Oatmeal Raisin Cookies--Hubby's Favorite

I don't make these as often as Hubby would like, but now that the weather has suddenly turned very cold I'm in a baking mood. I start with the Quaker Oatmeal Vanishing Oatmeal cookies recipe and make a few modifications. Today, I did use butter, but I often substitute shortening. I am using 1 1/2 cups of Old Fashioned Kroger brand oats & 1 1/2 cups of Thick & Rough grain milled oats to make the 3 cups of Oats. I always add the salt even though it is optional & about twice as much cinnamon as the recipe calls for.

Ingredients
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
• 1 cup raisins

Preparation

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Peanut Butter Cookies

I'm sure that there a LOT of different peanut butter cookie recipes out there. Skippy peanut butter is my favorite brand and their recipe is my favorite for peanut butter cookies. I do make a few modifications. First, I use whatever brand of peanut butter is on sale or cheapest...this time we used Peter Pan. I've also used Jif. The second modification I make is using shortening instead of the margarine that the recipe calls for. I don't ever buy margarine & shortening works fine as a substitute.

This is a GREAT recipe to for my Tween kids to mostly make on their own. I check to make sure they put in the right ingredients & don't forget anything. I put the cookie sheet in the oven & take it out...they can do the rest. Even the 2 & 4 yr old can help making the dough into balls & flattening them with a fork on the cookie sheet.

Ingredients 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. baking soda 1/4 tsp. salt 1 cup Skippy ® Creamy or Super Chunk ® Peanut Butter 1 cup Imperial® Spread, softened 1 cup granulated sugar 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in small bowl; set aside. 2. Beat Skippy® Creamy Peanut Butter with Spread in large bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Beat in sugars, then eggs and vanilla until blended. Beat in flour mixture just until blended. (If necessary, refrigerate dough until easy to handle.) 3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Arrange balls on ungreased baking sheets 2 inches apart. Gently flatten each cookie and press crisscross pattern into tops with fork dipped in sugar. 4. Bake 12 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool completely on wire rack. Store in tightly covered container.

Apple Strudel Muffins

I've had two apples sitting on my counter for a couple weeks. I've been wanting to bake, but the weather wasn't cooperating, then we go SICK. Today, we still aren't feeling great, but the weather is cool & brisk & I'm in the mood for something fresh baked. I searched on All Recipes & found an Apple Strudel Muffin recipe.

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups chopped apples (I peeled, cored & diced 2 apples)
  
• (I added 2 T sugar & 1 t cinnamon to the apples)
• Topping:
  
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Stir in apples, and gradually blend in the flour mixture. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan.
4. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over tops of mixture in muffin pan.
5. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to sit 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan. Cool on a wire rack.

This yielded 18 regular size muffins....I think 2 apples is more than 1 1/2 cups, but I didn't measure.

This was Melanie's reaction.....