Oatmeal Sandwich Creams

Now HERE'S a cookie you can really sink your teeth into! Forget the Little Debbie's, these things are serious. Two delightful oatmeal cookies with a sweet, fluffy cream filling sandwiched in between. This is the second time I have made these cookies and even though the recipe makes a LOT (see photo below) they don't seem to hang around the house very long. This recipe came from a fall holiday magazine from Taste of Home. My sister brought this magazine to me when I was laid up in the hospital last September from my lung collapse.

Oatmeal Sandwich Creams

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups shortening
• 2-2/3 cups packed brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 4 cups old-fashioned oats

Filling

• 3/4 cup shortening
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 jar (7 ounces) marshmallow creme
• 1 to 3 tablespoons milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°In a large bowl, cream shortening and brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg; add to creamed mixture. Stir in oats.
2. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto lightly greased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.
3. For filling, in a small bowl, cream shortening, sugar and marshmallow creme. Add enough milk to achieve spreading consistency. Spread filling on the bottom of half of the cookies; top with remaining cookies. Yield: about 4-1/2 dozen.

Mapledoodles

Ah ha! I am writing a blog post. I have made COOKIES! Ok, I have been making cookies for months, but now I am actually going to post the recipe and a picture or two. I know it has been a long time. I know I am bad at blogging. But let's forget all of the blaming and finger pointing and get down to business, shall we?

So, I haven't blogged since May of last year and a lot has changed. Well, very little has changed so far, but I expect things will change much faster by the end of the month... My most important baking project to date: the timer on a brand new baby boy is set to go off the 26th of the month! So yes, of COURSE I have been baking and eating. How ELSE do you make sure your baby grows right??? For now though, he is still snug in his little belly cocoon, waiting, I'm sure, until his arrival will cause the most hubbub. Also, maybe he heard that once he comes out, he won't be able to have any cookies or chocolates for MONTHS! That sure would keep me from making an appearance.

Now that we are up to speed, let me tell you about these Mapledoodles. This is another recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens Ultimate Cookie Book. They are actually called Honeydoodles, but they have a note to try maple syrup in place of the honey, so I had to. Favorite and I have recently discovered the unabashed joy of partaking in the consumption of Grade B maple syrup. All you ever see in the stores is Grade A, and one would assume that giving syrup a grade of "A" would mean it is simply better. Let me assure you, this is not the case. If you are a fan of putting corn syrup on your pancakes, go ahead, continue drowning your breakfasts in Grade A "maple" syrup. Let me tell you though, if you like actual maple flavor, if you want to REALLY KNOW down in your bones that your syrup ran through the veins of a delicious New England maple tree, you have GOT to do yourself a favor and demand all Grade B, all the time. Enough rhetoric! On to the cookies!

Mapledoodles
Ingredients:

• 1/3 c. butter, softened
• 2/3 c. honey, maple syrup or dark corn syrup
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp cream of tartar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 ½ c. all purpose flour
• 1 tbs granulated sugar (optional)
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease a cookie sheet; set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add honey, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg until combined. Beat in flour.
2. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto prepared cookie sheet. If desired, mix cinnamon and sugar together and sprinkle over tops of cookies. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are just firm. Immediately transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool.

Since I had chosen the maple option for these cookies, I did not sprinkle them with the cinnamon sugar mixture. The cookies came out light and cakey with just a hint of maple flavor. I was worried they were a bit boring (even though they WERE tasty) so I decided to frost half of the batch with some maple cream I had in the refrigerator (which is really just smoothly crystallized maple syrup) and I topped them with finely chopped walnuts. Favorite commented that the new incarnation was “tasty. Not better than the other cookies, just a different cookie.”