Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy Christmas Colors in Your Cookies

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Posted: 05 Dec 2011 06:06 PM PST

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No need to pull out the food coloring. God has already given us some pretty amazing colors in the food He created for us, so there’s no reason for us to try to mimic them with cheap – and unnecessary – imitations. For example: cranberries and pistachios, a deep magent-like red, and a lovely dark sage green. Gorgeous!

And to combine them in a cookie? Genius!

I have the pleasure this year of participating in the Second Annual International Bloggers Cookie Recipe Exchange, hosted by Lori of Fake Food Free, and Andrea of Food Embrace. It’s a virtual cookie exchange, where instead of exchanging actual cookies, we exchange the recipe. I was sent 2 recipes to choose from by Mindy of The World in My Kitchen and I picked her Pistachio-Cranberry Icebox Cookies specifically because of the gorgeous color – not to mention flavor – combination. I mean, what says Christmas more than red and green? And even better if you say it with food!

Here’s Mindy’s original recipe, adapted from Epicurious:

Pistachio-Cranberry Icebox Cookies

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbl granulated sugar
1 tsp finely grated fresh orange zest (about one large orange)
1/2 cup shelled pistachios, roughly chopped
1/3 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup turbinado sugar (or you could use other colored decorative sugar)

Stir together the flour, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl.

Beat together the butter, granulated sugar, and zest in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 batches, mixing until dough just comes together in clumps. Mix in the pistachios and cranberries. Gather and press dough together, then divide into 2 equal pieces. Using a sheet of plastic wrap or wax paper, form each piece of dough into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until very firm, at least two hours, but up to 3 days.

Put the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Brush egg over the log (but not the ends). Sprinkle the sugar over the egg mixture and press to stick, covering the entire log (except the ends).

Cut each bar crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. (If the dough gets too soft to slice, freeze bars briefly until firm.) Arrange cookies about 1/2 inch apart on the lined baking sheets.

Bake cookies, switching the position of the sheets halfway through baking, until edges are pale golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer cookies from parchment to cooling racks and cool completely.

**The dough can be frozen, wrapped in plastic wrap and then foil for about one month. Thaw the frozen dough in the refrigerator just until the dough can be sliced.

And here’s my version:

Cranberry Pistachio Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 cup pistachios, chopped
1/3 cup dried cranberries, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten (or 1/4 cup milk of any kind)
raw sugar

Instructions

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cardamom and salt; set aside.
In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter, shortening and honey until creamy. Add in orange zest.
Gently stir in the flour mixture. Add pistachios and cranberries.
Divide dough into two portions. Press each portion of dough together into a log about 1.5″ diameter. Wrap the log firmly in wax paper and chill until firm, at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.
When ready to bake, brush each log with the beaten egg or milk, then roll in sugar. Slice thinly and place each slice on a lined or greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350F for about 15 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Aside from the chilling time, these cookies come together fairly QUICKly. And here’s the deal: you can freeze the logs for a month, so that you always have cookie dough ready at a moment’s notice! Surprise guests at Christmas time? You’ll be ready with a treat to share in no time at all!

They involve more work than a drop cookie, but they’re still pretty EASY over all. Your friends will be impressed!

Well, pistachios ain’t CHEAP, that’s for sure. I found mine at Trader Joe’s for a pretty good price ($4.99 I think for a package of shelled pistachios, the best price I could find around here). You can also occasionally find coupons for Wonderful Pistachios or Everybody’s Nuts Pistachios.

These are fairly HEALTHY cookies, as far as cookies go. They’re sweetened with honey, filled with dried fruits and nuts, and a little fiber-full whole grain to boot.

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SRC: Triple (Yes, Triple!) Chocolate Banana Cookies.

Posted: 05 Dec 2011 08:00 AM PST

As Raina of Connor’s Cooking says, “With this name, who wouldn’t want to make it?!” Not me! Or me. However that grammar goes. Point being, I wanted to make it!! So I did.

Welcome to another round of the Secret Recipe Club(Group A), folks! This is where we pick bloggers’ names out of a hat (digital style) and secretly cook up something from their blog. Meanwhile, some other merry blogger is secretly cooking from your blog, which makes Reveal Day (today!) so much fun. Definitely the highlight of my blogging calendar!

So in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I was assigned Connor’s Cooking for my secret blog this month, and had fun perusing Raina’s blog looking for the perfect recipe to try. Just like me, the kitchen is her favorite place to be, and it shows in the large quantity of recipes to browse through. Once I came across the words “triple chocolate“, though, there was no turning back. Chocolate is part of my creed. I refuse to believe anything except that chocolate is healthy, so don’t even try to tell me otherwise. Something so good must be good for me. Right?

Unfortunately for me, I had only one precious little egg sitting in my refrigerator when I set out to make this recipe, and I didn’t want to use it up in cookies. Weird, yes, but hear me out: I like to buy pastured eggs from a local farm, and those little babies cost over $4 a dozen! One does not use such pricey beauties casually! I prefer to eat them straight as part of a meal, and look for egg replacements whenever possible in my baking.

And replacing an egg is so much easier than you might think, which I have learned in the past couple years of baking egg-free (and dairy-free and wheat-free) goodies for my Certain Little Someone. I’ve got a few tricks tucked up my sleeve that keep me baking, egg or no.

The trick this time is banana. Banana goes so well with chocolate that it’s a perfect choice for an egg replacer in a recipe like this. I also decided to take Raina’s advice and double the recipe – double the triple chocolate sounded good to me!

One little problem: I forgot to double the sugar. Oops. The flavor wasn’t too bad, but I think additional sugar would have helped with the texture some. So I have kindly given you the appropriate amount of sugar in the following recipe.

Triple Chocolate Banana Cookies

from Connor’s Cooking

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup palm shortening
1 cup raw sugar
1 banana, mashed
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup vanilla chips

Instructions

In a mixer, beat together the butter, shortening and sugar until creamy. Add banana and vanilla, beat until well blended.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flours, cocoa, and salt. Stir into liquid ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop by tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes.

By the way, for the vanilla chips, I used Trader Joe’s brand, which is actually made with real milk, unlike other brands who essentially have created a chemical cocktail and called it “white chocolate”.

This is a great QUICK cookie recipe, just in time for these crazy holidays!

It’s also very EASY; nothin’ fancy goin’ on here, which is just how I like it.

Pretty CHEAP, over all, especially since I cheated on the egg!

HEALTHY-ish. It does have whole wheat flour, which is a plus. And a banana (although there is nothing unhealthy about an egg, so it’s not like that’s much of an improvement on the health scale). And, ummmm, well, that’s about all I can say for it. Enjoy in moderation, ‘K?