Heyyyyy 2017. I’m sorry I’m a few days late, but hey, I got a snow day.

Snow days=my favorites.
Spoiler alert: They’re not my favorite because I love to play in the snow or sleep until 1 PM or watch movies all day long. They’re my favorite because I can get a lot done. I’m a productivity addict, and I have a really tough time sitting around or not getting things done (a.k.a. relaxing).
So a snow day is like a dream come true because, yes, it’s a day off, but it’s also like a bonus day to WORK. And speaking of getting things done, it’s 2017. And 2017=resolutions. Did you make any? How are they going?
I like goals, but I’m always a little afraid of “resolutions.” I checked back in on the ones I made for 2016, and I color-coded them. Red for ones I failed at. Yellow for ones I did ok with. And green for ones I killed. Long story short: There was a pretty nice rainbow across my spreadsheet.
So for this year, I really only made a few fo sho goals that I wanted to hold myself accountable to (because productivity girl also hates not achieving goals and feeling like she struck out), and then I have a little side list of “things I want to work on, but I refuse to beat myself up about if I don’t.”

This blog is one of the items on my side list. When I started it in 2015, I wanted to post a recipe every other Monday. I kept jennythebaker going at a decent momentum in 2015, but then 2016 was tough. Little did I realize that comparison, life, and crappy photos would get real, and that my initial goal was not sustainable for a person who had a full-time job outside of the blog. In other words, the hype faded and reality set in. Taking photos I liked, coming up with things to say, and getting all of it done in a timely matter turned out to be so much more difficult than I imagined. And oh yeah, I needed to come up with actual recipes. WHEN THERE ARE ALREADY MILLIONS OF THEM OUT THERE. (Seriously-just Google “chocolate chip cookies.” See how many hits you get. Point proven.) Any time I wanted to post something, all I could think of was, “My pictures are so much crappier than (insert name of a pro food blogger). They’re not worth posting. I am SUCH an amateur. I suck at this.”
But toward the end of 2016, as I started verbalizing this internal monologue to others, I began to realize… I’m not a pro, and I am an amateur. I don’t have a fancy camera, dozens of backgrounds, or millions of props to make my desserts look picture perfect. But I have improved.
I’ll be preaching this gospel of non-comparison to myself for the rest of my life, but I’m hoping that in my little corner of the internet, I can STOP comparing myself to others and start being PROUD of what I can do and have done.
So here’s a little something I’m proud of, and that I think is fitting to start off a snow AND 2017 with: Malted Cookies and Cream cookies!

Listen, we all know that trashing up cookies is my middle name, so here’s yet another piece of evidence to prove that theory. You’ve got your classic malted milk powder, oreos, and chocolate AND white chocolate chips. It all gets mixed up with a nice batch of your classic “I’m just waiting for mix-ins” cookie dough, heads to the fridge (or freezer) for a short vaca, and then heads to the oven for some good old fashioned bake time.

Note: These cookies are best consumed while wearing pajamas and watching the snow fall from your couch.

Malted Cookies & Cream Cookies

Created by Jenny Barrett on January 6, 2017

Chocolate chip cookies jazzed up with Oreo chunks and malted milk powder!

• Prep Time: 15m
• Cook Time: 9m
• Total Time: 26m

• Yield: 27 cookies

Ingredients

• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips
• 10 Oreos
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup malted milk powder (I used Carnation)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup white chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Melt butter in a bowl in the microwave.
2. Mix sugars and butter together in a large mixing bowl on medium-low speed until combined (30-60 seconds).
3. Add in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla, mixing on low speed until combined.
4. Add in baking soda, malted milk powder, and half of the flour. Mix on low speed until incorporated.
5. Add the remaining flour, oreo chunks, and both kinds of chocolate chips, and mix on low until combined.
6. Shape the dough into balls. Mine contained about 1.5 tablespoons of dough per cookie, and it made 27 cookies.
7. Refrigerate the dough balls for at least 3 hours. This dough will need to be COLD when it goes into the oven or you will get flat cookies!
8. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
9. Place cookie dough balls about 3 inches apart on a cookie sheet.
10. Bake cookies for 9 minutes, turning at the halfway point.
11. Allow the cookies to rest on hot cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
12. Enjoy!
13. Note: I\'ve had success in freezing this cookie dough and allowing it to thaw in the fridge before baking.

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