Archive for the ‘Cookies’ Category

You won’t believe…

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

… it’s not gluten!

It’s really not, though.  I promise.

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Curious, aren’t you?

These babies are chewy.  They’re chocolatey.  They’re peanut buttery.  They’re good is what they are.

Lots of people had this idea where you make gluten free peanut butter cookies.  I’ve done it before.  And plenty of others have adapted that recipe to use nutella.  I was sad to not be more original, but it’s the sad state of things.  Unfortunately, people seem to be putting too much sugar into them.  And that makes me sad.  How would you taste the peanut butter?  Better yet, the nutella?

Peanutella Cookies:

  • 1/2 c. peanut butter
  • 1/2 c. nutella
  • 1/2 c. sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda

Mix the ingredients together.  Chill in fridge for an hour or so.  Place by rounded tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and bake at 350 for approximately 10 minutes.

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Gluten Free, Recipes | 1 Comment »

Chocolate Drizzled Peanut Butter Cookies

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

…are yummy.  I took the recipe my mom made when I was growing up and jazzed it up a bit.

IMG_0340

Chocolate Drizzled Peanut Butter Cookies

The recipe I stole from Mom's recipe box

The card I stole from Mom's recipe box

Cream together:

  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 2 eggs

Stir in:

  • 2 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Shape into balls and place on cookie sheet. Mark the tops with a fork.

Bake at 350º for 10-12 minutes or until light brown on the edges.

Melt and drizzle on top of the cookies:

  • 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 tablespoon shortening (helps to smooth it out)

Refrigerate a bit to let the chocolate harden, then enjoy!

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Food Talk, Recipes | 2 Comments »

How very literary of us

Sunday, October 10th, 2010
I like to communicate deep things about my life using status messages on chat.  So the other day at work (it was a chat client used strictly for work, to be sure), I had eaten these delicious cookies Val had made (recipe below, hold your horses!) so I decided to let everyone know that pecans taste exactly like fall.  Jeff, who had commented at lunch how much he loves sweet potato casserole (and really, Jeff, be original; who doesn’t?), commented on my status, saying, “Especially in sweet potato casserole!”  My response was simple: “Or in the cookies that Val brought in today.”  I immediately saw Jeff power walk past my desk toward Val’s office. [For Jeff these cookies were love at first bite]
When I saw Jenny’s status, I told her how my sisters and I have decided that cloves taste like castles.  In fact, my sister Carrie makes a stew we have dubbed “Castle Stew,” which features venison seasoned with cloves.  I love to put cloves in other recipes as well (fruit salad for instance), because they add a subtle complexity that you might not expect.

Naturally, then, when Val and I realized our ability to understand flavors as ideas, we knew we had to write a blog post together.  Like Hanley and Michael.  And group work.  And team sports. [Eww I hate Sports] And stuff like that.

But sports and group work aren’t as easy as they seems.  For instance, I don’t like it when people finish my… [sandwiches?  There’s an Arrested Development bit about this...]

Michael Bluth: [about Nellie] It’s like we finish each other’s…
Lindsay Bluth Fünke: Sandwiches?
Michael Bluth: Sentences. Why would I say…
Lindsay Bluth Fünke: Sandwiches?

Autumnal Castle Cookies

What to call these cookies?  Castle Harvest Cookies?  That sounds kind of dopey.

I don’t like using the word “harvest” unless there are flax seeds in it.

Is “flax seeds” one word or two?

Two.  I’m about to fix it. [Meanwhile, she changed it to two words, but not without changing it to “fla xseeds” first.]

Fla xseeds?  It would be cool if there was a word that started with “XS.”  “Xseeds!”

That’s about the time that we gave up on the quest to name these cookies appropriately and decided to use the name Val had already come up with.

Combine, beat at medium speed until well blended:
1 1/4 c packed brown sugar
3/4 c butter, softened
1/4 c water
1 egg
1 1/2 t vanilla

Add, beat at low speed until soft dough forms:
3 c rolled oats
1 c flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t cloves
1/2 t salt

Stir in:
1 c chocolate chips
1 c chopped pecans

Bake 8-10 minutes at 375º

Key to understanding our totally ADD post:
Valerie: Green [Why do you get to be green?] [You should be blue since blonds can only wear blue.] [FALSE!]
Jenny: PURPLE
Taken by Valerie Gartland at the Madhatter's

Taken by Valerie Gartland at the Madhatter's

This was written at the Madhatter Bakeshop in Durham. While we were there, Jenny ate a pumpkin muffin and Valerie ate an omelet filled with black beans and corn. We felt very literary for meeting in a cafe.

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Recipes | 3 Comments »

Here we go a-waffling

Saturday, March 6th, 2010
Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

When I tell people about my new favorite blog, I seem to get one of two responses:

1) Wow! That sounds really neat. I think I’d like to waffle things. Do you dip things in batter, or what? How does this work? I want to know!

2) … the things people blog about. I might as well start a blog about my cats.

The only outlier thus far has been during this conversation between Valerie and another coworker:

V: I didn’t know “waffle” could be a verb.
H: It can; remember that Christmas song… “here we go a-waffling*”?

*She means wassailing, although, frankly, I’m a fan of her version of the song..

… back to the first group, though…

You’re wrong, and here’s why: at the root of that statement is an idea that fundamentally shapes your worldview. This idea is essentially that waffles are just pancakes in a funny shape. This is false, and if you don’t know why, I have nothing more to say to you.

To the second group…

Will you be my best friend?

All of that said, I’ve taken up waffling as my new hobby, and thus waffled shortcake that I served with strawberries and vanilla yogurt, topped with a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

A few things I’ve learned about waffling:

  1. Since waffling things is generally experimentation, it may not come out great the first time. Try before serving.
  2. Do not overcook.
  3. Do not undercook.

Expect more waffled recipes in the future.

Posted in Comfort Food, Cookies, Desserts, Recipes | 2 Comments »

Success!

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

I chatted with a coworker who follows a strict gluten free diet about what kind of cookies to make for my brother’s birthday, and he recommended flourless peanut butter cookies. The idea intrigued me.  After all, the best gluten free recipes are those that are naturally so, not those that have all sorts of gluten substitutes in them. Food Blog Search helped me find this recipe, which not only matched the ingredients I had on hand, but also addressed the many doubts I had about making cookies without flour.

Mad props to Joy the Baker. The cookies were AMAZING! Don’t believe me? See the text my I got from my brother just a couple days later:

Do you even need to read the rest of it?

Do you even need to read the rest of it?

I must confess that I did get lazy. On two counts. So my recipe is a little different than the original, though I cannot claim that mine were better.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 1 cup sugar (I skimped on the brown sugar; it’s true)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda

Procedures:

Cream all ingredients together.  Place by rounded teaspoons onto greased baking sheet.  Use your thumb to press the cookie down a bit in the middle.  (I just wasn’t going to worry about dirty-ing forks for a silly little criss-cross pattern.)  Bake for 10-ish minutes.  Let cool on baking sheet for a bit, then transfer to wire racks.

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Do you really miss the criss-cross pattern?

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Gluten Free, Recipes | 1 Comment »