Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
(with cranberries)

I was reflecting on my posts from this time last year and unsurprisingly my thoughts are moving in a similar direction; panic about what the winter months have done to my waistline. How on earth will I fit in my summer clothes without too closely resembling the muffins I make?

So, when it came time for my monthly girls get together, and therefore another excuse for me to bake, I chose to take the high road. I pulled out my Food and Wine Magazine, March 2011 issue and there was the perfect healthier recipe. It hit all my requirements; wholesome and yet totally quick and easy.

The cookies do have some butter for flavor but also a little canola oil, plus they are made entirely with whole wheat pastry flour. If you can't get that, I would suggest white whole wheat flour or half and half regular flour with regular whole wheat flour. You can choose to bake them as bars (as I did) or cookies (a little more time than I had available). The original recipe calls for toasted chopped pecans in addition to the chocolate chips but I didn't have any so added some cranberries.

My guinea pig buddies were enthusiastic and the recipe was requested; a good sign of success I think. They are really quite like a blondie with an extra bite.

Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Ingredients

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 tablespoons canola oil

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup dark chocolate chips (I used 60%)

1/2 cup cranberries 

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F
2. Butter a 9 x 13" baking pan then line with parchment paper
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside
4. Using your mixer, beat the butter, oil and sugar until creamy
5. Add the egg and vanilla and beat again until smooth
6. With the mixer on low speed, beat in the dry ingredients until just incorporated
7. Finally add the chocolate chips and beat on low again until just mixed
8. Turn the dough out into the baking pan and smooth out the top evenly using a spatula 
9. Place the baking try in the oven and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until golden and just set in the center
10. Cool the bars in the pan and then lift them out onto a cutting board
11. Peel away the parchment from the sides and cut into squares

Alternative substitutions that I think would be tasty: 

• white chocolate chips and chopped dried apricots
• Dark chocolate chips and cherries

You could successfully freeze the cookies in the pan prior to baking (if well wrapped) or after baking. After baking I would not cut them, leave them as a slab and triple wrap in cling film.

Enjoy!

Christmas Cookies, Cakes and Gingerbread Houses...

Happy Christmas to all or should I say Happy Baking Season! 

My homemade Peppermint bark to rival Williams Sonoma

I am from a long line of 'fill the biscuit tin, in case someone pops in' women. Traditionally we also delivered Christmas biscuits (cookies) to a few lucky folks at Christmas time. So when the calendar hits December, I start big time planning. Who am I kidding, it happens long before December.

So you'll understand, we've been busy in this house over the last few weeks. Like many others, I love to give cookies at Christmas. The giving list gets longer every year; and despite having some tried and true Christmas cookie recipes I always feel compelled to try out a few new ones.

This year I am linking the recipes I have used alongside a few snaps of the final products. This is as much for me next year as it is for any readers so apologies for poorer grammar than usual. I'm in a rush to get back to the kitchen action.

Here goes:

My particular favored new recipe is for Peppermint Bark. I was determined not to pay $25 a box this year at Williams Sonoma, so found a recipe for me to make my own. Success!!

I have a ginger obsession at this time of year so one of the many recipes I use is the following Ginger Chocolate Chip Blondies. They are so good...

Continuing on the theme and desperately trying to harness my control frickery, my girls and I got up to gingerbread men and house making, using the following healthier recipe from Heidi at 101 cookbooks. These are wholewheat gingerbread men!

This is the girls playing with the scraps at the end

House components and little guys

Decorating time

The finished product; again an exercise in self control for me!

My Mum usually makes me my Christmas cake, in fact, I'm ashamed to say, I've never made one before. This year I was going to skip it as we are not having any family visiting. However Nigella got the best of me with her Chocolate Fruit Cake from Feast. It looks amazing, is soaking in Kahlua as I type and boasts one of my favorite combinations prunes and chocolate. Haven't tasted yet but can't imagine it will disappoint. It did take me a whole morning on my own to complete though; even the lining of the tin requited a lot of concentration and 25 minutes! 

These little fellas below are ready to go out; in the packages are Chocolate Crackle Cookies, a recipe. surprisingly, from McKormick spices. They include Roasted Saigon Cinnamon and Ancho Chile Pepper but are basically a double chocolate cookie with a kick. Yummy adult cookies but my kids love them too. They freeze amazingly too.

The other cookies in the packages are a recipe from the boys at Baked. The cookies are Oatmeal Cherry Chocolate chip from "Baked; New Frontiers in Baking". Very delicious.

Oatmeal Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today, Nigella linked to her Christmas Chocolate Biscuits, and they looked so easy and sounded so simple, I just had to give them a go:

They're similar little chocolate shortbreads with chocolate frosting...mmm

One last link; as yet I've only made the dough (it's sitting in the fridge) but no mention of Christmas cookies/ biscuits whatever you want to call them, is complete without these. This recipe for Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies was posted by me way back in March, but it is "Christmas in a cookie" for me.

Happy Baking!

Merry Christmas! 

Happy Holidays!

My favorite Cut Out Cookie Recipe...aka Jock Cookies!

Christmas Stars

A couple of years ago, our good friends visited us for Thanksgiving. Jayne is a great cook and also Northern Irish, so she came armed with many, goody stuffed Tupperware. The best of the best were these AMAZING sugar cookies that she had cut out in "Jock" (their dog) shapes and covered with melted butterscotch chips. Oh boy! They were so good. We (I particularly) could not stop eating them and I think even she was surprised how good the butterscotch tasted on a sugar cookie. If I remember correctly she was trying to avoid a supermarket trip so she used the butterscotch in a pinch. Anyway, Jayne was kind enough to fork over the recipe and now we need little excuse to whip up a batch in this house. So, it's time to share.

A wee bit of fun for the kids; Candy Cane Copycats

These cookies are in no way healthy; but they are not everyday cookies or lunch box snacks. They're for special occasions; it's up to you how many occasions you nominate special, after you taste them.

Cut Out Cookies

Sparkly Snowflakes

Ingredients


1 cup/ 1/2 lb butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. 
3. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium, until whitened.
4. Add the egg and vanilla and continue to beat on medium until well incorporated.
5. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture slowly. Mix until just incorporated.
6. Take the dough out of the bowl and shape it into a disc approx 1" thick.
7. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for about 30 mins
8. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to approx 1/4" thick. 
9. Cut out your shapes til your hearts content and re-roll as necessary.
10. Be careful not to overwork the dough and if the scraps get too warm, wrap again and place back in the refrigerator for another 10 mins or so.
11. Bake for approx 5 minutes then turn the tray around and bake another 5 minutes. 
12. They will be done when they begin to turn golden around the edges. 
13. Cool for 2-3 minutes on the tray before transferring them to a cooling rack
14. leave to cool completely before decorating

This Christmas, I used the simplest of frosting/ icing, borrowed from Nigella. The ratios are as follows:

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 1/2  tablespoons hot water

This will give you a pretty runny icing which you can flood the cookie with. It will dry to hard in a few hours. 

The cookies will keep (unfrosted) for about a week in an airtight container and apparently they freeze too. I am testing that out; I've frozen a sample and will add a comment when I defrost them.

My Halloween Cut Outs this year

Halloween Brownies anyone?

The m and m's may suggest "kid" food, but the brownie is all about the adults

Full disclosure; the following recipe is not my usual healthy take on a classic recipe. This is pure unadulterated sugar, butter and CHOCOLATE...but oh so good on an occasional basis; particularly over Halloween.

That said, the brownies described are a new recipe to me. I typically make either a healthier version or if I'm going all out, I use a recipe that calls for many more eggs than I had left in my refrigerator.  So I set out on a google search for a rich, no holds barred, brownie recipe that only required 4 eggs.

Enter David Lebovitz. He calls these his absolute best brownies and the man does not lie. I didn't change the recipe much, except I recommend using  parchment instead of foil and I doubled the recipe to bake enough for a party. Also, to Halloween-ify them, I dotted the top with orange m and m's, 10 mins before they finished baking.

Something I learned from the Baked gods, you can freeze a brownie very successfully. Who knew? You just triple wrap them in cling wrap and let them defrost at room temperature when you feel the craving. Having learned that useful snippet, I see no point in ever baking a small pan.

Anyway, these are super-decadent, fudgy rich brownies. Bake them at your waistline's peril. I had hoped to take some to a Halloween party, but there's no way they'll last that long.

Halloween Brownies

Ingredients

12 tablespoons butter
16 oz dark chocolate (chips or chopped)
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup all purpose flour
Orange m and m's

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F
2. Butter a 9x 13" baking pan, line it with parchment, leaving 2" extra on 2 sides. Then butter the parchment paper.
3. Using a low heat, melt the butter in a medium sized pot 
4. When melted, turn the heat off 
5. Add the chocolate and stir until melted 
6. Stir in the sugar and vanilla 
7. Stir in the eggs beating or whisking vigorously until combined 
8. Finally add the flour and stir "energetically" for 1 full minute until the mix looks glossy and the graininess of the sugar has gone (apparently this is the key to success with this recipe)
9. Pour the mix into the prepared pan and into the center of the oven 
10. Cook for 20 minutes then remove the brownies and push in the m and m's to the almost set batter
11. Return the pan to the oven for a further 10-15 minutes or until the center of the brownies is just set.
12. Cool the brownies in the pan
13. When completely cool, lift the brownies out of the pan by the parchment paper and cut them into squares

These will keep in an airtight container for 4 days (good luck with keeping them that long!) and will freeze beautifully (see above).

Enjoy!

A last hurrah for overindulgence...

ahhh...chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies



I've come to the conclusion, after years and years of trying to lose a few pounds after the holidays, that it's impossible to address tubbiness, until March at the earliest. I find myself firmly in comfort mode until the first signs of Spring.

Well woo hoo, Spring has sprung in the north east of America. We have sightings of crocus (-i?) in our front garden, all the snow is gone and finally we seem both alarmingly and tantalizingly close to the skimpy clothes of summer time. Skimpy is all relative mind you; I am 40 now after all!

Speaking of which, this past weekend was the official celebration of my husband's and my 40th! We're like The Queen, you know, we have a real birthday and an official birthday (to celebrate with the masses). So some of our oldest friends and family kindly came over/up/across to help us celebrate. Such fun! Enough said; no details required! If you read my cousin's guest post at the weekend, you'll know there were good food and drinks involved (and a babysitter!)

So time to get serious with the healthy eating to really make a difference to the scales. I publicly declared last night that I'd had enough with the extra 5-7 lbs which have been hanging around like a bad smell for the last year. Huh? You're wondering; doesn't she always make healthy food? Mostly yes, but my love of food makes portion control difficult and I have a borderline addiction to chocolate and ice cream! Actually these pesky pounds mostly crept on, in a monumentally greedy 6 weeks over a year ago. I've just not been disciplined enough with my portion control since then, to kick them to touch.

So here's my last hurrah from the weekend past, then the decadence of the winter must be put in check.

This recipe, to be honest, is the first recipe I thought of putting on my blog. Every time I bake these cookies, they are eaten with such gusto and lip smacking that, without fail, the recipe is asked for. The recipe is a Martha Stewart one and largely unchanged. All I've added are a few extra tips as they can be a little bit tricky at times.They really are so worth the attention to detail though. Read on...

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

adapted from http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/chewy-chocolate-gingerbread-cookies

makes approx 20 cookies

Ingredients

7 oz bittersweet chocolate chips (I use ghirardelli 60%)

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

8 tablespoons (1/2 cup/ 4 oz) unsalted butter, softened

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup granulated sugar

Directions

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
2. Sift together the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cocoa, in a medium bowl
3. Using an electric mixer, with the paddle attached, beat the butter and grated ginger until they turn a light cream color.
4. Add the brown sugar, beat to combine and then add the molasses. Beat again until combined
5. Combine the baking soda with 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water and stir to dissolve. Mine never dissolves completely so don't worry.
6. With the mixer on low, add half of the flour mixture, then mix slowly to combine.
7. Then add the baking soda mixture, mix again.
8. Then add the remainder of the flour and mix again until combined.
9. Finally add the chocolate and mix one last time until just combined.
10. At any of these points only mix until combined. Over mixing will produce a tough cookie.
11. Scrape the dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap and flatten into a disc approx 2" thick.
12. Wrap up and place in the refrigerator for approx 2 hours or until firm. Sometimes I throw it in the freezer to speed up this process.
13. Heat the oven to 325°F
14. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll into balls of approx 1 1/2"
15. Place them on a cookie sheet and cool again in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.
16. Put the sugar in a cereal sized bowl and roll the balls in it until completely covered.
17. Put them in the oven as soon as quickly as possible; if the dough is too warm it will spread and burn more easily.
18. Bake for approx 11 minutes or until the surface just begins to crack. They will still be very soft when you take them out of the oven.
19. Let them cool on the baking tray for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack. If you move them too quickly they will fall apart.
20. Watch these cookies closely; they burn easily due to the molasses and dark brown sugar. It's 2 minutes between a perfectly baked cookie and a burnt bottom.

We made ice cream sandwiches with these last weekend, using vanilla ice cream. They were obscenely good!!

A couple more notes:

• I keep my fresh ginger in the freezer and grate it frozen. If you're doing that, add more than a tablespoon of ginger as it seems to grate up with more volume when frozen.
• Measure your molasses and boiling water very carefully for this recipe; if you overdo either your cookie will spread too much and burn easily.
• I use the Barefoot Contessa's (http://www.barefootcontessa.com/) method of measuring flour usually; I stir up the flour to lighten it and then scoop out the necessary amount. I use the handle of my spoon to scrape off the excess.

Enjoy!