These cookies are as simple to make as they are beautiful.
Use any flavor of preserves you’d like in these…. I happen to really love the amber glow of the apricot preserves. A thicker jam or fruit preserve is key to having a uniform color puddle in your cookies. Sprinkle with a touch of confectioners sugar for the ultimate eye-popper.
Don’t you just love cookies that are shaped like candy canes and have bits of broken candy canes woven throughout? It makes me squeal with delight just thinking about it. When I saw a few pics of these guys floating around the interwebs yesterday, I knew that I had to try and make some of my own.
And so, I am obviously continuing with my winter candy cane obsession. What’s with me and these darned seasonal treats? I was just getting over pumpkin and then plummeted headfirst into a candy cane complex.
Did I mention that my entire world is now covered in 5 inches of snow… and I really kinda like it? The little birds are so vibrant and beautiful against the white of the landscape. And the color that highlights everything when the sun shines is enough to make even the grumpiest folks [raising my hand] come out of a winter slump. Also, I’m pretty convinced that I need to string up like 50 more sets of twinkle lights.
It’s beginning to look a lot like winter…. ♥
Although not a traditional holiday cookie, Snickerdoodles have long been a favorite of mine to bake once the ground becomes smothered with a heavy blanket of white snow. Every year I make these cookies (usually just once) and they are always a hit among the folks who are eating them.
Since shunning gluten last December, I hadn’t yet found the perfect opportunity to try my hand at a gf Snickerdoodle.
Until today.
I giddily awoke to a snow shower producing a hefty amount of snow which was quickly covering up another hefty amount of snow that had fallen a few days ago. Now it seemed like the perfect weather for a Snickerdoodle.
And so it was. Using a combination of millet and sorghum flours, I’d have to say that they turned out pretty darn well.
I really feel like Rainbow Brite would be right at home in the above photograph. And that makes me smile.
Do you know what else makes me smile? Candy coated fennel seeds.
These slightly crunchy Fennel Seed Stars are a perfect vehicle for those little candies… second only to eating them straight from the bag. ♥
These are much like traditional shortbread, slightly crunchy and just a touch sweet. And they’re chocolatey.
Week 1 of VeganMofo is winding down… have you checked out all the awesome going on yet?!
Whenever I taste biscotti, I immediately have a flashback to the year in college when I worked as a café barista. I was one of the oddballs in the café world, constantly greeting people with a chirpy hello! and an exaggerated grin. My coworkers, much cooler than I, normally went for the “service without a smile” approach.
Every single year, for as far back as I can remember, my mother makes a rugelach type cookie which she (and what I presume every member of her extended family) calls simply a “nut roll”. I haven’t had her rugelach in quite some time because it has all kinds of things in it that I just don’t do; but every year around this time, I start to crave it like nobody’s business.
So, starting in Autumn I begin to make a bunch of cookies of this “rugelach” type… pretty much all the way until January (when I start cursing winter and planning my move to the tropics). This version is not overly sweet and they are kinda big. You could share one… if you were really desperate to be a nice person. But this recipe makes quite a few cookies, so there’s no need to get all crazy…
Hiya all! I’m back.
Well, truthfully I hadn’t gone anywhere. I have been sitting on my computer for the last week and a half trying my damn-dist to get this blog all fixed up. Unfortunately, my former webhost had some issues and both of my websites with that host were hacked. Fun.
It occurred while I was on my super fun mini vacation. My family enjoyed a quick getaway with my long time BFF from Philly and her fams. It was a blast. Good eats, fireworks, my favorite people all in one place, swimming pools, and dogs galore.
But coming home to my website spewing out maliciousness was pretty horrible. :)
Needless to say, I had to do some major cleaning up, and I had to switch hosts… and it took a bit of time to do so.
But, no worries. Everything is happy and secure and fresh and new, and I’ve brought along some extra chocolatey chip cookies. Or, at least the recipe.
It feels so good to be back up.
Whew.
Thank goodness for BFF’s from Philly who know how to fix broken websites. Thank goodness for my supportive hubs who spent all hours of every day working hard and freaking out along side of me, but doing a much better job of keeping his cool than I. Thank goodness for puppies… for just being so darn cute and snuggly when I needed it the most.
And thank goodness for you understanding and wonderful readers. ♥
The name says it all.
Okay, maybe not. But they are chocolatey, and twirly… and “doodle” just sounded nice with the rest. And, seriously, what kind of cookie with a “doodle” at the end doesn’t taste good?
These cookies are my first experiment using sorghum flour, and I must say, I am pretty impressed. It seemed to work a lot like buckwheat, but was a touch lighter in color and in taste.
With this new promising flour, I decided to try my hand at some rolled cookies. And, when it worked out almost effortlessly, I decided to roll them again… with a little chocolate sugar inside.
The results were even better than I expected, with a taste, texture and (a word that has been abuzz lately, and I [childishly] find pretty funny) “mouthfeel” like typical AP flour cookies.
They are soft and flavorful with a hint of almond flavor, and they definitely give me the confidence to try out new and exciting ways to manipulate GF dough.
For all of you readers who still like your baked goods glutinous, I would assume you could sub out AP or whole wheat flour where I used the different flours/xanthan combo. I say this because I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe as a starting point. You may need to add a smidgen more flour to make it stiff and rollable… but I think it should work out okay. :)
These cookies are a fabulous way to enjoy the combination of cinnamon and chocolate. I called them “brownie” cookies because of their awesome texture: crispy on the outside and nice and chewy in the middle. To me, they taste just like little cinnamon brownie bites.
Yum.
They also make your kitchen smell heavenly while they are baking.
As a child, did you ever love a food so much that you would risk the wrath of your huge and terrifying older brother to sneak the last one?
The other day my husband and I were reminiscing about childhood junkfood favorites, and I remembered how much I desperately loved Little Debbie Star Crunches. I had a sick obsession with these things. This most likely caused me to block all thoughts of them from my memory after I went vegan. Once my memory was triggered, though, I became dead set on the idea of making them myself. I needed a way to once again enjoy the taste/texture of the individually wrapped treats that I used to stash everywhere: lunchbox, pocket, fridge, freezer, bookbag, dresser drawer. It was kinda out of control.
I loved them primarily because of their gooey and crispy and hard to explain texture… which oddly enough gave them most of their flavor. I think sans the strange texture of a Star Crunch, we would be left with pretty much just “sweet”.
To recreate these things I needed a great filler, because the crispy rice and chocolate part is easy. The answer was the Medjool date! Dates are absolutely magical… I am super happy to have discovered the many uses of them.
These cookies are definitely close enough to an actual Star Crunch to satisfy my craving… without the long list of creepy ingredients and eternal shelf life.
A little unconventional maybe– but pretty delicious for a last minute pantry raid. What I like best about these cookies is their texture– they are thin and chewy and crispy all at once. The flavor is, well, flavorful!
Since Garam Masala varies— I cannot guarantee that your cookies will taste just like my photo. :) Mine was a blend of coriander, cardamom, black cumin, cinnamon, celery, black pepper, allspice, cloves and anise. Each one of those spices had a special place in these cookies. A touch of cocoa really tops them off. Spicy, sweet and kind of chocolatey- could you really ask for anything more?
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I’ve got love on my mind. Puppy love.
As much as I bake, I often neglect to bake treats especially for my furry friend (even though he always gets some of my human treats). But our dog friends deserve their very own batch of cookies just as much as anyone else. I created these for my pal, Giotto, who has a particular love for peanut butter and carrots. He was pacing in front of the oven the entire time they were baking… and I have to admit, they smelled pretty darn good to all of us humans in the house too.
Whoever ends up eating them, I think tails will most certainly be wagging.
Okay folks… they may not look like regular chocolate chip cookies… but you gotta trust me on these. They are seriously addicting little bites of awesomeness.
Since I first started eating gluten free, I have been trying to create a replica of my all time favorite vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe. Well, I finally have come very very close! But, I wanted to pause for a moment, and celebrate this little gem that I found along the way.
The cookies themselves are a little unorthodox, as they are made with buckwheat flour and almond flour… but the taste is quite remarkable. I have made these four times in the last week… which proves how much my son and husband enjoyed them. They loved them.
Not bad for my first attempt at using buckwheat flour– which by the way, is my new BFF. <3
These are super rich and chocolatey, exist somewhere in between a cookie and a truffle, and are loaded with peanut butter. Yes, they taste as awesome as they sound. If you are feeling a little lazy (or are just out of chocolate chips) the cookies are fantastic if you skip the dipping step.