Gluten Free Zucchini Cookies (Also Vegan!)

I took my Grandma Tiny's Zucchini Cookies recipe and decided I needed to make it gluten free so I could enjoy them again.  It’s zucchini season!  These are perfect for the abundance of zucchini and pretty simple to make—you don’t even need a mixer.  I changed up the sugars a little so I wasn’t just using refined sugar and I used grape seed oil.  All changes I made worked perfectly and I’m happy that these are healthier and gluten free and they just happen to be vegan, so Parker was happy, too.  Sometimes the changes I make to things (especially when I make them gluten free AND vegan) make baked goods a bit dry and crumbly.  I’m still working on that issue.  But these cookies turned out great.  Parker even noticed and mentioned it.  And Kevin ate quite a few of them and he usually doesn’t eat something he knows is gluten free or vegan.  Win!

What more—since they’re vegan—you can eat the cookie dough!  (Not that in my past I’ve never eaten raw cookie dough of any kind.) ; )



Gluten Free Zucchini Cookies (They’re vegan, too!), by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

In a medium sized bowl, stir together with a whisk: (No electric mixer needed.)
1//2 cup organic cane sugar
¼ cup organic coconut sugar
¼ cup organic agave nectar (Note—I’ve used 1 cup of brown sugar before instead of the 3 sweeteners listed)
1 cup grated zucchini (I use the fine grater)
1/2 cup organic grape seed oil (or any other oil of choice)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Sift together in another medium sized bowl:
2 cups gluten free flour blend (I used Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 blend)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon fresh nutmeg
1/2 cup toasted pecans, chopped (or walnuts)—optional
1/3 cup Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips—optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until combined.  Stir in the nuts and raisins.
Drop by spoonfuls on parchment lined baking sheets.  Bake for 12 minutes.  Remove cookies to wire rack to cool.

Life is crazy and busy and probably a little boring around here.  I’m still here.  We had a great summer with lots of fun trips and everyone is happy to be back in school.  Shh, probably me more than anyone.

Gluten Free Apricot Betty Bars, Gluten Free Apple Betty Bars, Or Any Fruit Oat Bars

Gluten Free Apricot Betty Bars (no refined sugar)

These fruity oat bars are so good.  You must try them.  I’ve adapted a recipe for Apple Betty Bars and made them gluten free and used coconut sugar and some raw honey so they are also free of any refined sugars.

You’d never know it.  I know I keep saying that.  But really, I’m serious!

I made a quick apricot jam with just apricots and some agave nectar.

You don’t have to be limited by apricot jam only.  I also made a quick apple filling.

Gluten Free Apple Betty Bars (no refined sugar)

My 16 year old son is vegan right now.  So I also made a version of these using coconut oil instead of butter and that is also the reason I made the apricot jam with agave instead of honey (which is my preference).  They turned out beautiful.  Tasted great, too.  But the ones with butter—BETTER!  Everything is better with butter, I’m a believer. ; )

Gluten Free Vegan Apricot Betty Bars (no refined sugar)

The vegan version is perfect for serving the day you make them.  The coconut oil makes them not stay as sturdy and they are pretty soft after the first day, so just don’t plan for leftovers.

The gluten free ones with butter are delicious for days after, so they are perfect for packaging up as grab and go treats.

Gluten Free Apricot Betty Bars, Gluten Free Apple Betty Bars or Any Fruit Bars, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

2 cups gluten free flour blend (xanthan gum included), Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 is great

1 ½ cups gluten free quick oats

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup coconut sugar

¼ cup pure maple syrup

1 cup butter or for vegan version use coconut oil, melted

1 cup Easy, Sugar Free Apricot Jam* or any fruit preserves/jam of your choice

Apple Filling**

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk together in a large bowl, the gluten free flour, oats, baking powder and salt. Add the coconut sugar and maple syrup and combine well. Stir in the melted butter or oil until mixture is all wet and combined. Press half the mixture (about 14 ounces) into a ¼ sheet pan (9x13 cake pan works, the short sides of the sheet pan are great, no need to butter or spray pan). Bake for 15 minutes.

*Easy, Sugar Free Apricot Jam, by Katrina, Baking and Boys! (Vegan, No Refined Sugar)

8 cups apricots, cut into pieces, pits removed

½ cup agave (raw honey is great, too, for non-vegan version)

¼ teaspoon almond extract (optional)

Add the apricots, agave and almond extract to a blender. Blend until pureed. Pour into a large saucepan and cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes until it thickens a bit. Pour into glass jars and seal. Store in the refrigerator (it is not sealed for shelf storage but will last a good couple weeks in the refrigerator). Makes about 4 ½ pints.

Spread one cup of the jam evenly over the partially baked bars. Scatter the remaining crumb batter evenly over the top of the jam. Bake for 25-35 minutes until nicely browned. Cool. When cooled, the bars should slide out of the pan nicely or you can cut them into pieces and remove each from the pan. Let them sit for a few minutes on a double paper towel to absorb an excess butter/oil (I have found this is sometimes not necessary, see what you think).

**Apple Filling

4 apples, peeled, cored and cut into cubes

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, or to taste

¼ cup raw honey or agave for vegan

¼ cup water

Put all ingredients in a saucepan and cook for 20-30 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Mash or blend with an emersion blender, leaving some chunks of apple. Makes 1 ½ to 2 cups. Spread evenly over first layer of oat bars.

These would be great with any jam or fruit filling.  I want to try raspberry or blackberry.  I love the hint of tart.  The apricots provide that, too.  What would be your favorite fruit filling?

Orange Agave Chocolate Chip Cookies, Plus Two More(All Gluten Free and Vegan)—Secret Recipe Club

I get to share three different cookies with you today for Secret Recipe Club.  I only picked one recipe from my assigned blog, Love & Flour, but I liked this Orange Agave Chocolate Chip Cookie so much that I played around with it and made three different versions using the basics of this recipe.  Of course, I love that they are made with agave for the sweetener.   Then I just made them gluten free with an all purpose gluten free pastry flour.

I love the texture of these cookies, they are almost a little sandy shortbread-like.  Oh, they are also vegan, I like that, too.  People who eat vegan are on to something—you can safely eat all cookie dough!  Instead of using canola oil, which was called for in the recipe, I used coconut oil.  And I used Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips.  These are so easy to whip up in one bowl (without a mixer), especially since I halved Leandra’s recipe, that I decided to try a couple other versions of the cookie.  All three are really good to me!

Orange Agave Chocolate Chip Cookies (Gluten Free and Vegan), by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Love & Flour

1/3 cup agave nectar

5 tablespoons (70 grams) coconut oil

1/2 tablespoon ground flax

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon orange extract

zest of 1 mandarin orange (or 1-2 teaspoons orange zest)

1  1/2 cups gluten free pastry flour

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Cream together in a bowl the agave and coconut oil until well combined.  Add the flax, extracts, and zest and stir together.  Then add the flour (you can use regular all purpose flour and not make these gluten free), xanthan gum, baking soda and salt.  Stir together until well mixed into a cookie dough.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Roll dough into 1-inch sized balls and place on baking sheet.  Bake for 12 minutes.  Let cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before moving to a wire rack to finish cooling.  Makes 12-15 cookies.

*Raspberry Version.  Leave out the orange extract and add 1/2 cup freeze dried raspberries.

See, you know you want to just eat the dough.  The second time I made them, I left out the orange extract and zest and just added some freeze dried raspberries to the dough.  Delicious!  I love the combination of raspberry and chocolate.

Then I had the thought yesterday to try the cookies with honey instead of agave and replacing some of the flour with cocoa powder—double chocolate.  I really couldn’t tell you which of these I like the most. Here’s the quick recipe for the double chocolate cookies, since I changed the recipe a bit.

Double Chocolate Chip Gluten Free Vegan Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1/3 cup raw honey

5 tablespoons (70 grams) coconut oil

1/2 tablespoon ground flax

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup gluten free pastry flour

1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

5 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup organic semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Cream together in a bowl the honey and coconut oil until well combined.  Add the flax and vanilla and stir together.  Then add the flour (you can use regular all purpose flour and not make these gluten free, if you do, you don’t need the xanthan gum), xanthan gum, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.  Stir together until well mixed into a cookie dough.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Roll dough into 1-inch sized balls and place on baking sheet.  Bake for 12 minutes.  Let cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before moving to a wire rack to finish cooling.  Makes 12-15 cookies.

I think I liked the dough for these double chocolate cookies the best, at least I think I tasted it the most. ; )  I forgot to take a picture of the dough for these.

I sure enjoyed “snooping around” Leandra’s blog, Love & Flour for Secret Recipe Club this month.  So many great recipes on all these wonderful blogs.  Really enjoying being a part of Secret Recipe Club.  Check out all the other good stuff people have made this month.

 

 

Healthy Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles

These tasty, perfectly peanut buttery and dark chocolaty treats are just the thing for a little sweet bite when you need one.  I love that they are actually pretty healthy and you could easily make them gluten free. You might think peanut butter and chocolate ARE gluten free, but I happened to use Naturally More Peanut Butter which has a few added ingredients, like flax seeds.  The ingredient list also includes wheat germ, so these aren’t gluten free, but you could use any natural peanut butter you’d like and most are just peanuts and salt.

I can’t even take credit for this and I’m sure there have been lots of chocolate peanut butter truffles on the internet, but I was/am happy enough with how these turned out that I needed to share them with all of you.  I actually got the recipe from the Coconut Recipes website.  It was a newly submitted recipe by a reader, Megan from Glendale, California.  I liked that these have coconut flour and coconut oil.  I have a bag of coconut flour that I’ve been wanting to find more things to use it up with.

These couldn’t have been more simple to make.  Some natural peanut butter was mixed with just a touch of agave nectar (you could also use honey) and some coconut flour.  After forming the peanut butter mixture into balls, they are frozen for a short time and then dipped in melted dark chocolate.  That’s it.  You could easily make a bunch of these for a party or as gifts.

Healthy Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Coconut Recipes

6 tablespoons (96 grams) natural peanut butter

1 tablespoon agave nectar (or honey)

pinch of salt (if using unsalted peanut butter)

1/4 cup coconut flour

3 ounces dark chocolate

1/2 teaspoon coconut oil

Line a baking sheet with waxed paper.  Mix together in a medium sized bowl the peanut butter, agave, salt and coconut flour.  (This easily mixes together with a spoon—no need for a mixer!)  Once it’s all combined, form the peanut butter mixture into teaspoon-sized balls.  Set on the waxed paper and freeze for 30 minutes.

Melt the chocolate and coconut oil either in a glass microwave-safe bowl or in a double boiler on the stove over medium heat.  Stir until melted and smooth.  Let sit for a few minutes so it’s not too hot before dipping each of the peanut butter balls into the melted chocolate.  Set each one on a fork, set it down in the chocolate and spoon more melted chocolate over it until covered.  Tap the edge of the fork on the bowl to let any of the excess chocolate drip off into the bowl. 

Set each one on the waxed paper and let sit until the chocolate hardens (it starts to immediately because the peanut butter is frozen).  You can also set the sheet full in the refrigerator to set up completely when they are all finished.  This smaller recipes make about 12 truffles, you could easily double the recipe.

This post is being added to Lisa’s Sweets for a Saturday over at her delicious blog, Sweet as Sugar Cookies!

 

Healthy Banana Chocolate Chunk Oat Walnut Cookies (aka—Choconut Monkey Cookies)

I’m kind of done with this already.  Kevin loves the snow blower his sister gave us and loves how perfectly it slices the snow.  Me and Chip aren’t loving the snow too much. ;)

In my quest to make some slightly healthier treats right now, today I made some pretty darn good and healthy banana  chocolate chunk oat walnut cookies.  I’ve never really met a banana-anything that I didn’t like.   So yes, these are healthier, and kind of cakey, like most banana things are, but they are good and they’re a treat so that works for me.

Healthy Banana Chocolate Chunk Oat Walnut Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys! (aka Choconut Monkey Cookies, alias name by my mom) ;)

1  1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1  1/2 cups quick oats (old fashioned work, too!)

1 teaspoon Kosher salt (if using table salt, cut it to about 3/4 teaspoon)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/4 cup coconut oil (vegetable or canola oil would work, too)

1/4 cup agave nectar

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 large egg

1  1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1 large or 2 medium)

4 ounces  60% cacao chocolate chips, chopped

1/3 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Whisk together flour, oats, salt, and baking soda in a bowl.

Add applesauce, coconut oil, agave and sugar to the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat until incorporated.  Add egg and vanilla and mix well.  Mix in the mashed banana.  Add dry ingredients and mix just until combined.  Stir in chocolate and walnuts. 

Scoop about 2 tablespoonfuls per cookie onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.  Bake about 10 minutes.  Let cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes.  Remove cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.  Store in airtight container.  Makes about 3 dozen.

These are a great treat if you love banana and are looking for something a little more healthy right now, like I am.

Whole Wheat Strawberry Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

I bought some rhubarb at our local farmer's market last Saturday as I've seen many bloggers use it lately for some yummy looking treats.  I haven't really had rhubarb all that much in my life, but I had this hankering for that sweet-tart taste that takes me back to somewhere.  ??  I know at one of our houses growing up we had access to it freely (Fry Street?), but I don't think my mom made too many things with it.  Nevertheless, I wanted some, but I wanted to come up with something fairly healthy that would still be considered a treat.

I totally made this whole thing up and although cooked rhubarb doesn't make the prettiest dessert, I think it's pretty darn tasty.  Kevin had a piece, said it was okay, but since it's cake, it wasn't his favorite.    I even let Scott have some for breakfast this morning.  I'm even thinking I'll go have a little soon just to see if it is still just as good the next day!

See--not that pretty.  But it's taste that matters here, people, right! ;)  I was happy that it came right out of the pan and that it worked out since I used agave nectar.  I want to try it again, maybe pineapple this time, just to see how it all works with JUST agave and no other sugars.  I'll let you know!  The cake is nice and moist and I think it was perfectly sweet with the tart rhubarb and the crunchy pecans.

Whole Wheat Strawberry Rhubarb Upside Down Cake, by Me

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup agave nectar

½ cup pecans, toasted and chopped

1 cup strawberries, cut up into ½ inch size pieces

2 cups rhubarb, cut into ½ inch size pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch round baking pan with butter or cooking spray. Melt the butter in a small, microwave-safe dish. Stir in brown sugar and agave. Pour into baking pan. Sprinkle the toasted, chopped pecans over the butter/sugar mixture. Then add the strawberries evenly over the top, then the rhubarb. Set aside.

1 ¼ cup whole wheat pastry flour (or whole wheat—or all purpose, but that defeats the purpose!)

¼ cup turbinado raw cane sugar (or granulated)

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup agave nectar

3 tablespoons canola oil

½ cup skim milk

approximately 3 tablespoons lightly beaten egg (or Egg Beaters), 1 egg is probably okay

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

In medium sized bowl, combine flour, cane sugar, salt and baking powder with wire whisk. Set aside. In another bowl, stir together agave nectar, oil, milk, egg and vanilla. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry and whisk together until there are no more lumps and it is well mixed.

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove to cooling rack for 10-15 minutes, then invert the cake on to a serving plate and let cool to room temperature. Serve with whipped topping.

Isn't everything just a little bit better with Cool Whip?!!  I think so.  Try it sometime.  I'm sure you could use regular sugar in place of the agave and as I only used 3 tablespoons of a beaten egg, you could probably just use a whole egg. 

High Octane Energy Bars and Giveaway Winner Announced!

Winner, winner, winner!  This morning we picked a winner for my dark chocolate, brownie pan, cinnamon chips giveaway.  We did it the way we always do here at our house.  Each of the four boys and Kevin pick a name from the pot (bowl), then I blindly pick one of those five to be the big winner!  It's fun to get everyone involved, except that I was going to have a fun picture of each of the boys holding their piece of paper out for the camera, but alas, one certain young boy wouldn't participate.  Sigh.  We won't mention any names, but I decided to just post THIS revealing the winner.

CONGRATULATIONS, Pamela at Cookies With Boys!  Not that it matters, but Sam picked your name.  Pamela has a great blog and as soon as I found it a year ago or so, I quickly gained that "never met you, but think you're great" feeling for her.  Check out her great blog and look at her yummy food and cute boys!  I love giving away stuff and also wanted to take a moment to thank ya'll for visiting my blog.  I don't always get to visit as many as I'd like--I want to see them ALL!!  But I love having you come by here and love the comments you leave.  So, thanks!

__________________________________________________________________________________

Now, on to some amazing energy bars and a recipe---

These Energy Bars are delicious!  I love snacks like this.  Healthy and full of flavor and goodness.  I found these bars on Jennie's blog, Losing Myself & Loving It.  I recently posted some other homemade granola bars that are also SO good.  I am so excited to have found these recipes and will be making both of these time and time again and can't wait to "play" with the ingredients and make all different flavors!  Go see Jennie's post about these bars and read her blog.  She has recently started blogging again after some time off and posts some pretty great stuff, not to mention, her posts are fun to read!

 

High Octane Energy Bars, adapted by me from Jennie at Losing Myself & Loving It

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1 cup crunchy grain cereal, crushed (I used 3/4 cup Multi-Grain Cheerios & 1/4 cup Wheaties, as that is what I had)  Any healthy grain cereal would work.

1/2 cup slivered almonds (I chopped them a bit)

3/4 cup dried cranberries (use a different variety of dried fruits, Jennie's recipe has 2  1/2 cups of fruit in it!)

1/2 cup wheat germ (Jennie used wheat bran)

1/2 cup protein powder (I used soy)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil (or butter)

1/2 cup honey (see * below) 

1/4 cup agave nectar  (*you can use 3/4 cup of maple syrup or brown rice syrup, I want to try it with all agave next!)

1/2 cup natural peanut butter (I used Naturally More)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I omitted this)

Toast the oats, crushed cereal and almonds in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes, stirring halfway through.

Place these ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Add the wheat germ and protein powder.  Mix together.

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the oil, honey (syrup, agave, etc.) and stir until bubbly.  Stir in the peanut butter (and cinnamon) until combined.  Mix constantly.  Remove from heat and add vanilla extract.  Pour over dry ingredients, and stir together.  Stir in dried fruit and combine.  Press mixture into a 9 inch pan lined with foil and sprayed lightly with cookie spray.  (Jennie's recipe uses a 9x13 inch pan, which I couldn't spread the mixture over without it being really thin, so I just spread it to a thickness I liked and measured it--it was 9 inches!  Maybe it's because I didn't use as much dried fruit in mine.)  Pat the mixture evenly using wax paper so it doesn't stick to your hands. 

Refrigerate for a good four hours.  Remove from pan using foil edges and cut into bars on a cutting board.  (I cut the 9 inch pan of bars into 20 bars.)

Be careful not to eat too many all at once.  I might have been having issues with that.  They're really good!  Thanks, Jennie.

Would You Believe--Almost Sugarless Krispy Treats!!!??

Today I made what I would consider an experiment, since I had no idea how it would turn out, if at all.  I recently saw on The Cookie Blog a recipe for making marshmallows with agave nectar.  I've been using agave quite a bit lately and could not pass up trying out the marshmallow recipe when I found this new cereal!

The key word here being multi-grain.  I am/was excited about this and decided to try to make healthy krispy treats.  The recipe for making marshmallows with agave is so simple and really tastes good.  There is a slightly different taste, but that is expected, since it's not sugar.  And the Jumbo Krispies--they are good.  Not quite as light as a rice crispy, more dense, but good.  They are just slightly sweetened with a touch of honey. 

Agave Sweetened Marshmallow Recipe

Ingredients:

6 Tbsp. Cool or Room Temperature Water
2 Packets Unflavored Gelatin

• Stir and then microwave for 30 seconds.

1 Cup Agave
2 tsp. Mexican Vanilla (I just used regular vanilla extract)
1/4 tsp. Sea Salt

Pour into mixing bowl. Add gelatin mixture, and mix on medium to high speed for 12 - 15 minutes. Should quadruple in size into a white marshmallow cream.  **At this point, for the krispy treats, I just beat in a little butter and added the cereal--no need to have the marshmallows sit for hours and then melt them down again.**

Coat a casserole dish with non-stick cookie spray. Coat with corn starch. Using a spatula, transfer your “batter” into the dish. Smooth out until you have a nice smooth, flat  surface. Let sit for 3 hours (over night is good to).

Turn batter out onto a corn starch covered surface. Using a hot or wet knife, cut into marshmallow squares.

Here is a link for a You Tube video about making the marshmallows.  (I used a different brand from the one in the video.)

From this, to this...

to this--marshmallow!

I colored it pink for Valentine treats.

AGAVE MARSHMALLOW JUMBO  MULTI-GRAIN CEREAL TREATS

16 oz. agave marshmallow (see above for recipe)

2 oz. unsalted butter, melted

10 cups Kelloggs Jumbo Multi-grain Krispies

4 cups puffed red wheat cereal

Combine all in a large bowl and stir together.  Spread in a 10 x 15 baking sheet lightly coated with cooking spray.  Let set then cut into squares or shapes with cookie cutters.

Now, I just really didn't know if it would set up like traditional krispies.  But it tasted good.  I used pretty much a whole 11.5 oz. box of the Jumbo Multi-grain Krispies, measured out it was 10 cups.  I also used 4 cups of puffed red wheat for even more nutrition.

The moment of truth.

The krispies are a little more sticky than traditional, and the cereal is not quite as crunchy after sitting.  These remind me of those softer marshmallow treats that are made with puffed rice.  Maybe it's because of the puffed wheat I put in, but they are good.  I made them for Taylor's preschool Valentine party--but it isn't until Friday, so I guess we'll just wait and see if they are still good enough after sitting for a day and a half.  I'm keeping them chilled and each individually wrapped.  No matter what, I'm just excited that "the experiment" did work out and the only sugar in these is the small amount the Multi-grain Krispies are made with and the little heart sprinkles on top.  How cool is that?  Looks like the possibilities are endless.  Just look at this link to Volcanic Nectar for tons of recipes that Anna at Cookie Madness found recently.  Now if we could just get agave to not be SO expensive!

Happy Balentimes Day!  (I think Scott used to say it that way.)

Some Cookies with Agave Nectar, Barney Butter and Other Good Stuff

Time for cookies!   Anna recently posted a link on Cookie Madness to a sight with tons and tons of recipes that use agave nectar in place of sugar.  Agave is a  sweetener that is low glycemic, all natural, and you use only 1/3 cup in place of 1 cup of sugar.  It is almost like the consistency of honey, but not quite as thick or sticky.  I have been trying to find ways to use it and so has Anna. 

I was also recently able to purchase some much-talked-about  Barney Butter (a great almond butter!) and set out to find a cookie recipe to use both the agave and Barney Butter.  After searching the link Anna provided, I chose this recipe for some chocolate chip cookies.  You can get that recipe, but I changed quite a bit of things, so here are the cookies I made.  My recent discovery of using pureed beans in place of fat in baked goods also prompted me to try a little in these cookies.  (You can puree a whole can of beans--black for things like brownies and any white beans for things like cookies--basically you just match the color of what you're going to make with the color of beans.  You can add a whole can with the liquid included to a food processor and process until smooth, but I rinsed and drained the white beans and just added a little water as needed to make a smooth puree, I think it only took about 2 tablespoons of water for the whole can.) 

Barney Butter Chocolate Almond Cookies (with agave)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 tablespoons white bean puree

1/4 cup Barney Butter (I used smooth)

1/4 cup agave nectar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons Egg Beaters with a touch of yolk (or 1/2 an egg)

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

3 oz. Hershey's Milk Chocolate w/Almonds bar, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper.  Set aside. 

Combine butter, bean puree, Barney Butter, agave nectar and brown sugar in bowl of mixer and beat until light and fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla and mix well.  Add baking soda, salt and flours and mix just until combined.  Stir in chopped chocolate.  Scoop dough in balls onto baking sheet.  (I used a small scoop, 3/4 to 5/8 oz.)  Bake for 9 to 11 minutes.  Cool a few minutes on the baking sheet, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

These aren't cakey, but soft and sturdy and full of great almond flavor, chocolate and nutrition! (Use a dark chocolate and some chopped almonds to make them even better for you!)  Stay tuned for more cookies!