Secret Recipe Club

Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Crunch Cookies- SRC

November 14, 2016

So… it’s been a rough week.

I haven’t felt like doing much of anything. I have ignored my blog. I have ignored it’s FB page. I have just done the bare minimum to get by… pbj sandwiches and eating my feelings. On Saturday, I went to my mom’s, as planned, for Autumn’s bday, and Autumn spent the whole night throwing up. I couldn’t even catch a break during my break from reality.

And in one last woes me eating my feelings day, I enjoyed quite a few of these Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Crunk Cookies. Worth it.

Making these couldn’t have come at better timing.

Sometimes things happen for a reason.

Case in point, I had retired from Secret Recipe Club last month as it as my 5th anniversary and I felt it was time to move on. But then I found out that this very month would be the last month for Secret Recipe Club as the whole group so I just had to pull a Jordan and step out of retirement

Getting CJ’s blog, Morsels of Life, for my very last SRC post was so great because she has so many wonderful recipes to pick from. I enjoyed browsing through her wide selection of recipes, including her breakfasts, pizzas, and desserts. I ultimately picked her Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Crunch Cookies.

Autumn and I made these cookies together, which was such a fun thing to do with her. She is so eager to help out by adding the ingredients to the mixer and turning it on. So fun.

The end result are great chocolate chip cookies that have great texture from oats and rice krispies. They are not exactly oatmeal cookies, nor are they super crunchy. It’s this loely in between that

Thanks to CJ for such a great recipe this morning. Also, to everyone who has partipated in Secret Recipe Club. It’s been real.

Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Crunch Cookies

Makes 30 cookies

Ingredients

2 1/4 Cups quick cooking oatmeal
1 Cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 Cup brown sugar
1/3 Cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
12 ounces chocolate chunks
1 1/2 Cups rice krispie cereal

Process

In a large bowl, combine the oatmeal, flour, baking, and salt. Set aside.
Beat together the butter and sugars for several minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides occasionally.
Add the eggs and vanilla extract, beat well again.
Incorporate the dry ingredients
Gently mix in the chocolate chunks and cereal.
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Form heaping tablespoon rounds and arrange on the cookie sheets with enough room around them for some spreading.
Bake for 12 minutes, rotating half way through.

Adapted from Morsels of Life

errr, ignore the mess in the background. ooph!

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Double Tree Hotel’s Chocolate Chip Cookies- SRC

July 11, 2016

We are in the middle of potty training right now.

It’s been going well, and it’s really hilarious. Can’t beat it when a little naked tush goes running by as you hear ‘I have to go pee pee!!!”. ha!

The big thing is that delicious rewards are working for Autumn. Pee on the potty… get a marshmallow. Pee on the potty… get a gummy worm. Poop on the potty… get a chocolate covered marshmallow. You get the gist. Thankfully, she doesn’t remember the reward system or she would be jacked on on sugar all the time.

But I think that the reward system works for all kids of all ages. And I am speaking for myself at this point as well.

I will have a crazy month ahead of me and the craziness really begins tomorrow so I am giving myself a little pep talk tonight and treating myself to a cookie before it all begins.

I think taking a moment to give yourself a pep talk before doing something big is needed, just as much as rewarding yourself.

So I took a little moment with on of these cookies and now I’m ready.

For this month’s Secret Recipe Club post I was given Sarah’s blog, Well Dined. I dove right in searching her recipe index and came across several recipes that sounded great, like Sarah’s Ricotta and Chard Pizza (love pizza!), Baked Eggs in Avocado (whole30!), and Fish Tacos with Chipotle Mayo and Coleslaw (tacos, duh!)

Ultimately, I came across these Double Tree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookies. I knew I had struct gold!

I have only stayed at Double Tree a few times but every time I have enjoyed their cookies and they are addicting. If you haven’t been to a Double Tree I suggest you stay there. Sure, it’s a good hotel, but the cookies… stay for the cookies. ha!

I stuck to Sarah’s recipe except that I realized that I only had 2 cups of chocolate chips and not 3 Cups, as the recipe calls for. I didn’t feeling going to the store again so I just tossed in a cup of Mini chocolate chips. Still chocolate, so it’s still okay in my book. I also used vanilla bean paste instead ox extract since I recently got a jar and I am determined to use it on everything. I just love it so hardcore.

The cookies are so good. They have great flavor and texture from the oats. The tiny bit of cinnamon in them also adds a great scent and flavor. Don’t skip the lemon. I swear it’s like skipping salt in a sweets recipe. You think you can, but you are so wrong.

So glad that I picked these cookies from Sarah’s blog for this month’s SRC post. My family enjoyed them and we shared with our neighbors too. Now, it’s time for you to give them a try!

It would be wrong to not make these cookies. Reward yourself.

Double Tree Hotel’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 20 (big!) cookies

Ingredients

1/2 Cup instant oats
2 1/4 Cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 Cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 Cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 Cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
2 eggs
3 cups semi-sweet, chocolate chips
1 1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

Processed

Grind the oats in a food processor or blender until they are very fine. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, pulse until mixed. Se aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla, and lemon juice in a stand mixer. Mix for at least 3 minutes until you have a fluffy texture. Scrape down the sides as needed.
Add the eggs and mix until the mixture is smooth.
Add the dry mixture and mix until combined. Add the chocolate chips and nuts and mix to just incorporate.
Let the dough for at least 1 hour, but for the best results, chill the dough overnight in the refrigerator before baking the cookies.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spoon rounded 1/4 cup portions (will yield 20 cookies) onto an parchment lined cookie sheet. Place the scoops about 2 inches apart. Bake for 16-18 minutes or until cookies are light brown and soft in the middle. Remove and let cool on a wire rack.
Store in an air tight container.

Sourced from Well Dined

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Check out all the other great Secret Recipe Club posts HERE this month!

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Cookies and Cream Ice Cream Cake

June 13, 2016

Happy Monday!!!!

It’s our 1 year anniversary! We have been enjoying a long weekend away in Disney celebrating our anniversary. It’s been a blast. So so so much fun.

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Chocolate Walnut Babka – SRC

April 25, 2016

This past weekend has been awesome!!!

On Saturday we went out to lunch with a friend who was on vacation in Florida. It was good to see him, his wife, and adorable 1 year old daughter.

And then the offer we put on the house we have been loving for a year was accepted. Oh my goodness. We are still in shock! It’s so exciting. We stopped by the sales office today but some changes to the plan needed to be coded so we are going back to sign the contract tomorrow night. Holy Smokes!

But more on the house stuff later!

Today is Secret Recipe Club Reveal Day!!!!

When I had previously had Karen’s blog, Karen’s Kitchen Stories, for a Secret Recipe Club blog post swap I was so enticed by her many recipes, especially bread recipes. I was so really excited that her blog came up in rotation again for me so that I could make one of her many awesome recipes.

I realized that I wouldn’t be able to put making my SRC off until the last minute (like usual!) since I would be doing Whole30 again when the SRC post would go live, so I planned on making my recipe in advance so I decided that my recipe had to be pretty epic before diving into Whole30. So what would be epic?

Chocolate Walnut Babka!!!!!!

This was the best way to kick off Whole30! Ha! I made this for us and we enjoyed most of a loaf for dinner. I mean, what’s a better way to welcome a month of no grain, no butter, no chocolate, than a loaf of bread filled with it. But let me tell you, that treat was incredible!

The babka bread is so flavorful with all the spice in the dough and chocolatey, nutty filling. The dough is soft and tender so it’s a nice light bread, but it still has substance from the filling. It’s a bread that you will keep cutting off slices of again and again. It’s so delicious.

I changed some of the proportions of the filling to just make it a bit more chocolately and, generally, pack more of a punch. I just treated it like how I treat making cinnamon rolls. The more butter, cinnamon, and sugar… the better! So I just tweaked the filling a bit.

Karen did mention how different the loaf would look if you scored the top vs pricking it with a tooth pick. I tried different ways with each loaf and I have to agree with Karen that the loaf that is pricked is much prettier. But you can’t go wrong either way.

I broke down the steps into many simple steps. It might seem cray and intimidating to see a lot of steps but I like to think of them as simple steps, not 5 steps that have several parts to it. So, don’t freak out, take a breath, and just start with #1 and the rest will be easy.

Get our your yeast, grab some walnuts, and chop up some chocolate. Get started on this awesome Chocolate Walnut Bread!

Chocolate Walnut Babka

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

For the Bread

2 large room temperature eggs
1 pound, 10 1/5 ounces all purpose flour (unbleached)
1 1/8 ounces nonfat dry milk
3 1/2 ounces sugar
5 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature butter
2 T instant yeast
2 1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
8 to 10 ounces of 95 to 100 degree F water depending on the humidity
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

For the Filling

4 ounces sugar
1 ounce cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process
1 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon expresso powder
2 ounces butter, melted
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped into fine pieces and small chunks
4 ounces chopped walnuts

For the Egg Wash

1 large beaten egg
a pinch of salt

Process

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine all of the ingredients together and mix with the hook attachment until everything is just combined. If the dough is too dry, add more water a Tablespoon at a time.
Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
Mix the dough again for about 7 minutes.
Let the dough rise until doubled, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Combine all of the filling in a large bowl.
Grease two 9 by 5 inch loaf pans.
Remove the dough and place onto a well floured surface. Deflate the dough and divide it in half. Roll out the dough halves into 9″ by 18″ rectangles.
Evenly spread 1/2 of the filling on each piece of dough.
Roll each rectangle along the long edge. Seal the seam and the ends of the loaves by pressing the dough ends under the loaf. Place the loaves into the pans with the seam side down.
Spray the top of the loaves with spray oil and cover with plastic wrap. Let the loaves rise for 1 to 2 1/2 hours, or until the top is 1 inch above the pan.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Brush the loaves with the egg wash, poke the top of the loaves with a skewer or a toothpick several times, and place them in the oven.
Immediately lower the temperature to 300 degrees F.
Bake the loaves for 50 to 60 minutes, until they reach about 180 degrees. If the loaves begin to get too brown, tent with foil.
Remove the loaves from the oven and run a knife along the sides. Let the loaves cool in the pan for ten minutes, the remove them from the pans, place them on a cooling rack, and let them cool completely.