Cranberry, Pistachio and Cardamom Oatmeal Cookies

Red and green spotted cookies. I was thinking Christmas, festive, attractive, soft, delish. I came up with this mix for oatmeal cookies, and guess what? You guessed. I snuck in the cardamom again. Oh, they ARE really good.  Unfortunately I have posted this after the fact, that being in time to put these colorful cookies on a platter for the guests. But I recommend you try these anytime, right now, tomorrow maybe, and feel good knowing the oats are in there to help lower your cholesterol, and the pistachios are one of the fewest calorie nuts you can eat! 


3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light  or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup shelled pistachios
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Stir together the flour, cardamom, baking soda and salt and set aside. In another bowl, beat the butter and the sugars together. Stir in the vanilla and egg and mix well. Add the flour mixture all at once and stir to combine. Add the oats and mix again. Lastly, add the cranberries and pistachios which have been chopped, either by hand or in your food processor, leaving nice sized pieces of fruit and nut.


You can chill this mixture now until later, or start baking now.  


Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Drop cookie dough by the tablespoon, 12 on a sheet, and bake for ten minutes. Remove to a rack to cool. Makes about 3 dozen. 

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Could I eat just one of these cookies? I think not. That's why I made some of them with semi-sweet dark chocolate kisses.  I figured dark chocolate is good for you, right? So I feel half as guilty by having eaten one with dark chocolate and one with an unbelievably yummy Reese's miniature peanut butter cup. Oh, whoever came up with this idea, one thousand thank yous!!!  Now, I only changed the recipe up a bit, I can never leave well enough alone. I used a favorite peanut butter cookie recipe of mine, and rolled the dough in sugar before baking. That's all!  Get to the store and buy these ingredients and start baking. You'll be happy you did. I  don't want to get graphic, but I brought these to my hair salon, and the response was that these cookies rivaled a sexual experience.  S'all I'm sayin'.


PEANUT BUTTER CUP COOKIES

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cp. flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
40 Reese's miniature peanut butter cups OR
half and half Reese's and Hershey's Kisses


Cream together the softened butter and sugars. Mix in the vanilla and peanut butter, then the egg. Mix together all the dry ingredients (flour through salt) and add all at once to the creamed mixture, mixing very well. Refrigerate for at least an hour, overnight if you want to do this at another time.


When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Shape dough into balls about the size of a walnut, maybe a little smaller. Roll in a dish of granulated sugar and place each ball into an ungreased mini muffin pan. Bake for 8 to 8 1/2 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately place a peanut butter cup into the center of the cookie cup, pressing down gently so the candy is flush with the height of the cookie cup. Allow to cool in the mini muffin pan for a few minutes, and they will come out of the pan much easier. You can give them a nudge by sliding a knife carefully around the outside of the cookie to help it out, but you shouldn't have any problem. If you're using Hershey's Kisses, follow the same instructions for placing the candy into the cookie cup. This recipe makes around three dozen, give or take a few. 


Big Tip Here! Unwrap the candies and place them in the freezer while preparing the dough. It makes a big difference to have the candy be slightly or completely frozen before placing on the hot cookie. 

I thought twice about posting a picture with this reeeealllly old mini muffin pan, but I couldn't bring myself to PhotoShop out the worst of it right now, and I wanted you to see what the cookies looked like in the pan. If anyone wants to send me a new mini muffin pan, I'll give you my address ;-)

Candied Cardamom and Orange Mixed Nuts

I've got a great new recipe for your nut dish this holiday season. Don't buy Planters or any other kind of store bought nuts this time. Get yourself some oversized bags of nuts at Costco or Sam's Club or whichever store of that type is popular in your area, and make your own! Perfect for gift giving, if you can manage to put any aside before devouring them all yourself. And great news.... I've found yet another use for that expensive jar of cardamom that I bought a while back!  These are sweet, crunchy and downright addictive.

CANDIED CARDAMOM 
AND ORANGE MIXED NUTS

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup plus 3 Tbs. sugar, divided
1 cup unsalted pecans
1 cup unsalted walnuts
1 cup unsalted almonds
2 tsp. cardamom
1/2 tsp. or more orange peel       

Melt the butter in a large pan over medium high heat. Add the 1/2 cup of sugar and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Meanwhile, mix the remaining 3 Tbs. of sugar with the cardamom and orange peel and set aside. As you can see, I took the easy way out and used a jar of Spice Islands orange peel. But if you like grating, by all means grate away! When the sugar is dissolved, still over the medium to medium high heat add the 3 cups of nuts, cooking and stirring for about 5 minutes until toasted and well coated with the butter/sugar mixture. Don't allow the nuts to burn. Pour the nuts into a large bowl and add the reserved sugar and spice mixture. Stir well to coat evenly.  Dump this mixture onto a foil lined cookie sheet and break apart with the back of your spoon or spatula to, well, to break them apart.... duh me.  When they are cooled, they will separate, yeah, that's the word I was looking for... they will separate easily and be ready to fill a nut dish or add to a container for gift giving. Yum.... wait till you taste these!