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Posts Tagged ‘chocolate chip’

Whole Wheat Cherry Pecan Cookies

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on April 12, 2012| 7 Comments »

In case you haven’t realized yet, I go through phases where I’m obsessed with something, can’t live without it, then am over it a week later.

Past obsessions:

– Fun.- We are Young. I listened to this over and over again until I was sick of it. Then I went out and bought the CD. It’s not too bad!

–  Strawberry margaritas. Seriously, I couldn’t make another batch of strawberry simple syrup or I would be certifiably a lush!

– avocados. I’m. Still. Obsessed! I may even have another avocado recipe for you in a week or so if I ever stop shoveling my new favorite meal in my mouth and take a picture of it!

Current obsessions:

– This song. I don’t know why-I don’t even really like Pop music. It just gets stuck in my head and I need to listen to it. My roommate actually caught me listening to it really, really loudly and dancing around the kitchen while making peanut butter cookie dough cups. He’s a music major…I’m pretty sure he was judging my music choice.

– Cranberry Blood Orange tea by Republic of Tea. I gave up coffee for lent and pretty much had two cups of this tea every. single. day to help me get through. Now, I can’t say I miss coffee too much (as I sit drinking a cup…)

– I know I’ve mentioned this before but- Pineapple Chipotle Salsa from Stonewall Kitchen. Get yourself a jar…or barrel, and LOTS of chips. There’s nothing worse then running out of chips and having this jar of salsa taunting you in the fridge… which is my current life. 

– Dried cherries infused with apple juice. Best. Dried Fruit. Ever. I love how chewy and a little sour they are. Dare I say, they are like the healthier, adult  version of sour patch kids? I bought them on a whim at Whole Foods and…it led to this recipe:

Whole Wheat Cherry Pecan Cookies
adapted from Toll House Chocolate Chip cookies

Ingredients

  • 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) earth balance, softened
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup sucanat (or brown sugar)*
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 flax seed “eggs” (2 TBSP ground flax seed, 6 TBSP water)
  • 1/2 cup dried cherries
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Mix up your flaxseed eggs and set aside for 10 minutes.

Mix your flour, baking soda, and salt together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Cream the Earth balance, white sugar and sucanat together. Add the flaxseed eggs and mix until well combined. Gradually add the flour mixture and mix until well combined. Fold in the cherries, pecans, and chocolate chips. Drop by TBSP onto the prepared baking sheet (no need to roll them into balls). Bake for 9-11 minutes.** Let cool on the pan for about 5 minutes then move them to a cooling rack.

* I subbed out the brown sugar for sucanat because that’s what I had in my cabinet and was pleasantly surprised with the results. Because sucanat has bigger granuales then white sugar and definitely bigger then traditional brown sugar which you usually pack into measuring cups, my cookie was less sweet. It worked well with the whole flour, nuts and dried fruit them. It made for a healthier tasting cookie.

** I like my cookies undercooked so I pulled these out after 9 minutes and then let the sit on the baking sheet for another 9 or 10 minutes. They continue to cook a bit and firm up but the center still stays soft. I love them like that! If you want yours a little more cooked, just keep them in for a little longer.

I was pleasantly surprised by these cookies! I’m not usually big into dried fruits in my baked goods but I love those dried cherries so much that I couldn’t resist trying them in a cookie! Like I said above, the combination of the whole flour, nuts, fruits and sucanat resulted in a less sweet, a little bit heartier feeling cookie. Plus, you can use whatever is in your cabinet for this recipe- almonds instead of pecans, raisins or craisins instead of cherries, etc. I should have just called this “the whatever is in my cabinet” cookie. =)

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go put on Call Me, Maybe…again…and pretend I’m Selena Gomez. Dont judge…

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Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , on February 28, 2012| 9 Comments »

I don’t know what has come over me lately. All I want to do is snack. On chocolate. Or Sugar. The other night for dinner, I definitely had 3 scoops of White chocolate Peanut Butter (how did that even get into my grocery cart???) and a handful of almonds. That’s it. What is wrong with me??

So when I sat down last weekend to figure out what I was having for food this week, I definitely made sure to factor in some healthy snack. I knew that I couldn’t make it through another week on handfuls of chocolate chips and late night microwavable mug cakes (one of the blogs I follow calculated how many calories are in one of those and it was like 900. Kill me…)

Let’s begin with the sweet stuff, shall we? Let me introduce to you one of my favorite, new desserts. I was skeptical at first, then when I made it I was undecided on the taste. But after snarfing on it for three nights straight, I have to accept that I really like it. My friends, I introduce to you the Deep Dish Chocolate Cookie Pie aka, my answer to the perfectly undercooked monster cookies that call to me from the caf each day at work.

The cafetaria cookies are in no way, shape or form vegan. But when it’s two o’clock, and I forgot a little something sweet for after lunch, those cookies are relentless in calling to me. BUT, knowing that I have a slice of this cookie pie waiting for me at home, makes it a trazillion times easier to resisit.

Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie
from Chocolate Covered Katie

  • 2 cans white beans or garbanzos (drained and rinsed) (I know…I seriously have a cookie recipe with chickpeas!!)
  • 1 cup quick oats (or certified-gf quick oats)
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 3 T canola oil
  • 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Blend everything (except the chocolate chips) very well in a good food processor (not a blender)*. Mix in chips, and pour into an oiled pan (I used a 10-inch springform pan) Cook at 350F for around 35-40 minutes. Let stand at least 10 minutes before removing from the pan.

*A high speed food processer is best and here’s why: I blended the crap out of these ingredients and they  still were n’t perfectly smooth. There was definitely a little bit of oatmeal and possibly a bit of chickpeas that remained a bit intact. Nothing severe but it added texture. That texture really threw me off at first and I wasn’t sure how I felt about the pie. But I got over it…cause it tasted great and it was super moist! My friend, Rachel, compared it to having bits of coconut flakes in the pie and she is right. I’m possibly overreacting. But, if you are a texture person, I would suggest either using a high speed food processor or blending the oatmeal seperately first, until it’s the texture of flour, and  then adding in the other ingredients. I haven’t tried that but I bet it would be a huge help in the texture department.

Seriously, could that recipe be any easier?? It’s easier than the 900 calorie mug cake I devoured, that’s for sure! AND this makes 8 serving slices, the mug cake just made one large mug…and made me feel really guilty. Chocolate Covered Katie put the nutritional count of this at about 200 a slice. Not great but hello? Better then 900!! You could also bake this in a square or rectangle pan and cut them into bars if you wanted to get more servings out of it. Just adjust the cooking time accordingly

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go munch on an apple with a bit of dark chocolate peanut butter and granola and ignore that monster cookie in the caf. I have better waiting for me at home, thankyouverymuch!

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The Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies that Weren’t

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , on October 17, 2011| 3 Comments »

 

Ever have one of those mornings were its chilly outside but nice and warm in your bed; your pillows are perfectly squished and arranged for optimum comfort; your comforter is feeling especially fluffy and cuddly; and overall, you are just too stickin’ comfortable to think of getting out of bed??

Today was one of those mornings. I would have sacrificed a small, annoying child to be able to stay in bed all day.

Unfortunately, I don’t know any small, annoying children. Also,  I had 2.5 dozen of these cookies in my kitchen and if I did not bring them to work this morning, I would get up later in the morning just long enough to bring at least one bag of these back into bed with me where I would curl up and eat them all.

And I could not have that! So, here I am…

This is another Howsweeteats.com recipe. She posted it last week and I was intrigued by the idea of a flat, chewy pumpkin cookie as opposed to the soft cake-like version I had made last year.  Well, mine were not flat or chewy. My cookies were definitely more cake-like.

Howsweeteats.com

wickedvegan.com

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
When we look at the side-by-side comparison here that I have conveniently provided for you, we can clearly see mine are way too soft and pillowy (much like my pillows were this morning *Sigh*).  I suspect the egg substitute had something to do with that. Maybe next time, I’ll try replacing the eggs with applesauce instead and see if that works. They still tasted amazing, though!
 

Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies made with Pumpkin Butter

[adapted from the howsweeteats.com]

makes about 24-30 cookies

1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) vegan butter, melted and cooled (I used Earth Balance)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg replacer + 1 egg yolk replacer (conversions are on the Ener-G egg replacer box)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup pumpkin butter

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1 1/4 cups vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Mix the flour, salt, cornstarch, pumpkin pie spice and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, mix the melted vegan butter and sugars until they are combined. Add the egg replacer, egg yolk replacer, and vanilla and stir until mixed. Stir in pumpkin butter until smooth. Gradually add flour mixture and mix until a dough forms – it will look crumbly at first, but it will come together. I even used my hands to help at one point. Fold chocolate chips and chunks.

Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes, then roll into golfball-sized balls. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until cookies are crisp and slightly golden on the edges, then let cool completely.

So, these cookies are definitely delicious (my roomies were raving about them!) but I have to be honest- Pumpkin Butter was about $7 for 3/4 of a cup. Not terrible if you are making one batch of these. If you are crazy though, and decide to tackle 2.5 batches of these on a Sunday night, I would suggest going the pumpkin puree route.  It’s cheaper and the pumpkin butter didn’t make a huge difference when you make the cookies vegan.

On a more exciting and completely different note, look what I found in Whole Foods.  Sticks of Earth Balance! I’m so excited!! No more measuring TBS of Earth Balance out of the tubs!!! It’s the little things in life…

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