So I’ve been following Heather Christo’s blog for a few months or a year or so. I’ve made a few of her recipes, generally with success, but mostly I use her blog for inspiration for flavor profiles and to validate a recipe’s proportions, cooking temp and times, etc. (yes, I analyze recipes for formula errors just as I would an Excel spreadsheet). Heather recently published a cookbook and is on her cross-country book tour. She’s going to be at a book signing tonight here in the DC area, so I grabbed my copy (that I nabbed as soon as it was available on Amazon) and am headed out this evening to get it signed.
So earlier this week, as I was asking about one of her recipes (ingredient analysis, **sigh**), I said I was going to her signing and asked “are we SUPPOSED to bring cookies to the signing?” She said she’d love it, so I whipped up a batch of these ROCKING oatmeal cookies last night with a dozen set aside for Heather. It’s networking, right? Not stalking?
Criminal concerns aside, this has become my go-to recipe for oatmeal cookies. I **LOVE** that the butter is melted, because sometimes I forget to put the butter out ahead of time, or I bought it ON the way home, or the kitchen is warm and the butter gets too soft and then my cookies get greasy. I try to be judicious about making specific product recommendations, but here, this specific Trader Joe’s fruit and nut mix really fits the bill. I’ve also made the cookies without the chocolate chips, and it’s a fine cookie, but the mini chips slip these little nubbins of chocolate in between the bigger chunks of nuts and really take it the next level. I bet white chocolate would be pretty divine too!
Rockin Oatmeal Cookies, adapted from Bluebonnets and Brownies’ Dark Chocolate, Cherry and Pistachio Cookies
Makes about 50 cookies.
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons butter, melted (2 sticks)
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon ginger liqueur
2 cups Trader Joe’s Macademia/Almond/Cranberry/Ginger Trek Mix
1 cup mini chocolate chips
Measure out 2 cups of the nut mix. I find the cranberries stick together — use your fingers to separate them from each other. Pull out the ginger chunks and chop finely (1/8″ to 1/4″ mini chunks). Roughly chop the macadamias and almonds as they tend to be whole. Put this aside (I know this step is slightly obsessive, but you don’t want clumps of cranberry or ginger-less cookies and you SO do not want to break a tooth on a whole almond).
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, oatmeal, and salt. Whisk together to combine and aerate, then set aside.
Melt the 2 sticks of butter and allow to cool slightly. Combine butter, oil, and both sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on low to medium speed until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add liqueur and mix again.
Incorporate the flour mixture a little at a time on LOW speed until well mixed in.
Add in nut mix and chocolate chips. Mix by hand or on LOWEST speed with the mixer until the add-ins are well combined and mixed through the dough.
Chill the dough for 20 minutes. While it’s chilling, preheat the oven to 350F.
Place golfball-sized dough balls on a parchment lined cookie sheet – roughly 8 to a sheet (I do two rows of three with a row of two in between — I REALLY should have taken a picture of that). Bake ONE tray at a time for 9 minutes, rotate pan, bake for another 3 or 4 minutes. I keep the dough in the fridge in between batches.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a couple of minutes on the sheet before removing to a cooling rack or countertop with wax paper. Eat several while warm. Allow the rest to cool completely before boxing or bagging.
*****
[photo credit: Heather’s sister-in-law Natalie]
p.m. update: So, Heather is as gracious and natural in person as you might expect from reading her blog. And about 8 feet tall and slender as can be and totally ROCKING some hot platform pumps (I should have taken a picture of those instead, right?).This was a small, intimate venue, so I got a chance to talk with her and her sister-in-law Natalie for a bit (Natalie was kind enough to take this photo as well as the Instagram version). I recommended they go get dinner at El Pollo Rico for authentic Peruvian charcoal chicken. Of all the awesome restaurants in Arlington, yes, we talked about Peruvian chicken!
Heather seemed to like the cookies — yeah for me!! Because I’m such a dork — those are my cookies right next to HER cookbook in the picture. If you’ve not visited her site, it’s well worth a visit. I can personally recommend her recipe for Lemon Summer Squash Bread.