Healthy Cookies

Well, healthier anyway. 

I felt the need to bake this weekend. I wanted to bake for me, not for anyone else. I haven't made anything since before the holidays. Christmas cookies wore me out a little bit. I did, however, win my work's bake-off. Now I can say "My award-winning peanut butter cookies". And I do.

Anyway. I had bought dark chocolate chips and wanted to do something with them because yum. I've had this recipe for a while. It was good to start with, but I modified it a bit. (Originally they were called Bev's Chocolate Chip Cookies from cooks.com or somewhere.)

I got 2 dozen out of this recipe, but they were pretty big.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup rolled oats (I have 5 min oats that were ground in a food processor, but one minute oats work, too).
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup salted butter, softened (I don't use extra salt if the butter's salted)
• 1/4 cup plain applesauce (Bev used canola oil, but I like applesauce or fruit butters)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1ish cup dark chocolate chips-I always throw a little extra in there

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Beat butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add applesauce, granulated sugar, brown sugar, egg and vanilla; beat until smooth and creamy. Add the dry ingredients, beating on low speed until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Drop the dough by heaping teaspoonfuls, at least 1 inch apart, onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake cookies about 15 minutes. Cool the cookies for 2 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

I want to try some variations on this. Maybe add in some kind of spice, they seemed a touch flat. I'd also like to sub pumpkin or pumpkin butter for the applesauce and throw in some pumpkin seeds as well. I'd even take out the applesauce and add some peanut butter. The dark chocolate is delicious though, so I'd leave them in.

Sorry for the lack of photos. I'll try to remember to take some next time.

Gimme a "C", Gimme a "U", Gimme a "P"*....

*I had to add the "P" part because some people (LiLu, Salt) need to get their minds out of the gutter...tsk tsk you two!

Today is one of my coworker/friend's birthday. And we all know what that means...cupcakes! This time, knowing her love for Reese anything, I wanted to try something a little different. So I went with peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

I had to add some sprinkles to make them more festive.  Plus, she loves sprinkles!

I used a recipe from Cooks.com for the cupcake.  The recipe originally called for shortening, but I like my butter, so I switched them out.

1 3/4 c. all purpose flour
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. shortening  (butter!)
3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
2 lg. eggs
1 c. milk
1/2 c. peanut butter
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt (I don't add salt when I use salted butter..also too salty with the PB)
 
And the frosting is from my trusty Hershey's cookbook.  Which I always turn to when I need something chocolate-related.
 
6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
2-2/3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa or HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa (I used regular bc I didn't have the special dark laying around...I should though, I heart dark chocolate)
1/3 cup milk (add more 1 tsp at a time if needed)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 
They turned out pretty well, but I think next time I might take the butter butter out and make it extra peanut butter, and throw in some mini chocolate chips for good measure.  Because why not?  I'm also formulating a plan to make "creamsicle cupcakes".  Orange cake with either a vanilla glaze or cream cheese icing.  Maybe with some orange zest on top to make it pretty.

In other food related news...I MISSED MY OPPORTUNITY FOR BUTTER TARTS!! One of my aunts was in Canada for a few days with a friend and I didn't know about it UNTIL NOW.  I'm very distraught.  I really need to get a passport so I can go get me some authentic butter tarts.  Also, I've never been to Canada, and I'm sure there's a ton to see up there that doesn't involve mounties.  Any suggestions, Cher?

Cupcakes!

One of my biffle's birthday is tomorrow.  I have off work and am going to Hershey Park!  Soooo exciting.

I like to use any excuse to bake and try a new recipe, so I made her funfetti cupcakes.  I hate using boxed mixes, so I googled and ended up at Lovin' From the Oven.  The recipe I used is here.  I didn't make any changes or anything.  I got 16 cupcakes (which quickly turned to 15 as soon as they were cool enough for icing).

Here's the finished product:

I've never done piping before, so I'll have to work on making the icing look pretty...

After I took a big bite.

 The icing is soooo good.  I'm definitely going to keep it in reserve for other deliciousness.  Or if I just want to snack on some icing.

Results!

So I pretty much ate like a 12 year old boy who was left at home by himself over the weekend.  Not limited to, but included in the menu were peanut butter M&M's, Cheetos (puffs), Lucky Charms, brownies, and cookies.

I DID get to experiment, and I even took pictures!  (Go me!)  Okay, so first up we've got gorp cookies.  I used a cookie recipe in one of my cookbooks for the base, but altered a bit.  It called for fancy, high-quality chocolate chunks and pecans or walnuts or something (no thank you).  So I switched those out for regular M&M's, peanuts and raisins.  I did take the meat mallet to the M&M's and peanuts to break them up a bit.  Here's the final product:

These turned out soft-baked also, so bonus.  It's a great combo of sweet, salty, and the texture is fantastic!

Now on to the brownies.  Which are probably one of the best idea's I've ever had.  I used the standard brownie recipe that I always use.  Except this time I made a graham cracker crust first (used the meat mallet again--great stress-relief) and mixed semi-sweet chocolate chips and mini marshmallows into the batter.  

These were super gooey and I loved them.  I got A+'s from my taste testers.  I will definitely be making both of these recipes again.

Next up on my baking to-do list are butter tarts.  Cher was very upset that I had never heard of them.  I'm pretty much sold on anything with "butter" in the name.

Experiments in the Kitchen

I really love to bake.  It's cathartic for me.  Plus there's the added bonus of being able to eat deliciousness after I've de-stressed.  So I am very excited for this weekend.  Aunt and Uncle (who I live with) are launching the boat, so I'll have some free-reign in the kitchen.

I'm planning on experimenting with two recipes.  The first one I've been thinking about making for a while, so I've built it's yumminess up in my head and really hoping it doesn't suck.  And those are s'more brownies.  I'm going to manipulate my famous(ish) brownie recipe to accommodate some mini marshmallows.  Very exciting.

The second one I thought of the other day.  I LOVE to snack on raisins mixed with peanuts (so good, and such a cheap, healthy snack).  This is the poor man's version of GORP (raisins, peanuts, and m&m's).  I didn't have the m&m's--chocolate chips work too, except they melt.  Anyyummy, I'm going to make a GORP cookie (I hope).  It'll be mostly-healthy because the base will be oatmeal and wheat flour.  Hopefully it'll turn out well, I'll be so sad if it doesn't!

I know I'll be able to find some taste-testers for these.  If they turn out pretty I'll post the pics!