Oatmeal Logs

One of my favorite things to do on Sunday afternoon is watch TV and make cookies. In the fall and winter, I’ll hopefully be able to watch the Green Bay Packers (I love Aaron Rogers!) or the Broncos. During the spring months, I tend to watch cooking shows (I don’t really care about basketball or hockey). In the summer, I might miss a Sunday or two to take advantage of the warm weather.

This particular Sunday afternoon I had a taste for some type of oatmeal cookie. After looking through all the Cookies by Bess oatmeal recipes, I decided on Oatmeal Logs. I picked these because I thought they were one of the cookies shown on the cover of the 1980 version of Cookies by Bess. In the end, I realized they were on the cover, but weren’t the cookie I thought they were! Oh boy, I wish Grandma Bess was here to solve all these problems! 🙂

I have to thank my Mom (Toby) for helping me realize which cookies these were. She gave me the idea to frost just the end of the cookie, just like in the picture on the cover. I did, then realized which cookies were Oatmeal Logs after all. Thanks Mom for helping to solve the mystery!

I’m rating this recipe 2-stars. It’s not a hard cookies to make, but taking the time to shape each cookie, and then frost and decorate the finished cookies makes them a 2-star cookie difficulty.

I pulled together all my ingredients and got started creaming the butter and sugar together.

The recipe calls for ½ cup butter and ½ cup shortening. Boy, I do struggle when I see this in a recipe. I really am trying NOT to use shortening. I originally decided to use it in this recipe since it calls for both, but ended up just using butter. Next time I will use the shortening to see the difference. The end result cookie is very buttery, to the point where I didn’t really notice the oatmeal. Maybe the shortening is used to make sure the butter doesn’t take over…I’ll find out next time!

The dough was a little dry, but a good consistency for forming the logs.

I baked a small test batch to see if the logs spread or changed shape while baking. After 25 minutes in the oven, the logs looked almost the same coming out of the oven as when I put them in. This allowed me to pack up my larger cookie sheets and finish baking in just two batches!

While the cookies were baking, I got started on the chocolate frosting. The recipe doesn’t specify which Chocolate Frosting recipe to use. Cookies by Bess has several recipes that would have worked. I ended up with the one titled “Chocolate Frosting”, seemed the right choice since that’s exactly what the recipe says!

This frosting recipe threw me for a loop. I followed the instructions exactly as written and ended up with liquid frosting. It surprised me that the frosting didn’t thicken up much at all after stirring and heating it over low heat on the stove.

I let the frosting cool down a bit, hoping it would thicken up…but it didn’t. I kept going back to the recipe to see if I did something wrong. I hadn’t. So, I decided to try to fix it.

The recipe calls for “sugar” which I took as granulated sugar. But instead of adding additional granulated sugar, I added about ½ – ¾ cup of powdered sugar. Now it tasted way too sweet, so I added an additional ½ ounce of chocolate (unsweetened), and then another teaspoon or two of cornstarch. Basically, I doubled the recipe. It began to thicken a bit as it cooled down and then became very thick once it was completely cooled.

In hindsight, I’m now asking myself, “Did I panic and start doctoring too soon?” I think I may have. I think the original frosting would have thickened up if I had been more patient and let it cool completely. Oh well, in the end, the my doctored frosting might have been a little TOO thick, but it tasted just fine!

The cookies came out of the oven looking great! I baked them for 25 minutes versus 30 minutes to avoid the bottoms turning brown. The baked logs are a solid cookie that have a great buttery flavor with a hint of oatmeal.

The recipe says to frost with chocolate frosting and decorate as desired. When thinking about decorating, I immediately thought of pecans as I thought they would look nice with the chocolate frosting and go well with the buttery cookie. Because I wasn’t sure which cookie these were, I didn’t realize that this is exactly how Grandma Bess decorated these cookies! I guess Grandma Bess had been guiding me down the right path the whole time…thanks Grandma Bess!

It wasn’t until after I had frosting the logs and dipping them in pecans that I finally realized which cookies these were. What a nice surprise to know that I had the same instinct as Grandma Bess without even knowing it! ?

I love to look and taste of these cookies. My “doctored” frosting came out nice and rich and creamy! The pecans added a great texture and go together great with the buttery and oaty flavors of the cookie.

Oatmeal Logs are easy to make and can look as casual or fancy as you want depending on how you decorate them.  And they taste GREAT!  I actually think I’m addicted to them!  They are a great cookie for any occasion and won’t disappoint any of your family and friends!

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

XXOO!

Janet

Oatmeal Logs

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★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews

Ingredients

½ cup butter
½ cup shortening
2 tsp vanilla
½ cup confectioner’s sugar
2 cups sifted flour
½ tsp salt
1 cup quick cooking oats

Instructions

Cream butter, shortening, and sugar.  Add vanilla, flour, and salt.  Stir in oatmeal.  Shape into finger sized logs – about 1 ½ inches long.  Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 325 degrees for 25 – 30 minutes.  Frost with chocolate frosting when cool.  Decorate as desired.

Notes

Chocolate Frosting
½ cup sugar
2 Tbs cornstarch
1 oz. chocolate, cut up
½ tsp salt
½ cup boiling water
1 ½ Tbs butter
½ tsp vanilla extract

Mix sugar, cornstarch, chocolate, and salt in a saucepan; add boiling water. Stir and cover over low heat until glossy and smooth. About 5 minutes. Add butter and extract and mix well.  (Frosting should thicken up once cooled completely).

Recipe Yield

Makes about 4 1/2 - 5 dozen cookie logs 1x

Cookie Category:  Molded or Shaped

Cookie Difficulty Rating

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