

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cheesecake

I've been extremely lucky my whole life. I was born into an amazingly supportive and loving family. I was raised with good values and morals, but was also allowed to spread my wings, be independent and find things out on my own. And aside from my family and the environment I've grown up in, I've also been extremely lucky to find friends that I don't deserve.

Not to toot my own horn anything... but my friends are seriously some of the best people around. Not only are they loving and supportive like my family... but they're dependable and stable, they put up with my fickle and moody nature. I mean, I gotta be honest with you folks... I am a hard person to love. I'm stubborn and fiercely independent, at times. I am a complete contrarian and will assuredly change my mind just when you think you've gotten me figured out. I can be extremely private, which I'm sure makes people feel isolated from me. I try to keep my true feelings to myself as much as possible. I mean, damn. I wouldn't be friends with me.

But, despite these things... I still have some really kick ass friends (I guess having a baking blog doesn't hurt).

My friend Sara had a birthday back in June. Sara is one of those friends that you wish you could freelance out. Like... I feel fairly confident in saying that if a lot of bad people in the world had a friend like Sara, they wouldn't be so bad. All my friends are great in their own ways... but Sara is definitely the friend that I can depend on. If it were 2am and I was stuck on the side of the road in Alaska and I could only make one phone call... I would call Sara. Because it wouldn't matter that she was 1000s of miles away. Regardless of the fact that I might not have talked to her in 2 months, I could rest assured that she would do whatever it was that I needed and THEN SOME.

She is also loyal beyond belief. I know without a doubt, that we could have had the biggest argument of our lives.... but if someone else tried to badmouth me. She'd be standing up for me. Now, that, is loyalty, my friends.

But, I don't want it to sound like I'm just using her for her dependability and her loyalty. Oh no... I also use her for comic relief. She is hysterically funny and she's up for anything. She'll go and do practically anything you want. She's always up for a shopping trip, a car ride, a dinner, a drink, a walk. As long as her schedule is clear... she's good to go.

So, for her birthday, I wanted to make her whatever she wanted. And what she wanted... was White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cheesecake. This request immediately reminded me of one of our favorite past times in college: watching Golden Girls. Sara and I always say that when we're old and gray we're going to move down to Florida and live together. We're going to smoke cigarettes and drink whiskey all day, eat cheesecake and walk around in moo-moos and flip flops. Cheesecake was the perfect choice for her birthday.

I didn't have a specific recipe for that variation of cheesecake, so I set off to adjust the Dorie Greenspan Cheesecake recipe that I adore. Hopefully she enjoyed it at least half as much as I've enjoyed her friendship.

Happy Birthday, Sara!

Thank you for being a friend
Traveled down the road and back again
Your heart is true, you're a pal and a confidant.

And if you threw a party
Invited everyone you knew
You would see the biggest gift would be from me
And the card attached would say thank you for being a friend.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cheesecake
adapted from Dorie Greenspan

This is adapted from my favorite cheesecake recipe. It's creamy, rich and dense.

Ingredients
For the crust:
2 1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts
3 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake:
2 pounds (four 8-ounce boxes) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
4 ozs of white chocolate melted and cooled.
chopped macadamia nuts for garnish

Procedure
To make the crust:

Butter a 9-inch springform pan—choose one that has sides that are 2 3/4 inches high (if the sides are lower, you will have cheesecake batter leftover)—and wrap the bottom of the pan in a double layer of aluminum foil; put the pan on a baking sheet.

Stir the crumbs, nuts, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl. Pour over the melted butter and stir until all of the dry ingredients are uniformly moist. (I do this with my fingers.) Turn the ingredients into the buttered springform pan and use your fingers to pat an even layer of crumbs along the bottom of the pan and about halfway up the sides. Don't worry if the sides are not perfectly even or if the crumbs reach above or below the midway mark on the sides—this doesn't have to be a precision job. Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven.

Center a rack in the oven, preheat the oven to 350°F and place the springform on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Set the crust aside to cool on a rack while you make the cheesecake.

Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

To make the cheesecake:
Put a kettle of water on to boil.

Working in a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until it is soft and lives up to the creamy part of its name, about 4 minutes. With the mixer running, add the sugar and salt and continue to beat another 4 minutes or so, until the cream cheese is light. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition—you want a well-aerated batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in the heavy cream. Turn off your mixer and pour in the cooled melted white chocolate. Stir into the batter with a rubber spatula.

Put the foil-wrapped springform pan in the roaster pan.

Give the batter a few stirs with a rubber spatula, just to make sure that nothing has been left unmixed at the bottom of the bowl, and scrape the batter into the springform pan. The batter will reach the brim of the pan. (If you have a pan with lower sides and have leftover batter, you can bake the batter in a buttered ramekin or small soufflé mold.) Put the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough boiling water into the roaster to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan.

Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at which point the top will be browned (and perhaps cracked) and may have risen just a little above the rim of the pan. Turn off the oven's heat and prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon. Allow the cheesecake to luxuriate in its water bath for another hour.

After 1 hour, carefully pull the setup out of the oven, lift the springform pan out of the roaster—be careful, there may be some hot water in the aluminum foil—remove the foil. Let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a cooling rack.

When the cake is cool, cover the top lightly and chill the cake for at least 4 hours, although overnight would be better.

Serving:
Remove the sides of the springform pan— I use a hairdryer to do this (use the dryer to warm the sides of the pan and ever so slightly melt the edges of the cake)—and set the cake, still on the pan's base, on a serving platter. Adorn the top of the cheesecake with the chopped macadamia nuts. The easiest way to cut cheesecake is to use a long, thin knife that has been run under hot water and lightly wiped. Keep warming the knife as you cut slices of the cake.

Storing:
Wrapped well, the cake will keep for up to 1 week in the refrigerator or for up to 2 months in the freezer. It's best to defrost the still-wrapped cheesecake overnight in the refrigerator.

Peanut Butter-scotch White Chocolate Blondies

Two years ago today, I started this blog. So it's my blogiversary, or my blogirthday? Whatev. All I know is that it's been a fun couple of years. I've gone outside of my comfort zone (thanks mostly due to the baking group, Tuesdays with Dorie) and stretched my baking expertise greatly.

If I've learned anything in these two years, it's that baking isn't easy. I still can't make a white or butter cake that I'm happy with. I haven't mastered the art of cake decorating or making pretty fluted edges on my pie crusts. But all that aside, it's something that I really, really enjoy. I love putting my apron on and getting my bowls and scale out and spending some time in my kitchen.

The biggest challenge for me, is getting rid of my baked goods. If I worked in a huge office or had a large network of neighbors or friends around, I'd probably wind up baking every day. I love it so much, but I always find myself saying... I can't bake those brownies! I don't need the extra calories and even though I do it a lot, it pains me to have to throw away 3/4 of a recipe after I've made it. (You should see my freezer, it's stocked with baked goodies that I felt too guilty to throw away, but will probably never pull out and eat).

Anyway... to celebrate my the start of year #3, I decided to follow my current cravings. Lately, I have not been able to get enough of two things: peanut butter and butterscotch. Both alone and together. A few weeks ago, I had a peanut butter and butterscotch milkshake at the local dairy dip here in town. Holy crap it was a spiritual experience, I tell you. Peanut Butter and Butterscotch are a match made in heaven.

So, I tinkered around with a recipe from betty crocker and came up with a different version. It's dang tasty. And, I have a feeling that this peanut butter and butterscotch obsession is just going to snowball from here...

Thanks for reading my blog for the last couple of years!

Peanut Butter-Scotch White Chocolate Blondies

These are rich and sweet. Like Mega sweet. (Which is why I adore them). The peanut butter gives the bars a more a sandy texture than your regular blondies, but I honestly didn't get enough peanut butter flavor, so I'd encourage the use of some peanut butter chips in the batter, to amp that up.

2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsp melted butter
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8 square pan.

Beat sugar, butter, peanut butter, vanilla and egg together in a bowl with a hand mixer until well blended. Stir in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add chips and stir to combine it all together.

Press/spread into the prepared pan and cook for about 18-23 minutes. Until the edges are starting to pull away from the pan and the mixture seems set. Cool on a rack and cut into bars when cooled.

Yields: 9-12 bars (depending on how big you make 'em) :)

White Chocolate Butterscotch Cookies

Martha Stewart and I... we go way back. Back to the 90s when her show Living was on the air. I can remember so many people hating her and I never understood that. I mean, sure everything she does turns out perfectly and she is a little anal and precise and doesn't let her guests (the few she had on Living) talk much. But, that's what I liked so much about her. She's REAL. She doesn't change herself for television (frankly, it seems she's incapable of doing so).

I adored that show and miss it. Her new show... I've only see a couple of times and it's just not the same. It's too live audience oriented. I miss the days of sitting there enthralled as Martha showed the viewers how to fold a fitted sheet perfectly. Granted, yes... she did iron her sheets before she folded them, bless her little OCD heart, but... honestly, that is one of the most valuable things I've ever learned. Where else on television would someone show you how to fold a fitted sheet?

I guess part of the reason I'm obsessed with Martha is because she is really close to being the epitome of the domestic goddess. And I don't know about you... but, that is so what I want to be. I mean, granted... she's not as glamorous about it as I want to be. I want to be able to entertain people in my beautifully decorated and immaculately clean and neat home, I want to be able to cook delicious meals for them with herbs grown in my own garden, I want them to notice how clean and neat and organized my linen closet is when they accidently open that door instead of the bathroom door and of course, I want them to compliment my top and shoes, because a true domestic goddess is fashionable as well (something that Martha is lacking). And most of all, I want it to look effortless. (the hardest part). In the end... I forgo cleaning out the linen closet, because I try on about 15 different tops and shoes and always end up wearing the first one I put on and I settle for my guests just having a good time and feeling comfortable and loved. Linen closet be damned.

It's a constant work-in-progress. But, I've got a damn good start: I can fold a fitted sheet. Boo-ya.

Aside from her home-keeping prowess... she is also a damn good recipe writer. Everything I've ever made from her has been awesome. So, when I recieved Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook for my birthday from my dear friend Stephanie, I was thrilled! And seriously... this book is incredible, just about every recipe in there is a "must make."

It has taken me awhile to make anything out of it, because I was (am still) trying to lose weight and get into kick-ass Amy shape. But about a month ago, I was staying the weekend at a friend's house and wanted to bring something yummy. And I immediately turned to Martha.

White Chocolate Butterscotch Cookies

adapted from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

Martha's recipe stops at the white chocolate chunks/chips. I threw in some of my own additions for fun: toffee pieces, butterscotch chips, and macadamia nuts. What's not to love?

I have some ideas to enhance these cookies even more, the next time around. But, I have to say these cookies are delicious! After the first day, they do get a little sandy in texture, so if you're looking for a more straight up chewy cookie then you might play around with the butter and shortening ratios.

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup vegetable shortening, room temperature

1 1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

8 oz best quality white chocolate chips or chunks

1/2 cup toffee pieces

1/4 cup butterscotch chips

1 cup chopped macadamia nuts (salted is what I used)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with racks in the upper and lower thirds. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment (I used a hand mixer), beat the butter, shortening, and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes) scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in 2 batches, beating until just combined. Stir in the remaining ingredients.

Drop 2 tbsp of dough at a time about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until lightly golden brown around the edges, about 15 minutes. Let cookies cool on sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer parchment and cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Masterpiece White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

There is a company here in Nashville called The Christie Cookie. They have three basic cookie recipes: Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Raisin, and White Chocolate Macadamia. Now, let me just state for the record that their White Chocolate Macadamia nut cookie is sublime. It's buttery, and soft, and the white chocolate is sweet and the nuts crunchy. It's like the white chocolate macadamia nut cookie at it's very best. But... it still has that "mass production" type of feel to it. You know what I mean? Like, it's delicious... but you taste it and can tell it's not homemade.

Anyway... any white chocolate macadamia nut cookie that I eat automatically gets compared to the Christie Cookie.

This recipe is from Anna over at Cookie Madness and this is the second time I've made this cookie. It is delicious. It has the addition of Baileys Liquor in it... and while you can't really pinpoint that flavor in the end result, it does give the cookies an additional depth of flavor. These cookies bake up thick and sturdy and are very easy to make.

My mom invited me over this past weekend for a Cookie Baking Bonanza and this was one of the recipes we made. In comparison to the Christie Cookie... these are a little different. These are not as soft and less buttery. I think sometime, I'll try this recipe with some butter flavored shortening added (in place of some of the butter) and add some toffee chips to the batter to see if I can get the consistency, crumb, and flavor profile of the Christie Cookie. Regardless, if you're looking for an awesome white chocolate chip cookie recipe... this should be your starting (and ending!) point.

Recipe at Anna's Blog for Masterpiece White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Chewy White Chocolate Chocolate Cookies

It would appear to you, my beloved blog readers, that I haven't really been baking much lately. And I guess that's true. I haven't been baking a whole lot, lately. And I'm not really sure why that is.

I'm sure part of it has to do with the fact that I'm in full training mode for my 4th marathon and I'm at that stage where I'm concerned about my caloric intake (every pound matters when you're running) because I'm not quite at the mileage yet where I can just eat whatever I want and not gain weight (give me about 2-3 weeks and there will likely be tons of fattening recipes I've been holding onto to try).

But, I couldn't resist giving this recipe a try for now. I had seen it on a ton of blogs lately and I'm always a fan of chocolate cookies and anything with the word "chewy" in the recipe name is going to grab my attention. This past weekend I went to Louisville to visit my friend Sara. Her birthday was wayyy back in June, so I was going to take her some of my newly appointed favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies, but I also decided to give these chocolate cookies a whirl, too. The dough was really salty and that worried me. I popped the dough in the fridge for a little bit, hoping that the salty flavor would mellow out a bit (I'm not even sure if thats actually possible, but it seemed like a good solution at the time).

After I baked these off, I thought... ehhhh... they're okay. They definitely weren't sweet enough for my tastes and they were more like a brownie cookie, than a chewy cookie. And, frankly, I've had better brownie type of cookies (oops I just realized there's still no recipe on that link. I'll fix that tomorrow, I promise!).

They are good. But they're not great.

(And jeez... sorry about the photo, my lighting must have been terrible... they did taste better than they photographed, that's for sure).

Chewy White Chocolate, Chocolate Cookies
from Picky Palate, but I first saw it here

1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup cocoa powder( Hershey's dark chocolate cocoa powder)
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups white chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease cookie sheet(I used a silpat liner)
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Add the salt and vanilla.
3. In another bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, and baking soda and gradually add to the creamed mixture. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 8-10 minutes until fluffy, but still soft. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Blondies

Just when you thought I was done with the ooey, gooey bar recipes…

I’ve had this recipe for awhile… Cookie Baker Lynn's blog is one of my favorite blogs to check out. I have bookmarked a bunch of her tasty looking recipes, but this is the first that I’ve gotten around to making. The first and not the last, I might add.

Blondies… I realize that the toffee bar recipe I made last week is named a blondie. But, it’s technically not. No, it’s not really cakey or brownie-like (well, maybe it was supposed to be, I just didn’t cook it enough). This is what a real blondie is. Rich, buttery flavor with the sturdy-ness of a brownie. (I mean, isn’t a blondie just a brownie without chocolate?).

These blondies are absolutely delicious! I honestly don’t feel the need to ever try another blondie recipe again.

Again, I underbaked these… I’m beginning to think it has to do with my oddly sized 7x9 inch glass dish that I’ve been using. But, honestly.. that’s fine with me… I can always use some gooeyness with my blondies.

Make these blondies if you are in the need of a comforting sugar fix and want something other than chocolate. You won’t be disappointed.

(Recipe linked above).

Beacon Hill Cookies

I like to think of myself as fairly creative. Which is one of the reasons I started this blog. I wanted an outlet to bake and take cool pictures and have cool posts like all the other food/baking blogs that I read. I was inspired and I thought... yeah, i can do that.

The problem is. I can't. I mean, yes, I physically can. But, my pictures suck. I've tried everything. I've tried the lightbox, I've tried the no flash, I've tried the natural light, nothing seems to work. And it's not just the lighting, it's the presentation as well. I know it's a work in progress, but sometimes I get discouraged by the lengthy amount of time that it takes to make any progress. Uggh. Sometimes I wonder if I need a new camera, but i like my camera and it takes good pictures. Except of baked goods.

Alright, well anyway, enough whining. I was just basically wanting to apologize to the few of you who actually read my blog. I'm sorry my pictures suck. But I appreciate you sticking with me. At some point, maybe it will just click and the pictures will magically become amazing!

Until then...

I am obsessed with Meringues. Like, literally obsessed. How can a cookie without flour or egg yolks be so incredibly chewy and tasty? I have no idea, but I love it! And not only are they delicious, they are so easy to make, too!

My mom brought me the book, 500 Cookies this weekend as a hostess gift. It's a cool book with a lot of pictures. I love cookbooks with pictures. Immediately, one cookie stuck out to me as I flipped through it. The Beacon Hill Cookie. It looked chocolatey and homey and bumpy. It looked awesome.

So, last night I decided to see what the ingredients were and see if I had them. Turns out, it's a meringue cookie! Which meant that I had to bake them right there on the spot. They came with a variation to put white chocolate chips in them, which I happened to have, so I did that.

Yum. Have I mentioned I'm in love with meringues? Okay, overkill... I know. I made a half a batch and came out with about 10 cookies.

Beacon Hill Cookies
from 500 Cookies by Phillippa Vanstone and Susannah Blake


5 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used semi-sweet)
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 superfine sugar
3/4 cup chopped pecans (I used walnuts)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the chocolate, set aside to cool. Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Add one third of the sugar, beat for a further minute, then add one third more of the sugar. Beat until the whites are stiff, and fold in the remaining sugar.

Fold in the nuts, chocolate, vanilla, and white chocolate chips into the mixture.

Drop level teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto parchment lined baking sheets 1 1/2 inch apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are cracked and firm to the touch. Life the parchment sheets onto wire racks and allow cookies to cool.

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Yield: 2 1/2 dozen.

White Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Sandwiches

White Chocolate and Peanut Butter aren't two flavors I'd ever think of putting together. I happen to love white chocolate and I love peanut butter, but sometimes love for two separate things doesn't translate to love for combining them into one thing. Take for example... Chocolate and Blueberries. I love chocolate. I love blueberries. Chocolate covered blueberries?? Yuck. That sounds disgusting.

My aunt Loretta brought a mess load of these little suckers to our family christmas dinner. I think it was her, it was either her or her daughter Susan, either way... it came from their family. I picked one up and bit into it, expecting it to be a white chocolate covered oreo.

Much to my delight, it wasn't. It was actually two crackers with peanut butter on the inside. Brilliant! I ate wayyy too many of these at Christmas, but decided to give them a whirl at home.

Super easy. I actually only made 3 last night. I melted just one square of the White Almond Bark and it was enough to cover 3 really well (with just a little left over). A nice mini snack. Delicious.

White Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Sandwiches

White Almond Bark

Peanut Butter

Ritz Crackers

Assemble Peanut Butter Sandwiches with the crackers. Microwave the almond bark as directed on package. Dip and coat the sandwiches with the white chocolate. Lay out on a piece of parchment paper or wax paper to dry.

Guest Blogger: Steph's Key Lime Cookies

First of all, I must admit that I am a virgin blogger... this will be the first blog I've ever written my entire life. Intimidating? Yes, a little... but I will not be discouraged. I accept the challenge wholeheartedly!

Here is my recipe from what Amy has referred to as our Baking Date, or what I like to call "The Big Bake".

I love key lime. And when I say "love", I mean LOVE it. I love key limes all by themselves (they're so cute!), key lime soda, key lime truffles (thank you, Godiva), and of course, key lime pie. So, when I was browsing for my Big Bake recipe, I saw a recipe for key lime cookies and couldn't resist. There are a lot of key lime cookie recipes out there, actually, but don't be fooled. I chose this one from Cookie Madness because it specifically said they were "chewy" which is an absolute MUST in my cookie book. These may be a little tart for some folks, so watch out!

The recipe was very straightforward and easy. Because Amy and I are such baking fiends, we decided to double the recipe (of course, there is no such thing as too many key lime cookies!) After baking about half the dough, we added some green food coloring just for giggles. No, they didn't taste more limey that way, but it was still fun.

The recipe below is the DOUBLED recipe, which makes about 6 dozen cookies.

1 cup butter — softened

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup key lime juice

1 tablespoon lime zest (which I didn't use, because my hand started cramping)

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Cream butter, sugar, egg, egg yolk in a large bowl — blend in flour,baking powder, salt, lime juice and lime zest.

Fold in white chocolate chips.

Roll dough into walnut sized balls. Actually I used a spoon because the dough was pretty wet, and there was no way I could roll them without making a big mess.

Place on ungreased sheet. These spread out quite a bit, so give them plenty of room.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes.

--Stephanie, Guest Blogger.

White Chocolate Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

When the people speak... I listen. And this time the people requested something with oatmeal. And so I scoured countless cookbooks for the perfect oatmeal cookie recipe.This is what I found.

Okay, so it actually came out about like this...
My mom: "Why no oatmeal cookies? I love oatmeal in cookies."
Me: "Oh yeah, I like oatmeal in cookies, too."
Then I went on recipezaar, found the recipe in like 2 seconds and whipped them up.

My alterations:I made them even MORE healthier by splitting the cup of flour into 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup all purpose flour. They came out delicious! But watch them, because I only had to cook them for about 5-6 minutes (smallish cookie scoop). Also make sure you flatten them out before you bake them, because they do not spread. I used white chocolate squares instead of chips. Next time, I might try the chips.

They are very homey tasting, and I think that's because of the cinnamon flavor in them. Usually, I'm not a big fan of fruit with chocolate, but this combination of cranberry with white chocolate is absolutely perfect! But I'm sure you could substitute any dried fruit.

They are delicious though! I'm going to use this same basic recipe but do some experimenting try to make some good energy bars.

White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut

Generally, I spend about 2 hours of my day at work reading recipes online. It's sad. But, it's fun. I have a thick stack of recipes that I have printed out that I want to try. But, I am most drawn to recipes that have pictures to accompany them, which is why I make so many recipes from my favorite food blogs. So, today is yet another recipe from Cookie Madness.

It is a recipe for a white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookie. And the recipe called for Baileys. Now, everyone who knows me, knows that I love all things irish (obsessively, really), so one would naturally assume that I would have two things in my liquor cabinet... 1. Jameson and 2. Baileys. Well, one out of two isnt bad, right? Next time I'll try to find a recipe for cookies that have Jameson in them.

Here is the recipe. They are called Masterpiece White Chocolate Chip Cookies. And instead of the baileys, I used a caramel liquor. I think they would be much better with the Baileys and I will definitely try them again when I pick up another bottle of Baileys... (note to self: must save some Baileys from irish car bombs and use it for cookies). You can taste the hint of the liquor and the cookies are chewy and firm (just the way I like them) and very tasty. Since I chilled the dough before baking, the cookies came out pretty thick and hearty. I had some white chocolate chips (ghiradelli, in fact) leftover from something else, but I think next time I'll use white chunks instead of chips.

Excellent cookies.

I use a medium size cookie scoop and got an enormous batch of cookies...