Nut-Free Grand Finale Cookies Redux

I didn’t let Valentine’s Day pass without making some of these. The best cookies ever. I made the instructions easier!

NUT FREE CHOCOLATE CHIP GRAND FINALE COOKIES

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 cups quick cooking oats

• 12 ounce package chocolate chips

• 1 cup shredded coconut

• 1/2 cup raisins

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter

• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1/4 cup orange juice

• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheets or line them with parchment paper. Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Add the oats, chips, coconut and raisins to the flour mixture and mix to distribute the ingredients evenly. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar and sugar at medium speed for about 2 minutes or until smooth, creamy and well blended. Add the egg, orange juice and vanilla extract and beat for 2-3 minutes or until smooth and well blended. Add the flour mixture and blend it in thoroughly. Scoop heaping tablespoons of dough and place on the cookie sheets, leaving some place between the blobs for the cookies to spread. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Let cool.

Makes 36-42 cookies

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I’ve been thinking about finger foods lately. The stuff of wedding cocktail hours, Superbowl parties and so on. There are many that I love and could eat any time, for any occasion. Fancy ones like smoked salmon Napoleons with Meyer lemon and caviar creme fraiche. And good old goodies like franks-in-blankets.

What’s not to like? Most of the time I fill up on the finger foods and don’t leave much room for the rest and that suits me just fine.

But honestly folks, when I started thinking about which finger food I like best, which I crave most often, which I would pick first before anything else, I realized it’s not any of the ones I mentioned. Not even potato puffs or goat cheese and caramelized onion bruschetta.

It’s the cookies.

Fannies, Grand Finale cookies, gingersnaps, peanut butter cookies, frozen dough cookies, Hello Dollys, Orange Marmalade cookies, Honey-Oat Granola Bars. Or old-fashioned Oatmeal Raisin cookies.

Which is why I blog about cookies so often.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

10 tablespoons unsalted butter

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanila extract

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups quick oats

1 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. In the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed, cream the butter and sugar together for a minute or so until creamy. Add the brown sugar and blend it in thoroughly. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. Add the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt and beat until the ingredients are well blended. Stir in the oats and raisins. Drop mounded tablespoons of the mixture onto the cookie sheet, leaving some space between each lump of dough. Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Repeat with remaining dough. Makes about 42-48

Oatmeal Cookies

I don’t understand the green food thing for St. Patrick’s Day. Someone emailed me (and several other women who bake for a biweekly Tea at Stamford Hospital, sponsored by our local Hadassah group) and suggested that we could, if we wish, bake something and color it green because the next Tea will be a St. Patrick themed event.

Nope.

When I bake with my grandchildren I let them use food coloring and we frequently have lavender or cerise blue or fuchsia butter cookies or layer cake. I have lots of little bottles with lots of colors that they can mix together.

But they’re kids.

Green bagels, green cake and so on is just not happening here. I don’t remember when that whole thing started.

Green Ireland is an amazing country, one of the most gorgeous I’ve ever been to. Emerald Isle is a good name for it, so true, so lovely. It rains a lot there and then it stops and the grass and the leaves, the bushes and plants and everything else is incredibly beautiful. To me the green in nature conjures up hopeful signs of life. But green, fake-colored food? Nope.

I’ll be making:

Oatmeal Cookies

10 tablespoons unsalted butter

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanila extract

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups quick oats

1 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. In the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed, cream the butter and sugar together for a minute or so until creamy. Add the brown sugar and blend it in thoroughly. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. Add the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt and beat until the ingredients are well blended. Stir in the oats and raisins. Drop mounded tablespoons of the mixture onto the cookie sheet, leaving some space between each lump of dough. Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Repeat with remaining dough.

Makes about 4 dozen