oatmeal

Fall Into The Season – White Chocolate Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Ahhh Fall. The crisp air, the changing foliage, the emerging of sweaters and boots from the back of the closet, the warm apple cider, and the integration of pumpkin spice into every consumable good possible. At least that’s how my autumns were growing up in New England. In New Orleans, fall comes on a little differently. The weather stays hot and humid, the trees stay lush and green, people continue to wear shorts and crop tops, all drinks are chilled to cool you down, but at least pumpkin spice is still everywhere you look! That’s what I love about food trends, they are the great equalizer of all the very different regions of the country!

Yes, fall is here, and no matter what that may look like for you, I’m betting money that you have seen at least one pumpkin flavored item marketed at your face. So, who am I to buck a trend? That’s why today I have for you all my DELICIOUS White chocolate pumpkin oatmeal cookies!

I am particularly proud of these cookies because this is my first recipe that I have developed completely on my own. I did not follow someone else’s recipe nor did I tweak a previously written recipe. I took the knowledge that I’ve accumulated thus far in baking and I designed my very own cookie! The best part? They were a total success! Everyone really seemed to enjoy them and I must humbly say, they were very delicious. Well how could they not be? They were a beautiful combination of white chocolate and pumpkin in an oatmeal cookie base.

The only notes I have on the recipe is that the dough is a little bit oily because of the pumpkin, so make sure that when you’re forming them to put on the pan you construct them extra carefully into balls. Otherwise they melt out a little bit before they hit the oven and bake oddly. This happened to about 5 of my cookies before I figured out that I needed to take more care in shaping them. Also, take the time to let them cool and firm up a little bit. I was too anxious to wait and ate 3 straight out of the oven, but the ones I had the next day were much better. So try your best to be patient!!

White Chocolate Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

The Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
pinch of salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup white chocolate chips

The Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a mixing bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt and set aside
3. In a separate bowl cream together the butter and the 2 sugars
4. Add the egg, vanilla, and pumpkin to the egg mixture and mix thoroughly
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet until they are all incorporated
5. Mix in the oatmeal and white chocolate chips
6. On a greased cookie sheet form balls of dough and bake for 14 minutes
7. This recipe should yield 3 dozen cookies
8. ENJOY!

All for myself – Single Serve Microwave Oatmeal Cookie

Hello again everybody! Let me tell you something, I have been busy busy busy since I returned to school. I forgot how easily my life can become so hectic! Between the hours of classes, homework, extracurriculars, work, and attempts at socializing I have found that baking has really been placed on the back burner.

pictured: me prioritizing my social life #SINS

A secondary challenge is that I am surrounded by a bunch of sorority girls who have too much self control and won’t eat my baked goods quickly enough! I ended up eating about 1/2 of the Oreo bars I made and struggled to find other people willing to eat them. People are way too body conscious here and it’s kind of bumming me out. I’m far less motivated to bake when I know that nobody will eat my creations! However, after I got home from work and dinner last night I decided enough was enough! If nobody wanted to eat batches and batches of amazing cookies than I would simply focus on myself. Thus, my single serving oatmeal cookie was produced!

This cookie takes about five minutes total to assemble and bake. You can’t really tell from the pictures but after cooling for about three minutes, the cookie just popped right out of the bowl and I could hold it like a real cookie!! It was so cute and awesome. Actually, just baking it was really cute. I’m used to using cups and cups of flour and sugar for my large scale baking endeavors but this simply required small teaspoons of ingredients! It was adorable and really fun. The end result was surprisingly good. The cookie was a little but chewy, but it still reminded me very much of an Oatmeal cookie. Given that it was cooked in the microwave I was fairly impressed with the outcome. I ended up making two of them for myself (darn my oatmeal cookie addiction!) but they were the perfect night snack and a good way to practice portion control (if you’re into that kind of thing). Another thing I thought of after the fact is that these would be SO much better if some chocolate chips were thrown in them! Next time! (AKA every night ever)

ONE SERVING MICROWAVE OATMEAL COOKIE

The Ingredients:

1/4 cup oats
1 egg white
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp baking powder
Cinnamon (as desired)
Chocolate Chips (technically optional but let’s be realistic… they’re never optional)

The Method:

1. Combine all of the ingredients in one (microwave safe) bowl and mix together well until a consistent dough forms
2. Scrape the dough from the sides of the bowl and form into a flat cookie shape on the bottom
3. Microwave on high for 45 seconds
4. Allow to cool for a few minutes
5. Pop the cookie out of the bowl and enjoy!

Elevated simplicity – Bite Sized Oatmeal “Cookies”

Sometimes in the morning, my standard bowl of oatmeal just doesn’t seem creative enough. When I first heard of the magical 2-ingredient cookies I knew that it would be a fabulous base to transform my morning bowl of oatmeal into something even more spectacular.

The idea is simply mixing oatmeal and a banana together and baking them into “cookies”. (Fair warning: these are not really cookies, so I try not to think of them like that – no cookie should lack it’s necessary butter and sugar, that’s my golden rule) I don’t stop with the oatmeal and banana in this fun recipe, to make my little oatmeal bites I add in what I would to my usual bowl of oats! For this example I added cinnamon and raspberry. You could also add cocoa powder, chocolate chips, raisins (yuck), coconut, nuts, seeds – the combinations are endless! The greatest part about this breakfast is that it feels like you’re eating a plate of cookies for breakfast, but you’re getting all of the amazing nutrients of a regular bowl of oatmeal! I like to eat them accompanied with a glass of almond milk for added nutritional value to round out this cute, simple, and fun breakfast!

OATMEAL BREAKFAST COOKIES

The Ingredients:
1 banana
1/2 cup oats
Optional:
Desired mix-ins! (cinnamon berries, nuts, chocolate chips, coconut, nut butters, etc.)

The Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mush a banana into a bowl and mix in oats until thoroughly combined
3. Fold in any desired mix ins
4. Drop 6 circles of the “dough” onto a greased baking sheet
5. Bake for 14 minutes
6. Enjoy!

A daybreak tradition – Oatmeal

Did I mention that I have an oatmeal obsession? Because if I haven’t then I’d like to make that abundantly clear right now: I LOVE OATMEAL! Every morning I make myself a big bowl of it to start my day off right. It took me a few months of trial and error to finally figure out exactly how I like my oatmeal. Now that I have a great recipe that works, it’s difficult to stop myself from making it for EVERY meal!

My morning oatmeals all share the same base, though what I mix into it changes based on what I have available in my house at the time.

I start with 1/2 cup of quick oats, 1/2 cup of vanilla almond milk, and 1/2 cup of water. I throw those three things in a bowl, mix it up, and put it in the microwave for two minutes. (Actually, I really put it in for exactly 2 minutes and 15 seconds. I’m not sure why but at this point I’m obsessive about this timing)

While it’s cooking in the microwave I start preparing my mix-ins. I cut any fruit that needs it and get together the right portion of anything else I might add in.

Once the oatmeal is done I let it sit for a minute to thicken up. Then I mix in a packet of truvia and a bit of cinnamon. You can substitute real sugar for the truvia, or any other sweetener you like. Sometimes I sub in a tablespoon of vanilla protein powder. As for the cinnamon, I rarely substitute anything in for it a;though occasionally I use a teaspoon of cocoa powder instead for a chocolatey flavor!

Next come the mix-ins! My favorite combination is a banana, raspberries, and almonds but some other options that I use from time to time are:
-coconut
-nectarines
-strawberries
-blueberries
-raisins
-pecans
-apples
-peanut/almond butter

You can mix and match anything that sounds good to you. As long as you have the base of the oatmeal right it will be super delicious!

The Holy Grail of my kitchen cabinets – No Bake Cookie Butter Cookies

Living in New Hampshire there are a few main stream chains that just haven’t expanded into my tiny little state. Although we are slowly seeing places such as Whole Foods and Chipotle pop up, they are still few and far between… One such example of this unfortunate phenomenon is our lack of Trader Joe’s. My entire extended family is from California so I’ve experienced my fair share of this wonderful food paradise. However, the closest one to my home is roughly forty minutes away! That doesn’t mean that I don’t venture out there from time to time, but it’s rare. Therefore, when I do make the journey to Mecca (sorry, I mean Trader Joe’s) I make sure to stock up on my favorite items. One of which is predictably… cookie butter!

example A: my empty and therefore sad jar

This decadent and addictive cream of joy always seems to be singing at me from the shelf, “RACHEL! I AM RIGHT HERE, STOP PRETENDING YOU’RE NOT GOING TO BUY SEVERAL JARS OF ME!!” From the aisle I feel compelled to reach forward and take this holy grail of butters. It’s a very persuasive food product.

So it only seemed right that I incorporate my favorite treat into some baked goods! I found this recipe on Pinterest and had to halve it because (surprise, surprise) I didn’t have enough cookie butter left in my jar! This resulted in only ten cookies, though they were ten VERY delicious cookies! I recommend doubling (or even tripling) what I did, you will not regret it!

NO BAKE COOKIE BUTTER COOKIES

The Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cookie butter
1 1/4 cup oatmeal
1 tsp vanilla

The Method:

1. In a sauce pan, bring butter, milk, and sugar to a boil
2. Once boiling, remove from heat and mix in cookie butter, oatmeal, and vanilla
3. Stir to thicken
4. Drop large spoonfuls on to parchment paper and wait at least 30 minutes for cookies to firm up

It’s a love affair – Dark Chocolate Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

Sometimes I think that I might have an obsession with oatmeal. Okay, okay I know that I definitely have an obsession with oatmeal. So whenever someone asks me what my favorite kind of cookies are, there is no contest – oatmeal wins every time. While I was growing up my parents always made the cookie recipe from the one printed on top of the oatmeal box. Throughout the years I had slowly forgotten about that classic recipe. However, the other morning as I was making my morning oatmeal I caught a glimpse of the recipe from my past and knew immediately what my next baking adventure was going to be!

Making oatmeal cookies sounded like a lot of fun, but the recipe called for raisins and I am not a big fan of those. I am, however, a big fan of chocolate… so that’s what I decided to mix in instead! I went to the store to pick up some chocolate chips and was shocked at all the different types of baking chips that I could choose from! I picked up a bag of dark chocolate chips and some shredded coconut and decided to mix all of my favorite things together for some dark chocolate coconut oatmeal cookies!

This recipe was super fun to make, and it allowed me to use the hand beater for the very first time to mix up the dough. There is definitely a learning curve with that particular machine…

They might as well call this the “get dough absolutely everywhere but in the bowl” beater

Regardless of my struggle with the hand beater, the cookies came out AMAZING! The recipe made almost 5 dozen bite sized cookies and the whole batch lasted less than 12 hours! (AKA, this was yet another massive baking success)

DARK CHOCOLATE COCONUT OATMEAL COOKIES

The Ingredients:

14 tablespoons of butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup coconut

The Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In one bowl mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt
3. In a separate large bowl beat butter and sugars with hand beater until creamy
4. Add eggs and vanilla to butter/sugar mix and continue beating
5. Beat dry mix into wet mix
6. Add oats, chocolate chips, and coconut and mix together
7. Drop small balls of dough onto cookie sheet
8. Bake for 9 minutes one sheet at a time

Let’s jump right in! – Raspberry Oatmeal Muffins

Hey there! My name is Rachel, welcome to my newest adventure! I have decided to really learn to cook and bake like a real live human adult! I have just turned 21 and because I only have one more year of school to go, I decided it would be in my best interest to start figuring out what all of those other contraptions were in that room with the microwave and fridge.

Right now I am home from school for the summer, working at a summer camp in New Hampshire and enjoying what little time I have left in the comfort of my parent’s home with a big kitchen and tons of space for my experiments.

The whole idea for this adventure began the other day when I decided to drag the whole family to a day of blueberry picking. “What fun!” I thought to myself, and it was! That is until we had four quarts of blueberries in our fridge and not enough time to consume them all! I was throwing blueberries in my oatmeal, my salads, mixing it with yogurt, and smoothies, but we simply had too many! So then I decided to make some muffins. From scratch. Which was a big endeavor for me as I’m typically the first person to reach for the box mix recipes when baked goods are needed. I went online and used the first recipe I found and within minutes I had whipped some up!

can't you just smell the delicious desperation? — can’t you just smell the delicious desperation?

To my extreme astonishment, they were a huge hit! I found that I had enjoyed making them so much that I wanted to make more! There was something so gratifying in making delicious treats from scratch and watching as they brought joy to those around me!

That all brings me to where I am now. I decided to start a baking blog in order to keep my new hobby interesting and alive. As for where the name “ladle by ladle” comes from, I literally just walked around the kitchen picking up various utensils and coming up with puns for them until I found one that wasn’t already in use on wordpress. It’s supposed to sound like “little by little” which is appropriate for me and this blog I think since I’m going to be learning slowly!

My first recipe is for a different type of muffin. I made them the day after I made the blueberry ones and they were an even bigger hit! my Raspberry Oatmeal Muffins were denser than your average muffin, but if you like oatmeal in your baked goods (and raspberries of course) then these are the muffins for you! Plus they’re pink and pretty (and pretty is very important!)

RASPBERRY OATMEAL MUFFINS

The ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup raspberries, chopped

The method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Mix dry ingredients (flour, oats, baking powder, and salt)
3. Mix together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in a separate bowl and then add eggs and vanilla
4. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and once they’re combined, add in the raspberries
5. Put muffin cups into a muffin tin (makes 12 muffins) and fill them each evenly with the batter
6. Bake for 20 minutes!

These muffin were well received by my family, friends, and co-workers. I was concerned that maybe they were just being nice, but I ate three in one sitting so I’m inclined to think that they were actually pretty delicious!

Until next time!

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