White Chocolate Blondies

I know I've neglected my blog.  I'm very sorry.  If I offer you White Chocolate Blondies will you please, please forgive me?  In my opinion, white chocolate can make up for almost anything...

White Chocolate Blondie Bites

From the February 2009 issue of Vegetarian Times

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces

1/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup tightly packed shredded coconut (sweetened or not)

1/4 cup slivered almonds

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Coat 11x7 inch baking pan with cooking spray.  Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper or foil and spray again.

In a double boiler, combine white chocolate, butter and sugar.  Cook over low heat until melted and smooth.  Remove from heat and cool 5 minutes.  Then, stir in the eggs, vanilla and flour.  Lastly, add in the coconut.

Pour batter into prepared baking pan.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until top is golden and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.  Cool 15 minutes, then remove from pan and let cool completely.  Cut into squares and serve!

Cookies for my baby sister.

Lying on a stretcher, waiting to go into surgery for her ruptured appendix, my youngest sister could only think about how hungry she was (and how she was worried she wouldn't wake up, like that person on Grey's Anatomy...). She hadn't eaten for two or three days, due to sickness and surgery preparation. I told her I'd bring her cookies as soon as she was allowed to eat and she requested "peanut butter cookies with chocolate drizzled on top". Feeling very sorry for my baby sister, I got right to work.

Peanut Butter Cookies (With a Chocolate Drizzle!)

Adapted from this recipe on 17 and Baking.

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

3 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Beat the peanut butter and butter together. Add in the sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Then add in the egg, milk and vanilla, again beating until light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients to form a light dough.

Drop 1 inch balls of dough onto cookie sheets and flatten with a fork or the bottom of a glass. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes and then transfer to racks to cool completely.

For the chocolate drizzle:

Melt about 1 cup of chocolate chips and 3 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan, stirring until smooth. Put chocolate into a plastic sandwich baggie and cut a tiny corner off the bag. Drizzle onto cookies and let set. If you're feeling creative, draw cute shapes with the chocolate!

Tournament Cookies

A Taekwondo tournament just isn't quite right without a big bin of tournament cookies. These cookies are so amazing. They are salty, sweet, chewy, chocolatey, filling, and most of all, pretty darn healthy. I discovered these cookies a while ago in the Planet Organic cookbook. They were called Cosmic Cookies, but since I've started bringing them to tournaments, they've gotten a few new names. Ten Pound Cookies (because they're so heavy), Horse Treat Cookies (because apparently they look like horse treats) and just plain Tournament Cookies (for obvious reasons).

Whatever you call them, these cookies are amazing, and a big hit, even with people who don't like "healthy things". You can vary your ingredients based on what you like, but, due to food allergies among the people who eat my cookies, I choose to make them vegan and gluten-free.

Cosmic Cookies

Adapted from the recipe in The Planet Organic Cookbook

2 1/4 cups quick-cooking oats (if you're worried about gluten, make sure they're certified gluten-free and that you can tolerate them)

2 cups flour of your choice (I use gluten-free flours most of the time)

1 cup sunflower seeds

3/4 cup + 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/4 cup whole flax seeds

1 cup Sucanat (or brown sugar)

1 tbsp cinnamon

2 1/4 tsp sea salt

1 3/4 cups chocolate chips (I use dark, dairy-free chocolate)

1 1/4 cup raisins

1/2 cup molasses or honey

3/4 cup oil (I use melted coconut oil)

1 cup non-dairy milk of your choice

Step One: Put on your favourite song. Preheat your oven to 350F.

Step Two: Throw all of your dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix well.

Step Three: Mix all of your wet ingredients together in a separate bowl, then add to dry ingredients. Thoroughly mix.

Step Four: Using 1/3 cup measure, plop dough onto cookie sheets and flatten slightly. Bake for 24 minutes, or until cookies are firm and golden brown.

Step Five: Let cool on rack. Try not to eat them all. Eat some at room temperature. Put some in the freezer and eat them frozen. Just eat them. They're pretty much guaranteed to be delicious.

And just look at my friend, the one in blue, sparring. I'm pretty sure she was running on Cosmic Cookies that day. If you eat enough of these, perhaps you'll be able to kick a person in the head. Anything is possible...

Enjoy!

Cookies!

I love baking cookies.

One of the more interesting cookie recipes I've made were these Black Forest Cookies. Aside from being very photogenic, they also tasted delicious! I got the recipe from the Company's Coming Most Loved Cookies book by Jean Pare.

Probably the cutest cookies I have ever made were these Tiny Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Buttons from 17 and Baking.

I got sick of rolling out cookie dough by the teaspoon though, so I made the rest into normal sized cookies.

These Gingersnaps turn out beautiful and perfect every time! Thanks again 17 and Baking :)

And of course, chocolate chip cookies can't be beat! I don't remember where the recipe for these came from....

I know this post wasn't that interesting, but to be honest, I haven't baked anything interesting lately, so I thought I'd share some of my best cookie pictures!

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

My job is pretty sweet.  I admit when I first started lifeguarding, I was a nervous wreck who couldn't do shifts longer than about four hours.   I complained and wanted to quit my job and so on.  I'm glad I didn't quit, because after a while I started to realize how lucky I was to have such a great job.  The people I work with are all really cool, and the actual work part of it isn't so terrible either.

We have staff meetings about once a month.   In our staff meetings we practice lifeguard fitness and first aid skills, talk about things we need to change/start doing/etc. and we eat.  More often than not, our meetings are "potluck" meetings.  It's always fun to see what the other lifeguards bring.  We've had everything from lasagna to cupcakes, homemade potstickers to brownies, spinach dip to.... you get the picture!

Last night for our staff meeting I made the white chocolate macadamia nut cookies from Joy The Baker. I was supposed to "brown the butter"... but my butter never got brown... Maybe I didn't cook it long enough. Oh well, they still turned out great!

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

From Joy The Baker's recipe here.

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp. milk

1 large egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 3/4 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/8 tsp. salt (I omitted this since my macadamia nuts seemed really salty)

1/2 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts

1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Stir it around and cook it until brown bits appear in the bottom of the pan. Again, this never happened for me... maybe you'll have better luck! Anyhow, when you're done cooking the butter, set it aside to cool for a moment. Measure out the flour and baking soda and set aside.

Combine the butter and brown sugar and beat together for about two minutes. Add the egg, and beat for another minute. Then add the milk and vanilla, and mix it all together. Dump the flour/soda mixture into the egg/sugar/butter mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in the nuts and chocolate.

Take chunks of dough (however big you want your cookies), roll them into nice balls and arrange them on a cookie sheet. Flatten them slightly. Bake for approximately 9-15 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies. When they are golden brown, take them out and let them cool for a few minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

Coconut Cream Pudding

There's not much to say about this pudding. It's creamy, coconutty and absolutely fabulous :)  You can pour it into a baked pie crust and top with whipped cream, or eat it straight from the pot while it's still so hot it burns your tongue. Either way, it's irresistible!

Coconut Cream Pudding

Adapted from Mrs. Goossen's recipe in Kitchen Treasures.

2 cups milk

4 tbsp. cornstarch

3 tbsp. sugar

2 egg yolks

1 cup coconut

1 tbsp. butter

1 tsp. vanilla

2 egg whites

4 tbsp. sugar

In a medium pot, whisk together milk, cornstarch, 3 tbsp. sugar and egg yolks. Cook until thickened. Add the coconut, butter and vanilla. In a small bowl, whisk egg white until foamy, then add 4 tbsp. sugar. Whisk again until sugar dissolves and then add to pudding. Stir it all together and cook until it's thick and smells like heaven.

Let cool, then either pour it into a baked pie shell or into dessert dishes. Chill to set.

Enjoy!

Almond Butter Bread

I love almond butter. I spread it on toast, smear it on apples and bananas, add it to smoothies and oatmeal, and sometimes, eat it all by itself. It’s like heaven in a jar. And almonds are supposed to be good for you...

I found the recipe for this bread in Clean Eating magazine. It was originally called Honey Almond Sunflower Loaf, but I decided it should be called Almond Butter Bread. It seriously tastes like almond butter, at least, in my opinion. I don’t have any food allergies, and I’m not a vegetarian, but I still like that it’s also gluten-free, soy-free and dairy-free.

You should make it. Soon.

Almond Butter Bread

Adapted from the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Clean Eating Magazine.

1 cup almond meal

3/4 cup buckwheat flour

1 1/4 cups quinoa flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 egg

2 eggs whites

1 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/3 cup oil (I used coconut)

2 tablespoons raw organic honey

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsalted sunflower seeds

cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 350℉.

Mix the first four ingredients together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the next five ingredients. Add the 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds to the wet ingredients. Then, combine the wet and dry ingredients.

Spray a 9-inch loaf pan. Then, pour batter into the pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

I’ve made this bread two times, and both times, it has split and risen in an odd way. It still tasted great and was very pretty! I ate this bread with butter and jam. It would go well with savoury things as well.