My Inner Cookie Monster.

We all have them. Cravings. Some are worthy and deserve our attention, others not so much. Cookies are always worthy. But a good gluten, grain and guilt free cookie? Hard to find. But the simplicity of this one is just amazing. I don't know whose recipe it is. It came on a box of Swerve purchased through Amazon. The retailer was Vitacost. The box had a recipe. And what a recipe it was. In fact I was startled to realize it was really similar to the Blondie recipe. In a cookie. A few differences, one of which is a significantly larger quantity of sugar (swerve) which I think is key for the texture on these.

Choco Almond Drop Cookies

1 cup almond butter or peanut butter. Your choice.
3/4 cup Swerve
1 egg
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
3 oz. chopped Dark Chocolate (use 70% or more to keep sugar down)

Mix all ingredients except the chocolate. Now I cream the sugar, baking soda and salt with the Almond Butter before adding the egg. And I like to whisk the egg up before adding it.

Fold in the Chocolate pieces.

Drop in large spoonfuls on a parchment lined tray and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. That's it. Let set for a few minutes and transfer to a cooling rack. You'll get that perfect combination of ooey gooey chocolate oozing out of the crispy bottom, soft on top cookie. Now if you like soft baked cookies, and have a convection oven, which I do... but have never used in 7 years... use the convection setting and they will puff up and set instead of being flat and crisp. Something for everyone in this recipe!



These are soooo good. But of course, we needed more. Better. Encore please.

And the Melissa's Mud Puddle cookie emerged.


Seems one of our cookies had a somewhat large piece of chocolate on it in the first batch. Which gave my daughter the idea that we should do that on all the cookies. So we did. Same recipe, using Peanut Butter this time. Only instead of mixing in the chocolate bits we just took large pieces and stuck them on top before baking. 

It was a monumentally good idea. First bite is a nutty peanut butter cookie. The next, a chocolate lover's dream come true. Like someone frosted your peanut butter cookie with a chocolate bar. 

Easy to bake. Easy to eat. Enjoy.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Funny thing about Funny Bones

Image
My favorite snack cake growing up was a Funny Bone. Wrapped in silver foil, like a Ring Ding, but shaped like a Yodel, and filled with this awesome peanut butter cream. Truth? It wasn't real cream, or real peanut butter, and who knows what kind of crap was used to make the most horribly delicious food ever. A few years ago I had an awful craving, actually... more like 10 years ago. I haven't eaten sugar in close to nine years. But back to my story. I went online, and to my utter delight, Gristedes in New York would ship me as many boxes of my childhood obsession as I wanted. I ordered like 7 boxes. I wanted my husband to try them. I wanted my girls to experience the sugary rush of awesomeness. Back then, I had no idea it was so deadly. And now I do. But it doesn't mean I gave up my love of Chocolate and Peanut butter cakes rolled in chocolate. Carolyn, over at AlldayIdreamaboutfood.com, had this great layer cake with peanut butter frosting and ganache. She also had a
Read more

Shots heard round the world, and way too close to home.

I know the buzz today is all about Amy Winehouse. Yeah. I'm sorry she made bad choices too. But in Norway 93 or more people who made good choices are also gone. And will be sorely missed. Their potential will never be known. One, maybe 10 might also have become voices of a generation. So take a moment and express your sadness that one lone misguided singer wasted her talent and her life, and then maybe take a few more if you can spare them to mourn the loss of almost one hundred souls at the hands of a Norwegian madman. You can write off the Norwegian as a crazed lone gunman. Like Jared Loughner. Maybe. But, perhaps not so coincidentally, their insane ideology was identical. Breivik, who admitted to the shooting spree and bomb blast, has said through his lawyer that his actions aimed to "change Norwegian society" which he saw as being undermined by multi-culturalism. That is a frightening statement for anyone to hear, in any country. But here in the US, the hairs on y
Read more

The evolving Brownie.

Image
Update! So, here's a tweak for those who enjoy a thicker fudgier brownier. As if that is possible. So borrowing from Alton Brown's technique on baking, here you go. Double the recipe, and lower the temp to 300. Same pan. However, use parchment paper to form a sling, meaning line the bottom and come up on the sides so the parchment hangs over about 2 inches. This will allow you to transfer the whole uncut brownie to finish the cooling outside the pan. Next change, beat the eggs with a paddle attachment on medium for 3 minutes first, then add all the dry ingredients. Then add the melted butter and vanilla. Finally, bake for 15 minutes, remove from the oven, set for 15 minutes, put them back in for another 30 minutes. Once removed from the oven, go ahead and let them rest for 30 minutes. Then using the parchment transfer to the cooling rack for 10 minutes. Now cut into 16 brownies. Eat one. Just one. Dare you. Original Post So let's keep this simple. Everyday it seems
Read more