Banana-Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies

MMmmmmmmm! Just made these tonight from the Martha Stewart Cookie book and they're awesome! Not too banana-y, but nice and tender from the addition of the bananas, and with a little whole wheat flour too. They're fabulous! Enjoy :)

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 c packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1 large)
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
8 oz. semisweet chocolate coarsely chopped into 1/4 inch chunks (or semisweet chips)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted walnuts

1. Preheat over to 375 degrees. Whisk together both flours, salt, and baking soda in a bowl.

2. Put butter and both sugars into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add egg and vanilla; mix until combined. Mix in banana. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in oats, chocolate, and nuts.

3. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets lined w/ parchment paper, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until golden brown and just set, 12 to 13 min. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 5 min. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temp up to 2 days.

St. Nicholas Cookies

Happy St. Nicholas Day! Here's Janet's recipe for St. Nicholas cookies, which is different from the one in the red family cookbooks (i.e. no lard!). Enjoy --

Cream together:
1 lb butter
1 1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 c brown sugar
Add:
3 beaten eggs

Mix dry ingredients and add gradually to the above:
2 t ginger
2 t cinnamon
1 t allspice
1/2 t cloves
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
6 c flour

Form into 2 long logs (approximately the length of your cookie sheet), wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate til stiff. Slice into 1/4 inch slices, place whole almond or almond slice in the middle of each cookie, and bake at 350 for 11 minutes.

Martha Stewart's Snickerdoodles

This is our afternoon project today: cream-of-tartar-less snickerdoodles. Katie says they're fabuloso, and since I wanted to type up the recipe to have on my computer anyway, I figured I might as well post it:

Snickerdoodles

2 3/4 c flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t coarse salt
1 c butter, room temperature
1 1/2 c sugar
2 lg eggs

2 T sugar + 2 t cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugar, approx 3 min. Add eggs. Gradually add dry ingredients. Divide dough into 20 1 and 3/4 inch balls (measure them--they're big!). Roll in cinnamon sugar mixture and place 3 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes, and allow to cool on baking sheet on wire racks.

Enjoy!

(Katie, can you check this over to make sure I got everything? Thanks!)

Oatmeal Nut Cookies

Katie requested this recipe of mom's, so I thought I'd post it here for all. We actually got this from Cheryl Arney who gave it to us along with some of her own family recipes for our weddings. Mom's original must have been lost in the shuffle. It smacks of Grandma Davidson, so I suspect it came from her.

Oatmeal Nut Cookies

1 c applesauce
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c c shortening
1 1/2 c oatmeal
2 eggs
1 t baking soda dissolved in 1/4 c hot water
2 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1 c raisins boiled in a small amount of water
1 c chopped walnuts

Mix shortening, brown sugar, and eggs thoroughly. Add oats, dry ingredients and soda. Add raisins and nuts.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.