Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Nutty White Chocolate and Peach Oatmeal Cookies and Kid’s Candy Cookies

I subscribe to Food Network Magazine.  Every month they have a two page set up with two chefs battling it out for who makes the better ______.  The May issue has Adam Gertler’s Kid’s Candy Cookies versus Sunny Anderson’s Nutty White Chocolate and Peach Oatmeal Cookies to see who created the better ultimate chocolate chip cookie.  Of course, I had to play along and try both to form my own opinion.

DSCF4793

I declared Sunny the winner with her Nutty White Chocolate and Peach Oatmeal Cookies!  I made some minor changes to the recipe.  I threw in a couple extra tablespoons of flour since I think sometimes our high altitude affects certain cookies.  And Sunny’s recipe calls for 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, I used a good white chocolate bar chopped and used 3 1/2 ounces, which was about 3/4 cup.  I baked them for 13 minutes (instead of the suggested 15-17 minutes).  The cookies are a perfectly chewy oatmeal cookie with a nice little zing from the dried peaches.  I also made these a year or two ago when Sunny made them on her show, Cooking For Real and I used apricots instead of peaches.  I do consider myself a true dark chocolate lover, and was pleasantly surprised to like these as much as I did with the white chocolate.  I’m actually tempted to try them with dark chocolate, just to compare.  I think my thing with dark chocolate is that if I’m going to actually just eat some chocolate, I’d always pick dark.  But white chocolate has its place in plenty of baked goods. 

Sunny Anderson's Favorite cookies 4-19-11

I did give Adam Gertler's Kid's Candy Cookies a fair try.  His cookies are full of bittersweet chocolate (take note--kids prefer milk or semi-sweet), toffee pieces, peanut butter chips and Pretzel M&Ms.  My only issue was that the recipe instructs you to add the Pretzel M&Ms before any of the dry ingredients and to beat for a few seconds to let the mixer break them up.  A few seconds did nothing.  But I followed the directions exactly.  So the M&Ms were mostly still whole, which are too big for the cookies.  I would put the M&Ms in a plastic bag and crush them slightly with a rolling pin to break them up.  The cookies also bake too flat for my liking and weren’t very nice looking.  (This is just my opinion.)

DSCF4746 That said, these were not really disliked around here and definitely got eaten up.  I didn’t even photograph how strange the ones with whole M&Ms in them looked.    

So maybe I’ll have a monthly go at Food Network Magazine’s He Made, She Made showdown.  We’ll see.  I mean, if they do something like onion soup, I won’t be doing that. lol

17 comments:

Lisa said...

Those white chocolate and peach cookies sound awesome. I totally want to try them, so I guess I'm going to have to get some dried peaches and soon.

christy. said...

Wow those M&M ones look pretty delicious in my opinion! To be honest they both look great...I love cookies haha.

..help it won't let me post this comment and am having troubles with the word verication? ok, so its worked after several tries but now openID isn't being accepted either!
christycee.blogspot.com

Anyways I just recently found your blog and love the recipes and photos that you've posted!

Shelby said...

hahaha....well I bet you don't have to worry about onion soup - at least until the fall!

I am betting the peach one would be the winner here. I can't do pretzels and chocolate. I don't know why - not because I don't like it, but because it makes me not feel well...I know, strange. I think there just may be too much candy in there too. I know Grumpy would like the white chocolate one. He likes most anything made with white chocolate!

Lana @ Never Enough Thyme said...

I saw that recipe in the magazine, too, and thought it looked fantastic. Glad to know you tried it and liked it!

Lisa Ernst said...

What a fun experiment! As you know, I'm a hard core dark chocolate lover too and yet I can really get (even without tasting the cookies) how the peach and white chocolate go so well together. There are a few exceptions to the dark chocolate rule. :-)

Kristen said...

What a fun thing to do! Those peach oatmeal cookies have me drooling. What a great combination (even with apricots). My kids would flip over the candy cookies.

briarrose said...

It would be really tough to choose between those two cookies...I might have had to sample multiple cookies to really decide. ;)

Anonymous said...

I actually saw the episode of Sunny's show where she made these cookies too. I used the base recipe and switch out the add-ins to dried cranberries, dark chocolate and toasted pecans. They are to die for!

Megan'sCookin' said...

They both sound good and I do like the color peaking through on Adam's Cookies but I bet I would like Sunny's cookie better. It just sounds like a good cookie with the peach and white chocolate!

Natalie said...

I love reading about the food network faceoffs! both sound so good, i don't think you can go wrong with either!

Maris (In Good Taste) said...

I have to say they all look delicious!

Karina said...

Great blog post... it's like you read my mind! I, too, picked up the latest issue of the Food Network Magazine and after seeing the article on the "Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Battle" I knew I had to get in on the action (check out my blog review of the battle royale here: http://k2togp2tog.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/yummy-sunny-anderson-nutty-white-chocolate-and-peach-oatmeal-cookies-in-my-tummy/). I agree with you, my vote goes to Sunny's cookies. Soooo delish, even better the day after (which is why I doubled my recipe right away!).

Leslie said...

I love the FN magazine. GOod choice with these cookies!

Unknown said...

mmm...These are so tasty! I have a themed linky party going on at my blog and I'd like to invite you to stop by and link up your themed treat! This week's theme is strawberries! Can't wait!mod
http://cupcakeapothecary.blogspot.com/2011/04/bakers-monday.html

Baking Ribbons said...

Love fruit in cookies! Never had peaches in a cookie, but how could they be bad? Oatmeal cookies are my favorite...

The Addicted Baker said...

What a great idea. Anything white chocolate is great in cookies :)

marla said...

These cookies sound beyond fabulous! Love the peach/white chocolate combo.