Banana-Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm fully aware that this has been the spring/summer of oatmeal cookie variations for me.  Why?  Well, oatmeal is inexpensive, adds a bit of healthiness (or perceived healthiness?), and it makes for a cookie that is a COOKIE.  By that I mean, you feel like you actually just ate a cookie, so it is harder to mindlessly inhale a bunch.  This is a good thing when pandemic baking.  

Also--and this is probably the most important--most oatmeal cookie doughs seem to taste better if they are let to sit (refrigerated or even frozen) before you bake them.  On the one hand, this means planning in advance.  On the other hand: then you can have fresh baked cookies whenever you want them, in whatever quantity you need/want.  One deliciously warm cookie as a treat on a particularly bad day?  Don't mind if I do!

The original version of this recipe didn't call for chocolate chips and the cookies were completely respectable, tasty cookies.  (The smidge of clove is actually really good in them, so don't skip that unless you are totally out or...like...really hate cloves.)  

But then I got to thinking about what might make them even better.  Nuts would be the typical choice, but they can be divisive.  And might that seem kind of just like banana bread in cookie form?  So I decided to go with chocolate chips.  That was good, but mini chocolate chips were even better when I tried them instead!  

This recipe is a good one for using up spotted bananas, especially if you don't feel like making bread/muffins.  The banana flavor really comes through, too, so don't do these if you aren't actually a banana fan!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened 

1 cup packed brown sugar (dark or light)

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup mashed bananas*

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp ground cloves

2 tsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

3 cups old fashioned oats

2 cups mini chocolate chips, or whatever looks about good to you (2 cups was maybe 3/4 of a bag, but you could use anywhere from a half to a full bag.)

* This was more than 2 of the bananas I had on hand, but less than 3 bananas.  Bananas vary wildly in size, y'all.

Directions:

1. Mix together butter, sugars, egg, vanilla, and mashed bananas.  (I used a hand mixer, just to get it all creamy)
2. Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves, cornstarch, and salt, and mix together
3. Stir in oats and chocolate chips. (Do this by hand)
4. Cover and refrigerate dough for a few hours to overnight (No freezer at this point.  We'll get to that later!)

To bake immediately:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Prepare baking sheet by lining with parchment paper or aluminum foil
3. Spoon out tablespoons of dough, make them round-ish and then flatten slightly into disks.
4. Space 2 inches apart on cookie sheet, as they will spread some
5. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until set and edges turn golden
6. Cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes, then remove to finish cooling

To freeze and bake later:

1. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper (don't use foil for this freezing part, it can get stuck to the cookies)
2. Make dough disks as above, but put as close together as possible
3. Put second layer of parchment and dough discs
4. Place cookie sheet in freezer overnight
5. Separate disks with parchment paper and store in freezer in ziploc-type bag/bags
6. Thaw and bake as above, or bake straight from frozen for a couple of extra minutes.   

Rhubarb-Strawberry Sauce, plus (bonus!) Frozen Dessert

Rhubarb is one of the midwest's great fruit flavors, even if it is technically a vegetable. When I lived in North Carolina, it was incredibly hard to find in the stores and most of my friends weren't really familiar with it.  But my mom and grandma both grew rhubarb in their yards (in Missouri and Minnesota) and I have bags of frozen rhubarb in my freezer that I sort of hoard.   

This recipe combines rhubarb with its best friend in the whole world: strawberry.  The two complimentary flavors meld into a sauce that can be eaten cold or warm, and  used on ice cream, pudding, yogurt, oatmeal, on pancakes, etc.  Or you can eat it by the spoonful.  It is pretty dang good that way, too.  And feel free to mess with the amounts of each ingredient, depending on if you want one flavor or the other to come forward...and on how tart you like your desserts!

I also just tried a new experiment to make the sauce into a frozen-sherbet-y dessert.  I don't quite have the texture I was looking for, but it was super tasty so I'll work on it some more.  

The original is actually a WW recipe.  

Sauce Ingredients:

3 to 4 cups uncooked rhubarb, sliced (have used fresh or frozen after it is thawed and drained in a collander)

quart of strawberries, sliced (this is about 1.5 pounds and probably around 3 cups, I suppose?)

3/4 cup powdered sugar

Sauce Directions:

1. Put all ingredients in a medium saucepan, stir until sugar melts. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Cover pan and set over medium to medium-high heat until mixture begins to boil, about 5 to 10 minutes. 
3. Uncover, reduce heat to low, and simmer.  Stir a few times, cooking until fruit breaks down into a sauce.  (This'll take about 45 minutes.) Serve warm or chilled.

Serving size: 1/3 cup per serving, makes about 10 to 12 servings (depending on how much original fruit used and how much you cook it down)

BONUS!  Frozen Goodness Directions:

1. Freeze rhubarb-strawberry sauce in ice cube tray (makes about 10 cubes)
   
   
   
2. Blend two cubes with about 1/3 cup of the milk of your choice (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
   
   
   
3. Then blend in two regular ice cubes.  
   
   
   

(I think I need more ice cubes or something, as it was way too liquid to be scoopable.  But it was tasty!)

Oatmeal Scotchies

Because I'm trying very hard to eat healthily--especially while working from home--I haven't been baking much.  After all, I normally taste the things I make, but bring the rest to work for others to enjoy.  And if the workforce in my house totals just me...there's no reason to make lots of treats.  However, I've been missing baking, and since baking is a nice stress reliever, I've also been missing the good vibes I get from making things.  (Baking as a creative outlet, y'all.  It's a real thing, I promise you!)

So I decided to make some cookies.  And then see if I could freeze the dough to bake up later.  I wanted to go with something that wouldn't use a ton of flour or sugar and that was a tried and true sort of thing.  So, I went with Oatmeal Scotchies--the classic oatmeal cookie with butterscotch chips baked in.  And I used the the recipe from the back of the bag of Nestle butterscotch morsels.  I added more cinnamon and dark brown sugar, but other than that it is straight-up the classic. 

Side note: I trust the Nestle morsels folks.  When I was a kid, my mom's chocolate chip cookies were always from the recipe on the bag, and so are mine.  That is a DANG GOOD recipe!

The experiment with freezing the dough worked pretty great, actually.  Just need to either let it come to room temp, or bake straight from the freezer and just give them a few extra minutes in the oven. And, actually, the frozen-to-oven cookies have come out...fluffier, I guess.  I'm not gonna lie, I actually like the freezer ones better than the ones that were baked on the first day, and I can bake just 1 or 2...or 3 if the day has been particularly bad.  (The photos on this post are all from the first batch, btw.  I baked them a bit on the longer side, so they were flatter and a bit crispier than they might have otherwise have been.)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon (the original recipe called for 1/2 tsp.)
• 2 sticks butter or margarine, softened (I used Blue Bonnet Margarine)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I used dark brown sugar, because I had some that was already open)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 cups oats (I used old fashioned Quaker oats, but you could use quick oats instead)
• 1 package butterscotch chips (1 2/3 cups or 11 oz.)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees 
2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl
3. Cream together butter and sugars
4. Beat in eggs and vanilla
5. Beat in flour mixture, gradually
6. Add oats and chips and stir together
7. Drop by rounded tablespoon-fulls onto ungreased cookie sheet
8. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes (less for chewy cookies, more for crispier cookies. 
9. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes, then remove to cool completely

To freeze for baking later:

1. Scoop dough out into balls onto a cookie sheet and freeze until fairly solid
2. Pack in a large freezer bag
3. To bake, bring desired number of dough-balls to room temp and bake for regular time/temp or bake straight from the freezer for a few extra minutes.  

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

Strawberry-Banana Soft Serve Healthy "Ice Cream"

In my ever-ongoing effort to be a healthier person, I like to explore healthy recipes sometimes.  This is a version of one that was recommended by a friend.  It's simple, fast, and healthy, as well as really, really delicious.  Definitely hits the spot when you want something frozen, fruity, or sweet.  (It isn't chocolate though.  So if what you really crave is fudge covered, caramel swirled, or filled with cookie chunks, you should probably try something else.)    

Also, I know that there are people who have machines out there to make bananas into "ice cream."  If you don't already have one of those, DO NOT invest in one.  A food processor or blender will work just as well...for this recipe anyway.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 frozen bananas (freeze as "coins" because the cut up version will be much easier on your kitchen equpment)
• about 5 or 6 oz (like two handfuls) of frozen strawberries
• 1 cup cold almond milk with vanilla (mine is unsweetened/light)

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients in the blender.
2. Blend until the consistency of soft serve
3. Scoop out
4. Actually, that's it.  There really isn't another step.