Ellie’s Energy Bars

Inspired by the success of the breakfast cookies we made for Craving Ellie in My Belly this week, I decided to throw together these quick and easy Energy Bars. It was either make these or clean the house. Cooking and baking always trump cleaning the house. Not a good thing.

I loved how easy the prep was…throw the ingredients in the food processor, pulse, put in a pan coated with cooking spray and bake. That’s it. Truly, if Ellie came to my house and made them for me, they still wouldn’t be easier because I’d have to clean the house before she got here.

They smell amazing while they bake. Let them cool 15 minutes before slicing into them. Served warm, they are delicious. The apricots, maple syrup and dates make them chewy and delicious, while the oats, wheat germ and sunflower seeds give them whole grain staying power. I added about 1/8 teaspoon of salt and 1/3 cup of toasted flax seeds.

Give this one a try! It’s easy and the bars keep well in the freezer…if they last that long! You can find the recipe here.

Ellie’s Energy Bars

Inspired by the success of the breakfast cookies we made for Craving Ellie in My Belly this week, I decided to throw together these quick and easy Energy Bars. It was either make these or clean the house. Cooking and baking always trump cleaning the house. Not a good thing.

I loved how easy the prep was…throw the ingredients in the food processor, pulse, put in a pan coated with cooking spray and bake. That’s it. Truly, if Ellie came to my house and made them for me, they still wouldn’t be easier because I’d have to clean the house before she got here.

They smell amazing while they bake. Let them cool 15 minutes before slicing into them. Served warm, they are delicious. The apricots, maple syrup and dates make them chewy and delicious, while the oats, wheat germ and sunflower seeds give them whole grain staying power. I added about 1/8 teaspoon of salt and 1/3 cup of toasted flax seeds.

Give this one a try! It’s easy and the bars keep well in the freezer…if they last that long! You can find the recipe here.

CEiMB – Breakfast Cookies

Ellie, how did you know?

How did you know that when you say “breakfast cookie,” this

is what I think of. I mean, if it’s a cookie, and you eat it for breakfast, that makes it a breakfast cookie, right?

Um, no.

So Ellie designed a cookie for me. She must have heard me scream when I climbed on the scale a few weeks back.

Thanks, Ellie.

There was a bit of measuring and all that, but these cookies were fairly easy to put together. My hand slipped and I added a few more walnuts than the recipe called for. The recipe warns that the “dough” will be very wet, and it was, almost like a muffin batter. I grated nutmeg and it smelled amazing while it was baking. After the cookies cooled, I sampled one. Frankly, it was fantastic, so much better than I thought it would be. It was very cakey, but the spices and the moistness took this one right over the top. These are going in the freezer, so I can retrieve one for breakfast as needed.

Many thanks to Natalie of What’s for Supper? for this super pick.

CEiMB – Breakfast Cookies

Ellie, how did you know?

How did you know that when you say “breakfast cookie,” this

is what I think of. I mean, if it’s a cookie, and you eat it for breakfast, that makes it a breakfast cookie, right?

Um, no.

So Ellie designed a cookie for me. She must have heard me scream when I climbed on the scale a few weeks back.

Thanks, Ellie.

There was a bit of measuring and all that, but these cookies were fairly easy to put together. My hand slipped and I added a few more walnuts than the recipe called for. The recipe warns that the “dough” will be very wet, and it was, almost like a muffin batter. I grated nutmeg and it smelled amazing while it was baking. After the cookies cooled, I sampled one. Frankly, it was fantastic, so much better than I thought it would be. It was very cakey, but the spices and the moistness took this one right over the top. These are going in the freezer, so I can retrieve one for breakfast as needed.

Many thanks to Natalie of What’s for Supper? for this super pick.

Cocoa Nib Shortbread

It should surprise you not at all that I am a fan of chocolate, so when a friend told me about the rapture that is the chocolate cocoa nib bars baked at the Rustic Bakery in Larkspur, I ordered some online. Immediately. 

Eight itty bitty bars come in the pack, and I’m embarrassed to say I ate them all over a two day period. Alone. Fortunately, I had the forethought to order some other scrumptious Rustic Bakery favorites, and I ate them too. Alone.

I’m usually not such a human vacuum cleaner with packaged cookies. But these were like no other cookies I’d ever had. And I wanted more. But at $5.95 for eight of them, I figured I’d better learn to make them myself. So I did.

I found a recipe that sounded very close on washingtonpost.com. I made them as written, except I used Dorie Greenspan’s technique of putting the dough in a Ziploc bag and rolling it out to the desired thickness. I had bought a fancy shortbread cutter, but it was being temperamental, so I sliced them up into rectanglish shapes and baked them, lurking by the oven, sniffing madly. 

When they had cooled on the baking sheet for the required 5 minutes, I sampled one warm. It was lush, crunchy with cocoa nibs and redolent of good cocoa with a teaser of salt at the end. With a generous supply at the ready, I only ate three. And I shared. Now that’s growth!

Chocolate Shortbread With Cacao Nibs and Sea Salt

Adapted from The Washington Post, December 12, 2007

Makes about 36 small cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tablespoons cacao nibs, crushed or chopped very fine in a food processor
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Position oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven; preheat to 325 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.

Combine the flour and cocoa powder in a small bowl. Combine the nibs and sea salt in a separate small bowl.

Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer; beat on medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy, stopping as necessary to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla extract. Reduce the speed to low; add about 1/2 of the flour-cocoa mixture and mix well, then add the remaining flour-cocoa mixture, stopping as necessary to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 1 minute. Stop the motor and add the nibs-salt mixture. Beat for 1 minute. The dough will be sandy and fairly stiff. Put the dough in a gallon size ziptop bag, and with a rolling pin, roll out until uniformly 1/4″. Refrigerate dough until needed, up to one week.

Slit open the sides of the bag and cut the dough into even rectangles. Transfer to prepared baking sheets, spacing 1″ apart, and bake for 7 minutes, then rotate the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back; bake for 8 minutes or until their aroma is apparent and the cookie bottoms are crisp. Let them cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cocoa Nib Shortbread

It should surprise you not at all that I am a fan of chocolate, so when a friend told me about the rapture that is the chocolate cocoa nib bars baked at the Rustic Bakery in Larkspur, I ordered some online. Immediately. 

Eight itty bitty bars come in the pack, and I’m embarrassed to say I ate them all over a two day period. Alone. Fortunately, I had the forethought to order some other scrumptious Rustic Bakery favorites, and I ate them too. Alone.

I’m usually not such a human vacuum cleaner with packaged cookies. But these were like no other cookies I’d ever had. And I wanted more. But at $5.95 for eight of them, I figured I’d better learn to make them myself. So I did.

I found a recipe that sounded very close on washingtonpost.com. I made them as written, except I used Dorie Greenspan’s technique of putting the dough in a Ziploc bag and rolling it out to the desired thickness. I had bought a fancy shortbread cutter, but it was being temperamental, so I sliced them up into rectanglish shapes and baked them, lurking by the oven, sniffing madly. 

When they had cooled on the baking sheet for the required 5 minutes, I sampled one warm. It was lush, crunchy with cocoa nibs and redolent of good cocoa with a teaser of salt at the end. With a generous supply at the ready, I only ate three. And I shared. Now that’s growth!

Chocolate Shortbread With Cacao Nibs and Sea Salt

Adapted from The Washington Post, December 12, 2007

Makes about 36 small cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tablespoons cacao nibs, crushed or chopped very fine in a food processor
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Position oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven; preheat to 325 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.

Combine the flour and cocoa powder in a small bowl. Combine the nibs and sea salt in a separate small bowl.

Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer; beat on medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy, stopping as necessary to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla extract. Reduce the speed to low; add about 1/2 of the flour-cocoa mixture and mix well, then add the remaining flour-cocoa mixture, stopping as necessary to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 1 minute. Stop the motor and add the nibs-salt mixture. Beat for 1 minute. The dough will be sandy and fairly stiff. Put the dough in a gallon size ziptop bag, and with a rolling pin, roll out until uniformly 1/4″. Refrigerate dough until needed, up to one week.

Slit open the sides of the bag and cut the dough into even rectangles. Transfer to prepared baking sheets, spacing 1″ apart, and bake for 7 minutes, then rotate the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back; bake for 8 minutes or until their aroma is apparent and the cookie bottoms are crisp. Let them cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

TWD – Coconut Butter Thins

How can you not love a shortbread recipe that has thin in its name? I mean, they say to me “Eat more! We’re thin!”

This week’s delicious Tuesdays with Dorie pick is an addictive shortbread cookie brought to us by Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch. I made these at the end of a baking/cooking extravaganza weekend that left my kitchen looking like this:

I know what you’re thinking. Did rogue chefs break into my house, trash the kitchen, and run? No, I did this all by myself. As an aside, if you think redoing your kitchen will provide the push you need to keep it tidy all the time, the answer is no. I am still the same person who does three things at a time and completes none of them.

Back to the cookies. That they somehow escaped from this kitchen unscathed is a miracle. That’s one good thing about being in TWD. I really have to produce finished products on occasion so I can photograph them and write about them on this blog.

I went for the recipe as written by Dorie the Great. It was, after all, Sunday night, and I was tired after a day of trashing my kitchen cooking and baking. Fortunately I had everything I needed, including the appropriately sized Ziploc bag. Like I said, I was tired so my macadamias (I used salted as encouraged by Dorie) weren’t chopped into teeny tiny pieces. I rolled the dough out in the bag to the exact measurements (I hear you guffawing out there…but it was close) put it in the refrigerator, contemplated cleaning the kitchen but went to bed instead.

The next morning, I cut open the bag, and cut 30 cookies of varying sizes. I didn’t bother putting the slab of dough on the cutting board, because I figured it would be easier to scrape them off the bag than it would be to scrape them off the cutting board, and it worked pretty well. I hoped they would maintain their blocky shape after baking, but knew from the P&Q that they likely wouldn’t.

They were definitely done after 18 minutes. I wished I checked them a minute sooner since I find shortbread is overcooked if it is slightly brown around the edges. I waited a few minutes for them to cool before I sampled one. It was delicate, buttery (but not overly so) and had the slightest hint of lime. Once the cookies cooled, they were chewy and complex. I would have liked more lime flavor so next time (and oh, will there be a next time) I will probably double the lime zest.

Make these. Now. They’re lovely and would adapt to a myriad of variations. Try them with pine nuts and rosemary in place of the coconut and macadamias. Or leave in the coconut and macadamia and jazz them up with curry powder. Go for it. After all, they’re thin.

TWD – Coconut Butter Thins

How can you not love a shortbread recipe that has thin in its name? I mean, they say to me “Eat more! We’re thin!”

This week’s delicious Tuesdays with Dorie pick is an addictive shortbread cookie brought to us by Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch. I made these at the end of a baking/cooking extravaganza weekend that left my kitchen looking like this:

I know what you’re thinking. Did rogue chefs break into my house, trash the kitchen, and run? No, I did this all by myself. As an aside, if you think redoing your kitchen will provide the push you need to keep it tidy all the time, the answer is no. I am still the same person who does three things at a time and completes none of them.

Back to the cookies. That they somehow escaped from this kitchen unscathed is a miracle. That’s one good thing about being in TWD. I really have to produce finished products on occasion so I can photograph them and write about them on this blog.

I went for the recipe as written by Dorie the Great. It was, after all, Sunday night, and I was tired after a day of trashing my kitchen cooking and baking. Fortunately I had everything I needed, including the appropriately sized Ziploc bag. Like I said, I was tired so my macadamias (I used salted as encouraged by Dorie) weren’t chopped into teeny tiny pieces. I rolled the dough out in the bag to the exact measurements (I hear you guffawing out there…but it was close) put it in the refrigerator, contemplated cleaning the kitchen but went to bed instead.

The next morning, I cut open the bag, and cut 30 cookies of varying sizes. I didn’t bother putting the slab of dough on the cutting board, because I figured it would be easier to scrape them off the bag than it would be to scrape them off the cutting board, and it worked pretty well. I hoped they would maintain their blocky shape after baking, but knew from the P&Q that they likely wouldn’t.

They were definitely done after 18 minutes. I wished I checked them a minute sooner since I find shortbread is overcooked if it is slightly brown around the edges. I waited a few minutes for them to cool before I sampled one. It was delicate, buttery (but not overly so) and had the slightest hint of lime. Once the cookies cooled, they were chewy and complex. I would have liked more lime flavor so next time (and oh, will there be a next time) I will probably double the lime zest.

Make these. Now. They’re lovely and would adapt to a myriad of variations. Try them with pine nuts and rosemary in place of the coconut and macadamias. Or leave in the coconut and macadamia and jazz them up with curry powder. Go for it. After all, they’re thin.

How do you say "thank you"?

Recently, I’ve been thanking the ones close to me with these decadent chocolate toffee cookies I first saw on Smitten Kitchen. But that made me wonder, how do YOU thank the people near you, whether it’s your landlord for fixing your backed up kitchen sink on Thanksgiving or your favorite baby sitter for agreeing to take care your kids three nights in a row. If you want to give them an extra special thank you, do you bake something, cut roses from your garden or buy a small gift at your favorite boutique (like Target)?

For me, it’s almost always baking. Sometimes it’s killer chocolate cake or brownies. Or cranberry bread. Or a very special Dorie cheesecake. This weekend it was these delectable cookies. One bite and you’ll be hooked. I used Skor bars this weekend and much preferred them to the Heath bars I’ve used in the past.

Please weigh in on how you say ‘thank you’ when the words alone don’t seem adequate? Feel free to include or link to recipes! And if you can think of a way I can thank Deb Perelman, the force behind Smitten Kitchen, for all of the joy, good food and inspiration she has given me, I’d love to hear that too.

How do you say "thank you"?

Recently, I’ve been thanking the ones close to me with these decadent chocolate toffee cookies I first saw on Smitten Kitchen. But that made me wonder, how do YOU thank the people near you, whether it’s your landlord for fixing your backed up kitchen sink on Thanksgiving or your favorite baby sitter for agreeing to take care your kids three nights in a row. If you want to give them an extra special thank you, do you bake something, cut roses from your garden or buy a small gift at your favorite boutique (like Target)?

For me, it’s almost always baking. Sometimes it’s killer chocolate cake or brownies. Or cranberry bread. Or a very special Dorie cheesecake. This weekend it was these delectable cookies. One bite and you’ll be hooked. I used Skor bars this weekend and much preferred them to the Heath bars I’ve used in the past.

Please weigh in on how you say ‘thank you’ when the words alone don’t seem adequate? Feel free to include or link to recipes! And if you can think of a way I can thank Deb Perelman, the force behind Smitten Kitchen, for all of the joy, good food and inspiration she has given me, I’d love to hear that too.