Tag: white chocolate

Fall Into The Season – White Chocolate Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

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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!

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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!

My morning miracle – White Chocolate Coconut Scones

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I think that the Gods and Goddesses of baking are watching over me.  Why do I think this?  Well, this morning I made coconut white chocolate scones and almost everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong.  However, in the end, they still turned out INCREDIBLY scrumptious!  It’s kind of a miracle.

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I woke up extra early to make this morning time treat for my friends.  That was my first problem, I had barely wiped the sleep from my eyes when I began pulling ingredients.  The second problem arose when I was jolted awake by the realization that I didn’t have enough flour!  While that might deter the ordinary baker from continuing, I remained determined to see these scones through!  I was only about 1/4 cup short of flour so I began scouring my pantry for something I could potentially use as a filler.  I found cake flour.  I won’t lie, I have no idea what the difference between regular flour and cake flour is, but I decided they were similar enough that the cake flour could be used to make up for the little bit I needed.  I continued mixing all of the ingredients and hoped that the risk would pay off. 

are they not the same thing?
are these not the same thing?

The next hitch in the plan came when the recipe called for the use of a pastry knife to mix in the butter. A what? I thought about looking up what that was and figuring out the proper way to use one.  I thought about doing that, I really did, but then I just used my hands to mix it in instead.  I really hoped that whatever a pastry knife was worked in a similar way to fingers!  After that, the only problem was that I didn’t cut the scones into even triangles so some of them were HUGE!  While some were teeny tiny!  I don’t truly consider that a problem though because in the end, people just had size options!

After the entire baking adventure was complete and the scones were done, I felt good about the outcome.  The last step was to “drizzle” white chocolate over the top of them.  We all know how good I am at doing that… NOT.  So I didn’t even try,  I just melted the chocolate and smeared it on top with a knife!  Nobody complained.  Everybody loved them.  One of my co-workers told me that they were, “the best scones I’ve ever had!”  Wow!  I tried a bite and I won’t lie, they are amazing.

I’m telling ya, I’m being watched by the mysterious Gods and Goddesses of baking!

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WHITE CHOCOLATE COCONUT SCONES


The Ingredients:
2 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter, cold and cut into cubes
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup +2-3 tablespoons coconut
1/3 cup white chocolate

The Method:
1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl
3. Mix in cold butter with your hands (or the mysterious pastry knife) until butter is mixed in and the dough is crumbly
4. In a separate bowl, mix egg cream and vanilla
5. Add the wet into the dry ingredients and mix just until combined
6. Stir in 1/2 cup coconut
7. Form dough into a flat round disk, about 8-9 inches in diameter
8. Place on a baking sheet and cut into 12 triangles
9. Brush each triangle with a a little bit more cream (just enough so the coconut will stick) and then sprinkle with the coconut
10. Bake for 20 minutes
11. Melt white chocolate in the microwave
12. “Drizzle” melted chocolate over scones
13. ENJOY!