EatLocal365 » cookies http://eatlocal365.com Rediscovering cooking from scratch Tue, 19 Aug 2014 00:24:01 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Hello, again! http://eatlocal365.com/2014/03/18/hello-again/ http://eatlocal365.com/2014/03/18/hello-again/#comments Tue, 18 Mar 2014 23:18:52 +0000 Lindsay http://eatlocal365.com/?p=6758 Well, we’ve been busy! Obviously not with the blog, but with, y’know, life. A week after our last post, our son, Finley, was born. He’s amazing! We’re loving parenthood, but have struggled to find time to blog. We’ve been using our pantry and freezer a lot. When we cook, it’s mostly old favorites that we’ve already posted or really easy things, like the sausage (from our local butcher) and roasted veggies (from our CSA) that . . . → Read More: Hello, again!]]> Well, we’ve been busy! Obviously not with the blog, but with, y’know, life. A week after our last post, our son, Finley, was born. He’s amazing! We’re loving parenthood, but have struggled to find time to blog. We’ve been using our pantry and freezer a lot. When we cook, it’s mostly old favorites that we’ve already posted or really easy things, like the sausage (from our local butcher) and roasted veggies (from our CSA) that Erik is making right now.

HOWEVER, I did make cookies last week that got oohs and aahs and were much more local than I realized. Hurray! They’re based on a recipe from Joy the Baker, which is a fantastic blog/book that will fill all your indulgent dessert needs. These peanut butter, bacon, chocolate chunk cookies are free of gluten, dairy, and soy – all no-nos for me at the moment because of migraines and breastfeeding – but I swear that you won’t even notice because peanut butter, BACON, and chocolate. ‘Nuff said.

No pictures because I ate them too quickly. Oops!

Peanut Butter, Bacon, Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Makes 2 dozen

Amount Ingredient Preparation Notes
8 slices Bacon Stillman’s
1 cup Peanut butter Smooth or chunky Teddie
1 1/2 cups Sugar
2 tsp Molasses Blackstrap or regular
1 large Egg Stillman’s
1 tsp Baking soda
Generous pinch Nutmeg Freshly grated; can omit, if you don’t have it on hand.
1/2 cup Chocolate chunks Coarsely chopped (or substitute chocolate chips) Taza Chocolate


Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

  2. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil (helps with clean up) and lay out the bacon strips in a single layer. Roast for 15 minutes or until really crisp. Don’t let it burn, but make sure it’s not chewy. I didn’t cook mine thoroughly enough, so my cookies had a textural disadvantage. Set it aside and let it cool a bit. Don’t turn off the oven.

  3. Mix the peanut butter and 1 cup of sugar together, like you’re creaming regular butter and sugar.

  4. Add in the molasses, egg, baking soda, and nutmeg, and mix well.

  5. Once the bacon is cool enough to handle, chop it coarsely. It’s nice if the bacon and chocolate are about the same size, but don’t go nuts.

  6. Gently mix the bacon and chocolate chunks into the dough.

  7. Put the reserved 1/2 cup of sugar in a wide bowl.

  8. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or coat well with nonstick spray).

  9. Take about 1 tablespoon of dough, compress it in your hands to make a (very) free form ball, roll the ball in sugar, and place on the prepared baking sheet. The dough will be crumbly, so just do your best to smash it into a golf-ball-sized cookie. Repeat with the rest of the dough. The cookies don’t really spread, so you can put them pretty close together and fit all 24 on one baking sheet.

  10. Bake for 10 minutes or until browned a bit.

  11. Immediately after the cookies come out of the oven, use the tines of a fork to add that characteristic peanut butter cookie cross hatch pattern. You won’t get a clear print on each cookie, but it will serve to flatten them out nicely. Let cool for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool down all the way.

]]> http://eatlocal365.com/2014/03/18/hello-again/feed/ 0 Cookies with Dried Cranberries and Cacao Nibs http://eatlocal365.com/2012/12/25/cookies-with-dried-cranberries-and-cacao-nibs/ http://eatlocal365.com/2012/12/25/cookies-with-dried-cranberries-and-cacao-nibs/#comments Tue, 25 Dec 2012 14:55:47 +0000 Lindsay http://eatlocal365.com/?p=6285

Merry Christmas!!

I hope you’re all having a wonderful day – whether celebrating the holiday or just enjoying a day off. We get to see both sides of the family today, so it’s bound to be a good one.

Since we’re traveling this year, I didn’t do a lot of Christmas baking, but I did squeeze in these “Massachusetts shortbread” cookies right before we left home. “Massachusetts” because of cacao nibs from . . . → Read More: Cookies with Dried Cranberries and Cacao Nibs]]> Cran-Nib cookies ready for teatime

Merry Christmas!!

I hope you’re all having a wonderful day – whether celebrating the holiday or just enjoying a day off. We get to see both sides of the family today, so it’s bound to be a good one.

Baked and cooling Cran-Nib cookies

Since we’re traveling this year, I didn’t do a lot of Christmas baking, but I did squeeze in these “Massachusetts shortbread” cookies right before we left home. “Massachusetts” because of cacao nibs from Taza Chocolate and dried local cranberries. “Shortbread” because of the slightly crumbly texture (as opposed to chewy or crisp). They’re a little sweeter than your standard shortbread, but not overly so. The dried cranberries add a nice tang and the cacao nibs are more nutty than chocolate-y. They’re the perfect cookies to accompany an afternoon tea. If you want something a little more luxurious, drizzle some dark chocolate over the top.

Cran-Nib Cookies before baking

I made them small and kind of fat, but you could roll the dough into a log, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for a bit. Once it’s nice and cold, cut thin discs off of it and bake them for 10 minutes or so. This will give you a thinner and bigger cookie. With the assistance of a kitchen scale, you can prep these even before the oven has preheated.

Cran-Nib Cookies

Makes about 45 small cookies

Amount Ingredient Preparation Notes
4 ounces White sugar By weight
2 ounces Brown sugar By weight
6 ounces Butter By weight; room temperature Shaw Farm
1 large Egg Red Fire Farm
1 tsp Vanilla extract Homemade by a friend
Pinch Salt
12 ounces Flour By weight Wild Hive Farm
1/2 cup Dried cranberries Fairland Farm
1/2 cup Cacao nibx Taza Chocolate


Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

  2. Beat the sugars and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.

  4. Add the flour and salt and mix well.

  5. Add the dried cranberries and cacao nibs and mix gently to evenly distribute.

  6. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Roll about 2 teaspoons of dough into a ball. Place it on the pan and flatten it gently with your palm. Repeat with the remaining dough. You should be able to fit about a dozen cookies per pan.

  7. Bake for 20 minutes, rotating the pans in the middle. To rotate the pans, (1) switch the top and bottom pans and (2) turn the pans so that the cookies in the back of the oven are in the front. The cookies should be just a little golden around the edges.

Stacked Cran-Nib cookies before baking

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