Just call me cookie monster, seriously. I love cookies! I love them too much! One of my favorite things to bake is cookies. I love how many varieties of cookies there are and the possibilities are endless. I do have favorite chocolate chip cookie, oatmeal raisin cookie, molasses cookie, and white chocolate cranberry cookie recipes that I always use and usually never stray from, but today I want to share with you a new “experiment” cookie that turned out absolutely delicious! They are soft but a little crunchy on the outside, and perfect for dipping in milk! My secret to a delish soft cookie is do not over bake them!!! If a recipe calls for me to bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes, I usually take them out at 10 minutes or when I consider them “ready”. Cookies continue to bake on the pan even after they are taken out of the oven, so if you take a cookie out of the oven when its already too brown, it will more than likely be too crispy! With enough practice, you learn when to take your cookies out of the oven to achieve the taste and texture you want. Cookies are a great dessert to bring to a party- no pan, no utensils, just grab and go kind of thing. They are also great because you can freeze the leftover baked cookies, or even freeze the dough balls to bake any time a cookie craving hits! I usually make a full batch of cookies, bake 10 or less and then freeze the rest of the dough balls to bake at a later time, that way; you don’t have 3 dozen cookies laying around your house you just have to eat up so they “don’t go to waste”. : )
Ingredients:
1 Cup shortening
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
A little more than ¾ Cup Brown sugar
A little less than ¾ Cup white sugar
2 ¼ Cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 ¼ Cup Oats
1 Cup M&M’s
Directions:
Preheat oven to 365 degrees
Cream shortening, eggs, sugars, and vanilla in a bowl of a stand mixer until well mixed. Scrape down sides of the bowl and cream some more. Add in flour, salt, and baking soda and mix until combined. Don’t over mix. Fold in the oats and M&M’s and mix well. At this point, you can drop a bunch of spoonfuls of dough on a separate cookie sheet (ungreased) and flash freeze for about 10 minutes and then transfer frozen dough balls to a plastic freezer bag. With the rest of the dough that you are going to cook now, place on a greased cookie sheet, drop spoonfuls of the dough and bake for 9-10 minutes at 365 degrees until they are barely brown and still look under baked a bit. Like I said before about the time thing, you really have to use judgment here because all different ovens bake differently. Remove from oven and cool on pan for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Eat a freshly baked cookie right off the pan and enjoy! : )
