Sunday, December 02, 2007

Cooking with Kaitlyn

The Friday night after Thanksgiving, after most of the family had left, the gumbo was eaten, and the Mississippi State Bulldogs had won the Egg Bowl (!), I thought it would be fun to make cookies with my little cousin Kaitlyn. When I asked her if she wanted to help, she seemed pretty excited and kept saying, "I've never made cookies before!" So, we pulled up a stool and set to work. I had brought the "special" ingredients for the winning cookies of the Mrs. Field's cookie contest on I-Village - Oatmeal Peanut Butter Scotchies - pointed out to me by Anna.I thought they sounded good, and when I described them to Daddy his eyes got big! The interesting thing about these cookies is that they don't use any flour. I thought this might make them extra crispy, but they remained a pleasant, though slightly crispy, texture. Kaitlyn was a WONDERFUL little chef, helping me scrape the peanut butter into the bowl, pouring in sugar, turning on the mixer, and even putting (the first pan of) cookies on the stones. A good idea if you want to involve kids in baking cookies is to break the eggs into a little bowl, so that you know that there aren't any shells in there, and letting them pour the eggs in. In the end, I think Kaitlyn had a really fun time but decided that, though she liked the butter scotch chips, she didn't like the cookies...I think she didn't really taste them! :-) So much fun....I can't wait to cook with another little one! Oatmeal PeanutButter Cookies
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter (or margarine)
1 and 1/2 cups chunky peanut butter
4 and 1/2 cups rolled oats (old fashioned or half old fashioned, half instant)
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 whole eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 bag butterscotch chips (I think this is WAY too many chips...I'd use between 1 and 1 and 1/2 cups)
3/4 cups chopped pecans, toasted (you could probably increase the amount of this

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix until smooth. Stir in oats, soda, chips, and nuts until well combined. Drop by spoonful onto a baking stone or cookie sheet. Place stone/sheet in oven and bake for 12 minutes or until the bottom is brown and there is some browning on top. Cool on sheet for about 5 minutes and then put on cooling rack. This makes about 6 dozen cookies.

13 comments:

Red Dirt Mummy said...

Kaitlyn is so cute, Claire. It sounds like great fun for both of you and I love the pics.

Peabody said...

What fun...your cousin is a cutie pie.

Unknown said...

Wow, how old is she? And she has never made cookies?
I had my daughter and nephews making cookies when they were very small, and they loved it.

teeth whitener

Anonymous said...

Looks like you two had lots of fun together. It's fun to cook with little ones, isn't it? (Unless you're in a hurry... and then it doesn't work too well). :)

Annie said...

Kaitlyn looks like a doll. So cute and fun to cook with :)

Stacy at Exceedingly Mundane said...

Oh my, what a great helper you have there, I love the photos! You guys look so cute and look like you had a lot of fun baking together :)

gail@more than a song said...

It looks like she had fun!

Anonymous said...

I wonder if she would like an oatmeal cookie made with flour- maybe the cookie wasn't 'cookie-like' enough for her tastes.

Kate (from Kate in the Kitchen)

Jane said...

You two look like you had a great time! :)
I got crunchy peanutbutter at the store so I could make these very cookies. I saw them linked from the cookie madness site also.
So, you said your niece didn't like them....did you like them?
I was going to make them this weekend...

Jane said...

Thanks for letting my know that you liked them.
We'll be eating them by tomorrow!

Unknown said...

RDM - She's a little talker! It was fun.

Peabody - Thanks!

Tracy - She's six...I couldn't believe she had never made cookies.
I have a picture of myself making snickerdoodles at around two!

Alisha - We did...I was excited to do it this year. I've been wanting to for a while.

Annie - She is...such a good helper.

Stacy - We had fun. I think she enjoyed it.

Gail - She was pretty excited.

Kate - You know...I think she didn't really taste it. She had pretty much forgotten about them and wanted something else for dessert. AND we had had chocolate chip cookies earlier in the week, which is what I think (for some reason) she was expecting.

Jane - THey were good...I hope you enjoy them.

Kristen - Dine & Dish said...

Your cousin is such a beautiful girl!
You made great memories with her. You are going to be a great mom / doctor/ etc. someday!

Unknown said...

Kristen - Thanks so much! I can't wait for EITHER of those!!!