The Healthiest Cookies in the World

You know that Pinterest thing? How it sucks you in and you end up pinning directions for how to make your own soap and ten thousand recipes for cookies that you'll probably never have time to make?

I stumbled across the recipe for two-ingredient cookies several months ago, and I finally found time to make some this weekend.  I kid you not - Lauren over at The Burlap Bag has a recipe for oatmeal cookies that has two ingredients as the base of the cookie. Bananas and oats. And then you add whatever mix-ins you like and chow down with very little guilt. Especially if you go the raisin route for your mix-in.

When these cookies were all said and done, they had a very chewy consistency, and a taste similar to banana bread. I also added cinnamon for flavoring, because I'm not a big enough fan of bananas by themselves.

Almond Joyfuls

I had wanted to play around with a coconut and almond flavored recipe for a while, since I still had a lot of toasted coconut saved up from the Coconut Chick Cupcakes I made last April (don't worry, it was stored in an airtight container!).  And they really do taste like Almond Joy candy bars!

Basically all I did was take the Coconut Macaroons recipe from The Cookie & Biscuit Bible and change up a few minor things, like using toasted coconut instead of unsweetened coconut flakes, and substituting almond extract for vanilla.

Oh, and adding the chocolate, of course.

Be a Good Cookie (OXO Promotion)

Are you a good cookie?  Want to be one?

This is OXO's "Good Cookie" Spatula, a special product designed in conjunction with Cookies for Kids' Cancer, a non-profit organization started by two OXO employees dedicated to raising funds for pediatric cancer research.

You can be a good cookie and help in two different ways.  The first, possibly the easiest, is to buy one of these adorable little spatulas for yourself.  It's available directly from OXO and also on Amazon, and 50% of the proceeds from each spatula's sale goes toward pediatric cancer research.

But helping doesn't have to stop there.  Cookies for Kids' Cancer has a way you can get directly involved in the fundraising efforts.  All you have to do is host and register a bake sale!  What's particularly cool is that, up through the end of 2012, OXO is going to match the funds raised and/or donated through registered bake sales which mention OXO, up to $100,000.  (And there are lots of other corporate sponsors too.)  Your bake sale doesn't have to be huge.  It can raise as little as selling 2 dozen cookies at your school, office, or church.

I was hoping to get my own little bake sale up and running - the faculty room at my school is a great place when it comes to fundraisers and baked goods. Combining them would be brilliant.  Unfortunately, I didn't have time to set anything up, so I'll have to hold off until after New Year's.  But that doesn't mean I don't have some cookie ideas!

For starters, I have my quick sugar cookies that I can whip up in 45 minutes.  There's the old standby, the original Nestle Toll House cookie recipe.   Bakerella's chocolate peanut butter cookies would be brilliant.

And how about this recipe?  (I sorta made it up.)

White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 and 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup white chocolate chips

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar together until light. Beat in vanilla.
2. Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
3. Blend in oatmeal, cranberries and white chocolate chips to create a stiff cookie dough.
4. Drop by heaping teaspoon (or by cookie scoop) onto either an ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown.  (You may have to adjust for your oven.)

It's not too late to register a bake sale with Cookies for Kids' Cancer and mention OXO.  Get out those baking tools and cookie sheets, and be a "Good Cookie"!

Iced Italian White Cookies (The 11th Sweet of Christmas)

Ah!  The bread and butter of an Italian cookie tray, the cookie that, for my entire life (and the lives of my mother, aunt, grandmother, and all who went before me), meant, "Christmas is coming!"  The simplest of Italian cookies!

We called them "biscottis", even though true biscotti are the crunchy, twice baked delights you often find in coffee shops and specialty bakeries.  But the word biscotti in Italian can be used to refer to any type of cookie, which is probably why that's what my great-grandmother called them.

But in perfect honesty, even though my family persists in calling them biscottis (with the predictable flat, short o sound inherent to most American speech patterns), they're really iced Italian white cookies.  There are a gazillion variations on this type of cookie, because it really is the quintessential family recipe.  No two Italian white cookies are exactly the same, but they are all beautiful things.  You can use just the basic vanilla flavoring and call it a day, or make it your own by using other flavor extracts like lemon, orange, cherry, peppermint, anise, almond... the list goes on.

What's particularly great about these cookies is the fact that even little kids can get their hands in the action.  With a consistency similar to Play-Doh, they can be shaped in countless ways.  Letters, circles, loops, and so on.  Or just roll them into balls or, if you're like me and want to get the whole job done quickly (because you realized on December 23rd that you were totally out of biscottis already and decided to make more that very night), you can use a cookie scoop.

Italian Nut Chews (The 8th Sweet of Christmas)

Ah, Italian nut chews!  This is another family favorite that has been passed down from my great-grandmother. Turns out it wasn't one of her "original" recipes brought from Sicily, but rather one she clipped out of a newspaper before my grandmother was born.

Even though it looks daunting at first, it's really very easy and quick to make.  The longest part of the process is waiting for these cookies to cool.

Almond Paste Cookies (The 6th Sweet of Christmas)

When people think of Italian cookies, I bet a lot of people picture the delicate, chewy cookies kissed with almond flavor and topped with a jewel of a candied cherry.

That's right, I'm talking about almond paste cookies.

My husband had never tasted almond pastes until he met me.  (He's not Italian.  But nobody's perfect.)  I think they're now his favorite Christmas cookie.

The number of ways to make almond paste cookies is great and varied, but I'm going to share an extremely simple recipe passed down from my Nana Savona.  It's so simple, in fact, that when I first got the recipe from my great aunt, we thought she'd forgotten to write down some of the ingredients.  But then we were perusing my nana's recipe box at my grandmother's one day and discovered her original recipe card.  And after some trial and error in preparation and storage, we discovered the secret to making these almond paste cookies the way my mom remembers from her childhood.

Chocolate Whiskey Cookies (The 3rd Sweet of Christmas)

I have to say this might be my favorite Christmas cookie out of all the Christmas cookies my family makes.  It's an old family recipe; I'm not exactly sure where it originated, but my Nana Savona's recipe box seems to be the origins of the delightful and slightly naughty chocolate whiskey cookies.

I will warn you ahead of time that you should not attempt to make these cookies unless you have at least one helper because they have to be frosted while they're still warm from the oven.  And you're going to have 5 to 6 trays, 20 cookies to a tray.  So expect to frost between 100 and 120 cookies.  Also be forewarned that you won't end up with 100 to 120 cookies at the end of the baking day - because you'll be "forced" to quality test at least one cookie from each batch.

Quick Sugar Cookies (The 2nd Sweet of Christmas)

"The second sweet of Christmas my true love made for me...."

This past Saturday morning, I rolled out of bed about forty-five minutes before I had to leave for my church's annual craft show and bake sale.  As a member of the choir, I was on "kitchen duty".  I also realized, to my chagrin, that I had nothing baked for the bake sale.

This really wasn't that big of a deal because we ended up with lots of donated goodies.  But I felt really bad because what if nobody brought anything?!?  I have a bad habit of worrying about these sorts of things and taking responsibility for stuff like this.  And I don't know if it's my upbringing or what, but I couldn't go empty handed.  It just would've felt.... wrong.  So I embarked on an early morning speed-baking adventure.

I knew I wouldn't have time to bake anything and have it be completely cool before I had to leave, but my husband would be showing up for kitchen duty (he's also a member of the choir) later in the morning and could bring my goodies with him.  But what can you make in a half hour?

You can make sugar cookies.

These cookies are exceedingly easy and quick to whip up. They're perfect for that evening when you get a phone call from those old friends who no longer live in town but happen to be around for the holidays and, "We'd like to stop by later and visit!"  But you have nothing sweet in the house to offer your guests.

I swear on my life, I had the first tray of cookies in the oven in about seven minutes flat.  That's how quick they are to make.  And if you have a cookie scoop (like me) it's even easier than if you're dropping them by teaspoon with actual, you know, teaspoons.

They're not an overly sweet cookie, either, and you can dress them up for company in a variety of ways.  You can make a glaze (and tint it festive colors) to drizzle over the top, with or without sprinkles.  You can dust them with powdered sugar.  You could melt some milk chocolate and pipe pretty designs on top.  Or just serve them up with coffee and tea and give your guests the option to dunk.

I am Thankful For.... Chocolate Cookies

A couple weeks ago, Bakerella unveiled yet another recipe for some scrumptious cookies - Dark Chocolate Chip Comfort Cookies, to be precise.  I was hooked and simply HAD to make the attempt.

So in addition to that super easy cheesy cornbread and a chili recipe (still in the "tweaking" stage), I decided to whip up a double batch of these super delicious cookies to take to a chili cook-off a friend of ours was hosting.  I didn't have any dark chocolate chips, because I'd used my bag to make a batch of triple chocolate chip cookies for my brother-in-law's birthday, so I substituted half a bag of white chocolate chips and half a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

They were still positively awesome, and I followed it up a week later by making another double batch, WITH dark chocolate chips, for my staff's "pig out day" - our big pot luck lunch we do on our second day of parent/teacher conferences.

Before I continue with the awesome pictures of these cookies in process, I must give you all a word of warning.  This cookie dough is THICK.  How thick, you ask?  Well, between these cookies and the triple chocolate chip cookies I made in October, I now have no more rubber spatulas.  Because the acrylic handles snapped when I was trying to scrape the bowls and fold in the chocolate chips.

That's right.  Both my spatulas are cookie casualties.  So I suggest you skip the heartache and just use a big sturdy metal spoon instead.

Anyway, on to the awesomeness.

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

Just a quick post tonight to report on a cookie triumph.

My brother-in-law's birthday is this Thursday, and I know he's got a big weak spot for chocolate chip cookies (as does my husband.... and father-in-law... must be genetic).  So I decided to pull out all the stops and make some triple chocolate chip cookies, based on this recipe for Triple Chip Cookies from Bakerella.

Bakerella's recipe calls for white chocolate, milk chocolate, and butterscotch chips.  I went with white, milk and dark chocolate, only because I sadly discovered that I had less than a 1/3 of a cup of butterscotch chips in my pantry.

This is probably due to the fact that I'd gotten into the habit of sprinkling a handful on my ice cream this summer, in spite of the fact that I'd purchased said butterscotch chips specifically for these cookies.

In any case, I substituted the dark chocolate chips for the butterscotch and kept everything else in Bakerella's recipe the same.

The hubby and I did some quality control.

They met with our exacting standards of quality.

The only thing I did slightly different from Bakerella, other than the chip substitution, was use a smaller cookie scoop.  Mine has only a 1-inch diameter, so I actually ended up with 5 1/2 dozen cookies.  Two dozen are slated (after a little bit of pleading and some puppy dog eyes) for my husband's project meeting at work tomorrow.  I'll probably save the extra six for us to munch on.  The rest are heading to my bro-in-law's and will hopefully arrive on time for his birthday.

I leave it up to him if he wants to share with his roommates.