26- Jalapeño Chocolate Chip Cookies + Hospital Awards Cinnamon Treats

This is the final week for the July theme of Favorites. And this week I’m pulling out the big guns.

The department favorite.

Drum roll, please.

No, I don’t know why I typed that because it’s in the blog title.

Of course the perfect cookie to round out Favorites month is the Jalapeño Chocolate Chip Cookie.

I’ve already pulled my butter out to rest at room temperature and next I will be rehydrating the dried jalapeño pieces. Because I don’t know about you, but I have serious reservations for purchasing raw salad stuff this month.

You know why.

I’m going to do the mis en place work so I can just bake in the morning.

I have 2 things to bake.

The first is the jalapeño chocolate chip cookies for the OR but the second is the make for the hospital awards that I am still in charge of, but the ending is in sight.

The big thing with the Daisy Award is to have Cinnabon cinnamon rolls at the ceremony. This is because it was what Patrick Barnes was interested in eating in his final days and he asked his family to bring in enough for the nurses. After his death, his family set up the Daisy Award to recognize outstanding nurses. I could go on, I’ve given the speech about the award enough times.

However, the local Cinnabon shop closed down a couple of years ago. This left us in a quandary. Ever since I have either been making cinnamon rolls, buying cinnamon rolls, or making treats that evoke cinnamon rolls. Quarter 1 2026 awards ceremony, I made a stunning cinnamon roll shortbread.

But I don’t like to repeat myself.

By now you should know, I collect recipes. Not all recipes; just the ones that catch my eye. That is what I am making for Quarter 2 2026 awards ceremony.

You’ve had garlic bread? It was one of the first things I learned to bake. French bread, butter, garlic salt/garlic powder. Spread the mixture on a halved loaf of French bread and bake until browned. But what if it was cinnamon toast flavored instead?

Brown sugar, cinnamon butter on ciabatta. Bake until the edges are golden brown and then cut up to serve to the nominees and winners. I plan to use ciabatta because it was the only loaf that was the right size/shape when I was at the store.

Well, in theory.

I think it will be a winner.

***time lapse***

It is now Thursday afternoon and the awards ceremony went off without a hitch. I have been involving my newish co-chair in the details and the ceremony and the choosing of the flowers.

I struggled a bit to describe the cinnamon make for the awards ceremony. I said garlic bread, but make it cinnamon sugar toast and most people got it.

However you explain it, the make was yummy.

I have notes. Of course, I have notes, have you met me?

The first note is that the cheaper bread from the grocery store bakery would be better. The spreading of the cinnamon/brown sugar/butter mixture went well and it baked well. But when it came time to add the glaze, the little pockets on the ciabatta swallowed every bit of it. That meant there was no visible glaze after I spread on the glaze. And the bread was squishier and harder to cut.

It tasted great and people went back for seconds. Which is good because it made A LOT. 2 entire 8×12 containers, with lids. Both containers were half full at the end. I gave one to my friend to give to her family and I took the other to the OR along with the jalapeno

After the ceremony, I dropped off the cinnamon French bread container and the jalapeño chocolate chip cookies make for the week. No word yet on how they were received. I’ll drop by tomorrow and pick up the containers. I did leave a sign that said Cinnamon French Bread but who knows if anyone opened the container.

Mystery to be solved later!

Cookie Thursday 7/16/26- Twix cookies

This week is continuing the Favorites theme for July.

First favorite we had was Chex Mix, to kick off the 4th of July weekend.

The second week was my birthday so no cookies were made.

The third favorite is one of the first cookies I ever made for CTIAT. It wasn’t called CTIAT at that time. It was called “Let’s take turn making cookies for the evening shift, I’ll start”.

And there were other bakers.

For a minute.

I’ve done it ever since.

The Twix cookie was one that I remember being so excited about. Except I couldn’t choose just one flavor.

I mean there are TWO flavors of Twix. Peanut butter (my favorite) and OG caramel.

I had to do both. And not just back then.

But remember, CTIAT started the first of the year 2014. Even accounting for several other bakers, my second week would’ve been sometime in February. And not when it was 1000000000000 degrees outside. And 10000000000 billion percent humidity.

Yeah, Twix making in humidity *making a face* doesn’t quite work the same.

I am definitely writing that down and remembering this time.

It took the chocolate hours to set.

Good thing I started baking before the sun came up.

Two mistakes were made.

The first is that I was foolish in thinking that the chocolate would set, even in an air conditioned house.

The second is that I ran the dishwasher at the exact time.

Mostly because we get charged more for “surge” electricity above our normal. Such as the dishwasher. Or the washer. The surge hours are between 1500-1900. And I had a meeting at noon so this was rather a rush job.

Cool, cool.

The chocolate barely set properly hours into my morning.

The leftovers of the chocolate and the peanut didn’t set either. I combined them to see what would happen. Like you do.

What happened? Nothing. Sticky happened.

There was a third mistake. The caramel that I used was fruity. Made for an interesting flavor profile.

On the positive side, next week’s cookie is going to be the perennial favorite of the OR, the jalapeno chocolate chip.

Keep it to yourself, will you?

Cookie Thursday is a Thing 6/25/26- Blueberry chip and the July theme announcement

Chipapalooza was very successful. I say that knowing that a bunch of the baking chips I had in the baking pantry got used. Over two months. Well, 1 month and 3 weeks because I was on vacation.

The last chip of this theme is the blueberry chip. I tried to make it blueberry lemon but the blueberry chip overpowered the lemon. A lot.

Odd.

These were still good and edible and I would not kick them out of the cookie jar. In fact I kind of want to add the cherry chip and the blueberry chip together to see what will happen.

I still have a few different types of chips. I didn’t even use the caramel chips or the cinnamon chips. Those will have to wait.

The Cookie Thursday is a Thing theme for July is going to be CTIAT Favorites, No Holds Barred. This is going to be wild.

I am going to take the CTIAT favorite cookies that I used for a conference poster way back in 2023 and pick and choose. A little Favorites and a little bit Baker’s Choice.

The number one requested cookie isn’t really a cookie. It’s more of a vibe. The first cookie of CTIAT Favorites, No Holds Barred is going to be Chex Mix. This is something that I traditionally only make in December. There are 2 reasons for the selection- 1) it has been requested a lot and I’m tired of seeing people’s face falls when I explain the December rule and 2) I want to see how Stove #3 handles it. Because I haven’t made anything in the lower oven yet.

Just in time for the 4th of July.

I did tell someone at work the theme and also what the first cookies was going to be. I said they could tell people if they wanted, or not. I might tell more people myself.

Or not.

The bake might just have to be an explosive surprise. Like fireworks.

Cookie Thursday 12/18/25- 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.