THANK GOODNESS FOR NO BANANAS

Someone ate the two really ripe bananas that I was going to use to make muffins earlier this afternoon. A little stumped, I walked right back up to my room, sat in front of my laptop and contemplated my next step. I browsed through my bookmarked "muffins" folder and nixed all the ones involved healthy ingredients like ripe bananas and applesauce, and then came across these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins from How Sweet It Is. Could it have been a sign? Did someone eat my ripe naners on purpose; so that I could fulfill my life-long dream of baking these muffins that taste like oatmeal chocolate chip cookies? I scanned the ingredients list, knew that I had all of them on hand and got to work. (Seriously, what good baker doesn't have 2lbs of butter lying around at room temperature on a Sunday afternoon?)

I quickly got to work, mixing all my ingredients together:Less than 30 minutes later (including baking time!), I had 16 muffins that smelled like something my grandma would have made me. Or, maybe. Actually, I'm pretty sure my grandma baked no such thing as it was my grandfather who did the cooking in that household and I don't actually ever recall him making anything other than savory food, but whatever. I digress. Check out my muffins:Complete with a delicious, crunchy layer of turbinado sugar. There's nothing butter than a baked good with a hefty, I mean, healthy layer of turbinado sugar:I ate two or three before deciding it was time to leave the kitchen and immerse myself in other activities in fear of devouring every single one of those muffins. The next day I decided it was time to take Jessica's advice and enjoy said muffin with a pat of butter:
I am so glad I did. Reheated in the microwave for 15 minutes and with a pat of butter, it was the most delicious thing I've probably eaten in a week. Maybe since that seared scallop and leek dish I have yet to blog about.

RECIPE: LAVENDER COOKIES!

I almost never crave cookies. It's true. As much as I never crave chocolate, I just don't crave cookies. I just don't crave sweets, period. I'd rather snack on a bag of chips or my beloved Cheetos which I have not tasted in at least half a decade. (Excuse me while I go shed a tear or two.) One morning Sean and I were walking around downtown and we started talking about ice cream sandwiches. I started talking about the cookie part of the ice cream sandwich and that was it. For the rest of the day, subconsciously, that's all I could think about. Even in the evening, as I sat in front of the TV with my mother, I actually found myself saying out loud "I want a cookie. Do we have any cookies?" and of course, we don't have any cookies in this house. Even if we did, they probably wouldn't be cookies I could eat unless they were homemade by myself and I hardly ever make cookies. Cupcakes or muffins yes, cookies no.

But the desire for a cookie was growing more and more with each passing hour until the very next day, I couldn't take it anymore. I grabbed all the ingredients from the pantry and took the butter out of from the fridge. (I had actually just stuck it back into the fridge 30 minutes earlier from having let it set to room-temperature, doh!). 30 minutes did the trick though; it was soft enough that the KitchenAid could do all the work for me. Of course, I didn't want just any cookies, I wanted lavender cookies. And not just the typical lavender lemon shortbread cookies you see all over the internet but a chewy lavender cookies, reminiscent of a chewy chocolate chip cookie. I scoured the internet for a chewy lavender cookie recipe but came up short and that's when I decided to improvise...
DOM'S CHEWY LAVENDER COOKIES (makes 10 big cookies)
Ingredients:
- 1 1/-8 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 egg
- 3 tsp dried lavender buds

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. (I use the convection bake button on my oven.)
   
2. Whisk together flour and baking soda and set aside.
3. Using a stand-up mixer or electric mixer, beat butter and both sugar until pale and fluffy on medium speed, about three minutes.
4. Reduce speed and add salt, vanilla and eggs. Beat until mixed, about one minute.
   
5. Add flour mixture and mix until combined, about one minute. Stir in lavender buds with a wooden spoon or spatula.
6. Divide cookie batter into 10 balls using the 'two spoon' method onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10 minutes, edges will be golden but center will still be soft.
7. Remove from oven and let sit on baking sheet for 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Store in airtight container or...
8. Spread honey lavender ice cream on one cookie and place another cookie on top.
   

Say what with that last step? Yeah, that's right...stay tuned!
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Note: I also made chocolate chip cookies for Sean and those are the ones you see above the lavender ones in photo of the mass cookies. They were good too. I just added 1/2 cup of milk chocolate chips and 40g of Lindt chocolate with Sea Salt broken into small chunks into the dough. The Sea Salt chunks were so good. Next time I'm making them with no chocolate chips and just the Sea Salt chunks. I'm quite obsessed with that chocolate. It's the ONLY chocolate I actually sometimes crave. Sometimes. Like maybe once every....4 months?