CRANBERRY-CHOCOLATE COOKIES

 

Lucky me (and you). Cafe Treats Baker Tom made these awesome cookies several months ago and in my excitement that Sunday morning I forgot to take a picture of them. I loved them that day and I loved them again when he made them last week. I often substitute whole wheat flour for the all-purpose flour in cookies and quick bread that also contain dried cranberries. The two just seem to go together. 

I especially liked the cookies when Tom made them without the nuts for the Cafe Treats. The whole wheat flour seems to add a nutty taste to the treat. This recipe by King Arthur uses white whole wheat flour. Whole wheat flour is made from hard red spring or winter wheat and white whole wheat flour is made from hard white spring or winter wheat. They have the same nutritional value, but the white whole wheat flour has a milder flavor and lighter color. 

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CRANBERRY-CHOCOLATE COOKIES

8       tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

3/4    cup light brown sugar, packed

2       tablespoons orange juice or water

1       teaspoon vanilla

1/2    teaspoon baking powder

1/4    teaspoon baking soda

1/2    teaspoon salt

1       large egg

1-1/4 cups white whole wheat flour

1       cup semisweet chocolate chips

1       cup dried cranberries

3/4    cup pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease two baking sheets or line with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, orange juice, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Beat in the egg until combined; scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl.

Add the flour, mixing until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips, cranberries, and nuts if you are using them.

Drop the dough by a tablespoon scoop onto the prepared baking sheets.

Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes, until just beginning to brown around the edges. They won't look set in the center.

Remove them from the oven and let them cool on the pan.

DRIED CHERRY WHOLE WHEAT MUFFINS

 On Monday I shared a recipe for Apricot Sunshine Muffins that I made to share with some friends for Christmas. We have really enjoyed the few extras I kept for us. Two of the friends that I have heard from couldn't stop raving about them. 

I also made these muffins from the same cookbook, Pillsbury Healthy Baking. The recipe had a different title because they used dried blueberries, but did indicate that you could use dried blueberries, dried tart cherries, dried cranberries, or raisins. Since I had some dried cherries that I had not opened, I thought I would try them for something different. I really liked the results.

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DRIED CHERRY WHOLE WHEAT MUFFINS

1     cup flour

3/4  cup whole wheat flour

1/2  cup firmly packed brown sugar

2     teaspoons baking powder

1/2  teaspoon baking soda

1/2  teaspoon salt

1     cup buttermilk

1/4  cup oil

2     egg whites

1/2  cup dried tart cherries, dried blueberries, dried cranberries, or raisins

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray 12 muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray or line the muffin cups with paper baking cups and spray the paper cups with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt;

mix well.

In a small bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, and egg whites;

blend well with a fork.

Add to the dry ingredients all at once;

stir just until dry ingredients are moistened.

Gently stir in the dried fruit.

Because there is always space in the cup when you are measuring dried fruit, I always measure a heaping cup measurement.

Spoon batter evenly into the muffin cups. I use a scoop I have that measures a scant 1/4 cup. I had just a little bit of batter left to make probably one more muffin

so I added just a dab to each cup and smoothed it out.

Bake for 14 to 19 minutes or until light golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (I usually press lightly on the center of a muffin to test for doneness.)

Immediately remove from the pan to a wire rack. 

Serve warm.

I am so glad I decided to use the dried cherries instead of blueberries or anything else. They were really yummy.

BANANA NUT WAFFLES

 Waffles just seem like comfort food to me when it's cold. It appears winter has come to Kansas City before it's officially winter as it's been cold here for the last two weeks. Hope that means that spring will come early also. 

Anyway, I made these Banana Nut Waffles from The Heartstone Inn a while back and just never got around to sharing them. I may have to make some tomorrow since I have one or two bananas that haven't been eaten in the bowl.

The waffles are mixed up in the blender, but I think you could use a mixer also. Your banana might be lumper unless your banana is very ripe though. 

If you don't have any powdered milk and want to use milk, just add 1-1/4 cups milk. Skim milk will work fine.

We like to eat waffles at night usually instead of at breakfast. We will order them for breakfast if we are eating out, but if I'm making them at home, it will be for supper.

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BANANA NUT WAFFLES

1       cup bananas (2 small)

3       tablespoons oil

2       eggs

1-1/4 cups water

1-1/4 cups whole wheat flour 

1/3    cup powdered milk

1/2    cup chopped nuts

Place bananas, oil, eggs, and water in the blender;

mix.

In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour, powdered milk, and nuts) with a whisk.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the bowl and

mix well.

Make waffles are usual.

WHOLE WHEAT PUMPKIN MUFFINS

 I can't tell you how hard I have searched for this recipe! I really don't want to think about it, personally. Then today I sat down to write up another recipe I have been putting off and picked up the Pillsbury Healthy Baking cookbook to see if I had any recipes in it that I hadn't posted (I've gotten behind and am determined to get caught up and then not get in this pickle again!) and opened to this recipe for Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins. I read the ingredients and thought, "this sounds like the ingredients I had pictured for the lost pumpkin muffin recipe that I loved so much."

I rechecked the pictures and sure enough I had found the recipe. To be honest I'm more excited about being able to make the muffins again than I am sharing them with you. I have so many awesome healthy recipes that don't attract attention and get much traffic. It can be really disappointing at times!

I did make them almost sugar-free which is always an added plus for my healthy recipes. The recipe called for dried currants and I used raisins so that is the sugar in them. I used truvia complete brown sugar for the brown sugar and that is stevia with a hint of molasses. Not enough for them to list any added sugar.

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WHOLE WHEAT PUMPKIN MUFFINS

1-1/2   cups whole wheat flour

1/2      cup firmly packed brown sugar (or truvia complete brown sugar)

2         teaspoons baking powder

1         teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/2      teaspoon salt

1         egg

1/2      cup skim or 2% milk (I used skim milk)

1/2      cup canned pumpkin

1/4      cup oil

1/2      teaspoon grated orange peel (I used dried grated orange peel)

1/2     cup dried currants (I used raisins)

GLAZE (I didn't use)

1/4     cup powdered sugar

1 - 1-1/2 teaspoons orange juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or spray with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt with a whisk.

Make a well in the center. Set aside.

In a small bowl, beat egg until foamy.

Add the milk, pumpkin, oil, and orange peel.

Mix well. 

Add to the dry mixture stirring just until most dry ingredients are moistened. 

Stir in currants or raisins. 

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.*

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Immediately remove from pan to wire rack. 

If you are adding the glaze, combine the powdered sugar and enough orange juice to make a glaze the consistency you want. Drizzle over warm muffins.

*I didn't add the glaze but instead lightly sprinkled a cinnamon-sugar mixture I keep using stevia for the sugar on top of each muffin before baking them. I could have sprinkled more on them.

These muffins freeze really well. Allow to thaw in the refrigerator or use the microwave. You could also make mini-muffins if you wanted more from the recipe.

KING ARTHUR FLOUR PUMPKIN PANCAKES/WAFFLES

 I know I have been sharing recipes with pumpkin lately, but it feels like the time to do so is so short. I don't see why it has to be that way. Anyway I hope you will bare with me with one more recipe. This is, of course, is awesome or I wouldn't be sharing it with you. 

The recipe is supposed to be used for making pancakes and I did make pancakes the first time and they worked out great. I had leftover batter after the first time so I just stored it in an air-tight container to use the next day. The batter was thick the first time but even thicker the next day. As usual I just added a little extra milk the second day to thin the batter. I didn't add much and so it was still not thin. That's when I got the idea to try it as waffles instead.

Well, that worked out even better and since my husband prefers waffles instead of pancakes, that is what I will be doing each time I miss up the ingredients. For a twist, I sprinkled a little cinnamon-sugar on top instead of powdered sugar and used my usual sugar-free syrup. The only change I made in the recipe was to use whole wheat flour instead of the all-purpose flour.

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KING ARTHUR FLOUR PUMPKIN WAFFLES

1-1/4    whole wheat flour

2          tablespoons sugar

2          teaspoons baking powder

1-1/2    teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1/2       teaspoon salt

1          cup milk (may need to add a little more if batter is too thick)

1/3       cup pumpkin

2          tablespoons butter or oil

1          large egg

In a large bowl blend the dry ingredients with a whisk. 

Add the milk, pumpkin, oil, and egg and stir til combined. 

Heat waffle iron and cook as normal OR

as pancakes...

OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES

 It's true I'm not baking as much as I used to, but I haven't given it up completely. And because I am back on Sugar Busters I am trying to find recipes that I can make sugar-free or no-sugar-added so that I can keep my sugar at 5 grams per serving or less. I also have to avoid using enriched flour. 

This recipe from my Pillsbury Healthy-Baking cookbook fits my requirements. I wanted to use Old-Fashioned oats because they are better than using quick oats, but I stayed with the quick oats.

I have to say this oatmeal raisin cookie tastes as good as a regular oatmeal raisin cookie. Guess it is good that the recipe made 3 dozen cookies. I think Wayne will be eating a lot of them.

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OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES

3/4   cup sugar (I used stevia)

1/4    cup firmly packed brown sugar (I used truvia brown sugar complete)

1/2    cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1/2    teaspoon vanilla

1       egg

3/4    cup flour (I used whole wheat flour)

1/2    teaspoon baking soda

1/2    teaspoon cinnamon

1/4    teaspoon salt

1-1/2 cups quick-cooking roll oats

1/2    cup raisins

1/2    cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease two cookie sheets. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, brown sugar, and butter;

beat until light and fluffy.

Add vanilla and egg,

blend well. Scrape the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

Add to butter/sugar mixture and

mix well.

Stir in oats, raisins, and nuts.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto the cookie sheets.

(I also used my cookie scoop and flattened the dough slightly with my fingers. I liked the result.)

Bake for 9 to 10 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute before removing the cookies

to a wire rack to cool completely.

For HIGH ALTITUDE - Above 3500 Feet: Increase flour to 1 cup. Bake as directed.

(whole wheat/grain and no-sugar-added)