Oatmeal Cream Pies

While scrolling through Pinterest over the weekend I came across this recipe.  I mentioned it to my husband and he almost started drooling instantly.  Turns out that the Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies were both of our favorites when we were younger.  I decided to surprise him for Valentine's Day with a batch - with pink filling of course.  These are sooooo good.  I didn't put in quite as much butter as the recipe called for, and the cookies still turned out great.  The filling is really good but really sweet.  I think I'll alter that if when I make them again.

Oatmeal Cream Pies
Makes 3 dozen cookies/18 cream pies

Ingredients:
Cookies:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
3 cups quick oats
Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp heavy cream
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2-3 drops food coloring, optional

Directions:
1.  Heat oven to 375°.  Combine 1 cup of butter, brown and granulated sugars in a large bowl.  Cream with a mixer until well combined.  Add in vanilla and egg and mix to combine.


2.  In a smaller bowl mix together the flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon.  Stir in oats until combined. 


3.  In batches, add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar.  Once combined, drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto a baking sheet. 


4.  Bake 10 minutes, remove from oven and allow to cool for 2 minutes on baking sheet before moving to a cooling rack.


5.  While cookies cool, combine all ingredients for the frosting in a small bowl.  Mix on low until combined, then increase the speed until light and fluffy.  Add in food coloring and mix until desired shade.


6.  Once cookies are completely cooled, spread 1 tablespoon of frosting on the inside of one cookie and top
with another. 


7.  Try not to eat all of these in one sitting.  Enjoy!!
 

Move over Little Debbie!!!

Spritz Cookies

I think everyone has that *one* thing that makes Christmas, Christmas.  Maybe it's the tree, seeing lights, listening to Christmas music or putting up decorations.  For me, it's cookies (surprise, surprise).  But, not just any cookie my friends.  Spritz cookies.  I remember being younger and making these little 2-bite cookies with my mom at Christmas.  That is the only time of year that we made them.  They're so simple, only 6 easy ingredients, but so tasty!  You do need a Spritz Cookie press to make them and I just so happen to have the original cookie press that my mom and I used when I was a child.  Yes, it's outdated, but it works so well.  My mom was once given a new, updated, fancy press, but she returned it because she said nothing works as well as the original.  If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it!  If you were to go out today and buy a press, it would look a little something like this:

 If you were to come to my house to make these yummy treats, you'd use something that looks like this:

Old school at its finest people.

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp extract - peppermint, almond, vanilla, etc.  (Almond is my flavorite.....get it, flavorite!?)
2 1/4 cup flour
Optional:  food coloring and sprinkles

Directions:
1.  Mix butter, sugar, egg, salt, extract and flour until well combined.  Add a few drops of food coloring and mix until dough is to desired color.
2.  Load up your cookie press with the dough and desired cookie mold.  Press cookies onto cookie sheet and decorate with sprinkles, red hots, etc.

green christmas trees, red pinwheels and white snowflakes

3.  Bake at 400° for 7 minutes, remove from oven and let cool on cookie tray for 1-2 minutes.  Remove and place on a cooling rack.



Merry Christmas!!!

I, of course, had to try them out on Redmond.  Now, we don't feed him too many sweets, so any kind of cookie or cake are kind of foreign to him. 

First he gave it a good poke....

....the first bite....

"Yuck!  What is this woman feeding me!?"

"Eh, what the heck, I'll try it again...."

Success!!!

Can't wait until next year when Redmond can help decorate the cookies!