I made these as part of a cookie platter for our aunt and uncle who came for a visit to the woods. I love when people drive all the way out here to hang out for lazy afternoons on the back porch. Though I don’t know how lazy it really is when all three kids want to do stuff with everyone who comes over and then Wee One #2 convinces us to play hide and seek for at least a little while. Seriously. She’s gotten grandparents and jaded aunties in their 20s and everyone in between to play hide and seek with her. She’s very convincing!

So back to the cookies. I love the idea of the combo of oatmeal and jam but it’s never really worked out for me until this recipe. Yet another hit from my Great Cookies book! Maybe it’s the choice of jam? This recipe called for blueberry when usually recipes with oats call for strawberry or raspberry? I dunno, but it’s a winning combination and unlike a lot of ‘just ok’ recipes I’ve made, I will be making these again and again for sure!

Oatmeal Almond Jammies via Great Cookies: Secrets to Sensational Sweets

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
3 ounces shredded almond paste
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups sliced almonds
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten with 2 teaspoons water
1/2 cup blueberry preserves

First, process the flour, oatmeal, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt for about 15 seconds. Do this four times until the mixture is ‘cakey’. Then, in a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the almond paste, it’ll take a few minutes until it’s smooth. Add the sugar slowly, then the egg, egg yolks, and extracts and mix, mix, mix! With the mixer on low add the dry ingredients until just blended. Chill it for about 45 minutes. These three bowls are the dough, the almonds and the egg whites with water. Preheat the oven to 350F, line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll the dough into 1″ balls, dip in the egg whites and then roll in the almonds.
Then I used the back of a spoon to make ‘thumbprints’ in the dough. Are thumbprint cookies EVER made with actual thumbs? I think not! What a farce! I dropped less than a tablespoon into each ‘thumb’ print and baked for 12 minutes. I think it’s the blueberry that has me smitten, I loved these – and so did everyone I served them to!

With just six school days left, there has been a lot of planning for end of year treats for the kids’ classes and their teachers. It’s a lot of fun to plan serious treats for their classes because there are 14 kids in Wee One #1’s class and 6 kids in Wee One #2’s class. Yup. 6 kids. More on those treats and end of school year fun in the next couple of weeks. For now, it’s catchup post time and man there are some really cute and tasty treats posted today!

The ‘homespun chocolate bars’ are 3 Musketeer bars, my Dad’s hands down favorite chocolate bar – I made a homemade version after seeing them on Beantown Baker last fall. Essentially, you make the filling, freeze it and then cut it and coat it in melted chocolate. This idea is only good in theory because the filling is made with ‘frozen whipped topping’ and we all know that stuff doesn’t actually freeze. So it’s beyond tricky to try to get them to hold their shape while either coating them or submerging them in melted chocolate. So naturally, I turned to my trusty chocolate molds to get the job done. It just occurred to me that I should have ordered some chocolate bar molds from Confectionery House when I ordered molds for the end of year treats. Oh well, next time. I think I will hold off on homemade chocolate bars until I have those molds though, they would make the job quick and painless. In my tute, I only posted instructions and photos of the filling in heart shaped molds.

 

The Wee One’s contribution to this week of playing in the kitchen was the Baking With Kids’ Chocolate Fudge Birthday Cake. I’d like to point out that it wasn’t anyone’s birthday! They passed it off as their sister’s birthday cake but that was weeks before and she had already had a cake. We don’t need an excuse to make a serious chocolate cake do we? What about a serious chocolate cake covered in sprinkles, candies and chocolate shavings? No? That’s what I thought! They had a blast making it and I really stepped back and let the two oldest ones have at it and they did a great job. It was dense but really, really moist and while there’s no denying it was chocolatey, it wasn’t too sweet. Just right for a birthday cake to be shared by little kids and grown ups!

 

This week’s cookie came from my Great Cookies cookbook – there are more than 200 cookie recipes in this book and much like a lot of my most used books, I’d love the opportunity to bake through this book. I’m trying! I’m not sure how many I’ve made from the book that I’ve posted on my blog so far since I haven’t been officially counting down but I have already made a few and a couple of them have become my most used recipe for certain types of cookies – like this one, the Double Chocolate Chip Cookie. There are a lot of double chocolate chip cookie recipes out there. Martha has a great double chocolate cookie with M&Ms and she has a really great espresso double chocolate chunk cookie (I really love adding coffee to pretty much whatever I can but I never ever ever give it to my kids – they don’t need any help at all with energy or stamina). So back to the recipe for this week’s cookie, this one has melted chocolate as well as cocoa in the dough plus of course the chocolate chips so technically you could call these triple chocolate chip cookies and get away with it!

 

After that triple shot of chocolate, I’m going to leave you with a healthier take on the traditional chicken salad. It seems chicken salad is another of those love love love or hate hate hate kind of foods. I am madly in love with chicken salad (almost as much as I love tuna salad) so I was equal parts leery and excited when it came time to try out Jessica Seinfield’s version in Deceptively Delicious. Another hit from this book for me. I’m the only one who ate it, because I’m the only one even remotely interested in chicken salad and I really liked it. I could not taste the cauliflower but knowing it’s in there I can see that it added to the creaminess of the salad and the yogurt also helped keep it all together. The celery gave it a little crunch and the eggs lent their familiar taste and texture to make this a really well rounded and tasty chicken salad (especially on ancient grain bread)!

 

I know that today is technically Work in Progress Wednesday but honestly, finishing a foot, kitchener stitching the toe and starting (and finishing) the ribbing on the second sock are all that’s happened on my Nemesis socks for my dad. I was crafty this week though – I finally made a really cute denim skirt from a very sad pair of jeans that had a serious rip up the side of one leg! I’m also starting work on a cute photo project I don’t want to say too much about until I’m done and ready to show it off. I will however say that I will be back a lot this week to post as much of the fun stuff in my cue as possible so I can get back to posting as I do stuff. This is our first summer in cottage country full time, so we’ve been walking to the beach after school and having bonfires after dinner to make legit s’mores for dessert! I smell a fun and delicious summer ahead!