Once upon a time there was a little girl who ate Little Debbie Nutty Bars every day for lunch. Yes, of course, she also ate turkey sandwiches and other less sugary things, but the Nutty Bars were the best part according to the girl. The girl had a brother who ate Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies quite often, but the girl turned her nose up at those cookies and stuck with what she knew…the Nutty Bar. The girl grew up to be a fabulous, amazing, superb woman (What? It’s my story, I can write it how I want.) never having tried the humble Oatmeal Cream Pie.

That’s a (mostly) true story.

I’m a grown woman who has never had an oatmeal cream pie. Now you see why my husband calls me un-American?

I’ll be honest, the Little Debbie packages tempt me. I walk down that aisle at the grocery store and chant “Little Debbie is the debil, Little Debbie is the debil.” It helps. Usually. Sometimes. Okay, so once I bought a box of Ho-Ho’s (I don’t know what they are really called, but I like to call them Ho-Ho’s) and proceeded to eat the whole box in just a few days. I’m not proud of it, but it happened.

Those oatmeal cream pies have always been a mystery though. Surely they must be good, I would think. And, yet, I could never bring myself to taste one.

Today that changed. Today I made my own. I’m kinda depressed that I’ve lived my whole life without these. They are amazing, the delicious hint of cinnamon in the soft, chewy cookie and the sticky, sweet filling is just an awesome combination. I don’t personally know how they compare to the Little Debbie cookies, but my husband grew up eating those things for breakfast and he gave my version two sticky, gooey thumbs up. It’s safe to say that the other woman (Little Debbie) has been eliminated from our relationship for good. Well, for him anyway. I still haven’t made homemade Ho-Ho’s.

Oatmeal Cream Pies
recipe from Honey & Jam

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups quick oats

In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the butter and sugars. Beat in vanilla and the eggs, one at a time until well incorporated. Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and oats. Beat into the cream mixture. Refrigerate cookie dough for 15 minutes.

Drop about 1 tbsp of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. The centers should still be slightly underdone when you remove them from the oven. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Spread about 1 tbsp of cream filling (recipe below) on the bottom of one cookie and then top with another cookie.

Cream Filling

• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening (I imagine butter would work just fine)
• 1 1/2 cups marshmallow cream
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1-2 tbsp milk, as needed

Cream together the shortening and marshmallow cream. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla, beat well. Thin with milk until you get the right consistency. The mixture should be thick and creamy, but easily spreadable.

I feel like I should slap a warning label on this post. Ready for it?

Warning: These cookies are beyond simple to make, you probably have all of the ingredients in your kitchen right now, and they are addicting like you wouldn’t believe. The saltiness of the potato chips mixes with the sweetness of the chocolate. You will be powerless to resist. Do not make these if you lack self control. Do not make these if you are hungry. Do not make these if you have a mouth. Do not make these. Ever. At all. Unless you want a really yummy treat, but be sure to proceed with caution.

There. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let me tell you what I did. I made cookies. With potato chip crumbs in them. I know, I didn’t think they’d be good either, but sometimes a little failure is good for the soul, so I went ahead and tried it anyway. These cookies are definitely not failures. Unless you consider a cookie that begs you to eat 10 of them right in a row a failure. Then yes, these are huge failures.

I feel like the cookie monster over here. Send help.

Potato Chip Cookies
adapted from Taste of Home “Best Summer Desserts”

• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups crushed potato chips
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs. Combine the flour and baking soda and slowly add to the creamed sugars. Mix well. Stir in the potato chips and chocolate chips.

Drop by small spoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 1 minute before removing to a wire rack.

My husband has a thing for cookies. He considers them breakfast food, you see, so he gets a bit depressed when there aren’t any cookies in the house. Am I trying to starve him? Don’t I know he needs to eat breakfast to stay strong? What do I mean, we have oatmeal and cereal and bacon and eggs and muffins and waffles? WHERE ARE THE COOKIES, WOMAN?

Alright, so actually all he does when he wants cookies is say, in front of me, to himself “Wonder when the last time I had a cookie was?” I get the hint and I bake him some dang cookies.

He’s too cute to refuse.

These cookies, oh these cookies…how do I begin? They are buttery and slightly crunchy while still being chewy and they are filled with delicious black raspberry jam. The dough is so simple, only requiring four ingredients. They are quick to mix up and totally worth the effort of smooshing a finger (or thumb, if you are a dainty little girl with thumbs the size of a push pin) in to the dough and filling it with jam.

Be patient with the dough, though. It takes a bit for the flour to incorporate into the butter and sugar, and if you’re like me you’ll be wanting to add a few spoonfuls of milk to help things along. Don’t do it. Just be patient and the dough will come together.

You’ll want to make these small. The balls of dough should be just a tiny bit bigger than those annoying bouncy balls my kids insist on getting out of the little quarter machines and then bouncing around my house and off of my head. Yes. That size.

I found it easiest to use a wee little spoon to put the jam in the indention. I tried piping it in, but that was not as easy as I had hoped.

These bake up quickly and it’s a bit tough to tell when they are done. You don’t want them to brown, so just watch the edges and as soon as you see a hint of brown, pull them out of the oven.

Drizzle with a bit of powdered sugar glaze, or if you’re feeling particularly naughty, a bit of melted chocolate. I practiced restraint and only used the powdered sugar glaze.

Black Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies
slightly adapted from allrecipes.com

• 1 cup butter, cold
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup seedless black raspberry jam
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 – 2 teaspoons milk (as needed)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of your mixer, add cold butter, sugar, and vanilla. Beat until well combined. Mix in flour and continue mixing until the dough comes together.

Roll dough into small balls (smaller than a golf ball, a bit bigger than a grape) and press your pinky finger into each ball to make the well for the dough. Fill the wells with the jam.

Place cookies in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to chill. (Do not skip this step or your cookies will spread all over your pan and the jam will leak out and you’ll be scrubbing your baking sheet for an hour. Not that I would know anything about that.)

Bake for 12 minutes or just until the bottoms are browning. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Mix together the powdered sugar, vanilla, and as much milk as you need to get the consistency of glaze you prefer. Drizzle over the cooled cookies.

**You could also make these with almond extract as the original recipe stated, but I’m not a big fan of almond extract, so I used vanilla instead.**

It’s Valentine’s Day so I’m pretty sure that means that I should be alternating between napping and eating chocolate all day, right? Isn’t that what true love is about?

My kids aren’t allowing me to nap, but they can’t stop me from eating chocolate. I decided that today called for good old chocolate chip cookies, but not just any chocolate chip cookies. These cookies are special. They have a secret ingredient that makes them fat and fluffy and delicious and beautiful.

The secret ingredient is just a small box of instant vanilla pudding powder. Crazy, I know, but it does amazing things to cookies.

The only problem with making these for your Valentine is you won’t be able to sneak in any kisses. You’ll be too busy shoveling cookies in your mouth.

Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from allrecipes.com

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3.4 oz. package vanilla instant pudding mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur’s white whole wheat)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Beat together butter and sugars until creamy. Beat in pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla. Stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt, and slowly mix that into the butter mixture until well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls (I use a cookie dough scoop) onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 350 degree pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes.

Y’all sick of cookies yet? I apologize. It’s just…I seem to be in some sort of baking rut. It’s all cookies all the time around here! I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I plan to spend my day trying to figure that out. I’m going to sit on the couch and probe into my most deep and personal thoughts. I won’t stop until I understand why I am baking so many cookies. However, If I hope to achieve personal enlightenment, I had better have a cookie or two for sustenance.

What in the world did I just say in that first paragraph? I’m fairly certain it didn’t make a bit of sense. That’s what happens when I eat too many cookies. I stop making sense. It’s sad and bad and wrong, but I just can’t help it.

Luckily, these cookies are worth it. They are basically a peanut butter ball wrapped up in chocolate cookie dough and then smooshed and baked to perfection.

My favorite part of these cookies, aside from the taste, is watching people take their first bite. They are so surprised to find smooth, creamy peanut butter hiding in the middle of their cookie.

These cookies take a little more effort than most, though. You have to roll the peanut butter mixture into small balls and then smoosh chunks of the chocolate mixture into flat little discs. Put a peanut butter ball in the center and then fold the chocolate dough around it. It’s not hard, it just takes a bit of time.

Put  the cookie balls on a baking sheet and then press them flat with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Mm, sugar. Sugar is good.

If you aren’t all cookied out, give these a try. You’ll love ‘em.

Magic Peanut Butter Middles
Recipe from allrecipes.com

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 3/4 cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl mix together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda. In a large bowl, beat together the sugars, butter, and 1/4 cup of peanut butter until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and egg. Slowly mix in flour mixture. Set aside.

For the peanut butter filling, combine confectioners’ sugar and 3/4 cup peanut butter. Beat together well. Roll filling into 30 small balls. Try to keep the balls all the same size – around 1 inch.

For each cookie use 1 tablespoon of chocolate dough and roll into a ball. It helps to flour your hands first. Squish ball of chocolate dough flat and place peanut butter ball in the center. Wrap the chocolate dough up and around the peanut butter ball to completely cover. Place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Dip the bottom of a glass into white sugar and use the cup to lightly flatten the cookie balls. Bake for 7-9 minutes.