Sunday, September 28, 2014

Zucchini-Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Flattened Cookie (left) vs. Unflatted (right)
My aunt has been known to say that you can tell those that don't have many friends in the grocery line as they are the ones buying zucchini.  Well thankfully my mom is a great friend and sent some my way as she had a surplus in her garden!  Otherwise I would be one of those friendless sad people in line having to buy my zucchini!! Anyways, I found this great zucchini chocolate chip cookie recipe on pinterest from a blog called Cooking Classy - I've linked the original recipe here.  (The pics on that site are way better!)  My boys aren't a fan of zucchini but they LOVE it in these cookies!  


Zucchini-Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar (1/2 cup in original recipe)
1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (from about 1 - 1 1/2 medium)
1 1/2 cup quick oats (1 cup in original recipe)
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 2/3 in original recipe)
(3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts - I omitted)

Mix the first four ingredients together in a medium bowl.  In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugars together, then add the egg and vanilla.  Once well mixed, add the zucchini.  Next, slowly add the dry ingredients to your wet mixture and once all incorporated, add 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips.  As in the original recipe, I saved 2/3 and added the remainder on top of the cookies to make them a little more enticing to my boys!  Roll into balls and place on cookie sheet with 2" space between them.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 11-14 min.  **My first dozen I baked for 20 minutes as they didn't really flatten, so my 2nd dozen I flattened with a fork and they came out perfect at 12 minutes. 

Unflattened x5 cookies on left and the rest flattened!
I omitted the nuts due to allergies in our house and added an extra 1/2 cup of oats to substitute.  

We went through a half a dozen cookies before the next dozen was pulled from the oven!  Using my medium Pampered Chef cookie scoop, this recipe made 25 cookies.