Einkorn Chocolate Chip cookies

Original recipe and photo credit found here.

I've had a 1 lb box of Einkorn berries in my pantry to try out for quite some time now. Since any wheat (whole wheat especially, but even Kamut and Spelt) send my sugar levels through the roof, we normally stick to gluten free flours when we want treats. I decided to give Einkorn a go though- it's SO much better for you than other wheats! And I'm happy to report that I didn't seem to suffer any from eating a couple last night- Hooray! It's still pretty expensive, so we probably won't be eating it too much, but it's nice to know there's something else out there we can use.

Einkorn Chocolate Chip Cookies

ingredients:
* 8 TBSP softened butter (115g)
* 3/4 sucanat (150g)
* 1/2 tsp salt (3g)
* 1/2 tsp baking soda (3g)
* 1 med. egg
* 1/2 tsp vanilla (3g)
* 3/4 cup chocolate chips (115g)
* 1 3/4  cups einkorn flour (210g)

directions:
1. Cream the butter, sugar, salt and soda together until combined well.
2. Add egg and vanilla- mix until emulsified.
3. Mix in chocolate chips gently.
4. Sift the flour before measuring, then mix into other ingredients until fully incorporated.
5. Drop by TBSP onto greased cookie sheet, about an inch apart.
6. Bake at 325 degrees for about 13 minutes.
7. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from tray.

**Some notes**
-I did weigh out my ingredients- except for the butter and vanilla.
-Sifting the flour before weighing was a bit of a pain, but well worth it.
- I didn't have any chocolate chips, so instead chopped up a bar of Organic dark choc. (soy free!) from Trader Joes. Worked perfectly.
- Next time I think I'll use less chocolate chips. I like to taste the cookie, (and these ones taste amazing!) and the chocolate is a bit overwhelming.

Gingerbread!

We have been trying out many recipes in the past few years, trying to find one our family likes. And unless something else catches my eye, we'll probably be staying with this recipe.

Every year my husband cuts out templates and hand carves each piece of our 4-5 gingerbread houses. That's a lot of carving!! (My job is to make the frosting and pour the candy into bowls. :) 

We usually like to do this around New Year's Eve, but this year it got post-poned for a week. But they were still very much enjoyed!

Ingredients

• 2 cups organic whole spelt flour
• 1 1/2 cups organic kamut flour (see note below about substitutions)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, softened
• 3/4 cup Rapadura (or sucanat)
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup unsulfured organic molasses

Instructions

Preparing the dough
1. In a medium bowl, mix together the flours, spices, baking soda and salt.
2. In a large bowl, using a hand mixer, cream the butter, coconut oil and rapadura (or sucanat) together until creamy. Mix in the egg and molasses; blend until smooth and creamy.
3. Finally, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat on low speed until thoroughly well blended. Refrigerate dough at least one hour.
Rolling out the dough
4. Once dough is chilled, divide in half. Place one half of the dough on a large sheet of parchment paper on your kitchen counter (be sure to form it into a tightly compressed dough ball) and keep the other half of the dough in the bowl and return to the frig to keep chilled. Place another sheet of parchment paper over the dough ball and pat down a bit with your hand to flatten the dough and then roll it out to 1/4 inch thick.
Cutting shapes in the dough
5. Remove the top sheet of parchment and use a gingerbread man cookie cutter to cut shapes in the dough, but do not try to remove the gingerbread boys from the parchment paper. Instead, slide the parchment onto a baking sheet and place in freezer for a few minutes to allow cookie cut-outs to harden a bit. This will help you to be able to get the gingerbread men off the parchment paper without losing their shape or dismembering them – ouch!
6. While you're waiting for the dough to harden, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
7. Then, take out the other half of the chilled dough from the frig and place it on a large sheet of parchment paper and repeat above steps to roll out and cut shapes in the dough. By the time you do this, the cut-out dough in the freezer will be ready for the final steps listed below.
Baking cookie cut-outs
8. Once the cut-out dough has hardened up a bit, remove it from the freezer and gently separate your gingerbread boys from the dough and place the little guys onto a sheet of clean parchment paper for decorating.
9. Then, decorate the gingerbread boys using your favorite dried fruits and nuts, as shown in photos above.
10. Finally, slide the parchment paper with the decorated gingerbread boys onto a baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes. Allow to cool for 3-4 minutes on the baking sheet before removing and placing on a wire rack to finish cooling.
Use those dough scraps
11. Place the dough scraps from your cut-outs into a bowl and place back in frig. Then, remove your second sheet of cut-out dough from the freezer and follow above steps for decorating and baking.
12. Finally, form all of the remaining dough scraps into a dough ball and repeat the steps for rolling and cutting the dough as listed above. YUM!

 ** A few notes about changes we made**
-despite her warnings about changing the type of flours, I used a general mix of white wheat, barley, pastry and possibly einkorn (all freshly ground). I did use the recommended kamut flour though.
-We don't have ground ginger, so I forgot to add that in. I meant to tell my husband so he could mix it in right before cutting them, but forgot. So these tasted a lot like molasses cookies, which was just fine with all of us!
-our dough, possibly because of all our different flours, was pretty stiff (so we did not need the parchment). Next time I think I'd probably add in a 1/2 cup at a time until it was the desired consistency.

Mother's Sugar Cookies

All made up for Halloween!!

These cookies are a staple for my families Christmas goodies. I remember helping my grandmother make batches and batches of these to hand out to friends and family during the holiday season. Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without them!

Now, we usually make them at Halloween time as well. Halloween sugar cookies get butter-cream frosting added to them though. :) (The ones pictured above were made to hand out, so we omitted the frosting on these ones.)

The recipe is really my Great Grandmother's, but Grandma always called them Mother's so that's the name that stuck. :) They are the softest, yummiest sugar cookies I've ever had. The addition of nutmeg (and the sugar to flour ratio!) is my favorite part about these cookies. 

Mother's Sugar Cookies:

5 c flour

2 c sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg (I always use ~ 1/2 tsp)

1 c butter, cold and cut up

3 eggs

1/2 c buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

Sift the flour into a big bowl (or mixing bowl) with 1 cup of sugar, the soda, powder, salt and nutmeg. Add butter. (My grandma always used her hands for this part, so I do too. :) ) Beat eggs slightly and add remaining sugar gradually (don't forget this part!! It's not any fun trying to knead in sugar at the end...trust me!), beating thoroughly. Blend in buttermilk and vanilla and add to the crumb base. Roll 1/4" thick in flour for more chewy cookies, 1/8" thick for crisper cookies. Cook for 8-10 minutes on greased cookie sheets in a 350 degree oven.

* There is no refrigeration needed.

** These cookies are chewy whether you roll them 1/4" or 1/8"- it just depends on how chewy you want them. :)

*** I haven't tried to use my 'good' flours or sugars with this recipe yet...I just don't think I can bring myself to change the taste.

Cookie Salad

I'm not even sure where this recipe came from...We've been having it in our family for many years now.  It's one of my favorite summer treats! As with any dessert, it's not terribly healthy- but I've managed to make a few tweaks to the original recipe to bring it a little closer to my standards.

Cookie Salad

*1 pint of strawberries (frozen can be used) 

*2 cups grapes (red or green)     

*1 small can of pineapple tidbits 

(or the equivalent of fresh cut)

*2 bananas, sliced

*12 oz cool whip 

(heavy or raw cream work well too)

*1  3 oz package of instant vanilla pudding 

(I made homemade and it worked perfectly)

*1 cup buttermilk

*1 package Lorna Dune shortbread cookies(any brand , or homemade will do)

Combine the fruit in a big bowl. Next, mix the cool whip (cream) with the pudding and buttermilk in a separate bowl. Place half the cookies in a bag and beat with a rolling pin, then add to the pudding mixture. Now add the pudding mixture to the fruit and stir until combined. Spoon half of the salad into a trifle dish and then crumb the remaining cookies in the same bag. Sprinkle half of the crumbed cookies onto the salad, add the rest of the salad on top of that and then end with the remaining cookie crumbs. Enjoy!!

Cookie Pop's

While my parents were here this summer, my mom introduced my family to cookie pops. Man am I (mostly) glad that she did!! We have tried cake pops before, but were not terribly impressed with them. These beauties on the other hand have already been made twice since our introduction. :) Thanks mom for sharing this delicious, somewhat secret, recipe with us!



*As you can see from the picture we made quite a variety: plain, peach, oatmeal peach, and peanut-butter. The toppings were chopped carob chips, peanut butter chips and walnuts. 

Oatmeal Coconut choc. chip cookies

I had a craving for cookies. A big one.

I have recently fallen in love with coconut oil. Mmmm.

So today I wanted to take my craving for cookies and my love for coconut oil and combine them together.

brief history:
I follow recipes when cooking. Always. I am not adventurous in baking because I like things to taste the way they should.

As I have been cooking more and learning more about why certain things are put into our foods (ie baking powder and soda) and learning about substitutes for products (ie cornstarch, oil, baking powder, sour cream), I am feeling a bit more confident wither creating my own recipes.

For this recipe, I started with the oatmeal recipe on the back of our Coach's Oats package.

1 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
3/4 c butter
2 eggs
2 t vanilla
1 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1 3/4 c all purpose flour
1/4 t salt
2 t ground cinnamon
2 c coach's oats
1 c raisins

I changed this recipe (mostly out of need...our butter was frozen!) to this:

1 1/2 c raw sugar
3/8 c coconut oil
3/8 c natural peanut butter
2 eggs
2 t vanilla
1 t baking powder (had to make my own...we were all out)
1/4 t baking soda
1 3/4 c whole wheat flour
1/4 t salt
2 c coach's oats
1 c choc. chips

Notice how I left out the cinnamon?! I don't know if it would affect anything, but I didn't want to chance my coconut flavor being over-ridden by the cinnamon flavor. (No chance of that though! The coconut completely over took the peanut butter!)

directions:
cream sugars and butter (oils). Mix in eggs, one at a time. Mis in vanilla. Add combined baking powder, soda, flour, salt and cinnamon. Mix well. Stir in oats and raisins. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes (I preferred mine to be cooked for 10) at 375. Cool on a wire rack.

The smell of these cookies is absolutely amazing!!! Vanilla and coconut is one of my new favorite smells!! YUM.

I will be tweaking these cookies slightly in the future. I'm not sure how, but I'm going to. (I've never had much luck with cookies cooked with natural peanut butter. Maybe I'll leave out the peanut butter and do a full 3/4 c of coconut oil next time? Hmmm )

*We did end up needing to add 1/4 c milk. The dough was just too dry to form into cookie balls.