Scratch Made: Mint Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Yeah, I’m about 3 weeks late with this post.

I know the holidays are over.

I should be posting my resolutions and goals instead of a cookie recipe, but I can’t help it.

Maybe one goal I have this year is to eat more cookies.

I’ve been debating whether or not to share this recipe. It’s one I whipped out of nowhere that actually turned out really good.  So good that my husband – who isn’t the biggest fan of mint and chocolate – loved them.

And would you believe I’d never made crinkle cookies before this? I know – I’m way behind on my baking bucket list.

After snatching up a bag of candy cane Hershey’s Kisses, I had dreams of these cookies.

What I wanted?

Minty striped kisses barely melted into a deep, rich chocolate crinkle cookie. 

I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. And the cookies were good.

Bonus points for this recipe: No one knew they were whole wheat – I like finding tricky ways to get more whole wheat into my family and friends, and chocolate is one of the best ways to do it.

 

Mint Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Makes 2 dozen cookies.

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp cocoa
• 24 Hershey’s Candy Cane Kisses

1. Mix cocoa and melted butter and let cool slightly.
2. Mix in 1/2 cup of the flour, brown sugar, sugar, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and salt until combined.
3. Beat in the last 1/2 cup of flour.
4. Cover and chill the dough about 2 hours.
5. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
6. In small bowl or dish, combine powdered sugar and 1 Tbsp cocoa.
7. Roll dough into 1” balls, roll in powdered sugar/cocoa mix and place on baking sheet.
8. Bake 10-12 minutes until cracked and set.
9. Let cookies sit for about 30 seconds and then place one Hershey’s Candy Cane Kiss on each cookie.
10. After another 30 seconds – 1 minute, move cookies to a cooling rack/plate/cutting board to cool.

 

I love mint + chocolate together, so these were some of the best things I ate this holiday season. You can make them even more minty by adding just a 1/4 tsp peppermint extract to the dough, but even if you’re not a huge fan of mint, these cookies are still a fun recipe to make.

Either way, you’ll be left with very festive cookies – the red and white stripes will set these apart from any other cookie at the table.

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Nick’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Nick is what I would call a cookie connoisseur. He knows a good cookie when he tastes one.

And while he enjoys most of the healthier baked goods I come up with, his favorite will always be chocolate chip cookies, right out of the oven, with a tall glass of milk.

These cookies are full of butter, but I also use half white whole wheat flour, which helps keep them a little puffy without being cakey. I love cookies with a little heft.

They are pure cookie goodness, like the ones my mom would make and the same ones that fill your house with the aroma of golden, buttery dough.

I thought I had perfect a chocolate chip cookie recipe a few weeks ago but one item made the difference.

These Ghirardelli 60% Cacao baking chips are incredible.

They’re a bit darker than semi-sweet chips and their shape is perfect for cookie baking – the chips aren’t as tall as regular chocolate chips and the base is a bit wider, meaning they bake into melting pools of chocolate in your favorite cookie.

You can’t get a hunk of chocolate like that with regular old chocolate chips.

Nick’s Chocolate Chip Cookies – Makes 3-4 dozen

• 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1.5 cups chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Mix together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
3. In large bowl, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in one egg at a time until combined.
5. Add in vanilla.
6. Gradually mix flour mixture into egg mixture.
7. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts.
8. Drop by tablespoon full onto baking sheet and bake 10-13 minutes, or until puffed and golden around the edges.
9. Cool on rack.

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Christmas Isn’t Just About Cookies

Tis the season for cookies!

I’ve never participated in a holiday cookie swap, but I hope to do that next year. Between a surgery next week and moving into our new house, I’m not going to have much time to bake around the holidays.

But I was thinking of the fun cookies and treats I’ve made this year.

I know most cookie swaps or holiday cookie trays include the more traditional items: gingerbread, molasses, snickerdoodles, chocolate chip, frosted sugar cookies.

Maybe it’s time to revamp that cookie table!

Here are some of my favorites from 2010:

These aren’t even a baked good, but I think they were my favorite new item of the year.

Frozen Chocolate Dipped Cookie Dough – bonus! They’re whole wheat and vegan…and you can hide them in your freezer.

Chocolate Mint Cookies. Need I say more? Mint is a requirement around the holidays (for me, anyway), and I’m a sucker for the green chips.

 

Want to make something outside the cookie jar? These Cream Cheese Brownies are rich and tangy and will look great on that holiday table.

 

Even if you don’t make molasses cookies or gingerbread, don’t pass on the ginger. I love the warmth it brings to baked goods, and combining it with dark chocolate is always a good idea. This Gingered Applesauce Cake with Dark Chocolate is one way to do just that.

 

What about you – are there certain cookies or baked goods your family always makes during the holidays? I want to hear them! Everyone can always use some new ideas.

 

Don’t forget to donate and help Holly  + me raise money for Jovenes en Camino, an orphanage in Honduras for abused, homeless and orphaned children. Tis’ the season!

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Scratch Made: Molasses Cream Pie Cookies

I realize that just showing you those molasses cookies last week without a recipe wasn’t very nice.

I mean – it’s almost the holiday season! People want cookie recipes.

So I made up a new one to share that uses two of my favorite fall flavors: pumpkin and molasses.

The cookies are stuck together with a fluffy vegan buttercream filling that is incredible. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t know how good it could be until now – I could see myself getting into trouble with extra icing in the fridge.

 

Molasses Cream Pie Cookies – Vegan!

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 flax “egg” – 1 Tbsp ground flax mixed with 1-2 Tbsp water
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 Tbsp sugar

1. In large bowl, mix oil, pumpkin, sugar, flax “egg”, and molasses.
2. Add in spices and baking soda.
3. Mix in flour, a little at a time, until everything is combined.
4. Cover the bowl and chill the dough for 30 minutes.
5. While dough is chilling, preheat oven to 375.
6. Pour 1 Tbsp into small bowl/plate and set aside.
7. Take dough out of fridge, roll into tablespoon-sized balls and dip the tops in sugar.
8. Place on baking sheet, 2-3” apart.
9. Bake 8-12 minutes.
10. Let cool completely before icing.

Vegan Buttercream – Vanilla and Chocolate

Vanilla:

• 1/2 cup Earth Balance, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1.5 cups powdered sugar

1. In large bowl, beat Earth Balance until soft and creamy.
2. Mix in vanilla and half the powdered sugar until combined.
3. Add in the rest of the sugar and beat until icing is smooth.

Chocolate:

*For the chocolate icing, I just took half of my vanilla buttercream, added in 1 Tbsp cocoa powder and mixed.

If you’re like me, you used to love those Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pie snacks.

These are like the best version of those, with a molasses twist. The cookies are soft with a sugar crust on top and the buttercream is fluffy and sweet.

I think I like my version even better than the Little Debbie cakes.

These would make a great addition to your holiday spread, a nice twist on the normal molasses cookie.

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A Cookie Secret

Some recipes are too special to share. Right?

A few weeks ago, I requested and received my favorite molasses cookie recipe from a family friend, who might as well be my second mom.

The Lowell’s aren’t just friends; they’re family. My parents are best friends with them and have been since before any of us kids existed. We grew up with them in every sense: our houses are less than five minutes apart, birthdays are spent together, and our Christmas morning tradition is to go to their house in our pajamas, eat breakfast together, and swap gifts.

And while my mom’s chocolate chip cookies reigned supreme in our house, Jill made all my other favorite cookies. Especially her molasses, monster, and oatmeal butterscotch.

 

 

Nick had never tasted Jill’s Molasses cookies so I got to work last weekend and made my first ever batch with her recipe.

The great thing? Mine tasted just like hers. Biting into the first cookie brought me back into their home, where I fell in love Five Alive juice and slid down their staircase in sleeping bags and built forts with the dining room chairs while wearing Jill’s old Candie’s platforms.

But after tasting them, I knew I couldn’t just give out the recipe. This one is something special, and I think there are some recipes that should stay family recipes. It’s part of their charm and keeping them in the family gives me a reason to start my own index card recipe box to pass onto to my future kids someday.

So I’m working on my own version, with a fun little twist That recipe will be coming soon.

 

What about you?

Are there family recipes you won’t share with other people? Dishes you want to make for others but never give them the ingredients to make on their own?

If so, what are they? Casseroles, cakes, breads? I love hearing food traditions from other people.

For instance, foods that will always make me think of my family:

• fudge pie
• Texas Sheet Cake and homemade icing
• roast and noodles
• ham gravy
• chicken casserole
• spaghetti sauce
• no bake cookies

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The Few, The Mighty

Okay, some of you have had some pretty crazy dreams, too  🙂  There are a bunch I remember having and they’re usually so out there that I always think “I must be the only one having these weird-o dreams”. But now I know I’m not!

My lunch was great, but I was starving all afternoon!

I had 2 dark chocolate covered almonds from my boss

Plus the snack I brought to work: a bunch of celery + 1 Tbsp crunchy pb

I also grabbed a snack sized kitkat from the front entry candy bucket – doh! I definitely did not need that, but man was it tasty  🙂 I haven’t had a kitkat in forever! It was good, but I think eating that so close to our run did me in.

Yup, we ran today and it stunk. I had probably the worst run I’ve had in months. I had horrible side stitches almost the entire time. I ran and got through it, but today was definitely not a fun run. I’m glad we went and it still amazes me that my “slow and painful and horrible running times” are still faster than at this point last year. It’s all relative, right? Gotta look for the positive  🙂

Dinner tonight was one of my favorites!

A big Taco Salad!

I had all this good stuff:

• 1/2 cup fat free refried beans mixed with salt + ground coriander
• 1/4- 1/2 cup lean ground beef cooked with garlic, cumin, ancho chile powder, onion, salt, pepper, and oregano
• 3-4 cups romaine
• 1/4-1/2 avocado
• homemade salsa! Nick threw together some fresh salsa with some tomatoes from our garden (2 reds, 1 yellow), scallion, jalapeno, cilantro, and I’m not sure what else. But it was great!
• extra cilantro

I love the yellow tomatoes in the salsa! It was so colorful and fresh.

And now for the grand finale tonight.

Some of the ocokies actually set up overnight! I still had to throw a few away that just didn’t come together, but we were able to salvage almost the entire batch!

I’m having a few of the ones that made it through the night – we were worried there for a minute.

These are my mom’s no-bake cookies and they’re some of my favorites. Nick’s too!

In fact, instead of a “grooms cake” at our wedding, he just had a batch of no bake cookies  🙂

I’m off to pack lunch, read, and settle in on the couch for some serious cuddle time with a certain husband + cat.

Are there certain “family” recipes that just make you feel good when you make them?

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Snacky McSnackerson

Man, I was hungry today!

First, lunch.

I packed a simple salad of romaine + roma tomato

and then dumped a serving of my veggie and barley risott-no on top to maximize the veggie goodness.

Plus some watermelon! It’s still going, and going…

I have at least 2 cups left! Watch out for more tomorrow  🙂

Work was pretty normal this afternoon, but my stomach was super hungry for some reason.

I had this cookie I picked up at lunch

It definitely looks bigger than it was – just a regular-a-little-smaller-than-my-palm chocolate chip cookie.

Of course, that didn’t put a dent in my hunger so I had the snack I packed for today – one serving of kashi sunshine + about 1/2 cup milk.

I love this cereal! It tastes like a mix of Capn’ Crunch and Kix. It’s Just Sweet Enough 🙂

Finally, my belly was happy. I drank some water and made it through the day.

Nick had a chiropractor appointment today, so I came home and did 2 20-minute yoga downloads – the Power Vinyasa Flow and a Hip Opening Flow. What a great way to spend 40 minutes winding down and breaking a sweat after work! I was only going to do one download, but the laundry was still in the dryer and Nick wasn’t back yet, so I just went ahead and kept going. I’m glad I did, because that hip opening download felt ah-mazing.

Plus, it’s always easier for me to spend more time working out when I know I have easy leftovers in the fridge.

We heated up the leftovers of the Hawaiian Chicken dish from last night, and I think it was even better!

Dishes with flavors like ginger, soy, and chile/garlic seem to get better after they sit. Tonight’s meal definitely proved that point – it was so spicy and the ginger really stood out tonight.

Makes me want to say aloha 🙂

I’ve been pretty productive tonight!

• Yoga – done
• Laundry – folded + put away
• Dinner – eaten and enjoyed
• Pajamas – on  😉
• Fun breakfast plan for tomorrow – done
• Hard boiled eggs – cooking right now
• Lunch packed – about to do that

Now the only things left are to have some popcorn + watch Top Chef Masters tonight! The guest is Neil Patrick Harris, aka Barney from HIMYM, aka Doogie Howser.

Do you have random super hungry days? Are there tried and true foods that satisfy you on days like that?

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Cold Breakfast?

If you can’t tell, I love hot breakfasts – usually oatmeal, oatbran, or eggs and grits/oatbran. There’s just something satisfying about a big, warm meal in the morning to get me up and going.

Ever since I had my first breakfast cookie last week…all I can think about are cold breakfasts. In fact, I actually remembered to mix up another one last night.

This was is basically the same as the one I made last week – I didn’t want to mess with a great thing!

• 1/3 cup 5 grain cereal
• 1/2 banana, mashed
• 1 Tbsp crunchy pb
• 1 Tbsp Shaklee chocolate vitamin shake mix (I don’t have any protein powder so this is what I’ve been using)
• cinnamon

I mixed up the cereal, banana, pb, shake mix, and cinnamon last night and spread it on this little salad plate to let it chill overnight in the fridge.

Then this morning, I topped it with:

• about 1/4 cup ricotta
• sliced strawberries
• blackberries
• more cinnamon

It may be the sudden heat wave we’ve been having or the fact that I’m not freezing cold when I get up and out of the shower in the morning, but I am loving this cold breakfast! I normally don’t eat cereal for breakfast just because I haven’t found any that hold me longer than 1 hour.

What’s your favorite cold breakfast?

I may need to extend my breakfast choices!

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The Cookies Continue

I started off my day with a cookie, and I’m ending it with one, too  🙂  More on that in a minute.

Nick and I went to the mall at lunch and looked around in Dick’s Sporting Goods and then got some coffee before going back to work. I got this really good latte, but then I just couldn’t drink it at work! I was too warm in my office to drink the hot drink – so I put it in the fridge at work to have tomorrow morning, and I’m already excited for it. 

I did end up have a small snack at work this afternoon, mainly because I knew I had a chiropractor appointment after work and that usually takes 30-40 minutes before I would be home to cook dinner. I ate the hard boiled egg I brought with me today – eggs are like the perfect little food! Portable, filling, easy.

The chiropractor visit went great today. I’m a lot better than I was at this point last week, but they still gave me the electrode therapy stuff today. I love it – I end up falling asleep every time. It just feels so nice with that hot pillow on your shoulders. I try to stay awake, but it never happens. I think I’m just about back to normal after the accident! I am still having some headaches, but they come and go and aren’t nearly as bad as they were last week.

Dinner tonight was a tried-and-true recipe and was from – where else? – MyRecipes.com! More specifically, Cooking Light.

Thai Beef Salad

Of course, it wouldn’t be right without a few modifications:

• We used strip steaks
• I only used 1 Tbsp soy sauce since that’s all I had
• I cut up a fresh orange instead of using the mandarins
• We omitted the cabbage and cucumbers

We love this salad! We’ve made it a few times before (pre-blog) and I think it’s better every time we have it. The dressing makes this salad, along with the oranges. I think this would be great with any protein (pork, chicken, tofu, beans), and it’s a great refreshing meal for the spring and summer time.

I knew I needed one of my contest treats after dinner so I could round out my day with cookies, right?

 

So there you have it. My contest cookie.  At least you know there’s chocolate in them!

I’m off to work on some blog stuff and maybe start a new book.

 

Can you believe tomorrow is already Thursday?

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Breakfast of Firsts

Good morning and happy Humpday! I can’t believe it’s already here. I’m a big supporter of 3-4 day work weeks, even though my workplace doesn’t do it.  I need longer weekends! it seems I never have enough time to do all the stuff I need to AND still have time to relax.

I did the same thing I did yesterday morning: hit the snooze a few too many times. Normally, that wouldn’t be a bad thing, but my alarm clock completely stops going off if I hit it more than 4-5 times! Not a great thing.

So, I was up a little later than normal – usually, once I’m blogging, I’m dressed with my hair dried and ready to go. today, my hair it still wet and I’m in my fuzzy pink bath robe. As long as I still get to work on time, no biggie.

I’ve been looking forward to this breakfast since I was mixing it up last night! I keep forgetting to try new foods as part of Katie’s new foods challenge, but I definitely did this morning.

I finally remembered to mix up a breakfast cookie last night! I’ve been wanting to try them for a long time, but I never remembered to get the stuff out and mix it up before going to bed. I actually made myself a post-it note last night so I could have this today  🙂

• 1/3 cup 5 grain cereal
• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• 1 Tbsp chocolate shake powder
• cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp crunchy pb

Topped with ricotta, strawberries, and some fig jam! This is my first time trying this fig jam and it is awesome!

It’s a good thing I did have this waiting for me in the fridge – it saved me a bit of rushing around this morning.

I’m really interested to see how well this holds me over compared to a regular bowl oatmeal.

Have you tried a breakfast cookie before? What’s your favorite mix?

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