Cookie Starts with C! Kooky does not.

Well hello there!

I’ve been pretty lax with recipes lately.

Sorry about that. I spent all day Sunday watching the first season of True Blood. A friend at work turned me on to it and now I can’t get enough. Yes a bit gorey and unnecessary at points (hey it is HBO), but a truly interesting story. I’ve placed a hold on the second season for when it gets returned to the library. Fingers crossed that it’s this week!

Anyhow, Sunday night left me baking a “cheesy” broccoli casserole!

I’m still working on the flavor, it was a little bland for my taste. That’s why I jazzed up the top with some sriracha! <3

However, last night I got the urge to make cookies. I didn't want to wait for the oven to heat up so I looked up waffle iron cookies! Using the recipe for these yummy looking treats as a guide, I came up with a vegan version!

I was feeling ambitious. Crazy ambitious.

Sriracha-y!

I divided the batter into thirds, leaving one third plain, adding some sriracha to one third and then some dried wild blueberries and dried sage to the last third.

Blueberry and sage-y!

Nom nom nom!

Vegan Waffle Iron Cookies (makes 18-20 small-ish cookies)
1/4 cup earth balance
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon soy milk
1 flax egg (1 tablespoon flax meal mixed with 3 tablespoons water)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 – 1 ounce (square) unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped up

Heat waffle iron according to instructions.
In a coffee mug, melt earth balance in the microwave. Add in maple syrup, soy milk, flax egg and extract. In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal and baking soda. Stir in chocolate pieces. At this point if you want to section the dough and make different flavors, go ahead and do so! Use your imagination and go wild! If not, well, it’s time to make some cookies!

Open the waffle iron, spray lightly with non-stick cooking spray. Using a tablespoon (or smaller), drop dough onto hot waffle iron and close. Cook for about 3 minutes or until they start to look crispy! Carefully remove from waffle iron and cool completely on a rack before storing!

They’re great for snacking. They’re even greater on top of oatmeal.

Or even my “oatmeal”. After seeing an awesome use for textured vegetable protein as “oatmeal”, I created my own version this morning. Unfortunately I did not bookmark the site where I found it and cannot find it through searching.

But man oh man it was SO yummy!

Cran-banana “Oatmeal”
1/4 cup TVP
1 tablespoon pearled barley
1 tablespoon flax meal
2 tablespoons fresh cranberries
1/2 banana, sliced
3/4 cup unsweetened soy milk
1/2 cup water

Heat milk, water, banana and cranberries in a pot on the stove over medium heat until the milk is heated. Add in TVP, barley and flax meal and bring to a simmer. Make sure you keep an eye on the pot, it will boil over if given the chance! Cook the “oatmeal” until the barley is cooked to your liking. I cooked mine for about 10 minutes.

Top with walnut pecan butter and a waffle iron cookie!

Mmmmm!

Coconut Banana Macaroons

I got an email for this amazing recipe from my Oh She Glows subscription the other day.

I immediately fell in love with the idea. As I do with most of her recipes..

Unfortunately I knew I didn’t have enough coconut for the recipe. At first I was going to just reduce it by half.. then that changed to a quarter of the recipe. That just got way too complicated so I started tweaking.

From all the crazy tweaking came the following amazing recipe. My only problem was that I could not puree the coconut quite enough to make it into smooth butter. My food processor doesn’t quite get the job done – it’s on the list for an upgrade! Despite that one tiny problem, the dough came together pretty nicely.

I brought these little gems into work today and everyone that tried them LOVED them. There were only a few left and I stashed them in my drawer so I would always have an emergency snack available. Well.. for as long as they hold out.

=)

Coconut Banana Macaroons (adapted from Oh She Glows)
1 cup unsweetened coconut
3 dates
1/2 banana
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup rolled oats

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Toss the coconut into your food processor and whip that sucker until you get a beautiful creamy coconut butter (or until your food processor can’t take it anymore..). If you would like a tutorial for making coconut butter, check it out here. Add in the dates, banana, vanilla bean paste and salt, pureeing until a smooth batter forms. Pulse in the rolled oats until just fully combined.

Scoop dough out by the 1/2 tablespoon and form into balls. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake 10-15 minutes or until just golden on bottom. Cool completely on the cookie sheet and devour!

I am thankful..

This year is coming to an end.  It’s been such a difficult year, emotionally and physically.  Stupid spine for not being able to handle the impact of running!  I wanted to take a minute to touch on some things I’ve been thankful for throughout the year.  I realized how amazingly strong my family is.  I never sat down to think about how rare it is to have a family that is so incredibly supportive and loving.  Despite all the obstacles my family has had to overcome this year, we managed to get through them together.  I managed to keep my traditions and make some new leaps.  All the “firsts” without my beloved Uncle, my Grandma’s surgery and all the other things in between; I wouldn’t have been able to bear them without the strength I received from my family.  From my family and from Kyle.  I don’t know what I would do without their presence in my life.   I love them all so much.

Now that I’ve gotten all sappy and teary-eyed, I would like to share some of my holiday!

I believe I mentioned a hint of recipes in a prior post and I will not disappoint!  I made gingerbread cookies with a recipe from Simply Recipes. I followed her recipe almost exactly, but cut down on the nutmeg and added in some cayenne. I’m not a huge gingerbread fan myself, but everyone loved them!

Oh yeah. Those are ninjabread men. I made them for Kyle.

Ready to unleash on an unsuspecting Kyle!

I had high ambitions to decorate all the gingerbread I ended up making but WOW I didn’t realize how hard it is to ice cookies with a piping bag. After the six ninjabread men, I had to move on. I had other things to make! I did dip the christmas trees in white chocolate to make them a bit more festive at least!

I made some caramels. Cayenne pepper caramels. They were WAY too delicious. See, I have this problem when I make caramel: I constantly burn my tongue. I just can’t keep the spoon filled with luscious, molten, sugary goodness away from my mouth. Oh well. Its totally worth it! I followed the recipe for salted butter caramels that David Lebovitz has posted on his awesome website. He makes me want to visit France, which is never somewhere I had on my wish list of places to go. It is now! The only change I made to his recipe was to add 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and to sprinkle some on top of the cooling caramel.

My top two favorite cookies I added to the cookie trays: white chocolate oatmeal cookies with rosemary and this fantastic recipe for kolachkys I discovered after months of searching over at Lemons and Lavender.

This recipe is amazing. I am so happy I happened upon her website! I used jarred apricot jam to save myself a little bit of effort. My dad and brother were so excited! My brother was also super excited about the homemade pumpkin butter I made for him with Angela’s awesome recipe over at Oh She Glows. I substituted orange juice for apple juice and adjusted the spices to taste. The recipe is fantastic and totally fool proof! Just be sure you have a lid or you may end up with pumpkin butter on the walls.

The white chocolate oatmeal cookies with rosemary, while it may sound strange, is a beautiful combination. I wasn’t really excited about the texture of the oatmeal cookie recipe I used, but I urge you to try adding it to your favorite oatmeal cookie recipe (after taking out the raisins.. I don’t think THAT would be such a great combo) and see what you think!

Oh. Those yummy looking pretzels in that jar? Yeah that’s addicting as all getout. Its a recipe my supervisor copied out of a Midwest Living magazine for me. Cinnamon sugar pretzels. Oh yeah. Don’t start eating them. You won’t stop. All you have to do is toss a 16 ounce bag of twist (or snap) pretzels with 2/3 cup canola oil, 1/2 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Bake them in a large roasting pan in a 300 degree oven for 30 minutes, stirring 2-3 times.

The poor chocolate red wine cookies didn’t get made for the cookie trays because (unfortunately) I came down with some kind of flu/cold bug on Christmas Eve. I simply had no time to fit them in. But don’t worry, Bill and April got their special cookies last night at the bar where my family went to listen to our friend DJ. More on that at another time, though.

I believe I got off on a bit of a tangent, eh?

Well on Christmas Day I felt a bit better. In honor of my Uncle Jeff’s favorite snack (blueberries) I made a fantastic old fashioned blueberry cake I found over at 101 Cookbooks. I had to sub a bunch of ingredients I didn’t have, but the cake turned out wonderfully. It went onto the brunch table at my mom’s with some delicious scrambled eggs, sausage and hash browns. We exchanged a few gifts and made our way to my Aunt’s mother’s house. Dinner was delicious and the love of the family warmed the entire house.

Me with my Aunt and the girls!

I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend the holiday.

I hope your year has been just as memorable as mine has. Enjoy the rest of it and I will see you all next year!

One of my all time favorites!

Another treat added to my friend’s goodie box!

I can’t believe I’ve gone almost a year without making these cookies! Well, actually, I can believe it. I’m not allowed to make peanut butter cookies. Especially not peanut butter ginger cookies. Why? Well.. because all that’s usually left are crumbs on the plate. I mean it uses my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe from Simply Recipes and it is my favorite exotic flavor combo.

These bad boys are pretty safe, though. They are for Amy. She won’t miss the two I ate to make sure they weren’t poisoned, right?

If you’re looking for something to liven up your peanut butter cookies, give ginger a shot! You won’t be let down!

Peanut Butter Ginger Cookies
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon molasses
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup peanut butter (I used natural chunky)
1 egg
~1 tablespoon ginger root juice (I squeezed my fresh ginger with a garlic press to get the juice)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda, heaping
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Cream butter until it starts to fluff up. Add in sugar and molasses, whipping until well combined. Add in egg, peanut butter and ginger juice, mixing well. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Slowly add dry mixture into wet mixture, making sure the dough is well combined. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

On baking day, preheat oven to 300 (375 for crisp cookies). Shape dough into 1/2 inch balls (roughly, just make sure they’re all the same size), place on an ungreased cookie sheet and flatten gently with a fork. Bake 15 minutes (9-10 if you’re baking crispy cookies at 375) or until the cookies just start to turn brown on the bottoms.

Satisfying my latest craving

For weeks I’ve been craving chocolate peppermint cookies. Weeks. I’ve been searching for a recipe that had simple ingredients, cinch-like to pull together and TASTY! Of course, my craving is only part of the reason for the delicious morsels I’m about to share with you today. My friend out in Virginia is due for a Christmas package! What better to send at this time of year than chocolate peppermint crinkles??

I found this recipe a few nights ago online. I didn’t save the webpage, but I wrote down the name of the site. Well, I wrote down “love in the oven”, so I’m assuming that’s the website! When I went to search for it again today, I couldn’t find the recipe anywhere on the site! So if you’re the owner of the recipe and you happen across my blog, let me know and I’ll totally link your webpage here.

Back to the cookies:

Delicious. Sooooo good. Mmm, mmmmmmmmmmm, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Throw some together today and chow down!

Chocolate Mint Crinkles
1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3 teaspoons powdered sugar mixed with 1/2 teaspoon sea salt for “dusting”

Preheat oven to 350. Combine cocoa powder, sugar and oil in a large mixing bowl. Beat in egg and extract. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix until well combined. Roll heaping teaspoons of dough into balls and roll in powdered sugar mixture. Place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake 10-12 minutes. Makes about 18 cookies.

Homemade Fig Newtons

Nomnomnom

Hey I’ve got my thick glasses on and a fig newton in my hand.. lets just add a Jetson’s lunch box and we’re all set for school!  I was one of those odd children that loved fig newtons.  Although, I think it was for the doughy cookie around the outside of the figgy inside.  I would nibble, nibble, nibble and eat a little of the fig and throw the rest out.

Not anymore!  Now I love, love, LOVE figs.  And cookies.. and dates.. and lemon..

I was almost too intimidated to make these since I’ve never made filled cookies before, but they were incredibly easy.  As long as you flour your board and rolling pin generously you’re good to go!

Kyle loved them.  I knew he would.  He loves anything I make, really (well 98% of everything I make that is).  I call him the Garbage Disposal!  GB!  I wonder if I can get my supervisor to try them.. she claims she doesn’t like figs.  But she’s never tried them.  Enter Lauren.  Hehe!

These cookies were extremely yummy!  The lemon really compliments the figs well! The only difference I would make is probably to reduce the sugar to one tablespoon instead of two.  NOTE: Oh.. and I’d double the filling recipe, too!  I forgot to add this earlier!  Let me know if you try them and make any changes!

Homemade Fig Newtons
For the Dough:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
1 medium egg white
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup bread flour
1/4 cup almond meal (flour)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

For the Filling:
1/2 cup dried figs, chopped
1/2 cup dried dates, chopped
~3/4-1 cup water
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Make the filling first to get it out of the way and allow it to cool. And so you don’t forget to make it the next day when you go to roll out the dough! In a small pot, combine figs, dates, water, sugar and lemon juice and simmer on low heat until the fruit becomes a bit rehydrated and the filling reaches a thicker consistency, about 20-30 minutes. Transfer to a storage container, mash up with a fork while the mixture is still hot, then allow to cool before refrigerating.

Now for the dough!

In a stand mixer, cream butter, sugar and lemon zest for 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and the beater, then cream in egg white and vanilla. Scrape down again, reduce mixer speed to low and add flours and sea salt in two additions, mixing well. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

The next day preheat your oven to 350. Heavily flour your counter and roll out the dough as thick as you’d like (I think I did about 1/4″ thickness or something? They were pretty thin – but if you like doughier fig newtons thicker would probably be better). Using a pizza cutter, create a rectangular shape. Spoon filling down the middle of the dough, spreading it out a bit. Taking one long edge, fold the dough to the center of the filling, followed by the other long edge to create a seam. Lightly close that seam using the heat from your hands (the dough is very pliable once its been rolled out) and loosen the “snake” with your spatula before slicing and trying to transfer.

Ssssssssssssnakey!

Ready for the oven!

Slice the dough with your pizza cutter and transfer to a parchment paper lined cookie sheet seam side down. Bake 12-15 minutes (adjusting the time difference a bit if you have thicker dough) until they turn golden brown on the edges. Remove from cookie sheet and allow to cool before storing!

Hot from the oven!

Devoured.

Ole!

A quick morning dose of chocolate to start off your hump day!

I made up this dough last night because I just needed to make dough.  Do you ever have that problem?  You don’t want to actually bake, you just want to whip up the ingredients leading up to it?  Maybe I’m just odd.  That’s a possibility..  My other reasoning for making the dough last night – my last experiment with dough refrigerated overnight was a raging success.  I wanted to try again with oatmeal cookies!

This recipe was inspired by two separate recipes:  a basic oatmeal chocolate chip cookie one and a mexican chocolate cookie one.  A few weeks ago Amanda and I whipped up and scarfed a recipe for mexican chocolate cookies with a big ol’ bottle of red wine.  Mmm, mmm, mmm… I’ve been craving them ever since!  Why the oatmeal?  Well who doesn’t love oatmeal?  Besides, since the cookies have oatmeal in them you could eat them for breakfast right?

Happy Hump Day everyone!

Mexican Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons canola oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon half and half (or milk)
1/2 cup dark rye flour
1/2 cup bread flour
2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (heaping)
cayenne pepper, to taste
black pepper, to taste
1 cup oats
1/3 cup chocolate chunks

Using a stand mixer, cream together sugar and oil; add egg, vanilla and milk and cream until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and peppers. Slowly add dry mixture into wet, mixing well after each addition until smooth. After the flour mixture is completely combined, add in oats and chocolate chunks.

Refrigerate overnight.

The next day preheat your oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and drop dough by the tablespoon (using your nifty little cookie dough scoop if you’ve got one) about an inch apart and lightly press down on dough. Bake about 15 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.

A new favorite!

Oh my.  I’ve found a new favorite.  I daresay its even better than chocolate (though I DID eat my cookie topped with some chocolate sorbet…).

Yeah, you read that correctly.

Better.  Than.  Chocolate.

In fact, Kyle just went back for his third fourth cookie. And he’s only been home for 20 minutes.

That’s what I’m talking about.

Date-y!

See, I love dates (the fruit, of course.  Though the other kind is nice when certain people plan them out… nudge nudge).  This is a fairly recent development.  I’ve had some of these gems sitting in my fridge for about a month, hidden so I wouldn’t scarf them all in one sitting.

Then today, by sheer luck, I stumbled across a recipe for date cookies over at Eating Out Loud. I used the recipe as a base and ended up spinning it into my own. And what do you know, they’re even vegan!

Date Oatmeal Cookies
3 tablespoons canola oil
1/4 cup sugar (next time I might cut this down to 3 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon molasses
1/2 tablespoon flax meal (mixed with 1 1/2 tablespoons cranberry juice concentrate)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup dark rye flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup chopped dates

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In your stand mixer, whisk oil, sugar and molasses until well combined. Add in flax mixture and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, combine flour, soda, salt and oats. Add slowly to sugar mixture and allow to mix well before adding dates. Drop dough onto cookie sheet with a cookie dough dropper (yep, that’s a technical name) and flatten a tiny bit with the back of a spoon. If desired, sprinkle with extra kosher salt. Bake about 10-14 minutes or until they start to get crispy brown looking around the bottom edges. Be sure to share.

Mmmm.. graham crackers without the graham!

<insert chorus of angels here>

I have done it! I’ve made graham crackers! Oh man it was so easy. And they were SO good! Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World!!

Switching up the ingredients until I was dizzy (true to form, I know), I ended up with some truly unique and awesome graham crackers. It was hard to even wait until they were cooked! I kept eating the scraps I sliced off instead of adding them to the re-rolling pile! But they were 100 times better after they were baked, so try really, really hard to not follow my (bad) example!

I think I’m going to try throwing these into some ice cream with my new ICE CREAM MAKER! More on that bad boy later!

Stack-o-goodness!

Cocoa Almond Graham Crackers
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup dark rye flour
1/4 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup packed almond meal
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon dark cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons molasses
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup skim milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. In a large bowl, mix flours, cocoa powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, molasses and extracts. Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and whisk gently with a fork. Add milk and keep stirring until mixed. Use hands to fully form a pliable dough. Place dough ball on a lightly floured surface, sprinkle a light coating of flour on top and roll out until about 1/8 inch thick. Using a pizza cutter, cut dough into desired sizes. (I got roughly 29 graham crackers) Strip away rough edges and add to “re-rolling” pile. Using a thin spatula, move slices to baking sheet and use a fork to lightly poke holes in cracker dough. Bake 12 – 14 minutes depending on size. Allow to cool completely on cookie sheet.

Nom nom NOM!

Finally, perfect cookies!

I am so proud I’m beaming! I’ve FINALLY found the secret to perfectly crispy, chewy cookies! FINALLY!

Perfection!

Better yet:

They’re made with olive oil, not butter. Oh yeah.

Chocolatey, olive oily and with a hint of roasted garlic. Yep. Garlic.

No I’m not crazy. I’m just adventurous!

So if you’re an adventurous soul as well, give it a shot. You’ll love it!

Drool-worthy for sure.

Just try to share so you aren’t the only one with garlic breath!

Garlicky Chocolate Chunk Cookies
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons dark rye flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons molasses
1 egg, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 clove roasted garlic, crushed
1 cup chocolate chunks

Combine flour, salt and baking soda, set aside. With a stand mixer, beat oil, sugar and molasses until it starts to get a bit airy. It won’t get fluffy, poor olive oil. =( After the sugar and oil are combined, beat in egg, vanilla and garlic until well incorporated. Add flour mixture a bit at a time until well mixed, then add in chocolate chunks. Cover dough and refrigerate at least 24 hours.

The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and (without allowing it to come to room temperature) drop dough onto parchment paper by roughly 2 tablespoon rounds that are an inch to an inch and a half apart. Gently press dough down a bit to help flatten the cookies out as they don’t spread much. Bake cookies 12-14 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Then chow down!

Nom nom nom!