COOKIES!!: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies, and Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Baking is something that I have always enjoyed to do and since my Daddy has always been a "cookie monster", cookies are kind of a "go to" item that I bake. The downside to baking is having sweets hanging around the house all the time, so when I was in college, I would share with my friends and most of my rotation sites in pharmacy school during my 4th year knew I would be bringing in some sweets about once a week. Since my husband started teaching, my "Cowboy Cookies" have developed a following with his kids at school so he asked me to bake some cookies for their first day tomorrow. Unfortunately, one of the (many) downsides of our current living situation while we are waiting to buy a house is that all of my cookbooks and thus all of my recipes are in storage, so I had to scour the internet for some new cookie recipes. I found three pretty good ones that I will share with you today. The peanut butter cookies were my favorite of these three although they are all tasty. Happy baking everyone!!



Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
2 cups quick cooking oats
1 pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips




Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter and mix in large bowl with both sugars. Add vanilla and eggs. Add all dry ingredients except oats and chocolate chips and mix well. Add oatmeal and chocolate chips and mix well. Drop by rounded tablespoofuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes until cookies just begin to turn golden brown then remove cookies to cooling rack.

Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

1 (8oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (18 oz) box moist chocolate cake mix
Confectioner's sugar for dusting


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl cream together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Beat in the cake mix. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours to firm up dough so that dough can be rolled into balls. Roll the chilled dough into tablespoon sized balls and then roll in confectioner's sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake 12 minutes and remove from oven (centers of cookies will still be gooey). Cool completely and sprinkle or dip tops in powdered sugar.

*You can substitute any flavor of cake mix you desire with this recipe. Cookies stay really soft and chewy. Next time I think I will add in coconut and pecans to make sort of a German chocolate cookie.

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Cookies:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup quick cooking oats


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a baking sheet (or use parchment paper or silpat to line it). In a large bowl, cream together butter, peanut butter, sugars, and vanilla. Add egg and beat well. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and mix until well combined. Then add oats and mix well. Drop dough onto cookie sheet by teaspoonfuls and press cookies down with fingers or a fork to about 1/4 inch thick. Bake 5 minutes or until  cookies just begin to brown. Allow to cool completely and then fill with peanut butter filling

Peanut Butter Filling
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 1/2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Cream all ingredients together with a mixer. Spread or pipe filling on half of the cooled cookies and top with another cookies to for cookie sandwiches.