Coconut Macaroons

Yummy! These were super easy and are super yummy…so a win-win. I have never made macaroons like this before. I seem to remember a no-bake version but since this contains egg whites it was necessary to bake them.
INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup (5 large) egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
10 oz sweetened coconut flakes
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 oz melted semi-sweet chocolate for drizzling

Combine the egg whites, sugar, salt and coconut in a saucepan and cook on medium-low heat, stirring often.

When the mixture comes together and loses its watery consistency remove it from the heat and add the vanilla. Mix well.

Allow mixture to cool completely (I put it in the fridge).

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Drop tablespoons of mixture onto a silicone lined baking pad (these will stick! So this is vital).

Bake for approximately 30 minutes until edges are golden brown. Cool

Melt chocolate in the microwave and drizzle on top of macaroons

When I make them again, which I will, I think I will reduce the sugar to ¼ cup and increase the coconut a little. These came out quite sweet and a little gooey. They were good but could have been a touch drier and the sweetened coconut didn’t need so much sugar to sweeten them.

NUTIRIONAL INFO
Servings: 19
Serving Size: 2 macaroons
WW Points: 3 pt
Calories: 105
Fat: 5.5 g
Protein: 2 g
Carb: 13 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sugar: 12 g
Sodium: 15 mg

Chocolate Turtle Cookies

Would you believe these are relatively diet friendly???

Further to my "Curse of the KitchenAid Mixer Post", I've decided I need to find a way to keep up with healthy eating and still be able to bake on the regular. These cookies were quite good and only 2 points per serving/cookie. I will change up a few things next time around but let me first recap what this round contained:

• 1 cup sifted pastry flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup margarine (not ideal for baking but a bit more diet friendly than butter)
• 1/4 cup low fat cream cheese
• 1 large egg white
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Caramel candies
• Pecan halves

So first of all I chose the wrong caramel candies. I stood in the candy aisle for a very long time (a dangerous place for me) debating over two different types of caramel candies; Mackintosh Toffee and Kerr Caramels. I chose the Mackintosh Toffee. This was a mistake because its so hard. It did melt while baking but it just sets right back up again once it cools. The softer Kerr Caramels would have been a much better choice. I also would have chilled the batter for a lot longer than I did. It was a really sticky batter and I ended up with more on my fingers than on the cookie sheet.

I look forward to tweaking this recipe again in the near future. It definitely has potential and they seem to keep quite well. This means they make great lunch additions.

Lets Talk Cookies

Although the previous post’s cookie picture might look good, the actual cookies were not. There was nothing actually wrong with them, I used the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip package (well, actually we did end up tossing them after a suspected food poisoning incident between Clutterbuck and I the night I made them. However, the PC Blue Menu Chicken Pie was the prime suspect, but that’s a different story). No, these cookies turned out just fine….but they just weren’t….great. This made me start to think about all the different chocolate chip cookies I have had in my 27 years, which is A LOT! What was it about these cookies that I didn’t like and how were they different from other cookies I have liked.

To start, these cookies were very “cakey”, I prefer a chewy cookie (think grocery store bakery cookies). I also started to realize that I’ve never actually tasted any homemade cookies that were similar to the ones you buy in the bakery section at the grocery store, or another example would be Mrs. Fields cookies. Generally, I find homemade chocolate chip cookies are either thinner and crispier or puffy with a texture closer to cakes. We all try the same trick and pull them out of the oven before they are done to keep them a little soft, but that only works while they are fresh. Put them in a container for tomorrow and they are either cold undercooked cookies, or set up cakey cookies. This is not what I was going for.

So I set out to find ingredients more conducive to a chewy cookie. Here’s what I came up with:

• Sifted pastry flour. This has a higher gluten content than all purpose flour. Bread flour is even higher but I didn’t want to buy a big thing of bread flour.
• Melted butter. The heat of the melted butter helps the gluten to do its thing while mixing
• Brown sugar, the darker the better. Brown sugar has molasses in it which definitely helps create a chewy cookie (or anything)
• 2 eggs with one egg white removed. Yes, its true this is not a diet cookie, but egg whites actually dry out batter. I subbed in 2 tablespoons of milk as well to help moisten everything up
• Chilled dough. This is key for so many reasons. The primary one is that it will prohibit your cookies melting into flat puddles on your cookie sheet, but it also gives the butter time to set back up and makes it a lot easier to roll the cookies out onto the cookie sheet
• Check the cookies every 5 minutes. I ended up baking them for only 10 minutes and removed them only once the edges started to brown. I let them cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes and moved them to a rack to cool. They were not undercooked, but were not overly browned or dried out either

I apologize that I have no picture because these were such a screaming success. Although, Clutterbuck’s only comment about them was “these have soooo much chocolate” which completely threw me off, because for a man who can eat an entire giant Toblerone bar in one sitting, I didn’t think anything could have too much chocolate. Anyway, there were other opinions and all were positive. These were, hands down, EXACTLY what I was trying to achieve. They were chewy and yummy and stayed that way for the week that it took to devour them.

For those that are interested here was the final recipe:

2 sticks unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.

Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning.

The Curse of the KitchenAid Mixer

Some words of wisdom folks....if you are on a diet, or even thinking about being on a diet, DO NOT buy a KitchenAid Mixer!! There will no longer be anything standing in the way of your cravings for cookies, pasta, carrot cake....the list goes on....and on...and on....

Every recipe I browse, every ingredient I come across, every appetizing picture I see, they all get catalogued in my head as the next potential project for me and my lovely mixer.

Most recently, I was at the grocery store picking up a few random ingredients. The most important was a big bag of flour to embark on my pasta making project. I couldn't help myself from perusing the chocolate chips. There are so many different kinds now. Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, peanut butter, caramel, M&Ms, chocolate chunks. I think I remember a time where only semi-sweet chocolate chips and those bars of bakers chocolate existed in this section.

Anyway, fast forward to check out. Who do you think has a nice big bag of Chocolate Chunks tucked under their arm? That's right...yours truly. OK well it wasn't tucked under my arm, that would melt them and not in a yummy kind of way...but you get the idea.

Holiday Baking

As mentioned in my earlier post, I got really lucky and didn't have to cook anything for any of the THREE Christmas dinners we were part of.

It didn't seem right so I decided to bake a few different items and gift them in tins (who doesn't love a good re-usable tin).

Blueberry Oat Bars

**The recipe calls for raspberry preserves but I opted to use blueberry pie filling.

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

**affectionately dubbed "nipple cookies" by Clutterbuck

Oreo Truffles

**Probably the easiest things to make and people go crazy for them!!! I called them Chocolate Cheesecake Truffles because it sounded much more gourmet than Oreo Truffles.

Marshmallows...I MADE marshmallows.


I love making things that sound so fancy or gourmet. Who makes marshmallows? They are such anomalies. You can buy them in the store for so cheap but who would ever think to actually make them from scratch...surely you would need to be some fancy candy maker or something to attempt that. Nope, I'm here to tell you that its even easier than the Oreo truffles.

I made them because I've been off work all week and Clutterbuck has been working. I've had lots of time to menu plan and satisfy my baking bug. I decided to make these S'mores for New Years Eve and the marshmallow recipe was also on the site...why not??

They are currently at the "let rest at room temperature for 12 hours stage" but I have a good feeling about them (how can you go wrong with 2 cups of sugar and vanilla extract?).

I will report on how the S'mores and the rest of the food for New Years goes.

Happy New Year to everyone!!! Hope you all have a great New Years Eve!