Double oatmeal cookies (for breakfast)

My cousins just left for the Bahamas. Me, jealous? That doesn't even begin to describe it. One of my cousins-in-law half-jokingly suggested that I get up early to make them breakfast since they had a 6:30 a.m. flight. Puh-lease, they're going on vacation for a week while I go to work and they want me up at four in the morning to make them breakfast??

Well, there is nothing I like more than a food challenge.

Here's what I had to consider. What could I make that:

• would not require me to get up at that un-godly hour
• I had all the ingredients for (it was already 9:30 at night, I wasn't going out to get any ingredients)
• I could make that night and was relatively portable
• was kind of healthy-ish, as there were three kids to feed and my cousins are sort of health freaks (and I say that in the most loving way)

We had been talking about scones earlier (as they were raving about these vegan, macrobiotic scones from Souen, which I agree were quite delicious despite the uber-healthy description) but I didn't have any cream or half-and-half which is needed for traditional scones (this was no time to experiment with a macrobiotic recipe). I also considered making muffins but didn't have any 'extras' like nuts or blueberries to put in the muffins, in which case I guess it would just be cake.

I had recently received a new cookbook (thanks Mrs. L HK!) called Eat Feed Autumn Winter by Anne Bramley that I remembered had a recipe that required 'double oats' as in both rolled oats and steel-cut oats. What could be healthier than two kinds of oats? I heart steel-cut oats and had pretty much exclusively switched to it, but I happened to have rolled oats on hand that I'd used to make granola. The recipe turned out to be for cookies which seemed a little inappropriate for breakfast (especially for kids) but it didn't seem too bad in terms of the butter and sugar content. Besides, the clock was ticking!

Since it was already kind of late at night, I tried to hurry the butter-softening phase by cutting it up into smaller pieces. This is one stick, or 1/2 cup.

In a separate bowl, I prepped the dry ingredients.

• 1-1/2 cups rolled oats (not quick oats)
• 1/3 cup steel-cut oats
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

Dark and white sugars added to the softened butter (1/3 cup sugar; 1/4 cup packed brown sugar)...


Which is mixed (easiest with some kind of electric mixer) until creamy.


Scrape sides of bowl and mix in 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.


Then slowly add the dry ingredients. You can also add dried fruit but I didn't have any. I'm sure walnuts and/or chocolate would be delicious additions as well.


This is my baking pan lined with parchment paper. I used a 2" ice cream scooper, which was way too big, as the recipe claims to make 32 cookies and I only made 12.


I baked them in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 10-12 minutes, then let them cool in the pan before transferring to a wire rack. Except for that one in the bottom right corner, they turned out kind of puffy and scone-like. I didn't get to try the finished product as I gave them all to the travelers but I did lick the bowl and it was delicious. The recipe was simple, quick and needed just basic pantry items, making it ideal for a last-minute dessert. Or breakfast.
Update: They loved them. Obvi.