Chocolate Cinnamon M&M’s Blondies—12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

I’ve found these new Cinnamon M&M’s a couple weeks ago and wanted to use them, but make sure it was something really good.  And I think I did just that! 

The M&M’s are good with more of a subtle cinnamon taste.  They are good just for munching.  They are perfect in these blondies.  I don’t know if you’ll be able to find the Cinnamon M&M’s (I got them at Target), or if they’ll only be available during the holidays, but try to find them if you can.  If you can’t find them, if you like cinnamon and chocolate, I still think these blondies would be really good with just the addition of ground cinnamon in them.  Try these, they are a fun little twist on blondies.

I have found it is definitely worth it to gather all your ingredients and measure out and prep each thing before beginning.

Here’s what the blondies looked like ready for the oven.

After 35 minutes baking they are ready to cool--

Cut the bars and they are ready to devour.

These are dangerously good!

Chocolate Cinnamon M&M’s Blondies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

Cinnamon Streusel Filling:

1/3 cup light brown sugar

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup (2 oz.) good quality chocolate, chopped (or mini chocolate chips)

Blondies:

½ cup unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup light brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

Scant ½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup (3 ounces) good quality chocolate, chopped (or chocolate chips)

½ cup Cinnamon M&M’s (chopped—optional) plus more for the top

½ cup pecans, toasted and chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8x8 baking pan with foil and spray lightly with cooking spray. (Foil is optional, but my preferred way to then just lift the blondies out of the pan and cut on a cutting board.) Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the 1/3 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, cinnamon and 2 ounces of chocolate. Set aside. In another small bowl, combine the 1 cup flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Since the M&M’s are kind of big (they’re bigger than plain M&M’s, I carefully chopped each one. A little tedious, but didn’t take too long. Plus, the bars are easier to cut without the big M&M’s throughout. You could easily make these blondies with plain M&M’s if you can’t find the cinnamon ones. Chop the chocolate if not using chips.

Beat together the butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until creamy. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Stir in the chocolate, M&M’s and nuts. Press about 2/3 of the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture over the top and press it down a little. (I didn’t quite use all of it.) Dot the rest of the batter over the top. (It will not completely cover the top and that’s okay!) Sprinkle with extra chopped M&M’s if desired.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out without raw batter on it. Cool the blondies in the pan on a wire rack until completely cooled. Remove from pan and peel the foil off the back. Cut into squares.

Package up a few of these to give as a holiday gift for your friends or neighbors.  They are my final pick for the 12th week of The Twelve Weeks of Christmas Cookies!  Anyone else feel a little sad it’s over?  I will still be baking, so I don’t really feel sad.  I do feel like yelling “Ahhhhh” that Christmas is so close!  I should probably do a little shopping for it—soon! ;)  Check out the other 12 Weeks bloggers final goodies!

Special thanks to Brenda at Meal Planning Magic for heading up and leading this group this year.  Great job.  Happy Holidays, Everyone!  May they be sweet for you!

Gingerbread Chocolate Rice Crispy Treats—12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies (Attune Foods Product Review, too)

It’s no secret that I really like Rice Krispies Treats.  When I saw in the store recently a new flavor of marshmallows, I had to get them.  Besides the flavor gingerbread sounded great in marshmallows, aren’t they also just so cute!

A flavor combo that I really like is ginger and chocolate.  So I knew in my playing around that these would ultimately have chocolate.

I was lucky enough recently to be given a bunch of coupons for Attune Foods.  Have you heard of them or seen these?  (Thanks to Anne-Marie from This Mama Cooks for the coupons for Attune Foods!)

There are some other products, too.  But these are the ones I got when I redeemed my coupons (plus a second box of Cocoa Crispy Brown Rice not pictured).  I actually have been buying the Uncle Sam Toasted Whole Wheat Berry Flakes for a while now.  I spotted them in the store (Walmart) in the cereal aisle a few months ago and have been putting them in my homemade granola since.  I love the little flakes and they also have added flaxseed with them. 

I eat granola everyday for breakfast and nonfat Greek yogurt and some fresh fruit.

I can’t wait to try the New Morning Graham Crackers!  But I must tell you—I made these fabulous Gingerbread Chocolate Rice Crispy Treats and used the Cocoa Crispy Brown Rice and they taste great!  I’m always happy to make a treat just a little bit more healthy with certain ingredients and I would totally make rice crispy treats again and use this cereal from Attune Foods.  So lets get back to those Gingerbread Chocolate Treats!

Great mallows, great Cocoa Crispy Brown Rice Cereal, all set.  I did want to bump up the chocolate and ginger flavor so I added lots of chocolate melted in with the marshmallow and with mini chocolate chips throughout and on top as well.  I added more ginger and a couple other spices as well.  Then while I was at Whole Foods (where I found the Attune Foods products), I also found a bunch of different flavored candy canes all with natural coloring and flavorings and lo and behold one was gingerbread flavored.  HAD to get one!

The candy cane tastes great.  I like that it has a little kick from using tumeric and paprika for the coloring.  Check out all the flavors of candy canes at Hammond's Candies, like cranberry, pear, sugar plum and much more!  Each one is 2 ounces! 

I crushed the gingerbread candy cane and sprinkled it over the top of the rice crispy treats.  It adds some great flavor and crunch—but don’t think that is necessary to make these treats.  I’m sure they are still great without the crushed candy cane, so don’t let that stop you. ;)

Gingerbread Chocolate Rice Crispy Treats, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

10 ounces Gingerbread Mallows (you could probably use regular marshmallows and up the ginger and spices if you can’t find these)

6 cups Erehon Cocoa Crispy Brown Rice Cereal (Kelloggs’s Cocoa Krispies would work, too)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 ounces good quality dark chocolate, chopped

1  1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

2/3 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips

2 ounces gingerbread flavored candy cane, crushed

In a large, microwave safe bowl, combine the marshmallows and butter and microwave in 30 second intervals until melted.  Add the chopped chocolate and spices to the hot melted marshmallow and stir until all the chocolate is pretty much melted. 

Stir in the Cocoa Crispy Brown Rice Cereal until all combined.  Spread into a 9 inch square pan that is lined with nonstick foil and spray lightly with cooking spray.  Push it all down evenly with a potato masher.  Sprinkle the top with the crushed candy cane and the mini chocolate chips.  Let set for an hour or so.  Remove from pan holding the foil edges and cut into bars.

     These are perfect for the holidays, so they are my choice for the 11th week of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies.

Hop around the blog hop and check out all the other treats for the second to last week of all this cookie and candy madness!

Mini Dark Chocolate Coconut Almond (Or Not) Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups—12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

I’ve never been so torn over what to call a cookie or which photo to share first, but these cookies take that prize!  Similar to the recent Mini Chocolate Chip Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies, I think I’m on a little kick to see all the different things I can put into these mini chocolate chip cookie cups.  I began dreaming of coconut, so these Mini Dark Chocolate Coconut Almond Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups hailed from the oven.

After making these, I decided these would be my choice for the tenth week of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies.  I think a fun idea for a Christmas cookie plate is to make a bunch of these with unlimited possibilities of candy to put in the middle.  They would be really fun and colorful with all the different Hershey’s Kisses now available or even M&Ms.  I also think Peppermint Patties would be great.  The cookies are baked for 8-9 minutes, then removed from the oven and the chocolate/candy is added for another 2-3 minutes, which makes for perfect chocolate melting but not so much that the candy becomes an unrecognizable puddle of goo. 

It goes to say---

“That sometimes you feel like a nut……..”

“sometimes you don’t.”  I realize that it seems people are either in the “hate coconut” camp, or “love coconut” camp.  So be it.  It’s a winner at our house! 

This recipe for chocolate chip cookies seems to work great with coming out of the mini muffin tin.  I have found that just going around part of the edge of each cup with a sharp knife releases the cookie with no problems.

Mini Dark Chocolate Coconut Almond (Or Not) Chocolate Chip Cookie  Cups, by Katrina, Baking and Boys! 

17 ounces all purpose flour (3  2/3 cups minus 2 tablespoons) (lightly spooned into the measuring cup and swept level with a knife—kitchen scales are best!)

1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons coarse salt

2 ½ sticks (1 ¼ cups or 10 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature

10 ounces (1 ¼ cups, packed tightly) light brown sugar

8 ounces (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

about 15 ounces mini chocolate chips (1 package is 12 ounces and would probably be fine)

Dark Chocolate Candy, such as Dove or Hershey’s Bliss, unwrapped

2 cups sweetened flaked coconut

2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

pinch salt

1/2 cup whole almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Have mini muffin tins ready.  No need to grease.

Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl with a wire whisk. Set aside.

In bowl of electric mixer, cream together butter and sugars until very light, about five minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. With mixer on low, add dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips with rubber spatula.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the coconut, pinch of salt and sweetened condensed milk.

Fill each muffin cup about half full with cookie dough, about a tablespoon of dough per cup.   Indent the center of each cookie cup and fill it with about 2 teaspoons of the coconut mixture.  Top with an almond if desired.   Bake for 8-9 minutes.  Remove from oven and place a chocolate in the center of each one and push down slightly.  Return to oven for 2-3 minutes.  Let cool in muffin tin on wire rack until they are set and cool, you can even set the tin in the fridge for 15 minutes or so after they have cooled about 10 minutes.  With a sharp knife, pry each cookie out of their cup—they come out quite easily, just be careful as the peanut butter cup is still soft.   Feel free to try other chocolate/candies in the center.

For the fun and deliciousness of it, I filled one giant cookie with some of the coconut, almonds and chocolate.  The cookie was probably six inches in diameter.  You could make some of these to give as holiday gifts as well.  They would be the type to wrap individually, rather than put on plates. 

You know you want a bite!  Anyone else starting to really freak out about how fast Christmas is coming now?

Peppermint French Macarons—12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

My Thanksgiving baking is in full swing ahead, but I wanted to share these Peppermint Macarons with you today for the ninth week of 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies.  I’ve been wanting to make macarons again since I made Cocoa Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache back in July.  In trying to decide what flavor to make, I ran across these and decided peppermint was the way to go!

French Macarons seem intimidating, but they really are quite simple to make if you follow the instructions.  I may not have them down perfectly yet, but these turned out well and I was pleased.  I made half of them with a peppermint white chocolate ganache and half of them with a chocolate ganache with some almond extract added.  I actually liked the chocolate ones better.  Following the recipe for the white chocolate ganache on the link, it had too much cream with the chocolate, so it didn’t get quite as thick as I would have liked.  It also didn’t have enough peppermint.  I wish I would have added more and will next time—and use less cream as well!

The cookie itself is just the usual macaron made with almond flour.  I think it would also have been good with some peppermint extract.  But the ones I made with the chocolate ganache with some almond extract added were really good.  It was my friend’s birthday Wednesday, so I packed up most of the chocolate ones and gave them to her.

These would be perfect to give as Christmas gifts.  Who wouldn’t love a gift box full of macarons?  I like that you can make these pretty much any and all colors and flavors you’d like, so you could really kick up the festive holiday look with these.

 

I didn’t give my friend any of the ones with the white chocolate peppermint because it just wouldn’t quite stay firm enough and was squishing out of the cookies too much.  They will get eaten here!

Peppermint Macarons, adapted by Katrina, Baking and Boys! from Foodness Gracious

1 cup (110 grams) powdered sugar

3/4 cup almond flour

2 large egg whites, room temperature

pinch of cream of tartar

1/4 cup (50 grams) superfine sugar (granulated would be fine)

red food coloring (optional)

Sift the powdered sugar and the almond flour using a fine mesh strainer.  Set aside.

Whisk the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the wire attachment until they become foamy.  Add the cream of tartar and beat a little more.  Add the superfine sugar gradually while beating on high until stiff peaks form.  Add the red food coloring if doing so. 

Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold the almond flour/powdered sugar into the egg whites with a spatula, mixing just until all incorporated.  Put the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a large round tip and pipe about a quarter size cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet.  Once they are all piped, if any of a point on the top, tap it down gently with a damp finger.   Leave them sitting at room temperature for about 45 minutes, until you see them become dull on top. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  When the oven is ready, put the baking sheets (this made enough to fill about 1 and a half sheets) in an turn the oven down to 325 degrees.  Leave the door open slightly with a wooden spoon holding it open.  Bake for 10 minutes, turning the sheets after five minutes.  Leave to cool for a couple of minutes when they come out of the oven and then gently lift the whole paper sheet from the tray to the counter. 

White Chocolate Peppermint Ganache

5 ounces white chocolate, chopped or you can use chips

1/4 cup heavy cream (my adjusted amount)

3/4 tablespoon butter

1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract (or to taste)

Heat the cream in a small saucepan until just boiling.  Pour it over the chocolate in another bowl.  Let sit for a couple minutes.  Stir gently with a spatula until smooth.  Add the butter and stir again until smooth and shiny.  Add the extract and stir together.  Let cool and thicken.  Put the ganache in a piping bag (or a plastic zip top bag with a corner snipped off) and pipe a mound of ganache onto one cookie.  Top it with another cookie and continue to finish the remaining ones. 

Dark Chocolate Almond Ganache

4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped or you can use chips

3 tablespoons heavy cream

3/4 tablespoon butter

1/4 teaspoon almond extract (or to taste)

Heat the cream to just boiling, pour over the chocolate and let sit for a minute or two.  Gently stir together with a spatula until smooth.  Add the butter and flavoring and stir until smooth and shiny.  Put the ganache in a pipng bag (or a plastic zip top tab with a corner snipped off) and pipe a mound of ganache onto one cookie.  Top it with another cookie.  Continue to fill other cookies. 

You will probably have some leftover ganache.  I waited until it hardened a little more, then rolled it into balls and tossed it in some crushed peppermint candy for some quick, tasty truffles!  These would also be great for your holiday gifts!  You can roll the balls of ganache in any thing you want—finely chopped nuts, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, colorful sprinkles, etc. 

This post is also being added to Lisa’s Sweets For A Saturday at Sweet As Sugar Cookies.

Check out the other 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies blog hoppers!

Mini Chocolate Chip Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cookies—12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

I’ll let you in on a little secret—I kind of cheated this week for the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies.  I offered to help a friend with cookies for her daughter’s wedding reception that is tonight.  She was going to make hundreds of cookies herself (four different kinds).  I offered to help and so did some others.  These cookies are the ones I’m making 100 cookies for her.  So while I didn’t come up with this week’s cookie, I did use my own chocolate chip cookie recipe, but with mini chocolate chips.  These Mini Chocolate Chip Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cookies are made simply by putting some cookie dough in mini muffin tin cups and baking them until they are almost done.  Then when they have 1-2 minutes left, put a frozen mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in the center then finish baking.  That’s it!

What I really like while making these and deciding this would be what I’d post for the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies is that they really would be perfect to add to your holiday baking/sharing.  A few of these added to a plateful of other goodies would make a perfect addition.  Or if you know someone who is a real chocolate/peanut butter lover, a nice tin full of these would be a great holiday gift!

I adapted my favorite chocolate chip cookies recipe for these.  Those cookies are made especially good by using some cake flour and bread flour instead of just all purpose flour.  I really believe that is one of the things that sets my chocolate chip cookies apart from others.  But for these mini muffin cookies today, I went ahead and just used all purpose flour, which does work just fine for the chocolate chip cookie recipe if you don’t have cake and/or bread flour. 

Mini Chocolate Chip Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

17 ounces all purpose flour (3  2/3 cups minus 2 tablespoons) (lightly spooned into the measuring cup and swept level with a knife—kitchen scales are best!)

1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons coarse salt

2 ½ sticks (1 ¼ cups or 10 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature

10 ounces (1 ¼ cups, packed tightly) light brown sugar

8 ounces (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

about 15 ounces mini chocolate chips (1 package is 12 ounces and would probably be fine)

Miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, about 50-60, unwrapped and frozen

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Have mini muffin tins ready.  No need to grease.

Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl with a wire whisk. Set aside.

In bowl of electric mixer, cream together butter and sugars until very light, about five minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. With mixer on low, add dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips with rubber spatula.

Fill each muffin cup about half full, about a tablespoon of dough per cup.  Bake for 8-9 minutes.  Remove from oven and place a mini Reese’s cup in the center of each one and push down slightly.  Return to oven for 1-2 minutes.  Let cool in muffin tin on wire rack until they are set and cool, you can even set the tin in the fridge for 15 minutes or so after they have cooled about 10 minutes.  With a sharp knife, pry each cookie out of their cup—they come out quite easily, just be careful as the peanut butter cup is still soft.  This recipe makes a lot—4-5 dozen.

 This is week 8 of 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies!  Need I say more?

 

White Chocolate Cranberry Pecan Cookies—12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

I had a hankerin’ for cookies with white chocolate, dried cranberries and pecans.  So I made some.  These would be perfect for the holidays, so they are my pick for the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies this week.

The cookies turned out great and just how I wanted them.  I made up the recipe by tweaking my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and adding the mix-ins I wanted.  Use pistachios instead of pecans for an even more festive cookie!

White Chocolate Cranberry Pecan Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

2 cups all purpose flour (240 grams)

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 plus 1/8 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (5 ounces), room temperature

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar (135 grams)

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar (112.5 grams)

1 large egg, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup (2 ounces) pecans, toasted and chopped

1/2 cup (2 ounces) dried cranberries

4 ounces white chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars together for a couple minutes, scrape the sides of the bowl.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated.  Add the chocolate, cranberries and pecans, stirring them in with a spatula. 

Roll 2 tablespoons of dough into balls (make them smaller if you’d like and adjust the baking time) and place on baking sheet about 2 inches apart.  Bake for 12-13 minutes.  Let cool on baking sheet for a couple minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.  Makes about 3 dozen.

These are just what I wanted.  I tasted one and as soon as they were cooled, I stuck the rest in the freezer for a church activity on Friday, and so I didn’t eat more. ;)   Week 7—did you hear me, week 7 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies.  Kind of like having just made another orthodontist appointment for Scott six weeks from now and the appointment is December 20.  Any way you look at it—the holidays, they’re upon us, Folks.

 

Check out the blog hop for many more ideas for your holidays baking!

Chocolate Caramel Chews—12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

I’m not sure if these should be called candy or a no-bake cookie, but they are good and are my choice for this week’s 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies.  They were super simple to make and really would be something perfect to add to your holiday goodies.  The original recipe are just called Caramel Chews and as written, don’t have chocolate, but while I was rolling them into balls, I couldn’t help but think they should be dipped in chocolate, so they are Chocolate Caramel Chews.  I actually made some of them “plain” (no chocolate) and I covered some of them completely in chocolate and just drizzled some with chocolate as well.

I have a two sided sheet of paper with a bunch of no-bake cookie recipes on it, it looks older, like it was from years ago (70’s/80’s?) and says “Dorothy Dean’s No-Bake Cookies”, recipes from Dorothy Dean’s Taste Testing Kitchen, from The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Washington).  I have no idea where I got this sheet of paper.  I looked online for information about Dorothy Dean and found an obituary (just from this past April) for someone who was dubbed “Dorothy Dean” as she was the head of the Homemaker’s Services for the Spokesman-Review.  The thing that sort of baffles me about this paper full of recipes is that I really have no idea where it came from and even why it just showed up here.  Did my mother give it to me years ago?  Hmmm.  Whatever the case, it’s got a number of fun recipes on it and I do like that it is a good no-bake go-to page.  Some of the recipes are Chinese Ting-a-lings, Skillet Date Cookies, No-bake Brownies, Porcupine Cookies and the Caramel Chews were among them and some others as well.

Here’s the recipe and my only adaption was just adding the chocolate to some of them

Chocolate Caramel Chews

36 caramels, unwrapped

3 tablespoons cream

1 cup crushed corn flakes

1 cup Rice Krispies cereal

1 cup flaked coconut

1 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

4 ounces chocolate, melted (I used almond bark, but any chocolate would be good)

Melt the caramels and cream in the top of a double boiler, stirring frequently until smooth.  Put the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and stir to combine.  Pour the caramel over the mixture and stir well until everything is coated in the caramel.  Shape into 1 inch balls and set on a waxed paper lined baking sheet.  Melt the chocolate in 20 second intervals in the microwave in a glass dish, stirring in between each time.   Dip the chews one at a time in the chocolate and spoon it over to completely cover them.  Set on a lined baking sheet until chocolate is hardened.   Put a small amount of the melted chocolate in a plastic zip top bag and snip off a little corner and drizzle chocolate over some of the chews.  Optional—set each in a mini muffin paper liner to serve them.  Makes about 3 dozen.

I love the combination of flavors in these and the texture with the crunch from the corn flakes, Rice Krispies and nuts and the chewiness from the caramel and coconut.  If you don’t like coconut, you could leave it out and just add an extra cup of Rice Krispies.  I think it would even be good to just use all Rice Krispies.  These make a great 1-2-3 bite treat!

Try them with your upcoming holiday goodies!  This is Week 6 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies!

Healthier Mini Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies—12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

The cookie I’m sharing with you this week for 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies is one that came about when I was just having fun throwing things together with a peanut butter and oatmeal cookie in mind and I didn’t even know if these would turn out.  I think they turned out great and decided to share it here for reference when I want to make them again.  These  Healthier Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies just happen to be whole grain, lower in fat and they have flax meal (and some water) in place of the egg. 

I’ve never used flax instead of egg before, but wanted to try it and these seemed like a great cookie to try it with.  I would never know these were missing an egg.  I wouldn’t even know these had whole wheat (pastry) flour.  They are wholesome with oats and also use a natural peanut butter and Bestlife butter.  I didn’t think of it in time to try some alternatives for the sugar, but I think I’ll do that another time for sure.

After making the dough, I decided to make them quite small and then thought it would be fun to put a little chocolate M&M in the center of each one.  I think I started thinking about small cookies after seeing Anna’s recent post for these mini peanut butter chocolate chip toffee cookies at Cookie Madness.  I have made mini cookies before and love most of all that there are so many.  That is what I think makes them perfect for holiday cookie trays.  A few on each plate go a long way!

I made a smaller batch (since I wasn’t sure if the amounts of things I was using was going to work out) and still got about 40 cookies.  These are perfect one-bite cookies, though they work in 2-3 bites for me.  You could add some mini chocolate chips instead of the M&M or Reese’s Pieces would be good, too.  They are small enough that I would just put one on top like I’ve done with the M&M.  If you left the chocolate out (which I did on some and they were great), would these be vegan?  I’m not sure about the Bestlife butter, I believe it is vegan, but I’m not sure.  I also made these in a bowl, stirring by hand, easily without having to use an electric mixer.

 

Healthier Whole Grain Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

4 tablespoons Bestlife buttery baking sticks (or another butter substitute), softened

4 tablespoons natural peanut butter (64 grams)

1/3 cup granulated sugar (

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon flax meal (in a small bowl, combine the flax meal and water)

3 tablespoons water

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1  1/4 cups old fashioned oats

1/2 cup M&Ms or other candy or mini chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with Silpat or parchment paper.  Set aside.

In a bowl, combine the Bestlife butter and the peanut butter and whisk together until combined.  Add the sugars and stir until well incorporated.  Add the vanilla and flax/water mixture.  Next add the remaining ingredients—flour, baking soda, salt and oats, and stir with a  wooden spoon until well mixed.

Taking about a teaspoonful of dough, roll it into a ball with your hands.   Set them on a baking sheet (probably 20-24 cookies per sheet).  Flatten each ball of dough just a little and press a candy in to each one.  Bake for 12 minutes for crisp-chewy cookies or for only 10 minutes for a softer-chewy cookie.   Let sit a couple minutes on the baking sheets, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.  Makes 40-48 cookies.

It’s week 5 already!  Are you ready for the holidays?  Our weather is getting colder so it’s just a matter of a few shorts weeks and we’ll all be jingle belling—ready or not!