Breakfast cookies

Today was baking day. I wanted to make a cookie that would offer a bit more energy than just a sugar rush. I had some extra bacon that I needed to use up, and I remembered Breakfast Cookies. Fortunately Taste of Home had a recipe. Here's theirs:

Breakfast cookies:

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
10 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
2 cups cornflakes
1/2 cup raisins

Directions

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Combine flour and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in bacon, cornflakes and raisins.
Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 15-18 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: 2 dozen.

I didn't have any cornflakes, and the comments on the recipe complained that they made it too crunchy anyway. So I used 2 cups of oatmeal. Essentially these are oatmeal raisin cookies with crumbled bacon.

It makes for sweet cookies with curiously tasty and crunchy salty bits. The bacon flavor is a bit weird at first bite, but then it tastes really good. I don't think I'd dispense them as breakfast, but as an afternoon snack, they can't be beat.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

Another meme for me! I find that filling out memes is easier than thinking, what with mommy-brain and not having anything more interesting to say than, "Got up. Fed people. Nursed the baby. Fed people. Changed diapers. Fed the baby. etc. etc. etc."

So today I'm trying out {pretty, happy, funny, real} from Like Mother, Like Daughter. It looked fun, and it only requires four photos. I can cough up four photos!

{pretty}

Pretty chocolate chip cookies! With some diced peanuts in them for extra nom.

{happy}

His smile disturbs me slightly.

{funny}

"I'll make you a diaper you can't refuse."

{real}

My living room this morning. Sigh. The baby really does sleep the best when she's in the midst of chaos.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was baking a loaf of bread for the weekend, and Alex asked, "Make cookies?"

So I went, "Why not?" and on thinking about it, decided, "This would be fun to put on my blog!"

So here goes. This is the chocolate chip cookie recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook, but it's identical to the Toll House Cookie one, too. I've made it so many thousands of times that I know it by heart.

Here we go!



White sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla, all ready to be creamed together.



Mexican vanilla. It looks like some sort of medication, doesn't it? Actually, it's a bunch of vanilla for, like, 3 bucks. It has a slightly different aroma than regular vanilla, like they make it with tequila or something. There's no worms in it.

As far as I know.



Butter and margarine, waiting to be melted. I know I should soften them on the counter rather than nuking them, but I don't have the time. I nuke cream cheese, too. Don't tell anyone I said that.



Nuked fats!



The recipe technically calls for one egg, but all I had were banty eggs, so I used two.

Bosch, do your magic!



You don't have to do chocolate chip cookies in a heavy duty mixer like this. I'm just lazy, and my arm gets tired from using a hand mixer. Yes I'm a lazy wimp and I like my cool power tools.

Anyway, once it's all creamed together ...



As Alex says, "Flowers!"

And baking soda and salt. Of course. The recipe actually calls for 2 1/4th cups flour, I just didn't take a picture of the last 1/4th. It's boring.



Annnnnd the chocolate chips. I've discovered that when a recipe calls for 2 cups, you can get by with just 1. You don't notice a difference at all.

And know what? Dark chocolate chips make THE most fabulous chocolate chip cookies on EARTH.

Let your mixer chew this all up together.



Take time to smell the roses.



Very cute roses.



Then drop the cookies into vaguely spherical shapes on an ungreased cookie sheet.



And bake for 12 minutes.



And a dramatic lighting shot to show texture!



That's the natural light in my kitchen. When we get a house, it'll have to have these magical things in the kitchen called windows.

Anyway, now the cookies can be gobbled up by all and sundry!

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cookies:

3/4ths cup granulated sugar
3/4ths cup brown sugar
1 cup butter or margarine (2 sticks)
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 1/4ths cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 or 2 cups chocolate chips
Nuts, if desired

Cream together sugars, butter and vanilla. Beat in egg. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt. Beat into sugar mixture a little at a time. Add chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Makes about 4 dozen.