Snickerdoodles and the Great Cookie Swap

I absolutely loved participating in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap.  While this was the 5th annual cookie swap, it was my first year participating.  I baked, packed, and sent off snickerdoodles to bloggers all over the country.   The cookie swap was a fun opportunity to share cookies with (and better yet to receive cookies from) participants all over the country, while benefitting a great cause.

Almond Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies

I made these a couple of weeks ago for a family lunch that I ended up getting to about 45 minutes late.  A positive aspect of staying in Alabama, is my family.  It's big, loud and a little crazy, but very happy.  Everyone is nearby, and able to regularly get together. My mom cooks lunch every weekend for everyone who can join and it's always delicious. As I said, these were meant to be dessert, but a hodge podge of issues resulted in my arriving after everyone had eaten.  They were still sampled, and everyone seemed to really enjoy.  My grandmother even thought they were the best I had ever made, but of course, what are grandmothers for if not complements.

If Thanksgiving had an official cookie, I would like to think this would be it.  The cranberry, in addition to the beautiful color it provides, adds a bittersweet kick to the white chocolate.  The almonds give a great texture and add a delicious little flavor.  Personally, I think the solid amount of butter also aids in the warm fuzzy feeling of Thanksgiving in this cookie.  I may be biased, but I loved these and hope you will too.

Almond Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies

Makes 28 cookies

Prep Time: 12-15 minutes

Cook Time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients: 

½ cup and 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

½ cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 large egg, beaten
1 ½ cup unbleached all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup white chocolate chips
½ cup sliced almonds

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. 
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and sea salt and set aside. 
3. Cream together butter and sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy (3-5 minutes).
4. Add in vanilla and beaten egg, mix until just barely combined.
5. Add in your flour mixture a third at a time.
6. Mix in the dried cranberries, white chocolate chips, and almonds. 
7. Drop heaping tablespoon-sized dollops of cookie dough onto the parchment paper, leaving a 2 inches between each cookie, I even smooshed them down a little.
8. Bake 15-20 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are slightly golden. 
9. Let rest on the cookie sheet for just a minute, then move to a cooling rack. 

                                                                                                                     Hope you enjoy!

No Bake Energy Cookies

I've made a couple batches of these over the past week and I really like how they've turned out.  It's similar to eating cookie dough, but with a little less refined sugar. I've been enjoying them as mid-morning snacks
and they have been super filling.  Kept refrigerated, the cookies should be good up to a week.

No Bake Energy Cookies
A healthier and energy filled sweet treat

Makes about 24 cookies

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Set Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:
1 cup old fashion or steel cut oats
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup ground flaxseed
1/3 cup white chocolate chunks (finely chopped)
1/4 cup protein powder
1/3 cup chopped almonds
1/3 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips

Directions: 

1. Line a couple of large cookie sheets with parchment paper. 
2. Grind the flax seed.  A coffee grinder would be ideal for this, but I used a food processor/blender.  It took a little more patience and stirring but still worked well. 
3. Combine the oats, peanut butter, honey, flax seed, white chocolate, and protein powder. You could also add dried fruit or nuts. 
4. in a separate bowl, mix together the chopped almonds and chocolate chips
5. Roll the dough into a ball and flatten into a cookie shape. Dip into chocolate-almond mixture and place on parchment paper. 
6. refrigerate 1 hour and enjoy!

Notes: 
If the oat concoction isn't sticking together very well, try adding more peanut butter.

Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies

Over the past few months I have developed some type of aversion to coconut, which is really unfortunate considering how much I love coconut. I typically break out on my face after eating actual coconut or drinking coconut milk (which is delicious by the way). Until this week I hadn't really had much of any issues with coconut oil unless I used mass amounts of it, but using my EOS lip balm one too many times led to another annoying reaction.  Most allergies can progressively get worse with each exposure, and while I have had no other allergy related symptoms, I think its probably best to quit while I'm ahead.  This weekend I've started cleaning coconut out of my house.  I had almost exactly 3/4 cup of coconut oil in the kitchen cabinet, and being the good decision-maker that I am, I decided to use it to make some blueberry oatmeal cookies to take to work. I have made these a few times before and really love them. Not to sound like a chubster, but eating a warm one almost feels like a hug, and it was also really hard to avoid eating this cookie dough. I’m sure this won't be my last time making these, but I may be reverting to butter in future cookie making.



Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies
A summer twist on the classic oatmeal raisin cookie

Makes 24 cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Bake Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
¾ cup coconut oil
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
3 teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups old fashion oats
1½ cup blueberries fresh or frozen

Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a couple cookie sheets with parchment paper. The paper isn’t completely necessary, but it is easier to get the cookies off the pan and to the cooling rack.  If you don’t use parchment paper, just be sure not to butter or grease the pan.
2.  Cream together the coconut oil and sugars on medium speed. I left the mixer going about 4 minutes. It isn’t going to look very creamy, as butter would, just make sure it is well mixed. Add the eggs one at a time, and then the vanilla; the concoction will look something like brown sugar soup at this point.
3.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt, then slowly mix the dry mixture with the sugar mixture. 
4. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to fold in the oats and blueberries. I used frozen blueberries; making It a little easier to fold the berries in without breaking but also a little harder to mix and scoop as your dough will start to freeze if you don't work quickly enough. Don’t worry if you do break blueberries, it’s inevitable, the cookies will still be delicious. 
5. Bake for 16-20 minutes. I made some pretty large cookies, a little smaller than a golf ball when all rolled up. Because of the size and the fact that I used frozen berries, it took a little longer to bake, closer to 20 minutes. Leave the cookies on the pan for a minute or two before moving to cooling racks.  Enjoy!

*disclaimer… coconut oil melts at 76ºF. As it is summer in Alabama and I live in a very old house, it was about 77ºF-80ºF in my kitchen at the time I was baking these; do not try to combine coconut oil with any type of cold ingredients (ie. cold butter or milk). It doesn't go well.