25- 5 chips chocolate peanut clusters

The stove I ordered had to go back as it wasn’t the stove I thought I had ordered. I wanted dual fuel, gas on top, electric oven, and what was delivered was gas on top, gas oven.

I am not sure if you’ve ever baked with gas. Let’s just say it isn’t ideal.

Back to drawing board.

I picked out a new stove and they are supposed to keep the deliver/installation charge from the first stove.

Confused? Because the installation people are. I have a phone call in to them.

Guess what? The holidays are mucking up the timing.

New stove #2 will be delivered to my house on the Saturday after Christmas. It would be ideal if I could get the installation worked out before the end of the year.

Don’t worry, I will be calling them back.

So no new stove to try out for the last Cookie Thursday is a Thing of 2025. Instead I will hopefully be ringing in 2026 with a new oven.

Fingers crossed.

I mean, the airfryer is an airfryer/toaster oven combination so I am not totally in the weeds.

But still.

This left me cookieless on the last CTIAT of the year.

I pulled out a recipe that I’ve been wanting to do for No-Heat August for literal years.

It is 5 bags of chocolate chips, 2 containers of peanuts.

In hindsight, it makes entirely too much candy.

Like way too much.

Like who at the hospital can I give the excess to too much.

If I make this again, I will halve the recipe and use half bags of chips and 1 container of peanuts.

It is a good empty out the baking pantry recipe though.

The 5 bags were

caramel chips
semi-sweet chocolate chips
white chocolate chips
butterscotch chips
milk chocolate chips.

I used the crockpot to melt the chips, added the peanuts, heated it some more and used my cookie scoop to portion out the candy. And portion out the candy. And portion out the candy.

I placed the candy scoops as close as I could on 3 parchment paper lined cookie sheets and I still ended up with 3 full to the bursting sheets of 5 chip peanut clusters.

Did I mention it was a lot?

I took an entirely full cookie containment device to the hospital. And portioned out 2 full smaller containers for the other at the 0700 meeting.

I still have an entirely full sheet of peanut candy.

I will be handing these out to other units.

But I really should’ve realized I was in trouble when the chips and the peanuts filled up my entire crockpot.

Cookie Thursday 9/11/25- Cornflake cookies

Cookies for Breakfast month continues.

And what screams breakfast more than cornflakes? I’ll wait while you rack your brain.

The idea of cereal was developed in 1863 by a man named Dr. James Caleb Jackson. Kind of. He made up a boring, very boring, meal type substance made of water and graham flour. The resulting make was so hard it had to be softened in milk to be edible. This, I believe, is technically graham flakes. Or granula, as it was called.

He believed that the root of all human ills was the digestive track. He’s not right and he’s not wrong.

Another physician who had visited Jackson’s sanitorium by the name of John Harvey Kellogg of Kellogg’s fame. You know, the cereal company.

Oddly Kellogg believed that the source of all human ills was a TWO pronged problem. The first was digestion, hence the cereal foods, but the other was masturbation. By having bland breakfast foods, unlike the meat and potatoes that got many a farmer through their long day, this might cool the self pleasure fever and also help people poop.

Kellogg and his brother Will developed cornflakes after he copied Dr. Jackson’s cereal creation and got caught. After a lawsuit from Jackson Kellogg renamed it granola. You may be more familiar with that name.

There was a man who earned his way at the sanitorium by working in the kitchen. His is also a familiar name, C.W. Post. He went on to invent an even more boring cereal that he called grape-nuts.

Confession time: I enjoy grape-nuts. After it has soaked in milk for a time.

The early days of history were wild. Read all about it in the Guardian article “The weird but true history of cereal- from anti-sex campaigns to mind control”.

In the before times of the dawn of cereal, there was no sugar in the cereal. It was very bland. Nothing like the brightly colored, highly sugared cereals of today. With their mascots and free prizes in the box. Do they even still do that?

This week’s make is a cornflake cookie. Simple ingredients beget a simple cookie.

The result was a surprisingly chewy, dense, slightly sweet cookie that crisped up wonderfully in the oven. With the occasional sharp crunch of the cornflake.

I would not through this cookie out of the cookie jar.

It took all that I had in me not to zhuhz it up. Look up the spelling yourself, there isn’t a lot of consensus on it. I itched to add another flavoring to the cookie. Anything would have done; all-spice, cinnamon, even cardamon.

But I resister and the cookie stands at it is. Slightly boring, good mouthfeel, kind of addicting cookie. I can have more than one; they’re healthy!

Cookie Thursday 8/28/25- no cookies today

No cookies today.

This is a medical appointment pause. Not mine, the husband’s.

It has taken up too much of my brain capacity. No, it’s not my appointment but there are a lot of questions that I am fielding and answering. Not to mention the nutritional consults that are unending.

We could have stopped by the hospital and picked up cookies at the store. After all, what is more no heat than other people’s kitchens heating up because of baking.

But I didn’t want to.

So I didn’t.

I have been having a bit of a thought about the viability and persistence of Cookie Thursday is a Thing.

People are either uninformed or forget when the cookies arrive. I get that new people aren’t informed and that is okay. The information trickles down, eventually. But dumping out a half full container of cookies and taking the empty container home gets old.

There isn’t a rhyme or reason as to how many cookies are eaten.

Even the experiment cookies are popular and the fudgy cocoa no bakes are not popular. It goes week by week.

So I find myself at a bit of a crossroads with CTIAT.

Until we were driving home from the appointment when I brought up the possibility of downgrading Cookie Thursday is a Thing. I said point blank to my husband that was I making cookies to comfort myself or to comfort the department. His response, while high as a kite and doped up, was “It is both. The people who need morale boosting changes every week. And don’t forget the doctors also need morale boosting.”

Huh.

Out of the mouth of someone fresh-ish out of anesthesia.

I’ve long known that the act of weekly cookie making is helpful to me, not only as a weekly appointment with my kitchen to zen out. But I believe, firmly, that is also helpful to those who just need a sweet little something. No strings, no expectations.

Other than someone eats the cookies.

I am also super excited about next month’s theme.

What is September’s theme? Shh, spoilers.

Cookie Thursday 6/5/25- Cake mix cookies

You know how it goes, late night surgical case, you are shooting the breeze with the CRNA, they start telling you about the cookies they baked with their kids that were so easy and so fun. You say interesting. And they text you the recipe.

No?

Just me then. Okay.

For those who might be worried, the entire exchange took less then three minutes as they were just bursting to tell the department cookie lady about the cookies that they made.

But that got my brain thinking. After the initial ew, no reaction.

When I got home one of my friends had sent me an email of a baker making nearly the exact same cookie. Their recipe allowed for more creativity.

I decided to theme June as cake mix cookie month.

Baking is often seen as elitist. Because baking is very demanding of attention to detail. And precise measurements.

Unless you want to experiment.

I do like an experiment. See also the entire reason that Cookie Thursday still exists and has been going strong for over ten years.

The email from my friend laid out how to be experimental. Within the strict bounds of baking.

I started making lists of combinations of cake mix flavors and mix-ins I could do. A pairing, if you would.

It didn’t hurt that the cake mixes were on sale that week.

I did a quick math in my head. Each recipe takes 1 stick of butter and 2 eggs, plus the mix. Normally in a month I would use 2 pounds of butter as a recipe usually takes 2 sticks. There are 4 sticks in a pound of butter which means I normally go through 2 pounds per month. Butter is still egregiously expensive and is running around $5 a pound. This makes the butter cost of each CTIAT $2.50. The butter cost of these cookies will be cheaper IF I keep the cake mixes under $1.25.

The buy one get one free cake mix deal was looking pretty good. Even better was the coupon I had. AND the place where I bought them doubles coupons with a face value of $1.

The cost of the eggs is the same as a normal batch of cookies takes 2 eggs, just like this recipe.

Not only that but in the scratch and dent produce section, where they sell soon to be expired food stuffs, there was an entire bag of pink chocolate shavings, like you use on cake frosting for decoration. For $1.00. You cannot get chocolate chips for anything near the price.

I used half of the bag in the cookies.

My first thought as I was mixing these up is that there isn’t enough liquid for the amount of solid.

Spoiler alert- there was. Also the 1 tsp of vanilla was helpful.

I will delay judgement on what I really think of the cookies until week 4.

Cookie Thursday 5/29/25- Fudgey cocoa no bakes, redux with different “butter” + special ingredient

I have such an exciting idea for June CTIAT that I kind of blanked the last week of May.

It’s also a busy week with both my mother and my father having birthdays.

In my real life I’ve been trying different versions of cookie butter, because Aldi had some packages of speculous cookies for super sale that I want to make cookie butter out of. An experiment, if you would.

Because that is what cookie butter is. Kind of like peanut butter is made from nuts, cookie butter is made from grinding the crap out of cookies.

I wanted to try different versions of the speculous cookie butter. Never thinking that I was going to be a bear in Goldilocks and the 3 bears.

I bought a jar from Trader Joes while away at the nursing convention in April. Too sweet said my mouth. (daddy bear bed)

I bought another jar from Trader Joes, the crunch version this time, wondering if a texture change would be good. Nope. Too sweet with crunchies in it. (daddy bear bed who has been eating crackers in bed)

The Trader Joes jars were the Trader Joes brand.

I bought a jar from a rather bougie grocery store. This was from lotus Biscoff, the maker of the cookies. Again, way too sweet. I have got to investigate the ingredients. (mama bear bed)

Then I saw a version at the other local grocery store. This is another “store brand”. This one was just right. (baby bear bed)

Not too sweet, not too crunchy.

The only criticism that I have is that the product is almost too smooth. It’s consistency is almost pourable, instead of a semi-solid state.

I’ve made this cookie before with the Trader Joe’s branded cookie butter. The cookies were WAY too sweet and half of them went uneaten.

This time I used the third store jar, and replaced 1 of the cups of oatmeal with unsweetened coconut. And I used dark chocolate cocoa powder.

The resulting cookies were tender and not as break apart-y as the traditionally made cookie with peanut butter and the full 3 cups of oats.

These I will definitely not kick out of the cookie jar.

Cookie Thursday 4/24/25- applesauce egg replacement

When I first started planning this month’s theme of “That’s a good egg…substitute!”, I began, as I always do with searching for suggested egg substitutes. I hoped I would find at least 4 to round out the month.

To my shock, I found so much more than four.

There are egg substitutes for different applications, too. Some for baking, some for cooking, and some that switch hit.

I was certainly not spoiled for choice.

To recap

April 3, 2025- flax egg. 1 tbs flax to 3 tbs water per egg. These cookies did not behave like I was expecting them too. They were almost too crisp with no give in the mouth feel. These cookies tasted stale, even right out of the oven. 4/10
April 10, 2025- chia egg. 1 tbs chia seed to 3 tbs water per egg. I felt that this second egg substitute had a lot going for it and I was prepared to wowed. I was not wowed. But this was a fresher tasting cookie, even right out of the oven. 5/10
April 17, 2025- banana and psyllium husk eggs. No idea what led me to combining the different egg substitutes but I am so glad I did. Definitely the star of the month. Soft, pliable cookie, even 4 days later when I retrieved the leftovers. 10/10
April 24, 2025- applesauce egg. This one came highly recommended by some bakers I know. I was underwhelmed, especially after last week. The applesauce led to quick browning yet not quite done cookies. I understand the ease of these because most kitchens, especially those with children, have applesauce in them. But eh. 5/10.

Looking back at my prepared list of egg substitutes it appears that the month isn’t quite over yet. And so I will be continuing the theme for next month.

I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised at the breadth of choice for egg substitutes. You have the people with allergies and you have the vegans.

Everyone deserves a cookie sometimes.

Cookie Thursday 4/10/25- Chia seed egg replacement chocolate chip cookies

The “That’s a good egg…substitute” month continues. Reminder, all four weeks will be the same recipe and the only difference will be the egg substitute that I use.

The egg substitute that was used was the chia seed egg replacement. This is an easy egg replacement. But sourcing the chia seeds was annoying. It started when I opened the chia seed bag and there was less than 2 tbs left. This is not enough. It took me 2 stores because the first store was sold out.

The recipe for the chia egg substitute is 1 tbs chia seeds to 1/3 c water. Warm or hot water would be best. Let the mixture rest at least 5 minutes depending on the temperature of the water. I let the mixture sit while I went to an Employee Health appointment about my leg. When I got back there was a gelatinous mass in the bowl. This is what it should look like, an amorphous mass that gives when you poke it and pours out easily, leaving the bowl mostly clean.

I made the cookies as usual, substituting the chia seed egg replacement for the 2 eggs I would normally use. The dough was a little stiffer than normal and it took longer that I anticipated to incorporate the flour.

The best thing about these cookies is that they bake up wonderfully and are gorgeous. If you looked up cookie in a photo dictionary, these cookies would be the picture.

The resulting cookies are less chewy but more “snappy”, if you know what I mean. There are hints of chewiness in them. I found them delightful.

Another thing I found delightful is that, for the second week in a row, the bowl that I used had zero dough residue on it. Normally, there would be dough scraps clinging to the bowl but these past two weeks were clean.

Interesting.

Cookie Thursday 4/3/25-That’s a good egg…substitute

Let’s talk about a different kind of flu. The bird flu that is still having a devastating impact on birds across the US. The best that can be said about it is that only one person has died. Also positive is that there has been ZERO person to person transfer.

Believe me, that’s a good thing. Remember, measles, the hot virus on the block that is attacking humans, is 90% infectious. If there are 10 unvaccinated people in a group and all are exposed to a person who has the measles, 9 will get the measles.

There has been bird to other animal transfer. To cows and even pet cats. Even bird to human transfer. Which is a stepping stone on the way to infect human to human. This is stepping stone we don’t want.

Ever.

This uncertainty and lack of supply impacts egg prices. Which leads to limits on how many cartons you can buy at stores and your wallet can limit how many cartons you buy a week.

To run a weekly morale project such as Cookie Thursday is a Thing means that sometimes the box must be thought outside of.

The theme this month will be “That’s a good egg… substitute”.

I have done a ton of reading on what other people are doing to substitute eggs in cooking or in baking. I mean the vegans have been doing it forever.

I am going to bake the same recipe and the same cookie each week for this month. The only change will be the egg substitution method.

First up is the flax egg.

One flax egg is 1 tbs ground flax and 3tbs of water. You let it sit for a few minutes to gel and then add to a recipe and bake.

I am going to use the most familiar of the cookie recipes in my repertoire- the Toll House chocolate chip cookie. The recipe normally calls for 2 eggs so I will be doubling the flax egg recipe.

Wish me luck.