Needless to say, the Covid-19 world combined with the local and national unrest of the past 10 days has been pretty stressful. Baking helps me when I'm stressed--probably something about exerting control on a small part of the world around me--so I made cookies tonight. Now my house smells super good: rich chocolate and coffee. Oh, and I have cookies.
The first time I tried the Quaker Oats double-chocolate oatmeal cookie recipe I made only two changes:
- I used the new Nestle Espresso chips (they're more like mocha, actually) for the 1 cup that is stirred in at the end.
- I made them using the recipe's official "Bar Cookies" variation instead of individual cookies.
Note: I used old fashioned oats, margarine, and dark brown sugar.
The bars were good, but kind of flaky/crumbly. I was a fan and the folk's seemed to like them, too. So obviously when I made them a second time I did a bunch of different things!
What did I do? Well, I...
- Made them as cookies, not bars
- Swapped some flour out for cocoa powder
- Added coffee extract
- Added extra mini chocolate chips stirred in
- Used Scottish oatmeal
Ingredients:
- 1 cup regular semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 1/4 cups minus 3 teaspoons all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons cocoa powder
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- scant 1/4 tsp. salt
- 2 sticks margarine (or butter), softened (I used margarine this time)
- 3/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar (I used dark brown sugar, 'cause that was what was open)
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract (I used my baker's vanilla on this one, rather than the pure vanilla or double-strength. There are other forward flavors in there, the vanilla is just to add that warm mellow to it.)
- 1/2 tsp. coffee extract (I used Watkins, because I live in Minnesota and we love our Watkins spices and extracts up here!)
- 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
- 1 cup Nestle Toll-house Espresso Morsels*
- 2 cups oats uncooked (I used Bob's Red Mill Scottish Oatmeal, but the original called for either quick-cook or old-fashioned)
*If you don't have these, just swap in regular sized chips that you would like (milk, semi-sweet, dark, white...they'd probably all be pretty good)
Directions:
- Heat oven to 350°F.
- Melt 1 cup chocolate chips. I did this in the microwave in 45 second intervals on 3 power, but you could definitely do it on the stove. Set aside to cool while doing the rest of the steps.
- In medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In large bowl, cream together margarine and brown sugar with electric mixer.
- Blend in melted chocolate, egg, coffee extract, and vanilla.
- Gradually add flour mixture and mix until well combined.
- Stir in oats, mini chocolate chips, and espresso chips.
- Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
- Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until set.
- Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet and then remove to cool.
- Store tightly covered.
