Some of you might remember that my Grandpa was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma right around this time last year. He had a rocky start to 2011, but his strength carried him through some very tough times and he enjoyed a happy and stable summer and fall season.

He has unfortunately encountered another set back with his health over the past week. He battled a blood infection which landed him back in the hospital. He overcame it with antibiotics, only to find himself with yet another mysterious blood infection, fighting for his life, as of yesterday. It’s been a shock to our family as the doctor said he was in remission just before this all happened.

All this has made me realize that every day we wake up in good health is a day to celebrate. Forget about being down on yourself for the number on the scale, the guilt over yesterday’s indulgences, and whether you think you look “perfect” in your holiday dress.

If you wake up healthy, it’s already a great day.

and my Grandpa would argue, even if you wake up unhealthy it can still be a great day.

This past summer, Grandpa was the best I had seen him since his diagnosis last December. He was vibrant, active, and loving life. Despite his cancer, he carried on life as usual working up at the cottage, visiting with family, and doing renos all summer long.

He’s taught me so much in my life, most importantly, with the right attitude and faith, anything is possible. He is a true role model in my life.

Did I mention he already beat cancer once in his life? He’s one tough cookie!

I actually made these cookies before I found out the news, but in a way, they oddly remind me of my Grandpa. They are both tough cookies.

And of course, I mean that in the best way possible.

The cookies come together very easy! Just toast the nuts, mix the batter, chop the dates, add flour and flax, and mix it all together.

Your dough should look like this…sticky!

The dough is really sticky to handle, so if you need to lightly dab your fingers in a bowl of water, feel free. When shaping the cookies, make them just smaller than golf balls and really squeeze the dough to compact it together.

I had to make quite a few trials of these cookies to figure out what the perfect temperature and baking time was. In my oven, 325F and 18 mins of baking time resulted in the perfect cookie. Depending on your baking sheet, oven, and altitude, this time may vary. To get the cookies cooked in the middle, I had to cook them until they were golden brown on the bottom.

This golden bottom, resulted in the perfect middle:

Perfectly cooked middle (after cooling):

If you don’t bake them long enough, you will have an undercooked middle, as shown below:

You don’t want that!

After cooling, they have this amazing toffee-like, chewy, and dough interior with a crispy and crunchy shell! We’re pretty much obsessed with them. For my first original Christmas cookie, I was really pleased with the outcome. Eric insisted I keep all the “failed” trials for him to eat! I’m also freezing a bunch and will give them to family members on the weekend.

Make these cookies for someone you love, maybe even crazy Uncle Ted.

Most of all, never forget your sense of humor during the holiday season.

My Grandpa still has his.

and I’m sure he would agree with me that Nutcrackers are really creepy.

Seriously, creepy.

Happy Birthday to my Brother in Law, Steve!

Steve just so happens to be smitten with my baked goods, so every birthday I spoil him with a new vegan treat to enjoy.

I’ve been meaning to make these Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows by Isa & Terry for a very long time now!

I think I was a bit intimidated by the process of making these cookies. Stuffing a peanut butter ball into a cookie didn’t exactly sound fool proof (and trust me, I can mess up the easiest things at times!), but these cookies have been so well reviewed on other blogs I knew it couldn’t be that difficult.

It turns out that it is fool proof! So fool proof in fact, I would go as far to say that these would be really fun to make with kids.

I’ll show you the step by step process to show you just how easy it is!

You start off by making your chocolate dough and your peanut butter dough. I mixed both by hand. When the chocolate dough got stiff, I got in there with my hands and kneaded it together. Sometimes, you gotta get dirty in the kitchen!

Umm excuse me sir, that’s not dirt in my nails, it’s chocolate dough…duh.

Break your peanut butter dough ball in half.

Break each half in half again and then break each quarter into 6 pieces (as even as possible):

This simply makes it easier to get even pieces.

Roll in hands until smooth:

Repeat for the other 3 quarters:

I ended up making 25 balls instead of 24 because that’s just how it worked out. And I obviously wanted an extra cookie!

Grab a chunk of dough (about a heaping tablespoon) and place it in your palm. With your other palm, flatten and press the dough until you have a large thin disc like so:

Place a PB ball in the middle of the disc:

Wrap it up (the dough may crack a bit but not to worry!)

And roll it in your hands until smooth:

Repeat for the rest!

See, fool proof.

You may be tempted to do this…

and you wouldn’t be alone. You may debate whether baking is even necessary. Then you remember these are not for you. Doh!

Bake at 350F for 10 minutes exactly.

Excuse me cookie, is that a PB ball or are you just happy to see me?!

sorry, lame.

Yup, they look just like the picture in the cookbook! I love when that happens. They also taste just like I imagined them to- like a peanut butter ball in cookie form. Granted, they are by no means a healthy cookie, but what would a birthday be without a mild sugar coma?

Now, I face the impossible feat of ignoring these all day long. I guess I didn’t plan that one too well now did I?

Not only is it Steve’s lucky day but it’s yours because Isa posted the recipe online for all your cookie pleasure!

I made just 1 change to Isa’s recipe:

• I used coconut oil instead of canola (I melted it first)

Click here for the cookie recipe.

May the cookie pillows be with you!

I’m relieved to say there is a happy ending to my Apple Butter venture…

A very delicious ending.

Thanks for all your helpful comments yesterday! You sure know how to help a gal out. I loved reading everyone’s different methods for making apple butter.

After 4 more hours of slow cooking yesterday morning over medium heat (with the lid ajar), buttery apple bliss happened. The apple pieces all broke down and the sauce turned into a thick & dark butter, no post-blending required. I was a happy girl.

Five pounds of apples made about 1 & 1/4 cup of apple butter. Boy, does it ever cook down! Some of you mentioned that not adding a lot of sugar (I used 1/3 cup Sucanat as opposed to 4 cups white sugar) might prolong the cooking process, so maybe that’s why it took longer for me. It took about 19-20 hours in total.

If I thought I loved store-bought apple butter (Eden Organic has a great no sugar added one), homemade is a gazillion times better! I want to test it one more time before I post the recipe for you guys. I think we might go apple picking this week, so it will be a good opportunity to test it out again! I also want to make peach and pear butter too. I’m hooked.

Speaking of testing, I was on a mission to make vegan and gluten-free chocolate chip cookies to bring with us while we visit family this week. I adapted my Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and tried out a few different gluten-free flours. I didn’t want to use any weird gums or other ingredients, but keep it as simple as possible.

I made 3 trials:

Trial #1:

I used 1 cup of brown teff flour and 1 cup of Bob’s Red Mill almond flour (everything else in my recipe was the same)

No dice. The teff flour gave them a gross sand-like and gritty texture! I have not had much success when using teff flour at all. There is nothing worse than a gritty texture in gluten-free baked goods.

Trial #2:

I used 1 & 1/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill almond flour and 1 cup gluten-free oat flour (I simply processed certified gluten-free oats in my Vitamix until a flour-like consistency)

These are the ‘picture-perfect’ cookie with a great thickness too! The taste was a million times better than using teff flour. The almond flour gave them a very prominent nutty and buttery taste that we all loved. However, I felt that the almond flour was a bit too pronounced in this cookie (over-powering the sweetness) and wanted to reduce the amount slightly.

Trial 3:

…made a classic thin & crisp cookie with a ton of chew.

I used 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill almond flour and 1 cup gluten-free oat flour.

By just reducing the almond flour by 1/4 cup, the cookie was much thinner, crisp, and chewy.

While I generally love a thicker cookie, these were by far everyone’s favourite! By reducing the almond flour, the sweetness was able to come through much more. We also loved how crisp and chewy they are.

The winning cookie profile:

• crisp yet chewy
• Nutty and strong buttery flavour (thank you almond flour)
• sweet, but not over-powering
• slight ‘taffy’ feel to them from the nut flour
• addicting!
• What they are not: Soft & doughy

Let’s review:

I’m guessing if you wanted a thicker cookie with the sweeter taste of the winning cookie, you could add a couple more tablespoons of almond flour along with a couple tablespoons of additional sugar. I also want to test these again using Sucanat sugar as a sweetener.

Vegan and Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Thin, crisp, and chewy. While these aren’t your typical soft and doughy cookies, we loved them anyways. The almond flour gives them a taffy/chewy texture and it was hard to eat just one. The cookies firmed up quite a bit by the next day, so I would suggest cooking them a bit less than 12 mins (which was what I did).

print this recipe!

Adapted from my Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: 18-20 cookies

Ingredients:

• 7 tbsp Earth Balance + 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (I used organic)
• 1/4 cup organic cane sugar (or use white sugar)
• 1 flax egg: (1 tbsp ground flax mixed with 3 tbsp water)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 cup gluten-free oat flour (I processed 1 cup certified gf rolled oats into flour)
• 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill Almond Flour (add 2 tbsp Bob’s Red Mill Almond Flour if you want a thicker cookie)
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a small bowl, mix together the flax egg and set aside.

2. With an electric mixer or in a stand mixer, beat the Earth Balance and oil until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat for 1-2 minutes until creamy. Beat in the flax egg and vanilla extract.

3. Beat in the remaining ingredients and fold in the chocolate chips.

4. With wet fingers, shape balls of dough and place on the baking sheet. The dough will be very sticky but don’t worry! No need to flatten the balls down! Bake for about 10-11 minutes until slightly golden along edges. Allow to cool for 5-10 mins. on the baking sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack for another 10 minutes.

By the way, I also called Earth Balance and they told me that all of their products are gluten-free. Nice!

Have a great Friday cookie monsters!

On Friday, I posted this little teaser on my OSG Facebook wall…

I wrote, “Starting the long weekend off right!”

Chocolate Chip Cookies & almond milk > Beer

Then you begged and pleaded for the recipe and I left you in agony for 6 days while I was busy dipping these cookies in almond milk and slathering crusty, day-old bread with roasted tomato pesto.

I don’t consider myself to be a mean person, but after reading that I guess I am pretty twisted and cruel!

May I repay you in cookies, perhaps?

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’ve made a few vegan chocolate chip cookies on the blog and these are my favourite and easiest cookies to date. Best of all, the dough is thrown together in less than 5 minutes.

print this recipe!

Adapted from my previous versions here and here.

Yield: 12-14 large cookies

Ingredients:

• 7 tbsp Earth Balance + 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or 1/2 cup Earth Balance- see note)
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cane sugar (or use white)
• 1 flax egg: (1 tbsp ground flaxed mixed with 3 tbsp water)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a small bowl, mix together the flax egg and set aside.

2. With an electric mixer or in a stand mixer, beat the Earth Balance until fluffy. Add the brown sugar and cane sugar and beat for 1-2 minutes until creamy. Beat in the flax egg.

3. Beat in the remaining ingredients and fold in the chocolate chips.

4. Shape balls of dough and place on the baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes (or up to 14 mins on a Silpat mat). Allow to cool for 5 mins. on the baking sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack for another 10 minutes.

Note 1) For a crispier cookie edge, use 7 tbsp Earth Balance and 1 tbsp olive oil. I preferred cooking them this way. They also spread out a bit more. Alternatively, for a softer cookie, use 1/2 cup Earth Balance and no oil.

Note 2) As suggested by Ashley, to retain the crispy factor of the cookies place them in the freezer after cooling in a container or baggie. It was the only method I tried that kept the crispiness of the cookies! Simply thaw on the countertop.

The dough tasted so amazing I almost considered not baking the cookies!

These are definitely the best vegan chocolate chip cookies I’ve made on the blog. They are chewy with a lightly crisped outer crust and they are quick to throw together.

As I typed this post Eric leaned over my shoulder and said, “First, you torture your friends on Facebook and now you torture me because we have none left!”

And then he looked at this picture below and said, “Whoa, creeper hand.”

You see what I have to deal with?

Have a great Wednesday Thursday!

We took advantage of the gorgeous weather last night and did some more deck work and gardening.

I like to leave Eric some words of encouragement on the scrap wood.

My plants seem to be adjusting well to the transplant!

Some of the plants look like they have already grown an inch! The bell peppers seem to be sprouting up especially fast. I water them in the morning around 7am.

Sometimes there is singing involved.

Sometimes there is story telling involved. The spinach and kale already know their destiny (green monsters and kale chips).

I put 3 foot high chicken wire around both beds to hopefully keep out the bunnies, deer, etc. I can unhook it and open it up when I need to.

Hopefully it helps…(but I think if an animal really wanted to get in there, it could!)

Tonight, I’m going to buy some larger pots (mine are too small) and a trellis or two and get that all set up.

When I came in last night, I was craving chocolate like mad.

I’m definitely the ‘typical female’ who gets intense chocolate cravings from time to time and nothing else can satisfy me until I have my fix. Normally, I just eat chocolate chips straight out of the bag (and end up eating way too many!), but last night I wanted to come up with a healthier fix for my chocolate cravings.

I instantly thought of my Frosty No Bake Glo Cakes that I enjoyed so much last summer. I figured that I could take this recipe and make it into a chocolaty version!

In just 5 minutes of prep work, I had these intensely chocolaty cookies in the freezer just waiting to be enjoyed!

They are super creamy, chocolaty, slightly sweet, chewy, pillowy (thanks to the banana) and a bit doughy. And the ingredient list and nutritional profile is quite impressive too.

Even when in the freezer overnight, they don’t firm up solid- they remain chewy, which means you can enjoy them anytime for a quick chocolate fix.

Frosty No-Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Adapted from Frosty No Bake Glo Cakes.

Print this recipe!

Yield: 7 small cookies.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup non-dairy chocolate chips
• 1 large banana
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1 tbsp buckwheat groats (optional)
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• Sweetener, if preferred

Directions:

1. In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips for about 60 seconds being careful not to burn. Remove from microwave and stir so the rest of the chips melt.

2. Roughly chop the banana and mash it into the melted chips with a fork.

3. Stir in the rest of the ingredients into the chocolate & banana and stir very well until all oats are coated with chocolate.

4. Line a plate with parchment and drop about 7 cookies onto it. Alternatively, you can use muffin liners. Freeze for about 1 hour or until firm. Cookies will firm up, but they won’t become solid and will remain chewy. Leave in the freezer for a quick chocolate fix any time of the day! Makes 7 small cookies at 80 calories each.

Nutritional Info (per cookie, makes 7):

• 80 kcals
• 3 grams fat (1 gram sat)
• 10 grams carbs
• 2 grams fibre
• 5 grams sugar
• 2 grams protein

Not bad, right? The best part is that the cookies don’t taste like a ‘typical healthy cookie’ at all. These really did satisfy my chocolate cravings!

When I made the first batch, I made 4 cookies in muffin liners like I did with my glo cakes…

I prefer them as smaller cookies though because I get to eat more! For the second batch, I simply dropped 7 cookies onto a parchment paper lined plate and popped them in the freezer until firm.

Oh, and I may have crumbled one on top of a bowl of Kamut Puffs this morning… Just throwing that out there.

I think I picked the right week for my Fall Back in training because my cold symptoms seem to have progressed into the stomach flu. …Never a fun way to start the weekend, especially when we have a lot of fun things planned.

These early Valentine’s Day Tulips helped cheer me up though! Eric brought these home from work on Friday night because he knows I’ve been feeling under the weather. Tulips are one of our favourite flowers because they remind us of Spring.

I’m going to try and save the bulbs after the flowers die so I can plant them outdoors in the Fall.

I hope I don’t kill them soon. I don’t exactly have a green thumb!

I was not in the mood to bake today (that’s when you know I’m really not feeling myself). Lucky for me, Eric already planned on baking his next pick for the Valentine’s Day Recipe Contest, so I got to read snuggled up on the couch while he slaved away in the kitchen. Well, he did ask for some photography help, but it was pretty quick for this recipe.

Mise en place!

The maple syrup is invisible because it was an add-in at the last minute when Eric didn’t think the dough was sweet enough.

Mix dry and wet separately and then stir together. Make sure to sift the cocoa powder too.

Fold in the chocolate and coconut. Eric says, ‘Then eat lots of dough to determine if you need more chocolate.’

Using a retractable ice cream scooper (this was Eric’s tip!) or your hands, portion into balls and gently shape.

Eric made 20 brownie bites.

I think he wins for the most perfectly shaped brownie bites ever.

Bake for 12 minutes at 350F.

You can also flatten the cookie dough and cut them into hearts, as shown below. Eric preferred the bites though because they are nice and thick to bite into.

Nice work hubby!

Eric’s review:

• Soft and chocolaty, but not over-powering from sweetness
• Wholesome and nutty- he liked the whole wheat flour
• A perfect 2-bite size
• Would be good with ice cream and LOTS of chocolate sauce hehe

When my tummy is feeling a bit better, I will definitely be trying some with some Banana Soft Serve. If there are any left, that is!

Congrats to Jessica for the winning recipe. Please email me at angela [at] ohsheglows.com to claim your prize.

For the rest of the Valentine’s Day recipes, be sure to check out the photo collection on my Recipes Page. My two favourites are here and here.

I’d like to start a new book this weekend. Anyone read any good books lately? I’d like something fiction for a change.

Someone is having a very good Friday…and I hope you are too!

Eric and I leave bird food out every couple weeks and the squirrels always steal it and have a feast! It is so fun watching them hide their food in random spots all over the backyard. They always check behind their back before they bury it.

…Little do they know a creeper (me) is watching through the window!

I always wonder if they even remember half of their hiding places…

We were finally able to get a technician in to fix our broken furnace late last night. We had a nice warm sleep and I can feel my fingers and toes once again.The price tag was not so nice though!

In other news…I made some awesome chocolate cookies…

COOKIE FAIL.

Murphy’s Law: When you have high hopes for a chocolate cookie recipe, it will be a huge bust!

As these were melting like lava in the oven, I was happily cleaning up and putting all the dishes and ingredients away. When I opened the oven door, I had a few choice words for these cookies!

If the walls in my kitchen could talk, it would be a bit like a Jerry Springer show, I’m afraid.

So what went wrong? I made some homemade vegan white chocolate because I thought it would be fun to use it in this cookie recipe. Well, apparently my homemade white chocolate turns into complete liquid when baked! It spilled out of the cookie dough and created the mess that you see above.

Take 2 was pretty successful though (sans white chocolate!).

Assemble the dry and wet ingredients. Note: this recipe is gluten-free and vegan!

Mix your flax egg and set aside so it can gel up.

Whisk dry ingredients and wet ingredients.

Mix!

Fold in the chips and optional nuts.

[Awesome tasting cookie dough!]

Place small spoonfuls on baking sheet about 2 inches apart. I flattened the balls with a wet spoon, but I wouldn’t recommend this as they spread out too flat. I would just leave them as balls and this will probably yield a thicker cookie. One of our complaints was that the cookies were too flat.

Bake for 14-15 minutes at 375F.

I’m not sure what to think about these cookies. I remember them tasting much better than they do. I think that might be because they are better tasting the second day, so I will have to try them tomorrow to form my final opinion. Eric and I both agreed that they are too flat, but you might be able to make a thicker cookie if you don’t flatten the dough with a spoon like I did.

They are good, don’t get me wrong, but they didn’t blow me away like I remembered! If you try them out, let me know what you think of them.

(See my updates in the recipe!)

I’m also in charge of birthday cupcakes for THREE birthday celebrations this weekend…it’s a bit crazy in my kitchen right now.

Dish Fairy…are you out there?

Here are the rest of my Valentine’s Day recipes below…enjoy!

The other night as I was giving my Recipes page a makeover, I realized that I have a bit of a thing for creating healthy snack cookies.

I have devoured…

1) Banana Apricot Spelt Oatmeal Cookies

2) Itty Bitty Carrot Cake Cookies

3) Pumpkin Pie Banana Chunk Cookies

4) Pumpkin Sesame Cookies

Healthy snack cookies bring me great joy. The other night, as I looked out my window to yet another blistery snow storm, I realized that I needed more joy in my life.

The kind of joy that tastes great, but still allows me to button my pants the next day. I needed joy with a healthy twist…

First thing we do is mix the flax egg and set it aside to gel up.

Now, peel your apples. Grate 1 of the apples and chop the other into 1 inch pieces.

Perfecto!

Add both apples,1 tbsp lemon juice, and 1/4 cup pure maple syrup into a pot, stir well, and heat on medium-low.

Why cook the apples?

The reason I cooked the apples was to allow the maple and lemon flavours to soak into the apple, creating sweet, soft bites of apple, just like you’d find in an apple pie. The result was fantastic! It really didn’t add much time at all since you are preparing the other ingredients as they cook.

Meanwhile…

Whisk together the dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients (gelled up flax egg, 1/3 cup mashed banana, 1/4 cup almond milk, vanilla)

Fun Fact: The mashed banana served as the oil-replacer in this recipe.

After the apples have cooked on the stovetop for about 5-10 minutes, add them to the wet ingredients.

Stir all wet ingredients together, including this cooked apple mixture.

Now add the wet to the dry…

Mix well. It will take a while for the mixture to come together, but not to worry!

Stir until the flour is all mixed in. The batter will be very thick.

Scoop 2 tbsp of the mixture onto the baking sheet for each cookie/muffin top.

Bake for 14 minutes at 350F.

You will be left with an addicting snack cookie, that is like biting into a soft and chewy muffin top! My mother-in-law, friend Jessica, Eric, and I all gave these a big thumbs up and they went very fast. They are a great snack if you are looking for a pick-me-up that won’t give you a sugar crash.

I’m off to do my first Tempo run of my Winter 2011 Half Marathon training plan. Any tips for Tempo runs? I’ll do a recap of what I did and let you know how it goes…Wish me luck!

Happy Friday to you!

I just wanted to let you guys know that my spam checker is marking some comments randomly as ‘spam’ and I am not sure what is going on. I have approved several spam comments from the past few days and I will keep a close eye on it. I’m sorry if that was happening to you and you didn’t know why! I will monitor the situation and report to the computer authorities if necessary (aka Eric).

Today, we talk homemade graham crackers. For the second time.

I’ve been quite smitten with homemade graham crackers ever since I fell in love with them back in December after adapting a recipe from Ashley.

Last week, I was feeling frisky and I made a PB + J graham cracker sandwich using two homemade graham crackers, raspberry jam, and peanut butter.

I think this photo speaks for itself…

I just loved how the peanut butter, jam, and graham flavours all went together and I was instantly hooked!

And then I started to imagine how delicious a peanut butter graham cracker would be….

Three trials later, I am happy to share my favourite version with you.

These graham crackers are quite fun to make. First you mix the modified flax egg and then set aside.

Now, grab those dry ingredients…

Whisk together.

Assemble the wet ingredients and the gelled up flax egg.

Add to a bowl.

Whisk.

Add wet to dry..

It will be very thick and you will have to get in there with your hands to mix in the ingredients fully.

Squeeze the dough in your hands until most of the flour is mixed in.

Form a ball.

Break the ball in half and then roll out on a floured surface. I used my new Silpat mat that I got at Christmas and it was a great non-stick surface for rolling dough!

The only thing I do not like about the dough is that it cracks a bit (this was true for all trials that I did), so try not to roll it too thin or it will fall apart.

Use cookie cutters if preferred.

You can even make cute little hearts for Valentine’s Day!

Or maybe you’d rather stab a square with a fork…

Place in the oven for 15-18 minutes at 350F. Rotate half way through. The amount of time you have to bake will depend on how thick they are. The crackers should be slightly firm when coming out of the oven.

Allow to cool for about 30 minutes. The graham crackers will really crisp up during this time.

The result is a delicious homemade graham cracker with a hint of peanut butter flavour!

Peanut Butter S’more anyone?

Or maybe PB + J?

They are pretty insane.

I think I slightly prefer this version over the last ones I made. This version has less of a molasses flavour to allow the peanut butter flavour to come through and it just seems to work really well.

Have a great start to your weekend!

On Sunday, I realized that I only have 5 days left to bake holiday cookies!

I knew it was time to roll out a childhood favourite before it was too late.

The only catch?

These cookies took me 5 trials until I was satisfied with them!

I was in one of those picky moods and I started testing all kinds of flours and changing up the wet ingredients. I can be very stubborn in the kitchen at times. Well, I can be very stubborn period. I am a bull after all.

If I’m in a positive frame of mind I like to think of my stubbornness as persistence or dedication…now we’re talking!

The flops actually weren’t too bad, aside from the whole wheat pastry flour version, that is. Thankfully, Eric usually brings leftover cookies into work to share with his coworkers so I don’t have to throw anything out.

Let me first review what cookies I have made over the past couple weeks…

(click the image to be taken to the post)

and now I present to you one of my childhood favs…

Whisk dry ingredients together.

In a small bowl whisk together the wet ingredients and then add wet to dry.

Get in there with your hands and knead the dough and squeeze it together until it comes together.

Roll the dough into balls using about 1.5 tablespoon of dough per ball.

Now very lightly dip your fingers in a cup of water, tap off excess, and then roll the ball in your wet fingers. Now roll the ball in the processed pecans. This little bit of water helps the pecans stick to the ball.

Now place the ball that is now covered in crushed pecans onto the baking sheet (note: above photo should have crushed pecans on the balls! It was from a prior trial.)

With your thumb and finger press a well into the center of each ball (but don’t go all the way through!) and shape it with your fingers, pinching the edges as you go around.

Fill the hole with strawberry jam- about 1/2-1 tsp.

As you can see, I like a generous jam to cookie ratio!

Bake for 17-18 minutes at 350F and allow to cool for 15 minutes on the baking sheet.  Now place the cookies in the fridge to chill for about 30 minutes.

I prefer to eat Thumbprints straight from the fridge because the almond extract and strawberry flavours seem to pop more when chilled.

I also love how the nuts give the cookies a hearty crunch and a great texture. The cookie base is actually not that sweet, but it balances out the sweet jam filling quite nicely.

The result is a Thumbprint cookie that is not too sweet, but just right!

Workout News

A little while ago, Angela was kind enough to give me one of her ‘Friends and Family Membership discounts’ for Goodlife gym. It is a heavily discounted yearly membership for the club, costing me only $16 per month for unlimited access to any Goodlife gym in Canada! I am thrilled because I would not have been able to afford the regular membership price, but at $16 a month I simply can’t go wrong. I will have access to all the fitness classes, the weights, and of course the cardio equipment.

I used to be a member of Goodlife back in highschool and university and I loved doing the Body Pump classes and also a few of the other Les Mills classes like RPM spinning. I can’t wait to change it up a bit and start doing weight training again. Thanks Ange!

Make sure you check out Sketchie’s pic of the day…it’s pretty cute and there is a little story about his latest hijinks.

Goodnight!