Time for Cookies!!! Super Yummy Maple Chocolate Chunk

The kids have been asking me for a couple of weeks, "Can we bake cookies??" Last week I was in a super anxious and frusterated mood and I decided to whip through our Lazy Susan to see what ingredients we had. Why I choose to bake with two very small children when I am not in the greatest of moods is beyond me, however, I will admit that about half way through I started to cheer up and feel calm again. (Thanks, kiddos, for putting up with your mama!) 

I went to my Pinterest 'Sweets' board and found a recipe I had never made before: Ooey-Gooey Chewy Maple Chocolate Chip Cookies. I've never used maple syrup in cookies (have you??) but it is a genius idea! Most of the sweetness came from the syrup, as only 1/4 cup is required of granulated and brown sugar. 

If you're in the mood for a very SOFT cookie filled with chocolate chunk goodness, this is the cookie you should make. Here's what you need, my only adaption is that I didn't use the maple extract because we didn't have any:

• 6 tablespoons salted butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons maple extract or maple flavor
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup plus 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup dark chocolate, cut into large chunks

I followed Broma Bakery's instructions exactly, and I don't recommend swaying from them! She was spot ON about the ten minutes of bake time. Yes, they DO look way underdone, but after sitting on the baking sheets for ten more minutes after they're out, they are literally perfect. 

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two cookie sheets and set aside.
2. In a standing mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and maple syrup for 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
3. Add in egg, maple extract, vanilla extract, and salt, and beat for an additional minute. Pour in flour and turn the mixer to its lowest speed, working in the flour only until it incorporates.
4. Remove from mixer and fold in chocolate chunks. Use a 2 ounce cookie scoop to scoop cookies onto prepared cookie sheets.
5. Bake cookies for 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to sit on the baking sheet, untouched, for 10 minutes. They will continue to cook and crisp up around the edges during this time.
6. Once the cookies have sat for 10 minutes, you can remove them from the cookie sheet and serve!

The SOFTEST Oatmeal Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Leave it to Instagram to come up with a TOLL option in their stories feature, and y'all know me, I HAD to try it. Needless to say 96% of my viewers said YES to wanting the recipe [I want to know who the 4% no's were!!!] But it was a fun toll regardless and a new way to incorporate feedback into what I do.

These were by far, the best pumpkin cookies I've ever had to date. Come fall, I will NEVER turn down pumpkin [except maybe really weird stuff, like, did you know pumpkin flavored Doritos are/were a thing?!?! WHY!?!] My husband actually baked these so I can take ZERO credit other than photographing them, writing this, and eating almost all of them.... (He found the original recipe here, on Averie Cooks blog.) 

I have always loved oats in cookies, and while I don't love oatmeal RAISIN, I DO love a good oatmeal chocolate chip. We decided to give these a whirl on a Sunday afternoon and guys, you have to find time asap to try these for yourself.  This cookie is oozing in nothing but fall flavors, because you can never go wrong with molasses and pumpkin pie spice. 

Ingredients: 
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 TBS mild or medium-flavored molasses (not blackstrap, too intense)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla or pumpkin pie spice extract
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned whole-rolled oats (not quick-cook or instant)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (a mixture of cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg if you don’t have pumpkin pie spice)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl
2. Add the pumpkin puree, sugars, molasses, vanilla, pumpkin pie extract and whisk thoroughly to combine until smooth
3. Add oats, pumpkin pie spice, flour, and salt. Stir until combined. 
4. Add the chocolate chips and stir. 
5. Use a large cookie scoop and form 13 equal sized mounds of dough and flatten just slightly. 
6. Add the mounds on a large tray, cover with plastic wrap and cool in fridge for at least three hours [this was the hard part because I am guilty of just wanting to eat the dough!!!!!!!!!!]
7. Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with wax paper or spray w/ cooking spray
8. Place mounds of dough 2 inches apart and bake for 12-14 minutes or until the tops are set (even if they look slightly undercooked or pale--do NOT over bake!] 
9. Cookies will firm up as they cool, so allow them to cool for about ten minutes before serving. 

Fall is just beginning, guys, so seriously, if your pantry is lacking in these ingredients, I suggest you fix that immediately. This is the first of many desserts I plan on making [normally I AM the one who bakes], but I won't complain one bit if my husband wants to continue whipping bad boys like these up. These oatmeal pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are chewy, soft, and perfectly delicious! Great...now I'm going to get another [which will be my third today............] :) 

Chewy Chocolate Chip + Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Listen- I am fully aware of how easy it is to pull out our Smartphones and do a speedy search for literally any recipe we could imagine wanting. But what happened to good ol' fashioned cook books?! The ones you want to set out for display because the covers are just that pretty. With the crisp white pages, revealing proof of delicious meals. Well, we have a few... but they've been packed away for way too long to admit publicly. We haven't needed a cookbook with the Internet at our fingertips and I too, am the 21st Century Mom who Googles (or Pins) anything I "need." So what...?? Just grab your phone,  open your Pinterest app and search: "easy chocolate chip cookie recipe." Bam--hundreds of options lay at your fingertips. Click the link, scroll, and voila!

But I've missed pretty cookbooks. I had some money left over on an Anthropologie gift card and browsed for a while, searching all their beautiful (and out of my price range) home goods. Then I got to their Book section and saw exactly what I wanted: a baking cookbook, with a cover SO pretty I swear you could eat it. You all know my husband is a self-taught Chef. We don't desire to eat out very often because when we DO, I usually say something like, "Your meals are better," or, "You could do better than that." But I don't cook! Baking is my Sunday afternoon therapy and while the kids are asleep, there's almost nothing I would rather be doing! (Well... except maybe eating whatever it is that's in the mixing bowl!) Today was nothing less. It has been a few weeks since I found something I had the time and energy to bake. If you follow me on Instagram, maybe you saw my brownie post where I followed a recipe from Handmade Baking, by Kamran Siddiqi, well that was two weeks too long ago. Those brownies were from my Anthro book find, a gift to myself, and I am SO glad for the purchase. Last year, pies were my thing, a new pie each month; but this year I claimed cookies. A new cookie recipe a month. I flipped through this sturdy new baking book and found exactly what my taste buds were craving--chewy oatmeal-raisin cookies.

I'm not a huge fan of raisins by themselves, but give me the right cookie and I absolutely love them. I adapted Kamran's recipe a little; for one, I added chocolate chips because this girl always needs them in homemade cookies. And I didn't top them with cinnamon-sugar like he does because I just didn't have enough time. Mine turned out divine so gosh, I can only fathom had I taken that next step!

Pierson of course wanted to help me this afternoon. So I measured the ingredients that we needed and I let him pour each one into the mixing bowl while I read the recipe. Reese wanted to join (aka sneak some dough) and was super cute trying her best to sit still and not dump egg shells and oats all over the floor.

Adapted Ingredients:
1/2 C granulated sugar
1.5 C all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C at-room-temperature butter
1 C packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 C rolled oats
1 C raisins
1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl with a paddle attachment, beat together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until pale and creamy.
3. Turn off mixer, scrape sides and on low speed, beat in the eggs and vanilla. Mix until well incorporated.
4. Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Still on low speed, add the oats, raisins and chocolate chips until just combined.
5. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or until dough is firm.
6. Preheat the oven to 350° and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
7. Drop rounded 1 TBSP portions of dough onto the prepared sheets
8. Bake for 10-13 minutes (I baked mine nine).
9. Let the cookies bake a minute longer on the pans once pulled from the oven and then transfer to a cooling rack.
10. Pour yourself a giant glass of milk and enjoy yourself a (or five) soft and chewy chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin cookies!