TWD—Cafe Volcano Cookies

Our recipe this week as we bake our way through Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home to Yours book was chosen by MacDuff of The Lonely Sidecar.  She chose a simple cookie—Cafe Volcano Cookies.

These should at least win for easiest Dorie recipe with the fewest ingredients.  Do not get me wrong, I like them.  But I wish I would have liked them more than I did.  They are REALLY crunchy and when you first take a bite, they crumble and fall apart. 

I used one cup of walnuts and one cup of pecans for these.  I also used a good heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder instead of the espresso powder.  But really, what a surprise that I didn’t change these up more than that!  (It’s been a busy, crazy week or else I might have played around more with these.)

I’m not sure I would see these and think volcano, but they did puff up a little and well, then they do harden like lava, so I suppose that works.

I toasted the nuts as instructed and I know for sure that I didn’t over toast them, but I felt like once the cookies were baked that the nuts are a little more toasty than I like.  If I ever make these again, I will just not toast the nuts at all. 

I also felt like the walnuts overpowered the pecans, so if I make them again, I will just have one kind of nut in them.

I DO like that these are gluten free and may make these for some neighbors who eat gluten free.  Thanks, MacDuff, for the very simple pick this week, it was great for the week I had!  You can find the recipe for these at The Lonely Sidecar or get the book!  Check out the other TWD baker’s volcanoes here.

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Taylor and Sam built a fun track the other day with the Thomas the Tank Engine set we have and I thought it was pretty cool that the track even went under the table.

Check out this short video of Scott at one of his basketball games.  He often complains that he is the shortest kid in 6th grade and too short to play basketball (although he loves it).  But watch this awesome shot he makes!

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Sam has been going around with a plastic hammer “fixin’” things (aka—banging the crud out of everything).  But he’s sure doggone cute as he really thinks he’s doing good!

Can’t hardly stand the cuteness!

Parker is the biggest goofball of them all.

Wait, Scott is just as big of a goofball as Parker!