Cookie of the Week!- Whole Wheat Animal Crackers

This week I tried a whole wheat animal cracker! I gotta say they are alright, cuter than they taste, but not bad. I think they are kind of bland, but they would be perfect for the kids. Adam pulled some chocolate ganache out of the fridge and made cookie sandwiches with them and they were kickin'! Alright so I also can't remember what book I got this recipe out of. So if you know, please let me know! Thanks.


1/2 cup shortening (I used butter because I just don't use shortening!)
1/3 cup milk
3 tbsp. honey
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Heat oven to 350. In large bowl, beat shortening, milk, and honey with mixer on medium speed until blended. Stir in remaining ingredients until well blended.
Divide dough in half. On lightly floured cloth covered surface, roll half dough at a time 1/8 inch thick. Cut with about 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 inch animal shape cookie cutters. On ungreased cookie sheet, place cookies about 1 inch apart.
Bake 6-8 min. or until edges are very light brown. Remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 min.


*Now, after mixing it all up it was still too wet, so I just kneaded in more whole wheat flour until it was a good consistency. I also found that I liked them better rolled out a little thicker than the recipe calls for. These would be great cookies to add other flavors too!

Cookie of the Week!- After Dinner Mint Cookies

I don't have a pic this week because we had company and they just went too fast. So you are going to have to use your imagination for this one. I made chocolate wafer cookies from a recipe from the site Smitten Kitten, and used the frosting from the ginger apple cookies. They were super yummy!!!

Here is the cookie recipe:
It says to use a food processor but I don't have one. So I just used my mixer and followed the same directions. It turned out perfect!

Makes 50 to 60 1 3/4-inch wafers. However, I cut my thinner than suggested and yielded more.

1 1/2 cups (6.75 ounces) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (2.4 ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
3 tablespoons whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Combine the flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, and baking soda in the bowl of food processor and pulse several times to mix thoroughly. Cut the butter into about 12 chunks and add them to the bowl. Pulse several times. Combine the milk and vanilla in a small cup. With the processor running, add the milk mixture and continue to process until the mixture clumps around the blade or the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a large bowl or a cutting board and knead a few times to make sure it is evenly blended.

Form the dough into a log about 14 inches long and 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Wrap the log in wax paper or foil and refrigerate until firm, at least one hour, or until needed.

Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut the log of dough into slices a scant 1/4-inch thick (I went thinner, closer to 1/8 of inch. If you’re trying to emulate the store-bought wafers, slice as thin as you can, and watch the baking time carefully, as it might be less.) and place them one inch apart on the lined sheets (cookies will spread). Bake, rotating the baking sheet from top to bottom and back to front about halfway through baking, for a total of 12 to 15 minutes. The cookies will puff up and deflate; they are done about 1 1/2 minutes after they deflate.

Cool the cookies on the baking sheets on racks, or slide the parchment onto racks to cool completely. These cookies may be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks or be frozen for up to two months.

Note: These cookies should crisp as they cool. If they don’t, you’re not baking them long enough, says Medrich — in which case, return them to the oven to reheat and bake a little longer, then cool again.

And the frosting for the middle:

3 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 Tbsp butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1-2 Tbsp milk
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
a few drops of green food coloring

That Wretched Interloper!

-A word of explanation from Kelly's husband, Adam-

"Hey Gang, You see, we went apple picking this past weekend and I absolutely love apples. Apple pie, apple cider, apple butter, caramel apples, apple cobbler, you get the picture. I've been so enamored with the red and green little buggers and the impending autumnal weather that I've completely bogarted all of the spare kitchen time. Kelly has been toiling away feeding our family and making dinner for guest and whatnot, while I waltz in after the kids go to bed and make a complete mess of the kitchen having fun with baked goods. (and to be quite honest, I'm not the least bit sorry. Need I mention my love for apples once again?) This is the reason for the delay in the Weekly New Cookie Recipe/Review. Now that I have your attention however, here are two of the reasons for delay. A relatively modest apple tart (I give 6 out of 10 stars)


and phenomenal apple cinnamon sweet rolls (a 10 out of 10 if I do say so myself).




The brown sugar mixes with the juices of the diced honey crisp apples and creates a luxurious natural caramel. As for the recipes.... NO DICE! They are mine, all mine! Mwaaa ha aha ha!

Cookie of the Week!- Lowfat Oatmeal Date Cookies

Sorry I'm a little late in the day getting to this, but it has been one of those days! I will spare you all the details, but I had the choice this afternoon to either blog or nap. I chose nap! My camera is acting funny today also so I took the picture using the good old Mac. So these were alright. Not good and not bad. The recipe calls for 3/4 cup of water, and I just think that was way too much. If I make these again, I will try just a half cup of water. I was lucky to come into a huge bag of chopped dates through a mom in my mom's group. She bought a bag at Sam's and her family didn't like it, so my family was the lucky ones to get the bag. Ever since we hosted Middle Eastern students, dates have been a favorite in our house (except for me, I tasted them while pregnant and have never liked them). Adam was super happy about these, and they did go kind of quickly down at the in-laws house this weekend. So here is the recipe: (It calls for raisins also, but I was out so they were just date cookies!)


Low-Fat Oatmeal Raisin Date Cookies
44 min 20 min prep and makes 36 cookies

3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup water
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup chopped dates

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Cream sugars, oil, egg, and vanilla in large mixing bowl.
3. Add water and beat on low speed until well mixed.
4. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt.
5. Fold in oatmeal, raisins and dates.
6. Stir until blended.
7. Drop dough by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet sprayed with Pam.
8. Flatten slightly with a fork.
9. Bake 12 minutes or until golden brown.

I think he is slowly going insane

Honey, I know that you are reading this, but I think you may be insane this week. It started out with the idea to ride almost 5 miles on our bikes with all of the camping gear to a friend's house from his parents house. We are dropping the kids off with the grandparents so we can camp with friends and he has this great idea that he and I will bike nearly 5 miles carrying 2 sleeping bags, a tent, a blanket, and clothes. WHAT!

The next thing was yesterday he had promised the kids they could sleep in a play tent if they were good all day. And they were until dinner time. The refusal to eat cause an angry mom and dad, and crying L and D. Needless to say they went to bed in their own beds. At about 11pm dad felt bad and set the tent up in the kids room. Their room is so small, and the tent so big, that you can't really walk around this thing. So he goes and wakes them up so they can sleep in it. L got right in and fell back asleep, D just wanted to stay in her bed. But at 6 am they were up and playing and laughing. This then resulted in angry dad. My thought, which I kept to myself, was well what did you think was going to happen. The tent then came down and everyone finally got out of bed around 7:15 this morning.

I love you dear, but sometimes I wonder about you. Hopefully this weekend your sanity will come back when we are camping in the fresh air!

Cookie of the Week!-Root Beer Float Cookies

Let me start off by saying this was a FAIL! I was not happy with this recipe. The cookies spread very wide while cooking, the first batch was underdone in the middle and the second batch was over done. I also felt that the root beer candies did not impart enough of a root beer flavor. I think if I were to use a root beer extract instead these might have tasted better! I have had this recipe on my hard drive for awhile so I will have to try and find which book from the library that I got it from. Here is the recipe:


Cookies:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup finely crushed root bear candies (about 10)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. allspice
2 eggs

Glaze and Garnish:
1 cup powdered sugar
4-5 tsp. root beer or milk
additionally finely crushed root beer candies

Heat oven to 350. Grease cookie sheets with shortening. In large bowl, beat brown sugar and butter with a mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, or mix with a spoon. Stir in remaining cookie ingredients.
On a cookie sheet, drop dough by rounded tsp. about 2 inches apart.
Bake 8-10 min. or until almost no indentation remains when touched in center and edges are golden brown. Cool 1 min; remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 20 min.
In small bowl, mix all glaze ingredients except additional candies with spoon until smooth and thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle glaze over cookies. Sprinkle with additional candies.


I think this recipe is from this book:

Sweet!
From Agave to Turbinado, Home Baking
with Every Kind of Natural Sugar and Sweetener

by Mani Niall

but I'm not really sure. If you know could you let me know?

Or it was a Betty Crocker cookbook that I can't find the name of. Oh well, you get the idea!

Winner of the Cook Book Giveaway is.......

I used the random.org to generate my result and the winner is # 7 Janine!!! Congratulations!!!


I will be sending a cookbook full of the recipes found on this blog along with some of my other favorites. Please respond to me in the next 48 hours to claim your prize.

For those of you that did not win, thank you so much for reading my blog. I am still amazed there are so many of you out there!


Thanks!