Friday, January 02, 2009

"Unwanted" Pretzels and Chocolate Cookies and Samoas? (Coconut Date Cookies)

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Today I made some yummy and interesting cookies that are chock full of chocolate and white vanilla flavored coated pretzels as well as some chopped up Palmer's chocolate.  I don't get it?  At Easter time, the boys always get chocolate bunnies from the Easter Bunny and they always gobble them up.   Santa gave them these chocolate North Pole Pals for Christmas---

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Cute, huh?  Silly Santa!  Doesn't know anything?  For some reason they decided they didn't like them.  Whatever.  But I decided not to just throw them away.  I chopped up a cute polar bear and a sweet little penguin

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Sorry cute penguin.  I made my favorite cookie dough and added 7 ounces of Palmer's chopped North Pole Pals, about 12 ounces of chocolate covered pretzels (mostly white) and for good measure, 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips.  We had a lot of chocolate covered pretzels that were given to us this year.  Also in the past, the boys gobble them up.  Nope, this time they decided they didn't want them.  So I chopped those up, too.

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Into the dough they went.  I thought the dough was SO good with the bit of saltiness from the pretzels and they were definitely sweet enough!

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Okay, I admit it.  I really like chocolate chip cookie dough!  There, I said it.  (I didn't really taste THAT much of it, I'm trying to be good!)  But sometimes, I'd rather have dough than a cookie!  Sigh.

And they cookies--GREAT!  Anyone (local) want some?  Come and get them! ; )  I'm proud of myself that some great things didn't go to waste, now if I could just figure out how to get the cookies to NOT go to my waist! ha

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Wanting to bake the other day, but also wanting to find a more healthy treat, I found these great cookies on Tina's great blog, Carrots 'N' Cake. (Check out her amazing, healthy, fun blog!)  She mentioned that her husband thought they tasted like the Girl Scout Samoa cookies, without the chocolate.  So since they are pretty healthy, I drizzled some  melted 60% dark chocolate over them and they do taste a bit like the Samoas I remember.  Great little snack cookies.  Tina made 12 bigger cookies with her recipe, but I made them pretty small and got about 36.  I think they are gluten free and could be made vegan pretty easily, too.

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Coconut Date Cookies (Samoas), from Tina at Carrots 'N' Cake, adapted ever so slighty

1 cup pitted dates (approximately 15-20 whole dates; make sure measuring cup is full)

1/4 cup oats

1/2 cup shredded coconut (I used unsweetened)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup brown sugar (Tina used 1/4 cup Splenda brown sugar) (I used brown sugar) 

1 tbsp canola oil

1/4 cup soy milk (I used skim milk)

Put all ingredients in a food processor and blend well until there are no large date pieces.  Make balls of dough with your hands in the desired size and put them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  Let cookies cool a few minutes on baking sheet, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.  

For Samoas-Melt 1/4 cup of chocolate chips  (I used 60% cacao dark chocolate) in the microwave.  Pour the melted chocolate into a zip top plastic bag, squeeze the air out of it and zip it up.  Cut a little hole in one corner of the bag and drizzle chocolate over the cookies.  Let set in a cold place.

Thanks, TinaGreat cookies!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a fabulous idea. I always have a plethora of uneaten treats left over after a holiday. I will do the same.

Clumbsy Cookie said...

That poor bear and poor penguin! But some sacrifices are needed for the cookies, lol! I bet they were wonderful with the pretzels, I love that stuff. Were they crunchy still? I'm with you, just the dough would make me happy! And the healthy ones don't look bad either ;)!

Tina said...

Thanks for the "shout out" on your blog! Your cookies look delicious! :)

Becky said...

You are my cookie guru(is that how you spell it?), I would not have dared to put such a yummy hodge podge of goodies together in a cookie. They look delish!

The Peanut Butter Boy said...

So tempting... These cookies of yours are deadly, glad they're not in my house!

Carla said...

Poor Mr. Penguin :( I guess chocolate bunnies taste better? haha Great idea using them in cookies instead of wasting them.

Sarah Beck said...

Hey Katrina--I made your cookie dough truffles and sent them to the neighbors over Christmas and everyone loves them. Thanks! Hope you and your family are well

Sarah

Pamela said...

Way to use up those left overs! Brilliant (and tasty!) idea.

Unknown said...

Those top ones look good! And I saw Tina's cookies and thought they looked good. Don't know what I think about the dates though...her review and yours make me a little let nervous. Though, I don't like Lara bars, so if they taste like that, hmmmm...Love the change to make them samoas!

Judy said...

CCC are my fave too and yours look so good. Great idea to chop up the unwanted candy. Wish I lived closer to get some.

Beth said...

I love all your cookie concoctions!

Unknown said...

The reason the boys didn't like those candies is they have a weird taste for the first bite when you bite into them. It's a perfume-y taste. For some reason, after the second or third bite the weird taste is gone. I just googled them to see if anyone else had noticed how weird they taste.