Mocha Macaroons. . . I guess.

Honestly, I'm not sure what to call these cookies. Lets just say that I found a recipe for Mocha Macaroons and since I didn't have all of the ingredients I did a little improvising. They didn't turn out like they were supposed to exactly, but they are really good. They're more on the sophisticated side as they are not overpoweringly sweet and though I haven't passed them by Sanna yet, I'm pretty sure she won't like them. Perhaps if I had omitted the coffee and maybe dipped them in melted chocolate-then, perhaps she would like them-but thats not the point. Not everybody can like everything. :) 

 

I made these gluten-free so that my Dad can enjoy them. Its really easy though to turn back into gluten cookies so if you want you can just replace the amount of different flours that I used with one amount of all-purpose flour. 

  

As I said, I made these gluten free and as I said before that, I did some improvising. And since the original recipe called for 2 cups of almond meal and I only had 1 cup, well, I looked around and somehow garnered up 1 cup of a mixture of flours: coconut flour, rice flour, (at least I was pretty sure it rice flour) and teff flour...I'm not even sure what that is but I used it. :-\ 

So I mixed together egg whites and *teff flour and danced/sang along as Jonathan Foreman told me that I'm original. Yep. And so are these cookies. 

Mocha Macaroons..... or whatever you want to call them. 

The stuff you start with:

2 egg whites – unbeaten

2 cups powdered sugar

{1 cup almond meal

1/4 cup teff flour

1/4 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup rice flour} 

Or just 2 cups all-purpose flour.

(However, I guarantee you that the consistency will be different and may not turn out like mine.)

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 tablespoon instant ground espresso or coffee granules

Pinch salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

What you do with that stuff to make some really good stuff:

Preheat oven to 395 degrees. Prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix until well blended. If you have a sticky, chocolaty mess then it’s perfect. Wet your hands with water and pull up a ball about the size of a small walnut, and place on prepared pans leaving at least one inch between each cookie. You will probably have to re-wet your hands several times. If you have the consistency that I had-then you'll want to use the back of a spoon and press down gently before placing in the oven.

Bake macaroons/thingamajiga's for 10 minutes. 

Let cool on the pan for about 1 or 2 minutes then remove to a rack to finish cooling.

 *I have just been informed (and no, not by Wikipedia) that teff flour is a kind of flour used over in Ethiopia. Only just recently has it become available to the US. Our sponsor child uses this flour everyday--therefore this cookie is dedicated to my Compassion sister, Atbiyanesh. <3

-Ry R.W.

Chocolate Caramel Chunk Cookies

 This past Monday the other half of the family came over. That is what it feels like, anyway, whenever the Slacks come visit Wilbertopia. It always involves lots of talking, laughing, and music...but honestly, none of that would be the same if it didn't include some amazing food :).



However, since some of the adults were on one of those fancy green liquid diets and getting really healthy, it was up to the kids to make dessert if we wanted it. So we did. The vote for something chocolate was unanimous, but we had some yummy looking caramel cubes on hand too. So Mariah chopped those up and we added them to a chocolate cookie batter. We cooked them low and slow at 300 for 22 minutes, and ate them while still warm out of the oven. The chocolate cookies were crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, and then when you bit into the gooey caramel....it was heavenly.

I think it made about 36 cookies, and they disappeared FAST. Of course there were all four of us girls (yeah we remembered it was four, not three), plus my two other little sisters, and 3 boys. Then we did send the last few home with the Slacks...but I think that comes down to about 3 cookies per person. At least. Haha.

And there are all of us. Definitely a fun night. You should make these cookies and get a taste of what it was like. The recipe is below, but first I'd like to thank Mariah, Maryah, and Brooke for letting me do this post, and also apologize that this is my first one. Unfortunately, college does tend to get in the way of culinary creativity.

Ingredients:

2 and 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 sticks salted butter, just softened

3 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup unwrapped caramel cubes, cut into quarters

Go for it:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
• In a medium bowl, combine flour, soda, salt, and cocoa powder. Mix well and set aside.
• In a large bowl, blend sugars with an electric mixer at medium speed. Add butter and beat to form a grainy paste. Scrape down sides of bowl, then add eggs and vanilla. Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.
• Add all but 1/2 cup of the flour mixture and blend until just combined. Toss that remaining 1/2 cup with the caramel cubes before adding them to the batter and combining (the flour keeps them from sticking together). 
• Drop dough by rounded tablespoons 1 and a 1/2 inches apart onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes (our oven took 22). Remove from oven and let cookies sit for about one minute, or as soon as you can move them to a cooling rack without the them falling apart. 
• Eating them while they are warm is especially good, but they keep for several days in an airtight container. We haven't tried it, but they seem like they would freeze well too.

~mattea

Apple Cookies with Maple Glaze

After a weekend filled with tons of fun, weddings, friends and laughter, you can imagine what Monday was like.... so, to help ease the suddenness of 'nothing to do' I made some apple cookies. 

*Hallelujah chorus*

                                                             

On a dreary October 3rd...they were perfect. A seasonal favorite for sure. So, I don't have much to say, just that they're incredibly good and you should make some. 

The end. ;) 

*Apple Cookies with Maple Glaze

1 stick butter
1 1/3 cups brown sugar, packed
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
About 2 cups apples, peeled, cored, and finely diced (that would be two large apples)
1/4 cider

Maple Glaze


2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons half-and-half
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Directions  

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar together. Add egg and mix until mixture is creamy. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg together. Add about half of the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and mix well. Add apples and combine thoroughly before adding the remaining flour mixture and cider. 

Bake rounded tablespoons on a prepared cookie sheet for 9-10 minutes. While baking, make your glaze by mixing all the ingredients together until smooth and glossy. Remove golden brown cookies from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Glaze warm cookies with a generous drizzle.

*The original recipe is from www.mrsfieldssecrets.com, I simply adapted it a bit.

Enjoy!

~Maryah

Monday Meringues

I've been making meringues for a few years and they never seem to fail...except for that one time, but that doesn't really count. :)

The critical part in this recipe is to make sure you whip the whites long enough or you'll end up with floppy meringues, remember that one time meringues failed me, ahem, I mean, I failed them?

What you want after adding the sugar.

This guy looks like an elephant, doesn't he???

Meringues are easy to make and even easier to eat!

Ingredients:

3 egg whites

1/8 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2/3 cup white sugar

1 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup chocolate chips (I like the semisweet chips for this recipe)

Go:

1. Preheat oven 300˚ F.

2. Combine egg whites, cream of tartar, and vanilla. Beat until the whites form soft peaks. If you don't beat them good enough here then there is no saving them later on.

3. Slowly add the sugar, about a tablespoon at a time; beat until you have some beautiful stiff peaks and the mixture becomes glossy.

4. Gently fold in the cocoa and chocolate chips til nicely combined. It is best done with a rubber spatula.

5. Drop the mixture onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. You can make them all uniform and everything but I prefer freestyle. :)

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Store in an airtight container, they're even better the next day. Enjoy!

~Maryah