Lemon Glazed Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies

These cookies are both sweet and tart, and completely indulgent too! The flavour combination is created by pairing lemon zest and juice with oats, sugar, white chocolate chips, and vanilla pudding mix! Lemon Glazed Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies are massively large, soft and chewy, and absolutely delicious!

You might be asking yourself if Lord Byron’s Kitchen needs another cookie recipe, and the answer, Dear Reader, is yes! Presently, I would guess that there’s at least 200 cookie recipes published here for everyone to explore and of course, bake! And, extra large cookies are no stranger either! In fact, I think all cookies should be extra large, so these Lemon Glazed Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies are most certainly in good company!

My obsession with these types of cookies all started with my Jumbo Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies. Since I discovered those about four years ago, I continue to bake them and I also bake variations of that recipe. That’s exactly what happened in this case. I was craving the flavour of lemon, so I decided to make a version with lots of lemony goodness. I used both fresh lemon juice and zest, and used white chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate.

In the introduction, I mentioned that I used vanilla pudding mix in these cookies too. It’s not the first time I used pudding mix in cookies. Remember these Pistachio Pudding Cookies from my second Christmas countdown series? And, I also used pudding mix in these Butterscotch Gingerbread Cookies in the third installment of Lord Byron’s 24 Cookies of Christmas series.

As a food blogger, I will often spend quite a bit of time thinking about food. Many times that food already exists a certain way and I think about how to spin it so that it’s completely different. This one particular day, I remembered the chocolate chip cookies that my friend, Deana, used to make. She used to make the best, super soft and moist cookies and she once told me that her secret was a package of vanilla pudding dry mix. It was just what these cookies needed!

ALL FOR A GOOD CAUSE!

A few weeks ago, one of the organizers of our local Delta Maple Syrup festival, reached out to me to ask if I’d bake up a batch of cookies to help with fundraising at the book sale. (Hi Liz P.!) Of course, I agreed right away, because I’ve never been one to shy away from a good cause. I thought if I was going to bake cookies anyway, I might as well come up with a new recipe and photograph the end result for the blog. Because the event was being held on Easter weekend, I thought something with lemon would be a good idea, because lemon reminds me of spring, and so does yellow!

Liz and I chatted back and forth via text, and either I was very excited to help out, or I completely misread the conversation. She had asked if I would make a batch of cookies consisting of 36 or 48 and package them into lots of six. Somehow, I left that conversation thinking she had requested 36-48 lots. I wasn’t about to bake over 200 of the same type of cookie, so I came up with three different types, Lemon Glazed Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies being one of them.

On baking day, after a few batches were already baked and cooling, I realized somewhere along the way that so many cookies was a tall order! I revisited the text conversation again, and much to my surprise, one batch of cookies was all Liz was asking for! When all was said and done, I had already baked two batches of each flavour, so I donated them all! I’ll be sharing the other two types of cookies with you at a later time as well.

DELTA MAPLE SYRUP FESTIVAL

I include this section just in case you’re interested. And, if you’re local, you might want to check out the event next year! Established in 1967, the Delta Maple Syrup Festival was the first maple celebration to be established in the area. In planning for Canada’s Centennial, a small group of dedicated volunteers met regularly in the Council Chambers at the Old Town Hall.

Originally, the festival was a three-day event held in March which included feeding pancakes and syrup to busloads of students on school trips. In order to keep up with the crowds, meals were served on both floors of the Old Town Hall. Visitors were able to tour local sugar bushes along with watching maple syrup being bottled and maple candy being made as well.

Over the years, the festival continued through the efforts of many local residents and service clubs before becoming a project for the Directors of the Delta Agricultural Society. And now, the tradition continues 55 years later!

PUDDING CUPS – DO YOU REMEMBER THESE?

When I was a boy, one of my favourite snacks was a pudding cup. I don’t think we called them pudding cups like kids do now, we just called them pudding. And, they were not in those cute little plastic cups with the peel away lid either. Nope, our pudding cups were actually in cans with a peel back metal lid. Is there anyone in their 40s like me that can remember this? The brand was Hunt’s. I think they’re long gone, because I have not seen those canned puddings since the 1980s.

Needless to say, butterscotch was my favourite, and was closely followed by tapioca and then chocolate. Whenever my mom would buy the variety pack, I would save the vanilla for last. It was too plain. But, now, I love vanilla flavour, but it’s still second to butterscotch, mind you! That’s why I included vanilla pudding in these Lemon Glazed Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies. Because, the best cookies are those that brings back the best of memories, right?

WHAT TYPE OF VANILLA PUDDING SHOULD I USE?

Basically, there’s two types of boxed vanilla pudding – regular and instant. In most cases, you’ll be hard-pressed to find regular pudding mix anymore, because they world has gone and got itself in a hurry. Don’t worry; the instant works perfectly and that’s what I used in this recipe.

You will need just one box of the dry pudding mix. This is the exact box that I used. I know that vanilla pudding also comes in a fat free version. You can certainly use that if you prefer.

We are not concerned about the fat or sugar content in the pudding. It’s the flavour that we want to extract and incorporate into the cookies. Any brand of pudding will do just fine. And, if you can’t find the 102 gram size box, get one as close as you can to that. For non-Canadians, 99 grams converts to 3.59 ounces.

HERE IS WHAT YOU WILL NEED FOR THIS RECIPE:

• Unsalted Butter – Make sure your butter is at room temperature!
• Sugar – Sugar will caramelize when baked, which will help to brown the cookies, it will also help the dough to spread and create a crispness to the bottom of the cookie.
• Eggs – Whenever you set out to bake, make sure your eggs are at room temperature too – just like your butter!
• Lemon Juice – Freshly squeezed lemon juice should always be used in recipes unless the recipe specifically states bottled lemon juice.  Bottled has a metallic taste, but the PH level is perfect for canning, so there is a time and place for it!
• Lemon Zest – Wash the lemon in hot water and dry it thoroughly before attempting to zest it.
• Flour – Just use regular all-purpose flour. I have not tried this recipe with any other type of flour.
• Oats – Use quick oats.
• Baking Soda – Activated by a liquid, it’s an acid to help with leavening or rising. 
• Salt – In baking it helps to enhance and balance sweetness. 
• Cornstarch – When added to cake, cookie and shortbread recipes, cornstarch helps create a crumbly and tender dessert-like texture.
• White Chocolate Chips – I use chocolate chips a lot in my recipes, and I change up the type depending on how I feel.  Unless the recipe states otherwise, you can use milk, semi-sweet, or dark chips. 
• Vanilla Pudding – See section above.

FOR THE OPTIONAL GLAZE:

• Confectioner’s Sugar – This superfine sugar is sometimes called powdered sugar.  It is used in frostings quite often. 
• Lemon Juice – This will give the cookie even more lemony flavour. If you want to ease up on the lemon, you can use milk instead of lemon juice.
• Food Colouring – Optional. 

HOW TO MAKE LEMON GLAZED OATMEAL WHITE CHOCOLATE COOKIES

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with a silcone baking liner or parchment paper. Set is aside while you prepare the cookie dough.

In a large bowl, use a mixer to blend together the butter, sugar, eggs and lemon juice. Beat until smooth. Add the following ingredients in this order: flour, oats, baking soda, salt, cornstarch, lemon zest, and the dry vanilla pudding mix. Use the mixer, set to low speed, the mix together the dry ingredients slightly before beginning to blend the dry into the wet ingredients. Just mix until combined; don’t over mix.

Now, use a spatula to stir in the white chocolate chips. Use a #20 cookie scoop, or portion the batter into 3 tablespoon mounds. Roll into balls and place onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake only 6 cookies per sheet. These cookies are big! Gently flatten the ball of cookie batter to about 1/2 inch thick. Push extra white chocolate chips into the cookie dough if desired. Bake for 15 minutes. Finally, remove from oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

OPTIONAL GLAZE

This next section is completely optional, but I think the cookies would look rather dull and drab without the glaze. Plus, it gives you the chance to pack even more lemon flavour into the cookie. Once the cookies are completely cooled, stir the lemon juice into the confectioner’s sugar until a thin, smooth frosting is formed. Divide the frosting into two bowls. Tint one bowl of frosting with yellow food colouring and leave the other bowl of frosting white.

Lay the cookies face up onto a wire cooling rack with a baking sheet underneath to catch any dripping glaze. You can use a fork to drizzle the glaze over the cookies, but I like to transfer the glaze to a small Ziploc bag and cut off a little bit of one of the lower corners of the bag. Then, working in a zigzag motion, drizzle the white glaze over the cookies first, followed by the yellow glaze. Once the cookies are glazed, allow them to fully dry before packaging.

STORING, PACKAGING, AND FREEZING

If you plan to freeze these cookies, you certainly can! Once they are completely cooled, pile them into a clean, food-safe container. The container must be freezer friendly! You’ll want to ensure a very tight fitting lid too. (I use these quite often when freezing baked goods.) I like to place a sheet of plastic wrap over the top of the container before pushing the lid on. This helps to create a better seal. The goal is to keep all of that cookie freshness locked in!

You can freeze these cookies for up to three months. To thaw, lay them out onto a wire cooling rack in a single layer. Once thawed, get a hot coffee and enjoy!