Christmas Cookies

Chocolate-Chip Oatmeal-Walnut Cookies
For Dad, or anyone special to you!
 

In an effort to help my own father eat healthier, without giving up the foods he loved, I combined a few of his favorite cookie recipes (using healthier ingredients) & invented his NEW favorite cookie recipe!  This was his most requested gift item for Father's Day, birthdays, Christmas & Valentine's Day!
 
I'm sharing my secret recipe with you, hoping it will become your father, or kids favorites too!  Feel free to make standard-size cookies, cookie bites, cookie bars, or our favorite - cookie pizza pie!  Enjoy!










Ingredients & Simple-Mixing Instructions:
 
Cream together until smooth (in a large mixing bowl, by hand or use a mixer):

2 eggs
2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1 Cup brown sugar, loosely packed
1 Cup granulated, table sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla


Combine with creamed mixture, the balance of ingredients below, 1 at a time
(note - mix will be lumpy):
 
2 Cups whole wheat flour, all-purpose
1 Cup oats, either instant or regular
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 Cup dark chocolate chips
1 Cup chopped walnuts

Refrigerate cookie batter for at least 1 hour prior to baking, but longer is also fine.  Refrigeration makes all the difference in puffy-chewy cookies that keep their shape while baking, without burning, or flattening out, as shown here.








 
 
 
 
 
 
See Refrigerated cookie dough vs.  
Non-refrigerated cookie dough 
 
 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and drop large or small spoonfuls of batter onto  a non-greased cookie sheet and bake for 12 minutes.  Or fill a 9"x11" baking dish (for cookie bars), or a round cast-iron skillet (cornbread style), or smear dough onto a large-size pizza pan (for a single large-round cookie) baking for at least 20 minutes, and  remove from oven when brown.





 
 
 
Bow-tie or box-up and deliver to dad for Father's Day, or give to your kids for special academic or sports achievements!
 
 
 



Toasted-Coconut Mexican-Wedding Cakes
 
(also Tea Cakes or Snowball Cookies)
 
Not your traditional bite-sized cookie ball!

Makes 48 muffin-size cookies! 
Ingredients:

Items not to be mixed into cookie dough:
(will be layered into muffin tins, under & over cookie)

1-1/2 cups shredded or flaked coconut (set aside)

1-1/2 cups powered sugar (set aside)
 






Cookie Dough Mix
1/2 cup each of shredded coconut & walnuts, pecans, or Macadamia nuts, chopped together very finely

1-1/2 cups coconut oil, warmed to oil consistency
 
1/3 cup coconut milk (not coconut water)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
 
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon  
Directions:

Line muffin tins with cupcake papers, and then spoon into each individual liner 1 Tablespoon of flaked coconut, and set aside.
 
Finely chop together 1/2 cup nuts with 1/2 cup of coconut by hand or in a food processor, and pour into a mixing bowl.  Add all other ingredients in the order listed & combine well.
  
 Spoon cookie dough mixture over the coconut flakes in the muffin tins, filling them up about 3/4 full.

 











Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until tops begin browning.
 




Allow time to cool before removing cookies by the cupcake papers.  Then place them on a platter, and spoon 1 Tablespoon full of powdered sugar over each cookie (as shown).


These are much easier to make than traditional Mexican Wedding Cakes which need to be rolled into small, uniform balls, baked on a cookie sheet, and usually get burned on the bottom.  

With these the coconut bottom gets toasted, protecting the cookie from burning, no obsessive rolling into one inch balls (unless you want to) and the
cupcake papers contain all the powdered-sugar messes! 



Include these other great Christmas cookies: