Oatmeal cookies

I am actually glad my old hair salon is no longer in business. It was getting too fattening to get my hair cut. I would go on Saturday mornings to get my hair done and hang out with my friend Jenny that does my hair. And the minute I walked in I would smell these amazing fresh baked cookies. There on the table in the waiting area was a GIANT plate of cookies. I of course couldn't resist. They were too good to pass up. They were always the same base recipe but the "mix-ins" changed on a weekly basis. Sometimes chocolate chips, another time white chocolate chips and dried cranberries, another time toffee chips and dark chocolate chunks. The possibilities are endless. Once they were made with duck eggs instead of chicken and well lets just say I won't ever be making those. EW. One day I asked the guy that made them for the recipe and I have been making my own variations ever since.

So anyways I have a friend that had an upcoming bodybuilding show and I wanted to send some yummy after show treats. Dieting for months and months would make any sweet treat taste extra yummy. So I got out my old stand by recipe and added in M&M's as my "mix-in"

I finally used my silicone bake pad for what its meant for. No more parchment paper or scraping cookies off my old cookie sheets. Silicone is the way to go. Easy cookie removal and cleanup

Don't they look yummy?

They smelled amazing and tasted great. The colors from the M&M's bled a little into the cookie and they always come out a little different each time. Some thicker, some flatter. But always good. My favorite mix in is dark chocolate chips, walnuts and dried cherries. OH MY!!

Recipe - MY OWN

Best Ever Oatmeal Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour (you can sub in 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour for one of the cups of AP flour)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

pinch salt

1 cup aka 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temp

1 cup granulated sugar ( can use white or organic)

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

4 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups oats ( quick cooking or whole oats)

*** ADD INS – see my notes after directions

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 Deg F.

Whisk together dry ingredients ( flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt) and set aside. Do this in a bowl of some sort not just on the counter

In mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer beat the butter for 30 seconds on medium speed then add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Just a few mintues you don’t want to over beat

Add in the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition then add in the vanilla and milk. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until well blended and then mix in the oats on low speed as well. Fold in your ADD IN ingredients

Place rounded tablespoons of dough on ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool for a min on the baking sheet then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

This recipe makes like 70 cookies if smaller cookies are made, Probably around 50-60 if you make bigger and 40 if you eat half the dough while making them. Ha ha

ADD INS

Spices – cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, apple pie spice etc…  ( add a tsp or so in with the dry ingredients

Chocolate chips ( milk, white, dark, semi sweet)

Cinnamon chips, butterscotch, peanut butter

Nuts – walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, peanuts, macadamia nuts etc

Candies – caramel bits, M&Ms, toffee bits etc

Dried fruit – raisins, cranberries, cherries, pineapple, coconut, apple

Some of my favorite combos of ADD INS are

2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips, 1 cup chopped walnuts, 1 cup raisins and cinnamon

2 cups DARK chocolate chips, 1 cup chopped dried cherries

2 cups white chocolate chips, 1 cup dried pineapple pieces, ½ cup sweetened shredded coconut, ½ cup chopped macadamia nuts

1 cup chopped caramel pieces (or toffee bits), 1 cup dried apple diced up, 1 cup chopped pecans and 1 tsp apple pie spice added in to dry ingredients ( this is for the caramel apple oatmeal cookie)

I bag of peanut butter M&Ms

The possibilities are endless. You can also go for “Kitchen Sink” cookies and throw in any combo of whatever add in ingredients you have on hand. Go crazy put anything in. These cookies are super yummy!!

You can make the cookie dough ahead of time and freeze or refrigerate. Just thaw before baking so you can actually get the dough out of the bowl. Ha ha