Sunday, November 14, 2010

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies


This recipe makes some of my favorite cookies. I found it when I was in middle school under the lid of a Quaker Oats container, however, the recipe is for oatmeal raisin cookies so I used mini chocolate chips instead and no salt. These cookies are soft and mouthwatering (I’ve been eating them non-stop since I made them yesterday!) I’ve been making these cookies for years and they never get old with me nor my friends! Perfect for a last minute party since they cool quickly and seem to please everybody.

  • ½ pound (2 sticks) margarine or butter, softened
  • 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 3 cups quick or old fashioned oats (uncooked)
  • 1/3 to ½ bag of mini chocolate chips

1.    Heat oven to 350 degrees
2.    In large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add flour, baking soda, and cinnamon; mix well. Finally, stir in uncooked oats and mini chocolate chips.
3.    Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets.
4.    Bake 8-10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 3-4 minutes on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely (about a half hour or so). Store tightly covered.


Dinner Rolls

This recipe was given to me by a friend who works for the school district. She told me that every few weeks an elderly lady brings them in cinnamon rolls that are to die for and got the recipe from her. She insisted that I try making the cinnamon rolls since I’m the baker out of our friends. Turns out, the recipe is for potato bread that the lady used to make cinnamon rolls. I tried using the bread for cinnamon rolls, however in my opinion, the dough is hard to manipulate into cinnamon rolls. On the brighter side of things, the dough makes excellent rolls! This recipe makes a very large amount of dough and can make about 48 rolls.
Ingredients
•    3 packs dry yeast
•    1/3 cup warm water (110 degrees)
•    1 cup shortening
•    1 cup sugar
•    1 ½ T salt
•    1 cup instant potatoes
•    2 cups milk
•    2 cups water
•    3 eggs
•    A lot of flour
Directions
•    Dissolve the 3 packs of dry yeast into the warm water (110 degrees) in a small bowl
•    In a large bowl cut in the shortening and add sugar, salt, and instant potatoes
•    Heat the milk and water to 130 degrees and add to the potato mixture, mix well
•    Let stand 1 minute
•    Add the 3 eggs and mix with an electric mixer
•    Add enough flour to make soft dough and mix for 3 minutes (hard to determine how much flour)
•    Add enough flour to make stiff dough and spread out onto a floured surface and knead 5-8 minutes adding more flour as needed
•    Place in large bowl and let stand until the dough rises to double
•    Pour out onto floured surface knead to get all of the bubbles out
•    Separate into 4 even pieces – each piece will make 12 rolls
•    Let rise 20-30 minutes than bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or until tops turn golden brown
•    Enjoy!